World Monthly Headline News January 2020 Page 1
By Geneva Sands, CNNWashington (CNN) The Trump administration on Friday announced an expansion of the travel ban -- one of the President's signature policies, which has been derided by critics as an attempt to ban Muslims from the US -- to include six new countries. Different immigration restrictions will be placed on Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar (known as Burma), Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. The latest iteration comes three years after President Donald Trump -- in one of his first moves in office -- signed the first travel ban, which caused chaos at airports and eventually landed at the Supreme Court. The announcement also comes at the end of a major week for Trump with the signing of the USMCA trade deal and expected acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial. The updated ban has already sparked controversy over its targeting of African countries. The administration has argued that the travel ban is vital to national security and ensures countries meet US security needs. The restrictions are tailored to country-specific deficiencies, as well as travel-related risks to the homeland," a Department of Homeland Security official told reporters Friday. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the third version of the travel ban after the previous iterations were challenged in court. The current policy restricts entry from seven countries to varying degrees: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with Venezuela and North Korea. Restrictions on those countries will remain in place, the official said. Chad was removed from the list last April after the White House said the country improved security measures. Unlike the travel restrictions currently in place, the new rules limit certain immigrant visas from the additional countries, according to the DHS official. Immigrant groups derided the expansion of the program.
LONG LOST WARDespite unprecedented aerial bombardment and the latest troop escalation, the Taliban had a really good 2019.By Spencer Ackerman - Senior Nat’l Security Correspondent, Asawin Suebsaeng - White House ReporterNew statistics about the United States’ generational war in Afghanistan show that President Trump’s 2017 surge of more than 7,000 troops there failed. The latest figures represent an epitaph for a conflict now tied with the occupation of Haiti as America’s longest overseas misadventure. Inheriting the war from George W. Bush and Barack Obama and influenced by then-National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump increased the 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 15,000—it’s between 12,000 and 13,000 today—and returned what he called “attacking our enemies” to prominence within the war effort. It had taken a back seat to training Afghan forces since the Taliban shrugged off Obama’s larger troop surge. The U.S. attack largely came from above. In October 2017, shortly after Trump announced his mini-surge, his then-commander, Gen. John Nicholson, pledged that a “tidal wave of air power” was forthcoming—one that would spell “the beginning of the end for the Taliban.” This week, the Air Force released statistics showing that Nicholson’s rhetoric was warranted, mixed metaphor notwithstanding. In 2019, the military conducted 7,423 airstrikes in Afghanistan, more than five times the 1,337 airstrikes of Obama’s final year as commander in chief. At the height of Obama’s Afghanistan surge, the high-water mark for airstrikes was 5,411 in a single year (2011). In three years, Trump has launched 19,146 airstrikes in Afghanistan, more than the 18,758 of Obama’s entire first term.
By Colin DwyerOnce again, the Pentagon is reporting an uptick in the number of U.S. service members injured in Iranian missile strikes earlier this month. The Department of Defense announced late Thursday that at least 64 service members have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI. "We'll continue to monitor them the rest of their lives, actually, and continue to provide whatever treatment is necessary," Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a statement released with the report. "And we take great pride in the fact that these are our own and we're going to take care of them." The announcement marks the fourth time in several weeks that the official injury toll has increased. Initially, hours after the Iranian reprisal for the U.S. killing of a prominent military commander, President Trump declared that "no Americans were harmed" in the attacks on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. But the Pentagon later contradicted those remarks, first noting in a formal statement that 11 service members had been injured, then 34 — and, just earlier this week, 50. According to Pentagon officials, 39 of those injured have returned to duty. An additional 17 are scheduled to return to the U.S. or have returned already, and several more are undergoing further evaluation in Germany. There are still no reports that any U.S. or Iraqi service members died in the attacks.
‘DAY OF POMPEO’The Secretary of State says he's against corruption in Ukraine. But he didn't defend U.S. diplomats who fought it. Now the joint investigation of Yovanovitch surveillance is off.By Anna NemtsovaKYIV—Many Ukrainians—especially those in the government— were nervous on Thursday as they awaited the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the first high-ranking U.S. government official to visit since the infamous phone conversation last July between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump. As the impeachment storm that grew out of that phone call continues to swirl around Trump, Kyiv fears that Ukraine will be dragged even deeper into the maelstrom, weakening its defenses against Russia, and perhaps undermining the fight against pervasive corruption. While on the surface, official Washington policy is supportive of Ukraine in both those efforts, Trump has tried to equate the struggle against corruption with his explicit desire, expressed in that July 25 phone call (PDF), to have investigations focus attention on his political rival Joe Biden and various conspiracy theories pushed by Russian propaganda. As he was promoting that narrow program, he also withheld vitally needed military aid from Ukraine. Led by Trump’s personal lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, several Ukrainians out to curry favor with the U.S. president and undermine their own rivals here helped promote Trump’s pet theories. They also worked successfully to get veteran U.S. Amb. Marie Yovanovitch removed from her post and may have tried to put her under surveillance.
By Luke McGee, CNNLondon (CNN) After three-and-a-half years, three prime ministers and seemingly endless votes in Parliament since the 2016 Brexit referendum, Britain finally becomes the first ever country to leave the European Union at 11:01 p.m. GMT on Friday. Despite this cataclysmic event, almost all of the immediate changes will be invisible to the public. The United Kingdom will enter the transition period that was agreed between the British government and the EU. And the terms of that agreement mean that for the next 11 months, the UK remains an EU member state in all but name.
