The beginning of IS's end

March 03, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

Its strongholds in Syria and Iraq are under increasing pressure. Battles for Raqqa and Mosul are soon likely.

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Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson appeared set to end his bid for the 2016 US Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday after failing to win a single state despite a short-lived surge of support last fall in the early-voting state of Iowa. "I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening's Super Tuesday primary results," Carson said in a statement. He said he would also skip the next Republican debate, scheduled for Thursday night in Detroit. Carson signaled his withdrawal after Donald Trump consolidated his lead in the Republican race with a string of victories on Tuesday, but failed to eclipse his rivals or draw reluctant party leaders into his corner.

A Supreme Court deeply split over abortion wrestled Wednesday with widely replicated Texas regulations that could drastically cut the number of abortion clinics in the state. As ever, Justice Anthony Kennedy appeared to hold the outcome in his hands on a court operating with eight justices since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The court's most significant abortion case since the early 1990s crackled with intensity during 85 minutes of pointed questions from liberal and conservative justices that suggested little common ground in resolving the clinics' claim that the regulations are medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limit a woman's right to an abortion.

Indonesia issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday, then rescinded it, after a massive and shallow earthquake struck off the west coast of its island of Sumatra, a region devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami. The warning was issued for West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Aceh after the quake of magnitude 7.9, the National Meteorological Agency said, but rescue efforts will be hampered by the darkness that falls early in the tropical archipelago. The epicenter was 502 miles southwest of Padang, the US Geological Survey said. It was six miles deep. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, but the shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage.

American astronaut Scott Kelly returned to terra firma on Wednesday, completing a record 340 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz space shuttle landed in Kazakhstan, where Mr. Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts emerged and were met by a team of doctors, reporters, and NASA officials. He appeared in good spirits, offering a fist pump and thumbs up upon exiting. Kelly's safe trip home sets a new out-of-this world record for American astronauts, and he joins a long list of those who have contributed to NASA's ongoing mission to explore space.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades, reflecting growing anger at Pyongyang's latest nuclear test and rocket launch in defiance of a ban on all nuclear-related activity. The United States and China, North Korea's traditional ally, spent seven weeks negotiating the new sanctions, which include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang; and expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in "illicit activities.

The mysterious case of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared without a trace in 2014, has another clue with the discovery of debris that could be from the doomed Boeing 777. An American, who blogs about MH370, discovered the part, believed to belong on the jet's tail, in the channel between Mozambique and Madagascar, NBC News reported. The discovery of what may be part of the jet's horizontal stabilizer is only the second piece of debris found that may have come from Flight MH370, a still-unsolved mystery that sparked discussion about airline safety and tracking around the world.

New York Yankees pitcher Aroldis Chapman agreed to a 30-game suspension from the Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner after being accused of domestic violence. This suspension is the first under a new policy the MLB adopted in August. The policy was adopted after several high-profile cases of domestic abuse in the National Football League (NFL), and this suspension is a clear signal that baseball is serious about enforcing it.

A team of international scientists from Canada, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden says that it has developed a biological supercomputer that is significantly faster and more efficient than traditional, electrical computers. This allows it to solve complex problems including cryptography and mathematical optimization, which require the computer to test a large number of different solutions. Traditional computers can’t do this quickly, as they can only work on one problem at a time.

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