Tulsa

Elise Stefanik, newest star of Trumpworld, has turned impeachment into a fundraising boon

Leveraging her impeachment performance, Rep. Elise Stefanik raised $3.2 million in the last three months of 2019, exceeding the reelection haul of progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Lori Vallow's niece denies knowing whereabouts of missing kids

Joshua Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, were last seen in September, according to police. Their mother has been arrested and charged with desertion.

South Korea virus cases surge as WHO sounds maximum alert

South Korea reported on Saturday its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases and concerns grew of a possible epidemic in the United States as the World Health Organization raised its risk alert to its highest level. The virus has rapidly spread across the world over the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy. The vast majority of infections have been in China but more daily cases are now logged outside the country, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as major focal points.

Michael Bloomberg Releases More Health Details and Asks Same of Bernie Sanders

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Bloomberg, who has sparred with Bernie Sanders on their health, released details of a recent cardiac exam and challenged the Vermont senator, who had a heart attack last year, to do the same.Bloomberg, 78, specifically called on Sanders, also 78, to release his “left ventricular ejection fraction,” or the amount of blood his heart pumps with each contraction. It is a key piece of data cardiologists would use to assess his health. Bloomberg’s doctor said his rate of 60-65% was “normal.”“Releasing this single scientific number about heart health could start to put to rest any concerns about Senator Sanders’s secrecy about his recent heart attack,” Bloomberg campaign spokesman Stu Loeser said in a statement. “Mike Bloomberg’s doctor shared Mike’s number, will Senator Sanders ask his doctor to do the same?”(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)Sanders’s communications director Mike Casca rejected the call and said “the letters that we’ve released are very thorough.”Sanders left the campaign trail in October after having two stents inserted to treat a blocked artery. He was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction, his doctors said in a statement on Oct. 4. He released letters from his doctors in December saying he was fit to lead the country.Bloomberg’s campaign released a letter dated Wednesday from Stephen Sisson, his internist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, saying his annual health examination and cardiac stress testing last July showed normal results with “excellent exercise capacity.” An electrocardiogram “showed atrial fibrillation, but was otherwise unremarkable,” the letter said.Bloomberg underwent a stent placement for a blocked coronary artery in 2000 but heart function is normal, the letter said. “He has not had a myocardial infarction, and cardiac stress testing has shown no evidence of damage to his heart,” Sisson said in the letter.The rival campaigns have sparred recently on the issue of the candidates’ health, with Bloomberg campaign manager Keven Sheekey accusing the Sanders campaign of “spreading an absolute lie” that the former New York mayor had suffered heart attacks.Sanders’s press secretary Briahna Joy Gray said in a Feb. 19 interview on CNN that the Vermont senator’s health is being scrutinized but “none of the same concern is being demonstrated for Michael Bloomberg, who is the same age as Bernie Sanders, who has suffered heart attacks in the past.” She later said on Twitter she had misspoken, “when I said Bloomberg had a heart attack” but stressed that the former New York mayor had undergone the same procedure as Sanders.Bloomberg released a letter in December from Sisson saying he is in “outstanding health” and that he underwent coronary stent placement for a blocked coronary artery in 2000 with normal annual cardiac stress testing since then.To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan CraneFor 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.

Iran Can’t Hide Its Coronavirus Explosion, But It’s Trying Hard—and Putting the World in Danger

