| Wisconsin mother, two daughters found dead after Amber Alert issued; boyfriend arrested Posted: 16 Feb 2020 04:30 PM PST  A mother and two daughters were found dead after an Amber Alert was issued Saturday.
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| Judge sets Tuesday phone hearing in Roger Stone case Posted: 16 Feb 2020 12:57 PM PST  The court session would be the first since prosecutors abruptly quit last week
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| USS Arizona crew member, Pearl Harbor survivor dies age 97 Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:36 PM PST |
| Germany wants another crack at a EU mission in the Strait of Hormuz Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  Berlin last summer rejected a request to join a U.S.-led naval protection mission for fear of getting tangled up in shooting war between the United States and Iran.
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| Man who left puppy to drown in cage sentenced to 1 year for animal cruelty Posted: 16 Feb 2020 07:57 AM PST  The 36-year-old New Jersey man left the puppy in a cage along the rising tide of Sandy Hook Bay after a fight with his ex-girlfriend.
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| ‘Photographer’ Drugged New Mom, Planned to Steal Baby, Cops Say Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:20 PM PST  It began with an offer on Facebook group for the mothers of newborns: An aspiring photographer wanted to take pictures of babies for free to build her portfolio.To the mother of a 5-week-old infant, it sounded like a great deal. But after three sessions with the photographer, her teenage daughter in tow, things allegedly took a terrifying turn.The new mom ate a cupcake offered by the pair and soon began to feel wobbly, numb and drowsy. She feared she had been drugged, told the visitors to leave, and called 911.Police in Washington state suspect she was correct—and they say she's lucky the Feb. 5 encounter in Spanaway didn't turn out much worse. Investigators said they have collected evidence that the 38-year-old "photographer," Juliette Parker, had a plan to steal a baby and raise it as her own.On Friday afternoon, detectives from the Pierce County Sheriff's Department arrested Parker, who has also gone by the names Juliette Noel and Juliette Gains, and her 16-year-old daughter. Parker was charged with attempted kidnapping and second-degree assault.A release from the sheriff's office said there were red flags that something strange was afoot during Parker's earlier visit to the home. "The suspect was observed taking cell phone selfies with the victim's baby and was seen wiping her fingerprints off items she touched inside the victim's home," they said.The sheriff's office said they have identified "additional victims" but provided no details.Parker's ex-husband, Daniel Gaines, who is locked in a custody battle with her, said that he finds it hard to believe his daughter was in on the alleged plot."I question what my daughter knew," he told The Daily Beast.Last year, Parker ran for mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to KOAA. At the time, she had only been a resident of the city for two years."I love Colorado Springs, and I want to live here the rest of my life," Parker said then, according to The Gazette. "I would like my kids to be able to live here and grow up here. I would like to have my grandkids be able to grow up here and live here and have their kids here."Parker, who ran on a platform of affordable housing and ending homelessness, lost by a landslide.The Gazette reported last year that Parker had been charged in federal court with trespassing in 2014; she explained that she wandered onto military property during a hike and picked up some old rifle bullets—one of which exploded at home, injuring her.Court records say she and a companion were scavenging for metal and took the shells home to melt them for scrap, the Tacoma News Tribune reported. While disassembling one, it blew up, blasting a 2-foot-wide hole in the floor and causing injuries to both.Additional reporting by Barbie Latza NadeauRead 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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| Virus spreads on cruise ship in Japan, U.S. passengers flying home Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:14 PM PST  Hundreds of passengers were preparing to be evacuated from a cruise ship on Sunday after spending two weeks under quarantine off Japan over the coronavirus, with Americans flying home on chartered evacuation planes early Monday morning. The luxury cruise voyage with more than 3,000 passengers aboard was struck by the virus earlier this month, leaving them and crew in confinement. Canada, South Korea, Hong Kong and Italy have followed the United States in announcing flights to bring home their citizens from the ship, which has been under quarantine since Feb. 3.
