Richmond

Nearly two-thirds of voters expect Trump to win reelection in November, poll finds

Opinions on the race appear to be firmly set for most voters, with 63% saying they know how they will vote no matter who is the Democratic nominee.

Two arrested as search for missing 15-month-old girl continues

"This case is unlike anything I've ever been involved in," a sheriff said. Toddler Evelyn Mae Boswell has not been seen in nearly two months, but it "was just reported this week."

Mike Bloomberg's social media strategy is under fire as Twitter suspends 70 pro-Bloomberg accounts for platform manipulation

A Twitter spokesman said the identical posts violated its policy against manipulation and spam that was created in response to the 2016 election.

Here Comes 1984: China's Regime Is An Existential Threat to the World

One expert tells you why.

US accuses Russia of huge coronavirus disinformation campaign

US officials say thousands of social media accounts linked to Russia are part of a coordinated effort to spread disinformation about the new coronavirus.The campaign allegedly aims to damage the US’s image and spread unfounded conspiracy theories that it is behind the outbreak which has infected nearly 78,000 globally and killed over 2,500 people.

Iran lawmaker says 50 dead from new virus in city of Qom

A staggering 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, a lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday, even as the Health Ministry insisted only 12 deaths have been recorded to date in the country. The new death toll reported by the Qom representative, Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani, is significantly higher than the latest number of nationwide confirmed cases of infections that Iranian officials had reported just a few hours earlier, which stood at 12 deaths out of 47 cases, according to state TV.

Malaysia in turmoil as Anwar denounces bid to bring down govt

Malaysian politics was in turmoil Monday after leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim denounced a "betrayal" by coalition partners he said were trying to bring down the government, two years after it stormed to victory. Anwar's "Pact of Hope" alliance was thrown into crisis after his rivals within the coalition and opposition politicians met at the weekend reportedly to try to form a new government. Speculation is mounting that Anwar, who had been the presumptive successor to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, and his lawmakers would be left out of any new coalition, ending his hopes of becoming premier any time soon.

A California man drove his Jeep off the roof of a six-level parking garage and crashed into a McDonald's, police say

Police say a California man drove a Jeep off a parking garage and into a McDonald's. Two people dove out of the car before it crashed.

N.Y. Gov. Cuomo compares the 'virus of hate' to the coronavirus after bomb threats were emailed to 19 Jewish community centers in one single morning

"People are worried about the Coronavirus, which we're watching in this state – there's also a virus of hate, and it's spreading," Cuomo said.

How Elizabeth Warren would legalize marijuana and fight ‘Big Tobacco’

Warren has been a prolific co-sponsor of cannabis bills on Capitol Hill.

Coronavirus challenges $45 billion cruise industry

'Business is soft, people are scared to travel,' said Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line.

