| FBI chief: No one asked me to open probes on improper basis Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:15 AM PST  Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Wray was asked whether Trump, Attorney General William Barr or anyone else had requested an investigation into Trump Democratic rival Joe Biden or son Hunter Biden, or into any members of Congress. Trump's request that Ukraine conduct investigations into the Bidens is at the center of the impeachment trial that nears resolution with an expected acquittal by the Senate Wednesday afternoon.
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| Sanders slams Buttigieg's victory declaration, campaign releases internal Iowa data suggesting a win Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:41 PM PST  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) didn't have much time for former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg's apparent Iowa caucus victory declaration Monday evening, partly because his campaign's internal data suggests otherwise.Even while results from the Iowa Democratic caucus were delayed thanks to a series of mishaps, Buttigieg addressed his supporters and told them all indications pointed to them leaving Iowa "victorious." Sanders found it odd that his competitor made such a speech.> On his campaign plane in Des Moines, due to take off for New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders says he feels confident in his position based on internal numbers, but of Buttigieg:> > "I don't know how anybody declares victory before you have an official statement as to election results." pic.twitter.com/oBTKvrKmS5> > — Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) February 4, 2020Meanwhile, the Sanders campaign released some of their internal data collection findings, which suggests Sanders is actually the one on pace to win, although Buttigieg isn't far behind. Those numbers also have Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a comfortable third place, while former Vice President Joe Biden tumbled into a relatively distant fourth after the final alignment.> Here's Bernie Sanders speaking to reporters on his plane out of Iowa, with the latest numbers https://t.co/xtyJ0SM4Ms> > — Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) February 4, 2020The Biden situation at least is in line with reports about The Des Moines Register's final state poll which was never released because of an interviewing error, but throughout all the chaos there's no telling if the Sanders campaign is actually on the right track.More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer says he expects to leave Iowa 'with momentum' Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:52 AM PST  Democratic presidential contender Tom Steyer on Monday said he expected to leave Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses "with momentum" that carries him later this month to Nevada and South Carolina, where he has shown more strength in opinion polls.
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| The official who led the global fight against SARS called China's quarantine of 50 million people an unprecedented 'grand experiment' that could turn harmful Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:48 AM PST  China has imposed the largest quarantine in human history by cutting off links to multiple cities in an attempt to stop the Wuhan coronavirus.
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| Sen. Joni Ernst says her comments on impeaching Joe Biden were 'taken out of context' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:17 PM PST  Sen. Joni Ernst said her comments suggesting Republicans could move to impeach Biden if he were elected president were "taken out of context."
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| Don't Listen to Trump: the Travel Ban Isn't About National Security Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:30 AM PST  It won't effect international terrorism.
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| I worked for Mike Bloomberg. Here's why progressives should consider him seriously. Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:32 PM PST  Bloomberg has flaws, but progressives shouldn't discount him. His record on climate, guns, jobs, health and immigration has lots for them to like.
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| China declines Cambodia PM's request to visit virus epicentre Posted: 05 Feb 2020 05:33 AM PST  China turned down a request from Cambodia's leader Hun Sen to visit the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak to comfort stranded Cambodian students as it could not "properly arrange" a trip to locked-down Wuhan city, state media said Wednesday. Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province have reported hundreds of deaths and thousands of infections, and more than 53 million people are living under tough restrictions. "Considering the fact that Wuhan is doing all it can to fight the outbreak, and given the tight schedule, a visit... cannot be properly arranged at this moment," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing Wednesday.
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| Mfume, Klacik win party primaries for Elijah Cummings' seat Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:04 PM PST  Democrat Kweisi Mfume and Republican Kimberly Klacik won special primaries Tuesday for the Maryland congressional seat that was held by the late Elijah Cummings. In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 4 to 1, the Democratic nominee will be the heavy favorite heading into the April 28 special general election. The majority-black district includes parts of Baltimore's inner city that have struggled with drugs and violent crime as well as more well-to-do communities in the suburbs.
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| Pelosi sparks memes after ripping up Trump speech Posted: 04 Feb 2020 06:55 PM PST  "Me ripping up the study guide after failing the test..."