By ArLuther Lee, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionFormer President Jimmy Carter issued a statement Thursday rejecting President Donald Trump’s newly proposed Middle East peace plan, which calls for the Israeli annexation of key swaths of Palestinian-held land. The statement issued Thursday by the Carter Center in Atlanta describes Trump’s offer as "fragmented statehood” which leaves Palestinians “without control of their borders ... and undercuts prospects for a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.” Trump unveiled the long-awaited plan Tuesday in Washington alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
By Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAYAt the stroke of 11 pm London time on Jan. 31, the United Kingdom will formally leave the European Union (12 pm in Brussels, where the now 27-member bloc is headquartered; 6 pm ET). It's the first time a country has left the EU. In some respects, it's the end of the U.K's 47-year participation in a project that grew out of the ashes of a Europe wracked by the humanitarian and economic stresses and strains of World War II. But the exit process is not completely done and dusted. Here's what's happening with Brexit, and what comes next. Marking the occasion but few celebrations. The authorities have been careful to organize a series of toned-down events rather than outright festivities. This reflects the deep divisions in the county over Brexit. Among the initiatives: A commemorative 50 pence (65 cents) coin will come into circulation. It will say "peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations." Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the nation, saying, among other things that "Brexit is not an end but a beginning"; a chance for Britain to reclaim its national sovereignty. Not everyone agreed with that sentiment. There will be a light display in Downing Street – Johnson's official office and residence – including a clock counting down from 10 pm, but Big Ben will not chime out. Other buildings around Whitehall, home to many U.K. government offices in London, will also be lit up and Union Jack flags will line Parliament Square and the Mall.
By Andy Rose and Paul LeBlanc, CNN(CNN) Newly installed panels from the US border wall fell over in high winds Wednesday, landing on trees on the Mexican side of the border. The area is part of an ongoing construction project to improve existing sections of the wall. Agent Carlos Pitones of the Customs and Border Protection sector in El Centro, California, told CNN that the sections that gave way had recently been set in a new concrete foundation in Calexico, California. The concrete had not yet cured, according to Pitones, and the wall panels were unable to withstand the windy conditions. The National Weather Service reports that winds in the area gusted as high as 37 mph Wednesday. Video from CNN affiliate KYMA shows the metal panels leaning against trees adjacent to a Mexicali, Mexico, street as the wind whips up dirt from the construction site on the other side of the border. "We are grateful there was no property damage or injuries," said Pitones.
Stock traders are accused of siphoning $60 billion from state coffers, in a scheme that one called “the devil’s machine.” Germany is the first country to try to get its money back.By David SegalThey made quite a team. One was an Oxford-educated wunderkind who handled the complicated math behind the transactions. The other was a beefy, 6-foot-2 New Zealander with an apparent fondness for Hawaiian shirts, who brought in clients and money. Martin Shields and Paul Mora met in 2004, at the London office of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Shields was always the pupil, a little in awe of the older man’s ability to bluff and charm. Once, after Mr. Mora fended off suspicious auditors at a bank where the two worked, Mr. Shields sent an admiring email. “Remind me never to play poker with you,” he said, according to an internal report later commissioned by the bank. Today, the men stand accused of participating in what Le Monde has called “the robbery of the century,” and what one academic declared “the biggest tax theft in the history of Europe.” From 2006 to 2011, these two and hundreds of bankers, lawyers and investors made off with a staggering $60 billion, all of it siphoned from the state coffers of European countries. As one participant would later put it, taxpayer funds were an irresistible mark for a simple reason: They never ran out. The scheme was built around “cum-ex trading” (from the Latin for “with-without”): a monetary maneuver to avoid double taxation of investment profits that plays out like high finance’s answer to a David Copperfield stage illusion. Through careful timing, and the coordination of a dozen different transactions, cum-ex trades produced two refunds for dividend tax paid on one basket of stocks.
By Clark MindockRudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has shown up unexpectedly on Capitol Hill, where he is demanding to meet with senators to tell his side of the impeachment scandal story. Mr Parnas was spotted by reporters as he arrived, and asked what he would tell senators if he were able to get an audience with them. "Call the witnesses," Mr Parnas responded. "The president knew everything." He continued, claiming that there were "many quid pro quos" beyond the one apparently highlighted in the 25 July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in which the American asked for an investigation by the Ukrainian government into a domestic political rival. That phone call sparked a whistle blower complaint, and later the impeachment investigation that has led now to Mr Trump's trial in the Senate. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Mr Parnas, who has been indicted last year on charges of alleged campaign finance violations, could attend the Senate impeachment investigation, but that he would not be allowed to take off his GPS ankle monitor to do so. Because of that, it appears as though he would not be permitted to enter the Senate floor due to the chamber's rules.
The first son-in-law has warned Palestinians not to “screw up this opportunity” at peace that he’s so graciously given to them.By Bess LevinLast June, more than two years after his father-in-law assigned him the task of bringing peace to the Middle East, Jared Kushner held a big kickoff conference in Bahrain to unveil the economic portion of his plan—and it did not go well. For starters, Palestinian leadership boycotted the entire event, feeling that the plan was missing a few key details, such as, just as some examples, solutions for control of the West Bank and Palestinian statehood. Kushner, ever the real estate agent, gave a speech in which he spoke of transforming the Gaza Strip into a tourist destination, failing to mention Israel and Egypt’s 12-year blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory, in addition to Israel’s 52-year-long occupation of the West Bank, which restricts trade and labor movements. When the Boy Prince of New Jersey touched on politics, it was to offer the savvy take that if everyone just stopped “doing terrorism,” it would “allow for much faster flow of goods and people.” Not surprisingly, the whole thing was panned by experts, one of whom described Kushner’s plan as “the Monty Python sketch of Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives.” Undeterred, Kushner got on a call with Arab and Israeli reporters and, putting on his salesman cap, explained that his vision was 100% workable if Palestinian leadership would stop being so “hysterical and stupid.”
