Norwalk

AOC and Michael Moore urge Iowa voters not to 'play it safe' as they stand in for Sanders

Two of Bernie Sanders’s highest-profile allies, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, filled in for him on the campaign trail Friday night, speaking to a rally here at the University of Iowa, as the Vermont senator participated in the impeachment trial in Washington, D.C. 

Kobe Bryant was famous for using his Sikorsky S-76 private helicopter, a type that has a strong safety record

The S-76 was first developed in the 1970s and has developed a reputation for a strong safety record and reliability.

Pope backs Iraqi call for its sovereignty to be respected

Pope Francis met Iraq's president on Saturday and the two agreed that the country's sovereignty must be respected, following attacks on Iraqi territory this month by the United States and Iran. President Barham Salih held private talks for about 30 minutes with the pope and then met the Vatican's two top diplomats, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, its foreign minister. The talks "focused on the challenges the country currently faces and on the importance of promoting stability and the reconstruction process, encouraging the path of dialogue and the search for suitable solutions in favor of citizens and with respect for national sovereignty," a Vatican statement said.

Photos from the Lunar New Year show how coronavirus turned China's biggest party into a washout

Here are photos comparing last year's celebration — complete with Chinese lions, historical dances, and family time — to this year.

Chinese Uighurs in Saudi face impossible choice

His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport -- long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports -- a few already expired and some approaching the date -- said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps.

China is Expanding into the Indian Ocean—Here Are Five Things the Indian Navy Can Do About It

Two emerging superpowers square off. Who wins?

Millions of locusts are swarming in Kenya. These striking photos show just how bad the outbreak is

Hundreds of millions of locusts are swarming into Kenya from neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia with unprecented size and destructive potential.

Germany urged to fight anti-Semitism to avoid Jewish exodus

Germany's foreign minister is calling for strengthened efforts against anti-Semitism to ward off the possibility that many Jews decide to leave the country. Maas' comments came a day before the 75th anniversary of the Soviet liberation of the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp and at a time of rising concern in Germany and elsewhere in Europe about anti-Semitism. In October, a man tried to force his way into a synagogue in Halle on Judaism's holiest day, later killing two passers-by before being arrested.

Military investigating video of Navy members shot through peephole

The Navy is reportedly investigating videos found on the website Pornhub that it believes show unsuspecting Navy service members through a peephole in a bathroom.

As defense opens, Trump attorneys accuse Democrats of 'blind drive' to impeachment

Attorneys for President Trump opened their defense in his Senate impeachment trial Saturday morning by charging that the case presented by House Democrats was full of “bluster and innuendo,” and that “devastating evidence” would lead to the inevitable conclusion that the two articles of impeachment now being considered have no merit.

LGBT Rights Group Demands Sanders Renounce Rogan Endorsement

(Bloomberg) -- The Human Rights Campaign is calling on Bernie Sanders to renounce an endorsement from radio host Joe Rogan, who has made derogatory comments about African Americans and LGBTQ people.Rogan, who hosts “The Joe Rogan Experience,” one of the most downloaded podcasts, said he would “probably vote for Bernie,” adding “I believe in him. I like him a lot.”In response, HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement that while Sanders’ campaign has been “unabashedly supportive of the rights of LGBTQ people,” Rogan “has attacked transgender people, gay men, women, people of color and countless marginalized groups at every opportunity.”The statement from the largest LBGTQ advocacy group and lobbying organization in the U.S. pointed to instances in which Rogan had compared African Americans to “Planet of the Apes,’’ and repeatedly misgendered transgender people, including referring to MMA fighter Fallon Fox as “that tranny.”Sanders has appeared on Rogan’s show, as have fellow Democratic candidates Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the author of this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

The US government will reportedly evacuate its diplomats and citizens from Wuhan on a chartered plane amid the coronavirus outbreak

A chartered Boeing 767 will transport US diplomats, citizens, and their families from Wuhan to some location in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Public anger grows over coronavirus in Thailand, with eight cases of the illness

The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting on Sunday with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness. "We can control the situation and are confident in our ability to handle the crisis," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. The number of cases of the disease in Thailand rose on Sunday to eight.