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| Assistant principal accused of raping student avoids jail Posted: 15 Feb 2020 07:28 AM PST  An assistant principal charged with raping a 16-year-old student in Missouri has avoided jail time by accepting an Alford plea, which allows her to assert innocence while acknowledging the evidence proves her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
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| Questions over fate of Saudi crew in Yemen jet crash Posted: 16 Feb 2020 03:18 AM PST  The fate of the crew of a Saudi warplane that crashed in Yemen remained uncertain Sunday after Iran-linked Huthi rebels claimed to have shot down the aircraft. The Riyadh-led military coalition fighting the rebels said the two officers ejected from the plane before it crashed in northern Al-Jawf province Friday but that the rebels opened fire at them "in violation of international humanitarian law". "The joint forces command of the Coalition holds the terrorist Huthi militia responsible for the lives and wellbeing of the Tornado air crew," the coalition said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency late Saturday.
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| Why Joe Biden needs ‘a political miracle’ to stay in the race to face Trump Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST  Barack Obama's vice-president is floundering in the Democratic primary, losing key support as vital votes loomLarry Sabato is an analyst, author and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. His students are currently embedded in various presidential campaigns. Two were working for Joe Biden in Iowa. Before caucus day, they texted Sabato to say they expected to lose badly.Sabato asked why. The answer: "No energy at all."And so it proved. Biden, who was Barack Obama's righthand man for eight years and long the Democrats' national frontrunner to take on Donald Trump, trailed in fourth. A week later, he fled New Hampshire before the votes were even counted, to escape the public humiliation of finishing fifth.Now, in the words of one commentator, Biden "needs a miracle" to stay in the race. A man whose candidacy a year ago seemed to be predicated on his appeal to the white working class is depending on African American voters to rescue him from the oft-quoted maxim that all political lives end in failure. What went wrong?"I've watched Joe Biden since he was first elected [to the Senate] in 1972," Sabato said. "He was full of energy and joking around and had a big personality but I don't think anyone has associated the word 'vision' with Joe Biden. Democrats are looking for a vision; Biden's vision is to go back to Obama's policies. I understand it, but it doesn't get you standing up and cheering."The 77-year-old's debate performances have failed to inspire and his rallies have drawn small crowds. His rally in Des Moines on the eve of the Iowa caucuses was in a more compact venue than Pete Buttigieg's across the city and, while delivering a heartfelt critique of Trump, offered fewer policy specifics and generated less electricity.Sabato added: "People are charged up and incensed about Trump. But if you're standing there talking and they go to sleep, it doesn't suggest you're the best one to beat Trump. People keep saying he's lost a step or two but this is the same Joe Biden I remember from the 1970s. He's a meanderer. Some speakers get you fired up but Joe's not that."> In Iowa I saw one of the most inferior ground games in politics. I have never seen anything so inept> > Moe VelaThere is a distinct whiff of déja vu. Biden's first run for president fell apart in 1987 when he quoted British politician Neil Kinnock but forgot to credit him, prompting charges of plagiarism. His second attempt went off the rails in 2007 when he described Obama as "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". (His third-place finish in his home state, Delaware, remains his best performance in a primary.)The 2020 effort was meant to be different story with Biden, who served with distinction as Obama's vice-president, cast as the antidote to Trump and restorer of normalcy. But he was poleaxed by Senator Kamala Harris of California in the first Democratic debate in June, when she challenged his past views on desegregated school busing.He fared little better in a debate in September when, asked about what responsibility Americans have to repair the legacy of slavery, he gave a rambling answer that included "make sure you have the record player on at night, make sure that kids hear words, a kid coming from a very poor school, a very poor background, will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time we get there."Debates came and went. Trump's attacks on Biden's son, Hunter, over his business dealings in Ukraine generated media scrutiny, both fair and unfair, that in some minds may have planted seeds of doubt. In Iowa it was clear the Obama magic, which swept the caucuses in 2008, had not rubbed off on his running mate. The blame seemed to lie with both an underwhelming candidate and a poorly organised campaign.Moe Vela, who was director of administration and senior adviser to Biden at the White House, said: "In Iowa I saw one of the most inferior ground games in politics. I have never seen anything so inept. He's not being served properly by his campaign."Vela, now an LGBTQ and Latino activist and board director at TransparentBusiness, added: "He had been the front runner for so long that I think the campaign staff became complacent. You got a sense they were so busy talking about electability and pitting him against Trump they forgot they have to deal with these 15 people first. You could see this rude awakening in Iowa as the night was slipping away."In New Hampshire, where Biden called a student a "lying dog faced pony soldier", he fared even worse. A comeback win in Nevada looks unlikely, setting up a potential last stand in South Carolina, the first contest in a state with a significant African American population – a constituency where he has consistently polled strongly. (Biden has been at pains to point out that 99% of the African American population have not yet had a say.)But even this advantage appears to have been eroded by Senator Bernie Sanders and billionaire Tom Steyer. Then comes Super Tuesday, where another billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, has spent nearly $350m on ads focused on the 16 states and territories that vote, eating into Biden's support among moderates and African Americans. Several black members of Congress and city mayors have endorsed Bloomberg despite the discriminatory "stop-and-frisk" policy he supported as mayor of New York.Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), said: "Biden has lost half the black support that he had. It's bled off and is now largely with Mike Bloomberg. Some of it has gone to Bernie Sanders, a little bit maybe to Elizabeth Warren, none of it to Pete Buttigieg. So he's sitting there holding 22, 23% of the black vote now. Mike Bloomberg is behind them at what, 21?"Clearly whatever the decision-making process was that led them to run the first leg of this race the way they have has cost him dearly. They have to make up a lot of ground in a very short period of time. When you swing into Super Tuesday, you've got to have bankroll." 'If you're saying you're a winner, you'd better win'Is there still time to turn it around? Yes, but it will be an uphill struggle. Since 1972, no candidate from either party has finished below second in both Iowa and New Hampshire and won the nomination.Bob Shrum, a Democratic strategist who was an adviser to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns, said: "For him to recover from this would be a political miracle unlike anything we've seen in modern presidential politics. I don't think it's impossible but it's unlikely and would fly in the face of all our knowledge of political history."Biden's main pitch had been that in this moment of national emergency, he was the steady hand best placed to prevent Trump winning a second term. To centrists, he would be less of a gamble than progressives Sanders or Warren. But after the heavy losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, he is caught in his own electability trap.Shrum, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said: "The centrepiece of the campaign was, 'I'm going to beat Trump like a drum'. The public said, 'If you're saying you're a winner, you'd better win'.""Al Gore had this line: elections are not a reward for past performance. I think they are always about the future, not just the past. In Democratic primaries, you've got to have a future offer to people, no matter how dissatisfied they are with the Republican incumbent. Joe Biden has a lot of policies on his website but that's not what comes over on the debate stage."> There's still to recover but if he's not willing to restructure his campaign, I don't think he can bounce back> > Coby OwensIn a small but telling measure of a campaign in a downward spiral, Biden's press team did not respond to multiple phone and email requests from the Guardian seeking comment. The Trump, Bloomberg and other campaigns are generally far more responsive.Shrum added: "I suspect they have many pressures and I have nothing but sympathy for the candidate and the people around him. It's hard to start at the top of the mountain and end up in the valley."Biden's struggles have dismayed supporters in his home state, where he remains immensely popular. Coby Owens, a local civil rights activist whose family has known Biden for years, and who is still trying to decide between Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, said: "There are a lot of people who are shocked and concerned about it and want to know what's going on."They have been hearing the message that he's the most electable so they thought he was going to cruise through the first two states, which are predominantly white. There's still a lot of room left for him to recover but if he's not willing to restructure his campaign, I don't think he can bounce back." 'Telltale signs'Biden has frequently referenced his partnership with Obama but America's first black president has remained notably silent.Obama reportedly discouraged Biden from running in 2016 because he believed Hillary Clinton had a better chance of winning. This time, rumour has it that he nudged Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts, to make a late bid because again he was dubious about Biden's viability (Patrick dropped out after a poor showing in New Hampshire).Steele, the ex-RNC chairman and former lieutenant-governor of Maryland, commented: "The telltale signs were there: the lack of interest that Barack had in the Biden campaign, the fact that the word on the street was that Deval Patrick was in the race was because Obama encouraged him to get in the race. Why would you do that with your vice-president already in the game?"While cautious about writing Biden off just yet, Steele added: "For me, just watching the Biden campaign, I get the sense that he's kind of walked through it. I think he's going through the paces of it. I'm not convinced at this stage that he really wants it any more. I don't think you take the front runner status that he's held for over a year, anchored by 50% of the black vote in a party where that is a very important and huge demographic edge, and just leave it on the table."I've never seen a candidate do that the way it's been done. Maybe there's a little bit of hubris and you assume that you've got the weight to throw around to win this thing. But then again, at the same time, I think at a certain point the gas is out of the tank and you just sleepwalk your way through it."
