| Federal judges association holding emergency meeting over DOJ interference in Stone case Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:47 PM PST  The Federal Judges Association will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss concerns members have over President Trump and top Justice Department officials intervening in the case of longtime Trump friend and adviser Roger Stone.The association has more than 1,000 members, and says it supports a "fair, impartial, and independent judiciary." The group's president, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, told USA Today that members decided they "could not wait" until the organization's spring conference to address the matter. "There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about," added Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee. "We'll talk all of this through."Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress and witness tampering, and last week, Trump complained about federal prosecutors recommending Stone receive a sentence of seven to nine years. Attorney General William Barr and other DOJ leaders quickly reversed course on the recommendation, which resulted in the four Stone prosecutors quitting the case. On Friday, it was reported that Barr has also appointed an outside prosecutor to review the criminal case of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, but has since backtracked, claiming he was coerced.Since an open letter was released on Sunday night, more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials have signed on, calling on Barr to resign. The letter says it is "unheard of for the department's top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the president, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case."More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The first poll of Susan Collins' 2020 senate race shows her tied with Democratic challenger The Democratic Party is weak. Mike Bloomberg could break it.
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| Michael Bloomberg has already spent more on campaign ads than Obama did in his entire 2012 race Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:32 PM PST  While Michael Bloomberg has spent $338.7 million on TV, radio, and digital-media ads, Sen. Bernie Sanders has spent just about $18 million.
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| Grandparents, uncle charged in beating death, torture of Montana boy Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:48 PM PST  During the investigation into the boy's death, police seized cellphones belonging to the suspects that showed the family torturing him, the affidavit says.
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| REVEALED: China's Secret Reasons for Imprisoning Uyghurs Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:39 AM PST  Yet another leak from inside the communist state.
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| Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapons ban Posted: 17 Feb 2020 08:51 AM PST  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's push to ban the sale of assault weapons failed on Monday after some of his fellow Democrats balked at the proposal.
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| 'Historic, unprecedented' flooding swamps southern USA; Mississippi and Tennessee hardest hit Posted: 17 Feb 2020 01:26 PM PST  Weeks of heavy rain have inundated a large portion of the southern USA, bringing near-record flooding to Mississippi and Tennessee
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| Huge locust outbreak in East Africa reaches South Sudan Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:39 AM PST  The worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years has reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war, officials announced Tuesday. Around 2,000 locusts were spotted inside the country, Agriculture Minister Onyoti Adigo told reporters. The locusts have been seen in Eastern Equatoria state near the borders with Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
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| 'Now We Are Refugees': A Family in Limbo Amid the Coronavirus Outbreak Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:54 AM PST  These days, Chloe Chang, a Taiwanese woman stranded at the center of China's coronavirus outbreak, says she wakes up every half-hour during the night. Sometimes she breaks down in tears.She and her family are effectively trapped in her grandmother's apartment building, where a man recently died from the virus. Workers in hazmat suits haunt the surrounding streets, and the neighborhood has a strong police presence. There are shortages of food and other essentials throughout Yichang, the Hubei province city of more than 4 million where they have been in limbo for weeks."No household can go out at this time," said Chang, a 26-year-old industrial artist. She said she feared that even a trip for groceries would increase her chances of contracting the virus."My child has eaten nine meals of plain noodles in the past three days," she said of her 2-year-old son.Chang and her family thought they were on the verge of escaping Yichang earlier this month, but the bus taking them to the airport was abruptly turned around.All she can do now is wait -- and hope."The government of Taiwan surely will come to our rescue," her husband, Calvin Fan, who is from Beijing, has reassured her. But the chartered flight they have eagerly awaited