First submarine to go on patrol armed with the W76-2 warhead makes a nuclear launch more likely, arm control advocates warnBy Julian Borger in WashingtonThe US has deployed its first low-yield Trident nuclear warhead on a submarine that is currently patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, it has been reported, in what arms control advocates warn is a dangerous step towards making a nuclear launch more likely. According to the Federation of American Scientists, the USS Tennessee – which left port in Georgia at the end of last year – is the first submarine to go on patrol armed with the W76-2 warhead, commissioned by Donald Trump two years ago. It has an explosive yield of five kilotons, a third of the power of the “Little Boy” bomb dropped on Hiroshima and considerably lower than the 90- and 455-kiloton warheads on other US submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The Trump administration’s nuclear posture review (NPR) in February 2018, portrays this warhead as a counter to a perceived Russian threat to use its own “tactical” nuclear weapons to win a quick victory on the battlefield. Advocates of W76-2 argued that the US had no effective deterrent against Russian tactical weapons because Moscow assumed Washington would not risk using the overwhelming power of its intercontinental ballistic missiles in response, for fear of escalating from a regional conflict to a civilian-destroying war.
German prosecutors investigate two former employees for suspected briberyBy Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt and Stephen Morris and Arash Massoudi in London January 26 2020Deutsche Bank paid $1.1m to secure the wealth management business of a senior Saudi royal, according to an internal probe that led to two former staff being reported to criminal prosecutors. The scandal in the wealth management division, which involved payments to the wife of the royal’s financial adviser, highlights the legal and reputational risks to a unit that is central to the German bank’s turnround hopes. The money transfers were arranged in 2011 and 2012 alongside other perks for the adviser’s family, including an internship and a seminar at a Swiss ski resort, according to the results of the probe, seen by the Financial Times. The internal investigation between 2014 and 2016, codenamed Project Dastan, found the Deutsche employees involved were trying to retain the wealthy client and win additional business. Some of the pay and perks violated Deutsche’s policies on anti-corruption and gifts and entertainment, the probe found.
Channel 4 NewsBritain has changed its travel advice advising against all but essential travel to the whole of mainland China, as a result of the new coronavirus.
CBS Evening NewsThe Caribbean was hit by a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake. It was centered between Cuba and Jamaica, and felt in Miami. Manuel Bojorquez reports.
By Oren Liebermann and Amir Tal, CNNJerusalem (CNN) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formally indicted on corruption charges Tuesday, just hours before he was set to meet President Donald Trump for the unveiling of the US administration's long-anticipated Middle East plan. Netanyahu has been charged with bribery and fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit submitted the indictment in Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday shortly after Netanyahu withdrew his request for parliamentary immunity, a request he was almost certain to lose. Netanyahu has insisted he is innocent, calling the investigations an "attempted coup" driven by the left and the media. The charges in court mean that Netanyahu will be the first sitting prime minister to face trial in the country's history. A trial date has not been set yet, but the legal process could possibly take years. Under Israeli law, Netanyahu does not have to resign upon indictment. Instead, he only has to resign if he is convicted and that conviction is upheld through the appeals process.
By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon CorrespondentWashington (CNN) Fifty US military personnel have now been diagnosed with concussions and traumatic brain injuries following the Iranian missile attack on US forces in Iraq earlier this month, according to a statement Tuesday from the Pentagon. That's an increase of 16 from late last week when the Pentagon said 34 cases had been diagnosed. "As of today, 50 U.S. service members have been diagnosed with TBI," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell said in the statement. "Of these 50, 31 total service members were treated in Iraq and returned to duty, including 15 of the additional service members who have been diagnosed since the previous report. 18 service members have been transported to Germany for further evaluation and treatment. This is an increase of one service member from the previous report. As previously reported, one service member had been transported to Kuwait and has since returned to duty," the statement added. Several Pentagon officials told CNN that the number of diagnosed cases is likely to continue to change. Approximately 200 people who were in the blast zone at the time of the attack have been screened for symptoms.
Annexation of territory would cut West Bank from River Jordan, which feeds over 80,000 hectares of agricultural lands.The Jordan Valley, which accounts for almost a third of the occupied West Bank, "will be under Israeli sovereignty", according to the long-delayed plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unveiled by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who joined Trump for the announcement of the plan, has been adamant that the Jordan Valley falls under full Israeli control and become an important part of its eastern border.
The White House launched a 'conceptual map' of what the West Bank and Gaza Strip would look like.Standing beside a grateful Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East plan, which is referred to as the "Deal of the Century", on January 28. The plan promises a better life for the Palestinians if they give up their hopes for freedom. The Palestinians were not involved in the making of the 80-page brochure and were not invited to the launch party. So, what are the prospects for Trump's "ultimate deal" for the Middle East? Join Steve Clemons and his panel in a discussion of the timing and content of the plan.
A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake has struck in the Caribbean, prompting brief tsunami warnings and office evacuations as far away as Florida.The quake hit between Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Cuba at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said on Tuesday. Buildings shook and tremors were felt across the Caribbean, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Some offices were temporarily evacuated in Miami and parts of Jamaica. Warnings by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) were later withdrawn. The PTWC initially said "hazardous tsunami waves" were possible for coasts located within 300km (186 miles) of the earthquake's epicentre. This included parts of Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, it said. But in an update at around 20:45 GMT, the PTWC said the "tsunami threat had now largely passed". Seismologist Dr Lucy Jones tweeted: "The M7.7 Jamaican quake produced sideways motion on the fault, so the tsunami risk is low."