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| Costa Rican police find six tonnes of cocaine in biggest ever haul Posted: 16 Feb 2020 07:15 AM PST  Police in Costa Rica have found almost 6 tonnes of cocaine in a shipping container, leading to the country's biggest ever drug seizure.The drugs, which weighed 5,800kg, were discovered on Friday evening in Limón in a container of flowers due to be sent to Rotterdam, Holland, according to the Costan Rican national newspaper La Nación.
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| Inside the Family's Manhattan Apartment Posted: 16 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST |
| 'Housing is not the end': Former homeless struggle to adapt Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  "There needs to be continued support," one woman said.
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| Democratic rivals tell billionaire Bloomberg: Let's debate Posted: 16 Feb 2020 08:26 AM PST  U.S. Democratic presidential candidates said on Sunday billionaire Michael Bloomberg should face the same rigorous scrutiny as his rivals and they would welcome the chance to square off with him in a 2020 presidential debate. Bloomberg, a media mogul and former New York City mayor, has vastly outspent other Democratic candidates in campaign advertisements. Former Vice President Joe Biden said he would challenge Bloomberg over his mayoral record, specifically his support for a policing strategy known as "stop and frisk" that was criticized for ensnaring disproportionate numbers of blacks and Latinos.
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| Remember When Iran Took Out Saddam Hussein's Navy In One Day—With American-Made Jets? Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  One of the most intense air battles since World War II.
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| Man gets 1 year in case of dog left in cage with tide rising Posted: 15 Feb 2020 09:18 AM PST |
| An invasion of propaganda: Experts warn that white supremacist messages are seeping into mainstream Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:06 AM PST  White supremacy propaganda is on the rise, and experts say mainstreaming of that ideology contributes to acts of domestic terrorism.
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| France warns of bloody Brexit talks battle Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:25 PM PST  France on Sunday warned Britain to expect a bitter, bloody battle in Brexit trade talks with the EU, saying the two sides would "rip each other apart". Negotiations for a deal on future EU-UK relations are not due to start until next month, but London and Brussels have already clashed over rules for British financial firms' access to the EU after Brexit. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said it would be tough to achieve Britain's aim of agreeing a free trade deal by the end of the year, with the two sides far apart on a range of issues.
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| After homophobic jibes, Buttigieg says US has 'moved on' Posted: 16 Feb 2020 09:14 AM PST  The gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg insisted his sexuality would not damage his electoral prospects Sunday, saying the United States had "moved on" as a country, after homophobic jibes by allies of Donald Trump. The 38-year-old Democrat, who married his partner Chasten Glezman two years ago, said he would not take lectures from supporters of a man who has faced accusations ranging from rape to sleeping with a porn star.
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| Coronavirus panic could be the endangered pangolin's new threat Posted: 14 Feb 2020 08:30 PM PST  Bill Zeigler, a top researcher at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, shared his concerns.
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| Chinese president says he took early action against COVID-19 Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:36 PM PST  The disclosure came after Chinese leadership was criticized for slow and muted reaction to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
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| Nine homeless drug users shot dead in Afghan capital: police Posted: 16 Feb 2020 01:51 AM PST |
| Hitler's Submarines Almost Launched A Missile Attack On America Posted: 16 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST  In March, the Allies intercepted a message from German Admiral Godt dispatching seven Type IX long-range submarines to "attack targets in American coastal zone" as part of an attack group awesomely codenamed Seewolf.
