| It Doesn't Matter Who Technically Wins Iowa: Both Bernie Sanders And Pete Buttigieg Did Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:03 PM PST  It may be awhile before we know who technically won the Iowa caucuses, but it doesn't really matter. In a contest that was always more…
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| AG Barr Requires FBI to Obtain His Approval Before Investigating 2020 Candidates Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:26 AM PST  Attorney General William Barr has issued a memo requiring the FBI to obtain approval from Barr himself before conducting any investigation into any 2020 presidential election candidate."In certain cases, the existence of a federal criminal or counterintelligence investigation, if it becomes known to the public, may have unintended effects on our elections," Barr wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the New York Times. The attorney general went on to emphasize that "we also must be sensitive to safeguarding the department's reputation for fairness, neutrality and nonpartisanship."The memo establishes certain requirements for the FBI and other agencies under the purview of the Justice Department to meet before opening a "politically sensitive" criminal or counterintelligence investigation against candidates or donors. Barr must personally give approval for investigations into presidential and vice presidential candidates, as well as their respective senior staffs.The move follows Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the FBI's obtainment of a FISA warrant against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the agency's investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. The report detailed various errors and material omissions in the FBI's initial application for a FISA warrant and subsequent renewals."We identified multiple instances in which factual assertions relied upon in the first FISA application were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information the FBI had in its possession at the time the application was filed," the report read.The FBI in 2016 carried out investigations pertaining to both presidential candidates. While the Trump campaign was investigated for possible connections to Russia, a claim that the Mueller Report subsequently found to be based on insufficient evidence, the bureau in October 2016 also reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for classified messages.
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| Ill Cali cartel drug kingpin seeks early prison release Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:10 AM PST ![Ill Cali cartel drug kingpin seeks early prison release]( "Ill Cali cartel drug kingpin seeks early prison release") One of the world's major cocaine kingpins, a co-founder of Colombia's Cali Cartel that smuggled some $2 billion in drugs to the U.S., is seeking compassionate early release from a federal prison because of ill health. Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela, 81, is asking a Miami federal judge to let him return to his family in Colombia because he suffers from prostate and colon cancer. Rodriguez-Orejuela has served about half of his 30-year prison sentence under a 2006 plea deal.
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| China is sending trucks to spray bleach on entire cities as the country struggles to contain the Wuhan coronavirus Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:37 PM PST  Public health and infection control experts say spraying entire towns is "a little over the top," because coronaviruses don't live long on surfaces.
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| Come to Rio, get robbed: Brazil tourism body shares awkward Instagram post Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST  When marketing Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's national tourism agency typically focuses on the city's world-class beaches, samba-filled music scene and caipirinha-fueled parties. Violent crime is rarely listed among the attractions. "I just spent 3 days in Rio with my family, and in those 3 days my family and I were robbed and my 9-year-old sister witnessed a violent robbery," Instagram user "withlai" wrote in an Instagram Stories post.
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| What is causing the mysterious giant 'ice rings' in Siberia? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:05 AM PST  Strange ice rings in Siberia's Lake Baikal have puzzled scientists for decades, but now the mystery apparently has been solved.
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| 'I don't want to listen to lies about the Second Amendment': Father of Parkland shooting victim detained for State of the Union protest speaks out Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:15 AM PST  The father of a student killed in the Parkland shooting is speaking out after being removed from the State of the Union address last night for shouting at President Donald Trump over "lies about the Second Amendment."Fred Guttenberg's 14-year-old daughter Jamie was killed in February 2018 during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Since her death, Mr Guttenberg has been an outspoken advocate for gun safety.
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| Israeli strikes kill 23 Syrian, foreign fighters in Syria Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:40 AM PST  Israeli air strikes killed 23 Syrian and foreign fighters in Syria Thursday, a monitor said, the latest in a spate of raids Israel has said targeted an Iranian presence on its doorstep. Israel has pledged to prevent its main enemy from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where it is backing President Bashar al-Assad's government alongside Russia and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The pre-dawn raids killed three Iranians and seven Tehran-backed foreign fighters near Kisweh south of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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| Data suggests virus infections under-reported, exaggerating fatality rate Posted: 05 Feb 2020 02:13 AM PST  Fatalities from the coronavirus epidemic are overwhelmingly concentrated in central China's Wuhan city, which accounts for over 73% of deaths despite having only one-third the number of confirmed infections. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease, one person has died for every 23 infections reported. Experts say the discrepancy is mainly due to under-reporting of milder virus cases in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province that are grappling with shortages in testing equipment and beds.