3 dead in protest against Gambian head Barrow: hospital

Three people died Sunday as hundreds of people took to the streets demanding the resignation of Gambian President Adama Barrow who wants to extend his term. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who responded by throwing stones and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw. "I can confirm that there have been three dead," said Kebba Manneh, director of the Serrekunda hospital where victims were taken.

To Combat the Soviets, the U.S. Almost Built Its Own "Skyfall" Nuclear Powered Missile

The mistake was narrowly avoided.

At least 53 dead after record-breaking rainfall triggers landslides in Brazil

The highest rainfall total in 110 years poured down over Belo Horizonte, a state capital in Brazil, which forced thousands to flee from their homes. Record-breaking flooding rain and landslides have killed at least 53 people in this area.Civil Defense officials told the Associated Press that 2,600 people were evacuated from their houses, 19 people are listed as missing following a landslide on Saturday in the state of Minas Gerais, where they experienced 48 hours of torrential rains.For federal disaster aid, State Gov. Gustavo Zema declared a state of emergency in 47 cities. Locals work to clean up mud and debris around houses destroyed by a landslide after heavy rains in Vila Ideal neighborhood, Ibirite municipality, Minas Gerias state, Brazil, Saturday, Jan.25, 2020. (AP Photo/Alexandre Mota-Futura Press) "A cold front swept across eastern South America through the end of last week, spreading periods of rain and thunderstorms from northern Argentina into eastern Brazil," AccuWeather Meteorologist Maura Kelly said.Ahead of this front northerly winds helped to draw in tropical moisture from near the equator, which Kelly said fueled flooding downpours across eastern Brazil, particularly in the state of Minas Gerais."As the front moved into Minas Gerais on Thursday and Friday, daily rainfall totals climbed over 100 mm (4 inches) each day. On Thursday, Florestal received 174mm (6.85 inches) of rain," Kelly said.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"Farther north in Diamantina, 128 mm (5.04 inches) of rain fell on Friday with total rainfall of 350 mm (13.78 inches) from Monday to Friday. To the southeast, Caratinga reported 121mm (4.76 inches) on Saturday with 312 mm (12.28 inches) of rain throughout the week," Kelly said."The capital city of Belo Horizonte reported 154 mm (6.06 inches) from Thursday into Friday with 193 mm (7.60 inches) from Monday to Friday. Normal rainfall for the month of January in this region is around 150-175 mm (6-7 inches)," Kelly said.According to Kelly, the front that bought the flooding rainfall to part of Brazil is expected to linger over the region into at least the middle of the week and will continue to produce periods of rain and thunderstorms across Minas Gerais as rescue and recovery efforts continue.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

GOP Senator, military veteran defends Trump's comments on soldiers' brain injuries

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a U.S. military veteran, stood by President Trump in wake of the backlash against the commander-in-chief's comments describing brain injuries suffered by U.S. troops after an Iranian missile attack on a base in Iraq earlier this month as "headaches" and "not very serious."CBS' Margaret Brennan asked Cotton during Sunday's edition of Face the Nation if Trump should apologize to the soldiers, 34 of whom it turned out suffered traumatic brain injuries. She pointed out that Veterans of Foreign Wars, a prominent U.S. veterans advocacy group, called on Trump to apologize for his "misguided" comments about potentially dangerous injuries, while also noting Cotton likely knew several people who suffered from similar injuries during his time in the military, which included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.Cotton, though, argued Trump wasn't "dismissing" the soldiers' injuries, but simply "describing them." > NEW: @SenTomCotton defends @realdonaldtrump 's comments about soldiers impacted by the Iran strike, says Trump wasn't "dismissing" traumatic brain injuries by calling them "headaches" pic.twitter.com/HH8daFhsIv> > -- Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 26, 2020More stories from theweek.com The Grammys are America's worst awards show Obama calls loss of Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna 'heartbreaking' and 'unthinkable' Trump is winning the impeachment battle — but losing the war