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| Trump blames border wall falling over on 'big winds' Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:41 AM PST  President Trump has blamed reports about a section of his border wall falling over on the "Fake News," claiming in a tweet the part of the wall fell due to "big winds" and had since been fixed "forever."
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| Israeli army: Hamas hackers tried to 'seduce' soldiers Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:05 AM PST  The Israeli military on Sunday said it has thwarted an attempt by the Hamas militant group to hack soldiers' phones by posing as young, attractive women on social media, striking up friendships and persuading them into downloading malware. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters that the phones of dozens of soldiers had been infected in recent months, although he said the army detected the scam early on and prevented any major secrets from reaching the Islamic militant group. Conricus said this was the third attempt by Hamas to target male soldiers through fake social media accounts, most recently in July 2018.
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| Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook was ‘slow to understand’ election interference Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:04 PM PST  Facebook is taking down more than a million fake accounts a day to counter a massive upsurge in malicious material in the web, Mark Zuckerberg told an international security forum, and disclosed that more than 50 information operations aimed at elections have been uncovered since the 2016 US presidential race.There are continuing investigations into claims that Donald Trump was the Muscovian candidate at the election and a Kremlin campaign, including a disinformation drive, helped put him in the White House.
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| Barr Just Cost the Justice Department Its Prized Public-Corruption Fighter Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:14 AM PST  The impact of Attorney General William Barr's intervention in the Roger Stone sentencing won't just be felt in the cases concerning President Donald Trump's allies, current and former Justice Department officials warn. It's cost the Justice Department one of its top public-corruption prosecutors at a time when public corruption is looking like a growth industry. That attorney is Jonathan Kravis. Kravis is the deputy chief of the fraud and public corruption section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, putting corruption within the federal government under his purview. Or he was until Tuesday, when Kravis resigned. The last straw for Kravis, who was part of Robert Mueller's team that convicted Roger Stone of charges including lying to Congress, was the Justice Department overruling him on the recommended length of Stone's prison sentence. Unlike his three outraged fellow prosecutors, Kravis didn't just quit the Stone case, he quit the Justice Department."It's troubling and heartbreaking to see someone as talented and dedicated as Jonathan was known to be leaving under these circumstances," said a federal prosecutor who requested anonymity during a precarious moment for the Justice Department. "His loss is all the greater given his focus on prosecuting fraud and corruption, at a time when both crimes appear to be on the march." Before joining Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian election interference and its connections to Trumpworld, Kravis, who had also served in the Justice Department's public-integrity section, scored several anti-corruption victories against high-profile targets. In 2016, he helped convict former Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah on a host of charges including bribery, wire fraud and racketeering. A year earlier, he helped prosecute three aides to Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign for effectively bribing an Iowa state senator to endorse Paul ahead of the Iowa caucus. "He was probably one of the best public integrity prosecutors this country has," a former colleague, Glenn Kirschner, told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell after the Stone prosecutors quit. Kravis did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Just as important as Kravis himself is the position that he held. The public-corruption section within the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia has widespread prosecutorial authority over the federal government, as well as election activities. "In this administration, it along with SDNY [the Southern District of New York] are the two most important venues for public corruption prosecutions. It's a significant loss to that office," said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. And it comes at a time when there is no shortage of public-corruption targets. Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former Justice Department public-integrity line prosecutor, pointed to the president's conflicts of interests deriving from the retention of his business empire as an early signal of toleration for brazen public graft. "There's corruption at the federal government at a level we've perhaps never seen before," Bookbinder said. "Somebody like Kravis resigning under the circumstances he did, and the entire team on the Stone prosecution withdrawing, is pretty clearly a protest that these line prosecutors believe DOJ was interfering for political reasons." The Justice Department has spent all week denying the allegation. Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, said Kravis' departure was "bad for the nation," but considered its broader importance to be what it augurs for the independence of the Justice Department. "In light of Barr's change in the sentence recommendation for Stone, after Trump voiced his displeasure, this norm can no longer be assumed," Gillers said. "That reality will discourage not only lawyers now working at DOJ from remaining, but also discourage good applicants who do not want to join a Department where their decisions may be subject to political interference." "When someone like Jonathan Kravis leaves the office," said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney, "that means he will be replaced by someone hired by the new U.S. attorney, Timothy Shea, whose conduct today does not instill a lot of confidence in his integrity, in contrast to Jonathan Kravis, whose conduct is consistent with the best traditions of the independence of the Department of Justice." (Shea is a former Barr aide whom Barr recently installed as acting U.S. attorney for D.C.)CREW's Bookbinder added that losing respected public-corruption prosecutors poses a unique challenge. Their high-profile, politically powerful targets frequently argue in court that the prosecutors themselves are corrupt. "You really need people with expertise and credibility who can come in and do those cases and not have anyone question what their agenda is," Bookbinder said.Bill Barr Is the Most Dangerous Man in AmericaBut instead, said Joshua Geltzer, a former Justice Department national-security official, "you're seeing more people leave who dislike Trump and more [loyalists] coming in. Trump brought such a politicized, polarized vision about who runs the executive branch that his effect on those leaving and entering the federal workforce is more dramatic than previous presidents." After Senate Republicans saved Trump from impeachment, the president and his allies accelerated their efforts at making Main Justice an adjunct of the White House. In addition to the Stone sentencing reversal, Barr is now undercutting Mueller's guilty plea from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, for lying to the FBI. Former acting attorney general Sally Yates, whom Trump fired after she warned that Flynn was a counterintelligence liability, wrote in The Washington Post on Friday that the president was using the Justice Department for "retribution or camouflage.""The president has made it clear that his insistence on loyalty includes loyalty from the institutions that administer criminal justice, including DOJ and the FBI," said NYU's Gellers. "You might say without exaggeration that Trump wants personal loyalty from the rule of law itself."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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| The coronavirus could cripple China's economy for longer than Wall Street wants to believe Posted: 16 Feb 2020 05:28 AM PST  China's economy can't snap back from the coronavirus as fast as it did after SARS because it's growing more slowly and the banking system is a mess.
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| Winter storm barreling toward the UK is possibly the strongest ever for North Atlantic Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:51 PM PST  The storm likely to hit Ireland, the U.K., France and northern Germany with winds gusts up to 85 mph.
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| DNC announces debate qualification threshold for South Carolina Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:19 PM PST  Candidates will need to win one delegate in the first three states or poll above 10 percent to make the South Carolina debate state.
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| India women facing sedition charges over school play get bail Posted: 16 Feb 2020 03:22 AM PST  Two women held for two weeks by Indian police on sedition charges over a school play which allegedly criticised a contentious citizenship law have been granted bail, officials said Sunday. Teacher Fareeda Begum, 50, and parent Nazbunnisa, 36, were arrested on January 30 for helping the children stage the play at Shaheen Public School in Karnataka state. The play depicted a worried family talking about how they feared the government would ask millions of Muslims to prove their nationality or be expelled from India.
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| The Real Coronavirus Problem: The Racism It Creates Is Real Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:22 PM PST  And it must be confronted.
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| Taking migraine seriously Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:12 PM PST  About one in seven people lives with what's ranked as the second-most debilitating disease on the planet, but experts say research into its causes and treatments is dramatically underfunded.
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| California to apologize for internment of Japanese Americans Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:28 AM PST  Les Ouchida was born an American just outside California's capital city, but his citizenship mattered little after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Based solely on their Japanese ancestry, the 5-year-old and his family were taken from their home in 1942 and imprisoned far away in Arkansas. On Thursday, California's Legislature is expected to approve a resolution offering an apology to Ouchida and other internment victims for the state's role in aiding the U.S. government's policy and condemning actions that helped fan anti-Japanese discrimination.
