| Did CNN Just Torpedo Michael Bloomberg's Presidential Hopes? Posted: 25 Feb 2020 02:18 PM PST  Bloomberg, who as Mayor served as a Republican and then independent before joining the Democratic Party in 2018, warned about the growing progressive movement in the United States.
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| Louisiana governor: Judge should resign after racial slurs Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:38 AM PST |
| Supreme Court tosses D.C. sniper case after change in Virginia law Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:21 PM PST  The Supreme Court heard arguments in Lee Boyd Malvo's case in October.
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| Iran to Sentence Citizens Who “Spreads Rumors” about Coronavirus to Flogging, Three Years in Prison Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:37 PM PST  An Iranian parliament spokesman on Wednesday announced that anyone found to be "spreading rumors" about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak will be sentenced to one-to-three years in prison and flogging, Iran state news agency IRNA reported."Spreading fake news over coronavirus outbreak will people panic. It also will pave the ground for the country's shutdown," said Hassan Norouzi, spokesman for the parliament's legal and judicial committee, in comments translated by the Tehran Times.Norouzi said the prison sentence and flogging is based on "on the Islamic penal code," and 24 people have been arrested already on suspicion of "spreading rumors" about the illness.Iran has reported 139 cases of coronavirus infections throughout the country, with an epicenter in the city of Qom, a destination for Shi'ite Muslim religious pilgrims. Nineteen Iranians have died from the illness so far, and the country has the highest number of cases in the Middle East. While officials have recommended that citizens not visit Qom, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that the government does not plan to quarantine entire cities, only infected individuals."Coronavirus must not be turned into a weapon for our enemies to halt work and production in our country," Rouhani said.On Tuesday Iranian deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi announced that he had contracted coronavirus. In a video taken at his home, Harirchi attempted to reassure viewers, saying "I will certainly defeat corona."Harirchi was filmed a day earlier on state television to announce that the country's outbreak was under control, visibly sweating and wiping his face with a handkerchief.
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| John Bolton tries to slam Bernie Sanders for Castro remarks, rams headlong into more recent history Posted: 24 Feb 2020 09:26 PM PST  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) got some blowback Monday for comments he made on Sunday's 60 Minutes in favor of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro's literacy program. It's not clear many people outside of Florida or under age 70 have strong feelings about Castro anymore — he died in 2016, after all, and Cuba is now mostly known as a hot vacation spot. And as Sanders also said on 60 Minutes, it's not like he thinks current, nuclear-armed despot "Kim Jong Un is a good friend," and unlike President Trump. "I don't trade love letters with a murdering dictator."Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton clearly did not pay attention to that last part of the interview when he jumped in to slam Sanders for "revealing the extent of his extremism" by suggesting "Castro's communist Cuba is not all bad." So Twitter reminded him.> pic.twitter.com/N3BVcFUKX5> > — subscribe to my newsletter (@brianbeutler) February 24, 2020In any case, Sanders doesn't seem rattled by the criticism. "You know what? I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing," he said at a CNN town hall in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday night. "I have been extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world — including Cuba, including Nicaragua, including Saudi Arabia, including China, including Russia. I happen to believe in democracy, not authoritarianism." He still doubled-down on the not-all-bad motif, saying that China, while "becoming more an more authoritarian," has also clearly "taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history."More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Democratic candidates yell, interrupt each other during most chaotic debate yet Bloomberg accidentally claims to have 'bought' the 2018 midterm results
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| Coronavirus: Four maps and charts that show how serious the deadly virus is Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:59 AM PST  As coronavirus continues to spread to countries across the globe, health organisations are urging governments to prepare for the worst.Currently, there are 81,191 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 2,768 people have died from the respiratory virus.
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| 'Never before': Shock, fear as India's capital reels from deadly riots Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:58 AM PST  In front of him was a stick-wielding mob of up to 500 men, cheering loudly and throwing flaming tyres into his shop as deadly sectarian violence swept India's capital. The market in Gokulpuri was just one of many poor, congested neighbourhoods in northeast Delhi ransacked by rampaging mobs on Monday and Tuesday as battles broke out between Hindus and Muslims. The clashes followed renewed protests on Sunday against a contentious citizenship law brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist government that critics say is anti-Muslim.
