| At Senate trial, chief justice again tosses out Rand Paul's whistleblower question Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:31 AM PST  For the second time in as many days, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected a question submitted by Sen. Rand Paul during the impeachment trial of President Trump.
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| Mom of 2 missing Idaho children misses court deadline to bring kids to police Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:16 AM PST  Lori Vallow, 46, had until Thursday to present the two children to authorities in Idaho, but she, her new husband and her children were not present.
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| Colombia rejects Venezuelan proposal to resume diplomatic relations Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:42 PM PST  Colombia rejected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's proposal that the two countries resume diplomatic relations on Thursday, amid a dispute over a fugitive former Colombian congresswoman who was captured in Venezuela. Maduro abruptly cut diplomatic relations with neighboring Colombia last February after Colombian President Ivan Duque helped Venezuelan opposition politicians deliver humanitarian aid to their crisis-stricken country.
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| Sarcophagus dedicated to sky god among latest ancient Egypt trove Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:45 AM PST  Egypt's antiquities ministry on Thursday unveiled the tombs of ancient high priests and a sarcophagus dedicated to the sky god Horus at an archaeological site in Minya governorate. The mission found 16 tombs containing 20 sarcophagi, some engraved with hieroglyphics, at the Al-Ghoreifa site, about 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Cairo. One of the stone sarcophagi was dedicated to the god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and features a depiction of the goddess Nut spreading her wings.
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| One of the emergency hospitals Wuhan is panic-building is looking close to completion. Watch a live feed of the construction here. Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:39 AM PST  The Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital is due to open February 3, and the Leishenshan Hospital is due to open February 5.
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| 'We Can't Deal With This Tsunami.' As the Coronavirus Spreads, Hong Kong Medical Workers Feel the Pressure Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:53 PM PST  The coronavirus crisis has exposed cracks in Hong Kong's already overburdened healthcare system.
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| US hits Iran with new sanctions, keeps some waivers in place Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:30 PM PST  The Trump administration said Thursday that it will continue — at least for now — its policy of not sanctioning foreign companies that work with Iran's civilian nuclear program. Brian Hook, U.S. envoy to Iran, said the U.S. would renew for 60 days sanctions waivers that permit Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran's civilian nuclear facilities without running afoul of U.S. sanctions.
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| The Best Headlight Restoration Kits Posted: 31 Jan 2020 12:40 PM PST |
| Trump's impeachment trial might not wrap up today after all Posted: 31 Jan 2020 09:15 AM PST  Thought President Trump's impeachment trial was hours away from wrapping up? Think again.The Senate on Friday morning seemed headed toward acquitting Trump as soon as this evening, but The Washington Post is now reporting the impeachment trial is looking like it might actually last into next week, possibly not ending until as late as next Wednesday.According to the Post, the Senate may "take up a new procedural resolution laying out rules for the trial's endgame — which could include time for closing arguments, private deliberations and public speeches by senators." If the trial ends up lasting until Wednesday, this would mean Trump would have not yet been acquitted by the time he delivers his State of the Union address, which is scheduled for Tuesday. It also means the trial wouldn't be over in time for Monday's Iowa caucuses, much to the chagrin of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).Politico's Jake Sherman is reporting the same, writing that the trial going until next week is now "likely," while Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told CNN Friday, "My guess is it probably is going to carry us over to the first part of next week." For now, the trial is set to resume at 1 p.m. Eastern. More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Bernie Sanders told Ninth Graders the U.S. Committed Acts in Vietnam ‘Almost as Bad as what Hitler Did’ Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:27 AM PST  During his 1972 gubernatorial run, Senator Bernie Sanders told high-school students that the U.S. had committed acts in its war with Vietnam that were "almost as bad as what Hitler did."An article in the Rutland, Vermont, newspaper, The Rutland Herald, reported on the comments, made while Sanders was campaigning for governor as a member of the Liberty Union party. The article was first unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon.The North Vietnamese "are not my enemy," Sanders told a class of ninth graders in Rutland while on the campaign trail. "They're a very, very poor people. Some of them don't have shoes. They eat rice when they can get it. And they have been fighting for the freedom of their country for 25 years. They can hardly fight back."The American death toll from the Vietnam War was over 58,000. The Herald reported that students pushed back against Sanders's support for amnesty for draft evaders, saying it wouldn't be fair to the parents of soldiers killed in the fighting.Sanders also outlined other positions that may sound familiar to today's voters, including increasing the minimum wage and availability of low-income housing, as well as increased access to dental care. He also charged that the Democratic Party was too beholden to large corporations.The Vermont senator received around one percent of the vote in that election. Sanders is currently the strongest presidential candidate from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and has polled ahead of moderate Joe Biden in various Iowa and New Hampshire surveys.Establishment Democrats have been worried by Sanders's rise and durability throughout the primary. The senator has relied on an enthusiastic base of younger progressive voters, and has received strong grassroots financial support.