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| Hong Kong protesters rally against planned virus quarantine centers Posted: 16 Feb 2020 02:13 AM PST  Hundreds of demonstrators rallied for a second day in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest against plans to turn some buildings into coronavirus quarantine centers, reviving anti-government protests in the Chinese-ruled city. The virus has opened a new front for protesters after months of demonstrations over the perceived erosion of freedoms had largely fizzled out over the past month, as people stayed at home amid fears of a community outbreak of the virus. About 100 people braved rain in the New Territories district of Fo Tan, where authorities plan to use a newly built residential development that was subsidized by the government as a quarantine center.
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| US embassy in Baghdad attacked with rockets Posted: 16 Feb 2020 10:29 AM PST  Rockets have dropped near the US embassy in Iraq and a military base hosting American troops, according to officials.There have been no causalities reported following the strikes, which fell amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.
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| A top Chinese official has slammed other countries for the 'overreaction' and 'unnecessary panic' towards the coronavirus Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:21 AM PST  Wang claimed in an interview with Reuters that China has been "very open and transparent" in the way it has relayed information.
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| Another blast of cold air to infiltrate US this week Posted: 16 Feb 2020 09:44 AM PST  Cold air will dive down from Canada and greet much of the central and eastern United States by the end of the week.Following a swath of snow pushing through the northern tier early in the week, colder air will move in behind and move even farther south into parts of the south.While the temperatures expected during the middle of the week will not be as brutal as the last cold spell, it will still be a drastic change."Before the storm that moves through the eastern half of the country, places from Chicago to Philadelphia will experience temperatures that are on the order of 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for mid-February," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Max Gawryla.On Monday, a high of 40 is forecast in Chicago, while Philadelphia may top out at 52 on Tuesday.Once the colder air sweeps in, the springlike temperatures will be erased and replaced with conditions more similar to January."Cold will send temperatures tumbling on Tuesday night across the Midwest, with lows in the single digits," added Gawryla.Temperatures will be well below zero across parts of northern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota by Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, temperatures will be as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero across parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.Without much wind to accompany the cold, AccuWeather RealFeel® temperatures will not be too far below the actual mercury reading. During the day, when the sun is shining, RealFeel® temperatures may actually be a little higher than the normal temperature.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPThe coldest air, and the lowest temperatures, will wait to reach the Northeast until Friday morning.During the morning on Friday, temperatures are expected in the single digits and teens across interior parts of the Northeast, from 14 degrees in Pittsburgh to 0 degrees in Syracuse, New York. All of these sub-freezing temperatures will help to retain the recent snowpack across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and northern New England.Although temperatures won't be subzero, the colder air will not halt in the northern tier of the country, but rather dive down into the Tennessee Valley."On Tuesday night, lows will remain quite mild, only falling into the mid-50s across much of the area. Just 24 hours later, low temperatures will easily drop by 20 degrees or more," said Gawryla.Nashville's typical high in the lower 50s will be replaced by a high in the mid-40s Thursday, and will dive down into the lower 20s Thursday night. Such temperatures are about 10 degrees below normal for mid-February.Similar drops in temperature are expected cities like Little Rock, Arkansas; Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina.Any wet spots or standing water on the ground following the rain from the early week storm may freeze up, causing slick spots on roads and sidewalks.The colder-than-normal air that moves in through Friday will only remain for a brief time.Warmth will build in the center of the country at the end of the week, helping to moderate the air in the East going into the weekend.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| This creamy Tuscan chicken dinner is the cure for the Sunday blues Posted: 16 Feb 2020 05:40 AM PST  Feel a little droopy? This colorful and creamy chicken and pasta dish is the perfect pick-me-up.