Iran’s deputy health minister was drenched in sweat at the press conference on Monday where he vehemently denied Tehran was covering up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak. He kept wiping his brow with his handkerchief and was in visible distress as he said quarantines were a “Stone Age” way to address the problem, and Iran doesn’t need them. Then, sure enough, that night he tested positive for the virus himself and put himself in quarantine. The irony of Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi’s case would be funny almost, were Iran’s conspicuous bungling of the coronavirus threat not a menace to the whole region and, indeed, to the world. As The Daily Beast’s partner publication, IranWire, revealed in an exclusive report Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has tried to address the epidemic by telling doctors to shut up about it, much as Chinese authorities in Wuhan did, disastrously, when the disease was just starting to spread last December.The “official figures” from Iran give the game away. At last count, 16 people have died from COVID-19, but only 95 cases had been confirmed. As Wired UK points out, that would be a death rate of about 17 percent, when the data available from China, where there are huge numbers to work with, suggests the death rate is closer to 2 percent. The statistics don’t add up. Canadian researchers cited by Wired suggest the Iran outbreak probably involves more than 18,000 people, and counting.* * *SILENCING THE DOCTORS* * *Following is the full IranWire article written by Aida Ghajar:IranWire can exclusively report that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened Iranian medical specialists with reprisals if any of them were to disclose information regarding the spread of coronavirus in Iran.A group of specialist doctors met with Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi on Feb. 22, during which they reported on the latest findings regarding the spread of coronavirus in Tehran and other Iranian cities. But soon after the meeting, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) approached the doctors through the health ministry’s security office and warned the doctors not to leak any information from their discussions. The doctors were told that, if any details did leak, they would be held responsible and would suffer the consequences.Despite these threats, the information received by IranWire shows the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, especially in Tehran. The doctors who were present at the meeting offered Harirchi their assessment of the official news and figures and told him that the figures published by the government do not match the reality of the situation.As one of these doctors—whose name is withheld because of the threats from the Revolutionary Guards—told IranWire: “The statistics published by the government have nothing to do with reality of the situation and the number of infections is much higher than what the media reports. If things go on like this and if the Islamic Republic does not cooperate with the World Health Organization, we must expect a great disaster in the coming months and, only in Tehran, tens of thousands will be infected by coronavirus. This scientific estimate does not even include other epicenters like Qom. If we cannot come up with a framework to cooperate with the World Health Organization, our situation will become many times worse than in China.”This doctor pointed out that, right now, a number of clinics in Tehran have been quarantined and the government’s attempts to keep the reality of the situation a secret is a “crime” in the legal sense of the word.“Refusing to divulge real information to Iranians and to the international community is officially a crime because it endangers the lives of people not only in Iran but in other countries as well.”Donald Trump Takes Coronavirus So Seriously He Just Put Mike Pence in ChargeIn many countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Canada, Iraq, Turkey, and Lebanon, the first cases of coronavirus infections were brought in by Iranian citizens or by travelers who had visited Iran. This has led many countries to close their borders with Iran, in the air and on the ground.According to this doctor, the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran occurred just after the outbreak in China. “But the problem started when we did not recognize that this virus is the same as China’s coronavirus,” the doctor said. “We made a mistake when we identified it as a variant of influenza viruses.… But, after it became known that it had been a mistake, [officials] continued as before and did not disclose the facts.”* * *THE GOVERNMENT IS CLUELESS* * *The doctor said Iran’s government has no plans for containing the crisis. Officials have “no other choice except secrecy,” he added. “This will disgrace the Islamic Republic, if it becomes known that its government is clueless. But this can lead to a humanitarian disaster.”According to this doctor, after the meeting with the health minister was over, the Revolutionary Guards contacted each doctor who had been at the meeting. “They told us that we will be held responsible for even the smallest leak. But I could not keep silent anymore,” he said.On Monday, two days after the meeting and after the doctors were threatened, Gen. Hossein Salami, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guards, called Health Minister Saeed Namaki and announced that the Guards were ready to provide any and all assistance in fighting coronavirus and preventing its spread.On Feb. 25, in a televised speech, President Hassan Rouhani asked people to trust only statements by the health ministry for information about coronavirus.The Iranian Cyber Police have meanwhile reported that they have arrested a number of “rumor-mongers” about coronavirus since Feb. 21. Gen. Hossein Rahimi, commander of Tehran’s Cyber Police, announced the arrests.“Persons who want to create trouble for the people by spreading rumors and lying in cyberspace must know that the police surveils their behavior and will act against them decisively,” he said.Earlier on Feb. 21, Gholamreza Jalali, commander of Iran’s Civil Defense Organization, accused foreign media of “creating panic” by publishing inaccurate or misleading figures about coronavirus infections. He emphasized that coronavirus must not be turned into a “political crisis.”Jalali is the same official who, after floods had inundated many parts of Iran in early 2019, made strange statements about extreme weather, accusing Israel of “cloud stealing.” He claimed that “joint committees of Turkey and Israel” had stolen moisture and snow from the clouds over Iran.With the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards turning the coronavirus outbreak into a security issue, by treating infection figures as state secrets, by arresting people for “rumor mongering” and, now by threatening doctors whose duty is to tell the truth about infectious diseases, it seems the experts may be proved right about the likelihood of a humanitarian disaster. If the Islamic Republic continues in this way, we must expect a much bigger disaster than what is happening in China—not only for Iranians but for the world.The Russian Models Instagramming From China's Coronavirus CapitalRead 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.