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| China to Russia: End discriminatory coronavirus measures against Chinese Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:57 AM PST  China's embassy in Russia has demanded authorities in Moscow end what it said are discriminatory anti-coronavirus measures against Chinese nationals, saying they are damaging relations and alarming Chinese residents of the Russian capital. The complaint, detailed in an embassy letter to the city's authorities and published by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta late on Tuesday, deplored what it called "ubiquitous monitoring" of Chinese nationals, including on public transport in Moscow. Russia, which enjoys strong political and military ties with Beijing, does not currently have any confirmed cases of coronavirus, but has temporarily barred many categories of Chinese nationals from entering the country.
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| 1,000 tourists on a Spanish island are quarantined in their hotel after one of them tested positive for coronavirus Posted: 25 Feb 2020 04:38 AM PST  The Costa Adeje Palace is closed and its 1,000 guests stuck inside after an Italian guest was found to have the coronavirus in preliminary tests.
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| A record high: 1 in 10 eligible American voters are immigrants Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:06 AM PST  The number of immigrants eligible to vote has risen 93 percent — from 12 million in 2000 to 23.2 million in 2020.
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| Tennessee mom and grandmother of missing 15-month-old both arrested, in same jail Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:46 AM PST  The girl, Evelyn Mae Boswell, remains missing. The sheriff has said that the mother gave information that was not thought to be accurate.
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| Boom: The Army Just Invented a Newer, Deadlier Artillery Round Posted: 25 Feb 2020 08:50 AM PST  That's going to ruin somebody's day.
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| Iran’s Incompetent Response to Coronavirus Threatens the Middle East and the World Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:32 PM PST  The Iranian government has covered up an outbreak of coronavirus that now threatens the Middle East and has led to border closures and hospitalizations in five countries. Over the weekend of February 21, president Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian officials downplayed the growing crises as Iran's death toll from the virus climbed. It is now apparent that the regime, which has threatened the region with ballistic missiles, drones, naval mines, and militias over the last few years, has become a health threat as well, as it incubates a potential pandemic. The coronavirus has likely traveled from China to Iran's city of Qom along the same route that pilgrims and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses to travel, illustrating the regime's disregard for its own citizens and neighbors.It all began with Iran's wanting to show the world it had higher turnout at recent elections. Iranian member of parliament Mahmoud Sadeghi called on officials to take the coronavirus seriously during elections, and alleged that the government was hiding the outbreak of the contagious virus last week. Instead, Iran's regime kept the extent of the spread of the virus under wraps, keeping it off the homepages of major local media. Turkish officials also warned last week that there were 750 coronavirus cases in Iran, and that it had spread from the religious city of Qom to other regions. Yet Iran's deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi downplayed fears on Monday, claiming rumors of 50 deaths were false. Now Haririchi and Sadeghi are both sick, and Iran's death toll is the second-worst for the virus, after China itself.Iran's failure to confront the health crises is not just due to the regime's authoritarianism. China has fought the virus with authoritarian quarantining of Wuhan. Instead, it is the regime's preexisting arrogance, conspiracy-minded behavior, and siege mentality that led to its discounting an emerging crisis and enabled Shi'ite pilgrims traveling to Qom from all over the world to continue praying together and traveling without checks, becoming incubators of the virus. People returning from Iran have spread the virus across the Gulf to Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. They have returned to Najaf, a holy city in Iraq, where dozens are now under observation.Iran couldn't have chosen a worse time in the Middle East to do this. Countries such as Iraq are beset by protests and uncertainty, with Iraq specifically lacking a new government and threatened by ISIS resurgence. The Gulf already has one crisis between Saudi Arabia and Qatar and is economically on edge due to serving as a transport hub linked to global trade amid all this. China's coronavirus has spooked markets, and Iran is adding to the disaster.The Iranian regime has mocked coronavirus as similar to the flu in recent comments. And it has weaponized the tragedy to use it against U.S. sanctions by claiming that, like the sanctions, it is overrated. Iran's government is using the Iranian people as a human shield, and their alleged lack of suffering from the virus as a propaganda tool. Yet ultimately, the virus may be more of a threat to Rouhani's government than he realizes. With officials sick, schools closed, and the military, police, and IRGC mobilized, the regime may find that propaganda won't cure this crisis. Iran's regime has survived using brutality, killing protesters last year, shooting down an airline this year, and blaming others for its problems while it seeks to attack Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. But Iran was unprepared for an epidemic, and its normal arsenal won't save it.Unfortunately for the Gulf, Iraq, and other countries, Iran's incubation is a threat to the world now. Its airlines, such as Mahan Air, have likely spread the virus to Lebanon and brought it from China. Mahan Air and other Iranian IRGC-linked firms have transported arms and operatives throughout the region. It wouldn't be a surprise if a similar route enabled the virus to spread unchecked. The regime's toxic blend of religion, militancy, and authoritarianism have come together in the worst possible way at the worst time in a fragile region.