to evacuate them has yet to materialize."Neither side wants us," Chang said. "We've given up. Now we are refugees."Taiwan and China each say the other is the reason that she and other Taiwan citizens are unable to leave Hubei, a province under lockdown, where hundreds have died from the coronavirus and tens of thousands have been infected.Chang and hundreds of other Taiwanese people in Hubei had hoped to go home via chartered jet. But last month, after the first plane carrying evacuees landed in Taiwan with an infected passenger onboard, a backlash ensued on the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory.Some said Taiwan would not be able to handle an outbreak if more infected people arrived. Others said Taiwan should not help to evacuate mainland Chinese spouses of Taiwan residents.Decades of tensions between the two governments have come to a head over the outbreak, and people like Chang and her husband -- both of who arrived in China last month to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday with family -- have become pawns in a complicated and dangerous game of political chess.Chang said she was told by Chinese officials that she could return to Taiwan on a second chartered flight, scheduled for Feb. 5. That day, her family boarded a bus bound for the airport in Wuhan, the provincial capital, where the coronavirus first emerged.But just as the bus was about to leave, she said, a Chinese official hopped on and announced that the flight would not take off, saying: "Taiwan won't let you go back.""I was really devastated," Chang said.Taiwan had a different explanation. According to officials there, reports in Chinese state media that said a flight was scheduled to leave were untrue -- the two sides had never discussed it.Both governments, and their proxies, have continued to point fingers while Chang and her compatriots languish in Hubei."Taiwan authorities have repeatedly delayed the schedule," Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, said last week. "Let the Taiwan compatriots return home as soon as possible, and stop making up all manner of excuses and rationale to block them from returning."Chen Shih-Chung, Taiwan's minister of health and welfare, said Friday that "China still uses all excuses to delay the evacuation, and refuses our plans and suggestions."Fears of the virus -- and, perhaps, anti-China sentiment -- have led Taiwan to escalate preventive measures in recent days.On Wednesday, Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center announced that children who have mainland citizenship but a Taiwanese parent would not be allowed to enter Taiwan for the time being if they were arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao.Confined to her grandmother's home for so long, Chang has turned to her art as an outlet for the helplessness and resentment she feels.In a satirical cartoon she recently sketched, she portrayed the administration of Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's president, as deliberately delaying the evacuation.She depicted the Taiwanese in Hubei as pawns.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Group of more than 1,000 judges calls emergency meeting amid Trump concerns Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST  Judges will meet to address alarm over the president intervening in politically sensitive casesA national association of federal judges has called an emergency meeting to address growing concerns about the intervention of Donald Trump and justice department officials in politically sensitive cases, according to US media reports.Cynthia Rufe, a Philadelphia US district judge who heads the independent Federal Judges Association, which has more than 1,100 members, told USA Today the group "could not wait" until its spring conference to discuss the matter."There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about," Rufe told USA Today. "We'll talk all of this through."The meeting comes after more than 2,000 former US justice department officials, including some of the top government lawyers in the country, called on the attorney general, William Barr, to resign in the wake of the Roger Stone scandal.Alumni of the Department of Justice posted to Medium on Sunday a group letter that tore into Barr for "doing the president's personal bidding" in imposing on prosecutors the recommendation of a reduced sentence for Stone, a longtime friend of Trump who was convicted of lying to and obstructing Congress and threatening a witness in the Russia investigation.Barr, the officials said, had damaged the reputation of the department for "integrity and the rule of law".The spiralling constitutional crisis began last week when Barr imposed his new sentencing memo, slashing a seven- to nine-year proposed prison term suggested by career prosecutors. In the fallout, the four prosecutors who had handled the case resigned in disgust.US district Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is presiding over the Stone's case, has ordered both sides to participate in a conference call on Tuesday to discuss the status of the case. Following the call, it was confirmed that Stone's sentencing would go ahead on Thursday.Rufe voiced her strong support for Jackson, according to USA Today."I am not concerned with how a particular judge will rule," Rufe said. "We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required."It was not clear whether the FJA would issue a statement after the emergency meeting. The Guardian contacted the FJA for comment.