Three Weinstein Accusers Could Send Producer to Prison for Life

(Bloomberg) -- As the jurors in Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial wrestle with a pair of charges that could send the fallen movie mogul to prison for life, the testimony of three women who don’t even appear in his indictment could help seal his fate.They’re known as Molineux witnesses in New York, where Weinstein is being tried, and they testified to their own encounters with him as prosecutors sought to persuade the jury that the two women he is charged with attacking never gave their consent to sex. Such witnesses testified in the retrial of Bill Cosby in Pennsylvania, which ended in his conviction.On Friday the jury sent a note to the judge referring to two counts of predatory sexual assault -- counts one and three on the verdict sheet it’s working from -- and suggesting it might be deadlocked.“We the jury request to understand if we can be hung on one and/or three and unanimous on the other charges. Thank you,” the jurors told the judge. He told them to keep trying.The other charges are a criminal sexual act and rape. Weinstein is accused of forcing oral sex on “Project Runway” assistant Miriam Haley in his SoHo loft in 2006 and raping aspiring actor Jessica Mann in a midtown Manhattan hotel in 2013.In a category by herself is the actor Annabella Sciorra, who told the jury that Weinstein raped her in the early 1990s. Her allegations are a linchpin for the two predatory sexual assault counts, the gravest charges facing the former Hollywood power broker.Predatory sexual assault requires a serious attack on at least two people. To find Weinstein guilty on count one, the jury would need to be persuaded by the evidence for the alleged attacks on both Haley and Sciorra. To convict him on count three, it would need to find that he assaulted both Mann and Sciorra.Read More: Weinstein Jury Stuck on Most Serious Charges, Told to Keep at ItThe testimony of the Molineux witnesses may come into play as well. Weinstein’s lawyers argue that any encounters their client had were consensual. If the jury finds the allegations of assault from these three women credible, it may decide Haley and Mann never gave Weinstein their consent either, and convict him of rape and a criminal sexual act.And if the jurors believe Sciorra, too, that will meet the requirements of predatory sexual assault -- the two counts they seem to be stuck on -- and Weinstein, 67, could spend the rest of his life behind bars.Weinstein’s lawyers have told the jury that the women had consensual, and even transactional, sex with their client, and that they “re-labeled” the encounters as assaults years after the fact in the wake of the MeToo movement.The first of the three witnesses, Dawn Dunning, testified that in 2004, when she was an aspiring actor waiting tables, Weinstein lured her to a business meeting in a hotel room and digitally penetrated her. The second, Tarale Wulff, told the court that minutes after meeting the producer in 2005, when she was working as a cocktail waitress, he dragged her up a secluded stairwell and masturbated, and later raped her in his SoHo apartment. The third, Lauren Young, said she was a model trying to make it as a screenwriter in 2013 when Weinstein trapped her in his hotel suite’s bathroom, where he stripped off the top of her dress and groped her.Such testimony about uncharged crimes is typically considered too prejudicial to allow, but it’s permitted under limited circumstances. While it can’t be used to suggest a defendant has a propensity to commit a crime, it can explore the defendant’s intent or a common theme. In New York it dates back to a landmark 1901 decision involving a chemist named Roland Molineux who was accused in a fatal cyanide poisoning.Read More: Weinstein’s ‘Trial of the Century’ Gets Its Own PodcastNew York State Supreme Court Justice James Burke ruled in December, over the objections of the defense, that the three accusers could be called to rebut Weinstein’s argument that the encounters were consensual and to show his “intent to use forcible compulsion” on Haley and Mann. The decision was unsealed on Feb. 7, revealing that prosecutors sought to call a total of five such witnesses, the same number as at the Cosby trial.In the end, Burke allowed three.“The consistent theme is that the defendant used his business stature in the movie industry to lure women to believe that he would connect them to careers in the entertainment industry,” Burke wrote, adding that the testimony could help the jury of seven men and five women understand why Haley and Mann feared reprisals if they went to the police.He said it could help the jurors decide whether Weinstein “created an engineered situation where he could be alone” with Mann and Haley “and then sexually assault them.”Weinstein’s lawyers have cited Burke’s Molineux ruling, as well as other decisions that went against them, in calling for a mistrial. Burke has denied the requests.The case is People v. Weinstein, 450293/2018, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan).Read MoreJurors Focus on Predatory Assault, Most Serious ChargeSciorra Describes Gift of Popcorn, Then RapeWeinstein Was Jekyll and Hyde, Witness Testifies‘I Think I Was Raped’: Jury Hears Rosie Perez Back Up SciorraJessica Mann Is Grilled on Contact After Alleged Assault Accuser Called Weinstein a ‘Soul Mate,’ Friend TestifiesWeinstein’s Dream Jury Is Conservative, Traditional, SkepticalA MeToo Moment Two Years in the MakingTo contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor 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.

China canceled the central event of its political calendar because of the coronavirus, a stark symbol of how it has lost control of the outbreak

Delaying the National People's Congress is an admission of China's struggle to control the deadly coronavirus that has killed more than 2,500 people.

