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#2 Parts of Midwest could feel minus-60 wind chills
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Heavy snowfall grounded flights and shuttered schools Monday in the Midwest, with worse on the way — Tuesday and Wednesday could be among Chicago's coldest days ever, with low temperatures forecast to be minus-18 and minus-21, respectively.
Chicago schools will be closed Wednesday, the school system said, while a decision on Tuesday's classes was still being considered Monday night. More than 1,400 flights were canceled Monday into and out of Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports. More than 400 arrivals and departures on Tuesday were pre-emptively canceled.
It takes more than an extra pair of mittens and a hat to stay safe in those conditions.
"Having any skin exposed is not acceptable," said Tim Morris Jr., the fire prevention coordinator in Rockford, Illinois.
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#3 Record-breaking cold shuts down schools in the Midwest
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Hundreds of schools and several large universities closed their campuses Tuesday as temperatures plummeted across the Midwest, with forecasters warning that the frigid weather will get worse and could be life-threatening.
The extreme cold and record-breaking temperatures are crawling into a swath of states spanning from North Dakota to Missouri and into Ohio after a powerful snowstorm pounded the region earlier this week.
Arctic air early Tuesday dropped temperatures in the Dakotas and Minnesota to as low as minus 27 degrees (negative 33 degrees Celsius), with wind chills as cold as minus 59 (negative 51 degrees Celsius)
"You're talking about frostbite and hypothermia issues very quickly, like in a matter of minutes, maybe seconds," said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Among the universities closed into Thursday are the University of South Dakota, Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota. Minneapolis Public Schools officials also canceled classes through Wednesday, when the region is expected to experience frigidly low temperatures not seen in a quarter century. Hundreds of Michigan schools were closed Tuesday, including in Detroit, while Chicago Public Schools canceled Wednesday classes because of the anticipated cold snap.
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#4 Frosh Dems rock Capitol boat with brash, confrontational style
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are stoking controversy with comments they often have to walk back, clarify or defend from fact-checkers. (Getty/AP/Getty)
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar are not trying to avoid the spotlight.
Unlike other freshman lawmakers trying to learn the ropes of Congress first, the three high-profile House Democrats are attracting immense media attention for their embrace of left-wing politics and, in the case of Tlaib and Omar, for being the first female Muslims elected to Congress.
They're also stoking controversy with inflammatory comments they often have to walk back, clarify or defend from fact-checkers. And, in some cases, they are rankling party leadership.
SOCIALISM RISING: PLURALITY OF DEMS WANT US TO MOVE TOWARD SOCIALISM, ACCORDING TO FOX NEWS POLL
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#5 ‘Star Wars’: Anthony Daniels Wraps Work as C-3PO on ‘Episode IX’
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Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in the films, during rehearsals for Star Wars: A Musical Journey at the 02 Arena in London. (Photo by Ian West - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
Anthony Daniels on Monday announced he has completed his work as C-3PO in the yet-to-be-titled Star Wars: Episode IX.
"Today was 3PO's last on Episode IX He's sad - so am I. But we're so proud to have worked with such a lovely, talented cast & crew lead by J.J. & Kathy. I'll miss everyone but I'm glad to know that we've been making something exceptional together, to share with the waiting world," the actor wrote on Twitter.
It is unclear if this is the last fans will see of Daniels' version of C-3PO. The actor has the distinction of appearing in all nine of the main Star Wars films, dating back to 1977.
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#6 Angelina Jolie Teams With Taylor Sheridan On ‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’
EXCLUSIVE: Angelina Jolie is poised to star in Those Who Wish Me Dead, a drama that Taylor Sheridan wrote and will direct late this spring.
BRON Studios and Film Rites are set to produce and Creative Wealth Media will finance the rugged thriller helmed by Sheridan, who made his directorial debut on the celebrated Wind River, and whose scripts include Hell or High Water, Sicario and the sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Sheridan has adapted the script from the Michael Koryta bestselling novel.
Oscar-winner Jolie is finalizing a deal to star. Sheridan’s script is described as a hard-boiled chase thriller set against a wildfire in the Montana wilderness and uses the novel as a jumping-off point.
The plan is to shoot in May, after Sheridan completes the second season of his Kevin Costner-starrer series Yellowstone, which Sheridan exec produces, writes and directs. There is no studio yet, but this is a hot property that will land quickly.
