February 7th, 2020

"Effective immediately..."

Ancestry.com CEO Margo Georgiadis cited a "slowdown in consumer demand across the entire DNA category" over the last 18 months. The company also announced that it was laying off 6% of its workers... 23andMe slashed about 100 positions, or 14%, of its workforce. Privacy has also been front and center as consumers fret about the data compiled by Facebook, Google and other technology giants. The worries slammed the genetics world in particular after a suspect in the Golden State Killer case was arrested in 2018 based on a genetics match with a family relative. That led to questions about whether individuals can be located and convicted of crimes based on distant relatives' DNA.

The Svalbard seed vault, the world’s most sheltered storage facility, currently holds 992,039 crop seeds from across the world.

“Complaints, comments, advice, and grievances were met with an earnest shake of the head and progressive buzzwords, but not much else."...

"A second official confirmed that the Trump-Johnson call was 'very difficult.'"... Privately, the British chafed at the US's demands, particularly since the US didn't have a superior product to offer to replace Huawei...

Kenya and the United States manage around $1 billion in trade annually, and Washington sees Kenya as a key ally in a joint military campaign against militant al-Shabab fighters in neighboring Somalia. Kenya is also East Africa’s economic engine, and it is home to a growing number of industries — as well as billions of dollars of strategic Chinese investments that Washington is trying to counter.

The education and health care industry — a consistent employment juggernaut — was by far the strongest during the month, adding more than 70,000 jobs... The health care subsector added more than 35,000 net jobs over the month. Mild January weather sparked an unusually large swell in construction, which posted a net gain of 44,000 jobs... Leisure and hospitality clinched the No. 3 spot for January with a net gain of 36,000 positions... Transportation and warehousing payrolls came in at No. 4 with a net gain of 28,300 jobs.

The investigation, launched last September, had escalated a dispute over one of President Trump’s most significant rollbacks of global warming regulations. The Justice Department’s move was one of a slew of seemingly retributive actions by the White House against California, as the state worked with the four automakers — Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen of America, Honda and BMW — to defy Mr. Trump’s planned rollback of national fuel economy standards.

The White House is throwing its support behind a plan to transfer the U.S. Secret Service back to the Treasury Department to better focus on the growing threat of online financial crimes. Shifting the agency from within the Department of Homeland Security to the Treasury would require action from Congress, but President Donald Trump is confident enough that he plans to include the Secret Service under the Treasury’s budget in his proposal expected Monday,

"...one of the things that people are doing right now is very carefully looking at sequences to see if there's even any possibility much less likelihood that [the virus was bio-engineered]..."

I’m suspending my campaign, but our fight against the Cult of Trump is just getting started. I’m committed to doing everything I can to defeat Trump and his enablers this November. I can’t do it alone. Join me at https://t.co/d40HA9h2Kz.

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) February 7, 2020

The rosettes are actinoform clouds, which NASA described as "a collection of shallow clouds that organize themselves in a distinct, radial structure." There's a good reason why you won't spot these lovely creations from the ground. The systems can span huge distances, as much as 180 miles (300 kilometers) across.

Berlin’s right-wing populist AfD party leader Björn Höcke and MEP Beatrix von Storch are in the process of selling Dexit to the rest of the party in order to use it as the main feature of their manifesto in the next election. Mr Höcke said: “The majority of the German people also want to get out of EU slavery.”

Illegal immigrants rushed to New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMVs) in large numbers after the "Green Light Law," which allowed them to obtain driver's licenses or learner's permits regardless of their immigration status, took effect last December. The law also permitted applicants to use foreign documents, including passports, to be submitted in order to obtain licenses... In a letter to top New York state officials obtained exclusively by Fox News, Wolf noted that the New York law prohibited DMV agencies across the state from sharing criminal records with CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)...

Newsweek reported that U.S. officials believed a Taliban-linked group, the Haqqani network, had orchestrated the abduction. Sources close to the Haqqani network denied kidnapping the American when contacted by Reuters. A Taliban leader who declined to be named told Reuters they had kidnapped an American in Khost but did not provide further details.

The social media outpouring was immense and soon morphed into greater frustration with the establishment and its handling of the coronavirus outbreak which has spread globally. On Friday morning, the two most popular hashtags on Weibo were related to Li's death. China's ubiquitous messaging app WeChat was filled with condolences.

Some of the charges carry a maximum penalty of death. The Department of Justice announced the charges at a Thursday evening press conference in El Paso.