Richard Grenell Begins Overhauling Intelligence Office, Prompting Fears of Partisanship

WASHINGTON -- Richard Grenell's tenure as the nation's top intelligence official may be short-lived, but he wasted no time this week starting to shape his team of advisers, ousting his office's No. 2 official -- a longtime intelligence officer -- and bringing in an expert on Trump conspiracy theories to help lead the agency, according to officials.Grenell has also requested the intelligence behind the classified briefing last week before the House Intelligence Committee in which officials told lawmakers that Russia was interfering in November's presidential election and that President Vladimir Putin of Russia favored President Donald Trump's reelection. The briefing later prompted Trump's anger as he complained that Democrats would use it against him.Joseph Maguire, the former acting director of national intelligence, and his deputy, Andrew Hallman, resigned Friday. Grenell told Hallman, popular in the office's Liberty Crossing headquarters, that his service was no longer needed, according to two officials. Hallman, who has worked in the office or at the CIA for three decades, expressed confidence in his colleagues in a statement but also referred to the "uncertainties that come with change."The ouster of Hallman and exit of Maguire, who also oversaw the National Counterterrorism Center, allowed Grenell to install his own leadership team.One of his first hires was Kashyap Patel, a senior National Security Council staff member and former key aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Patel will have a mandate to "clean house," CBS News reported, citing a person close to the matter.Patel was best known as the lead author of a politically charged memo two years ago that accused FBI and Justice Department leaders of abusing their surveillance powers to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. The memo was widely criticized as misleading, although an inspector general later found other problems with aspects of the surveillance.Working with Nunes, Patel began what they called Objective Medusa to examine the FBI's investigation into whether anyone associated with the Trump campaign conspired with Russia's election interference in 2016."I hired him to bust doors down," Nunes told author Lee Smith for his book "The Plot Against the President," which chronicles Patel's investigations on behalf of the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. Patel was interviewed extensively in the book, which claims without proof that journalists, diplomats, law enforcement and intelligence officials engaged in a vast plot to undermine Trump's campaign and then bring him down as president.As acting director of national intelligence, Grenell has access to any secrets he may want to review. And he has requested access to information from the CIA and other intelligence agencies, according to two people familiar with the matter.The revelations about last week's briefing reignited fears about Russia's continuing efforts to interfere in the U.S. election, including in the Democratic primary races.During the briefing, which was supposed to focus on coordination among government agencies to fight election interference, not the acts themselves, Republicans challenged the intelligence agencies' conclusion that the Russians continue to favor Trump. Some officials said the briefing was not meant to be controversial and that intelligence officials intended to simply reiterate what they had told the Senate Intelligence Committee weeks earlier.Intelligence officials have already documented instances of the Kremlin trying to influence U.S. politics, namely attempts by Russian military intelligence officers to hack into the Ukrainian energy company that once employed the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. Officials want to know whether the breach was an effort to help Trump, whose efforts to persuade Ukraine to announce investigations into Biden helped prompt his impeachment.And during the congressional impeachment hearings, Fiona Hill, a former senior White House official who worked on Russia issues, warned about Moscow's continued efforts to spread disinformation.Trump himself wrote in a January letter accompanying the administration's national counterintelligence strategy that "Russia remains a significant intelligence threat to United States interests -- employing aggressive acts to instigate and exacerbate tensions and instability in the United States, including interfering with the security of our elections."Intelligence officials were scheduled to brief the full House and Senate on election security March 10, arrangements that were made weeks ago, accounting to congressional aides.How long Grenell will be able to stay as the acting director is an open question. For him to remain past March 11 -- a limit imposed by federal law -- Trump must formally nominate someone else for the director of national intelligence post.Trump told reporters late Thursday that he was considering Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the intelligence committee, but Collins took himself out of the running Friday morning.Collins, who helped lead the president's impeachment defense, had received no advance notice that he was under consideration for the top intelligence post. He saw no reason to entertain a job he did not want, especially as he wages a special election battle for a Senate seat in his home state of Georgia."I know the problems in our intelligence community, but this is not a job that interests me at this time," Collins said on Fox Business. "It's not one that I would accept because I'm running a Senate race."People close to Collins have speculated that the president might have been trying to entice Collins out of that election to tamp down a messy intraparty fight that could cost Republicans control of the seat. Party leaders have converged around Sen. Kelly Loeffler since Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia appointed her to fill the state's vacant Senate seat late last year and have made no secret of their disdain for Collins' refusal to exit the race.A nomination to a Cabinet-level position would have required Collins to drop out of the race. But given his lack of intelligence experience and political track record, there was little likelihood the Senate would have confirmed him to the post.With Collins off the table, Trump will need another potential nominee. The White House is considering Pete Hoekstra, the former Republican congressman who is now the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, according to three officials.Whether the Senate would be willing to formally consider Hoekstra is unclear. But if Trump were to send a nomination to the Senate it would, under federal law, allow Grenell to serve for at least another six months.In a statement praising Maguire and Hallman, Sen. Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made no reference to Grenell.On Friday, questions arose about Grenell's past employment after ProPublica reported that he had done work for a Moldovan oligarch named Vladimir Plahotniuc who was banned from entering the United States because of his involvement in significant corruption.Grenell wrote articles defending Plahotniuc but did not disclose he had been paid for his work, ProPublica reported. A lawyer speaking on Grenell's behalf said he was not required to register with the Justice Department because he was not working at the direction of a foreign power.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

