Feb 9, 2018

Trump issues sanctions in Africa, Asia, Turkey for links with ISIS

Donald Trump. Photo: Chris Kleponis - Pool / Getty Images

The U.S. Treasury Department is slapping new sanctions on ISIS facilitators in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This comes in advance of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s trip to several nations, including Turkey, next week.

Why it matters: After the defeat of ISIS’ physical caliphate, there are concerns from the Pentagon that ISIS is building up around the world. ISIS may be dispersed, not destroyed.

The sanctions target:

Yunus Emre Sakarya and his Turkey-based electronics business, which were helping ISIS obtain drone parts for ISIS.
Abdulpatta Escalon Abubakar, who was helping transfer funds and facilitating weapons purchases for ISIS in the Philippines.
Mohamed Mire Ali Yusuf and his company are targeted in Somalia.

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Marisa Fernandez

49 mins ago - Health

Los Angeles and San Diego public schools will be online only this fall

Alhambra Unified School District. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Public schools in Los Angeles and San Diego, the two largest public school districts in California, will not be sending children back to campuses next month and will instead administer online classes only due to concerns over the ongoing threat of the coronavirus.

Why it matters: The two districts, which together enroll about 825,000 students, are the largest in the country thus far to announce that they will not return to in-person learning in the fall, even as the Trump administration aggressively pushes for schools to do so.

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Axios

Updated 1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 2 p.m. ET: 12,984,811 — Total deaths: 570,375 — Total recoveries — 7,154,492 — Map.
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 2 p.m. ET: 3,327,388— Total deaths: 135,379 — Total recoveries: 1,006,326 — Total tested: 40,282,176 — Map.
World: WHO head: There will be no return to the "old normal" for the foreseeable future — Hong Kong Disneyland closing due to surge.
States: Cuomo says New York will use formula to determine if reopening schools is safe.
Politics: Mick Mulvaney: "We still have a testing problem in this country."

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Marisa Fernandez

1 hour ago - Health

Cuomo: New York will use formula to determine if it's safe to reopen schools

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that schools will only reopen if they meet scientific criteria that show the coronavirus is under control in their region, including a daily infection rate of below 5% over a 14-day average. "We're not going to use our children as guinea pigs," he added.

The big picture: Cuomo's insistence that New York will rely on data to decide whether to reopen schools comes as President Trump and his administration continue an aggressive push to get kids back in the classroom as part of their efforts to juice the economy.