New Orleans

Pompeo appeared to coordinate with Giuliani on Ukraine, new documents show

While the impeachment proceedings are now over, ongoing lawsuits and upcoming books are expected to reveal still more details about the campaign to have Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pursue the investigations Trump wanted.

China sentences Swedish bookseller to 10 years in prison

A court in eastern China has sentenced a seller of books that took a skeptical look at the ruling Communist Party to 10 years in prison for “illegally providing intelligence overseas," in a further sign of Beijing’s hard line toward its critics. The Ningbo Intermediate People's Court announced Tuesday that it has sentenced Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swedish citizen. Gui admitted to his crime, agreed with the sentence and will not appeal, the court said.

Two 13-year-old boys charged with murder in California library fire

Charges have been filed against two 13-year-old boys linked to a library fire at California's Porterville City Library that killed two firefighters.

It looks like people with no real interest in Bloomberg are signing up to be grassroots campaigners because he pays $2,500 a month

Mike Bloomberg's social-media army, who can command payments of $2,500 a month, have variable levels of commitment.

Iran Prepares to Suffer the Wrath of the Coronavirus

Iran has sought to deny that the coronavirus is spreading within its borders. Now, the Middle East is facing a new type of crisis—one that could further exacerbate tension in the region.

Tom Steyer has paid more than $40,000 to rent a property owned by Jim Clyburn's daughter

Billionaire Tom Steyer is facing some criticism over his spending in South Carolina, a state where his Democratic presidential campaign is making some legitimate headway.Some people have even accused him of trying to buy votes from the state's African-American voters, which Steyer and many others have adamantly denied, The New York Times reports. One thing that's been particularly scrutinized is the Steyer campaign's rental agreement with a company owned by Jennifer Clyburn Reed, the daughter of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking African American in Congress whose endorsement is considered key in South Carolina. Since October, the Steyer campaign has paid more than $40,000 to the company to rent one of its properties as its state headquarters in Columbia, South Carolina. A California-based bank founded by Steyer, meanwhile, has loaned $1 million to a Columbia-based bank that has one of Clyburn's sons-in-laws on its board.The campaign has brushed off the accusations of trying to procure political favor from the Clyburn family, arguing Steyer is simply committed to hiring local organizers and investing in local businesses to get his grassroots operations running. "The question isn't why Tom is doing this," Steyer spokesman Benjamin Gerdes said in a statement. "The real question is why isn't every other candidate doing it?"The politically-active Reed called the accusations of vote-buying "disturbing" and seemed a bit annoyed that people think she merely serves as a surrogate for her father. "I'm an adult," she told the Times. "There is no connection. My father has his business and I have mine. We do not vote the same way."Besides, it's probably all a moot point — both Reed and Clyburn seem likely to back former Vice President Joe Biden. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com The coronavirus recession? The real third way in 2020 Top member of Trump's coronavirus task force asks Twitter for help accessing map of virus

Virus delivers blow to Hong Kong protests but rage remains

The new coronavirus has handed Beijing an unexpected gift -- an end to Hong Kong's pro-democracy rallies. For the Chinese government -- and its unelected proxy leaders in Hong Kong -- the end of the financial hub's huge rallies that engulfed the city for seven months straight has been a rare spot of good fortune in an otherwise grim start to the year. Protests were winding down when the virus first began to emerge in central China as activists reeled from exhaustion and a huge increase in arrests.

Joe Biden tells crowd ‘I’m a candidate for the United States Senate’ in confused campaign speech

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has raised concern after he delivered a confused campaign speech in South Carolina, saying he was a “candidate for the United States Senate” and that people could “vote for the other Biden” if they did not like him.His speech at the First in the South Dinner on Monday came ahead of the presidential primary in the state on Saturday.

Greyhound will stop allowing immigration checks on buses

Greyhound, the U.S.’s largest bus company, said on Friday that it will stop allowing Border Patrol agents without a warrant to board its buses to conduct routine immigration checks.

One killed, dozens injured in Delhi clashes as Trump visits

A policeman was killed and dozens of people injured amid clashes in New Delhi on Monday as thousands demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law rioted for several hours before U.S. President Donald Trump's maiden visit to the city. Police used tear gas and smoke grenades but struggled to disperse the crowds, as both sides hurled stones and turned a wide boulevard into a rock-strewn battle zone, about 11 miles from where Trump will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks on Tuesday. An official at Delhi's GTB Hospital said more than 35 people injured in the clashes were undergoing treatment.