Garrett Basch and Steve Zaillian and BRON Studios’ Aaron L. Gilbert (The Mule, Tully, Fences, Leave No Trace) will produce. Creative Wealth Media’s Jason Cloth (Tully, Fences, A Simple Favor) is executive producer.
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#7 Trump confidant Roger Stone to face federal judge in DC
© Leah Millis
Roger Stone, longtime political ally of President Donald Trump, arrives for his arraignment at U.S. District Court in Washington on January 29, 2019.
WASHINGTON — After a publicity-filled weekend spent asserting his innocence and slamming investigators, Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone will appear before a federal judge who may look to muzzle him as the case moves forward.
Stone faces a Tuesday morning arraignment in Washington and is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he lied to lawmakers, engaged in witness tampering and obstructed a congressional investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Though most defendants facing charges tend to stay quiet for fear of inflaming prosecutors or a judge, Stone has opted for a different tack since his pre-dawn arrest Friday in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Stone staged an impromptu news conference outside a Florida courthouse, made the rounds on weekend television and repeatedly mocked the probe on an Instagram account, including with a cartoonish-image of Mueller as a bowtie-wearing butler holding a tray with a hamburger roll — but no meat in between.
A self-described dirty trickster and longtime confidant of the president, Stone is the sixth Trump aide charged in Mueller's investigation. The indictment does not accuse Stone of coordinating with Russia or with WikiLeaks on the release of hacked Democratic emails. But it does allege that he misled lawmakers about his pursuit of those communications and interest in them. The anti-secrecy website published emails in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election that the U.S. says were stolen from Democrats by Russian operatives.
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#8 Super Bowl 53: Best, worst and wildest moments from ‘Opening Night’
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Monday marked the official start to Super Bowl week as State Farm Arena in Atlanta hosted Super Bowl 53 'Opening Night.'
The Rams and the Patriots each had an hour of availability to be asked anything and everything by the media.
MORE: Super Bowl ads 2019: Watch commercials ahead of Sunday's big game
For Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, this was nothing old as the duo has made nine Super Bowl appearances. But for many players on the Rams, this was an entirely new experience.
Here's a rundown of the best, worst and wildest moments from Super Bowl 53's 'Opening Night.'
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#9 Hecklers Attack Howard Schultz At Event After He Teases Presidential Bid
NEW YORK ― It only took a few minutes before the first heckler lashed out at former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz during his Monday evening book event at a Manhattan Barnes & Noble.
“Don’t help elect Trump, you egotistical billionaire asshole!” the heckler shouted. “Go back to getting ratioed on Twitter. Go back to Davos with the other billionaire elite who think they know how to run the world!”
The comments received light boos, and the man was quickly escorted out. Then a few minutes later, a second heckler spoke up.
“Health care is a human right!” Health care is a human right! Health care is a human right! Health care is a human right! Health care is a human right!” he screamed.
So it went Monday for the Schultz, who told “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired Sunday night that he is “seriously” considering running for president “as a centrist independent, outside of the two-party system.” Schultz was at the Barnes & Noble as the first stop of a promotional tour for his new book, From the Ground Up, described as “part candid memoir, part uplifting blueprint of mutual responsibility.”
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#10 WorldUS hits Venezuela with oil sanctions to pressure MaduroExclusive: Venezuela’s PDVSA orders prepayment for U.S.-bound oil cargoes – sourcesVenezuela’s Guaido aims at control of PDVSA, Citgo as U.S. imposes sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday sanctioned Venezuela's state-owned oil company, ratcheting up pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro to cede power to the U.S.-backed opposition in the oil-rich nation in South America.
The action means Maduro's embattled government would lose access to one of its most important sources of income and foreign currency along with around $7 billion in assets of the state-owned company, Petroleos De Venezuela S.A.
Hours after the White House announced the sanctions, Maduro went on state TV and called the U.S. action "immoral, criminal." In words directed at President Donald Trump, he said, "Hands off Venezuela!"
The sanctions follow the unusual decision by more than 20 countries, including the U.S., to recognize the opposition leader of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the interim president of Venezuela. Maduro was re-elected last year in an election widely seen as fraudulent. The once prosperous nation has been in an economic collapse, with several million citizens fleeing to neighboring countries.