The leader dropped his push for immunity on the same day Trump unveils his Middle East peace plan.By Jen KirbyIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has — finally, officially, for real this time — been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. The indictment was a long time coming. In fact, the right-wing leader had already been indicted in November, sort of. But Netanyahu threw a wrench in the works, asking the Israeli parliament, called the Knesset, to grant him immunity from prosecution as a sitting prime minister. On Tuesday, he officially withdrew that request, allowing prosectors to formalize the indictment. Which means Netanyahu, the man who has led Israel since 2009 and overseen a dramatic rightward shift in its politics, is going to trial.And it’s happening right as he’s preparing for yet another election in March. The announcement also came just a few hours before Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with President Trump on Tuesday, as the administration prepares to unveil its long-delayed, and already maligned, plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu has denied the charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases, which he’s called “trumped up” and part of a “witch hunt.”
The proposal destroys the prospects for any real deal and brings Israel meaningfully closer to “apartheid.”By Zack BeauchampDonald Trump’s “peace plan” isn’t a plan for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. It’s a plan for scuttling them. The president released the long-awaited political framework of his “Peace to Prosperity” plan on Tuesday afternoon after a White House ceremony featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposal is missing a signature feature of every prior peace plan: a path to a viable Palestinian state. It divides up the Palestinian territories and surrounds them by Israel, and gives Israel total control over Palestinian security — allowing a future Palestinian government to exercise full control over its own land only when Israel deems it acceptable. It’s a kind of state-minus: a Palestine without much of its land and subservient to Israel for basic functions.“Trump can try to make this a Palestinian state by calling it a state. But it ain’t ever gonna whistle,” writes Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy. Needless to say, the Palestinians cannot and will not agree to such humiliation, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has already ruled it out. “No, no, and no,” he has said. “Jerusalem is not for sale. All of our rights are not for sale or bartering.” In fact, the Trump administration didn’t even have a role in writing the plan: It was put together primarily by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, in consultation with the Israeli government. The notion that this is a good-faith effort to make peace is laughable. So if the “peace plan” isn’t a peace plan, then what is it?
By Matthew Cappucci and Jason SamenowOne of the strongest earthquakes on record in the Caribbean, 7.7 magnitude, struck about 70 miles northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday. Minor shaking was felt as far north as Florida, while more moderate shaking was reported in Jamaica. Shaking was also reported in the Cayman Islands and Cuba. Initial reports of damage from the region have been spotty. In South Florida, where shaking was felt when the earthquake struck, multiple buildings were evacuated in Miami. Several aftershocks, including a magnitude 6.1 tremor about 35 miles southeast of the Cayman Islands at 4:55 p.m. eastern, followed the initial quake.
Military says at least two Americans were on board Air Force planeBy Nancy A. Youssef in Washington and Ehsanullah Amir in KabulA U.S. military aircraft with at least two American service members on board crashed into Taliban-controlled Afghan territory on Monday, defense officials said, posing a complicated search and recovery effort. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said the plane was an Air Force E-11, an electronics surveillance aircraft. There was no indication the crash was caused by enemy fire, said Army Col. Sonny Leggett, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Defense Department wouldn’t say how many were on board or whether there were casualties. A U.S. defense official said the Pentagon believes mechanical failure caused the crash. The plane was part of a group of aircraft assigned to the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron which is based in Kandahar, the official said. The risk of recovery aircraft coming under Taliban attack has hampered the recovery mission, the U.S. official said. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, speaking alongside his French counterpart at a Pentagon briefing Monday, refused to discuss details of the crash.
By Bill ChappellA mortar attack landed a rare direct hit on the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad's Green Zone on Sunday night, damaging buildings and reportedly leaving at least one person with minor injuries. Iraq's prime minister condemned the strike, saying it could turn the country into a battlefield and complicate efforts to get the U.S. to withdraw troops from Iraq. "I heard the explosions and then the 'take cover' warning — the sirens that sound from the embassy," NPR's Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad. She adds, "This is a fairly regular occurrence, small rocket attacks or mortars fired into the Green Zone, but they very rarely actually hit the embassy. This one did."
Analysis by Jonathan MarcusThe US military has confirmed one of its planes crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. Col Sonny Leggett said: "While the cause of crash is under investigation, there are no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire." The aircraft crashed in Deh Yak district, Ghazni province, an area with a strong Taliban presence. It is unclear how many people were on board. Col Leggett denied Taliban claims that additional aircraft had crashed. Taliban social media accounts have posted unverified footage showing a burnt-out plane with US Air Force markings. The video shows a Bombardier E-11A - the type of jet used by the US Air Force for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan. Afghan authorities had initially said the crash plane belonged to state-owned airline Ariana, but the company quickly said all its planes were accounted for.
By Elizabeth Cohen, Senior Medical Correspondent(CNN) China's health minister Ma Xiaowei had some very bad news Sunday about the Wuhan coronavirus: He said people can spread it before they have symptoms. "This is a game changer," said Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's much harder to contain a virus -- to track down a patient's contacts and quarantine them immediately -- if the patient was spreading the disease for weeks before they even realized they had it."It means the infection is much more contagious than we originally thought," said Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "This is worse than we anticipated." A spokesperson for the CDC was not immediately available for comment on Sunday. If the Chinese health minister is right -- and there are those that doubt him -- that means the three confirmed cases in the United States might have been infectious while flying from Wuhan to California, Illinois and Washington state. The Wuhan coronavirus has killed more than 50 in China and infected thousands there, and spread as far away as the US, France and Canada.
