Новости за 28.01.2016

Vice President Joe Biden couldn't be happier about the GOP's slate of presidential contenders. "We may be given a gift from the Lord in the presidential race here," Biden told House Democrats Thursday during their annual retreat in Baltimore. "I don't know who to root for more — Cruz or... what's that guy's name? He's having the fundraiser for veterans tonight, I'm told," he continued, pretending to not even be able to remember Donald Trump's name.

Readers of Donald Trump coverage in The Huffington Post are going to find themselves becoming familiar with an editorial note the website is now appending to all their coverage of the Republican front-runner.

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the mosquito-borne Zika virus is spreading so "explosively" that immediate action is necessary. WHO estimates that the virus, which has already been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil, could affect up to four million people in the Americas.

Everyone's least favorite person Martin Shkreli really has nothing to lose at this point, which might be why he is threatening and mocking Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah in a surreal video obtained by TMZ.

Ever wanted to stay the night in a meme? Now you can: The Netflix & Chill Room is booking guests for $400 a night.

It might not have been the ebullient doctor's note released by Donald Trump last month, but it turns out Bernie Sanders is in 'overall very good health," according to the attending Senate physician. Sanders, 74, would be the oldest president the U.S. has ever elected.

French police arrested a man carrying two guns and a copy of the Koran Thursday after he attempted to enter a hotel near Disneyland Paris. The hotel's security team said the 28-year-old European was carrying the guns, one of which was an automatic handgun, inside a bag that also held a a box of cartridges and a copy of the Koran. No one was injured in the incident.

There seems to come a time every election season when candidates deploy their "secret weapon" (spoiler: it's their spouse). Hillary Clinton has pulled out the big guns, taking her husband, former president Bill Clinton, on the campaign trail for her in recent weeks. But it turns out that at some rallies for his wife, the well-liked former president, now 69, appears to have lost some of the energy that stirred the nation two decades ago.

The University of Missouri suspended assistant professor of communications Melissa Click on Thursday, days after she was charged with third-degree assault for calling for "some muscle" to help remove a student journalist covering the school's race-related protests in November. Mizzou's board gave no indication as to whether she will be paid during her suspension.

After more than a year of rumors and speculation, Rihanna returned Wednesday night with ANTI, her long-awaited follow-up to 2012's Unapologetic. The pop star was prompted to release the album on Jay Z's high-quality streaming service Tidal after it was accidentally uploaded to the service's servers. The album, which critics say is a left turn that leaves out any overt dancefloor hits, will stream exclusively on Tidal for one week and is available for purchase there; the deluxe version hits Tidal on Friday, January 29. Читать дальше...

"Is the economy rigged?" asks Sen. Bernie Sanders in a new presidential campaign ad. "Well, the 15 richest Americans acquired more wealth in two years than the bottom 100 million people combined."

The Washington Post tore into Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in its Thursday editorial, questioning the authenticity of his message and the plausibility of his promises. While Sanders may be positioned as an "uncorrupted anti-establishment crusader," The Post posits that he "is not a brave truth-teller," but a "politician selling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants to buy it."

Speaking at a town hall event in Iowa, Hillary Clinton responded enthusiastically to a question about appointing President Obama to the Supreme Court after he leaves the White House.

In protest against Fox News picking his archenemy, Megyn Kelly, as a debate moderator, Donald Trump has announced plans to host a counter-event in Iowa "to raise money for the veterans and wounded warriors, who have been treated so horribly by our all talk, no action politicians," his campaign announced. The event has raised the eyebrows of more than a few New York City street vendors with special disabled veteran's licenses, who for over a decade faced Trump's unsympathetic attempts to get them removed, The Daily Beast reports. Читать дальше...

Barbie's body proportions just got a little more realistic. On Thursday, toymaker Mattel introduced three new body shapes for its iconic doll after facing backlash and dropping sales for inaccurately reflecting women's bodies. Now, alongside the original Barbie, there's a curvy Barbie, a tall Barbie, and a petite Barbie. Time reports in its latest cover story:

To Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the impending possibility of a Donald Trump presidency is no laughing matter. So when the Democratic minority leader made a joke to reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday that he's "kind of pulling for Trump" considering the other Republicans running, he took to the floor of Congress less than an hour later to retract it.

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The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee announced Wednesday that it was keeping interest rates unchanged, but planned to continue gradually raising them while "closely monitoring" how global economic turmoil impacts the U.S. jobs market and inflation. The central bank raised interest rates last month for the first time in nearly a decade as the economy showed signs of gaining strength. U.S. stocks tumbled Wednesday afternoon following the Fed's cautious statement and gloomy earnings reports from Apple and Boeing. Читать дальше...

An ISIS-supporting Australian teenager was arrested last April on terrorism charges for allegedly planning to pack a kangaroo full of bombs and let it loose on police, The New York Daily News reports. Sevdet Besim, 19, had pledged his allegiance to ISIS online, although its not yet clear if he was in touch with the terrorist organization.

The majority of Americans think Hillary Clinton is going to win the presidential election in November, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. Assuming Clinton is going up against Donald Trump in the general election, 54 percent of Americans said they'd expect Clinton to win; the poll also reports that among registered voters — who tend to be more Republican-leaning — some 52 percent expect Clinton to win. Clinton is also seen trouncing Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio by larger margins than she's expected to beat Trump. Читать дальше...

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Three more of the armed anti-government protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon were arrested on Wednesday. They turned themselves in at a checkpoint outside the refuge a day after the standoff erupted in violence when law enforcement officers arrested eight members of the group, including ringleader Ammon Bundy. Bundy released a statement through his lawyer urging protesters remaining in the refuge to "please go home."

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On Wednesday the city of Ferguson... Читать дальше...

The deadline for presidential candidates and their super PACs to file quarterly spending reports is Sunday, but it's already pretty clear that Jeb Bush and his super PAC, Right to Rise, which has spent at least $82 million this election cycle, has little to show for it polling-wise, Reuters reports. Bush and his team spent $1.2 million on private planes between June and September 2015 (versus $700,000 spent by Hillary Clinton, for example, and $158,000 by Sen. Ted Cruz) and a higher percentage on luxury or "upper upscale" luxury hotels ... Читать дальше...

The rapid spread of the Zika virus has public health officials worried, not least because so little is known about the mosquito-borne illness. In most children and adults, the symptoms are mild, if they appear at all, but there is a speculative link to the nervous system disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome and a more solid and troubling tie to microcephaly, a condition where babies are born with small heads and shrunken brains. There is no vaccine and no treatment, but researchers in Texas and Brazil are working on a Zika vaccine. Читать дальше...

With voters about to have their say in the Republican nominating contest, it is still possible to imagine Donald Trump fading, especially if Iowa's evangelical army comes to the polls, as they usually do. It's also still possible that Donald Trump doesn't want to be president, not really, and his stepping away from a debate is the first sign of him turning tail.

Follow your bliss: You'll regret it if you don't (Pacific Standard)

Why it's great to have a stubborn child (Time)

Venus flytraps 'count' to 5 before dissolving prey (Discover)

New research has uncovered a disturbing trend about female characters in Disney movies (Quartz)

Listen to more from this series:

The data came in last week, and as had been expected, 2015 was measured as the hottest year ever recorded — whether you ask NASA, NOAA, the Japanese Meteorological Agency, the UK's Hadley Centre, or Berkeley Earth — beating the previous record set only last year. A few days later, a gigantic blizzard smashed the eastern seaboard from New York to D.C., setting multiple snowfall and flooding records.