Seven months detained: seven-year-old is longest-held child migrant in US

Maddie Hernandez and her father, Emerson, fled crime in Guatemala. After months, her parents says she has changedEmerson Hernandez and his daughter Maddie have withstood hunger and thirst.They’ve been dumped in a threatening border city in Mexico, a foreign country with nowhere to shelter. And, for seven months, they’ve been locked up at what critics call a “baby jail”.The father and daughter have weathered all of this just for a chance at asylum in the United States after they fled a home in Guatemala that’s now overrun with crime.“I don’t want my daughter to grow up in that environment of delinquency. I really am afraid that something could happen to her,” Emerson told the Guardian.Maddie has been detained the longest of any child currently held in family immigration detention across the country, her attorneys say. On 17 January, she turned seven years old at Berks county residential center, a controversial detention facility in Pennsylvania where she has spent roughly 8% of her life.Despite her lawyers exhausting the legal avenues that could get her out, the government won’t release her and Emerson together.A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency detaining them, said, “ICE’s custodial determinations for Mr. Hernandez and Maddie have been based on the merits and factors of their individual cases and are in conformity with the law and current agency priorities, guidelines and legal mandates.”Emerson said Maddie has always been strong, but being confined for such a long time has changed her. She’s gone from an easy, smiley little girl to someone who has become violent and throws explosive temper tantrums, according to her parents and an attorney.“Her change was sudden,” Emerson said. “And she says to me, ‘When are we going to leave this place?’”The truth is no one knows. The Flores settlement, a landmark 1997 federal agreement that regulates child and family detention, made it the longstanding rule that kids and families should be released within 20 days. But there have been huge exceptions: Bridget Cambria, a lawyer representing Maddie, said the longest she was aware of a child being held through family detention was 707 days.Emerson and Maddie are desperate to see the rest of their family, Maddie’s mother, Madelin, and her newborn baby, who still hasn’t met his dad. Madelin traveled to the US with a visa and lives in New Jersey, but Maddie’s visa application was denied. She and Emerson made a more perilous journey north last spring, when they went a full day without stopping.“That day was hard for me,” Emerson remembered. “To see that my daughter said to me, ‘Papi, I’m thirsty, Papi, I want to eat,’ and I had nothing to give her.”Madelin said she came to the US because she thought her family would be reunited soon after. But Maddie and Emerson were swept into the Trump administration’s increasingly hardline immigration policies, and Madelin hasn’t seen them since.Last April, Emerson and Maddie finally made it to the US only to be turned back to Tijuana, Mexico, through the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump-era program that returns people across the border while they await US immigration court hearings.Suddenly, they were homeless in one of the world’s most dangerous cities.Emerson called Madelin to say there was no space for them at the local shelter. “I remember that he started to cry, and I did, too, because we didn’t know what to do,” she said.A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said around 57,000 people had been subject to MPP, and in October, Reuters found that 16,000 migrants under 18 had been sent to Mexico.At least 816 violent attacks against migrants under MPP have been reported, including 201 cases of children who were kidnapped or almost kidnapped, according to the not-for-profit Human Rights First.On days when Emerson and Maddie found housing with good Samaritans, she rarely went outside because the city was so dangerous.“Tijuana is not a very pretty place, it’s not a safe place,” Emerson said.After two months in Mexico, they got their opportunity to go in front of a US immigration judge in June. Emerson made the mistake of following advice he said an immigration official gave him. He told the judge that he had come to the US to give his daughter a better life, a line that completely discredited his case.There are immigration laws that protect asylum seekers. There aren’t immigration laws that protect devoted parents.The judge gave him two options: he could return to Mexico and, against all odds, continue to fight for the right to come to the US. Or – after all Emerson and Maddie had endured –they could return to Guatemala.Faced with an impossible choice, Emerson opted for the latter because at least if something happened to him at home, his family could look after his daughter and wife. But when he and Maddie boarded a plane, it didn’t land in Guatemala. Instead, they took a long trip deep into the country’s interior, to Berks county residential center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.The family immigration detention facility garnered national notoriety a few years ago after an employee admitted to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who was being held there. Critics have advocated for its closure, and reports of poor medical care and racism from employees have hamstrung the facility’s reputation.But it continues to operate, as it has since 2001.After Emerson and Maddie arrived at Berks, they met Cambria, the attorney who has helped to revive their asylum bid. When the government flew them to San Diego in July and tried to return them to Mexico again, Cambria quickly filed a federal lawsuit to bring them back to Berks, where they’ve remained ever since.That lawsuit could eventually set a major precedent as to whether children can legally be placed under MPP. A ruling in Maddie’s favor would mean other kids like her could sue the government, arguing they shouldn’t be sent to Mexico. (Ice’s spokesperson said the agency did not comment on pending litigation.)But Maddie didn’t come to the US to challenge immigration policy. She’s a kid who celebrated a Christmas and a birthday in detention, without her mom and little brother.“This little girl is not doing well psychologically, we’ll put it that way,” said Cambria. “She’s saying things that are scary. She’s very sad.”Ice has offered for Maddie to leave Berks, but without Emerson. This family separation is legally dubious, and Cambria said it was unprecedented in her experience representing immigrant families.Amy Maldonado, another of Maddie’s lawyers, said Ice could release both Maddie and Emerson at any time, and has done so for families in similar situations.Cambria said she doesn’t know why Ice is treating Emerson and Maddie differently from any other family at Berks. But the detention center is only for parents with children. If Maddie leaves and Emerson doesn’t, he’ll be sent away to another facility for adults or returned to Mexico.Maddie is so young that she thinks of everything she’s gone through as a vacation, and she keeps telling her parents she’s ready for the vacation to be over.“When I speak to her, she sometimes cries and says, ‘Mami, I want to leave already,’” Madelin said.“‘I want to leave already.’”