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| Key senator to vote to block trial witnesses Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:23 PM PST  Sen. Lamar Alexander said on Thursday night that he will not vote to allow witnesses and evidence into the impeachment trial of President Trump.
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| China virus toll passes 250 as travel curbs tightened Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:59 PM PST  The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak has surpassed 250, the government said Saturday, as foreign nations tightened restrictions on travellers from China in response to the rapid spread of the illness. At least 258 people have died and more than 11,000 people have been infected in China by the new coronavirus, according to new figures from officials in hard-hit Hubei province. The top Communist Party official in Wuhan, the central city of 11 million people where the virus first emerged in December, on Friday expressed "remorse" because local authorities acted too slowly.
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| This Picture Might Be How China Starts World War III Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  A barrage of anti-ship missiles moving at Mach 20?
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| Impeachment trial: Rob Portman knee-deep in Trump's Ukraine shakedown Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:11 AM PST  Ohio Sen. Rob Portman must recuse himself from the Trump impeachment trial because of his involvement in and knowledge of the Ukraine scandal.
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| Trump will demand the NHS pays more for drugs after Brexit, warns outgoing UK ambassador to US Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:10 AM PST  Donald Trump will insist the NHS pays more for American drugs after Brexit, the outgoing British ambassador to Washington has claimed.
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| Record $4 billion Airbus fine draws line under 'pervasive' bribery Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:51 AM PST  PARIS/LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Airbus bribed public officials and hid the payments as part of a pattern of worldwide corruption, prosecutors said on Friday as the European planemaker agreed a record $4 billion settlement with France, Britain and the United States. "It was a pervasive and pernicious bribery scheme in various divisions of Airbus SE that went on for a number of years," U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said. The deal, effectively a corporate plea bargain, means Airbus has avoided criminal prosecution that would have risked it being barred from public contracts in the United States and European Union - a massive blow for a major defense and space supplier.
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| A Bernie Sanders Win in Iowa Could Prolong the Democratic Primary Fight Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:11 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The increasing likelihood that Bernie Sanders could win Monday's first-in-the-nation caucus threatens to fundamentally redraw the path to the Democratic presidential nomination and challenge the conventional wisdom that there are only "three tickets out of Iowa."Iowa often acts more as a bar bouncer than a kingmaker, culling the field but not anointing a leader. Candidates strive to finish in at least the top three to seize some momentum as they speed toward later nominating contests.But there are reasons to question whether that thinking still applies. Four candidates are closely clustered at the top of the polls. National front-runner Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren are all polling well enough to have a chance at securing delegates."You may need more than a four-passenger car for all these folks to get out of here," said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price at a Bloomberg News breakfast of political reporters Friday. He said as many as six could move on, including Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang.A top finish would give Sanders, a senator from Vermont, an early lead going into New Hampshire, a state that gave him a 22-point win over Hillary Clinton in 2016 and a consistent lead in 2020. And wins in both of the first two contests would provide him undeniable momentum. But he is a polarizing figure in the Democratic Party, with both fierce supporters and voters who find his ideas too liberal to be viable.That could prompt a "Stop Sanders" movement -- putting increasing pressure on lower-polling candidates to drop out and throw their support behind a more moderate alternative."Things tend to boil down to a person who's leading, and the alternative to the person who's leading," said political scientist Josh Putnam, an expert on party nominations who runs the blog Frontloading HQ. "There are differences in every cycle, but these things tend to operate in a similar fashion."Yet it's not like any of the three moderates in the race -- Biden, Buttigieg or Klobuchar -- are ready to fold and anoint one of the others as the Bernie-stopper.The most recent RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls shows Sanders leading Biden by 3.2 percentage points. But polls aren't unanimous: One Monmouth poll Wednesday had Biden leading by 2 points, well within the margin of