Scrapping in South Carolina… jolted in Jakarta… and worried in West Africa. It’s Friday, and here are five things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
GOP DEBATE
‘The bromance is over’: Finally! Donald Trump and Ted Cruz dropped the frenemy routine last night in South Carolina and gave us the clash we’ve been craving. Cruz and The Donald passionately battled over Cruz’s eligibility to be president and Trump’s alleged “New York values.” They fought to a draw (we think), but also set the stage for a fun 16-day sprint to Iowa. Yes, there were other skirmishes — Marco Rubio tussled with both Cruz and Chris Christie; Jeb Bush bashed Trump’s keep-out-the-Muslims plan — but Trump vs. Cruz is definitely the main event in this race.
CHICAGO POLICE SHOOTING VIDEO
Out in the open: Chicago is roiled by yet another police shooting video. This one, released yesterday, shows a fatal shooting from three years ago that left a teen dead on the city’s South Side. The teen, Cedrick Chatman, was shot while he appeared to be running away from the cops in January 2013. The officer who fired the shots said he thought Chatman had something in his hand as he started to turn around. Chicago fought release of the video for years, finally giving in to pressure now, in light of the various police controversies swirling around the Windy City.
JAKARTA ATTACKS
No surprise: If you guessed yesterday’s terror attack in Jakarta was the work of ISIS, you’d be right. The terror group claimed credit for the midday attack that killed at least two people and wounded 24. And police say the attack was planned by a high-ranking member of ISIS who is in Syria, but directed terror cells in Indonesia.
HURRICANE ALEX
Winter whirlwind: January in the North Atlantic: frosty winds, chilly waters and … a hurricane? Yep. For the first time in almost 40 years, a named storm stalks the Atlantic in January. This morning Hurricane Alex is more than 100 miles south of the Azores islands, packing 75 mph winds. But didn’t hurricane season end in November? Yes, but that’s just Mother Nature’s guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule. Tropical systems can pop up at other times. After blowing through the Azores, Alex will likely head on up to Greenland.
EBOLA
It’s not over: Yesterday the World Health Organization gave West Africa the all-clear on Ebola. But that celebration got short-circuited a few hours later, when an Ebola death was reported in Sierra Leone. So health officials are once again tracing possible contacts of the deceased, who got sick in a town near Sierra Leone’s border with Guinea. West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has killed more than 11,000 people since it started in 2013.