Half of Australians donated to bushfire appeal: survey

One in two Australians have donated money to support bushfire relief efforts, a new survey showed over the weekend, with meteorologists warning more hot and dry weather is to return after a heavy rain respite dampened many of the blazes. With the fires also destroying thousands of homes and inflicting psychological and physical damage to many, Australians have been increasingly coming together to aid one another as the country looks to rebuilding. Some 53% of Australians have donated to a bushfire appeal during this season, a survey conducted by the fundraising and marketing consultancy More Strategic in partnership with the Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) showed over the weekend.

Anxious foreigners await rescue from China virus epicentre

Anxious foreigners in the locked-down city that spawned China's deadly viral epidemic say they are stranded at home, running out of food and desperate to leave, as governments scrambled to draw up evacuation plans. Authorities have barred travel to and from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected before it spread across China and to a dozen other countries -- including the United States, France and Australia. Several other large cities in China have introduced their own travel restrictions in a bid to contain the disease, which has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000 others.

Pompeo lashes out at journalist; NPR defends reporter

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out Saturday at an NPR reporter who accused him of shouting expletives at her after she asked him in an interview about Ukraine. In a personal attack, Pompeo said the journalist had “lied” to him and called her conduct “shameful.”

India Has Fallen Far Behind China’s Military—Here are Five Affordable Steps It Can Tale to Secure Its Border With China

This could work. Here's how.

Racist threats rattle students, faculty at university

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Three months after a set of anonymous, threatening, racist, antisemitic and homophobic emails sent a wave of fear through the sociology department at Wake Forest University, the department chairman says he's still waiting for university leaders to announce a meaningful response. Alarmed by what he deemed white supremacist terrorism, chairman Joseph Soares canceled sociology classes for a week. When they resumed, Wake Forest police officers were stationed outside classrooms and the building itself.