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| Bloomberg once said Social Security is a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff's Posted: 26 Feb 2020 01:22 PM PST  Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg twice compared Social Security to a Ponzi scheme when he was in office, CNN reports, which is a far cry from his current stance as a Democratic presidential candidate.Nowadays, Bloomberg has vowed to to strengthen entitlement programs, but he used to see them as a major hurdle in the effort to shrink the United States' deficit. During appearances on his old radio program "Live from City Hall," which were reviewed by CNN's KFile, Bloomberg made the Ponzi scheme comparison once in 2006 and again in 2009. The latter instance was in relation to Bernie Madoff, who was arrested in December 2008 and later pleaded guilty to a massive Ponzi scheme."I don't know if Bernie Madoff got his idea from there, but if there's ever a Ponzi Scheme, people say Madoff was the biggest? Wrong," Bloomberg said. "Social Security is, far and away."Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Bloomberg, attempted to explain Bloomberg's comments to CNN. "The Social Security Administration itself gives out detailed actuarial tables on when and how payments will exceed income, and the issue needs attention because we're running the cushion between them down," he said. "Mike believes that between now and that time, we will need to boost receipts by raising contributions from those who can best afford it, which is what he'll do as president." Read more at CNN.More stories from theweek.com Trump puts Pence in charge of coronavirus response Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity
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| ABC News suspends veteran correspondent over comments captured in undercover Project Veritas video Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:07 PM PST  ABC News said it suspended veteran correspondent David Wright because his comments hurt the network's "reputation for fairness and impartiality."
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| South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof staged death row hunger strike Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:53 PM PST  White supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof staged a hunger strike this month while on federal death row, alleging in letters to The Associated Press that he's been "targeted by staff," "verbally harassed and abused without cause" and "treated disproportionately harsh."
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| New US coronavirus case may be 1st from unknown origin Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:37 PM PST |
| Erdogan Confirms Turkish Soldiers Killed in Libya Fighting Posted: 24 Feb 2020 11:43 PM PST |
| Supreme Court rules Mexican parents can't sue Border Patrol agent who killed their son Posted: 25 Feb 2020 09:05 AM PST  The ruling was a defeat for the parents of Sergio Hernandez Guereca, who was on the Mexico side when he was shot in 2010 by a Border Patrol agent who fired from the U.S. side.
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| Israel's Netanyahu pulls his punches after Sanders calls him a racist Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:08 AM PST  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Bernie Sanders was wrong to call him a racist during a debate among contenders for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination, but shied away from attacking the senator in return. "I am not intervening in the U.S. election," Netanyahu replied when asked on Israeli Army Radio about what an interviewer termed Sanders' personal attack on him at Tuesday's event in Charleston, South Carolina. Sanders, who has been critical of the right-wing leader's policy toward Palestinians, described Netanyahu as "a reactionary racist who is now running" Israel.
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| A Florida woman is being accused of zipping her boyfriend into a suitcase and leaving him to die Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:21 AM PST  Sarah Boone, 42, claimed it was just an accident. But police saw troubling videos of her taunting him as he struggled to get out of the luggage.
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| New cases of coronavirus in other countries exceeded those in China for the first time on Tuesday Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST  The coronavirus may be slowing down in China, but World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that it's no time for complacency.In a weekly briefing, Gehbreyesus had some good news about China, especially beyond the Hubei province, where the virus originated. There were reportedly only 10 new cases detected outside of Hubei on Tuesday. On the other hand, Tuesday was the first day in which the number of new cases in other countries exceeded the number in China, in large part because of rapid increases in countries like Iran, Italy, and South Korea. Outside of China, there are now 2,790 reported cases in 37 countries, and 44 deaths.Still, Gehbreyesus pointed out there's been progress in containing the virus' spread, as 14 of those countries haven't reported a new case in more than a week and nine haven't reported a new case in more than two weeks. Of course, that doesn't mean those countries are out of the woods, since more cases could eventually seep their way in, but it does signal the cases that had already made it to those countries have been contained. Read the rest of Gehbreyesus' address here.More stories from theweek.com Trump puts Pence in charge of coronavirus response Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity
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| Trump taps Pence to head up coronavirus outbreak response Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:24 PM PST  The president said the $2.5 billion his administration has requested is a "lot," but they'll spend "whatever's appropriate."