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| Gabbard Campaign to Protest CNN Townhall over New Hampshire Snub Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) is scheduling a protest outside the New Hampshire venue where CNN is hosting town halls ahead of the state's primary next week, after Gabbard was excluded from the two-night lineup — despite out-polling townhall guests Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, and Deval Patrick in New Hampshire."This attempt to silence Tulsi is bigger than one person — it's our right as voters to hear from ALL the candidates, and to have our voices represented. No institution should be allowed to get away with censoring democracy: That's why we're standing up to CNN on Wednesday, February 5th, demanding that our voices be heard," the Gabbard campaign told Fox News.Gabbard told the network last week that she had reached out about being excluded, but had not received a response."We have reached out, I think, more than once, and we received no explanation. I don't even think we've gotten a response to date about why they're excluding the first female combat veteran ever to run for president, the only woman of color in the race," she said.Gabbard currently sits sixth in New Hampshire polling at 4.7 percent, while Yang polls at 3.7 percent, and Tom Steyer at 3.1 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.Patrick, who does not even register in the average, hit 0.4 percent in the most recent Boston Globe/Suffolk University New Hampshire poll.Gabbard has voiced public criticism over CNN's treatment of her campaign, and slammed the news network during the October debate after a CNN analyst called her a Russian asset."The New York Times and CNN have also smeared veterans like myself for calling to an end to this regime-change war," Gabbard told the crowd in Ohio. " . . . This morning a CNN commentator said on national television that I'm an asset of Russia. Completely despicable."
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| Man Who Killed Son for Insurance Money Is Convicted of Doing the Same to Wife Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:30 PM PST  A man who killed his son in 2008 to collect $700,000 from his life insurance policy was convicted this week of killing his wife nearly 30 years ago for the same reason.Karl Holger Karlsen, 59, pleaded guilty in 2013 to murdering his son, Levi Karlsen, in Seneca Falls, New York, and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. That conviction raised suspicions with detectives in California, where the investigation into his wife's death had been continuing, according to court documents.Karlsen's wife, Christina Karlsen, 30, died on New Year's Day in 1991, when she was trapped by a fire in a boarded-up bathroom of the family's home in Calaveras County, Karlsen's lawyer, Richard Esquivel, said.Days after his wife's death, Karlsen collected $215,000 from his wife's insurance policy, and he and his children moved to Seneca Falls, where he is from, Esquivel said.On Monday, a jury convicted Karlsen of murdering his wife by committing arson -- purposefully boarding up the bathroom and lighting a fire in a hallway to kill her.He could face a maximum life sentence without the possibility of parole during his sentencing hearing March 17. He plans to appeal the conviction, Esquivel said.The victim's mother, Arlene Meltzer, 78, was in the courtroom when the verdict was read by the jury."I just knew that he had something to do with it," she said Tuesday. "It is something a mother always carries in their heart."With the money from his wife's life insurance policy, Karlsen moved back to New York, bought a house and paid several bills, Esquivel said.According to court documents, Karlsen's son, Levi Karlsen, bought a $700,000 life insurance policy in 2008. Soon after that, Levi Karlsen, 23, signed paperwork that named his father the sole beneficiary of his policy in the event of his death, records show; his father was present at the time of signing.Hours after signing the paperwork, Levi Karlsen's body was found by his father's second wife, Cindy Karlsen, under a truck that had fallen on him in his father's garage, records show.Initially, authorities deemed the death an accident. But in 2011, when Cindy Karlsen realized that her husband had invested money from his son's policy into a $1.2 million life insurance policy for her, she alerted authorities, according to court documents.She cooperated with authorities, and while she was wearing a wire, her husband admitted that he had deliberately caused the truck to fall on his son, according to court documents. In 2012, Karlsen was charged with murdering his son, and he pleaded guilty the following year."We suspected that he was guilty of Levi's death as well," Meltzer said. "I expected that he was involved in it in some way."Karlsen appealed his conviction in that case and lost, but he planned to appeal again, Esquivel said.Meltzer, meanwhile, is done waiting."For 30 years we stood and waited. Right now I am just taking quiet time to help me get strong," Meltzer said as her voice quivered. "I just kept my prayers going because I knew that he was involved, but I just had to stand by and believe that God was going to take care of it."It has finally come to an end," she said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Polls show Biden’s campaign could be doomed Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:39 PM PST  New polls reveal the state of Joe Biden's campaign is far shakier than his longtime lead in the national polls would suggest. In fact, it may have already entered the terminal stage.