error.Also complicating the storyline are rule changes that will give greater transparency into the performance of the entire field. In previous years, Iowa reported only the number of state delegates each candidate was expected to win. This time, the party will reveal how many Iowans backed each candidate in the first round of voting — even if that candidate didn't meet the 15% threshold that's a major hurdle for lower-polling candidates.Those reporting rules, written in the aftermath of Sanders' complaints about his narrow loss in Iowa in 2016, could ironically blunt the impact of his finish this year. Candidates who come in second, third or even fourth in the final tally could claim much better standing if they do well in the first round.Still, Iowa punditry is partly an expectations game. A front-runner who stumbles into second place can be judged more harshly than a second-tier candidate who unexpectedly comes in third. So the candidates are already working to blunt any blow from a poor showing.Despite investing early and extensively in an Iowa organization, Warren is not polling well, and her campaign is trying to make clear she will carry on regardless."We expect this to be a long nomination fight and have built our campaign to sustain well past Super Tuesday and stay resilient no matter what breathless media narratives come when voting begins," campaign manager Roger Lau wrote in a memo last week.Yang said this week that regardless of how he finishes in Iowa, he expects to do even better in New Hampshire — where the state's libertarian streak might be more receptive to his message.Iowa awards 41 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, or just a little more than 1% of the total delegates. But its importance far outweighs the delegate count, given it is the first actual votes of the 2020 election year and gives Americans a chance to see which candidates are living up to their claim of electability.A Front-loaded CalendarMost candidates may have little incentive to drop out after Iowa, regardless of their showing, given that contests in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina quickly follow in February.Biden has built a firewall in South Carolina's Feb. 29 primary, where his support among black Democrats could make up for any early stumbles. And it's not just Biden: The Martin Luther King Day events there this month became virtually mandatory for any serious candidate for president."South Carolina has come into its own this time," said Elaine Kamarck, author of "Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates." "It's the last, best stop before Super Tuesday."Super Tuesday — a 14-state primary on March 3, three days after South Carolina — will award 34% of all delegates. And unlike Republicans, who allow states to award delegates on a winner-take-all basis, Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally. Any candidate getting at least 15% — statewide or in a congressional district — is eligible to win delegates.That could increase the likelihood that the front-runner could divide and conquer the opposition."Let me put it this way: The Democrats can choose to repeat the Republican folly of 2016," said Kamarck, a member of the Democratic National Committee's rules committee. "They all stayed in the race. They did not rally around the alternative, and Donald Trump became the nominee."Another harbinger of a drawn-out nomination fight: money.The importance of Iowa is as much about fund-raising as it is about delegates, said Jeff Link, a Democratic Iowa political strategist.Klobuchar, a senator from neighboring Minnesota, may feel the most pressure if she doesn't do well, but Warren and Buttigieg could also struggle with donors if they have a poor showing," Link said.But candidates sustained by small-dollar donors — like Sanders and Yang — can keep going as long as the recurring monthly donations continue."If Bernie got seventh, he'd move on," Link said.And the two billionaires in the race — Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg — have already spent hundreds of millions on states that vote after Iowa and New Hampshire. Bloomberg is skipping the early states entirely and isn't seeking any delegates until March 3.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.Age, too, might be a factor in keeping more candidates in the race longer. Younger candidates often have more incentive to drop out early in the interests of party unity -- and their political futures. For candidates over 70 — Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg and Warren — waiting four to eight years for another chance at higher office is an unlikely option.(Adds quote from Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price in fourth paragraph)\--With assistance from Ryan Teague Beckwith and Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou.To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Korte in Des Moines at gkorte@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan CraneFor 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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| American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:43 PM PST ![American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims]( "American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims") A Michigan couple say they've been defamed by American Airlines' continued statements that they were removed from a flight because of their smell.