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| Coronavirus: Disney World tells workers who traveled to Italy to stay home amid virus fears Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:19 PM PST  Walt Disney World instructed cast members who recently visited Italy to stay home following the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, officials confirmed.
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| Mexico president ties shootout dead to drug consumption Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:42 PM PST  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested Wednesday without offering evidence that most of those who die in Mexico's cartel- and gang-fueled firefights are high on drugs or intoxicated, prompting criticism and questions about whether the claim was accurate. Speaking to journalists in his morning news conference, López Obrador said rising drug consumption rates must be reversed if the country is to guarantee peace and security after years of rising, record-setting homicide statistics. "Just so you have the number, 60% of those who lose their life each day, 60% of those killed in clashes, it is shown that they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but primarily drugs," the president continued.
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| Beijing’s Handling of Coronavirus Has Undermined Chinese Public’s Trust in State Media Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:51 AM PST  China's government is facing widespread criticism from its own citizens over its handling of the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus.Beijing has launched a massive propaganda campaign with stories of Chinese heroism in the struggle to contain the coronavirus, meant to unify the country's citizens behind the government. However, the government's efforts have faced scorn on Chinese social media, where citizens are openly complaining about the government's response to the crisis, New York Times reported Wednesday.The Times cited a blog post by a lawyer, Deng Xueping, excoriating the government over the coronavirus. Deng mentioned a story circulated on state media about a woman who was treated at a Wuhan hospital, but liked staying in the hospital so much that she didn't want to leave."When many patients in Wuhan were struggling to get treatment, our TV camera chose to turn to one happy outpatient," Deng wrote in the post. "By magnifying one individual's happiness while hiding the sufferings of most people there, it's hard to say such coverage was truthful about the epidemic."Some stories put out by state media are completely unbelievable. A newspaper in the city of Xi'an in central China was forced to retract a story detailing how a nurse's newborn twins asked their father where their mother had gone. The Times cited another Chinese newspaper which reported that another nurse's husband, who has been in a vegetative state since 2014, would smile whenever he "heard" his wife's name, "as if he knew that his wife was engaged in a great endeavor."There is also widespread anger over the government's initial condemnation of eight doctors who tried to warn others about the outbreak of the SARS-like illness in Wuhan in late December-early January, before the outbreak took hold in earnest. One of those doctors, Li Wenliang, tried to warn medical school friends of the illness.After Li was reprimanded by the local Wuhan government for spreading "rumors," he contracted the virus from a patient he did not know was infected. Li has since died.China has also changed its diagnostic criteria for the coronavirus multiple times, leading to confusion over the number of confirmed cases in the country. A health official from Hubei Provice, the epicenter of the outbreak, has accused the government of a lack of transparency and accuracy regarding its reporting of cases.
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| The world's biggest iPhone maker has hired the scientist known as the 'SARS hero' to oversee its reopening as it resumes production Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:07 AM PST  Apple's main manufacturing partner, Foxconn, just hired the head of China's coronavirus investigation as an adviser.
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| Chris Matthews Confronts Warren: Why Do You Believe a Woman Over Bloomberg? Posted: 25 Feb 2020 09:23 PM PST  MSNBC host Chris Matthews, fresh off his apology to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for comparing his Nevada primary victory to a Nazi invasion, sparked more controversy Tuesday night when he aggressively pressed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to explain why she believed one of Michael Bloomberg's accusers over Bloomberg himself.During Tuesday evening's chaotic Democratic primary debate, Warren directly confronted the former New York City mayor over his treatment of women over the years. Notably, she brought up a lawsuit in which a female employee alleged Bloomberg had told her to "kill it" when he found out she was pregnant. Bloomberg insisted he "never said it," despite the fact he eventually reached a confidential settlement with the woman.Following the debate, Matthews sat down with Warren during MSNBC's post-game coverage and immediately began grilling her on that moment."Do you believe that the former mayor of New York said that to a pregnant employee?" Matthews wondered aloud.After the Massachusetts senator said the issue of pregnancy discrimination was "personal" for her, she noted that there has been a history of people saying that they can't believe women."Really? Why not?" Warren exclaimed, adding that Bloomberg has nondisclosure agreements with "who knows how many women" while asking how the ex-mayor can be trusted if he won't release them all from NDAs in order to tell their stories. (Bloomberg has acknowledged that his company signed nondisclosure agreements with three women but downplayed the significance of the complaints at the center of the agreements, saying they concerned only "comments" or "maybe they didn't like a joke I told.")"Everybody deserves a credible response when they make a charge like that," Matthews retorted. "My question, do you believe he's lying?"Warren replied that she believes the woman, prompting the MSNBC host to shoot back: "You believe he's lying!""Why would he lie?" Matthews continued. "Because just to protect himself?"Telling the MSNBC star "yeah," an incredulous Warren then asked Matthews "Why would she lie?"—leaving the host briefly dumbstruck."I just want to make sure you're clear about this," Matthews said after recovering. "You're confident of your accusation?""Look, all I know is what she said and what he said," Warren responded. "And I've been on her end of it in the sense of discrimination based on pregnancy. It happens all across this country, and men all across this country say, 'Oh my gosh, he never would have said that.' Really?!"As far as the veracity of the woman's story, a third-party witness said he heard the conversation in question. David Zielenziger, also a former Bloomberg employee, told the Washington Post about the exchange, further noting that Bloomberg's behavior was "outrageous" and he "understood why she took offense."Seth Meyers Mocks Mike Bloomberg's Terrible Twitter Jokes About Bernie SandersRead 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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| 7-year-old died 1 minute into tonsil surgery, says parents Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:23 AM PST  Parents of a 7-year-old South Carolina girl said she died one minute into surgery to have her tonsils removed. Paisley Elizabeth Grace Cogsdill died Friday at a medical center in Greenwood, WHNS-TV reported. Family members said the girl snored in her sleep but was otherwise healthy.