'Doorbell Ditch' Prank Led to Crash That Killed 3 Teens, Officials Say

A man who the authorities contend deliberately crashed his car into another one on a Southern California road last Sunday, killing three of the six teenagers inside, did so because the group had played a so-called doorbell ditch prank on him, prosecutors said this week.The man, Anurag Chandra, 42, faces several murder charges for his role in the Temescal Canyon Road crash, which the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said Thursday occurred after the boys played a doorbell ditch prank on him.In a doorbell ditch, also commonly known as a ding-dong-ditch, a person rings a doorbell and tries to run away before anyone opens the door.After one of the boys had been dared, all six teenagers drove to a nearby home on Mojeska Summit Road in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the district attorney's office said, citing the California Highway Patrol's investigation. The boy rang the doorbell and returned to the 2002 Prius that they were riding in, and the group took off.But Chandra, who lives at the home, chased after them in his 2019 Infiniti Q50, prosecutors said. His car rammed into the back of the Prius, "causing it to veer off the road and into a tree," prosecutors said.Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, all 16-year-old passengers, were killed in the crash, prosecutors said. The 18-year-old driver and two other boys, ages 13 and 14, were injured but survived."The circumstances in this case are unusual," John Hall, a spokesman with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, said in an email Friday. "Based on the evidence in this case, the response and actions taken by the defendant are egregious and extremely disproportionate to a teen ringing a doorbell and running away."Chandra was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, but "it was continued at the request of the defense," Hall said. A new arraignment has been scheduled for Feb. 21, he said.Chandra "is being held on no bail because this is a potential death penalty case," Hall said. "That is because we have alleged a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, making him eligible for the death penalty."District Attorney Mike Hestrin of Riverside County will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date, he said.Phone calls and messages to numbers listed for Chandra were not immediately returned Friday night. Calls and messages on Friday to the public defender's office, which represented him in court Thursday, were not immediately returned.Speaking to NBC4 in Los Angeles, a bandaged and still-healing Sergio Campusano, the driver of the Prius, said in an interview this week that he had blacked out after the driver of the Infiniti "rammed his car into my back" and his head whipped into his window.Describing the prank, which Campusano said the group came up with during a sleepover, one of the boys was dared to "either jump into a pool at night or go ding-dong-ditch a house."After the boys drove away from the house where the doorbell was rung, the group saw a man from the home following them, and Campusano said the other car got "really, really close.""I was like, 'What is this guy doing?'" Campusano, who tried to drive away from the Infiniti, told the TV station. "Then I felt like a nudge forward, like he hit me from the back.""When he rammed us from the side, I thought, I was like, if anything happens, I love these guys," said Campusano, who described the close-knit group of friends as "all a part of me."The group had been celebrating Jacob's birthday over the weekend, the TV station reported.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

From 'Trump train' to 'Yang Gang': Meet the conservatives and swing voters who have fallen hard for Andrew Yang

"We're not voting blue no matter who. We're Yangocrats," Russell Peterson, a former Trump supporter turned hardcore Yang backer, told Insider.