By Ryan W. Miller and Grace Hauck - USA TODAYFifteen people died from coronavirus in Wuhan, China on Friday, bringing the death toll to 41 people, Chinese officials said in a statement online. A second case of the virus was confirmed in the U.S. Friday, along with three cases in France. The victims in China were between the ages of 55 and 87 years old, the statement said. In Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located, 180 new cases of coronavirus were reported Friday, bring the total number of people affected to more than 1,000 worldwide. French health officials confirmed the first three cases in Europe. At a press conference Friday afternoon, Health Minister Agnes Buzyna identified two of the patients as a 48-year-old man in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, who had passed through Wuhan; and another person in Paris, who had also traveled to China. Both were hospitalized. Buzyna did not immediately provide details about the third patient.
Globally, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen to 1,354.By Catherine KimHong Kong declared a state of emergency on Saturday in response to growing concern over the spread of a coronavirus that first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan, announcing it will close schools for three weeks and impose a limited transportation ban. Chief Executive Carrie Lam held an urgent meeting with health officials Saturday morning to discuss the mysterious virus, which has — in limited numbers — begun to affect people across the globe.According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, there are currently over 1,400 confirmed cases worldwide: while most have occurred in mainland China, 38 cases have been confirmed in 13 places abroad as well — including five cases in Hong Kong. According to Reuters, an additional 122 people are suspected of having the virus and are undergoing precautionary treatment. The first case in Hong Kong was confirmed on Wednesday; four new cases surfaced by Friday night — all involving people who had visited Wuhan.In response, Hong Kong is taking precautionary measures, according to the Hong Kong Free Press: schools and universities, which are already closed for the Lunar New Year, will not open until February 17. Transportation from Wuhan will be cancelled until further notice. And major public events, including annual Lunar New Year celebrations and a marathon next month, have been scrapped.
Katitika, Kenya – The worst outbreak of desert locusts in Kenya in 70 years has seen hundreds of millions of the bugs swarm into the East African nation from Somalia and Ethiopia. Those two countries have not had an infestation like this in a quarter-century, destroying farmland and threatening an already vulnerable region with devastating hunger. "Even cows are wondering what is happening," said Ndunda Makanga, who spent hours Friday trying to chase the locusts from his farm. "Corn, sorghum, cowpeas, they have eaten everything." Even a small swarm of the insects can consume enough food for 35,000 people in a single day, said Jens Laerke of the U.N. humanitarian office in Geneva.
The billionaire oligarch is “at the dead center of the greatest corruption operation in Ukraine’s history,” said a former senior U.S. diplomat.By Tom Winter, Ken Dilanian and Dan De LuceIn September, one month before Lev Parnas was indicted on campaign finance charges, his wife received wire transfers from a bank account in Russia. The sum was $1 million, and the source was a lawyer for Dmytro Firtash, according to a court filing by U.S. prosecutors. Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who made a fortune in the natural gas trade, is perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the scandal that has played a key role in President Donald Trump’s impeachment.A billionaire with alleged ties to the Russian mob, Firtash is facing bribery-related charges in the U.S. and fighting extradition from Vienna. He once attempted to buy and redevelop the famous Drake Hotel in New York with the now-incarcerated Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. And he’s seen by Ukrainian anti-corruption activists and Western governments as a corrupt instrument of Russia.Exactly why the money was sent to the wife of Parnas — the former Trump donor and Rudy Giuliani associate who has since turned on the president — is unclear. But Firtash provided key documents that Giuliani used to further his discredited claim that former Vice President Joe Biden engaged in wrongdoing in Ukraine.
By Veronica Stracqualursi and Steven Jiang, CNN(CNN) The US government is arranging a charter flight to evacuate diplomats from the Chinese city that has become ground zero for a new deadly strain of coronavirus, a US official with knowledge of the matter told CNN Saturday. The United States has a contract with a transporter to evacuate diplomats from the US consulate in Wuhan, China. The consulate is closed and all US diplomats are "under ordered departure," the official said. Details of the flight plan are still being finalized and the source said "a lot depends on what the Chinese authorities will allow us to do," adding that Beijing has been "very cooperative." The State Department and White House have not yet responded to CNN's request for comment on the matter. The Wall Street Journal first reported the planned evacuation.
A national march against the presence of United States forces, organized by a populist Shiite cleric and armed groups with ties to Iran, drew a crowd estimated at 200,000 to 250,000.By Alissa J. Rubin and Falih HassanBAGHDAD — Throngs of Iraqis gathered on the streets of the capital, Baghdad, on Friday to protest the United States military presence at the behest of a leading populist cleric and armed forces with ties to Iran.The demonstration came three weeks after the United States launched a drone strike in capital that killed the Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and a prominent member of the Iraqi government, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, with close ties to the Popular Mobilization Forces, some of whom are close to Iran.Days later, at the urging of the Iraqi prime minister, the Parliament endorsed a measure demanding the expulsion of foreign forces from Iraq, which in the minds of most Iraqis meant American troops. The protest on Friday was the first designed specifically to denounce the American presence in Iraq since the parliamentary measure.