South Korean cases jump, China counts 150 more virus deaths

South Korea reported another large jump in new virus cases Monday a day after the the president called for “unprecedented, powerful” steps to combat the outbreak that is increasingly confounding attempts to stop the spread. The231 new cases bring South Korea's total to833cases, and two more deaths raise its toll to seven. China also reported 409 new cases on Monday, raising the mainland's total to 77,150 after a zigzag pattern of increases in recent days.

Grave of slain Iraq commander, a new anti-US magnet

Clad in black, they joined wailing women and men beating their chests in grief at Wadi al-Salam (valley of peace), an ever expanding cemetery. All eyes were on the grave of Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Killed alongside top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, Muhandis is now revered as a martyred icon of anti-American resistance.

CDC is preparing for the 'likely' spread of coronavirus in the US, officials say

While coronavirus has not spread in the United States, CDC officials said they're preparing for the coronavirus to become a pandemic.

Indian authorities scramble to give Trump mega-rally

The city of Ahmedabad in India was jostling with activity on Sunday as workers cleaned roads, planted flowers and hoisted billboards featuring President Trump, a day ahead of his maiden two-day visit to India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised him a lively public reception.

Who has qualified for the South Carolina Democratic debate?

To appear onstage in Charleston on February 25, Democratic candidates have to meet a delegate or polling threshold.

Girl, 11, gave birth to baby allegedly fathered by brother

The 17-year-old boy told police he had sex with his sister about 100 times but did not know she was pregnant, according to charging documents.

How China Is Humiliating Pakistan

Pakistan sees itself as a major regional power but recent events show that Beijing considers Pakistan little more than a subordinate colony to be exploited but not heard.

Haiti police exchange fire with troops near national palace

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian police officers exchanged gunfire for hours Sunday with soldiers of the newly reconstituted army outside the national palace, in a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions. At least three police officers were wounded, fellow officers told The Associated Press. Haiti's raucous three-day Carnival celebration was to have started Sunday afternoon in Port-au-Prince and other major cities but the government announced Sunday night that Carnival was cancelled in the capital “to avoid a bloodbath.” Police protesters and their backers had burned dozens of Carnival floats and stands at recent protests, saying they did not believe the country should be celebrating during a crisis.

Deadly coronavirus spreads around globe

The deadly coronavirus epidemic spread further outside China on Monday with a surge of infections in South Korea making it the biggest hotspot abroad, while outbreaks worsened in the Middle East and Europe. The number of fatalities in China also continued to soar, with 150 more confirmed deaths, taking the official death toll to nearly 2,600.

Ira Hayes raised the flag on Iwo Jima. 75 years later, he still inspires this Indian community.

75 years ago, Ira Hayes was one of the six Marines captured in the historic photograph raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.

A day-by-day breakdown of coronavirus symptoms shows how the disease, COVID-19, goes from bad to worse

The first symptom is typically a fever. By day five, patients may have difficulty breathing. By day 10, some are admitted to the ICU.

Harry Dunn's family want Julian Assange's extradition blocked

The family of Harry Dunn has called for Julian Assange not to be extradited as long as the US refuses to send the suspect in the teenager's death back to the UK. They have accused the American government of "demonstrating an extraordinary amount of hypocrisy" in seeking the extradition of the Wikileaks founder, despite rejecting a request for Anne Sacoolas to return to Britain. Mr Dunn, 19, died when his motorbike collided with a car outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27. Ms Sacoolas, 42, the wife of an intelligence official based at the US military base, claimed diplomatic immunity and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy. The US refused an extradition request for Ms Sacoolas last month.