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| An anti-Putin blogger was murdered in a French hotel, and the killing has the hallmarks of the Russian hit squad causing chaos in Europe Posted: 06 Feb 2020 05:28 AM PST  Imran Aliev, a 44-year-old Chechen blogger who opposed both Vladimir Putin and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, was murdered in Lille last week.
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| Scientists have discovered an unusual 'monster' galaxy from the early universe Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  Scientists have discovered an unusual "monster" galaxy that existed about 12 billion years ago. But why it suddenly stopped forming stars is unknown.
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| 30 Side Table Designs That Do All the Things Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:41 AM PST |
| The Current State of the Internet Is Flowing With Memes of Nancy Pelosi Ripping President Trump's Speech at the State of the Union Posted: 05 Feb 2020 01:31 AM PST  The moment when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up papers at the State of the Union made for the perfect meme and the reactions kept piling on.
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| Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST ![Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets]( "Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets") An aggressive campaign by American authorities to root out Chinese espionage operations in the United States has snared a growing group of Chinese government officials, business people, and academics pursuing American secrets. In 2019 alone, public records show U.S. authorities arrested and expelled two Chinese diplomats who allegedly drove onto a military base in Virginia. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, FBI director Christopher Wray and U.S. counterintelligence chief William Evanina will address a Washington conference on U.S. efforts to counter Chinese "economic malfeasance" involving espionage and the theft of U.S. technological and scientific secrets.
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| A photo shows that some coronavirus patients in Wuhan are being treated in their cars because there are 'too many sick people' in hospitals Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:18 AM PST  Wuhan has built two emergency hospitals in an effort to combat the seemingly never-ending influx of coronavirus patients.
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| Russia Hacked the Election, Trump Hacked Team Obama’s Brains Posted: 06 Feb 2020 10:13 AM PST  The Obama administration thought its warnings to Russia about ceasing its electoral interference in 2016 worked, according to the latest installment of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report into Russian election interference. "Senior administration officials told the Committee that they assessed that their warnings to Russia before the election had the desired effect, and that Russia undertook little to no additional action once the warnings were delivered," the report found. It was a fateful miscalculation. Much of the damage had already been done, from the months-long data exfiltration from the Democratic National Committee server that became public in July 2016 to the social-media disinformation effort that persisted long after the election. Indeed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation found that the genesis of the Russian disinformation campaign occurred in 2014—which is consistent with Obama officials telling the Senate committee that they worried a weaponized leak of a phone call involving top diplomat Victoria Nuland heralded a new era of Russian disinformation. Every additional congressional investigation and intelligence-official assessment, including FBI Director Christopher Wray's last year, has concluded that Russian election-aimed efforts are expected in 2020. The majority of the administration's domestic response was to warn state election officials to harden their election infrastructure, while its response to Russia was to verbally warn them in private, in the fall of 2016, to stop the attack. A lack of Russian manipulation of the election data itself became confidence that the strategy had worked. FBI Director Christopher Wray Says Russia Remains a Threat to 2020 Election"[W]e had reason to believe they were in a position to do more and decided not to, which would lead me to conclude, although one can't be 100 percent sure of this, that our deterrence had some effect," Obama national security adviser Susan Rice told the Senate. Rice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Several committee Republicans—Jim Risch (ID), Tom Cotton (AR), Marco Rubio (FL), John Cornyn (TX), and Ben Sasse (NE)—assailed the "Obama administration's inept response to Russia's persistent and complex campaign to influence and interfere in the most recent U.S. presidential election." They sidestepped highlighting an additional finding of the report: that fear of appearing partisan led the administration to inhibit its response.The heavily redacted Senate report found that although the FBI had warned the DNC about potential intrusions "numerous times throughout 2015 and 2016" from a "malicious cyber actor," many Obama administration officials were unaware of the Russian effort until the DNC publicized the data breach in July 2016. That was two months after then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned obliquely that foreign intelligence agencies were out to penetrate