RENDITIONAbdulrahman Almutairi is a Saudi social-media influencer who criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. If not for the FBI, he says, he might’ve met Jamal Khashoggi’s fate.By Spencer AckermanA suspected agent of the Saudi government attempted to kidnap a regime critic on American soil, according to the critic and multiple U.S. and foreign sources familiar with the episode. The young Saudi man says the FBI saved him from becoming the next Jamal Khashoggi. Abdulrahman Almutairi is a 27-year-old comedian and former student at the University of San Diego with a big social-media presence. After Almutairi used social media to criticize the powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman over the October 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi, an unidentified Saudi man accompanied Almutairi’s father on a flight to collect Almutairi against his will and bring him back to Saudi Arabia, according to The Daily Beast’s sources. “The Saudi government realized I was a threat,” Almutairi told The Daily Beast, revealing for the first time an ordeal that might have culminated in a whole new crisis: the kidnapping and rendition of a Saudi dissenter on American soil. Only timely intervention from the FBI broke up the plot, two sources say. “If I go back to Saudi Arabia,” Almutairi said, “I’ll be killed in the airport.”
By Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNNWashington (CNN) Thirty-four US service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries following the Iranian missile attack on US forces in Iraq earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Friday. Seventeen service members who were injured have since returned to duty in Iraq, sixteen of whom were treated locally in the country. Nine service members are still being treated in Germany. An additional eight service members who had been flown to Germany have since been sent to the United States for additional treatment. The eight service members, who arrived in the US Friday morning, will be treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center or at hospitals in their home bases. Although traumatic brain injuries are not always apparent immediately after they've been suffered, the disclosure of injured US service members indicates that the impact of the attack was more serious than initial assessments indicated. The Pentagon and President Donald Trump had initially said no service members were injured or killed in the January 8 Iranian missile attack, which was retaliation for the January 2 US drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.Hoffman said Friday that the Defense Department will review its processes for tracking and reporting injuries suffered by service members. "The goal is to be as transparent, accurate and to provide the American people and our service members with the best information about the tremendous sacrifices our war fighters make," Hoffman told reporters Friday. Earlier this week President Donald Trump said he does not consider potential brain injuries to be as serious as physical combat wounds, downplaying the severity of the injuries suffered in Iraq.
Palestinians reject US meeting with Netanyahu, promise not to recognise peace plan expected to favour Israel.The Palestinian Authority (PA) has warned Israel and the United States against "crossing red lines" promising not to recognise any Middle East peace plan it had previously rejected as US President Donald Trump prepares to present the plan in the coming days. Trump said on Thursday he will likely release the long-awaited plan before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, DC next week. "Probably we'll release it a little bit prior to that," the US leader told reporters travelling with him to Florida on board Air Force One, referring to the White House meeting on Tuesday. "It's a great plan. It's a plan that really would work," he added. The Palestinians, who were not invited to the White House meeting with Netanyahu, immediately rejected the US-hosted talks, as they reject the peace plan itself, which has been in the works since 2017. Its release has been delayed repeatedly.
By Kerry A. Dolan Forbes StaffIsabel dos Santos amassed an empire worth more than $2 billion as the daughter of Angola’s former longtime president. Now it looks like that empire is beginning to crumble. On Wednesday—as the Attorney General of Angola held a press conference to provisionally charge Isabel dos Santos with embezzlement and money laundering, according to the BBC—a bank in Portugal where she has been a significant shareholder issued a statement saying that Dos Santos’ stake is being sold.EuroBic, a small privately held bank in Lisbon in which Dos Santos has owned a 42.5% stake, issued a statement on Monday that it was severing its business relationship with Dos Santos and the entities related to her. On Wednesday EuroBic announced that Dos Santos had decided to sell her stake in the bank, which has about $8 billion in assets. Forbes recently valued Dos Santos’ 42.5% stake at around $200 million.Dos Santos has come under intense scrutiny this past week after a number of media outlets, including the New York Times, the BBC and The Guardian, published articles based on the “Luanda Leaks”—a cache of some 700,000 documents related to Dos Santos’ allegedly corrupt business dealings that were released to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
CBS This MorningThe U.S. government has denied an extradition request for a diplomat’s wife charged in a fatal hit-and-run in the U.K. Anne Sacoolas fled the country after allegedly hitting 19-year-old Harry Dunn with her car. The State Department says she had diplomatic immunity and that sending her back would set a troubling precedent. Imtiaz Tyab is outside the embassy in London with the Dunn family's response.
Defense attorneys for Mustafa al-Imam said that he made a terrible mistake by looting U.S. property, but noted he was not convicted of killing anyone.By Phil HelselA Libyan man convicted in connection with the deadly 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi was sentenced Thursday to 19 years in prison. Mustafa al-Imam, 47, was sentenced to 236 months after being convicted by a jury in June on charges of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to terrorists and maliciously destroying and injuring a dwelling and placing lives in jeopardy, the Justice Department said.But al-Imam was not convicted of other counts, which included allegations of killing a person while attacking a federal facility. "We have not rested in our efforts to bring to justice those involved in the terrorist attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, which led to the death of four courageous Americans,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a statement. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Tyrone Woods were killed Sept. 11, 2012, when militants stormed the compound in Benghazi.
By YANAN WANGBEIJING (AP) — China announced Friday that it is swiftly building a 1,000-bed hospital dedicated to patients infected with a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted unprecedented lockdowns of cities during the country’s most important holiday.On the eve of the Lunar New Year, transportation was shut down in at least 13 cities home to more than 36 million people. The cities are Wuhan, where the illness has been concentrated, and 12 of its neighbors in central China’s Hubei province.“To address the insufficiency of existing medical resources,” Wuhan is constructing a hospital modeled after the Xiaotangshan SARS hospital in Beijing, Wuhan authorities said in a Friday notice. The facility will be a prefabricated structure on a 25,000- square-meter (270,000-square-foot) lot, slated for completion Feb.