"We have continued to expose the corruption of Maduro and his cronies, and today's action ensures they can no longer loot the assets of the Venezuelan people," national security adviser John Bolton said at a White House news conference to announce the sanctions with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
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#11 NewsFive Vale staff and contractors arrested after Brazil dam disaster
By Pedro Fonseca and Gram Slattery
RIO DE JANEIRO/BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) - Three employees of Brazilian miner Vale SA and two contractors were arrested on Tuesday, prosecutors said, as a criminal investigation began after a devastating dam rupture expected to leave a death toll of more than 300 people.
Vale said it was cooperating with investigators in the case, which has enraged Brazilians and raised fresh questions about the company's commitment to safety after a similar dam burst just over three years ago at a nearby mine it jointly owned.
Two of those arrested were Vale's senior managers at the Corrego do Feijao mine, where a tailings dam broke on Friday, hammering the nearby town of Brumadinho with a flood of mining waste - according to a court order seen by Reuters. The job of the third Vale employee was not immediately clear.
Two other engineers, who worked on behalf of Vale and are accused of attesting to the safety of the dam, were arrested in Sao Paulo, state prosecutors there said.
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#12 Andrew Gillum, defeated Florida candidate, joining CNN as political commentator amid renewed ethics problems
Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum concedes in the Florida governor race following recount.
Former Tallahassee mayor and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum announced Tuesday he is joining CNN as a political commentator.
Gillum's new gig comes amid news that state officials in Florida are moving forward with an ethics complaint after finding probable cause on five of six counts that he violated ethics laws in 2016 by accepting gifts from lobbyists during trips.
"Thrilled to be joining @CNN as a political commentator," Gillum tweeted Tuesday morning.
Gillum’s lawyer, Barry Richard, said late last week after leaving a hearing at the First District Court of Appeal that his client's case will head to an administrative judge.
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#13 The UAE Just Gave Its Gender Equality Awards To All Men
The United Arab Emirates’ honored the 2018 winners of its “Gender Balance Index” awards on Sunday. They’re all men.
The awards recognize gender equality in the government. They’re divided into three categories: “Best Personality Supporting Gender Balance,” “Best Federal Authority Supporting Gender Balance” and “Best Gender Balance Initiative,” according to a press release from the government.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum gave the three awards respectively to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Human Resources and the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA). Men accepted each honor on behalf of the government organizations.
“We are proud of the success of Emirati women and their role is central to shaping the future of the country,” Maktoum said in a Sunday press release, adding, “Gender balance has become a pillar in our governmental institutions.”
Maktoum “recognized the efforts” of one woman ― Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the head of the Gender Balance Council and wife of a deputy prime minister. She did not receive an award.
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#14 U.S. Calls On World To ‘Pick A Side’ On Venezuela; Europeans Set To Recognize Guaido
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States called on Saturday for the world to “pick a side” on Venezuela and urged countries to financially disconnect from Nicolas Maduro’s government, while European powers signaled they were set to follow Washington in recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s rightful leader.
In heated back-and-forth exchanges at a United Nations Security Council meeting, the opposing camp led by Venezuela and Russia, which has invested heavily in Venezuela’s oil industry, accused Washington of attempting a coup, and lambasted Europeans’ demand that elections be called within eight days.
Guaido, who took the helm of the National Assembly on Jan. 5, proclaimed himself interim president on Wednesday. The United States, Canada and a string of Latin American countries recognized the young leader in quick succession. Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013 and has the support of the armed forces, has refused to stand down.
But on Saturday, Guaido gained support from a key military official. Venezuela’s defense attache to Washington, Col. Jose Luis Silva, told Reuters that he has broken with the Maduro government and recognized Guaido, 35, as interim president.
Speaking at the U.N. meeting, called by the United States, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Maduro’s “socialist experiment” had caused the economy to collapse and reduced ordinary Venezuelans to rooting through dumpsters for food.
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#15 China Grants Ivanka Trump 5 Trademarks Amid Trade Talks
SHANGHAI (AP) — The Chinese government has granted Ivanka Trump’s company preliminary approval for another five trademarks this month, as her father’s administration pushes ahead on trade negotiations with China.
Four trademarks, including child care centers, sunglasses and wedding dresses, were approved on Sunday. A fifth, covering brokerage, charitable fundraising and art valuation services, was approved on Jan.6, according to online trademark office records. The applications were filed in 2016 and 2017. If no one objects, they will be finalized after 90 days.
Ivanka Trump’s expanding intellectual property holdings have long raised ethical concerns, particularly in China, where the courts and bureaucracy tend to reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party.