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| The Trump administration is reportedly fighting over coronavirus spending Posted: 25 Feb 2020 07:53 AM PST  The coronavirus outbreak has sparked plenty of infighting and finger-pointing within the Trump administration, according to a new report.Politico on Tuesday reported that Trump officials including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and domestic policy chief Joe Grogan have "turned their fire" on Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar as he leads the administration's coronavirus response, feeling that he "poorly coordinated the strategy, failed to escalate the potential risks to Trump and pushed for a multibillion-dollar emergency-funding request that they initially viewed as extreme."This funding, in fact, had been a "major sticking point" between the White House and Azar before the administration ultimately sought $2.5 billion from Congress on Monday, Politico writes. In response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the administration's request "long overdue" but "completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency," NBC News reports. Additionally, Politico reports, there was "finger-pointing and second-guessing for days" after 14 Americans with coronavirus were evacuated from a cruise ship recently. Amid all this consternation, Politico writes at least two of Azar's allies are now "worried that the secretary's job is at risk if the coronavirus response goes poorly."Speaking of worrying, Trump allies and advisers are reportedly fearful of how a "botched" response to the coronavirus could affect the economy, although Trump himself continues to downplay the crisis, tweeting on Monday that "the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA." More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity The Boston Globe endorses Elizabeth Warren. So does Ann Coulter, kind of. MSNBC's Chris Matthews hounds Warren on why she thinks Bloomberg is lying about telling a staffer to 'kill' her pregnancy
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| Ukraine Is Getting Stronger: What If It Could Take on Russia? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:59 PM PST  Or is that just silly?
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| Two longstanding abortion-related measures fail in the US Senate Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:26 AM PST  Two longstanding abortion measures failed to advance in the Senate Tuesday after being helmed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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| Teacher who allegedly washed out student’s mouth with hand sanitiser receives 10-day suspension Posted: 25 Feb 2020 01:12 PM PST  A Florida middle school teacher has reportedly been suspended for putting hand sanitizer in a student's mouth after he wouldn't stop chatting during class.NBC News said Guyette Duhart, a science teacher at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington, allegedly admitted holding the bottle to the child's mouth after he kept talking in class, but she denied pumping the sanitiser, NBC News reported.
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| ‘Don’t You Think You Ought to Check?’: Sen. Kennedy Demands DHS Chief Provide ‘Straight Answers’ on Coronavirus Spread Posted: 25 Feb 2020 08:57 AM PST  Senator John Kennedy on Tuesday demanded answers from acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf regarding the likely extent of the domestic coronavirus outbreak, saying the American people deserve "straight answers" about the deadly virus.During a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Kennedy asked Wolf how many cases of people infected with the coronavirus the U.S. anticipates having."You're head of Homeland Security, and your job is to keep us safe. Do you know today how many the experts are predicting?" the Louisiana Democrat-turned-Republican said."We only know that, again, we anticipate those numbers to grow in the U.S.," Wolf responded, saying that he cannot provide an "exact number.""Don't you think you ought to check on that?" Kennedy asked. "You're the secretary. I think you ought to know that answer."Kennedy also asked Wolf for answers on the mortality rate of the coronavirus, whether the U.S. has enough respirators, and when a vaccine is expected."You're the secretary of Homeland Security and you can't tell me if we have enough respirators?" Kennedy said, adding that lawmakers previously heard separate testimony that the U.S. does not have enough respirators.Kennedy also pointed out that the DHS chief's testimony does not match up with information put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."Your numbers aren't the same as CDC's. Don't you think you ought to contact them and find our whether you're right or they're right?" Kennedy said. "The American people deserve some straight answers on the coronavirus and I'm not getting them from you."Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen afterwards urged Wolf to hold "open briefings" about the situation surrounding the coronavirus, adding, "I didn't hear anything this morning that I haven't read in the newspaper."A slew of new countries on Monday confirmed their first cases of the virus, a respiratory illness that originated in China and has infected close to 80,000 people in 37 countries, killing at least 2,600.