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| Mike Bloomberg takes 2nd place in new Democratic primary poll, qualifies for Wednesday's debate Posted: 18 Feb 2020 02:54 AM PST  A few days before the Nevada caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken a 12 percentage point lead in the Democratic presidential contest, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Tuesday morning. Sanders has the support of 31 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, up 9 points from the last Marist poll in December, but coming in at No. 2 is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at 19 percent. That's a 15-point jump since December.This poll qualifies Bloomberg to participate in Wednesday's Democratic debate, though Bloomberg won't be on the ballot in Saturday's caucuses. Bloomberg's campaign said he plans to participate if he qualifies. The billionaire media tycoon built up his poll numbers with the help of more than $400 million of his personal fortune and lots of advertising. He and the other candidates, especially Sanders, are going after each other with increasing vigor.Former Vice President Joe Biden comes in third place in the poll at 15 percent, down 9 points since December, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 12 percent (a drop of 5 points), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) at 9 percent (down 4 points), and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 8 percent (down from 13 percent). Buttigieg narrowly leads in delegates after strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.All of the candidates beat President Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchups, with Biden enjoying the biggest lead, followed by Bloomberg, Sanders, Klobuchar and Buttigieg, and Warren. Sanders leads among most categories except black voters — he's a close second to Biden — moderates, and voters over 45; Bloomberg gets the most support among those last two groups and is No. 3 with black voters.Marist conducted the poll Feb. 13-16 among 1,416 U.S. adults, including 527 Democrats and leaners. The entire poll, including the head-to-heads with Trump, has a margin of error of ±3.7 percentage points; the Democratic rankings have a margin of error of ±5.4 points.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The first poll of Susan Collins' 2020 senate race shows her tied with Democratic challenger The Democratic Party is weak. Mike Bloomberg could break it.
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| Missing Milwaukee woman, two daughters found dead in garage Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:04 AM PST  Amarah Banks, 26, Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks, 4, were discovered after the arrest of Banks' boyfriend, Arzel J. Ivery, in Memphis, Tennessee, authorities said.
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| The cruise industry has been rocked by the coronavirus. Here's you how can find out if your ship has been impacted. Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:53 AM PST  Cruise companies like Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises have been affected by the Wuhan coronavirus.
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| The Turkish Trap: How Erdogan Made New Enemies and Enraged the Arab Community Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:48 AM PST  As Recep Erdogan sends Turkish troops and Syrian rebel fighters into Libya, it has become clear that the Syrian forces Turkey-backed were never meant to fight for Assad but instead do Turkey's bidding.
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| 'Tiger widows' shunned as bad luck in rural Bangladesh Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:31 PM PST  Abandoned by her sons, shunned by her neighbours and branded a witch. Women like her are ostracised in many rural villages in Bangladesh, where they are viewed as the cause of their partner's misfortune. "My sons have told me that I am an unlucky witch," she told AFP in her flimsy plank home, in the honey-hunters' village of Gabura at the edge of the Sundarbans -- a 10,000-square-kilometre (3,860-square-mile) mangrove forest that straddles Bangladesh and India.
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| Tennessee inmate moved to death watch; attorneys seek stay Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:09 AM PST  Tennessee inmate Nicholas Sutton was placed on a death watch early Tuesday ahead of his scheduled execution later this week for the decades-old killing of a fellow inmate. Meanwhile, Sutton's attorneys made two last ditch appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Inmates on death watch are kept under 24-hour surveillance in a cell beside the execution chamber, the Tennessee Department of Correction said.
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| China-led $280 million Kyrgyzstan project abandoned after protests Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:56 AM PST |
| 'It’s reunion porn': Military wives say Trump’s SOTU stunt disrespected families of servicemen Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:44 AM PST  The State of the Union served as President Donald Trump's moment to grandstand his administration's achievements to Congress while also introducing guests he brought in from across the US.Among them that evening was army spouse Amy Williams and her two children. Mr Trump introduced them to the room towards the end of his speech by commending her for carrying on while her husband, Sergeant Townsend Williams, was deployed in Afghanistan over the past seven months.
