| Joe Biden says he remains 'confident' in his campaign ahead of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:27 AM PST  Democrats are making the final push in New Hampshire as Tuesday's primary approaches. The first voters head to the polls at midnight.
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| Iran tried and failed for the fourth time in a row to put a satellite into orbit Posted: 09 Feb 2020 09:51 AM PST  Iran, despite US opposition, has tried four times since January 2019 to put a satellite into orbit, but each attempt has been a failure.
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| Slain commander Soleimani sought stability: Iranian president Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:32 AM PST  Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander killed in a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 3 in Baghdad, had sought to bring stability to the Middle East, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday. "Commander Soleimani was a man who was pursuing stability and calm in the region," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television. Rouhani, citing the missile strike Iran carried out against a U.S. base in Iraq in retaliation for Soleimani's death, said the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program was not intended for attacks on neighboring countries - which include arch regional adversary Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies.
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| America Sent Dozens of Salvadorans to Death By Sending Them Home Posted: 09 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST  Street gangs that operate with impunity make El Salvador one of the world's most violent countries. Few murders are ever solved.
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| Mike Bloomberg barely appears in his newest anti-Trump ads Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:33 AM PST  Michael Bloomberg's latest presidential campaign ad features footage of several former presidents and the current occupant of the Oval Office, but it does not show the man paying for the ad. Bloomberg's new "Bring Presidential Back" spot compares some of President Trump's more vulgar moments to soaring speeches from John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.> Our country has a rich history of presidents who respected the power, decorum, and influence of their office.> > Unfortunately, that rich history ended the day Trump became president. pic.twitter.com/3QEncsTiNA> > — Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 9, 2020To be fair, soaring rhetoric isn't really Trump's thing, and it isn't Bloomberg's strong suit, either. But Trump likes to pantomime being "presidential" as stiff and boring, and Bloomberg's ad reminds viewers that past presidents could thrill with their words while elevating the dignity of the office. In another ad released over the weekend, Bloomberg takes aim at what Trump believes to be his strongest card, the economy. Again, Bloomberg only makes a brief cameo at the end.It's unusual for a presidential candidate, especially in a primary race, to make ads that don't feature the candidate — but there's very little that's conventional about Bloomberg's run. He has already spent $310.4 million on digital and TV advertising this year, more than the $115.3 million spent by all the other Democrats combined, Axios reports, and he also outspent all the other candidates combined in the last quarter, plus both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee."Bloomberg is betting that enough exposure — through a $300m+ ad campaign and a non-traditional run that looks past the early four states — will make him competitive in Super Tuesday, and make all Democrats stronger in the general election," Axios explains. "He's blowing through cash to create a parallel (or bigger) unofficial, uncoordinated party infrastructure in case the DNC can't help the eventual Democratic nominee enough in states that should be competitive with Trump."More stories from theweek.com For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic Vindman dismissal spurs Chuck Schumer to request all 74 inspectors general look into potential whistleblower retaliation American democracy is dying
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| Husband tracks down alleged hit-and-run driver who killed wife Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:29 AM PST  A Southern California man who made it his mission to track down the hit-and-run driver who killed his wife and mother of their eight children led police to an 85-year-old suspect, who was arrested, authorities said.
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| Chinese diplomat pushes back against coronavirus 'rumors' from GOP senator Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:43 AM PST  Ambassador Cui Tiankai slammed comments from Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.
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| Amy Klobuchar Hits Her Stride in New Hampshire Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:48 AM PST  Hanover, N.H. — Following her strong debate performance on Friday night in Manchester, Amy Klobuchar drew solid crowds as she crisscrossed New Hampshire this weekend. She spoke at Dartmouth College a few hours after Pete Buttigieg was there on Saturday, and both candidates drew about the same number of attendees. On Sunday, more than 700 people showed up to see her in Manchester and another 1,100 came out to see her in Nashua, while Buttigieg had a crowd of 1,800 at his lone event in Nashua that same day. The crowds for Joe Biden were much smaller.The interest in Klobuchar at these events matched the interest in her online, and is borne out in the polls: Two separate tracking surveys conducted after the debate showed her jumping out to third place in New Hampshire. In Suffolk's poll, she shot up from 6 percent to 14 percent following the debate, a couple points ahead of both Biden and Elizabeth Warren, while Bernie Sanders led with 27 percent and Buttigieg was in second at 19 percent.In short, Klobuchar appears to be hitting her stride in New Hampshire, and support for her could continue to grow in the closing hours of the race. Earlier in the campaign, Klobuchar's nerves appeared to get the better of her at times on the debate stage, but on the stump this weekend she was at ease. With a smile on her face at Dartmouth, she skillfully differentiated herself from all of her opponents. She recalled that when the ABC debate moderator asked, "Do we think a socialist should lead the ticket? I was the only one that raised my hand and said, 'No, actually I don't.' Bernie and I are friends. I appreciate his service, but I don't think he should lead the ticket."I've seen Klobuchar deliver her stump speech four times — twice in Iowa and twice in New Hampshire — and she continues to get better each time as she hammers the themes of electability and (relative) moderation. The timing of her jokes has even improved."I have won every place, every race, every time. I have won all the way down to fourth grade," she said in Manchester. All of her male rivals "boast about stuff on the debate stage, so this