Pacific NW winds shut interstate, fell tree that crushes man

High winds wreaked havoc on the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, closing a stretch of an interstate freeway in Oregon and toppling a large tree that crushed a man sleeping in an apartment complex in Washington state. The man was critically injured in Renton, Washington, after a tree fell on a six-unit apartment building during a morning of high winds and heavy rain. Elsewhere, Interstate 84 was closed in both directions between Pendleton and La Grande in northeast Oregon, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Portland, because of a downer power line.

Probe into abuse at America's oldest deaf school finds 'appalling truths'

Officials apologized for the "inexcusable actions" of staff and faculty members and the "fact that the school did not prevent or stop them."

China said it would relax its lockdown of Wuhan's 11 million residents, only to immediately reintroduce it

Wuhan announced that some people could leave the locked-down city, only to reverse the announcement hours later as the coronavirus spreads.

Trump's 'Big' China Trade Deal Has Some Really Big Problems

The remaining issues, such as cyber theft, cyber security, and standardization, are untouched by the Agreement and could be the source of tension in the future.

How South Korea’s Coronavirus Outbreak Got so Quickly out of Control

South Korea now has the highest number of coronavirus cases outside mainland China

Senate FISA Abuse Investigation to Focus on Mystery Source Who Contradicted Steele Dossier

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Sunday told Fox News the Senate's investigation into FBI abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will focus on interviews the agency conducted with a Russian source who contradicted much of the information in the Steele dossier."The first thing I want to do is call the people who heard from Russian sub-source that this dossier is a bunch of bar talk and hearsay," Graham said on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures. "I want to find out when did [former FBI director James] Comey and [former FBI deputy director Andrew] McCabe understand it was not reliable and start from there."The source, known in the Justice Department Inspector General's report as "Primary Sub-Source," was former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele's only direct contact in Russia for the allegations contained in the dossier. However, the IG report states that the primary sub-source told the FBI and Justice Department that Steele's allegations were false or misleading, including the assertion of Page's involvement in what the dossier terms a "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation" between the Trump campaign and Russian government."The Primary Sub-source made statements during his/her January 2017 FBI interview that were inconsistent with multiple sections of the Steele reports, including some that were relied upon in the FISA applications," the IG report states.Following the publication of the IG report, prominent Republicans called for an overhaul of the FISA system to prevent future abuses. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported the Trump administration is considering doing just that before FISA legislation is set to expire in March.

Putin Sent Her Activist Boyfriend to the Arctic Circle. Now She Wants to Go, Too.