Washington DC mayor: no Democrat is perfect, so consider Bloomberg

* Muriel Bowser says former New York mayor will ‘cast widest net’ * Nevada caucuses: crucial ‘first in the west’ contest – live * Trump calls John Bolton a ‘traitor’ and wants to block his bookDemocrats are not going to find the perfect candidate to take on Donald Trump, the Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser said in an interview published on Saturday, so they should consider backing Mike Bloomberg – as she has done.“We can say that we’re looking for the perfect candidate,” the only woman to be re-elected as Washington mayor told the Washington Post. “News flash: you’re not going to find him or her.“I’m not going to support a disreputable person, but I do want to make sure the person that we get behind has a programme to win that’s going to cast the widest net.”Bloomberg is a three-term mayor of New York City with a personal business and media empire and a fortune of around $60bn.He will not compete in any Democratic primary until Super Tuesday, 3 March, but he has surged in the polls behind huge spending on advertising, visibility in national coverage and stumbles by the former vice-president Joe Biden, previously the leading candidate from the moderate wing of the party.Bloomberg’s spell in the spotlight has attracted Trump’s attention but it has been harsh too: past comments about women, minorities and even farmers have been unearthed, published and pilloried and his use of the discriminatory “stop-and-frisk” policing policy while in office in New York – and subsequent defence of it – has been roundly slammed.Bloomberg kicked off his campaign with an apology for the policy, which was ruled unconstitutional in 2013.Bowser, who is African American, told the Post: “He can’t change history. He can only change what happens in the future.“And I think what’s important is that a real agenda affecting those young men who were targeted by these practices is what everybody is looking for.”The 47-year-old also said no candidate in the Democratic field had a perfect record on race, citing the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ and Biden’s votes for a 1994 crime bill that contained harsh provisions which disproportionately affected minority Americans.“I would argue that more people are in jail because of that crime bill than stop-and-frisk,” Bowser said.In a pointed message given the publication of the interview on the day of the Nevada caucuses, which Sanders was expected to win, Bowser said the party should be wary of fielding a nominee committed to tax increases and nationalised healthcare.“That is a tough message up against Donald Trump, who is presiding over a roaring economy,” Bowser said. “Even if he inherited it [from Barack Obama], he’s presiding over it. And many people won’t understand how taking away their health insurance or raising their taxes is a good thing.”Trump answered Bowser indirectly on Saturday, posting a video to his Twitter account in which he boasted about the economy and called claims he inherited it from his predecessor “the biggest con job I ever heard”.Bloomberg has admitted to some of his reported remarks about women and released testimony from female employees of his eponymous company.But in a torrid first appearance on the debate stage, in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren attacked him in stinging terms, comparing him to Trump for calling women “fat broads and horse-faced lesbians”.“I look at allegations as just that,” Bowser told the Post. “I think what Mike has said is that he’s used crude language. And I’m pretty sure that all of us can imagine Wall Street 30 years ago, male-dominated. And I think we would all be very naive if we thought a lot of crude remarks didn’t happen.”She added: “Now, as an African American woman who’s been in a lot of rooms, we can talk about discrimination. But one of the deadliest forms of discrimination is to be ignored and to be invisible and to not be heard.”Bowser described a close relationship with Bloomberg since 2014, when she first ran for mayor. According to the Post, Bowser backed a Bloomberg White House run after the California senator Kamala Harris dropped out of contention.Harris and the New Jersey senator Cory Booker, the other African American in the original field, consulted Bowser before ending their campaigns, the Post said. Only Bloomberg asked for her endorsement.Bowser said she thought mayors were well-qualified to run for president and commended Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has made a strong run in the moderate lane of the primary.But, she said, Buttigieg has had “difficulty translating his small-town experience into [the] big time”.Bowser is a national co-chair of Bloomberg’s campaign and has appeared for him around the country. She refused to be drawn on whether she would accept an invitation to be his running mate, should he win the nomination.“I have the best job in Washington,” she said. “And I’m here to help Mike win the nomination and defeat Donald Trump.”

Biden's South Carolina advantage shrinks

The latest NBC News/WSJ poll shows that Biden fares best among all Democrats with African-American voters, but the gap is not as wide as one might think.