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| A Costco sample-stand worker turned away a kid wearing a face mask because she thought he was from China and could give her the coronavirus Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:41 PM PST  "One thing that is in the back of my mind is that someone Asian is being judged in public right now," Cabanilla said.
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| Why The Navy Risked Everything To Assassinate The Admiral Who Planned Pearl Harbor Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  There was no escape for Admiral Yamamoto.
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| Estranged husband accused of killing Jennifer Dulos dies Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:22 PM PST  Fotis Dulos, 52, had been hospitalized since Tuesday when he was found at his home in Farmington, Connecticut, following an apparent suicide attempt. "It's been a truly horrific day for the family filled with difficult decisions, medical tests and meeting the requirements to determine death," attorney Norm Pattis said. "To those who contend that Mr. Dulos' death reflects a consciousness of guilt, we say no," he added.
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| Rand Paul Defends Blocked Question, Says it Dealt With Obama Holdovers, Not Whistleblower Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:39 PM PST  After his question was blocked by Chief Justice John Roberts during impeachment proceedings on Thursday, Senator Rand Paul pushed back against speculation that the question named the Ukraine whistleblower, telling reporters it merely addressed the role of two partisan staffers who he believes may have coordinated President Trump's impeachment.Roberts declined to read the question Paul submitted, apparently because it named the alleged whistleblower, a member of the intelligence community who filed a formal complaint about President Trump's handling of U.S. military aid to Ukraine.Before filing the complaint, the anonymous whistleblower reportedly told a House Intelligence Committee aide that he was concerned about Trump's behavior during a July phone call with the Ukrainian president, and the aide passed that information to committee chairman Adam Schiff."My question today is about whether or not individuals who were holdovers from the Obama National Security Council and Democrat partisans conspired with Schiff staffers to plot impeaching the President before there were formal House impeachment proceedings," Paul wrote on Twitter."My question is not about a 'whistleblower' as I have no independent information on his identity," Paul claimed.> Sen. @RandPaul: "It's very important whether or not a group of Democratic activists part of the Obama, Biden administration were working together for years looking for an opportunity to impeach the president." https://t.co/e0kl6NUKFH pic.twitter.com/TAnetrmc40> > -- The Hill (@thehill) January 30, 2020However, the NSC staffer mentioned in Paul's question has been floated as the alleged whistleblower by a number of media outlets and some lawmakers. Paul asked whether Roberts was aware that the Intelligence Committee staffer and individual suspected as the whistleblower may have plotted to impeach Trump before there were formal House impeachment proceedings."I think this is an important question, one that deserves to be asked," Paul said afterwards at a press conference. "I think it's very important whether or not a group of Democratic activists, part of the Obama-Biden administration were working together for years looking for an opportunity to impeach the president.""I'm the biggest defender of the whistleblower statutes," Paul said, but he added that, "You shouldn't be able to use statutes to somehow make a whole part of the discussion over this impeachment go away."Democrats, Paul charged, have a "selective" belief in protecting whistleblowers.
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| The operator of the downed helicopter that Kobe Bryant and 8 others died in is suspending operations for an undisclosed amount of time Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:47 PM PST  An employee of Island Express told Business Insider that the company will not fly on Jan. 30 or 31. It may cancel additional flights.
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| Hungary to build more prisons to tackle overcrowding, halt inmates' lawsuits Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:57 AM PST  Hungary will begin an ambitious prison-building program in an attempt to stem a tide of costly lawsuits by inmates complaining of overcrowding and inhumane conditions, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. Orban accused "business-savvy lawyers" of exploiting the conditions to launch 12,000 lawsuits against the Hungarian state for breaking EU prison standards, leading to penalties of 10 billion forints ($33 million) in total. Orban, who has often come under fire from the European Union and rights groups over his perceived erosion of the rule of law since he took power in 2010, announced plans for more prisons to reduce the prison overcrowding and disarm "malignant lawyers".