North Korea's Kim guides military drills, warns 'serious consequences' if virus breaks out: KCNA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw military drills on Friday, state media KCNA said on Saturday, a rare public outing amid efforts to prevent an outbreak of the coronavirus in the isolated country. North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the virus, but state media said a month-long quarantine period had been imposed for people showing symptoms and "high-intensity" measures were taken including reinforcing checks in border regions and at airports and sea ports. On Feb. 16, Kim made his first public appearance in 22 days to visit a mausoleum marking the anniversary of the birth of his father and late leader Kim Jong Il.

Betsy DeVos orders probe after USA TODAY finds college evidently without faculty, students

Betsy DeVos has launched an Education Department investigation after a USA TODAY report showed a college apparently had no faculty or students.

Billionaire Tom Steyer shakes up primary with slavery reparations plan

For centuries, South Carolina’s Charleston was the largest port of entry for the transatlantic slave trade. Now, billionaire presidential candidate Tom Steyer is shaking up the state’s Democratic primary by advocating slavery reparations for African-Americans.

The US Navy orders ships in the Pacific to stay at sea at least 14 days between port calls over coronavirus concerns

Ships have been instructed to remain at sea for at least 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the coronavirus.

Trump tries to shift blame as virus outbreak rattles markets

As global markets plunged amid growing fears about the coronavirus outbreak, President Donald Trump and his allies pulled from a familiar playbook Friday and blamed others for the slide. The president's team responded to the biggest one-week Wall Street sell-off in more than a decade with a deflection strategy, playing down the threat and eagerly parceling out responsibility to Democrats, the media and the entrenched government bureaucracy. Trump tweeted that “The Do Nothing Democrats" had wasted time on impeachment and “anything else they could do to make the Republican Party look bad" while defending his own response, which many Democrats have deemed sluggish and scattershot.

Malaysian king hits back at Mahathir amid crisis

Malaysia's king struck down Friday a power play by 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad aimed at seizing momentum in a political crisis, capping a week of turmoil that has left the country effectively leaderless. Old foes Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim are locked in a power struggle sparked by the elderly leader's resignation and their ruling coalition's collapse, following a failed bid to push out leader-in-waiting Anwar. Mahathir, currently interim leader, earlier announced the parliament session would take place Monday and the monarch, who appoints the premier, agreed with the decision.

Tucker Carlson Turns to AOC Creepshot Guy for Coronavirus Expertise

Amid growing fears of a coronavirus outbreak and U.S. financial markets hitting a record drop on Thursday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson turned to a conservative columnist best known for taking creepy photos of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as his expert on the crisis on Thursday night.It should perhaps come as no surprise that Carlson’s guest, Washington Examiner columnist Eddie Scarry, used his primetime cable news appearance to talk about the “Commie cough” and to claim that Chinese people eating skunks are responsible for the rise of the virus.In kicking off his Fox News program, Carlson argued that it is liberals’ “attitude” towards diversity that has “left us vulnerable to the coronavirus” before welcoming on Scarry to enlighten viewers on the health crisis horrors caused by political correctness. “You spent a lot of time thinking about this mindset,” the Fox News host asked Scarry. “Here we are facing what could become a pandemic. Thousands have died. Yet a certain segment of well-educated America is more concerned that people might say insensitive things. Explain the mindset.”Scarry, who is hawking a new book that argues rape victims and trans people are the most privileged in American society, went on to praise Carlson for his monologue before saying the left cares “more about ideology” than what’s happening with the virus.“It turns out most people in America, even the Chinese, don’t want the Commie cough but all we’re hearing about who is the privileged and who is the victim,” Scarry asserted. “In this case it’s supposed to be — the victims are everyone else who is spreading this disease, where it’s coming from, coming from China obviously. But we’re the privileged so we’re just supposed to accept it, we’re just supposed to be okay with what’s going on.”Carlson, meanwhile, told Scarry that “everything” he said “is true,” further asking him if he is surprised to see this attitude from liberals even when “facing a question of life and death.” Scarry took that opportunity to bemoan Democrats calling on Americans to not “perpetuate racist stereotypes” amid coronavirus fears.“We’re worried about the racial implications of blaming this on anybody,” the right-wing provocateur stated. “Well, no, I’m sorry. If it turns out, which I did read this time in The New York Times no less, this may have come from eating skunks in China. Maybe we should consider the idea that, all right, either food or something or somebody should not be coming from China.”The Daily Beast was unable to find any reference in The New York Times to the disease being linked to Chinese people eating skunks. It would appear, however, that Scarry likely got his information from a fellow Examiner columnist’s piece that cited a former Trump official’s tweet claiming civet cats in China are skunks. (The Times’ Maggie Haberman tweeted on Thursday that a top U.S. health official said the disease jumped from bats to civet cats, which are eaten by Chinese at feasts.)Scarry’s primetime appearance appears to mark his first major return to the limelight after he sparked backlash and gained a reputation as a “creep” in Nov. 2018 after tweeting out a surreptitiously shot photo of Ocasio-Cortez. Scarry was moved from his position as media reporter to commentary by the Examiner. The paper claimed at the time that the move had been in the works prior to the infamous tweet.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.