20-Year-Old Woman, Boyfriend Arrested Over Rental Dispute Triple Homicide

A 20-year-old woman and her 18-year-old boyfriend were arrested in Las Vegas on Thursday after the woman’s three roommates were found dead inside their shared home in Hemet, California.Hemet police Chief Eddie Pust on Friday told reporters that Jordan Destinee Guzman, and her boyfriend, Anthony Damion McCloud, were apprehended in connection to the triple homicide—which allegedly stemmed from a dispute over the rental agreement. The three victims—46-year-old Wendy Araiza, her 21-year-old daughter Genesis Araiza, and Trinity Clyde, the 18-year-old girlfriend of Wendy’s son—were found dead Wednesday evening after officials received a call about a woman lying in a pool of blood.According to KABC, officials said they died of blunt force trauma and strangulation. Stabbing was also present, but it’s unclear if a knife was used.The father of one of the victims reportedly walked into the home while Guzman and McCloud were still there—but the pair fled the scene in Clyde’s car, which was also found in Las Vegas.A family member of Araiza, Cheryl Mead, said they were trying to get Guzman to move out of the house. “I guess that this is how she retaliated, which is pretty horrific,” Mead told KABC.Pust told reporters that police still didn’t know if the “horrific, egregious” crime was “interrupted” or if Guzman and McCloud were going to continue their alleged killing spree. According to news station KCAL 9, he said the investigation was still active.Guzman’s mother said the women let her stay in the home so her daughter could get back on her feet, and claimed Guzman was scared of McCloud. She also told KCAL 9 that her daughter was previously asked to leave other homes and did so without incident. “We can’t be more sorry to the families that have lost their family members,” she said.Guzman and McCloud face three counts of murder and are currently being held on $2 million bail at a Nevada jail. Police say they will soon be extradited to Riverside County, California.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.

Russia's Relationship With China Is Growing Despite Setbacks

What are the strategic implications of Moscow and Beijing working closely together in a sensitive domain?

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.

Kuwait, Bahrain announce first coronavirus cases

Kuwait and Bahrain confirmed on Monday their first novel coronavirus cases, health ministries in the two Gulf states announced, adding all had come from Iran. Kuwait reported three infections and Bahrain one. "Tests conducted on those coming from the Iranian holy city of Mashhad showed there were three confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19)," the Kuwaiti health ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter.

For Virginia Tech parents, new gun laws a long struggle

When Virginia lawmakers pass sweeping new gun control laws in the coming days, it will mark the culmination of nearly 13 years of often thankless work for two parents whose children were shot in one of the country's worst mass shootings. Lori Haas and Andrew Goddard started pressing lawmakers to enact new gun laws shortly after a gunman killed 32 people and wounded more than a dozen others at Virginia Tech in 2007. Haas and Goddard have been Virginia's most visible gun-control lobbyists for years, but until recently had little to show for their work.

CDC: Re-test confirms Westerdam cruise ship passenger 'never had coronavirus'

After Holland America's MS Westerdam disembarked, a passenger tested positive for coronavirus. Following a re-test, the CDC says she never had it.

Mike Bloomberg is roasting Donald Trump in billboards in two Western cities — see photos of the ads

Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg is slamming Donald Trump for eating burnt stake and cheating at golf in his campaign's latest deluge of ads.

Coronavirus updates: Italian towns locked down as almost 150 test positive

As Italy experiences a surge in coronavirus cases, here is the latest for Sunday, Feb. 23.

Hawaii holds woman over missing children amid suspicious deaths

A 46-year-old American woman with reported links to a doomsday cult and to at least three people whose deaths are being investigated has been arrested in Hawaii over the disappearance of her two children. Lori Vallow was arrested Thursday on the island of Kauai and charged with felony desertion of the children, 7-year-old Joshua Vallow, who is autistic, and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, police said in a statement. According to US media reports, the children, who have different fathers, were last seen on September 23, 2019.

Does The Eurofighter Have Any Chance Of Beating Russia's Su-35 Flanker?

We take a look.