Warren Says She’s Ready to Fight After Des Moines Register Nod

(Bloomberg) -- The Des Moines Register endorsed progressive favorite Senator Elizabeth Warren a little more than a week before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, saying the Massachusetts lawmaker would “push an unequal America in the right direction.” The influential newspaper in Iowa’s largest city revealed its pick for the first-in-the-nation nominating contest on its website Saturday evening."At this moment, when the very fabric of American life is at stake, Elizabeth Warren is the president this nation needs," the Register's editorial board said.The Register said that many of Warren’s ideas “are not radical. They are right.  They would improve life in America, and they are generally shared by the other Democratic candidates, who bring their own strengths to this race.” The candidate is “tough and compassionate,” the newspaper said.   ``Thank you, @DMRegister, for your endorsement! Iowans are ready to make big, structural change—and I’m going to fight my heart out for everyone in Iowa and across the country,’’ Warren said on Twitter. Fair Markets Warren, 70, is polling at 16.3% in Iowa. She’s trailing Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, and statistically tied for third pace with Pete Buttigieg, in the RealClearPolitics polling average of the state. In a New York Times Iowa poll released on Saturday, Warren’s standing had slipped recently. The newspaper said the second-term senator is ``a capitalist” but one that ``wants fair markets, with rules and accountability. She wants a government that works for people, not one corrupted by cash.” Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor, ``believes government should actively work to prevent and respond to abusive practices that jeopardize individuals and the country’s economy,’’ the Register’s editorial said.  The newspaper wrote at length about what it described as the pluses and minuses of other Democratic candidates contesting next month’s caucus. Biden, the former vice president, was said to lack Warren's specific expertise on income inequality issues. Biden was also said to represent ``incremental improvements on the Obama years'' rather than ``the bold agenda the times demand.''  Poor Predictor The newspaper said it had doubts about whether Sanders, who is not a member of the Democratic Party, could build the consensus needed to govern. The Vermont senator has also opposed trade agreements supported by Iowa's farmers, it noted. Buttigieg was said to offer ``refreshing, common-ground approaches unburdened by the constraints of Washington insider politics." But his eight-year tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, ``hardly seems adequate preparation for leading this vast, diverse, divided country,'' the editorial board said.While coveted by candidates, the Des Moines Register’s endorsement has been a poor predictor of caucus-night performance. Since the Register started making recommendations in 1988, only three of its endorsed candidates went on to win the state’s caucuses: Republicans Bob Dole in 1988 and 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000, and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.    (Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.) To contact the author of this story: Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Coronavirus 'has become rampant,' but shows no signs of mutating into deadlier form

China's central government announced Sunday that it's taking the reins in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus from local officials in Hubei province, home to the virus' city of origin, Wuhan.Ma Xiaowei, the head of the country's National Health Commission, said "we are now in a critical period of prevention and control." It appears the coronavirus is becoming more contagious — Zhou Xianwang, the mayor of Wuhan, said experts will likely soon confirm another 1,000 infection cases. Meanwhile, the death toll resulting from the disease rose to 56, including the first fatality in Shanghai."The virus has become rampant," said Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.But despite the severity of the situation, Gao also doled out some optimism. He said the virus hasn't shown any signs of mutating into a more deadly form, and revealed that a vaccine may soon be available.Most of the cases are confined to China, but a third case was confirmed in the United States, after a person in Orange County, California, tested positive. The patient is being treated and is reportedly in "good condition." Read more at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com The Grammys are America's worst awards show Obama calls loss of Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna 'heartbreaking' and 'unthinkable' Trump is winning the impeachment battle — but losing the war

Philippines lowers volcano danger level

Philippine authorities also narrowed the exclusion zone around the Taal volcano, which sits in the middle of a lake about 70 km (45 miles) from Manila, to seven kms from 14 kms (4-8 miles).

China virus toll spikes despite massive lockdown

The toll from China's viral epidemic spiked on Monday to 80 dead with hundreds of new infections despite unprecedented quarantines and travel lockdowns, as foreign governments scrambled to help their trapped citizens. The virulence of a contagion causing fear nationwide has prompted authorities to impose transport curbs around China to cut off transmission routes, and extend a national holiday to delay people travelling back to work. With many thousands of foreigners trapped in the ground-zero city of Wuhan, which is under a virtual lockdown, the United States and France were among several countries formulating plans to evacuate their citizens by plane.

Postal worker dies a week after being shot while delivering mail in Mississippi

The local community rallied around Ingold by hosting prayer vigils, dressing in purple and placing purple bows along her mail route.

Russia Is Determined to Buy Stealth Fighters, Bombers, Drones and Even a New Aircraft Carrier

The Russian armed forces have committed to a wide range of expensive acquisitions programs, in particular new ships and planes. The likely cost strains credulity.

India celebrates Republic Day with military parade

Thousands of Indians converged on a ceremonial boulevard in the capital amid tight security to celebrate the Republic Day on Sunday, which marks the 1950 anniversary of the country’s democratic constitution. Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro was the chief guest for this year’s celebrations.

How Jeff Bezos Got Hacked on WhatsApp—and How It Could Happen to You

Not even the richest man in the world is safe from a simple cyber attack.