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| Iowa Democrats release two-thirds of caucus results with Buttigieg narrowly ahead in delegate count Posted: 04 Feb 2020 02:24 PM PST  The results are (partially) in.Iowa's Democratic party has officially released the first chunk of results from Monday night's presidential caucus. With 62 percent of precincts reporting, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has secured 26.9 percent of the delegates, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is narrowly behind with 25.1 percent. Sanders did beat Buttigieg in the precincts' popular vote by more than 1,000 votes.> POPULAR VOTE with 62%> > Sanders 28,220 > Pete 27,030 > Warren 22,254 > Biden 14,176> > — Sam Stein (@samstein) February 4, 2020The partial results come nearly a full day after Iowans went to caucus Monday night. Results usually come in before the night is over, but a chaotic turn of events involving a third-party app that just didn't work held things up. Iowa has 41 delegates to divvy up between these candidates, but without the full results, there's no way of knowing where they will end up. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price said it could be "today, tomorrow, the next day, a week, a month" before the rest of numbers come out.More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| A doomsday couple is entangled in a web of suspicious deaths and missing children. Here's a timeline of the mysterious events connected to Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow. Posted: 04 Feb 2020 09:52 AM PST  The search for two missing children uncovered the tangled web of doomsday couple Chad Dadybell and Lori Vallow. Here's what you need to know.
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| Coronavirus outbreak: Detroit traveler taken to hospital for testing amid new enhanced screening process Posted: 05 Feb 2020 06:34 AM PST  A sick traveler who arrived Tuesday morning at Detroit Metro Airport is suspected of having the coronavirus and was taken to a local hospital.
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| South Vietnam Went Out With a Fight...Against China Posted: 04 Feb 2020 01:23 AM PST  And the issues are still there.
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| Russia says alarmed by U.S. deployment of low-yield nuclear missiles Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:47 AM PST  Russia is alarmed by the U.S. Navy's decision to deploy low-yield nuclear missiles on submarines since they heighten the risk of a limited nuclear war, a Russian official said on Wednesday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the deployment of the W76-2 warhead in the name of strengthening deterrence had caused Russia great concern over U.S. nuclear strategy, Russian news agencies reported. The U.S. Defense Department said on Tuesday the Navy had fielded a low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead, something the Pentagon says is needed to deter adversaries like Russia.
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| Modi vows 'grand' Hindu temple at flashpoint site Posted: 04 Feb 2020 04:18 PM PST  The construction of a grand Hindu temple at holy site bitterly contested with Muslims moved a step closer Wednesday when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a trust had been finalised to oversee the project. The razing of a mosque at Ayodhya by a huge crowd of Hindu zealots almost 30 years ago unleashed some of the country's worst sectarian violence since independence, with more than 2,000 people killed. After a decades-long legal battle, India's highest court ruled in November that the land in northern India should be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a temple.
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| Prosecutor seeks end to lawsuit over fake subpoenas Posted: 04 Feb 2020 10:02 PM PST  Lawyers for the district attorney in New Orleans are asking a federal appeals court to end a lawsuit centered on his office having used fake subpoenas to coerce uncooperative witnesses. Attorneys representing Leon Cannizzaro and some of his staff were set to argue Wednesday that the prosecutors are legally immune from claims made in a 2017 lawsuit by criminal justice advocates. The case is before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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| California Needs Housing — and Won’t Get It Posted: 05 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST  Anyone wondering how sclerotic and ungovernable California has become need look no further than the failure last week of an incredibly modest attempt to reform the state's archaic housing regulations.California is in the midst of an enormous crisis of affordable housing. The median home price in the state now exceeds $500,000, while the median rent for a two‐bedroom apartment tops $1,800 per month, nearly 55 percent higher than the national median. In cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, average rent exceeds $2,500 per month. Less than a third of Californians can afford the median house cost, while more than half face rents that economists consider unaffordable as a portion of their incomes.The high cost of housing is largely a function of high demand and low supply. Estimates show that California needs 3.5 million housing units by 2025 just to meet current needs. Yet the state has the nation's second-lowest rate of housing starts.The lack of affordable housing has led to an explosion of homelessness. There are an estimated 130,000 homeless people in the state, including around 28,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area and 60,000 in Los Angeles County alone. But even often overlooked cities such as San Diego have homeless populations in excess of 8,000. By some calculations, more than 47 percent of all unhoused homeless people in America reside in California.While many of California's homeless suffer from drug, alcohol, and mental-health problems, many more are driven to the streets by the cost of housing. By some estimates, as much as two-thirds of the state's homeless problem can be traced to housing costs.Last week California lawmakers had the opportunity to take the tiniest of baby steps toward dealing with the crisis. The Housing Accountability Act, SB50, would have allowed the construction of multi-family housing in some neighborhoods near mass transit that were previously zoned exclusively for single-family housing. They failed.It is important to understand that this bill was already the weakest of weak