campaign data networks. "The administration was not fully engaged until some key intelligence insights were provided by the IC [intelligence community], which shifted how the administration viewed the issue," the report found. As has been widely reported over the past three years, part of that shift involved then CIA Director John Brennan, in August and September 2016, separately briefing the small group of bipartisan congressional leaders involved in intelligence affairs known as the Gang of Eight. What resulted from the Hill was nothing—something that the Senate report euphemistically attributes to partisanship, but which one of its members attributes to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, in his additional statement on the report, criticized the Obama administration for restricting the summer 2016 briefings to the Gang of Eight, rather than the full congressional intelligence committees. But Wyden also criticized "the Republican refusal to publicly acknowledge Russian interference" as a substantial contribution to the failed 2016 response."I believe that warning the public about a foreign influence campaign should not depend on the support of both parties, particularly when one of the parties stands to gain politically from that campaign," Wyden said.Bureaucracy, fueled by the typical reluctance to expand intelligence access, inhibited much of the Obama administration's response. It inhibited options for a response, the Senate report found. White House officials, including Rice, were concerned that a more assertive public response could prompt the Russians to escalate by manipulating the actual election infrastructure that the federal government does not control. Additionally, administration officials were highly concerned that the intelligence agencies achieve maximum confidence in their assessment of Russian intrusion before making any statement that they might have to recant. Not until October, a month before the election, did Clapper and the Department of Homeland Security publicly accuse Russia of election interference. Intel Chairman Adam Schiff Fans: Focus on Russia, Not 2020The previous month, then FBI Director James Comey, whose own high-profile interference in the election was another fateful move, wanted to write an op-ed about the Russian intrusion. But according to then-deputy Andrew McCabe, who would soon be in Trump's crosshairs, "[b]y the time he kind of got around to thinking about it seriously, he felt like the opportunity had passed and we were too close [to the election] at that point to have the intended effect on the electorate."There were other self-imposed "restrictions," in the Senate report's phrase. Among them, as has been widely reported, was the "highly politicized environment" that made the Obama team fear that their public warnings would themselves "undermine public confidence in the election"—by fueling Donald Trump's frequent insistence that any loss he might suffer was the result of a rigged system. The Obama team, according to the Senate report, considered itself effectively checkmated, unable to come up with a compelling response and reluctant to risk making itself a spectacle distracting from Hillary Clinton's campaign. Their response was to attempt to act in a nonpartisan manner in an information environment where such a posture was less and less viable. They didn't try to get new Russia sanctions through a GOP-controlled Congress in 2016 out of fear of Republicans crying foul; they would only impose unilateral sanctions after Trump won the election. The White House chief of staff at the time, Denis McDonough, told the Senate inquiry that the National Security Council "went out of [its] way to ensure that there was not a partisan veneer to any of the work." Once out of office, McDonough assailed McConnell for not operating similarly. McDonough, Rice, and Homeland Security chief Lisa Monaco worried that an increased public warning would amount to "doing the Russians' dirty work for them." Monaco told the committee that McConnell reacted to a September briefing by the intelligence agencies on the election intrusion by stating "[y]ou security people should be careful that you're not getting used." The report says Monaco interpreted that "as suggestive that the intelligence regarding Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections was being inflated or used for partisan ends." Only Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (CA), members of the Gang of Eight, would warn publicly of the Russian election incursion that fall.In other words, while Russia may have hacked the election, Trump and GOP congressional leadership hacked the Obama administration's brains. The committee released its report on Thursday, the day after the Senate acquitted Trump for attempting to coerce Ukraine into aiding his 2020 reelection. A Senate Intelligence Committee official said the committee leadership, which at the end of last week had not received the intelligence agencies' proposed redactions despite delivering it to them months ago, opted to wait for release until after impeachment was finished. "The volume was going through the normal interagency review process and it was released when that process was completed," said a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| A California surgeon and his girlfriend were accused of drugging and raping up to 1,000 women. A new DA says the evidence against them was 'manufactured.' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:14 AM PST  The county's new district attorney said his predecessor made up the evidence for political gain.