Democrats are having a field day after Trump's lawyers accidentally made the strongest case to call witnesses in his impeachment trial

Democrats are gloating after the president's lawyers complained that there isn't enough firsthand evidence to impeach him.

A celebrity personal trainer says intermittent fasting is bad for weight loss, and that you should eat every 2 to 3 hours instead

Camila Goodis — known as the "Brazilian body wizard" — also told Insider: "If you're on a real diet, I don't trust any restaurant besides my kitchen."

Washington State's Department of Transportation Tweets That It Maybe, Just Maybe, Found Bigfoot. 'We Will Leave That Up to You'

A Sasquatch might be wandering near Sherman Pass. Well, at least according to the Washington State Department of Transportation's Twitter account

China stiffens defences against epidemic as death toll hits 56

China expanded drastic travel restrictions Monday and prolonged a public holiday to contain an epidemic that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as several countries prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre. China has locked down the hard-hit province of Hubei in the country's centre, an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people and intended to slow transmission of the respiratory virus. Its ability to spread appears to be "getting stronger" though it is "not as powerful as SARS", top Chinese health officials said at a press conference.

The Indian Air Force Hopes to Dodge Sanctions as Its Springs for Russian Missiles and MiG and Sukhoi Jet Fighters

Some history you may not have know about until now.

Georgia inmate who came close to execution in 2017 dies

A Georgia death row inmate whose planned execution was halted in September 2017 by the U.S. Supreme Court after his lawyers argued his death sentence was tainted by a juror's racial bias has died, according to the state Department of Corrections. Keith “Bo” Tharpe, 61, died of natural causes Friday, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Joan Heath confirmed in an email Sunday. In 1991, a jury convicted Tharpe of murder in the September 1990 slaying of his sister-in-law, Jacquelyn Freeman, and sentenced him to death.

Prisoner dies after guards ‘did not stop her being beaten with soap bars’

A female prisoner died after guards did not intervene while she was being beaten with a sock filled with bars of soap, it is claimed in a lawsuit filed by the deceased's father.

Here's how Democrats will elect their presidential nominee over the next several months

The Democratic nominee will be officially selected at the DNC in July, but we'll probably know who wins the nomination much earlier than that

Death Toll Rises in Turkey Quake as Erdogan Slams Social Media

(Bloomberg) -- A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Turkey’s eastern Elazig province on Friday evening killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds. By Sunday, 45 people had been rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings.A total of 76 buildings were destroyed and 645 heavily damaged, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said in a statement. As many as 20 of the 640 aftershocks since the first temblor had a magnitude greater than 4 on the Richter scale, according to the agency.Speaking on Sunday in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan targeted “provocative” social media posts about the earthquake. “Some messages are terrible, depraved,” he said, according to the Anadolu Agency. “For example, some question what the government has done about earthquakes in the past two decades.”The earthquake occurred at 8:55 p.m. local time on Friday at a depth of 6.75 kilometers (4.2 miles) on the East Anatolia Fault Line. Tremors were felt in many cities across the region.Prosecutors have launched an investigation into social media posts found to be “provocative,” Anadolu reported. Two people in Gaziantep province have been detained.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, Environment & Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca were in Elazig as of early Sunday to coordinate rescue efforts.Turkey is situated in a seismically active area and is among countries, including China and Iran, that can experience catastrophic earthquakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1999, a 7.5-magnitude quake shook the western Marmara region killing thousands of people and damaging more than 300,000 buildings. The nation’s economy contracted 3.4% that year.To contact the reporters on this story: Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.net;Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Michael GunnFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Iraqi security forces raid protest camps after Sadr supporters withdraw

Iraqi security forces fired bullets and tear gas on Saturday in raids on protest camps in Baghdad and southern cities, killing four people and wounding dozens more, police and medical sources said. The new push to end the sit-in protests and restore order came hours after populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has millions of supporters in Baghdad and the south, said he would end his involvement in anti-government unrest. Sadr's supporters, who had bolstered the protesters and sometimes helped shield them from attacks by security forces and unidentified gunmen, began withdrawing from sit-in camps early on Saturday after his announcement.

Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend gave Amazon boss’s ‘flirtatious texts’ to brother who leaked to National Enquirer, report claims

Text messages allegedly sent by Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos may have been sold to tabloid newspaper the National Enquirer by his girlfriend’s brother, according to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal.According to the paper, federal prosecutors are examining messages, including at least one photograph, first sent by the world’s richest man to news reporter Lauren Sanchez, with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Fifth U.S. Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Patient Who Traveled From Wuhan, China

Several new cases of the deadly coronavirus have been confirmed in the U.S., bringing the total infections to five as the situation in China, where the bug originated, grows increasingly dire.Health officials revealed Sunday morning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a person in Orange, County California, who had traveled from Wuhan, China, has the virus. They are listed in “good condition.” Within hours, authorities revealed two more cases: a student at Arizona State University who is “not severely ill” and a patient who reported he was not feeling well when he got off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. “Everything worked as it should,” Dr. Sharon Balter of the L.A. County Department of Public Health. “The patient presented for care, the patient was immediately transported to a hospital, the patient has remained in the hospital.”Grim Scenes at Chinese Hospitals as Doctors Rush to Treat Deadly CoronavirusTwo previous U.S.-based cases—a woman in her 60s from Chicago and a man in his 30s from Washington state—have also been confirmed, but the CDC says the risk to Americans is low. “There is no evidence that person-to-person transmission has occurred in Orange County,” the CDC said in a statement Sunday. “The current risk of local transmission remains low.”All of the U.S. patients had traveled from Wuhan, the epicenter of the health crisis. That’s important to note because it means there have been no confirmed person-to-person transmissions inside the U.S.In each case, health officials will now need to trace the patient’s steps and identify anyone who had close contact with them so they can be monitored—and then isolated, as well, if they develop symptoms.The new virus—which originated in a market that traded live wild animals and likely passed in snake-to-human contact—has infected more than 2,000 people globally, according to Reuters.Health officials in Canada were tracking down passengers who flew with a man from Wuhan to Toronto via Guangzhou on a China Southern Airlines flight last Thursday after confirming his diagnosis—the first in Canada. China is struggling to contain its outbreak and warned Sunday that doctors there have determined the virus can be passed before the carrier shows symptoms. Ma Ziaowei, head of China’s National Health Commission, announced Sunday that the new virus’ incubation period is 10 to 14 days, and it is contagious during that time.That finding has not been publicly confirmed by U.S. or global health officials. If true, it would present a major complication for containment. For instance, in the U.S., those who had close contact with confirmed patients are not quarantined unless they have symptoms, under the belief that they are not contagious until then.China’s Coronavirus Keeps Spreading but the WHO Still Won’t Declare a Global EmergencyChinese authorities have locked down Wuhan and several other cities to stop the virus from galloping across the country, but the U.S. and other countries been given special dispensation to evacuate their citizens. A charter flight from Wuhan to San Francisco with diplomats and private citizens is scheduled for Tuesday, according to CNN. France and Russia have also made similar arrangements. Two new hospitals being built near Wuhan specifically to house those infected with the virus are expected to be completed in the coming week. The Chinese government has also dispatched hundreds of medical officials and military troops to help manage the crisis in the hardest hit areas of the country.As The Daily Beast reported, doctors and nurses are so overwhelmed by the explosion of patients, they are wearing diapers so they don’t have to take bathroom breaks. With supplies running low, they are fashioning anti-infection goggles out of spare materials.In a sign of the virus’ strength, the the death toll in China has climbed from 41 to 56 in just 24 hours. But no deaths have been yet reported in any of the 40 other countries where the virus has been confirmed. Still, Chinese communities across the world have taken precautions ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations this weekend, including the cancellation of the annual parade in Paris on Sunday. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Sunday that she had no choice but to cancel the celebrations. “I have met with the Chinese community in Paris. They are very emotional and concerned, and they have decided to cancel the parade that was scheduled for this afternoon at Place de la Republique,” Hidalgo said Sunday. “They are really not in a mood to party now.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.