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| Iranian president says that he doesn't believe the U.S. will pursue war with his country Posted: 17 Feb 2020 06:37 AM PST  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that he doesn't believe the U.S. will pursue war with his country because it will harm President Trump's 2020 reelection bid. Rouhani said Trump knows that war with Iran will "ruin" his chances of winning the election.
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| Judge in Roger Stone case says sentencing will move forward Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:57 PM PST  Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she will still hand down Stone's sentence on Thursday, but indicated she plans to defer the execution of the sentence.
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| Warren: Bernie 'has a lot of questions to answer' about attacks from online supporters Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:37 AM PST  After Sanders supporters allegedly doxxed the leadership of a Nevada hospitality union, Warren called on Sanders to address the online attacks.
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| New Mexico woman who was pregnant with third child still missing three years later Posted: 17 Feb 2020 11:20 AM PST  Elizabeth Brooks Hernandez, 29, was last seen by her boyfriend, Miguel Martinez, who told police he dropped her off at a welfare office in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 16, 2017. Police suspect foul play, but no arrests have been made. The Albuquerque Police Department is investigating.
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| Former mayoral candidate drugged woman with cupcake to steal newborn, officials say Posted: 17 Feb 2020 12:50 PM PST  Juliette Parker, 38, was arrested Friday on suspicion of attempted kidnapping and assault, per the Pierce County Sheriff's Office.
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| Hunter Biden Served on Board of Trade Group That Lobbied Obama Admin for Increased Ukraine Aid: Report Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST  Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, was on the board of a trade group that lobbied the Obama administration for increased U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to a report Tuesday.From 2012 through 2018, the younger Biden served as a director for the Center for U.S. Global Leadership and was connected as well with its affiliate, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, The Daily Caller reported. The two groups, which include about 400 larger corporations and non-government organizations, lobbied for increased spending abroad by the State Department's International Affairs Budget, including a special focus on Ukraine.At the time, Joe Biden was also advocating for increased U.S. spending in Ukraine.Hunter Biden's small private equity firm, Rosemont Seneca, featured other well-connected politicos as well, including his partner Devon Archer, who was a former adviser on Obama Secretary of State John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and another partner, Kerry's son-in-law Christopher Heinz."Hunter Biden works for [Archer]. So we've got the top level politicos with us. All of my guys, is as top tier as it gets," a businessman named Bevan Cooney wrote in text messages released in connection with an unrelated criminal case against Archer. "You don't get more politically connected and make people more comfortable than that."In 2013, the groups held an event honoring Joe Biden for his work supporting increased spending abroad, an event Hunter Biden was also introduced as having a "very special relationship with our honoree."Biden's separate lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings while his father was vice president and in charge of addressing corruption in Ukraine has also drawn scrutiny and featured prominently in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump. That position earned Biden at least $50,000 a month for his advice on "transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities."During a July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump asked Zelensky to help his administration investigate allegations that Joe Biden used his position as vice president to help the Ukrainian gas company avoid a corruption probe soon after Hunter Biden was appointed to its board of directors. That phone call led to an Intelligence Community whistleblower complaint that ultimately sparked a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump's actions.Biden has said that in the spring of 2016, during his tenure as vice president, he called on Ukraine to fire the top prosecutor investigating the energy company paying his son. Biden suggested he would withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine if the country did not fire the prosecutor, who was accused by the State Department and U.S. allies in Europe of being soft on corruption.
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| Coronavirus Means the Federal Reserve Must Cut Interest Rates Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:37 AM PST  History, and SARS, give us a guide of what could happen. A
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| US tells remaining cruise passengers: Stay out for 2 weeks Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:23 PM PST  The U.S. government made good on its warning to Americans who chose to remain on board a quarantined cruise ship in Japan, telling them they cannot return home for at least two weeks after they come ashore. U.S. officials notified the passengers Tuesday of the travel restriction, citing their possible exposure to the new virus while on board the Diamond Princess. Over the weekend, more than 300 American passengers, including some who tested positive for coronavirus, left Japan on charter flights.