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| Berlin Adopts Five-Year Freeze to Rein In Soaring Rents Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:50 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Berlin's plan to rein in the city's rental market was approved by lawmakers, capping revenue for property owners and potentially driving investors away from the German capital. Shares in major landlords slumped.Berlin's legislature backed measures including a five-year rent freeze Thursday, more than six months after they were proposed by the left-leaning administration. The changes will likely come into force by the end of February, though opposition parties have signaled their intention to challenge them in court.The initiative put forward by the Left party's Katrin Lompscher, head of urban development and housing, is intended to ease the burden on tenants after a property boom caused rents to double over the past decade. The political intervention has spooked investors as a separate campaign attempts to force Berlin's government to expropriate properties from large landlords including Deutsche Wohnen SE."We don't want Berlin to become a copy of overpriced cities like London and Paris, where many people can no longer afford an apartment," Lompscher said during the debate that preceded the ballot. Out of 150 votes cast, 85 lawmakers voted in favor and 64 against, with one abstention.Deutsche Wohnen shares fell as much as 2.1% and were down 0.6% at 1:30 p.m., extending its decline over the past 12 months to about 13%. Vonovia SE, Germany's largest landlord and owner of about 40,000 apartments in the capital, declined as much as 1%, and Berlin-based property owner Adler Real Estate AG dropped as much as 2.4%.The Christian Democratic Union -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, which is in opposition in Berlin -- plans to challenge the measures in Germany's constitutional court "as soon as possible," according to a spokesman. That can only happen once the new legislation takes effect.The adoption of the measures "sends a fatal signal to investors," Ulrich Lange, a deputy leader of Merkel's bloc in the national parliament, said in an emailed statement."What's more, there's a high possibility that the law will be declared unconstitutional," Lange added. "That will create rental chaos. It cannot be emphasized enough that the only solution that will ease the pressure on Berlin's rental market remains: build."'El Dorado'Michael Voigtlaender, an economist at the Cologne-based IW Institute, has also criticized Berlin's focus on rent controls rather than encouraging investors and developers to build more affordable homes to keep pace with the city's rapidly growing population.The government's actions are a catastrophe that "threatens to cause considerable damage to both the housing market and Berlin as a whole," the IW said in a recent report for the CDU. The value of some properties in the city could fall by more than 40% as a result of the rent restrictions, the institute estimates.Lompscher has dismissed such concerns. In an interview this month, she called Berlin an "El Dorado" for real-estate companies. Her department has worked closely with other German cities, and she expects Berlin's intervention in the property market to "have consequences" within the country and internationally.Not everyone agrees, though. Vonovia this month described the rent reforms as "Berlin specific." The company doesn't expect the measures to be replicated by other German states "except in the unlikely event that the Federal Constitutional Court were to rule largely in favor of the legislation," Vonovia said in a Jan. 23 note to investors.(Updates with lawmaker comment from seventh paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Blackman in Berlin at ablackman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers, Chris ReiterFor 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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| A U.S. Plane Crashed in Afghanistan. Why So Many Believed a CIA Chief Was On It. Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:31 PM PST  The wreckage of a U.S. military plane that crashed and burned on a snowy mountain peak in Afghanistan on Monday was still fresh when Iranian…
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| More than 6,000 people are trapped on a cruise ship in Italy after a woman was suspected of having the coronavirus Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:18 AM PST  Passengers of a Costa Cruises cruise ship can't disembark. Two passengers, one of whom was experiencing coronavirus symptoms, were quarantined.
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| Why Did the Coast Guard Sail Right by Taiwan and China in 2019? Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:20 AM PST  A good idea?
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| Jury foreman regrets convicting teen in girl's 2002 death Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:05 PM PST  "I do feel badly," jury foreman Joe McLean told the AP. No gun, fingerprints or DNA were ever recovered, and the 2003 trial of Myon Burrell centered on the testimony of one teen rival who offered conflicting stories when identifying the triggerman, who was standing 120 feet away, mostly behind a wall. McLean said he and other jurors did the best they could with the evidence presented and were unaware of information turned up in the AP review of the case -- in part because his co-defendants were not allowed to take the stand.