teas, especially after it went through many changes. In a state where 50 to 75 percent of residential property is zoned single-family only, it would have opened up barely anything. And it would have done almost nothing to deal with the suffocating weight of environmental, labor, and other regulations that have driven up construction costs. For example, environmental laws alone have driven up prices by nearly 10 percent, and prevailing-wage laws are estimated to raise median housing costs by $42,900 to $79,000. Still, it was a recognition of reality: The only way to deal with a housing shortage is to build more housing.But even this minimal step was rejected by many state legislators and special interests. Caught between a coalition of anti-growth environmentalists and wealthy NIMBYs, pro-housing legislators could not overcome the power of the status quo. After all, the homeless and the poor, who suffer most from high housing costs, are a lot less likely to vote than those who want to keep low-income housing out of their neighborhood.Pro-housing legislators have vowed to keep up the fight, but unless Californians begin to face up to the basic laws of economics -- such as supply and demand -- the future of the Golden State looks grim.
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| How Iowa's caucus disaster softened Biden's loss and marred Warren's overperformance Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:11 AM PST  The Iowa caucuses may as well have happened under a rock.With its 41 delegates making up just a percentage of the total delegate pool out there, Iowa gets an outsized reputation in the presidential primary process simply because it comes first. But with the full results of its caucuses still unrevealed 36 hours later, the often candidacy-ending state has lost most of its power.Things didn't look good for former Vice President Joe Biden before the Iowa caucuses began, with state polls showing him far from the runaway frontrunner status he once claimed. The first chunk of results from Iowa backed that up: With 71 percent of precincts reporting, he was in a solid fourth place and could expect no delegates. But Biden didn't have to address that fact during his caucus night speech, even though he dropped out when he came in fifth place in Iowa when he was running in 2008.Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has never held onto a top polling spot for long. And yet she outperformed those polls Monday night, wrangling at least five of the 27 delegates that have been decided so far with 18 percent of the vote. Again, she lost out on the opportunity to spin those votes into a positive speech on Monday night, and joined the other candidates in quickly scooting off to New Hampshire for the next round.And as for South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, well, he declared victory Monday night despite the current caucus count showing him tied with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Another 30 percent of results are still missing, and they could tip the scales in truly any direction.More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| James Carville Rages Over State of Democratic Party: ‘I’m Scared to Death!’ Posted: 04 Feb 2020 06:12 PM PST  Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville sounded the alarm bells on Tuesday night over what he described as the Democratic Party turning into an "ideological cult," specifically singling out would-be presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.In the wake of Monday night's chaotic Iowa Democratic caucus that featured delayed vote results due to a faulty app, Carville appeared on MSNBC to warn that regardless of the final tallies, the Dems appear to be in big trouble."The polling averages have not been very good the last 10 days," he sighed. "And I've seen some pretty good polls that show enthusiasm among Democrats is not as high as we would like it. So there's something as people are watching this process that is concerning."Saying the party needs to "wake up and make sure that we talk about things that are relevant to people," the former Clinton adviser grumbled that he is "not very impressed" with the Democratic field and suggested DNC chair Tom Perez should be canned.After complaining that the campaigns "have to be more relevant," Carville—who is backing longshot presidential hopeful Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO)— was asked if he would get behind Sanders if the progressive senator ended up getting the nomination."Well, I'll get behind him. I have no choice," an unenthused Carville replied. "But look at the British Labour Party. We're like talking about people voting from jail cells. We're talking about not having a border. I mean, come on, people."He continued to rail against Sanders' policy positions, describing the independent Vermont lawmaker as being for "open borders" and stressing that he doesn't want the "Democratic Party of the United States to be the Labour Party of the United Kingdom," something he's told The Daily Beast before.Carville would go on to exclaim that Democrats need to be more concerned about taking power back in Washington, repeatedly stating that only 18 percent of the population controls 52 Senate seats. "It matters who the candidate is, it matters what a party chooses to talk about!" Carville shouted. "I'm 75 years old. Why am I here doing this? Because I am scared to death, that's why! Let's get relevant here, people, for sure.""I just love you," former Democratic senator and current MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill cooed in response.Carville, meanwhile, went on to make his case that the party was leaning towards a centrist candidate over a liberal one, wondering out loud: "Do we want to be an ideological cult? Or do we want to have a majoritarian instinct to have the majority party?""You and I know that 18 percent of the country elects 52 senators," he continued, addressing McCaskill. "The urban core is not gonna get it done. What we need is power! Do you understand? That's what this is about."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| More than 3,700 people are trapped on a cruise ship near Japan after 10 of them tested positive for the coronavirus. These are the steps Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line are taking to protect passengers from it. Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:25 AM PST  Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, and Norwegian Cruise Line have taken a number of steps in response to the Wuhan coronavirus.