South Korea tells citizens to stay home at 'critical moment' in virus battle

South Korea urged citizens on Saturday to stay indoors as it warned of a "critical moment" in its battle on the coronavirus after recording the biggest daily jump in infections, with 594 new cases taking the tally to 2,931. South Korea is grappling with the largest outbreak of the virus outside China, as a new death took the toll to 17, amid a record daily increase in infections since the country confirmed its first patient on Jan. 20. "We have asked you to refrain from taking part in public events, including a religious gathering or protest, this weekend," Vice health minister Kim Kang-lip told a briefing.

Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse

Medical professionals inside the Islamic Republic tell TIME they believe the country is now grappling with an “epidemic”

More than 30,000 pounds of yogurt spilled on New York highway after accident

A tractor trailer carrying more than 30,000 pounds of yogurt in western New York jackknifed on a highway Thursday afternoon.

Central Park Five's Kevin Richardson slams Bloomberg campaign

Kevin Richardson, a member of the Central Park Five, has hit out at Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s presidential run and his blocking of a multimillion-dollar settlement over the group’s wrongful persecution.Mr Richardson, one of the five teenagers wrongfully convicted for the shocking assault of Trishia Meili in 1989, was reported to have criticised Mr Bloomberg at an event outside his campaign office in Manhattan.

Trump wears a surgical mask over his eyes in next week's coronavirus-themed New Yorker cover

The illustration is titled "Under Control," and references some comments that the president made at a coronavirus press conference this week.

An Oklahoma man thought there were squirrels in his attic, but strange noises turned out to be a homeless man living in his house

The unnamed transient was arrested on suspicion of first-degree burglary, according to the Oklahoma City police.

Why Sanders' Castro revisionism is so insulting to Cuban refugees like me

Education under a socialist regime is a malicious program, because it seems like an irreproachable social good but then is just another tool of repression.

Billionaire Steyer shakes up primary with slavery reparations plan

For centuries, South Carolina's Charleston was the largest port of entry for the transatlantic slave trade. Now, a billionaire activist named Tom Steyer is shaking up the state's Democratic primary by advocating slavery reparations for African Americans. A California financier turned philanthropist and environmental campaigner, Steyer has poured tens of millions of dollars into the state ahead of Saturday's vote -- with a single-minded focus on the black voters who make up 60 percent of its Democratic electorate.

Police rescue 24 babies, pregnant teens from Nigerian 'baby factory'

Nigerian police have rescued 24 babies and four expectant mothers from an illegal maternity home in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, a spokesman said Thursday.

Bahrain threatens untested from Iran with arrest amid virus

Bahrain on Saturday threatened legal prosecution against travelers who came from Iran and hadn't been tested for the new coronavirus, and also barred public gatherings for two weeks as confirmed cases across the wider Mideast grew to over 520. The tiny island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia has been hard-hit with cases and shut down flights to halt the spread of the virus, which causes the illness named COVID-19 by experts. All of Bahrain's cases link back to Iran, whose death toll of 34 killed is the worst outside of China, the epicenter of the virus.