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| Biden Warns Party that Their Eventual Nominee ‘Will Have to Carry the Label’ of Bernie’s Socialism Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:57 AM PST  Former vice president Joe Biden slammed his primary opponent Bernie Sanders on Wednesday, saying that the nominee "will have to carry the label" of democratic socialism if Sanders remains in contention.Biden, who walked back criticism of Sanders last week for not being "a registered Democrat," warned supporters that Republicans will tar the party with the socialist label due to Sanders's influence."Donald Trump is desperate to pin the socialist label of socialist, socialist, socialist, on our party," Biden said. "We can't let him do that."News broke Tuesday that South Carolina Republicans planned to boost Sanders — who trails Biden by five points — in the upcoming state primary because they view him as the weakest opponent to face Donald Trump.Biden also admitted to voters in New Hampshire Wednesday that "we took a gut punch in Iowa," with results showing that the former vice president likely finished outside the top-three in the caucuses."I am not going to sugarcoat it," Biden told the crowd. "We took a gut punch in Iowa. The whole process took a gut punch. But, look, this isn't the first time in my life I've been knocked down."But Biden defended himself against those trying to "write off this campaign," saying "I'm not going anywhere.""I'm counting on New Hampshire," he added. "We're going to come back." On Tuesday, Biden told voters at a separate event "I need your help."As of Wednesday afternoon, with 71 percent of results reported, Biden sat in fourth place with 15.4 percent of the vote and no delegates.The Biden campaign sent a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party late Monday night asking that they be detailed on the failure to collect caucus results "before any results are released."
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| Siberian street cats limp to new life with prosthetic paws Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Ryzhik, a scruffy red tabby cat, was found on the streets of the Siberian city of Tomsk in the blistering cold, his four paws completely frozen. Two years later Ryzhik leads a normal life at Gorshkov's clinic, hobbling around on four prosthetic limbs. Ryzhik is one of the first cats in the world to have four titanium paws that were implanted into their bones using the technique, according to Gorshkov.
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| Storage unit found, eldest son speaks out: What we know about the missing Idaho kids Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:10 AM PST  Details continue to trickle out in the case of the two missing Idaho children as mother Lori Vallow missed court deadline a week ago.
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| Nancy Pelosi is not done trolling Trump Posted: 04 Feb 2020 08:42 PM PST  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was left hanging on Tuesday night when President Trump ignored her offer of a handshake, and now, she's calling him out.At the start of Trump's State of the Union address, Pelosi held out her hand to the president, but he did not reciprocate. Pelosi shrugged it off, but after the speech, which included digs against Democrats and former President Barack Obama, she calmly ripped up her copy of the address, later telling reporters, "I tore it up. I was trying to find one page with truth on it. I couldn't."Pelosi didn't stop there, though. She turned to Trump's favorite social media platform, Twitter, and posted a photo showing Trump ignoring her attempt to shake his hand. "Democrats will never stop extending the hand of friendship to get the job done ForThePeople," Pelosi tweeted. "We will work to find common ground where we can, but will stand our ground where we cannot." > Democrats will never stop extending the hand of friendship to get the job done ForThePeople. We will work to find common ground where we can, but will stand our ground where we cannot. SOTU pic.twitter.com/ELJqR9q4xD> > -- Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 5, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| China's Secrecy Over the Wuhan Coronavirus Is One Big Mistake Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:00 AM PST  Misinformation is a dangerous thing.