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| China just banned the trade and consumption of wild animals. Experts think the coronavirus jumped from live animals to people at a market. Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:09 AM PST  Experts think the coronavirus jumped from animals to people in a market in Wuhan, China. Officials have now banned the wildlife trade nationwide.
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| Mom of missing Idaho kids wants $5 million bail reduced Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:59 AM PST  A mother arrested in Hawaii in connection with the disappearance of her two Idaho children wants a judge to reconsider her $5 million bail.
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| Body cam captures 6-year-old's tearful pleas during arrest Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  A police officer's body camera shows a 6-year-old Florida girl crying and begging officers not to arrest her as one fastens zip ties around her wrists at a charter school. The video that Kaia Rolle's family shared with the Orlando Sentinel and other media outlets Monday shows the girl being arrested in September for kicking and punching staff members at her Orlando charter school. "What are those for?" Kaia asks about the zip ties in the video.
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| Why is Iran's reported mortality rate for coronavirus higher than in other countries? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:23 AM PST  Iran's reported mortality rate for the illness — about 14 percent — surpasses the rate for other countries by a dramatic margin.
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| Bernie Sanders says he regrets vote protecting gun manufacturers from liability Posted: 25 Feb 2020 06:13 PM PST  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), like everyone else, has some regrets.He let the country know about about one during Tuesday's Democratic primary debate in Charleston, South Carolina. Former Vice President Joe Biden went after Sanders for his past gun control record, which Biden doesn't think is strong enough.Sanders was then asked about previously voting for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which shields gun manufacturers from liability in shootings. Instead of immediately pushing back, he admitted he considers that one of the bad votes among the thousands of his votes he's cast during his time in Congress, adding that he now has a D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association.> Sanders, on his past record supporting gun rights: 'I have cast thousands of votes, including bad votes. That was a bad vote. I have today a D- rating from the NRA...30 years ago I supported a ban on assault weapons.' DemDebate pic.twitter.com/R5f5RE8iyK> > — NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 26, 2020He then went on to point out that Biden also has what he considers bad votes under his belt, like his support for the Iraq War, which Sanders didn't back.More stories from theweek.com Trump puts Pence in charge of coronavirus response Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity
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| This Unit Had Some of the Finest Marine Aces of World War II Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:30 AM PST  They won many medals.
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| Donald Trump Takes Coronavirus So Seriously He Just Put Mike Pence in Charge Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:46 AM PST  President Donald Trump has tapped Vice President Mike Pence to take over as leader of the administration's coronavirus task force. The announcement came after Trump and his administration spent days receiving harsh criticism from Capitol Hill for its mixed messages about the threat of coronavirus and what the government was doing to prepare. On Wednesday night, Trump's message was very clear: "exactly right now," he said, Pence will start leading the White House response to the coronavirus. "Mike will report back to me, but he's got a certain talent for this," Trump said. The president's decision to put Pence in charge was seen by some as further evidence that he is not taking the threat of coronavirus seriously. Over the decades, Pence has amassed a public record that his critics have often bashed as anti-science. On matters of public health, for instance, he has made wild claims in the past. "Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill. In fact, two out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and 9 out of ten smokers do not contract lung cancer," Pence said in 2000. Additionally, Pence has advocated teaching creationism in American public schools and, as governor of Indiana, had an HIV outbreak explode on his watch because he moved too slowly on approving needle exchanges.The president's decision to entrust Pence with handling an outbreak that experts say is approaching pandemic levels comes after he spent much of the week frantically trying to quell fears that members of his team were at odds with one another, fearful that the narrative of dysfunction could complicate his re-election bid.The New York Times first reported Wednesday that the president was considering tapping a coronavirus czar to streamline the interagency process. But senior officials waved off any notion that someone would step in to take the lead in place of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.Immediately after Trump's Wednesday night announcement, Azar was reportedly overheard saying the press was "misunderstanding" Pence's role and stressing that he was "still the chairman of the task force." But he did also reportedly say he was "delighted" with Pence's appointment. The former Indiana governor offered a brief statement on his credentials but nothing else. "As a former governor from a state where the first MERS case merged in 2014 I know full well the importance