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| Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy Posted: 17 Feb 2020 10:04 PM PST  The venerable non-profit is following the lead of the scandal-wracked Roman Catholic Church.
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| Missing more than a year, an abandoned 'ghost ship' washed ashore on the other side of the Atlantic Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:50 AM PST  The MV Alta washed ashore in Ireland's County Cork amid Storm Dennis, but the vessel took a more than a year journey from off Bermuda to get there.
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| Coronavirus: Self-quarantined family shunned as neighbour calls 911 on them Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:15 PM PST  A California family in self-quarantine over the coronavirus after a visit to China have found themselves shunned, and even had the police called on them.Amy Deng and her eight-year-old daughter, Daisy, have no symptoms, but following a trip to visit family in Guangzhou over Chinese New Year, they are in self-quarantine monitored by local officials in Santa Rosa, The East Bay Times reports.
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| See This Submarine? It Could Likely End the Human Race (Or Close To It) Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:22 PM PST  You'd never see them coming.
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| Britain's row with Greece over treasures spills into Brexit tensions Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  A long-running dispute between Britain and Greece over ancient treasures has spilled into tensions over Brexit after a demand for the return of stolen cultural artefacts was added to the draft of a European Union negotiating mandate. The British Museum in London has refused to return the Parthenon Marbles, 2,500-year-old sculptures that British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from Athens in the early 19th century when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.
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| Turkey reveals new plan to buy drones, helicopters and air defense systems Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:41 AM PST  Turkey's defense procurement agency has unveiled an ambitious procurement plan for 2020, even as its economy seeks to recover from a recession and the government spends money fighting wars in multiple theaters, including Iraq and Syria.
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| William Barr is not the problem Posted: 18 Feb 2020 02:55 AM PST  I don't know if Attorney General William Barr will bow to a new pressure campaign to get him to resign. But I do know that whether he leaves office or whether he stays, it doesn't matter: As long as Donald Trump remains president, the Department of Justice will be compromised.The fish rots from the head, after all.The effort to force Barr's resignation has picked up a great deal of steam in the aftermath of Trump's successful push to get federal prosecutors to reduce their sentencing recommendation for his crony, Roger Stone. More than 2,000 former officials of the Department of Justice — a mix of both Republicans and Democrats — have signed a letter urging Barr to step down."Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies," the officials said in the open letter, adding: "Mr. Barr's actions in doing the president's personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words. Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice's reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign."Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, added his support to that effort on Monday, with an Atlantic article also calling on Barr to resign."Bill Barr's America is not a place that anyone, including Trump voters, should want to go," Ayer wrote. "It is a banana republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen. To prevent that, we need a public uprising demanding that Bill Barr resign immediately, or failing that, be impeached."Fine words. But Barr's resignation would be meaningless.He isn't Trump's first attorney general, remember. That distinction belonged to Jeff Sessions, the former U.S. senator from Alabama who was among the first prominent Republicans to endorse Trump's 2016 presidential run. He was rewarded with stewardship of the Justice Department — and immediately set about implementing the new president's pro-police anti-immigrant agenda.For his troubles, Sessions was rewarded with little but Trump's contempt. Behind closed doors — and sometimes even in public — the president mocked the attorney general's diminutive stature and Southern accent. He even reportedly called Sessions a "dumb Southerner."And Trump bullied Sessions mercilessly for the lawyer's decision to recuse himself — as required by the department's ethics guide — from the Russia investigation, setting the stage for Robert Mueller's special counsel inquiry. Mueller's inquiry didn't end up with any legal action against Trump, nor did it provide the basis for the president's recent impeachment. Nonetheless, Trump was enraged."Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else," Trump told The New York Times in 2017.Trump ultimately fired Sessions.Barr knew that history. He knew Trump's very public expectation that the attorney general serve as his de facto personal lawyer. And he knew that Trump expects the federal legal system to follow his whims and wishes, putting aside any notion of equality before the law in favor of greasing the wheels for the president and his associates. He knew hat Trump believes he has the "absolute right" to order special legal treatment for his friends. Barr took the job anyway.Yes, Barr complained last week that the president's tweeting makes it difficult for him to do his job. But his protest was disingenuous — Trump is exactly the same man now as he was when Barr became attorney general last year. His expectations of personal loyalty from the federal bureaucracy haven't changed one bit. And until last week, it appeared Barr was very happy indeed to serve the president's wishes.That will remain the case if Barr resigns. Trump will either pick a replacement attorney general who is all too happy to do the president's bidding and continue the degradation of justice at the federal level — or he will accidentally pick a lawyer with integrity, then bully that person into complying with his wishes. Neither scenario is great for the independence and reputation of the Department of Justice.The well-intentioned people trying to replace Bill Barr should be aiming a little higher. If you want competent, honest leadership in the attorney general's office, the Oval Office must be cleansed of its current occupant. Unless voters kick out President Trump in November, any replacement for Barr will simply be a new face for the same old corruption.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The first poll of Susan Collins' 2020 senate race shows her tied with Democratic challenger The Democratic Party is weak. Mike Bloomberg could break it.