is my thing.""Back then my slogan — which I have since abandoned — was 'All the way with Amy K.,'" she added to laughter. "I don't think that's where we want to go right now."In Klobuchar's thumbnail sketch of her life, she paints a picture of a modest and at times challenging upbringing: Her mother grew up poor in Milwaukee and spent her entire adult life as a second-grade teacher in Minnesota. Her father was an alcoholic journalist, and the two of them split up when she was 15. When her father finally faced the choice of jail or treatment for alcoholism, he chose treatment and was, in his own words, "pursued by grace," Klobuchar said. Now 91, he still meets with the Alcoholics Anonymous group at his assisted-living center, but "he says it's pretty hard to get a drink around here anyway."She also amused Patriots fans in New Hampshire by telling them that her father wrote a book four decades ago, "which is sadly still relevant," titled: Will the Vikings Ever Win the Super Bowl?Klobuchar's ability to get the crowd laughing several times in the course of a stump speech is something you just don't see at events for Sanders, Buttigieg, Warren, or Biden, all of which are generally humorless affairs."Her charm came across much more than even in debates," Amy Feitelson of Rye, N.H., told me after the Dartmouth event. "I like her practical attitude." She added that she settled on Klobuchar after "mostly thinking, 'Who can beat Trump?' I think she can pull her own.""I'm leaning very strongly toward Amy," said a third-grade teacher named Jess from Hanover, who brought her two young children to the event. "I love that she gets stuff done. She's made working with Republicans part of her platform.""I like Amy's bluntness and directness," said Hannah Romer of West Lebanon, who is still trying to make up her mind between Klobuchar and Warren.Where does Klobuchar go from here? There are simply too many unknowns to predict that with any certainty. But a strong third-place finish tomorrow would likely mean her campaign lives to fight another day. She said over the weekend that she had raised $2.5 million since the debate, and any candidate with a good chance of clearing the 15-percent threshold to win delegates in future contests will have a strong incentive to stay in the race.But is there a real chance that the Democratic Party will actually want to go all the way with Amy K. as its standard-bearer, or is it more likely that Klobuchar's continued candidacy will just split the "moderate" vote with Buttigieg and help Sanders grow a lead in the race? It's hard to say.One thing that is clear — and this is something that can't be said of Klobuchar's Senate colleagues from New York or California — is that her political stock has risen because of the 2020 presidential campaign. While Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Beto O'Rourke dropped out before a single vote was cast, Klobuchar is still in the fight and her message is resonating. "If you are tired of the extremes in our politics and the noise and the nonsense, you have a home with me," she told the crowd in Manchester on Sunday. The line was greeted with loud applause.
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| Iranians feel strain of turmoil and sanctions Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:23 AM PST  On a crisp winter's day the snow glistens on the mountains above Tehran, but the mood is as heavy as the pall of pollution that often shrouds Iran's capital. "The quality of life isn't good at all -- we have pollution, angry people, high prices," she said, pointing also to a "huge class gap" and Iran's deepening "isolation". Iran's economy has been battered since US President Donald Trump in 2018 abandoned an international nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions and a "maximum pressure" campaign.
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| Taiwan again scrambles jets to intercept Chinese planes, tensions spike Posted: 09 Feb 2020 01:55 AM PST  Taiwan's air force scrambled for a second day in a row on Monday to intercept Chinese jets that approached the island claimed by Beijing as its own, as tensions between the two took on a potentially dangerous military dimension. Taiwan's Defence Ministry said Chinese jets, accompanying H-6 bombers, briefly crossed an unofficial mid-line in the Taiwan Strait that separates the two, prompting its air force to rush to intercept and give verbal warnings to leave. The H-6s were on a training mission in the Pacific having passed through the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, the ministry added and shared a picture of a Taiwan F-16 accompanying one of the H-6 bombers.
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| 'Soon we will all be infected': Indian crew on quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship pleads for help as coronavirus cases spike Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:37 AM PST  Indian crew members shared a video on Facebook, begging their government to rescue all 160 of them. They are afraid of "who will be next."
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| 40,000 coronavirus cases may be 'tip of the iceberg' as death toll nears 1,000 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 06:47 AM PST  Chinese health officials said 97 more deaths were reported Sunday, a spike after days of decline, that put the global toll at 910
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| Vindman dismissal spurs Chuck Schumer to request all 74 inspectors general look into potential whistleblower retaliation Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants to have a word with all 74 of the United States' 74 inspectors general.In a letter sent Monday, Schumer requested the inspectors general "take immediate action to investigate any and all instances of retaliation against anyone who has made, or in the future makes, protected disclosures of presidential misconduct to Congress or inspectors general."Schumer's call for investigations was inspired by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's dismissal from his post at the National Security Council last week, months after he provided damaging testimony against President Trump during the House's impeachment inquiry. Schumer clearly sees Vindman's firing as an act of revenge by the White House, and said he wants to make sure witnesses and whistleblowers, whose rights are protected by law, don't face professional or personal consequences for disclosing information about the president."Regrettably, these rights are now being challenged like never before, creating a chilling effect among those who, in previous administrations, may have come forward to expose abuses of power," Schumer wrote. "If this chilling effect persists, it will inhibit our ability to hold public officials and institutions accountable and it will irreparably harm the ability of Congress to fulfill its constitutional oversight responsibilities." > Here's the letter: pic.twitter.com/35jC4rMW3U> > -- Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 10, 2020More stories from theweek.com For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic American democracy is dying Is New Hampshire the end for Joe Biden?