Pope cancels second day of engagements after falling ill

Pope Francis has cancelled official audiences for a second day in succession after being taken ill. The Vatican said the 83-year-old had celebrated morning Mass as usual and greeted participants at the end. He planned to keep his private meeting schedule as planned but decided to cancel official audiences. It did not reveal what the pontiff is suffering from, but he was coughing and blowing his nose during Ash Wednesday Mass this week. On Thursday, he cancelled a planned trip across the city to celebrate Mass with Rome priests. His illness comes amid an outbreak of coronavirus which has infected 650 people in Italy and caused disruption across the north of the country. Rome has had three cases, but all three people have recovered. On Thursday, Vatican officials refused to comment on whether Pope Francis has been tested for coronavirus, confirming only that he had missed a planned Mass for the start of Lent due to a slight illness. "This morning, the pontiff did not go to St. John Lateran basilica for the Penitential Mass with Roman clergy," Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement to The Telegraph. "Due to a light indisposition, he preferred to stay near [his Vatican residence] Santa Marta. Other duties are proceeding regularly."

Black Lives Matter activist Hawk Newsome on the current state of America

Newsome is chairman of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, and has spent his adult life advancing the cause of what he calls the "Second Civil Rights Movement."

Trump 'could suck coronavirus out of 60,000 people' and he'd still be criticized – Huckabee

* Top Republican on Fox News defends Trump and Mike Pence * Vice-president leading coronavirus containment effort in US * Whistleblower: US coronavirus staff were untrained and unprotectedDonald Trump could “personally suck” the coronavirus “out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean”, a top Republican has claimed.Former Republican Arkansas governor and ex-presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made the outlandish statement on Twitter on Thursday night and on Fox News’ Fox & Friends show on Friday morning.> Mike Huckabee says Trump "could personally sick the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean." pic.twitter.com/X7xbC5ebDz> > — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 28, 2020According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 82,000 cases of the coronavirus have in fact been confirmed worldwide, with about 2,800 deaths. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 60 confirmed cases in the US.In the US, Huckabee’s widely ridiculed comment followed the publication of a column for Fox News in which he took aim at criticism of Trump’s choice of Vice-President Mike Pence to lead US containment efforts.Critics have said Pence’s religious faith, plus the decisions he took as governor of Indiana on scientific and public health matters, make him a poor choice to lead efforts undermined by budget cuts and poor organization.Huckabee said Pence was “a proven leader who knows how to get people with different perspectives working together effectively” on public health matters including the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) outbreak of 2014.“Instead of calling for bipartisan cooperation in this life-or-death effort,” he wrote, “liberals reacted with collective outrage, even going so far as to ridicule the vice-president’s Christian faith as a way of suggesting that he’s not qualified for the role.“Numerous media outlets have also published and broadcast one-sided reports trashing Pence’s handling of an HIV outbreak as governor of Indiana, but such criticisms are both inaccurate and irrelevant.”The outbreak in question happened in 2015. Pence declared a public health emergency but many said faith-driven cuts to sexual health programs made the situation worse.Huckabee, the father of the former Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders, is not the first rightwing commentator to claim Democrats and the media are using concerns over the coronavirus outbreak to attack and undermine the president.Earlier this week, the conservative shock jock and presidential medal of freedom honoree Rush Limbaugh claimed “the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump” and said “the coronavirus is the common cold”.Some experts have criticised media coverage of the outbreak as inaccurate and potentially alarmist.According to the Guardian’s guide to the coronavirus, sufferers report “coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use … Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.”The outbreak began in China. The WHO has not yet declared it a pandemic but international markets, trade, travel and sporting events have been severely affected. In the US on Friday the Dow Jones Index plunged again, at the end of the markets’ worst week since the financial crisis of 2008.In Geneva, a WHO spokesman said: “The outbreak is getting bigger. The scenario of the coronavirus reaching multiple countries, if not all countries around the world, is something we have been looking at and warning against since quite a while.”

A man convicted for killing his high school girlfriend was freed by decades-old DNA evidence. Now he's on a mission to find the real killer.

Leah Freeman's shoes were the only clue police had in her murder — and the only evidence that her high school boyfriend Nick McGuffin wasn't her killer.

'He fought us every single step of the way': How Bloomberg embraced stop-and-frisk as mayor

"He dug in and fought us all the way to his last day in office," an activist who opposed stop-and-frisk recalled.