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| Murdered Mexico City girl buried amid grief, outrage Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:02 PM PST  A 7-year-old Mexico City girl whose brutal murder has generated national outrage was buried Tuesday as capital officials pledged to tighten rules for children leaving government schools on their own. Fatima, who was seen on video leaving her school on Feb. 11 with an unidentified woman and found days later dead and wrapped in a plastic bag, was laid to rest in front of grieving relatives and neighbors on Mexico City's south side. In Mexico City, even grade-school students often simply walk out of school after classes to meet parents waiting on the sidewalks, but there have been few controls to ensure someone is there to meet them.
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| Pompeii restoration unearths 'surprise' treasures Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:39 PM PST  Vivid frescoes and never-before-seen inscriptions were among the treasures unearthed in a massive years-long restoration of the world-famous archeological site Pompeii that came to a close Tuesday. The painstaking project saw an army of workers reinforce walls, repair collapsing structures and excavate untouched areas of the sprawling site, Italy's second most visited tourist destination after Rome's Colosseum. New discoveries were made too, in areas of the ruins not yet explored by modern-day archaeologists at the site -- frequently pillaged for jewels and artefacts over the centuries.
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| Skydiving instructor, former Army Ranger dies after skydiving accident in Florida Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST |
| The coronavirus is slamming the US travel industry, with experts predicting it will wipe out more than $10 billion in spending from Chinese visitors Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:51 PM PST  Chinese travelers represented 7% of all visitors to the US in 2019 and 16% of visitor spending. The economic impact is forecast to be worse than SARS.
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| Watch Russia Test A New Weapon That Can Kill Missiles Posted: 17 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  We've got the video.
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| Obama’s childhood home hits the market for $2.2m Posted: 18 Feb 2020 08:34 AM PST  A seemingly unremarkable house in Honolulu is priced at a premium due to the part it played in the formative years of the 44th president of the United States.The property was home to Barack Obama between the ages of three and six, from 1964 to 1967. His mother attended the nearby University of Hawaii during that time.
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| Pakistan tests a new cruise missile. Can it hit inside India? Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:08 AM PST  The new Ra'ad II could have range of up to 600 kilometers.