By Anna Fifield and Siobhán O'GradyBEIJING — A second case of coronavirus was confirmed Friday in the United States, as China’s efforts to control its outbreak expanded on many fronts. Travel bans were extended in central China to put more than 35 million people effectively on local lockdowns. In Wuhan, where the virus was first detected, workers are racing to build a 1,000-bed hospital to treat victims of the disease. Authorities around China, including in the capital, Beijing, have canceled the temple fairs and festivals that accompany the Spring Festival to avoid having large public gatherings where the airborne virus could spread.● There are more than 830 confirmed cases of infection, and at least 26 people have died. A total of 8,420 people are reported to be under observation.● A young, previously healthy man died in Wuhan, raising concerns about the deadliness of the virus. Until now, the vast majority ofvictims have been older than 60 with preexisting conditions.● Infections have been confirmed in South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States.
By Sam MeredithDAVOS, Switzerland — Climate scientists at the World Economic Forum have hit back at President Donald Trump, saying their role is simply to provide evidence of the climate emergency. In a keynote address to participants of the annual conference earlier this week, Trump said that “to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom.”The U.S. president did not name anyone directly during his speech, but he did encourage those in attendance to ignore environmental “alarmists” and their “predictions of the apocalypse.” An intensifying climate crisis is top of the agenda at the forum, which takes place in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos.The event, which is often criticized for being out of touch with reality, has said it aims to assist governments and international institutions in tracking progress toward the Paris Agreement and the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. “Some could call climate scientists ‘prophets of doom,’” Gail Whiteman, founder of Arctic Basecamp and director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, said during a panel session on Wednesday. “I don’t agree with that — I think we just simply give the evidence.”
“We are contending. He’s unstoppable, like someone else I know,” the vice president was overheard telling Israel's prime minister.By Hans Nichols and Elyse Perlmutter-GumbinerJERUSALEM — Vice President Mike Pence was caught on a hot mic Thursday telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “We are contending. He’s unstoppable, like someone else I know.” It is unclear what Pence and Netanyahu were discussing or the context of the remarks captured on the microphone. The comments come as President Donald Trump's impeachment trial takes place in the U.S. Senate and Netanyahu faces three indictments as he prepares for his third national election in a year. Pence also met with Netanyahu’s opponent, Benny Gantz, while here for the fifth World Holocaust Forum.
By Charles Riley, CNN BusinessLondon (CNN Business) Having negotiated agreements of sorts on trade with China, Mexico, Canada, South Korea and Japan, President Donald Trump is now turning to his next target: the European Union. Trump made clear at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week that his administration will move aggressively to negotiate a trade deal with Brussels. And if progress isn't made quickly, he said he'll impose tariffs of up to 25% on cars made in the European Union. "I wanted to do China first. I wanted to do Mexico and Canada first. But now that we're all done ... we are going to do Europe," he said during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday. There may be a deal to be done.Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, met with Trump in Davos, where both leaders pledged to work quickly toward a deal. Von der Leyen told German news agency DPA that an agreement could be reached within weeks. The transatlantic relationship produced $1.3 trillion in total trade in 2018, according to US government statistics. Counted together, the 28 countries of the EU were the biggest export market for US goods that year. Yet experts say that aiming for a quick deal means there won't be time to address thorny issues that have for decades prevented the United States and the European Union from completing a comprehensive agreement to boost trade. The latest effort, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, was declared obsolete before it could be finalized.
The UK press’s continued denial of racism just shows how entrenched these attitudes are.By Maya GoodfellowNot agreeing with the concept of a hereditary monarchy in a country where it’s celebrated is an odd place to be. Stranger still is spending your time defending particular members of the royal family after coverage of them turns hostile. But this is where I’ve found myself this past week. Part of my job as an academic is to examine how racism functions in the UK. Ever since Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry announced they were stepping back from their “roles” as senior royals, there’s been a debate in British media about whether the coverage of Markle has been racist. A debate that has — in a sad but predictable turn of irony — reproduced racism while denying it is prevalent.The royal family is historically a white institution. And so when Markle, a biracial woman, became a member, some heralded it as “progress.” But in late 2016, the same year it was announced she and Prince Harry were dating, the prince put out a statement condemning the “wave of abuse and harassment” Markle had already been subjected to. That included “the racial undertones of comment pieces” and “the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.” Three years later, Markle talked about the difficulty of dealing with tabloid coverage more broadly, saying it had been “hard,” and that adopting “this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip” was difficult.For example, the press has talked about her “exotic DNA”; described her as “(almost) straight outta Compton”; attacked her for the very things that Kate Middleton, Prince William’s white wife, has been praised for; and compared the couple’s son to a chimpanzee. But in TV studios around the country, commentators seem to have peculiarly missed all of this. The coverage of Markle has been welcoming and warm, they say. And when confronted with the evidence that shows that certainly hasn’t always been the tone of reporting, they ask: Is it really racism, though?
By John Bacon USA TODAYAmericans face little risk from the deadly new coronavirus spreading across China and a vaccine could be ready for human testing within three months, the nation's leading expert on infectious disease says. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provided the upbeat message Wednesday as authorities in China suspended planes, trains and ferries in and out of three cities with a combined population of almost 20 million people.Public transports also has been mostly suspended within Huanggang, Ezhou and Wuhan, the city of 11 million serving as the epicenter for the virus. More than 500 people in China have been diagnosed with the virus and at least 17 have died. A small number of cases have been diagnosed in other countries, including one case in Washington state. Airports in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and San Francisco have stepped up health checks for passengers arriving from China.