MOSCOW—Few people are familiar with Novaya Zemlya, a very obscure archipelago above the Arctic Circle that is controlled by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the infamous Soviet spy agency, the KGB. Even fewer people hope to travel to those thinly populated and thoroughly militarized islands, where the Russian army tests its Arctic missile systems, and where polar bears suffering the effects of climate change dig through garbage pits at impoverished settlements. Alexei Navalny on Standing Up to Putin and His Murderous MinionsIt sounds like hell frozen over, in fact—and it figures in what looks like a new tactic by President Vladimir Putin (a former KGB operative) to intimidate his most vocal critics. But Kira Yarmysh has a special reason to go there. She is desperate to see her partner, who became the first victim of such an operation last December.“The FSB abducted my boyfriend, Ruslan Shaveddinov, and isolated him in Novaya Zemlya,” Yarmysh told The Daily Beast. “The most outrageous truth is that several divisions of the state system, including military authorities, aviation, and secret services, are helping to hide Ruslan from us.” This was hardly a random act. Yarmysh is a news presenter and spokesperson for Russia’s top opposition leader, Aleksei Navalny, and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). Shaveddinov is one of the group’s star reporters and presenters as well.Russia still has a military draft, and 12 months of service are mandatory for all male citizens age 18 to 33. Shaveddinov, known as “Shav,” has been famous for presenting vivid, well-documented corruption investigations on YouTube. But at 23 years old, he was vulnerable, and authorities claimed he was draft-dodging.The news agency TASS quotes Moscow’s military commissar, Col. Maksim Loktev, claiming the conscription of Shaveddinov was perfectly ordinary: “He departed to the place of his military service on the draft.” But the young activist’s colleagues aren’t buying it. It’s not just the matter of conscription; it’s the deployment that’s suspicious.“This is a unique example of how the FSB begins to use military service as a prison for politically active young men,” Navalny told The Daily Beast. “I think the order was to isolate Shav.”Viewers all over Russia recognize Yarmysh and Shaveddinov from YouTube, which is the main outlet for Navalny’s reports. More than three million viewed their presentation last summer (while Navalny was in jail) about Moscow Deputy Mayor Natalia Sergunina. They reported she was making millions of dollars off property deals in the Russian capital for companies controlled by her relatives, an allegation that she has denied.  There are frequent police raids on FBK offices, along with confiscations of computers, cellphones, and video cameras. On July 27, members of an armed special unit raided Yarmysh’s home at dawn, woke the couple up, put Ruslan on the floor, and confiscated all of the digital equipment. After a tough 2019, Kira and Ruslan looked forward to celebrating the New Year’s holiday together, without any people around. But on Dec. 23, Kira’s boyfriend vanished and his cellphone was not answered. His friends found the door to his apartment broken. Nearly 24 hours later, Yarmysh discovered that her partner was more than 3,000 kilometers (some 2,000 miles) away, in a unit of what’s called the 33rd Guards Rocket Army based in Rogachevo village on the Southern Island of Novaya Zemlya. Yarmysh had never heard much about the rules of the archipelago and the news came as a shock: there was an old nuclear testing ground near Ruslan’s base; she could not visit his island without a special FSB permit. Then Ruslan called her, and what she heard broke her heart, she says.“There were two army captains with him listening in our conversation, so every time I asked him how he was, he said, ‘Let’s talk about you,” Yarmysh remembered. “He told me he was banned from using his cellphone, which is a violation—every Russian soldier can call home once a week! So I decided to sue his commander.”Yarmysh wanted to be present during the court hearing last week, and, of course, to see Ruslan. She requested an FSB permit earlier this month, but days passed and there was no word back. The court hearing was scheduled for last Wednesday, but a Moscow judge on the case was not able to get to Novaya Zemlya, Yarmysh said—the flight got canceled due to harsh weather conditions. (This is not unusual given the brutal Arctic weather.) “They regularly cancel flights during the winter, so I am surprised that the army managed to transport Ruslan there so easily in December,” Yarmysh said. “It is obvious that the weather is not an issue, if there is an order to bring the guy.”Finally a hearing was held at the end of the week, and a lawyer from the Navalny team was able to make it there, but there was no satisfaction to be had and communications were spotty. At midday on Saturday, Yarmysh tweeted that she still had heard nothing about her boyfriend's fated. (A troll responded with pictures of polar bears eating a bloody corpse: "Found him. But no need to thank me.")The lawyer finally got in touch late Saturday, but only briefly. He reported that, officially, the court said Shaveddinov had no unusual restrictions. But in practical terms that was no consolation, and Yarmysh said she couldn't be sure what happened until the attorney made it back to Moscow. As of Monday, however, he was till stuck above the Arctic Circle because of the weather."Prisoners have more rights than Ruslan," Yarmysh told The Daily Beast. "He doesn't have any right to call, or even to send letters."Yarmysh grew up in Rostov-on-Don, a provincial southern town on the border with Ukraine’s Donbas region. Her single mother brought her up dreaming that one day Kira would win The Clever Heads, a televised competition for high-schoolers that awards the winners with a chance to enroll in Russia’s most prestigious university for future diplomats, the MGIMO, or Moscow State Institute of International Relations. And, yes, Yarmysh won.While studying at MGIMO, she thought she would one day get a diplomat’s position in Africa, far from the Russian political scene. But anti-Putin street protests in 2011-2012 changed her life, and she wound up on the front line of the opposition’s constant fight with corrupt bureaucrats. Her mother has always been an Aleksey Navalny fan, Yarmysh said, so when she got her job at the FBK six years ago, her family supported her. “Kira Yarmysh is one of the brightest stars in Navalny’s team. She is emerging to be even bigger but still stay in Navalny’s shadow,” Echo of Moscow Deputy Chief Editor Olga Bychkova told The Daily Beast. Yarmysh says that if she has to she will wait for her boyfriend for 12 months, as do millions of other Russian girls all over the country. “I hope this is going to be just one year,” she says.  For two months, Yarmysh has been worried, feeling “hurt,” she says, wondering why out of all Russia’s vast military bases, her boyfriend was isolated in the Arctic. “The authorities might think that Ruslan and I, if we come out to a street protest, might lead masses of people,” Yarmysh said, then added: “I personally have no fear. If they raid our homes, if they detain us, I tell myself, we must be doing everything right.” But for the moment that is, at best, cold comfort.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.