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| Mitt Romney asks impeachment lawyers exactly when and why Trump froze Ukraine military aid Posted: 29 Jan 2020 07:55 PM PST  While questioning House impeachment managers and President Trump's lawyers on Wednesday night, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) posed a query: "On what specific date did President Trump first order the hold on security assistance to Ukraine, and did he explain the reason at that time?"Romney is one of the handful of Republicans who might vote to allow additional witnesses in the impeachment trial.Last year, Trump froze $391 million in military aid to Ukraine. The impeachment managers argue Trump abused his power by withholding the aid to pressure Ukraine into launching an investigation into a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly confirms this in his forthcoming book.One of Trump's lawyers, Patrick Philbin, responded to Romney, "I don't think there is evidence in the record of a specific date." He went on to say that in late June, Trump began asking how much money other NATO members spent to help Ukraine, and insisted Trump was concerned about corruption in the country. "So the evidence in the record shows that the president raised concerns, at least as of June 24th, that people were aware of the hold as of July 3rd," Philbin said.There is testimony in the record showing that Office of Management and Budget officials knew of a hold on the aid as early as June 3, The New York Times notes. More than a month later, on July 25, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and asked him to "do us a favor" and investigate Biden.More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Did John Bolton actually do Trump a favor? Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah dump on Dershowitz's dangerous Trump-can-do-anything defense
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| Photos of stores in Wuhan show what life is like under the coronavirus lockdown Posted: 31 Jan 2020 12:02 PM PST  The quarantine and fears of coronavirus have made Wuhan a ghost city. Residents only occasionally go out to stock up on supplies.
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| Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:33 PM PST ![Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained]( "Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained") Armed men blocked roads, burned cars and there were reports of shootouts in the city of Uruapan in western Mexico after a senior leader of the Los Viagras cartel was detained, local media and a source from the prosecutor's office said. Luis Felipe, also known as "El Vocho", was captured earlier in the day in the western state of Michoacan, which has long been convulsed by turf wars between drug gangs and where unrest is not uncommon after the detention of senior cartel figures. Michoacan's state security services, without giving names, said on Twitter that three people have been detained.
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| U.S. Rejects Obamacare Work-Around Sought by Republican States Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:12 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A health insurance venture that threatened to erode Obamacare and had the backing of seven Republican state attorneys general has been rejected by the U.S. Labor Department.The proposal, from an obscure company in Georgia that was the subject of a Bloomberg News article last month, won the support of states including Georgia and Louisiana, whose attorney general personally pitched it last year to senior White House officials. Among those pushing for the plan was a Washington lobbying firm whose senior adviser is Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's onetime campaign manager.The initiative would allow LP Management Services to create a data-sharing partnership that small firms could join; after agreeing to provide online user data, those in the network could then pay full premiums to buy into LP Management's health insurance.Read More: Manafort Mystery Lender's Next Act Is an Obamacare End RunBut in a highly technical advisory ruling, the Labor Department said on Jan. 24 that those joining the venture wouldn't be "bona fide partners" and "do not work for or through the partnership.""The DOL is turning LP Management down," said Timothy Jost, a health-law expert at Washington and Lee University.Several health policy specialists who reviewed the plan for Bloomberg News said LP Management's plan, if approved, could undermine the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, by allowing insurers to cherry-pick their policyholders. The plan's supporters deny that.The ruling could scuttle the venture because potential partners won't join a health-insurance program that lacks the Labor Department's blessing, experts said. A lawyer behind the plan, Alexander Renfro, said LP Management would seek approval through a pending lawsuit."We are disappointed that after 14 months of ignoring our request, and four days before they were required to respond to our lawsuit, the DOL has rushed out an opinion that violates its own rules, ignores the facts presented, and rewrites existing statutes and regulations without a legal basis to do so," he said in an email.One executive involved in the health initiative is Arjan "Ari" Zieger, a California man who made a mysterious $1 million loan in 2017 to Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Zieger's lawyer has said the loan had nothing to do with the insurance venture.Companies Zieger helps run have spent about $400,000 to lobby the Trump administration on behalf of the plan.Emails to the attorneys general of Georgia and Louisiana weren't immediately returned.To contact the reporter on this story: David Glovin in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, David S. Joachim, Joe SchneiderFor 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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| Hillary Clinton refusing to be served $50m defamation lawsuit, Tulsi Gabbard lawyer claims Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:20 AM PST  Hillary Clinton's representatives have refused to accept legal papers relating to the $50 million defamation lawsuit filed against her by Tulsi Gabbard, according to the Hawaii congresswoman's lawyer.Ms Gabbard, who is currently seeking the Democratic party's 2020 presidential nomination, filed the suit against Ms Clinton after the former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate insinuated that she was "the favourite of Russians".