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| China Is Making Middle East Moves Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:00 AM PST  And the Eastern Mediterranean, too.
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| Westminster and work: Some show dogs serve, search or soothe Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:11 PM PST  From the silky strut of Afghan hounds to poodles with coats sculpted like confections, the Westminster Kennel Club's green carpet spotlights manicured, pedigreed canines vying to be deemed top dog. Ghost, a Norwegian buhund that competed Sunday a t the nation's premier canine event, makes weekly rounds as a therapy dog at a Delaware hospital and serves as a nonjudgmental listener for schoolkids learning to read. Lacey, a Labrador retriever that was entered in Westminster's agility contest Saturday, puts in 50-hour weeks comforting patients at her owner's child and adolescent psychiatry practice in California.
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| Trump vows not to cut healthcare for vulnerable in 2021 – but he is slashing billions in 2020 Posted: 08 Feb 2020 12:09 PM PST  Donald Trump has said he will not reduce Medicare or social security spending in 2021 – despite proposing cuts worth billions of dollars this year.The president tweeted: "We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget. Only the Democrats will destroy them by destroying our Country's greatest ever Economy!"
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| Sanders Tops New Hampshire Polls Ahead of Buttigieg, Klobuchar Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:08 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Polls show the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire taking on a new dynamic about 24 hours before voting begins, with those who have made up their minds clearly preferring Bernie Sanders, but about a third still unsure.Amy Klobuchar's rise to third in a 7 News/Emerson College tracking poll and a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/WBZ tracking poll reflects a surge after a strong debate on Friday.The polls show that about a third of voters could still change their minds, making Monday's campaign stops around the state crucial for candidates who want to persuade voters to their side.Klobuchar got high marks for her closing argument in Friday's debate about the need to elect someone who understands average Americans, and she has stayed out of the bickering that has marked the weekend's campaigning. Her campaign says she has raised $3 million since Friday's debate."I'm also a fresh new face in politics," Klobuchar said when asked on MSNBC Monday to compare herself with Pete Buttigieg, who is in a solid second place in the polls. "My age - 59 - is the new 38."She added, "I've won statewide and that is the one thing that unites our party - we want to win and we want to win big," she said.A UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion poll released early Monday has her in fifth place, but rising 2 points since last week.Sanders is solidly leading in all three polls, ranking outside the margin of error. He has been exhorting his supporters to turn out and vote and that argument is more critical on Monday given the number of undecided voters.Buttigieg, the 38-year-old ex-mayor, and Sanders, the 78-year-old Vermont senator, were essentially tied in the Iowa caucus, but Buttigieg secured more delegates from Iowa to the Democratic National Convention, taking 14 to Sanders' 12.The race gets a little murkier after the top two spots.Klobuchar's third-place standing in the weekend tracking polls may only reflect voters' impressions from the debate on Friday and might not hold when they get to the voting booth on Tuesday, given her fifth place finish in the more traditional UMass survey, which was taken over several days.The polls are bad news for Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who are virtually tied for fourth and fifth place in the various surveys.For Biden, the national front-runner before Iowa's caucuses, the low standing was a sign that he hasn't fully regrouped from the "gut punch" fourth-place finish there. He is banking on strong showings in Nevada's caucus on Feb. 22 and the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29 to maintain his argument that he is best suited to take on President Donald Trump in the fall.After coming in third in Iowa, Warren was counting on a strong finish in New Hampshire, which borders Massachusetts, the state she represents in the Senate. But these polls suggest that Granite State progressives clearly prefer Sanders' brand of democratic socialism over her "I have a plan for that" anti-corruption message.The Emerson tracking poll done for 7 News was conducted Saturday and Sunday and has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points. The Suffolk poll had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points and was also conducted Saturday and Sunday. UMass surveyed 440 likely New Hampshire Democratic voters and was conducted Feb. 4-7. It had a 6.5 percentage-point margin of error.(Updates with Klobuchar comment in fifth, sixth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Benjaminson in Manchester, New Hampshire at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Derek Wallbank, Max BerleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Philippines moves to shut down top broadcaster Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:45 AM PST  Philippine government lawyers moved Monday to strip the nation's biggest media group of its operating franchise in what campaigners branded a fresh attack on press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte has repeatedly pledged he would stop the broadcast operations of ABS-CBN, which drew his anger during his rise to power in the 2016 presidential election campaign. The solicitor general's petition filed with the nation's top court alleges ABS-CBN violated provisions of its 25-year operating franchise.