Africa's reputed richest woman is a formal suspect in an investigation into mismanagement and the siphoning off of funds during her time with Angola's state-run oil companyBy The Associated PressJOHANNESBURG -- Africa's reputed richest woman is a formal suspect in an investigation into mismanagement and the siphoning off of funds during her time with Angola's state-run oil company, the country's attorney general announced Wednesday. The remarks by Helder Pitta Gros to reporters in the capital, Luanda, come days after a global investigation accused the billionaire Isabel dos Santos of murky dealings in the oil- and diamond-rich southern African nation whose people remain some of the poorest on Earth.Wednesday's announcement is the latest sign that Angola's government under President Joao Lourenco is determined to pursue accountability after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists accused dos Santos of using “unscrupulous deals” to build her fortune, estimated at $2 billion. Dos Santos, daughter of Angola's former president, has denied any wrongdoing. Already Angolan authorities this week have said they are reaching out to other countries for help in tackling the corruption that critics say has robbed millions of citizens of basic needs like quality health care.
The Trump administration has been restricting all forms of immigration, but the president has been particularly plagued by the issue of birthright citizenship.By Associated PressWASHINGTON — The Trump administration is coming out with new visa restrictions aimed at restricting “birth tourism," in which women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children can have a coveted U.S. passport. The State Department planned to publicize the rules Thursday, according to two officials with knowledge of the plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The rules would make it more difficult for pregnant women to travel on tourist visas. In one draft of the regulations, they would have to clear an additional hurdle before obtaining the visas — convincing a consular officer that they have another legitimate reason to come to the U.S.The Trump administration has been restricting all forms of immigration, but the president has been particularly plagued by the issue of birthright citizenship — anyone born in the U.S. is considered a citizen, under the Constitution. He has railed against the practice and threatened to end it, but scholars and members of his administration have said it's not so easy to do.
By Andrew Carey and Saskya Vandoorne, CNNJerusalem (CNN) French President Emmanuel Macron has been involved in an altercation with Israeli security officers in Jerusalem's Old City. Macron, who is in Jerusalem to attend a large Holocaust remembrance event on Thursday, was visiting the Church of Saint Anne, which belongs to the French government and is considered to be French territory, when he was filmed admonishing the security officers for apparently trying to follow him into the church."Everybody knows the rules. I don't like what you did in front of me. Go outside!" Macron was seen shouting. The Roman Catholic church, which dates back to the 12th century, was gifted to Napoleon III by the Ottoman Sultan in 1856."Please respect the rules, they are [in place] for centuries. They will not change with me, I can tell you," Macron added during the dispute. A spokeswoman for the Elysée Palace told CNN that the President had intervened after an exchange between French and Israeli security. "St. Anne belongs to France in Jerusalem. It is up to France to protect these places in this city. The Israeli security forces wanted to enter while security was being provided by French security services. The president reacted to an altercation between the Israeli and French security forces at the time of entering Saint Anne in order to end it, and to remind everyone of the rules that apply," the spokeswoman said.
By Tara SealsThe trove of information is potentially a scammer’s bonanza. Misconfigured Microsoft cloud databases containing 14 years of customer support logs exposed 250 million records to the open internet for 25 days. The account info dates back as far as 2005 and is as recent as December 2019 — and exposes Microsoft customers to phishing and tech scams. Microsoft said it is in the process of notifying affected customers.The Comparitech security research team said that it ran across five Elasticsearch servers that had been indexed by search engine BinaryEdge, each with an identical copy of the database. The database contained a wealth of phishing- and scam-ready information in plain text, including: Customer email addresses, IP addresses and physical locations, descriptions of customer service claims and cases, case numbers, resolutions and remarks, and internal notes marked “confidential.” In short, it’s everything a cybercriminal would need to mount a convincing and large-scale fraud effort, Comparitech researcher Paul Bischoff wrote in a posting on Wednesday.
New government installed after Russian leader unveiled plans to put proposed constitutional changes to a referendum.Russia's President Vladimir Putin approved a new government on Tuesday that he described as a break with the past, bringing in some fresh faces but retaining many senior ministers. The new government included a new economy minister and a new first deputy prime minister, but the finance, foreign, defence, energy and agriculture ministers all kept their jobs. The new team was formed less than a week after Putin unveiled a sweeping shake-up of the political system, which led to the resignation of his ally Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister along with the entire government.Putin went on to pick 53-year-old former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin, who has almost no political profile, as his new prime minister. Putin's wider shake-up, which envisages changing the constitution, is widely seen as preparing the ground for 2024, when Putin, now 67, is obliged to leave the presidency after occupying the Kremlin or the prime minister's job continuously since 1999. Critics have long said that Putin, a former KGB officer, wants to stay on in some capacity after his term ends so that he can wield power over the world's geographically largest nation and one of its two biggest nuclear powers.
By Laura Geggel - Associate EditorFor the past 15,000 years, a glacier on the northwestern Tibetan Plateau of China has hosted a party for some unusual guests: an ensemble of frozen viruses, many of them unknown to modern science. Scientists recently broke up this party after taking a look at two ice cores from this Tibetan glacier, revealing the existence of 28 never-before-seen virus groups. Investigating these mysterious viruses could help scientists on two fronts: For one, these stowaways can teach researchers which viruses thrived in different climates and environments over time, the researchers wrote in a paper posted on the bioRxiv database on Jan. 7. "However, in a worst-case scenario, this ice melt [from climate change] could release pathogens into the environment," the researchers wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. If this happens, it's best to know as much about these viruses as possible, the researchers wrote.
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