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| China admits 'shortcomings' in response to coronavirus; WHO denies pandemic. Death toll nears 500 Posted: 04 Feb 2020 03:57 PM PST  Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that failing to halt the outbreak could erode social stability in the nation of more than 1.4 billion people.
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| Britain receives first ‘Poseidon’ aircraft in bid to restore submarine-hunting muscle Posted: 04 Feb 2020 09:22 AM PST  The new planes will escort the country's nuclear submarines when deploying and keep tabs on undersea threats in the North Atlantic.
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| Russia Wants To Pack Its Enormous Typhoon-Class Submarines With 200 Cruise MIssiles Posted: 04 Feb 2020 08:30 PM PST  Seriously bad news.
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| Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific asks all staff to take unpaid leave Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:44 AM PST  Hong Kong's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific is asking its entire workforce to take up to three weeks of unpaid leave, its CEO announced Wednesday, as the airline faces a crisis in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak. The request lays bare desperate times at Cathay, which was hammered last year by months of political chaos and protests in Hong Kong and is now being further hurt by the fallout from the virus outbreak. In a video message to the company's 27,000 employees, airline boss Augustus Tang said they were being asked to take up to three weeks leave with no pay between March and June.
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| Avalanche in Turkey wipes out rescue team; 38 dead overall Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:20 PM PST  An avalanche slammed into a mountain road in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, wiping out a huge team of rescue workers sent to find people missing in an earlier avalanche. Officials said 33 emergency workers were killed, 53 were injured and others are still buried under the snow. Wednesday's avalanche increased the overall death toll from the disaster to 38.
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| The canceled Iowa poll sounds like it was good news for Elizabeth Warren Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:32 PM PST  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hasn't exactly appeared to light Iowa on fire in recent polls. After surging to the lead last year, she's mostly settled in fourth place behind former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. But there's been hints the recently canceled poll from CNN and The Des Moines Register, which considered the state's gold standard survey, included some good news for Warren.BuzzFeed News reports that journalists caught a glimpse of the poll even though the results were never published because of a survey interview error. So the numbers are still influencing media reports on the race, which will conclude Monday night after the state's caucuses. One reporter for a "major national outlet" told BuzzFeed they covered a Warren event because she did well in the poll.> The numbers from the DMR poll that didn't get released got circulated among some journalists anyway, and it has quietly influenced some of the coverage, @BuzzFeedBen says. https://t.co/OvNGKWvwH6 pic.twitter.com/wZytgOr38x> > — Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) February 3, 2020"Nobody was talking about Elizabeth Warren and now everybody thinks she has a shot because of those numbers," said Rebecca Katz, a progressive political consultant and Warren supporter. Read more at BuzzFeed News.More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| Ocasio-Cortez Warns Democrats to ‘Rally Behind’ Nominee, ‘No Matter Who It Is’ Posted: 03 Feb 2020 11:22 AM PST  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday issued a warning to the Democratic Party to "rally behind" the party's eventual presidential nominee or risk damaging their chances to defeat President Trump.Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, claimed that reports that her party is conspiring to deny the Vermont independent the nomination are "overblown," but warned Democrats against using "super delegate or other kind of subversive policies to deny anybody the nomination.""It's incredibly divisive to do so, and very demoralizing, which is a direct threat in November," Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with Time magazine. "The moment you start playing games trying to deny whoever is the nominee, we really start to get into dangerous territory in terms of defeating Trump."The high-profile progressive freshman from New York, who has been campaigning for Sanders in Iowa leading up to Monday's caucuses, said that she hopes the party will unite behind the eventual nominee, even if it is not Sanders."Bernie has said this, I absolutely believe this: whoever gets the nomination, we have to rally behind them, no matter who it is," Ocasio-Cortez said. "And I would hope that everybody would do so if Bernie is the nominee as well."Ocasio-Cortez previously said last year that it would not be "pragmatic" for Democrats to choose former vice president Joe Biden as the nominee, arguing that picking the "perfect" and "logically fitting candidate" will not inspire turnout."You can be radical and you can be respectful," she said.Also on Sunday, former Secretary of State John Kerry was reportedly overheard discussing "the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party" and floating launching his own presidential bid in order to stop that eventuality. Kerry later forcefully denied reports that he was considering a 2020 bid.Monday marks the country's first caucuses in Iowa, where Sanders currently leads his 2020 rivals. Biden is polling in second place and former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg trails them in third place, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.
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| Democrats protest during SOTU by chanting Elijah Cummings’ prescription drug bill Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:26 PM PST  Democrats protested President Trump during his State of The Union address by Chanting Elijah Cummings' prescription drug bill.
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| The WHO keeps sticking up for China as the coronavirus gets worse and experts paint a far darker picture Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:07 PM PST  The WHO delayed declaring the coronavirus outbreak a health emergency, and today made a point of praising China's response.
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| Republican Senator Murkowski spares few in fiery impeachment speech Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:09 PM PST  Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, an unpredictable moderate in a polarized Washington, on Monday declared she will vote to acquit Donald Trump, but not before leveling an attack against the president and fellow lawmakers of both parties during a partisan impeachment ordeal. On Wednesday the Senate is scheduled to wrap up a two-week impeachment trial and vote to either acquit or convict Trump on charges leveled by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives that the Republican president abused his powers and obstructed Congress' investigation of his dealings with Ukraine. It was no surprise that the 62-year-old senator attacked House Democrats, accusing them of a slapdash investigation of Trump's actions toward Ukraine and his alleged withholding of U.S. aid in order to pressure Kiev to investigate one of his political rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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| One-week ultimatum for Delhi rapists on death row Posted: 05 Feb 2020 03:17 AM PST  Four men sentenced to death for a gang-rape and murder on a Delhi bus in 2012 that shocked the nation were given a week on Wednesday to exercise their remaining legal options. The hangings have already been postponed twice and Delhi High Court judge Suresh Kumar Kait said that the men have played India's slow legal system long enough. "It cannot be disputed that the convicts have frustrated the process by using delaying tactics," Kait observed, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
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| White Wisconsin lawmaker drops Black History Month proposal Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:49 AM PST ![White Wisconsin lawmaker drops Black History Month proposal]( "White Wisconsin lawmaker drops Black History Month proposal") State Rep. Scott Allen, a Waukesha Republican, said in a statement that "it is possible that I made incorrect assumptions." He said he would instead like to co-sponsor a separate resolution that black lawmakers authored. "The proposed resolution concentrated on the character of individuals involved in an important effort in American and Black history, the operation of the Underground Railroad," Allen said. The Wisconsin Legislature has traditionally recognized Black History Month, which runs through February, with a resolution in both the Assembly and Senate.
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| Michigan college gift shop removes doll display depicting black leaders hanging from tree Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:09 AM PST  Michigan State University removed an ornament display of African-American leaders hanging from a tree at the Wharton Center gift shop.
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| A Catholic Polish midwife who delivered 3,000 babies at Auschwitz remembered 75 years after camp's liberation Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:11 AM PST  An estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz. That included newborns who were killed by drowning or lethal injection.