Ivanka Trump’s lawyers in China did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Critics argue that by asking a foreign government for valuable intellectual property rights, White House officials could open themselves to pressure in government negotiations. There is also concern that the family’s global trademark portfolio would open the way for lucrative business opportunities once Donald Trump leaves office.
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#16 Google Hit With $57M Fine Under New EU Law Over Targeted Ads
PARIS (AP) — France’s data privacy watchdog fined Google 50 million euros ($57 million) on Monday, the first penalty for a U.S. tech giant under new European data privacy rules that took effect last year.
The National Data Protection Commission said it fined the U.S. internet giant for “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent” regarding ad personalization for users.
It’s one of the biggest regulatory enforcement actions since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, came into force in May. The rules are aimed at clarifying individual rights to personal data collected by companies, which are required to use plain language to explain what they’re doing with it.
Even though many tech multinationals like Google are headquartered in the U.S., they still have to comply with the new rules because they have millions of users in Europe.
The commission said Google users were “not sufficiently informed” about what they were agreeing to as the company collected data for targeted advertisements.
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#17 Iowa teen found dead days after leaving home during snowstorm
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Corey Brown
MARSHALLTOWN, Ia. — A missing 13-year-old boy was found dead five days into the search for the Iowa teen, police said Sunday.
Corey Brown's body was found in a secluded area on the west side of the city, police said in a news release. The police said that no criminal activity was suspected but that many scenarios were still being investigated. The temperature dipped below zero three straight days after Brown went missing.
Brown was last seen Tuesday night, when he left his parents’ home on Marshalltown's south side after having a "disciplinary discussion" in which his phone was taken away, Police Chief Michael Tupper said at a news conference Thursday.
"The community obviously is pretty devastated,” said Marshalltown native Jonathan Bizios on Sunday. “I think the majority of us were expecting some better news. I guess that's kind of human nature — to think the best."
Bizios, the operator of the Minuteman Inc. print shop in Marshalltown, made more than 1,000 fliers featuring Brown’s face that were plastered around town last week.
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#19 40 people killed, some 850 detained in Venezuela amid ongoing anti-government protests, the UN says
The anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela have led to the deaths of more than 40 people and the detention of some 850 people, including at least 77 minors, the United Nations’ human rights office said Tuesday.
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Rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said 696 people were detained by security forces last Wednesday alone – the highest such tally in a single day in the South American country in at least 20 years.
Colville said in Geneva that of the people killed, 26 were shot by pro-government forces, five were killed in house raids and 11 were reportedly killed by “unidentified individuals” linked to incidents of looting. He said one member of the Bolivarian Guard was reportedly killed in the state of Monagas.
US ANNOUNCES SWEEPING SANCTIONS AGAINST VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO, STATE-OWNED OIL COMPANY
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#20 Russia slams U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and vows to back Maduro
MOSCOW —Russia extended its criticism of the U.S. stance on Venezuela on Tuesday, describing the latest sanctions against the government of President Nicolás Maduro as illegitimate, even as the Russian Finance Ministry acknowledged that its loans to Caracas were at risk because of the crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the new U.S. measures blocking all U.S. revenue from Venezuela’s national oil company were the latest example of Washington using economic sanctions to further U.S. commercial interests. The Kremlin has leveled similar criticism against U.S. sanctions on Iran and Ukraine.
“You know the consistent attitude of Moscow toward such actions, which our American colleagues are taking more and more frequently,” Peskov said. “We believe that in most cases, this is an instance of unfair competition.”
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Maduro is a key ally of Russia in Venezuela, giving Moscow a geopolitical foothold a three-hour flight from Miami. Russia has extended billions of dollars in loans to Venezuela and in December dispatched nuclear-capable bombers to the country in a show of force.
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#21 Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi remains free as Supreme Court says it will not review her case
A Pakistani Christian woman freed from death row last year will not be retried, the country's Supreme Court said Tuesday, as judges rejected a petition to review their previous decision.
Asia Bibi, a mother of five from Punjab province, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 and sentenced to hang after she was accused of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed during an argument a year earlier with Muslim colleagues.
The workers had refused to drink from a bucket of water Bibi had touched because she was not Muslim. At the time, Bibi said the case was a matter of women who didn't like her "taking revenge."
Last year, she won her appeal against the conviction and death sentence.
In its ruling in October, the Supreme Court court quoted Shakespeare's "King Lear" in its ruling, saying Bibi appeared to have been "more sinned against than sinning."