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| Masked white nationalists march in Washington with police escort Posted: 08 Feb 2020 05:43 PM PST  Police escorted masked members of a white nationalist group on a march through Washington's National Mall on Saturday that Metropolitan Police said occurred without incident or arrests. More than 100 members of the Patriot Front, dressed in khaki pants and caps, blue jackets and white face masks, shouted "Reclaim America!" and "Life, liberty, victory!" video of the march showed. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Patriot Front as a white nationalist group that broke off from a similar organization, Vanguard America, in the aftermath of the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
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| A parking space in a garage in San Francisco is selling for $100,000 Posted: 09 Feb 2020 06:14 AM PST  The parking spot is currently leased out for $300 a month, and the realtor is promoting it as an investment to "park your money" in.
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| Latest on the spread of the coronavirus as death toll hits 908 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:08 AM PST  China's National Health Commission said on Monday that the death toll has risen to 908, as employees began trickling back to offices and factories around China after the government eased some restrictions on work and travel.
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| Florida lawmaker ditches Biden for Bloomberg Posted: 10 Feb 2020 06:04 AM PST  A second Biden endorser in the state said he's considering switching to the former New York mayor, too.
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| New Philadelphia police chief starts amid surge in homicides Posted: 09 Feb 2020 06:36 AM PST |
| DNC chair says party will 'absolutely' have a conversation about the future of Iowa's leadoff status Posted: 09 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST  Iowa might be knocked from its perch next election cycle.Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday the Democratic Party will have a "conversation" about Iowa's role as the first state to vote in the primaries going forward after the 2020 Democratic caucus turned chaotic, suggesting it may move down the lineup in the future.> .@jaketapper: "Is Iowa about to lose their first-in-the-nation caucus status?"> > DNC Chair Tom Perez: "Well, that's the conversation that will absolutely happen after this election cycle" https://t.co/KHdSVpS1Eh CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/xgaGtZlce7> > — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 9, 2020But Perez acknowledged there's not much he can do about the state's decision to hold a caucus instead of a primary. "One of the challenges and the reason we didn't do that in our most recent conversation about this is that you need to pass a state law to have a state-run primary," Perez said during his appearance on State of the Union. "There are some states that still have caucuses where I'm not sure the Republican governor would sign the law to have the election."More stories from theweek.com For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic Vindman dismissal spurs Chuck Schumer to request all 74 inspectors general look into potential whistleblower retaliation American democracy is dying
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| North Korea's Internet Use Surges, Thwarting Sanctions and Fueling Theft Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:57 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- North Korea has vastly expanded its use of the internet in ways that enable its leader, Kim Jong Un, to evade a "maximum pressure" U.S. sanctions campaign and turn to new forms of cybercrime to prop up his government, according to a new study.The study concludes that since 2017 -- the year President Donald Trump threatened "fire and fury like the world has never seen" against the country -- the North's use of the internet has surged about 300%. Nearly half that traffic now flows through a new connection in Russia, avoiding the North's longtime dependency on a single digital pipeline through China.The surge has a clear purpose, according to the report released Sunday by Recorded Future, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, group known for its deep examinations of how nations use digital weaponry: circumventing financial pressure and sanctions by the West. Over the past three years, the study concluded, North Korea has improved its ability to both steal and "mine" cryptocurrencies, hide its footprints in gaining technology for its nuclear program and cyberoperations, and use the internet for day-to-day control of its government."What this tells you is that our entire concept of how to control the North's financial engagement with the world is based on an image of the North that is fixed in the past," said Priscilla Moriuchi, a former National Security Agency analyst who directed the study and has long focused on North Korea and Iran. "They have succeeded at an easy-to-replicate model of how to move large amounts of money around the world, and do it in a way our sanctions do not touch.""Our sanctions system needs a radical update," she concluded.The report helps solve the mystery of why the country's economy appears to have survived, and in some sectors actually grown, as the United States and its allies have talked about their success in choking off oil supplies and cracking down on North Korea's skillful production of counterfeit U.S. currency.It also further complicates the Trump administration's paralysis in dealing with the North. Sanctions have remained in place, though Trump does not like to talk about them, even as his personal diplomacy with Kim sputters.An expected resumption of intercontinental ballistic missile tests, which North Korea appeared to threaten at the end of 2019, has not materialized. But even if the situation remains in a quiet stalemate, the report suggests that Kim is poised to take advantage: Just as he is continuing to invest in his nuclear program, he is also pouring resources into a cyberprogram that is both a potent weapon and a revenue generator.Moreover, the report, titled "How North Korea Revolutionized the Internet as a Tool for Rogue Regimes," concludes that other nations are watching the North Korean model, and beginning to replicate it."Iran has begun to pursue cryptocurrencies as a method for facilitating international payments and circumventing U.S. financial controls," it notes.Moriuchi, who left the National Security Agency in 2017, began tracking the internet