Pope Decries Czech Communist-era Persecution

ATLANTA — A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into southern U. S. states Friday, prompting governors to declare states of emergency and shuttering schools across the region. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders mobilized the National Guard to help stranded motorists.

“Who is Robbie Williams?” That’s the question the British pop star poses in the opening and closing moments of his new biopic, Better Man. At home in the U. K., he needs no introduction. After rising to fame as a teenager in Take That, one of the most successful British boy bands of the ‘90s, Williams—widely considered to be the bad boy of the group—went on to forge a solo career that reached stratospheric heights.

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t have to go to jail, pay a fine or perform community service as a result of his New York hush money conviction. A judge ended the case Friday with a sentence of an unconditional discharge, closing the case with no punishment. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But unless the conviction for falsifying business records is someday overturned, Trump will have felonies on his criminal record, which will affect some of his rights. Here are some of the potential impacts and some things that won’t change: Can he still vote? Trump is registered to vote in Florida and he will be able to vote there. Florida does bars people convicted of felonies from voting, but restores their right to vote after they have completed their sentence.

Netflix’s The Breakthrough is a gripping Swedish miniseries that brings to life one of Europe’s most perplexing and haunting criminal cases of this century: a 2004 double murder in the country’s southern city of Linköping. The four-part drama not only explores the devastating crime but also the groundbreaking technique that led investigators to solve it after 16 years.

A man was taken in for questioning on suspicion of arson, and later arrested, on Thursday afternoon in the Woodland Hills near the Kenneth Fire, which had started earlier that day. It was initially reported as an arrest made on the suspicion of arson, with Sean Dinse of the LAPD’s Topanga Division telling news station KTLA on Thursday night that the authorities believed someone had purposefully set the Kenneth Fire. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The LAPD revealed in a Friday morning press conference that their investigation hadn’t found enough evidence for an arson charge.

Norovirus is surging across the U. S., with case numbers higher now than they’ve been at the same time in more than a decade, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There is no antiviral treatment for the miserable but thankfully short-lived illness, and no vaccine—yet.