Month: February 2020

Houston (AFP) – US billionaire Michael Bloomberg has launched a charm offensive to convince black voters, an important bloc in Democratic politics, that he is the right candidate to take on President Donald Trump in November. The former New York mayor rallied supporters in Texas on Thursday, with his sights set on so-called “Super Tuesday”…

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders (D., Vt.) in the Democratic presidential primary. “I am standing with Bernie because he stands with working families, and always has,” de Blasio said in a statement. “I have called for a bold, progressive agenda, and that’s exactly what Senator Sanders has championed…

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a nationwide fracking ban Wednesday. The Democratic New York congresswoman’s bill is a companion to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ legislation seeking to ban fracking across the country by 2025. If passed, the laws would prohibit natural gas production within 2,500 feet of homes and schools by 2021 and help transition energy workers away…

By Huizhong Wu BEIJING (Reuters) – A day after the city government of Wuhan locked down all of its public transportation to keep the coronavirus outbreak that began in the city from spreading further, three nurses found themselves stranded outside Hankou train station. They had returned early from the Lunar New Year holiday to go…

At the center of San Francisco’s National LGBTQ Center for the Arts, two queer activists stood up and disrupted a private fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg after he received a question from the audience about his husband, Chasten. The packed room quickly booed down the activists, drowning out their pointed questions on Friday with chants of…

(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s second-biggest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, disrupted the start of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state-of-the-nation address in parliament. EFF leader Julius Malema and the party’s lawmakers prevented Ramaphosa from speaking as they demanded he remove Pravin Gordhan as Public Enterprises Minister, citing the mismanagement of state-owned companies Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.…

After a five-year pause, Oklahoma will resume executing inmates on death row. There are 47 inmates on Oklahoma’s death row. The state put a hold on lethal injections after several botched executions; in 2014, an inmate flailed on the gurney after being injected with the drugs, and a year later, another inmate was executed with…

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma plans to resume executing death-row inmates, five years after lethal injections were put on hold following a series of death-chamber mishaps, state officials announced Thursday. Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General Mike Hunter and Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow said in a joint news release that the state will…

  A baby with a serious heart condition has died after she received an infection from mould in a Seattle hospital’s operating room, her mother says. Elizabeth Hutt was born with a heart condition that she battled for the entirety of her six-month-long life. The young child underwent three open heart surgeries, and after the…

President Donald Trump demanded New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) drop all of New York state’s lawsuits against him prior to a meeting between the two on Thursday to discuss the suspension of travel programs that would benefit immigrants, along with other New Yorkers. “He must understand that National Security far exceeds politics,” Trump said…