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| Man dies after woman trying to help him accidentally runs over him, police say Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:39 AM PST  A man died Thursday after a woman who was trying to help him with a medical issue forgot to put her vehicle in park, and it ran over him, police said.
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| The Latest: Russia closing its land border with China Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:59 PM PST  Russia is closing its land border with China, similar to steps taken by Mongolia and North Korea, to guard against a new viral outbreak. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin issued the decree Thursday, ordering the 2,600-mile land border with China closed starting Friday. Some countries have reduced flights and airlines have halted them because of the new virus that has sickened thousands in central China.
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| Don Lemon Did Trump a Huge Favor Posted: 29 Jan 2020 08:25 PM PST  A video of CNN news anchor Don Lemon laughing hysterically as his guests mocked Donald Trump's supporters went viral this week -- and it couldn't have been a more effective campaign ad for the president.In the video, which was clipped from a live broadcast that aired on Saturday night, Lemon can be seen crying tears of laughter, and at one point even slamming his head on his desk, because he's apparently so overwhelmed with joy and amusement.It all started after one guest, ex-GOP strategist Rick Wilson, joked that Trump would be too stupid to find Ukraine on a map, before calling Trump's supporters the "credulous boomer rube demo."Lemon laughed heartily, and so Wilson continued his mocking:"'Donald Trump's the smart one — and y'all elitists are dumb!'" Wilson said in a heavy, stereotypical southern accent.Then, the other guest (CNN contributor Wajahat Ali) chimed in, saying: "'You elitists with your geography and your maps -- and your spelling!'""'Your math and your reading!'" Wilson added. "'All those lines on the map!'"By Tuesday night, Lemon was receiving considerable backlash over the clip -- prompting him to address the controversy on his show:> Ask anyone who knows me, they'll tell you -- I don't believe in belittling people, belittling anyone for who they are, what they believe. During an interview on Saturday night, one of my guests said something that made me laugh. And while in the moment, I found that joke humorous. And I didn't catch everything that was said."Just to make it perfectly clear," he added. "I was laughing at the joke and not at any group of people."(Notice that Lemon stopped short of actually apologizing for his behavior.)First of all, it seems pretty clear to me that Lemon's defense (that he simply "didn't catch" everything the panelists were saying) is a blatant lie. He is laughing, consistently, while the guests are making their jokes, and then continuing to laugh after the guests make them. You don't need to be a human-behavior expert to understand that, when someone is laughing during and after a joke, then the laughter is because of that joke.Lemon knew exactly what he was laughing at -- and, by refusing to apologize, he has made it clear that he doesn't see anything wrong with that, either.The thing is, though, he should regret it -- for his own sake. After all, it's clear that Lemon hates Trump, and his performance in that segment is going to be a way bigger help to the incumbent president than anything that Trump could ever do for himself.Make no mistake: Clips like this embolden Trump's supporters. They don't see this sort of mockery and start to question their beliefs -- rather, it just strengthens their view that it is them (and Trump) against the world. It makes them more loyal to the president, not less.If you don't understand what I mean, just think about what happened after Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" comment. Did that turn people away from Trump? Far from it. In fact, it prompted countless Trump supporters to use the word in their names or handles on Twitter. It prompted the Trump campaign to sell "deplorable" T-shirts. It prompted Trump to use the comments for his own campaign's fundraising, and to bring his supporters closer to him, as well as to present himself as the foil who would never demean them in that way. ("While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hardworking American patriots who love your country and want a better future for all of our people," Trump said during a rally in Iowa shortly afterwards.)In other words? Rather than question their choice of alliance because of Clinton's insult, Trump's supporters embraced it -- clearly seeing it as evidence that the people who disagree with them, in fact, don't just disagree with them; they hate them, too. They think that they're stupid. Nobody wants to listen to anyone who just got done calling them dumb, and all Lemon did here was further solidify the narrative that "liberal media elites" like him think Trump supporters are fools, which, in turn, only makes them hate