of presidential leadership, the importance of administration leadership and the vital role of partnership of state and local governments ….on the potential threats of dangerous diseases," Pence said.Trump said he would also bring on an official from the State Department to help the task force coordinate on the virus but did not mention the person's name.The president's announcement that he is bringing on new members of the task force underscores the extent to which the White House is trying to adjust its messaging after days of confusion about how seriously to take the coronavirus threat. Still, though, despite briefings by the Center for Disease Control that the virus would eventually spread throughout the country, Trump, with a representative of that agency beside him, pushed back on that claim. "I don't think it is inevitable," he said. "Probable? Maybe."Reporters pushed him a second time on that claim. He doubled down. "There's a chance to get worse … but nothing is inevitable," he said.Trump went on to blame the Democratic debate for the markets' downward spiral and complained that the Democrats were treating him unfairly—that he in fact had been out in front on combating the virus by banning flights to China. As justification, Trump at one point during the beginning of the press conference held up a Johns Hopkins study that stated the U.S. was the country most prepared to handle the coronavirus.Advisers to Trump have for weeks tried to gather data about how quickly the virus spreads, how it can be stopped, and how to contain an outbreak in the future. But those efforts have largely remained behind closed doors, leaving the public wondering what—if anything—the administration has been doing to address the outbreak. Meanwhile, as cases doubled, then tripled, across the globe, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have increasingly called out top administration officials to be more transparent and to declassify their briefings, accusing them of mixed messaging on the severity of the virus.The situation came to a head Wednesday morning when Alex Azar, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was grilled by lawmakers about the adequacy and breadth of the administration's response. Azar defended the effort and beat off suggestions that he would soon be replaced with a formal czar for coordinating the coronavirus response. The Terrifying Reality of Trump's Coronavirus PromiseHarsh criticism from Capitol Hill over the administration's handling of the virus—dubbed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as "towering and dangerous incompetence"—prompted panic in the White House early this week that the administration was losing its grip on the narrative. The fear, according to two senior administration officials, was that not only lawmakers but the general public were becoming increasingly wary of the discrepancy between the president's statements and those of the health officials leading the task force. Dow Plunges Amid Global Freakout Over Coronavirus OutbreaksTrump and his closest advisers tried to downplay fears about the virus in an attempt to correct the stock market, which fell more than 1,900 points over Monday and Tuesday, according to two senior administration officials. White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appeared on CNBC Tuesday, urging people to remain calm and insisting that the virus was contained to an "airtight" degree. At the same time, though, officials of the Centers for Disease Control were pushing a different story: The coronavirus was contained but would soon spread more widely in the U.S. According to multiple doctors and administrators at three hospitals across the country, the need for more equipment—such as masks, gowns and gloves—has grown more dire by the day. At Bellevue Hospital in New York City, one of the country's only designated coronavirus centers, the stockpile of masks dipped by hundreds over the course of a day when news broke in January that the virus had landed in the U.S. They've since been replenished but there are fears that the supply could dwindle again.While top health agencies have warned that it is merely a matter of time before the virus spreads in the United States, Trump has seemed focused on controlling the narrative to prevent a financial crisis from getting in the way of his re-election campaign. Over the past three weeks, Trump has, on multiple occasions, asked administration officials about the different effects the spread of coronavirus could have on the world and U.S. economies, according to two people present for the conversations. "He referenced [concerns about] the stock market at least two times," said one of these sources, recalling a discussion that occurred roughly two weeks ago. A third source who spoke to Trump in the past few weeks said that the president mused about how his enemies could use pandemic fears against him. "Remember recession, recession, recession?" Trump said, the source recalled, referencing the media and cable news coverage late last year about the growing recession fears in the country.Trump has privately said many times that his perceived adversaries in the press would "love it" if a recession occurred on his watch, thus crippling his chances at re-election, those close to the president say. Reached for comment Wednesday afternoon, the president's White House comms apparatus made a point of sticking it to those alleged foes in the media."Unfortunately what we are seeing is a political effort by the Left and some in the media to distract and disturb the American people with fearful rhetoric and palace intrigue," White House spokesman Judd Deere wrote in a statement. "The United States economy is the strongest in the world thanks to the leadership and policies of President Trump. The virus remains low risk domestically because of the containment actions taken by this administration since the first of the year." 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.