use of the North Korean elite 2 1/2 years ago, a period that encompassed Trump's confrontational approach to the North, the country's missile launches and then the stalled diplomacy that has followed the president's three meetings with Kim.In 2017, Moriuchi could easily see the content of the North Korean elite's searches, most of which appeared to be for leisure: While ordinary North Koreans have access only to a restricted, in-country version of the internet, the country's leaders and their families downloaded movies, shopped and browsed the web on nights and weekends.But that has changed. Internet use has surged during office hours, suggesting the leadership is now using its internal networks the same way the West does: conducting daily government and private business. Now the country has developed its own version of a "virtual private network," a technique to tunnel through the internet securely that has long been used by Western businesses to secure their transactions.Meanwhile, the country's efforts to encrypt data and hide its activities on the web have become far more sophisticated. And through a network of students, many in China and India, the North has learned how to exploit data that could improve its nuclear and missile programs.The largely home-built effort to hide traffic, the report concluded, was being used to steal "data from the networks of unsuspecting targets, or as a means of circumventing government-imposed content controls." Such methods have long been used by Chinese and Russian hackers, often working for intelligence agencies.The North has managed to surprise the world before with its digital savvy: In November 2014, its devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in an effort to kill "The Interview," a comedy about two bumbling journalists sent by the CIA to kill Kim, exposed U.S. digital vulnerabilities. That was followed by a bold effort to steal nearly $1 billion from the Bangladesh central bank through the international financial settlement system called SWIFT. Other central bank attacks followed.North Korea's most famous cyberattack, using code called WannaCry, disabled the British health care system for days and created havoc elsewhere. It was based on vulnerabilities that had been stolen from the National Security Agency, and published by a group that called itself the Shadow Brokers. U.S. officials have never publicly acknowledged their inadvertent role in fueling the attacks.But the report suggests the North has now moved on. It has figured out more effective ways to steal cryptocurrencies. And it has begun to produce, or "mine," its own, chiefly through Monero, a lesser-known alternative cryptocurrency to Bitcoin that advertises that it "obfuscates sending and receiving addresses as well as transacted amounts." In short, it is perfect for any nation -- and its financial partners -- seeking to avoid United Nations and U.S. sanctions.It is impossible from the data available to Recorded Future to figure out how profitable the "mining" operations are, and some cyberexperts believe that more traditional methods -- ranging from manipulating the SWIFT system to churning out ransomware attacks -- are probably more fruitful."North Korea has for several generations pursued an all-of-the-above approach to gaining illicit funds, so it wouldn't be a surprise if they indeed expanded their cryptocurrency mining efforts to complement their hacking ones," said Ben Buchanan, the author of a new book, "The Hacker and the State: Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics."But as Buchanan's book notes, the country's digital warriors have proved to be enormously fast learners, and "what the North Koreans lack in skill, at least as compared to their counterparts at the NSA, they partially make up for in aggressiveness and ambition.""They are quick to embrace new services or technologies when useful and cast them aside when not," the Recorded Future report concludes. "The Kim regime has developed a model for using and exploiting the internet that is unique -- it is a nation run like a criminal syndicate."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Coronavirus onboard Diamond Princess cruise spreads: At least 135 cases, 20 Americans Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:20 AM PST  The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan has nearly doubled.
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| China's Wuhan aims to test all suspected cases of coronavirus by tomorrow Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:45 AM PST  China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, has not been able to confirm all existing suspected cases of the coronavirus despite a rush to speed up testing, the city's Communist Party Secretary told a news conference on Monday. Ma Guoqiang said the Wuhan government would, however, aim to test all suspected cases by Tuesday.
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| Chinese military aircraft cross into Taiwan airspace: Taipei Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:13 AM PST  Taiwan said it scrambled fighter jets Monday after Chinese military aircraft briefly crossed into its airspace, the first major incursion since the island's Beijing-wary president was re-elected in January. Taiwan's defence ministry said Chinese H-6 bombers and accompanying aircraft briefly crossed over a "median line" in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen lashed out at Beijing for taking "meaningless and unnecessary" moves when it should be containing a deadly coronavirus outbreak.
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| What's Next for Ireland After Its Seismic Election Result Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:34 AM PST  Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin won the most votes in Ireland's elections over the weekend. Here's what the election results mean for Ireland.
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| Perfection: The Air Force Would Love 200 New B-21 Stealth Bombers Posted: 08 Feb 2020 06:00 PM PST  Or maybe overkill?
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| Deluge in Australia drenches fires and eases 3-year drought Posted: 09 Feb 2020 09:33 PM PST  Drought, wildfires and now flooding have given Australia's weather an almost Biblical feel this year. Quentin Grafton, an economics professor and water expert at Australian National University in Canberra, said the rain had broken the drought in some towns but had not fallen evenly across all the affected areas. "At this stage, it's very good news, and certainly much more than people could have wished for or expected," he said of the rainfall.