President says he fears Bernie Sanders, as Indians label him ‘warmonger, imperialist, gangster’ during lavish Taj Mahal visit

Donald Trump has told reporters Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is the 2020 rival he fears the most during his tour of India, which began with the president receiving a bear hug from Narendra Modi and a lavish welcome from the locals.Prior to visiting the Taj Mahal, the president addressed a “Namaste Trump” rally before a 100,000-strong crowd at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad and praised the country’s economic progress, thriving Bollywood film industry and “very tough” prime minister - only to mangle the pronounciation of several key names, including that of legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Supreme court denies Rodney Reed appeal

The court did leave open the possibility for another appeal following the outcome of upcoming hearings, which could lead to a new trial.

NASA space telescope spots a double star system with an alter ego

It's like a cosmic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

China Is Trying to Compare the Flu to Coronavirus. That Sounds Like Fake News.

Early on in the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, the receptionist at the hotel I was staying at in China asked me if it was true that the United States was experiencing an epidemic of influenza that killed 61,000 people last year...

US accuses Russia of spreading conspiracies about the Wuhan coronavirus, including that it's a CIA biological weapon

Russia has been spreading coronavirus conspiracies, US officials say.

Two-Thirds of the World’s Most Polluted Cities Are in India

(Bloomberg) -- Several Chinese cities, including Beijing, have dramatically improved their air quality in recent years, while Indian metropolises remain some of the world’s worst polluted, according to a new report.Beijing -- once infamous for its toxic haze -- has reduced smog levels and dropped down a list of the world’s most polluted cities, falling to 199 from 84 three years before, according to the 2019 World Air Quality Report published Tuesday by IQAir AirVisual. In contrast, India still dominated its list of the smoggiest urban areas, accounting for 14 of the top 20.Despite new government policies meant to address the issue, New Delhi’s air quality has fallen from where it was five years ago, rising to the fifth-worst spot globally and making it by far the world’s most polluted major city, the report said. The worst-ranked city -- Ghaziabad -- is a Delhi suburb, as are a number of others ranked separately in the top 20.India, China and other Asian countries remain disproportionately affected by toxic air as a result of factors ranging from crowded cities, vehicular exhaust, coal-fired power plants, agricultural burning and industrial emissions. The issue is hardly tangential. The World Health Organization estimates that dirty air kills around 7 million people each year, while the World Bank says it drains the global economy of $5 trillion annually.Even before the coronavirus outbreak and trade war slowed China’s smog-producing industries, Chinese officials had mobilized the country’s top-down, authoritarian state to implement -- and enforce -- sweeping measures, as well as shifting production away from its biggest cities. A recent report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air separately found that Beijing and Shanghai had seen “major progress,” while levels of fine particular called PM 2.5 increased in other parts of the country.India faces a starkly different situation. Across much of northern India, air quality remains catastrophic as politicians prioritize economic growth and spar over responsibility. Many citizens are still unaware of health concerns and resource-starved agencies struggle to carry out new -- or even existing -- measures designed to curb the smog.“In Beijing, it’s a priority -- in China, when they say something, they do it, they put the resources in,” said Yann Boquillod, AirVisual’s director of air quality monitoring. “In India, it’s just starting. People need to put more pressure on government.”A spokesman for India’s environment ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.Why Winter Brings Deadly Smog to India’s Capital: QuickTakeIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has won praise for promoting solar power and improving emission standards. It has handed out millions of gas canisters to reduce the number of families using smoky household cooking fires. In January of last year, the government also launched the National Clean Air Programme.But these measures haven’t had a serious impact on increased coal power plant usage, dust left by the thousands of under-regulated construction sites and exhaust from millions of new cars and motorcycles. Air quality experts have also criticized the national program for lacking strong enforcement and funding.Although many Indian cities saw progress between 2018 and 2019, “unfortunately these improvements are not representative of the very recent, but promising National Clean Air Programme” and cleaner fuel standards, according to the AirVisual report.Indians Are Addicted to Cheap Coal Power and It’s Killing ThemInstead, the authors said, they signal a lagging economy, which grew at about 5% -- the slowest expansion since 2009 -- compared with 8.3% in 2017. The deadly air also kills roughly 1.2 million Indians each year, according to a recent study in the Lancet.While President Donald Trump visited the Indian capital and met with Modi on Tuesday, New Delhi was ranked by AirVisual as the world’s most polluted city. PM 2.5 levels soared as high as 199 -- more than double the local annual average last year.India was far from the only country that remained deeply challenged by smog. Although several Chinese cities -- including Shanghai -- saw improvement in air quality, Kashgar and Hotan in the restive, western Xinjiang region were among the world’s worst.Cities across Asia -- including Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Jakarta and Seoul -- saw sharp increases in PM 2.5 levels. Since 2017, Jakarta saw pollution increase by 66%, making it the worst in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, Chiang Mai and Bangkok both saw a number of extremely smoggy days -- some of which led authorities in the capital to close schools -- resulting from construction, diesel fuel and crop fires in surrounding regions.The problem is particularly challenging for South Asian countries. Using a weighted population average, Bangladesh was actually ranked the world’s most polluted country, while its capital Dhaka was the second worst after Delhi. Pakistan was the second-most-polluted country, while Afghanistan, India and Nepal were all in the top 10.(Updates with details of Trump visit to Delhi in 13th paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected the labeling of Delhi and Chennai on the chart showing pollution levels of Indian cities.)\--With assistance from Bibhudatta Pradhan.To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Hannah Dormido in Hong Kong at hdormido@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Chris KayFor 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.