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| Chinese officials are only letting people leave their homes every 2 days and have forbidden weddings and funerals Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:19 PM PST  In four cities that are home to more than 30 million people, each household is given a so-called passport. It permits one person to leave every two days.
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| Hitman for drug lord Escobar dies in Colombia Posted: 06 Feb 2020 07:53 AM PST  Pablo Escobar's most notorious hitman, known by the nickname Popeye, died on Thursday at age 57 after a life of crime he celebrated on YouTube, Colombia's prison authorities said. Jhon Jairo Velasquez had boasted of killing hundreds of people for his "boss" Escobar, the infamous drug lord killed by Colombian police in 1993 while on the run to avoid extradition to the United States. Velasquez died at the National Cancer Institute in Bogota, where he'd been receiving treatment for stomach cancer since December 31.
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| The Coronavirus Outbreak Could Derail Xi Jinping’s Dreams of a Chinese Century Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:18 AM PST  The coronavirus outbreak presents the greatest threat yet to Xi Jinping's ambition for a Chinese century
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| Turkey says Russia must immediately stop Syrian attacks in Idlib Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:06 AM PST  Turkey expects Russia to stop the Syrian government's attacks in the northwestern region of Idlib immediately, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, adding that Ankara needs to work with Moscow to resolve problems in the region. Shelling by Syrian forces killed eight Turkish personnel on Monday, prompting a retaliation. The escalation disrupted a fragile cooperation between Ankara and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the conflict, raising concerns over future collaboration.
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| Cruise ship that visited Hong Kong searches for a port after Philippines, Japan deny entry Posted: 06 Feb 2020 01:13 PM PST  Holland America confirmed that MS Westerdam is being denied entry to Japan despite there being no known cases of coronavirus aboard.
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| President upsets Mexicans with plan to end long weekends Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:01 AM PST  Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has floated a strikingly unpopular proposal to end the practice of creating long weekends by moving national holidays around. López Obrador is a student of Mexican history, and he was irked because few people appeared to remember that Wednesday is the anniversary of the Feb. 5, 1917 adoption of the country's Constitution. López Obrador said it is a bad practice because it leads people to forget what they were celebrating, even though he acknowledged the three-day weekends were popular.
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| Giuliani: If the U.S. doesn't investigate Joe Biden, it would be 'one of the great corrupt events in American history' Posted: 04 Feb 2020 06:14 PM PST  Rudy Giuliani expects President Trump to be acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday, and thinks he should celebrate by investigating a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden."I would have no problem with him doing it," Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, told NPR. "In fact, I'd have a problem with him not doing it. I think he would be saying that Joe Biden can get away with selling out the United States, making us a fool in the Ukraine." Giuliani continues to believe in a debunked conspiracy theory that Biden wanted a Ukrainian prosecutor ousted because he planned on investigating the gas company Burisma; Biden's son Hunter was once on its board."I believe that it would be one of the great corrupt events in American history if this case is not investigated at the highest levels of two governments," Giuliani said, referring to the United States and Ukraine.Trump's impeachment was triggered by his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Alexander Zelensky, during which he asked Zelensky to launch an investigation into Biden. The House impeachment managers say Trump froze military aid to Ukraine as a way of pressuring Zelensky into announcing investigations. Several Republican senators have said Trump acted inappropriately, including Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who told NBC's Chuck Todd what Trump did was "wrong" and "improper, crossing the line."Giuliani pushed back, saying they "don't understand the facts. Lamar is wrong, and Lamar is a good friend of mine, and he's a fine man except he doesn't know all the facts."More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| U.S. cities and states with confirmed coronavirus cases Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:01 AM PST  Six states are currently treating people infected with coronavirus.
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| Pelosi says Trump knows nothing about 'faith and prayer' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 08:50 AM PST  During a press briefing, Speaker Nancy Pelosi responding to criticisms of her ripping up the president's State of the Union speech. She also said the president knows nothing about "faith and prayer."
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| Meet the JH-XX: China's Newest and Fastest Stealth Bomber? Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Is it real?
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| TikTok reportedly waited nearly 3 hours to call police in Brazil after a teen's death was livestreamed on the platform, but the company notified its own PR team almost immediately Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:50 AM PST  The Intercept reports that TikTok waited nearly three hours after being notified of an apparent livestreamed suicide to notify local law enforcement.