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#22 Ex-Israeli army chief launches campaign to replace Netanyahu
TEL AVIV, Israel — Retired Israeli military chief Benny Gantz is launching his long-awaited political campaign Tuesday, seeking to position himself as the first serious challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decade-long rule.
Flaunting a tough military pedigree, Gantz's emergence in the polls as Netanyahu's top rival highlights how security rules supreme in the minds of most Israeli voters. Straight out of central casting, the tall, telegenic ex-general with salty hair is still untarnished by partisan politics and has been riding a wave of popularity, even while saying little and presenting a vague ideological platform.
But the shine could quickly wear off following Tuesday's speech, when he is expected to finally lay out his agenda. Netanyahu's allies are sure to brand Gantz as a "leftist" should he show any signs of moderation.
Even before the speech, Netanyahu supporters were taking aim at Gantz, trying to dig up dirt on his family, questioning his record and taunting his sparse speaking appearances.
"Benny Gantz is silent. I think I know why he is silent. Thousands of officers who served under him also know why he is silent," said Yoav Galant, a retired general from Netanyahu's ruling Likud party and a former rival of Gantz's in the army. "When you have nothing to say, you don't speak."
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#23 1 US case against Huawei centers around a robot called Tappy
NEW YORK — The U.S. government is alleging Chinese tech company Huawei went so far as to steal a robot's arm in its bid to get its hands on T-Mobile's trade secrets.
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The Justice Department unveiled a 10-count indictment in Seattle in a case that centers on a T-Mobile phone-testing robot named "Tappy." It's separate from a 13-count case in New York that accuses Huawei, two of its subsidiaries and a top executive of misleading banks about the company's business and violating U.S. sanctions.
Huawei is China's first global technology competitor and one of the world's biggest cellphone companies and makers of telecommunications parts. It has rejected accusations by Washington and some other governments that it is controlled by China's ruling party and might facilitate spying.
But the T-Mobile case portrays a company going to illegal lengths to gain access to others' intellectual property.
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#24 China Launches Missile That Could Strike U.S. Territory
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China's President Xi Jinping
China has released footage of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that has enough range to strike United States territory, dubbed by some as the “Guam killer.”
The Dongfeng-26 (or DF-26) ballistic missile has a range of 1,864 to 3,567 miles, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). That means the U.S. island of Guam, located in the Pacific Ocean, would be within striking distance of the missile from mainland China. Experts have suggested the recent CCTV footage showing a successful test launch of the missile is a message directed at leaders in Washington.
Beijing wants to demonstrate “that it can hold at risk U.S. strategic assets, such as carriers and bases,” Adam Ni, a China researcher at Macquarie University in Australia, told SCMP.
“It’s an attempt to reinforce the notion that the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] has the capability to sink U.S. carriers and inflict unacceptable damage on American forces,” Ni explained. “Within the context of increasing strategic competition and tension between the two countries, the latest drills are just another signal to the U.S. about the prevails of escalation,” he added.
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#25 French yellow vest movement dogged by intolerance, extremism
PARIS — Intolerance and conspiracy theories have haunted the margins of France's "yellow vest" movement since the first protests over fuel taxes roused the discontented middle of French society.
The men and women in fluorescent safety vests blocking traffic and intimidating shoppers on the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue vent a range of grievances against the government.
But over 11 weeks of yellow vest protests, views from the fringes have bubbled through the diffuse and leaderless movement and have been amplified: anti-Semitic rants about banking, a Holocaust survivor harassed on the subway, assaults on journalists, and claims the government concocted terrorist attacks or deadly accidents to divert attention from the demonstrations.
There has been scattered violence at the protests, with clashes between participants and riot police, and authorities worry that the extremists have taken over the center of the movement, risking a return to the darker episodes from France's past.
On Saturday in Paris, a man in a yellow vest turned toward a journalist filming at the sidelines of an otherwise quiet match, hurled a homophobic epithet and added: "You work for the Jews." No one in the march joined in, but neither did they contradict him.
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#26 Can Norway win the global race to build a ‘floating tunnel’?
With majestic glaciers, fjords and mountains, Norway is famous for its dramatic natural landscape.
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Its rugged terrain does not make traveling easy, however. More than 1,000 fjords line the Scandinavian country's west coast, which is home to a third of the country's population of 5.3 million. To make the 1,100 kilometer journey between the southern city of Kristiansand and Trondheim in the north via the west coast, for example, currently takes 21 hours, and requires seven ferry crossings.