GOP lawmakers walk out after Oregon climate bill advances

Republican senators slipped out of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, preventing the state Senate from convening in an attempt to doom a bill aimed at stemming global warming. The walkout was a repeat of action the GOP took last year to kill similar climate change legislation, a maneuver that prompted threats of having state police forcibly return lawmakers to the Statehouse. The walkout threatens to derail the main legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass during a 35-day session: A bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions that threaten the planet.

Missing Tennessee toddler's grandmother and her boyfriend extradited after arrest

Evelyn Boswell, a Tennessee toddler who is 15 months old, was last seen in December. An Amber Alert was issued for her on Wednesday.

Ginni Thomas: SCOTUS justice's wife leading right-wing effort to purge officials 'disloyal' to Trump

A group of pro-Trump activists led by Ginni Thomas has reportedly compiled lists of “disloyal” government officials it wants sacked.

S. Korea 'very grave', Moon says as coronavirus cases approach 1,000

The novel coronavirus outbreak in South Korea is "very grave", President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday as he visited its epicentre and the country's total number of cases approached 1,000. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed 144 new infections, taking the tally to 977, the largest national total anywhere outside China, where the virus first emerged. Scores of events have been cancelled or postponed as the outbreak has spread in the world's 12th-largest economy, from K-pop concerts to the start of the K-league football season, with casualties on Tuesday including parliamentary sessions and the World Team Table Tennis championships.

14 products dermatologists recommend for soothing redness and rosacea

These products help soothe skin, minimize redness and prevent flare-ups of rosacea.

Russia Unveils Laika, Its Next-Gen Nuclear Attack Submarine

It looks like an exotic sea creature.

Sunk: How Sweden Sent America's USS Ronald Reagan to the Bottom of the Sea

(In a simulation.)

Here's the key reason Bernie Sanders dominated in Nevada and Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar came up short

Sen. Bernie Sanders' landslide win was facilitated in large part by his multiracial coalition of supporters.

American families strongly support school choice. Educators should listen to them.

Working families are out front on big, structural change for our education systems while political will and policy imagination are lagging.

California woman, boyfriend accused of killing 3 roommates over rent argument

The California couple are in jail in Nevada awaiting extradition on three counts of murder possibly stemming from a rent dispute, police said.

'They don't serve cheeseburgers': Trump's beef-heavy diet largely consists of fast food and steak, but he'll be living on vegetarian meals during his trip to India

An unnamed source who has eaten with President Donald Trump multiple times said, "I have never seen him eat a vegetable."