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| NSA whistleblower who leaked Russian hacking report petitions for clemency Posted: 17 Feb 2020 12:01 PM PST  Reality Winner was sentenced to five years in 2018 after leaking classified report about Russia's interference in the 2016 electionSupporters of Reality Winner, a National Security Agency whistleblower who leaked classified information about Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, petitioned Donald Trump on Monday for her early release from prison.Alison Grinter, an attorney representing the former US air force intelligence specialist, announced at a press conference in Dallas that she had submitted 4,500 letters of support to the federal office of the pardon attorney, the division of the Department of Justice that advises the US president on executive clemency decisions.Winner was sentenced to five years and three months in August 2018 after admitting breaching the espionage act by passing top secret documents to an investigative news website about the Russian hacking of voting software and its efforts to disrupt dozens of local election systems ahead of the 2016 election."Our country was attacked by a hostile foreign power," The Intercept quoted Grinter as saying at the press conference."Our national healing process cannot begin until we forgive our truth tellers and begin the job of rebuilding what was taken from us: election security, accountability for those who endeavor to undermine our democracy; and safeguarding the American right to government by and for the people. None of this can begin in earnest while we are still punishing those who tell us the truth."The petition states of Winner, 28: "Her continued incarceration is costly, unnecessary to protect the public, burdensome to her health and wellbeing, and not commensurate with the severity of her offense."Trump called Winner's sentence "unfair" in an August 2018 tweet attacking then-attorney general Jeff Sessions, describing her actions as "small potatoes" compared to what he alleged his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton had done with classified information while she was secretary of state during the administration of Barack Obama.A three-year state department investigation cleared Clinton of any wrongdoing in October 2019.Winner said of Trump in a phone interview with CBS News from Georgia's Lincoln county jail in 2018 that she "can't thank him enough" for the tweet, which she said confirmed her lawyers' view that the sentence was unfair.The Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment from the Guardian on Monday.
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| Bloomberg campaign: There are only three viable presidential candidates Posted: 18 Feb 2020 02:51 PM PST  Only three candidates out of the more than half dozen vying for the White House have a viable path to the nomination, a senior official for the Mike Bloomberg campaign told reporters Tuesday.
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| Suspended sheriff in SC faces 13 more corruption charges Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:58 AM PST  A suspended South Carolina sheriff already indicted on domestic violence charges now faces 13 additional criminal charges including giving alcohol to someone under 21 and using his power to continue a sexual relationship with an employee, authorities said. The new indictments against Colleton County Sheriff R.A. Strickland were unsealed Tuesday. Authorities accuse Strickland of a broad range of misconduct and corruption, ranging from using deputies to do personal work and campaign for him while on duty, giving a $3,000 radio that could access secure police and other emergency radio traffic to someone with no official purpose and using his power to hire, fire and determine salaries to coerce an employee to keep having a sexual relationship, according to the indictments.
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| John Oliver explains the pros and cons of Medicare-for-all, goes with the pros Posted: 18 Feb 2020 01:15 AM PST  John Oliver kicked off his new season of Last Week Tonight on Sunday by looking at "an issue that has dominated the Democratic primary -- and I'm not talking about why Tom Steyer doesn't look richer" (though he did address that). Mostly, he tackled Medicare-for-all, comparing the "government-funded, single-payer program" proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with the current U.S. system championed by conservatives and, with various degrees of modifications, other Democratic candidates.Conservatives are right, Oliver conceded, that "America does have one of the best health care systems in the world for rich, famous people. Unfortunately, too many people are born in this country with a terrible pre-existing condition called Not Being Beyonce." For so many Americans, "our system is badly broken," he said, not just the 27.5 million with no insurance but also the nearly 44 million underinsured and at risk for bankruptcy from medical expenses.The current system is a patchwork of private insurance, government programs, and crowdsourcing gambles, Oliver said. "Any solution that might put an end to that is worth at least considering, surely, and to be honest, I personally think there is a lot to be said for Medicare-for-all. So tonight, let's take a look at it: Not the politics of whether it can pass, but what it actually is." He focused on the three main objections: Cost, wait time, and choice."I get that big change is scary -- it is human nature to prefer the devil you know over an uncertain alternative -- but the devil you know is still a devil," Oliver said. And for all the U.S. fearmongering about Britain's National health System, "I will be honest with you, I've never had a bad experience and I don't know anyone who has, but since moving to America, I don't think I have met anyone who doesn't have at least one insurance industry horror story." There is a lot of NSFW language -- so much so, it makes sense when Oliver calls the U.S. system "the Kama Sutra of health care." Watch below. More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The first poll of Susan Collins' 2020 senate race shows her tied with Democratic challenger The Democratic Party is weak. Mike Bloomberg could break it.
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