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#27 Mexico won’t accept minors awaiting US asylum claims
MEXICO CITY — The head of Mexico's immigration agency said Monday that his country won't accept migrants younger than 18 while they await the resolution of their U.S. asylum claims.
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National Immigration Institute Commissioner Tonatiuh Guillen also said Mexico won't extend the policy beyond a single border crossing, the El Chaparral crossing in Tijuana.
Mexican officials had previously said the United States expressed interest in extending the "remain in Mexico" policy to other border crossings. But Guillen said Mexico will accept only asylum seekers aged 18 to 60 at El Chaparral.
Mexico will accept migrants only from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, and will give them four-month visas.
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#28 North Korea says it wants peace, relations with U.S.
GENEVA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday that relations with the United States will develop "wonderfully at a fast pace" if Washington responds to its efforts on denuclearisation with trustworthy measures and practical actions.
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North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Han Tae Song, also told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament that Pyongyang would continue working to establish a "permanent and durable peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula."
The summit last June between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump had brought about a dramatic turn in relations that had been "the most hostile on earth" and contributed to ensuring peace and security on the divided peninsula, Han said.
He referred to the two leaders' joint statement issued after their meeting in Singapore and Kim's New Year's Address, adding: "Accordingly we declared that we would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them and we have taken various practical measures.
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#29 US plans suspension of nuclear treaty with Russia, official says
WASHINGTON — The U.S. plans to suspend its obligations under a 1987 nuclear weapons treaty with Russia after a deadline passes this weekend and the Trump administration inches closer to full withdrawal from a pillar of Cold War diplomacy, a White House official said Monday.
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Unless Russia destroys all its ground-launched cruise missiles known as 9M729s, associated equipment and launchers by Feb. 2, the U.S. will suspend its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, according to the official, who asked not to be identified because a decision hasn’t been announced.
The official did not say whether the U.S. will simultaneously announce a full withdrawal from the INF treaty, triggering a process that would take six months to complete. North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials have been preparing for a collapse of the accord for months.
President Donald Trump indicated in October he would pull the U.S. out of the treaty, but after consulting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other allies decided to delay the suspension. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in early December said the U.S. was giving Russia two more months to get back in compliance with the treaty.
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#30 ‘French Spiderman’ arrested after scaling Manila skyscraper
French urban freeclimber Alain Robert was arrested on Tuesday, police said, after he scaled one of Manila's tallest towers in his latest high-risk ascent.
The 56-year old adventurer dubbed the "French spiderman" climbed the 47-storey GT Tower without safety equipment, leaving watchers on the ground staring in amazement.
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#31 John Bolton’s written note on troops to Colombia raises eyebrows
National Security Adviser John Bolton may have inadvertently revealed a potential next move by the Trump administration in the Venezuela crisis Monday when photographers captured a note on a legal pad that read: "5,000 troops to Colombia."
Sources tell Fox News that the White House is considering pre-positioning U.S. forces in Venezuela's western neighbor in case they are needed. However, the sources said that no such move is imminent.
"As the president has said, all options are on the table," a White House spokesperson told Fox News. The National Security Council declined to comment on the note, while the Pentagon referred questions to Bolton.
Bolton was holding the legal pad in full view of the White House press corps while he and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the imposition of sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, a move aimed at increasing the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step aside in favor of the opposition leader of the country's National Assembly, Juan Guaido.
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"We have continued to expose the corruption of Maduro and his cronies, and today's action ensures they can no longer loot the assets of the Venezuelan people," Bolton said, adding that he expects he expected Monday's actions would result in more than $11 billion in lost export proceeds over the next year.
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#32 What to expect from 5G, the next generation of wireless networks
Never in the history of the mobile phone has there been so much hype about a new technology ahead of its launch than there is with 5G.
It seems mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers, and equipment vendors are locked into a massive global game of one-upmanship, seeking to claim to be the first to achieve something groundbreaking with the technology. But the stakes are high – the mobile industry also desperately needs 5G, whether for new revenue sources, market share, or to drive growth.
Since mobile phones first appeared in the mid-1980s, the industry has launched several new “generations” of network and technology. Those early analogue “brick” phones of the 1980s were replaced by the 2G (1990s) GSM, digital, and international roaming service. 3G (2000s) offered improved internet connectivity before 4G (2010s) delivered a truly broadband experience into our hands.