South Korea to launch mass coronavirus testing, U.S. pledges $1 billion for vaccine

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - South Korea aims to test more than 200,000 members of a church at the center of a surge in coronavirus cases, as countries stepped up efforts to stop a pandemic of the virus that emerged in China and is now spreading in Europe and the Middle East. More than 80,000 people have been infected in China since the outbreak began, apparently in an illegal wildlife market in the central city of Wuhan late last year. China's death toll was 2,663 by the end of Monday, up 71 from the previous day.

Trump fumbles his pronunciation of several Indian names and a Hindi word at India speech

President Trump managed on Monday to mangle his pronunciation of several Indian names and a Hindi word on an otherwise successful first day of his state visit to India.

US economy faces long-lasting damage from trade war: Fed official

The trade conflict of the past two years likely left a mark on the US economy, even with the recent agreement to defuse the situation, a Federal Reserve official said Monday. The outbreak of the new coronavirus in China adds another risk factor to the outlook, which otherwise seemed poised to provide steady growth, said Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve's regional bank in Cleveland. With the partial agreement signed with China to call a truce in the dispute with Beijing -- despite leaving many tariffs in place -- as well as a new continental free trade pact with Canada and Mexico, Mester said the trade picture is "somewhat better" heading into 2020.

Coast-to-coast storm to slow travel for millions

More rain is expected in flooded areas of the South, and Chicago could get its biggest snowstorm of the season.

‘It’s Unfair to Say Everything Was Bad’: Sanders Defends Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro

Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) praised Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes aired on Sunday."We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. You know?" Sanders said. "When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?"When host Anderson Cooper pointed out that Cuba imprisons political dissidents, Sanders responded "That's right. And we condemn that.""Unlike Donald Trump, let's be clear, you want to -- I do not think that Kim Jong-un is a good friend," the senator went on. "I don't trade love letters with a murdering dictator. Vladimir Putin, not a great friend of mine."Sanders's comments received bipartisan criticism from Florida lawmakers."I'm hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro," commented Representative Donna Shalala (D., Fla.), whose district encompasses a seaside area of Miami.Sanders is "wrong about why people didn't overthrow Castro," said Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.). "It's not because 'he educated their kids, gave them health care' it's because his opponents were jailed, murdered or exiled."Sanders has in the past declined to name Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as an authoritarian leader, and has a long history of favorable statements about Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas.

Pete Buttigieg appears to mimic Barack Obama almost exactly in campaign speech video comparison

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has been accused of plagiarising Barack Obama in several campaign speeches.In a compilation video featuring side-by-side comparisons of the two men's speeches, Mr Buttigieg is shown using almost the exact same words as Mr Obama on multiple occasions.

Auschwitz Museum upset at scene in Amazon series 'Hunters'

The museum of the Nazi German Auschwitz death camp is objecting to a scene in a new Amazon TV series that shows a murderous game of human chess being played there, insisting that no such thing took place at the camp. The museumand memorial that guard the Auschwitz-Birkenau site in southern Poland, its historic facts and the memory of the victims tweeted about the scene in Amazon's series “Hunters.” It said inventing fake scenes is “dangerous foolishness and caricature," encourages Holocaust deniers and is disrespectful of the camp's some 1.1 million victims, including women and children. The series' creator, David Weil stressed in a statement it was not a documentary but a narrative with largely fictional characters.

Trump says the stock market is 'starting to look very good' after the Dow plunged over 1,000 points amid coronavirus fears

The comments come as the Trump administration prepares to request an emergency funding package from Congress to combat the coronavirus.

South Korea's F-15K Slam Eagle Fighters Could Make North Korea Hurt

And North Korea has taken notice.