Kim warns of 'serious consequences' if virus reaches North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned top party officials of the "serious consequences" of failing to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus in the country, state media reported Saturday. Kim told a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea that the fight against the virus was a "crucial state affair for the defence of the people" that required maximum discipline, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Sub-Saharan Africa just recorded its first coronavirus case. The WHO and Bill Gates have warned that Africa can't deal with an outbreak.

The World Health Organization fears Africa's "fragile healthcare systems" may not be able to cope with a serious outbreak of COVID-19.

United States expresses concern over arrest of Hong Kong publisher

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern after Chinese-ruled Hong Kong arrested publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, and two pro-democracy activists. The arrests come after a period of relative calm following months of anti-government protests over perceptions that China is tightening its grip on the city, though Beijing denies meddling and blames the West for fomenting unrest. Lai and veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were arrested on Friday in the Asian financial hub on charges of illegal assembly, drawing condemnation from international rights groups, media said.

Shocking: China and the CIA Both Helped Saudi Arabia Get Their Own Ballistic Missiles

Well that was a bad idea.

Belarus leader says nation being forced to merge with Russia

The president of Belarus said Thursday that his country is "being forced into integration” with Russia and insisted that real integration of the two countries' economies implied “sovereignty and independence” for Belarus. “We remain committed, as always, to real integration without being forced into integration,” President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with Mikhail Myasnikovich, chair of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

A joke gone too far? Some police departments are offering to 'test' meth for coronavirus. Not everybody is laughing

Law enforcement agencies across the nation are jokingly encouraging meth users to bring their drugs in so they can be tested for coronavirus.

Stock markets are headed for a 40 percent plunge, says economist who predicted financial crisis

The end of a very rough week for U.S. markets brought a worrying prediction.While one expert warned fallout from the global coronavirus outbreak could be "worse than the financial crisis" of 2008, the economist who correctly predicted that very crisis is now saying the idea of a major global recession "doesn't sound too farfetched."Nouriel Roubini, a New York University business professor and market prognosticator who foretold the housing bubble burst, told Yahoo Finance on Friday to expect "severe" consequences as the coronavirus continues to rattle markets. How severe? He told Der Spiegel it could be worse than investors even believe at this point, predicting "global equities to tank by 30 to 40 percent this year."He said people "prefer to believe in miracles," (not necessarily referencing President Trump's prediction the coronavirus will "disappear ... like a miracle,") and don't realize the "simple math" tells us that realistically, a squeezed Chinese economy will mean downturns around the globe. "This crisis will spill over and result in a disaster," said Roubini.Roubini, who is often nicknamed Dr. Doom for his frequent pessimistic predictions, also saw doom and gloom for Trump's future as president as a result of any economic strife. Asked by Der Spiegel, Roubini said Trump would likely try to benefit politically from the outbreak, but "will lose the election, that's for sure." Pointing to past incumbent presidents getting ousted amid geopolitical tensions that damaged the economy, he said "The Democratic field is poor, but Trump is dead. Quote me on that!"Though the week just saw a 3,500-point drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Roubini warned: "It is far from being over." Read more at Der Spiegel.More stories from theweek.com A coronavirus recession would likely end Trump's presidency Court: Don McGahn can defy congressional subpoena Democrats ponder a coup d'Bernie

Hammer-weilding trans woman  escapes prison after judge hears there was no way to confirm her gender

A trans woman who threatened shop staff with a claw hammer escaped prison after a court heard there was no way to confirm her gender. Leila Le Fey, 40, admitted entering a Budgens store in Brighton last year in a bid to steal alcohol, and brandished the “terrifying” weapon at Enoch Adetayo, the shop’s manager, before assaulting him. However, she was spared a prison after a judge reversed a custodial sentence which would have sent her to a men's prison. Lewes Crown Court heard that Le Fey had completed gender-reassignment but had not yet obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to that effect. As a result, despite living and identifying as a woman, Le Fey would have had to serve her sentence at a male-only jail because the Home Office and Prisons Service would not recognise her as a woman without a GRC. This would not only have created intractable accommodation problems but also caused substantial and unintended trauma for Le Fey. However in an eleventh-hour U-turn, Judge Stephen Mooney called Le Fey back to Lewes Crown Court just an hour after jailing her for six months. He reversed his decision to send her to prison after hearing that the only way Le Fey could prove her new gender would be an "undignified examination", one which court staff were not prepared to do, her barrister said. "Issues have now arisen,” Judge Mooney said. "We live in a society which acknowledges and embraces diversity and allows and encourages people to live the life they want to. "Sometimes society does not make the necessary or appropriate adjustments in all ways it can to reflect the adjustments of society as a whole. "Having reflected again upon the impact an immediate custodial sentence would have, the difficulties there are and the intractable problems the prison service would face, I have reconsidered whether imprisonment must be immediate."