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| Is New Hampshire the end for Joe Biden? Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  It sure looks as though the end is near for Joe Biden's latest presidential campaign.Forecasting the future in politics these days is a fool's game — as Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan noted on Saturday, journalists are "bad at predictions." So here is a caveat: It is still early in the primary process, there is no clear front-runner, and anything could happen.Still, Biden gave off the distinct odor of flop sweat over the weekend.At Friday's Democratic presidential debate, he conceded he is unlikely to win this week's New Hampshire primary. That, in turn, led some of his staffers in the state to all but abandon the campaign. "I can't give up 12 hours of my time — I'm a busy person myself — if he doesn't think it'll make a difference," one volunteer told Politico. Biden tried salvaging the operation, but at least one poll showed him sliding behind Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. If there were bright signs for his campaign, they were few and far between.Oh, and on Sunday Biden called a voter a "lying dog-faced pony soldier." Apparently this was a joke. It wasn't a good one.Maybe the former vice president will actually be president by this time next year. But he won't earn the office campaigning the way he has been. To have a chance at a clean slate — and to turn the campaign around — Biden and his advisers are going to have to confront three big issues.First, there is no such thing as inevitability. That's a lesson candidates should have learned in 2016, if they didn't understand it already. Hillary Clinton was inevitably the Democratic nominee that year — until Sanders made it a close call for her. Then she was inevitably going to win the general election. She didn't. No Democrat, no matter how prominent, should ever have entered the 2020 contest expecting to be crowned.Biden's campaign tried to create that sense of inevitability — and I admit that I fell for the message. He was ahead in so many polls for so long, surviving gaffes and fresh takes on old scandals, that I began to think of his candidacy as inexorable and inevitable, even writing to tell progressives how they could build their agenda with his candidacy as the starting point. "If Biden does win the nomination," I wrote, "there will be no time for petulant, third-party rebellion."That was right. But premature.Second, it's tough to build a winning campaign on a rationale that everybody knows is false. Biden has marketed his potential presidency as a return to prelapsarian America, a time before President Trump when senators of both parties could knock the hell out of each other during the day, go get beers after work, and then hash out a deal the next day that everybody could live with. Just elect Biden, and an era of bipartisan comity will reign one again. "I just think there is a way, and the thing that will fundamentally change things is with Donald Trump out of the White House. Not a joke. You will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends," Biden said last spring.That almost certainly won't happen — and Biden, who served as vice president to Barack Obama, should know it better than anybody. Republicans dedicated themselves to complete obstructionism during the Obama administration on the theory it would benefit them electorally. They were right. Which means there will be little or no incentive for them to play ball with a Biden administration, and everybody who has paid the least bit of attention to politics in the 21st century understands that. The Democratic nominee will need a plan for how to govern in the face of that obstructionism, and Biden doesn't really have such a plan — he offers himself instead. It's not enough.The third issue may be insurmountable. It seems possible — even likely — that the best and highest office for Joe Biden is vice president of the United States. It was the perfect position for somebody like Biden — an experienced politico who could run errands and make contacts on Capitol Hill on behalf of his (initially very inexperienced) commander-in-chief. He even gleefully knocked around Paul Ryan a little bit during the 2012 vice presidential debate. Certainly, "Joe Biden" is probably the most popular character ever at The Onion. But the skills required for the vice presidency are different from those needed in the big chair.Maybe Biden can address these issues. Maybe, having failed in two previous runs for the presidency, he has the formula figured out this time. With the New Hampshire primary looming, though, it is starting to look — again — as though the former vice president will wipe out. If so, it would be a sad end to a long career of mostly honorable, if sometimes flawed, public service.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic Vindman dismissal spurs Chuck Schumer to request all 74 inspectors general look into potential whistleblower retaliation American democracy is dying
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| The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act Is Back Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST  On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would require doctors to provide medical care to infants who survive attempted abortion procedures.The bill was in the spotlight exactly one year ago, after Virginia governor Ralph Northam suggested that, at least in some circumstances, mothers and doctors should be able to deny medical care to newborns who were meant to have been aborted. Immediately after those comments, Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.), the lead sponsor of the born-alive bill, reintroduced his legislation."We're not talking about some euphemism," Sasse said at the time on the Senate floor. "We're not talking about a clump of cells. We're talking about a little baby girl who's been born and is on a table in a hospital or a medical facility, and then a decision or a debate would be had about whether or not you could kill that little baby."Here is what the born-alive bill does:• creates criminal penalties for doctors who allow a newborn to die because they failed to provide medical care after the infant survived an attempted abortion procedure• mandates that a child born alive in an abortion clinic be transported to a hospital for further care• requires health-care practitioners to report any violations of the law• institutes penalties for intentionally killing a newborn, including fines and up to five years' imprisonment• grants the woman on whom the abortion is performed civil cause of action against the abortionist and protection from prosecution if her child is not cared for after birthEven though none of these provisions restricts abortion, after several weeks of debate, 44 Democratic senators voted to block the legislation, using a number of inaccurate arguments and disregarding the bill's text."The effort to force a vote on this new bill with no public hearing or consideration by the committees that oversee health issues or the Judiciary Committee is also notable," said Senator Tim Kaine (D., Va.) in February 2019, in a statement announcing his vote against the bill. "A committee hearing is the normal way to make the case that legislation is needed. The desire to avoid a public hearing suggests that the sponsors are aware that the bill is unjustified and unnecessary."The hearing this Tuesday, with testimony from several witnesses both for and against the legislation, will feature many of the same arguments that surfaced last time the bill was considered.Most Democrats who opposed the legislation last time around claimed that it is redundant or unnecessary. "We have laws against infanticide in this country," Senator Patty Murray (D., Wash.) said last year on the Senate floor when she rejected Sasse's request for unanimous consent to the legislation. "This is a gross misinterpretation of the actual language of the bill that is being asked to be considered, and therefore I object."But in fact, there is no existing federal law that requires doctors to provide medical care for infants who survive an abortion procedure. