'Aleppo rules'

February 09, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

Five years after a crackdown on democracy demonstrations launched the Syrian civil war, the Assad regime has the upper hand.

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President Obama is asking Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to help fight the Zika virus. In an announcement Monday, the White House said the money would be used to expand mosquito control programs, speed development of a vaccine, develop diagnostic tests, and improve support for low-income pregnant women. On Tuesday, administration officials are slated to brief Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky and other congressional leaders on the administration's Zika prevention and response plan, McConnell's office said.

As the United States prepares to take in thousands of refugees from Syria in the months and years ahead, one New England town is drawing attention as a model for integrating migrant communities. Fifteen years ago, Lewiston, Maine, became a prime destination for a wave of Somali immigrants who failed to find housing through a resettlement program established in nearby Portland. At first it was a struggle, but today the former mill town of about 36,500 is home to an African community of 5,000 – and their presence can be felt throughout the city in mosques, shops, restaurants, and the local champion high-school soccer team.

If humans don’t cut carbon emissions soon, the Earth could feel the catastrophic impact for tens of thousands of years, a new study has found. In a shift from climate change analyses that focus on the phenomenon’s effects in the 21st century, researchers from an array of universities in the United States and Europe took the long view in their new study, released online Monday in the journal, Nature Climate Change. The findings suggest that the consequences of fossil fuels burned today could last well beyond 2100 – and the study is meant to urge policymakers to act with that perspective in mind.

A new analysis of the past 35 years of weather patterns concluded that what is now considered a normal year of rain and snow in the southwestern United States is one-quarter drier than it was before the 1970s. And the climate conditions that bring the region most of its rain and snow will become even more rare in the future, according to a federally funded study posted online Thursday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

NASA reported last week that the Jupiter-bound space probe Juno successfully adjusted its flight path Wednesday, in a maneuver that secured the solar-powered craft's course for the gas giant. It's a journey nearly five-years in the making, and one that's likely to add to our rapidly expanding understanding of not just Jupiter, but of the solar system as a whole and our own place in it. Juno is expected to arrive at Jupiter on July 4 where it will spend 10 months orbiting the planet and studying the gas giant's dozens of moons and enormous magnetic field.

Monday marks the start of the year of the monkey and the opening of the Chinese Lunar New Year, a celebration of living family, ancestors, and good fortune in the year ahead. Known as the Spring Festival in China, it is the most important holiday in the country and in Chinese communities around the world. The New Year celebration is a week-long public holiday that closes schools and businesses. The festivities usually start the day before the new year and last until the Lantern Festival that falls on the 15th day of the new year.

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