Trump's opposition more.What's more, in Lemon's instance, his guests' usage of stereotypical Southern accents -- clearly intended to signify "stupidity" -- could extend the consequences of this particular blunder to include turning off those voters in rural areas who are on the fence politically. Trump can point directly to this segment as evidence whenever he makes one of his favorite claims: that his opponents don't respect his supporters or rural Americans.In fact, this clip actually also provides ammunition for another one of Trump's favorite claims: the idea that CNN is "Fake News." Looking at this clip -- and seeing a CNN news anchor laughing at Trump supporters this way -- makes it easier for Trump to tell his supporters that all the news coming from CNN is tainted with this same bias, and therefore not reliable. It makes it more likely that they will blindly believe Trump, who hasn't insulted them, and less likely that they will believe that anyone affiliated with CNN could ever have a legitimate criticism.Lemon, I'm guessing, didn't expect that any Trump supporters would ever see this clip of him laughing at them -- but, unfortunately for him, millions of them did. If he doesn't want to apologize to the people he insulted, then that is perfectly fine. He might, however, want to consider apologizing to the people who are going to actually be hurt by it the most: the people who want Trump out of office, and the network he represents.
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| A coronavirus case has been confirmed in the San Francisco Bay Area near Silicon Valley — a man who recently returned from Wuhan and Shanghai Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:05 PM PST  It's the seventh US case. The patient came into contact with "very few" people and did not leave home except to seek medical care on two occasions.
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| India bans export of protective masks, clothing amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:31 AM PST  India on Friday banned the export of personal protection equipment such as masks and clothing amid a global coronavirus outbreak. It did not give a reason for the ban but it reported its first case of the new coronavirus on Thursday, a woman in Kerala who was a student of Wuhan University in China. The central Chinese city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak, and the virus has since spread to more than 9,800 people globally and killed 213 people in China.
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| U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:39 AM PST ![U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods]( "U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods") (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled that a renewed transatlantic trade truce will require more ambitious European Union efforts to ease imports of American foods.Perdue criticized an idea being pursued by the bloc of a piecemeal accord that would scale back European regulatory barriers to individual American products such as shellfish, saying a U.S. farm-trade deficit with the EU of $10 billion to $12 billion was "unsustainable and unreasonable."Instead, he said, Europe should reject the "political science of fear" over U.S. farm goods and ease market access for them in general."We're looking for real substance," Perdue said from Rome on Thursday during a conference call with reporters. "It depends on recognizing international standards."The comments challenge Europe's better-safe-than-sorry approach to food safety -- a stance that has led to longstanding EU bans on hormone-treated beef and "chlorinated" chicken, and to a slow approval process in Europe for genetically modified foods.The remarks also highlight the obstacles to reviving a July 2018 transatlantic commercial truce. A fraying of that deal in recent months prompted U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last week to pledge fresh efforts to reach a trade accord, which she said could also include matters related to energy and technology.Any failure could prompt an escalation in tit-for-tat tariffs that began in 2018 when Trump invoked national-security considerations to impose duties on steel and aluminum from Europe.Perdue described talks he held on Monday with EU officials in Brussels as "very productive." And, while declining to speculate about the elements of any transatlantic farm deal because it is being handled in Washington by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Perdue held out the prospect of results within weeks.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Nikos Chrysoloras, Peter ChapmanFor 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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| Crude oil tanker in the Persian Gulf caught fire Wednesday night Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:58 AM PST  A crude oil tanker in the Persian Gulf caught fire Wednesday night, prompting a warning from British naval officials to "exercise extreme caution."
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