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) of 2002 established that the terms "person," "human being," "child," and "individual" in federal law include every infant born alive, even after an abortion; it instituted no penalties for physicians who neglect to care for such infants.As of 2014, only 26 states mandated care for infants born alive after an attempted abortion — and those state laws can, of course, be changed. The Reproductive Health Act enacted in New York last year, for example, explicitly repealed a statute that had extended all the protections of state laws to children born alive during an abortion.Opponents of the born-alive bill have also argued that these sorts of cases never happen and that infants never survive attempted abortions. But they do. Reports from several states indicate that, while abortion survivors are rare, they do exist. Melissa Ohden and Gianna Jessen are two specific examples, and this recent ad showcases several more.Or consider the gruesome case of former abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is currently serving life in prison in part for illegally modifying late-term-abortion procedures, delivering live infants, and using scissors to sever their spinal columns. There is no federal law prohibiting that practice.During the Senate debate over the born-alive legislation, a number of Democrats argued that the bill is "anti-abortion" and that it would place the government between doctors and their patients, preventing medical professionals from giving the best possible care."It makes no sense for Washington politicians who know nothing about these individual circumstances to say they know better than the doctors, patients, the family," said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) at the time. "The bill is solely meant to intimidate doctors and restrict patients' access to care and has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with protecting children."But the bill doesn't specify any particular type of medical care at all, nor does it place any restrictions on when or whether an abortion may be performed. It requires only that doctors give "the same degree" of care to abortion survivors that "any other child born alive at the same gestational age" would receive if delivered at that stage of pregnancy.Last year's fight over the bill featured most media outlets parroting the claims of Democratic lawmakers, disregarding the bill's text, and insisting that Republicans were "weaponizing abortion" to paint Democrats as radical. If Democrats continue to reject this commonsense legislation, it won't take any work from Republicans to reveal how extreme they really are.
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| Sacred Native American site in Arizona blasted for border wall construction Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:42 AM PST  The contractor installing President Donald Trump's border wall at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is blasting a hill sacred to the O'Odham people.
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| Factbox: Latest on coronavirus spreading in China and beyond Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:42 PM PST  * China's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday the death toll rose to 908, as employees began trickling back to offices and factories around China after the government eased some restrictions on work and travel. * Across mainland China, there were 3,062 new confirmed infections as of Sunday, bringing the total number so far to 40,171. * WHO said on Monday the number of cases outside China could be just "the tip of the iceberg" as detection of a small number of cases may indicate more widespread transmission in other countries.
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| A massive storm battering the UK helped a British Airways plane from New York to London smash the record for the fastest subsonic transatlantic flight Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:18 AM PST  The Boeing 747 took four hours, 56 minutes to travel from New York to London, as a storm battered the UK.
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| Wuhan journalist has gone missing, and his family says he's been forcibly quarantined Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:49 AM PST  A Chinese lawyer and citizen journalist has gone missing after his video reports from Wuhan about coronavirus went viral on platforms like Twitter and YouTube.
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| Thousands from cruise ship in Hong Kong freed after virus tests Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:05 AM PST  Thousands of people stranded aboard a cruise ship in Hong Kong for five days were allowed to disembark on Sunday after its 1,800 crew tested negative for the deadly new coronavirus. Health authorities in the semi-autonomous Asian financial hub said the crew and a similar number of passengers had been released from a quarantine imposed because of fears some staff could have contracted the deadly virus on a previous voyage and passed it on. The World Dream carried three Chinese passengers to Vietnam between January 19 and 24 who were later found to be infected with the SARS-like coronavirus, which has killed more than 800 people in China since it emerged in December.
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| The U.S. Navy May Have a New Plan To Get Bigger Posted: 09 Feb 2020 03:55 PM PST  U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has some ideas for how the U.S. Navy can expand from today's 290 front-line ships to 355 over the next decade. Think lightly-manned ships.
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| Australian Parliament to call for Israel to return principal Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:43 PM PST  The Australian Parliament is expected to pass a motion calling for Israel to immediately extradite a former school principal wanted on dozens of charges of child sex abuse. The motion was introduced Monday by lawmakers from both the government and opposition in the House of Representatives and increases pressure on Israel to end a legal wrangle over Israeli Australian dual citizen Malka Leifer that has drawn out over six years. Several government and opposition lawmakers argued in favor of the motion, but the vote will be held at a later date.