5G is now the fifth generation, but despite considerable media attention and focus on its massively enhanced data capability (downloading a HD movie in less than a minute), focusing on its speed alone is to miss the point of its significance.
Ultimately, it’s simply not sustainable to keep launching a new technology every ten years or so. There are license fees to pay for new radio frequency spectrum bands, new network infrastructure to build, and an increase in the management costs associated with integrating new technology with existing infrastructure – while keeping all of the other previous generations of network operational. UK operators, for example, continue to support 2G, 3G, and 4G while preparing to launch 5G.
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#33 How to turn off FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Want to listen in on your friend’s conversations? Thanks to a bug in Apple’s FaceTime service, all you need to do is call them via FaceTime on their iPhone or Mac. You can then use their phone’s microphone to hear what’s going on, even if they don’t pick up the call.
This serious bug is now known by anyone who reads tech news. (It has been tested and verified by The Verge staff.) It’s actually quite easy to prevent anyone else from invading your conversational privacy until Apple is able to fix the bug later this week. Just turn FaceTime off.
In fact, Apple has temporarily turned off the Group FaceTime feature in iOS and macOS, which it says should address the bug. However, if you want to make absolutely sure, you can disable it entirely from your end. This will turn off both video and audio FaceTime calls, but it’s a safety precaution to take until this nasty bug is fixed.
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If you’re a FaceTime fan, stay tuned. We’ll let you know when Apple has fixed the problem.
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#34 Instagram outage forces millions to look directly at the world for nearly half an hour
Photo-sharing app and social network Instagram was briefly taken offline on Monday afternoon, causing nothing of consequence to occur other than a brief respite from one source of the constant deluge of inconsequential information to which we all voluntarily submit ourselves.
The service died at about 4:20, tragically the very moment when millions of people were turning to the app, for the third time that hour, desperately hoping to pass the time until the end of the workday. At least this was the case on the west coast of the U.S., the only location we are considering at this time.
The app launched fine but did not refresh feeds, and users were unable to scroll past however many posts were already cached; stories, which are also cached, were accessible but couldn't be posted. I was able to send messages, but others weren't.
Amazingly, even the website went down, and hard. Visitors received a "5xx Server Error," which is not common — usually a server knows which of the various error codes to return. It seems to be back now, though.
The outage appeared to end at about quarter of five, which means many of us are still at our desks, if we're lucky enough to have them.
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#35 Snapchat weighs what was once unthinkable – permanent snaps
NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Snap Inc is considering changes to its Snapchat app, known for disappearing photos and videos, that could make users' public posts longer lasting or even permanent, people familiar with the matter said.
The company is also weighing an option to reveal the identities of Snapchat users who make public posts, a person familiar with Snap's plans said. Together the changes would mark a big step in Snap's effort to lure and keep users by making content shared publicly via the "Our Story" section, more available outside Snapchat. They could also create a new revenue source for money-losing Snap, which has seen its user base shrink and executives flee the company.
But such changes to Snapchat, which launched in 2011 and became an instant hit among teenagers and millennials, could trigger backlash from users who cherish their privacy, especially as rival Facebook Inc has been plagued by scandals over how it handles user data.
Snap is carefully weighing the privacy, technical and legal considerations of revealing user identities on public posts, said the person familiar with Snap's plans.
Only Snapchat photo and video content shared to "Our Story," which shares the snaps publicly to a wider audience and not just a user's friends, would be affected and users would still have the option of deleting those stories, said the person.
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#36 ‘Whisper’ laser tech sends audible messages to specific people
Researchers from MIT have discovered a way to send highly targeted audio signals directly to someone's ear at a distance using laser beams. The system works using the "photoacoustic" effect, where water vapor in the air absorbs light, forming sound waves. The research may pave the way to systems that allow audible messages to be transmitted to spies or other agents, warning them of impending danger like an active shooter.
The team started with a laser beam that fired at wavelengths absorbed by water. By sweeping the beam at the speed of sound, they found that it could be used to generate sound that can only be heard at a specific distance from the transmitter. That would allow a message to be sent to an individual, rather than just anyone who crossed the path of the laser.
"This can work even in relatively dry conditions because there is almost always a little water in the air, especially around people," said research lead Charles M. Wynn. And if you're thinking that a laser at head level sounds like a bad idea, apparently it's fine. "It is the first system that uses lasers that are fully safe for the eyes and skin to localize an audible signal to a particular person in any setting," added Wynn.