Indian women protest new citizenship laws, joining a global 'fourth wave' feminist movement

Women are among the strongest opponents of two new laws in India that threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims, poor women, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people.The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan – but only those who are non-Muslim. Another law - the National Register of Citizens – will require all residents in India to furnish extensive legal documentation to prove their citizenship as soon as 2021. Critics see the two laws as part of the government’s efforts to redefine the meaning of belonging in India and make this constitutionally secular country a Hindu nation. Since Dec. 4, 2019, Indians of all ages, ethnicities and religions have been protesting the new citizenship initiatives in scattered but complementary nationwide demonstrations. The uprisings have persisted through weeks of arrests, beatings and even killings across India by the police.But the most enduring pocket of resistance is an around-the-clock sit-in of mostly hijab-wearing women in a working-class Delhi neighborhood called Shaheen Bagh. Women take chargeSince Dec. 15, 2019, women of all ages – from students to 90-year-old grandmothers – have abandoned their daily duties and braved near-freezing temperatures to block a major highway in the Indian capital. This is a striking act of resistance in a patriarchal country where women – but particularly Muslim women – have historically had their rights denied.The Shaheen Bagh protests are as novel in their methods as they are in their makeup. Protesters are using artwork, book readings, lectures, poetry recitals, songs, interfaith prayers and communal cooking to explain their resistance to citizenship laws that, they say, will discriminate against not just Muslims but also women, who usually don’t have state or property papers in their own names. On Jan. 11, women in the Indian city of Kolkata performed a Bengali-language version of a Chilean feminist anthem called “The Rapist is You.” This choreographed public flash dance, first staged in Santiago, Chile in November 2019, calls out the police, judiciary and government for violating women’s human rights. A dangerous place for womenIndia is the world’s most dangerous country for women, according to the Thompson Reuters Foundation. One-third of married women are physically abused. Two-thirds of rapes go unpunished. Gender discrimination is so pervasive that around 1 million female fetuses are aborted each year. In some parts of India, there are 126 men for every 100 women.Indian women have come together in protest before, to speak out against these and other issues. But most prior women’s protests were limited in scope and geography. The 2012 brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old Delhi woman – which sparked nationwide protests – was a watershed moment. All at once, the country witnessed the power of women’s rage. The current women-led anti-citizenship law demonstrations are even greater in number and power. Beyond Shaheen Bagh, Indian women across caste, religion and ethnicity are putting their bodies and reputations on the line. Female students are intervening to shield fellow students from police violence at campus protests. Actresses from Bollywood, India’s film industry, are speaking out against gender violence, too. Women’s secular agendaWith their non-violent tactics and inclusive strategy, the Shaheen Bagh women are proving to be effective critics of the government’s Hindu-centric agenda. Their leaderless epicenter of resistance raises up national symbols like the Indian flag, the national anthem and the Indian Constitution as reminders that India is secular and plural – a place where people can be both Muslim and Indian. The Shaheen Bagh movement’s novel and enduring strategy has triggered activism elsewhere in the country. Thousands of women in the northern Indian city of Lucknow started their own sit-in in late January. Similar “Shaheen Baghs” have sprung up since, in the cities of Patna and even Chennai, which is located 1,500 miles from Delhi. Global women’s springIndia’s Shaheen Bagh protests form part of a broader global trend in women’s movements. Worldwide, female activists are combining attention to women’s issues with a wider call for social justice across gender, class and geographic borders. In January 2019 alone, women in nearly 90 countries took to the streets demanding equal pay, reproductive rights and the end of violence. Young women were also at the forefront of the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Sudan, Brazil and Colombia.As I write in my 2017 book, such inclusive activism is the defining characteristic of what’s called “fourth wave feminism.” There isn’t a common definition of the first three feminist waves. In the United States, they generally refer to the early 20th century suffragette movement, the radical women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the more mainstream feminism of the 1990s and early 2000s. Fourth wave feminism appears to be more universal. Today’s activists fully embrace the idea that women’s freedom means little if other groups are still oppressed. With its economic critique, disavowal of caste oppression and solidarity across religious divides, India’s Shaheen Bagh sit-in shares attributes with the women’s uprisings in Chile, Lebanon, Hong Kong and beyond. The last time women came together in such numbers worldwide was the MeToo movement, a campaign against sexual harassment which emerged on social media in the United States in 2017 and quickly spread across the globe. Shaheen Bagh and similarly far-reaching women’s uprisings underway in other countries take MeToo to the next level, moving from a purely feminist agenda to a wider call for social justice. Women protesters want rights – not just for themselves, but human rights for all.[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * India’s plan to identify ‘illegal immigrants’ could get some Muslims declared ‘foreign’ * India has a sexual assault problem that only women can fixAlka Kurian has been awarded the 2020-2021 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award. She volunteers for Tasveer, a South Asian non-profit dedicated to social change through thought-provoking South Asian films, art and storytelling.

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