Wave of racist attacks against Asian Americans in wake of coronavirus outbreak

Misinformation and exaggeration about the coronavirus have led to a wave of racist attacks on Asian Americans across the US.The attacks are both physical and verbal, and there are also cases of people either from East Asia, or of East Asian descent, being turned away from businesses.

Locusts Could be the Next Plague to Hit China

HONG KONG—Swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in East Africa, hit the Middle East and moved into South Asia. They’re breeding fast thanks to changes in global climate patterns that have brought about major cyclones and heavy rains, and they are feeding off human food supplies across continents. So far, India has managed to prevent a swarm of biblical proportions from spilling over into Bangladesh, Burma, and then China—where the coronavirus has already paralyzed much of the country’s activity. But it’s not clear how long that line will hold. The Next Coronavirus Nightmare Is Closer Than You ThinkEastern Africa has been hit the hardest by the xanthic bugs, with fields in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia ravaged by 360 billion locusts. Swarms can be city-sized, and one of the largest—located in Kenya—covers about 37 miles by 25 miles. It is so dense that it turns daylight to darkness for anyone caught within. Alarmist headlines are proliferating, too, many of them drawing parallels with the plagues in scripture.  “Bible coming to life?” asked the Jerusalem Post. The swarms appear in the Old Testament, most notably in Exodus as one of the plagues Moses calls down on Egypt, which also is referenced in the Quran. In the New Testament locusts are associated with Revelation 9:3, where they emerge in ferocious swarms that also have the sting of scorpions. Allusions to the Apocalypse aside, the real life potential for disaster is huge.A square mile of a swarm can be formed by up to 210 million locusts, which can eat as much food as 90,000 people in a day. In East Africa, the bugs have been tearing through maize, sorghum, cowpeas, as well as vegetation that cattle graze on.Kenya hasn’t seen a swarm this size in seven decades, while Ethiopia and Somalia have managed to avoid these conditions for a quarter of a century. The governments of Kenya and Ethiopia have each dispatched several planes to dump pesticides from the air, which the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says is the only effective way to kill desert locusts. Farmers attempt to chase the bugs off, blasting the claxons on their motorbikes, or rigging contraptions that make loud, metallic noises when shaken. These methods have not made a dent in the locust population. There are simply too many of them.The FAO calls locusts the “most dangerous migratory pest.” They are highly mobile, able to travel up to 90 miles a day if wind conditions are in their favor, and wreak havoc along the way. Female locusts can lay up to 300 eggs within their life span of three to five months. As many as 1,000 egg pods, each holding up to 80 eggs, can incubate underground within a square meter (10.7 square feet). Australian Bushfires and Heat Are Killing Flying Foxes by the ThousandsIn the past, desert locusts have been a key factor that aggravated famines in Ethiopia. And in 1915, they stripped Ottoman-era Palestine of nearly all vegetation.Nowadays, desert locusts are still hard to control, chiefly because they tend to breed and thrive in large swathes of remote land, making it difficult for authorities to tackle the problem before it emerges. The countries that are most severely affected also tend to have weaker infrastructure, making them slower to move the necessary supplies and information to parties that need them.In the East African countries where locusts are swarming now, 20 million people already face food insecurity.The bugs multiplied and some swarms went north to Egypt, threatening a nation where food insecurity is a massive concern, particularly outside of the capital and major cities. (Headline in British tabloid The Express: “‘We are in the last days’ Locust swarm approaching Egypt sparks Bible apocalypse fears.”)But most swarms crossed the Red Sea and made their way to Western Asia, chewing through Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran in early January and laying more eggs along the way.The Middle Eastern nations’ pest control operations failed to cull the locusts, so beds of eggs will hatch by mid-March, releasing new hungry bugs. In the first two weeks of this year, fields in Pakistan and India came under attack too, the swarms intensifying day after day. In India’s Rajasthan and Gujarat—two states in the country’s northwestern quadrant that share borders with Pakistan—more than 380,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged. The season’s harvest of mustard, cumin, and wheat has been consumed by the swarm.What makes the current surge of locusts stand out is not only their numbers and intensity, but also that they are active in the subcontinent during winter months. In the past, swarms typically would dissipate by October. Now it’s February, and they are still going strong.The Indian government was quick to identify the locusts as a major problem, and dispatched experts to work with their counterparts from the FAO in the affected regions. They’re tracking the swarms and destroying beds of locust eggs to limit the bugs’ propagation. And the government has diverted $4.3 million as compensation for farmers who have lost their crops.For now, the Himalayan range is acting as a natural barrier for China, insulating its southwestern border from the scourge that is in Pakistan. But the locusts could bank into Southeast Asia, flowing through Bangladesh and up into Burma, landing in China’s Yunnan province, hitting a country that is already locked down because of the coronavirus’ rapid spread.As fears rise, the state-run media outlet Global Times has been offering ludicrous consolation to the public, claiming that the desert locusts are “eaten by ducks, fried for food,” and “not a threat to China.” And the international arm of state-run CCTV even released a bizarre video of “duck troops” amassing at the border. But the species of locust that is on the country’s doorstep emits phenylacetonitrile, a foul-smelling secretion that is meant to deter predators. Birds typically do not seek them out as a food source.Spokespersons for China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs claim that there is a “very low risk” of locust plagues hitting China, but a researcher at the Beijing-headquartered Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences suggests more caution. The agriculture expert, Zhang Zehua, said that Yunnan province (which borders Burma), Guangxi (an autonomous region east of Yunnan), and Sichuan province (north of Yunnan) could be affected in June or July if the plagues are not brought under control in neighboring countries.Zhang may be right, at least according to India’s Ministry of Agriculture, which issued a notice saying that it expects 200,000 square kilometers (77,200 square miles) of farmland to be blanketed by locusts in June during the onset of monsoon season—when conditions are perfect for ravenous insects to breed.For now, whether the summer may bring another catastrophe to China depends chiefly on Delhi and Karachi’s efforts to exterminate a storm of insects in a race against the seasons.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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Buttigieg questions 3rd place finish in Nevada, cites errors

Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has questioned his third-place finish in Nevada’s caucuses and called for the state’s Democratic party to release a more detailed breakdown of votes and address reports of more than 200 problems allocating votes in Saturday’s caucuses. The campaign also said it received reports that volunteers running caucuses did not appear to follow rules that could have allowed candidates to pick up more support on a second round of voting.

White House reportedly to ask Congress for coronavirus funds but the amount may not be enough

The White House is about to turn to Congress and request emergency funds in an attempt to curb the coronavirus outbreak, four people with knowledge of the request told Politico.So far, the vast majority of cases of the respiratory virus are in China where it originated, but it has been spreading across the globe, and over 30 people are infected in the United States. Because scientists know so little about the virus, including its incubation time, they're worried an outbreak could eventually hit the U.S.But it looks like the amount the White House plans to ask for — $1 billion — might be lower than some public health officials consider necessary, per Politico. If that's all there is, it could reportedly be exhausted swiftly by vaccine development, lab tests, and other investments. For comparison, the Obama administration requested $6 billion to fight Ebola in 2014 and received $5.4 billion.One White House official told Politico the amount is still subject to change, however. Read more at Politico.More stories from theweek.com Trump's host on his India visit is a fervent vegetarian. The White House is apparently nervous about the menus. Elizabeth Warren rose to 2nd place in a new national poll after the Las Vegas debate CNN analyst: Republicans 'may regret' hoping Sanders wins nomination

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The Navy needs not only enough people but the right people, and appealing to them is influencing the design of its future ships.

China's Xi calls for action on economy amid virus outbreak

Warning that China’s virus epidemic is “still grim and complex,” President Xi Jinping called on Sunday for more efforts to stop the outbreak, revive industry and prevent the disease from derailing the spring planting of crops.

Lockdowns to curb coronavirus epidemic lead to a rise in mental health issues

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Police: Couple forced boys off road, angered by Trump flags

A northwestern Indiana couple allegedly used a car to force two teenage boys off a road, angered that the twin brothers were riding bicycles adorned with flags supporting President Donald Trump, before ripping one of the sibling's flag from his bike, police said Friday. Hobart police said Snapchat videos helped officers secure charges against Kyren Gregory Perry-Jones, 23, and Cailyn Marie Smith, 18, in connection with a July 22 incident. Police Capt. James Gonzales said the Hobart couple are accused of driving in their car, running the 14-year-old boys off of the road, and making threats toward them.