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| Delta offers Italy waivers: A guide to coronavirus travel warnings, flights, cruises, hotels Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:00 PM PST  Here's a look at what the State Department, airlines and cruise lines are telling passengers amid the coronavirus outbreak.
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| DOJ Creates New Unit to Strip Citizenship from Terrorists, Criminals Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:42 AM PST  The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a new unit to handle the denaturalization of individuals who obtained citizenship illegally and other criminals.The new section dedicated to "investigating and litigating revocation of naturalization" of individuals who illegally secured naturalization or committed other serious crimes will be under the Civil Division's Office of Immigration Litigation."This move underscores the Department's commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization," DOJ said in a statement announcing the new unit."When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system—and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals," Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said.U.S. citizens can be stripped of citizenship for a variety of reasons, including becoming affiliated with a terrorist organization or a totalitarian party like the Communist Party, or if it is discovered that the person was not eligible for naturalization in the first place. The U.S. may also revoke citizenship for lying about their identity or "deliberate deceit on the part of the person" regarding other relevant information such as their employment.In 2018, former Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna said his agency was hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to probe cases of individuals who were slated for deportation but later used fake identities to obtain citizenship through naturalization. Those cases would be referred to the DOJ, Cissna said at the time."We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place," Cissna said. "What we're looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases."The U.S. started examining potentially fraudulent naturalization cases about a decade ago when a border official discovered 200 people who had been previously ordered deported but managed to obtain citizenship with false identities.The DOJ's move comes as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration, a priority for President Trump since the earliest days of his campaign.
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| Italy sealed off entire towns and canceled major events after 400 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths made it the most infected country outside of Asia Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:19 PM PST  Cases of COVID-19 have soared in Italy, making it the most infected country outside Asia. Neighboring countries are worried.
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| Cuba buys fuel shipment, vessel and all, due to US sanctions Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:17 PM PST  Cuba purchased a shipment of oil -- and the vessel holding it -- as its owner refused to dock at the island nation over fears of violating US sanctions, the government said Wednesday. Authorities in Cuba -- which is facing a fuel shortage -- did not specify where the fuel or ship came from, nor when the purchase took place. "We have reached the point where we had to buy a ship near our shore -- buy the ship -- because the owner refused to dock with the fuel on board," Transport Minister Eduardo Rodriguez said.
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| Violence, industry co-exist in conservative Mexican state Posted: 25 Feb 2020 09:00 PM PST  Mexico's drug war has long played out in dusty northern border cities or the poppy fields of its southern mountains, but now the killings have moved to the conservative industrial heartland state of Guanajuato, creating a strange duality: shiny new auto plants and booming foreign investment even as the state becomes Mexico's most violent. What Huett apparently means is that what officials define as decent, law-abiding people aren't being killed.
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| Bloomberg girlfriend Diana Taylor on concerns over NDAs: 'Get over it...it was a bro culture' Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:09 AM PST  The campaign later distanced itself from her comments after a "Women for Mike" rally in Texas.
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| Elizabeth Warren says Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand regularly check in on her Posted: 25 Feb 2020 12:16 PM PST  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is on good terms with some Democratic exes.While she can't claim to have raised thousands of dollars from ex-boyfriends, like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) can, Warren has remained quite friendly with several ex-Democratic presidential candidates. In an interview with NBC News, Warren said she's texted nature photos with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) shortly after he dropped out of the race, talked math with Andrew Yang, and kept in touch with former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, who has endorsed her run.But she says Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have particular insight into what NBC News calls the "loneliness" of the campaign trail, something Warren described as like "living in a movie that is running at high speed with everything coming so quickly.""Kamala and Kirsten, in particular, ask me am I getting rest? Am I eating? And am I having some fun out there?," said Warren of her fellow women candidates. "It's a very personal experience to run. Running for president can be thrilling but also very lonely," she said. "The candidate stands alone."Warren even got back in good graces with former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) after taking him down a few pegs in one of the first debates. Delaney said her call to wish him well after he dropped out was "quite lengthy and quite in-depth" and showed "she's not entirely self-absorbed. She actually listens."Read more about Warren's relationship with her ex-competitors at NBC News.More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Donald Trump tells biographer he's the same now as he was in first grade Is Bernie Sanders the Democrats' Goldwater, Reagan, or Trump?
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