Federal appeals court rules against Trump in two major immigration cases

A court once again blocked a Trump policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, but then it put the ruling on pause.

UC Santa Cruz fires 54 graduate students participating in months-long strike

Termination letters were sent to those students protesting for a cost-of-living adjustment amid California’s housing crisisThe University of California, Santa Cruz, issued termination letters on Friday to 54 graduate students who have been waging a months-long strike for a cost-of-living-adjustment amid soaring rents.The firings came as graduate students at the University of California, Davis, and University of California, Santa Barbara, began their own cost-of-living strikes in solidarity. One of their demands is that all UC Santa Cruz graduate workers who participated in strike activities be restored to full employment status.The 54 UC Santa Cruz graduate students who received termination letters on Friday are just a fraction of the 233 graduate student instructors and teaching assistants who have refused to submit nearly 12,000 grades from the fall quarter since December.This month, the students’ grading strike expanded, as teaching assistants refused all teaching duties and research assistants refused additional work. Some classes and office hours have been canceled because of the strike.The students are striking for a $1,412-a-month cost-of-living-adjustment, which they say they desperately need amid a growing housing crisis in California. Most students are spending between 5o% and 70% of their $2,434-a-month salary on rent, some forced to live in substandard apartments with many roommates in order to stretch their dollars.Veronica Hamilton, a third-year graduate student studying psychology, is the union representative on campus and was copied on the termination letters that were emailed out on Friday. “The first person who was sent a letter is a single mother who spends almost all her income on rent on subsidized family student housing,” Hamilton said.“It’s horrible,” she continued. “We got to this point because they’re digging their heels in the ground. We’re in a crisis and they don’t even want to have a conversation on how to address these issues.”The graduate students are represented by United Auto Workers Local 2865, which negotiated a contract in 2018 that included a no-strike clause: meaning the current strike, known as a “wildcat strike”, has been taken without the union’s approval.The administration has cited this as a reason for not negotiating with the graduate students but, in response to the strike, offered two supplemental programs that will cost about $7m a year – one that will offer a yearly $2,500 need-based housing fellowship and another that offers doctoral students a five-year funding program – as well as two temporary housing assistance programs.The strikers say these programs would not be enough. Hamilton, for example, pays $1,800 a month to live 40 minutes away from campus in a small cabin she shares with her husband, who lost his job four months ago – $2,500 barely covers a month’s rent, she said.“The university is sympathetic to such challenges, particularly housing, and the related impacts on all our employees,” said Andrew Gordon, a spokesman for Janet Napolitano, the University of California president, in a statement.However, the university has honored the contract it entered into with the union, “and we expect teaching assistants to do the same”, he said.“Teaching assistants who choose to withhold grades or refuse to teach are in violation of that contract,” Gordon said, adding that such actions “unfairly impact undergraduate students while doing nothing to further the conversation on how to address the challenges of the rising cost of living, with which all students and employees across UC must contend”.The strikers had expected more students to receive termination letters, and earlier – the executive vice-chancellor of UC Santa Cruz had set a deadline for last week.“I think people were ready to be fired, but still surprised,” said Jane Komori, a third-year graduate student studying the history of consciousness. “It’s such a destructive action for the administration to take … Hundreds and hundreds of undergraduates won’t be able to take certain classes.“It’s a serious issue for the quality of undergraduate education and the number of undergraduates that can be enrolled,” she added.Nearly 500 graduate students have said they won’t teach next quarter because of the firings, Hamilton said. Now with the strike spreading to other UC campuses, they are more ready than ever to keep on the picket line.“I’ve heard from graduate students across the country,” Hamilton said. “Everybody is sick of the situation that we’re in. Graduate students of today are weighed down by the student debt crisis. Graduate students of today are more likely to be parents, more likely to come from working class backgrounds, from backgrounds of racialized capitalism. This is just the beginning.”

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