The scientists also found a method that works by modulating, rather than sweeping, the beam. "There are tradeoffs between the two techniques," said researcher Ryan M. Sullenberger. "The traditional [modulation] method provides sound with higher fidelity, whereas the laser sweeping provides sound with louder audio." The system currently works at more than 2.5 meters (8 feet), so for the next step, the scientists plan to scale it up to longer distances. After that, "We hope that eventually a commercial technology will develop," Sullenberger said.
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#37 What is Oumuamua? Here’s what we know so far
Astronomers have cataloged eight planets, 6,500 comets and more than 525,000 asteroids, but Oumuamua is one of a kind. The elongated space object, which was discovered speeding past the sun in 2017, is the only celestial body known to have visited our solar system from another.
Oumuamua is believed to be an exotic type of comet or asteroid, but it's such an oddity that some astronomers have speculated it could be an alien spacecraft.
Robert Weryck, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, found Oumuamua by accident. On Oct. 19, 2017, he was using the Pan-STARRS telescope on Maui to scan the skies for Earth-approaching asteroids. At first he thought he had found one. "But then I was able to locate it in two images from the previous night," he said, "and when I combined them together the orbit didn't make sense."
After collecting additional observations, Weryck and his colleague Marco Micheli concluded that the object's trajectory indicated that it had originated "from outside our solar system."
Astronomers had been seeking such a visitor for decades. "What's most surprising is that we've never seen interstellar objects pass through before," Karen Meech, another astronomer at the institute, told NASA a week after the discovery.
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#38 The Newest Pictures of Asteroid Bennu Are Unreal
The asteroid-orbiting OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has released some of its most detailed images yet of its target, the asteroid Bennu. And they’re breathtaking.
The spacecraft took these images on January 17 when it was only a mile (1.6 kilometers) above Bennu’s surface, using its NavCam 1 navigation camera, according to a NASA release. That camera is, as the name suggests, used for keeping track of OSIRIS REx’s orbit around Bennu.
Here are the images in full, which show two views of Bennu’s south pole captured with a 1/700 second shutter speed.
OSIRIS-REx launched in 2016 with the goal of studying and collecting samples from an asteroid close to Earth. The craft arrived at Bennu in early December 2018, and began its orbit around Bennu in January. The asteroid, at only around 1,700 feet in diameter, is now the smallest object ever orbited by a spacecraft. From top to bottom, the asteroid is around the size of Chicago’s Willis Tower or New York’s Freedom Tower.
Orbiting something so small is a big challenge, since the object has only a slight gravitational field. The spacecraft uses these images to help calibrate that difficult orbit.
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#39 B. Smith’s husband has a girlfriend as his wife battles Alzheimer’s and fans aren’t happy
While restaurateur and lifestyle guru B. Smith battles with Alzheimer's disease, her husband is dating, and fans are not happy about it.
Smith's husband, Dan Gasby, opened up about his relationship with Alex Lerner as he serves as a caregiver for his wife. He spoke about the relationships in a profile published in The Washington Post on Monday.
Gasby has been married to Smith since 1992. Smith revealed her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease in 2014, saying that in the years before she was diagnosed she noticed she was repeating herself and forgetting things.
Gasby, 64, first revealed his romance with Lerner, 53, on the Facebook page he shares with Smith back in December, according to the Washington Post.
"If ‘This is Us,’ and ‘Modern Family’ came together, it would be us," Gasby said of their current situation.
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#40 ‘Empire’ star Jussie Smollett assaulted in possible racist, homophobic attack
"Empire" star Jussie Smollett was hospitalized after a possible homophobic and "racially-charged assault and battery," Chief Anthony Guglielmi of the Chicago Police Department said in a statement Tuesday.
The attack is being investigated as a hate crime, according to a press release sent to USA TODAY.
"Detectives are currently working to gather video, identify potential witnesses and establish an investigative timeline," the press release stated. "The victim is fully cooperating with investigators and we ask anyone with information about this incident to contact Area Central Detectives at 312-747-8382 or report it anonymously to www.cpdtip.com."
According to police, Smollett was walking on Tuesday when two unknown offenders approached him and started yelling "racial and homophobic slurs." The offenders then used their hands to batter the victim and poured an unknown chemical substance on him. One of the offenders wrapped a rope around the victim's neck.
Smollett then transported himself to Northwestern Hospital, according to police. He is in good condition.
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