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| Harvey Weinstein faces moment of truth as jury weighs case on Tuesday Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST  The MeToo movement received barely a mention at the movie mogul's rape trial but is likely to bear heavily on deliberationsThe jury at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial in New York will begin deliberations on Tuesday, with the world's media and the expectations of the MeToo movement bearing heavily upon them.The five women and seven men who form the jury hold in their hands the fate of the disgraced movie mogul. If they find him guilty of two of the five counts against him, of "predatory sexual assault", he could be sentenced to life in prison.Since the trial began last month, the jurors have constantly been reminded of intense media interest in the case.Prosecutors and Weinstein's lawyers have frequently directed jurors' vision to the overflowing press benches in courtroom No 99 at the New York supreme court, and alluded to the sound of keyboards rattling as one way of highlighting the high-profile nature of the case.The process of reaching a verdict will not be easy or brief. The first trial of Bill Cosby, the comedian whose prosecution is often compared to that of Weinstein, ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to agree after six gruelling days of deliberations.Cosby was found guilty at a second trial and sentenced in 2018 to three to 10 years in prison.There are two main accusers in the Weinstein case.Miriam Haley was working as a production assistant in 2006 when she alleges Weinstein lured her to his SoHo apartment in New York and forced oral sex on her.A woman who the Guardian is not identifying, as she has not indicated that she wishes to be publicly named, alleges she was raped in a New York hotel in 2013.Weinstein, 67, has also been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 100 women. He denies all allegations of non-consensual sex.In the New York trial, four women who accuse the producer of rape and sexual assault – Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff and Lauren Young – were called by the prosecution to give supporting evidence.In closing arguments, Weinstein's lead defence lawyer, Donna Rotunno, and lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon presented the jury with starkly contrasting summaries of the case.Though MeToo, the social reckoning galvanised by the accusations of sexual abuse levelled against the Pulp Fiction producer since 2017, has rarely been mentioned in court, it has clearly influenced the lawyers' diametrically opposing interpretations of the case in hand.Rotunno has portrayed the six women as money-grabbing, manipulative individuals who exploited Weinstein in order to advance their careers. According to that view, they were prepared to do anything – including consensual sex – in order to get on.On Friday, Illuzzi-Orbon gave a very different analysis. Weinstein, she said, treated women who he tricked into entering his lair like "ants he could step on without consequences". * In the US, Rainn offers support at 800-656-4673 or by chat at Rainn.org. In the UK, the rape crisis national freephone helpline is at 0808-802-9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800-737-7328) or1800respect.org.au. Other international helplines can be found at Ibiblio.org.
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| Israel says Hamas used 'attractive' women in thwarted cyberattack Posted: 16 Feb 2020 03:46 AM PST  Israel's military said on Sunday it had thwarted an attempted malware attack by Hamas that sought to gain access to soldiers' mobile phones by using seductive pictures of young women. The phones of a few dozen soldiers were affected, but the military "does not assess that there has been a substantial breach of information", said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman. Conricus said this was the third attempted malware attack by Hamas in less than four years, but that the latest effort indicated the Islamist group, which controls the Gaza Strip, had improved their capacity to wage cyber-warfare.
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| Police: 1 dead, 4 wounded in Connecticut club shooting Posted: 16 Feb 2020 01:31 AM PST  Gunfire erupted at a Connecticut nightclub early Sunday morning, killing a man and wounding four other people, police said. A 28-year-old man died in the shooting at the Majestic Lounge in Hartford's South End, police Lt. Paul Cicero said. Two other males and two females were wounded, with two of them in surgery Sunday morning and two in stable condition, he said.
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| Rebuffed by UK, U.S. pitches 'big tent' for Huawei rivals in Europe Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:05 AM PST  The United States is seeking to rally European support for competitors to Huawei Technologies following disappointment in Washington over Britain's decision to use 5G equipment made by the Chinese company. U.S. officials at a global security conference in Germany this week urged governments and business leaders to build an ecosystem of "industry champions" that can provide alternatives to Huawei, the world's biggest maker of mobile networking equipment. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Reuters on Friday there was no credible evidence that Huawei was a threat to U.S. security.
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| Clinton 'wants back in' as Bloomberg campaign VP pick Posted: 16 Feb 2020 12:11 PM PST  Michael Bloomberg's campaign attempted to stop rumors that he was considering failed presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for his running mate in the 2020 election.
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| Two British Airways executives step down following the airline's first strike in decades Posted: 16 Feb 2020 11:56 AM PST  The departures also arrive as the airline's parent firm, International Consolidated Airlines Group, transitions to a new CEO.
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