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| Buttigieg Labels Biden a Washington Insider, Adding Fuel to Feud Posted: 08 Feb 2020 08:35 PM PST ![Buttigieg Labels Biden a Washington Insider, Adding Fuel to Feud]( "Buttigieg Labels Biden a Washington Insider, Adding Fuel to Feud") (Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg on Saturday night continued to fire back at Joe Biden, suggesting his presidential rival is a Washington insider out of touch with middle America."Some are asking: 'What business does the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, have seeking the highest office in the land?'" Buttigieg said at a Democratic Party dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire. "Americans in small rural towns in industrial communities and in pockets of our country's biggest cities are tired of being reduced to a punchline by Washington politicians and ready for somebody to take their voice to the American capital."Buttigieg was one of 10 Democratic candidates who delivered remarks at the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner in Manchester, one of the last opportunities for the contenders to make their pitches to New Hampshire voters before the state's primary on Tuesday.Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders emerged from the first nominating contest in Iowa on Monday atop the Democratic field. In New Hampshire, a survey for CNN by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed Sanders in the lead with 28%, followed by Buttigieg at 21%.Buttigieg and Biden had traded barbs throughout the day as Biden, 77, assailed the 38-year-old former South Bend mayor for his relative inexperience and rejected comparisons of Buttigieg to Barack Obama."Oh, come on, man. This guy's not a Barack Obama," Biden snapped at a reporter who asked about the comparison earlier Saturday. He also said that Democrats would put their party "at risk if we nominate someone who's never held a higher office than mayor of South Bend, Indiana."Biden is under pressure to revive his campaign after his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. He is running a distant third in most New Hampshire polls.The former vice president released a harsh ad early Saturday that juxtaposes his long history of public service with Buttigieg's relatively short municipal experience. The ad highlights Biden's work on the Affordable Care Act and the Iran nuclear deal in contrast to Buttigieg's mayoral accomplishments getting lights installed under a bridge and reducing regulations for pet chip scanners.In his comments at the dinner Saturday night, Biden didn't mention any of his rivals, reserving his fire for President Donald Trump. He also recalled spending Saturday morning giving food to needy families and the stalled effort to renew the Violence Against Women Act, pegging the country's struggles on its current leadership."I've lost a lot in my life," he said, mentioning the loss of his wife and daughter in a 1972 car accident and of his elder son to cancer in 2015, and also hinting at his fourth place finish in Iowa. "I'll be damned if I'm going to stand by and lose this election to this man," he said in a reference to Trump.Elizabeth Warren, who is running in fourth place in New Hampshire polls, sought to convince the Democrats gathered at the dinner that her campaign would persevere. She reminded the crowd that Friday marked the three-year anniversary of the day she fought Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor to try to block the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General."Mitch McConnell said those words that women put on t-shirts, have embroidered on pillows and have tattooed on their arms," Warren said as the crowd cheered. "Nevertheless, she persisted."Instead of pitching any of the plans that she has made the theme of her campaign, Warren sought to draw sharp distinctions with her 2020 rivals, by highlighting that her presidential bid was not shaped by consultants or funded by high-dollar donors, a veiled swipe at her moderate rivals Buttigieg and Biden.Warren also tried to address any concerns about whether she could defeat Trump, one of the main concerns of Democratic voters as they look for a 2020 nominee."There are a lot of people right now who are worried that this fight against Donald Trump might be unwinnable," Warren said. "But I've been winning unwinnable fights pretty much all my life."Warren enjoys an advantage in the state of New Hampshire as the senator from neighboring Massachusetts.Sanders, who also comes from a neighboring state, Vermont, won New Hampshire in 2016. In his remarks at the dinner, he urged the state's voters to come through for him again on Tuesday."I want to thank New Hampshire," he said. "I want to thank New Hampshire for helping to lead the political revolution that began four years ago and now is the time to complete that revelation."In his remarks, Buttigieg implicitly criticized Sanders for divisive rhetoric in calling for a revolution. Sanders' supporters erupted, chanting "Wall Street Pete," following up on the senator's attacks on Buttigieg for holding high-dollar fundraisers and being the favored candidate of many billionaires.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)\--With assistance from Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Emma Kinery.To contact the reporters on this story: Tyler Pager in Manchester, New Hampshire at tpager1@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Epstein in Manchester, New Hampshire at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| NATO's image worsens sharply in France, United States, study shows Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:37 AM PST ![NATO's image worsens sharply in France, United States, study shows]( "NATO's image worsens sharply in France, United States, study shows") NATO's public image in the United States and France worsened sharply last year, according to a Pew Research Center study, after U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron questioned the value of the Western alliance. Positive views of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which relies on the commitment of its allies to collective defense, fell to 52% in the United States last year, from 64% in 2018, the study released on Monday said. In France, where Macron said last year the alliance was experiencing "brain death" because of a perceived failure to help resolve world conflicts, support fell to 49%, from 60% in 2017 and 71% in 2009.
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| China's biggest cities looked like ghost towns on the first day back to work after Lunar New Year, as the deadly coronavirus continues to spread Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:03 AM PST  The New Year holidays were originally set to end on January 30, but amid the outbreak of deadly coronavirus authorities decided to extend the dates.
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| Why is the flu killing so many American children? Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:33 AM PST  Kaylee Roberts had just earned her learner's permit. She was 16 years old and excited about getting behind the wheel.While on winter break from high school in suburban Cleveland, she came down with what she thought was a bad cold just as her family was preparing to spend the Christmas holiday together.
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| Cellphone of missing Idaho teen found with mother Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:09 PM PST  It appears Tylee Ryan's phone was found in Hawaii, where her mother, Lori Vallow, turned up in January, the source said.
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