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| 4 children — one only 2 years old — were lost in an Alaskan blizzard for more than 27 hours but were miraculously found alive Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:02 AM PST  The children were found alive 18 miles from their home in Alaska. They had gone on a snowmobile ride, but got stuck in a blizzard.
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| In challenging China’s claims in the South China Sea, the US Navy is getting more assertive Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:32 AM PST  Last year saw an uptick in U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.
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| She pulled her vote when she found out Pete Buttigieg is gay. He says`I'm running to be her president too.' Posted: 06 Feb 2020 11:10 AM PST  Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg responds to the Iowa woman who was captured on video withdrawing her support after learning he's gay.
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| Texas to execute man convicted of killing five family members in 2002 Posted: 06 Feb 2020 04:12 AM PST  Abel Ochoa, 47, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville at 6 p.m. CST (0000 GMT), 17 years after a jury found him guilty of capital murder. Ochoa would be the third inmate in the United States and the second in Texas to be executed in 2020. Texas, which executed nine inmates in 2019, has executed more prisoners than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
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| U.S. citizen dies in border patrol custody Posted: 05 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  A U.S. citizen has died in government custody, Customs and Border Patrol announced Wednesday.Border patrol agents arrested the 32-year-old man Tuesday afternoon "after he was identified as a suspect in an alien smuggling incident," BuzzFeed News reports via a CBP statement. "At around 6:00 p.m., during processing at the Brackettville Station, the man began exhibiting signs of distress," the statement continued. "EMT-certified agents" began tending to the man, and an ambulance took him to a local hospital around 6:40 p.m. "He was pronounced deceased by medical personnel at 9:37 p.m. CST," per the statement.The agents who arrested the man were assigned to a Brackettville, Texas, station, which is near the Del Rio, Texas, port of entry.More stories from theweek.com How Trump's New York trusted traveler ban will punish the most conservative parts of the state How history will view Trump's impeachment Fox News' Brian Kilmeade is really mad that Romney would 'bring religion' into his impeachment decision
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| US warns Venezuela of consequences if Guaido harmed Posted: 06 Feb 2020 02:08 PM PST  The United States on Thursday warned Venezuela's leftist regime of consequences if opposition leader Juan Guaido is not allowed to return safely from a visit to Washington. "We hope that the regime makes the calculation, particularly after this trip, that the support for Guaido is strong and that the counter-reaction to any move against him would make it a mistake for the regime," said Elliott Abrams, the US pointman on Venezuela. Guaido, who is considered interim president by the United States and most other Western and Latin American nations, paid a surprise visit as a guest Tuesday at President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to Congress.
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| Joe Biden moves town-hall audience to tears as he opens up about how he dealt with his stutter Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:17 PM PST  The former vice president and 2020 hopeful emphasized the importance of empathy and asked people to "to reach out a little more for people."
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| Xi says China has achieved 'positive' virus control results Posted: 06 Feb 2020 06:01 AM PST  China has achieved "positive" results in its prevention and control efforts in fighting the new coronavirus, President Xi Jinping told Saudi Arabia's King Salman by telephone, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. The two discussed "efforts to combat and control the novel coronavirus epidemic", the report said. China has declared a "people's war" on the virus and the whole nation is working as one to combat it, Xi said.
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| Why the World Should Really Fear North Korea's Tunnels Posted: 06 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST  Tunnels, yes, you read that right.
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| Lithuanian tourist killed in attack at Brazilian beach Posted: 06 Feb 2020 09:37 AM PST ![Lithuanian tourist killed in attack at Brazilian beach]( "Lithuanian tourist killed in attack at Brazilian beach") A Lithuanian tourist was killed and his partner was allegedly raped in an attack near a popular seaside town south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police said Thursday. Police said they found the body of Adam Zindul in his rented residence, and that his partner told them that she had been raped. According to Brazilian TV news channel Globo, Zindul and his Brazilian wife had rented a house in a remote beach called Praia do Sono, which can only be accessed by boat or trail through the jungle.
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