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| Pete Buttigieg Maintains Lead in Iowa: Campaign Update Posted: 04 Feb 2020 09:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg maintained his lead in the Iowa caucuses after the Democratic party released a second tranche of results, cementing his status as a credible contender after an extraordinary rise from the little-known mayor of a small Indiana city to the top tier of the presidential race.With 71% of precincts reporting, Bernie Sanders was a close second with his promises to deliver Medicare for All and lead a political revolution against wealth inequality.The results were a major setback for former Vice President Joe Biden, who was in fourth place behind Senator Elizabeth Warren.Addressing supporters in New Hampshire, the state with the next presidential contest, Buttigieg, 38, leaned into his relative youth. He said "Every time that we have earned that Oval Office it has been with a candidate that's focused on the future, new in politics, offering a different vision."New Hampshire Shows Biden and Sanders Tied in next contestBernie Sanders and Joe Biden are tied for first place in the latest New Hampshire poll.A survey of 491 registered voters who intend to vote in next week's primary found the Vermont senator and the former vice president each had 19% support.That's a jump of 10 percentage points for Sanders since the college's November poll."Sanders' rise is testament in part to the fact that hard campaigning in New Hampshire does persuade voters," said New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque.Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg was in third, with 14%; while Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar were tied with 11% support. The poll was conducted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2, the eve of the Iowa caucuses.Iowa GOP Defends First-In-the-Nation Caucus (5:13 p.m.)While Republicans close to President Donald Trump have ridiculed the vote-counting debacle that snarled results from the Democrats' caucuses in Iowa, the state's elected GOP officials were quick to defend the tradition that brings visitors -- and millions in spending -- to the state every four years."Iowa's unique role encourages a grassroots nominating process that empowers everyday Americans, not Washington insiders or powerful billionaires," Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Governor Kim Reynolds said in a joint statement Tuesday morning. "Iowa's bipartisan first-in-the nation status helped lead to the nomination of President Obama and has the full backing of President Trump."Trump confirmed as much earlier, saying in a tweet the foul-up was the fault of "Do Nothing Democrats" but "as long as I am President Iowa will stay where it is. Important tradition!"On caucus night, allies of the president, including his son, were quick to float conspiracy theories about the delay in reporting results."Yeah rigging the primary worked wonders for the Democrats last time," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, invoking his father's frequent claims in 2016 that the Democratic nominating process was rigged against Bernie Sanders.Democrats Declined DHS Offer to Test Caucus App (9:26 a.m.)Iowa Democrats declined an offer from the Department of Homeland Security to test its new caucus app for cybersecurity flaws and vulnerablilities, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News Tuesday.Such a test from DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would have focused on security and not the performance issue that Wolf said was most likely responsible for the failure. Still, Wolf said this was a "concerning event" given the amount of scrutiny around elections security after Russians targeted the 2016 presidential election."We don't see any malicious cyber activity going on," Wolf said. "No one hacked into it -- so this is more of a stress or load issue as well as a reporting issue that we're seeing in Iowa."The Iowa Democratic Party has said there was no evidence of hacking in the much-delayed results, merely human error.Iowa Democrats Say Results to Be Released Today (8:24 a.m.)Iowa Democrats said they identified a flaw in a phone application that caused an hours-long delay in reporting results of their first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses and that they expected to announce a winner on Tuesday.The Iowa Democratic Party said in a statement that it had investigated the app's failure and that "there was not a cyber security intrusion.""We determined with certainty that the underlying data collected via the app was sound," party chairman Troy Price said in the statement. "While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system. This issue was identified and fixed."The state party deployed a new app for officials running local caucuses at more than 1,600 sites to report results after the Monday evening vote. But the app failed in many locations and precinct leaders also said they were unable to report results by phone."While our plan is to release results as soon as possible today, our ultimate goal is to ensure that the integrity and accuracy of the process continues to be upheld," Price said.Democrats Head to New Hampshire Without Iowa ResultsDemocratic candidates were leaving Iowa without the results of the party's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses and heading to New Hampshire to campaign Tuesday before that state's primary next week.Pete Buttigieg arrived in the Granite State for a morning town hall at a theater in Manchester. Buttigieg told MSNBC in an interview Tuesday that he will trust the results from Iowa, which are expected to be released later in the day."I certainly will take the folks in Iowa at their word," Andrew Yang, who held a 4 a.m. rally at the Manchester regional airport, told CNN. "I'm sure they would not have wished this kind of delay on anyone."Amy Klobuchar told CNN upon arrival in Manchester Tuesday that she was confident that Iowa party officials could count the results by hand.The Iowa caucuses Monday left candidates and voters hanging with no results and no springboard into the next round of contests. The state party deployed a new phone app for precinct chairmen to report results at the same time it deployed a new system for tabulating winners. Both appear to have failed.Some campaigns were putting out their own internal surveys or laying claim to leading positions in Iowa. But without any formal tabulation released candidates headed to the next stop.Elizabeth Warren took an overnight flight for an 11 a.m. event in Keene. Joe Biden and his wife Jill were to hold an event at 11:30 a.m. in Nashua. And Bernie Sanders will hold an event at 5 p.m. at an athletic club in Milford.COMING UP:CNN will host town halls featuring eight presidential candidates in New Hampshire on Feb. 5 and 6, and some of them will debate there on Feb. 7.The New Hampshire primary is Feb. 11.Nevada holds its caucuses on Feb. 22, and South Carolina has a primary on Feb. 29.(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 Magan Crane, Elizabeth Wasserman and Alex Wayne.To contact the reporter on this story: Larry Liebert in Des Moines at lliebert@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan CraneFor 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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| When it comes to climate hypocrisy, Canada's leaders have reached a new low Posted: 05 Feb 2020 02:30 AM PST  A territory that has 0.5% of the Earth's population plans to use up nearly a third of the planet's remaining carbon budget Americans elected Donald Trump, who insisted climate change was a hoax – so it's no surprise that since taking office he's been all-in for the fossil fuel industry. There's no sense despairing; the energy is better spent fighting to remove him from office.Canada, on the other hand, elected a government that believes the climate crisis is real and dangerous – and with good reason, since the nation's Arctic territories give it a front-row seat to the fastest warming on Earth. Yet the country's leaders seem likely in the next few weeks to approve a vast new tar sands mine which will pour carbon into the atmosphere through the 2060s. They know – yet they can't bring themselves to act on the knowledge. Now that is cause for despair.The Teck mine would be the biggest tar sands mine yet: 113 square miles of petroleum mining, located just 16 miles from the border of Wood Buffalo national park. A federal panel approved the mine despite conceding that it would likely be harmful to the environment and to the land culture of Indigenous people. These giant tar sands mines (easily visible on Google Earth) are already among the biggest scars humans have ever carved on the planet's surface. But Canadian authorities ruled that the mine was nonetheless in the "public interest".Here's how Justin Trudeau, recently re-elected as Canada's prime minister, put it in a speech to cheering Texas oilmen a couple of years ago: "No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there." That is to say, Canada, which is 0.5% of the planet's population, plans to use up nearly a third of the planet's remaining carbon budget. Ottawa hides all this behind a series of pledges about "net-zero emissions by 2050" and so on, but they are empty promises. In the here-and-now they can't rein themselves in. There's oil in the ground and it must come out.This is painfully hard to watch because it comes as the planet has supposedly reached a turning point. A series of remarkable young people (including Canadians such as Autumn Peltier) have captured the imagination of people around the world; scientists have issued ever sterner warnings; and the images of climate destruction show up in every newspaper. Canadians can see the Australian blazes on television; they should bring back memories of the devastating forest fires that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, in the heart of the tar sands complex, less than four years ago.The only rational response would be to immediately stop the expansion of new fossil fuel projects. It's true that we can't get off oil and gas immediately; for the moment, oil wells continue to pump. But the Teck Frontier proposal is predicated on the idea that we'll still need vast quantities of oil in 2066, when Greta Thunberg is about to hit retirement age. If an alcoholic assured you he was taking his condition very seriously, but also laying in a 40-year store of bourbon, you'd be entitled to doubt his sincerity, or at least to note his confusion. Oil has addled the Canadian ability to do basic math: more does not equal less, and 2066 is not any time soon. An emergency means you act now.In fairness, Canada has company here. For every territory making a sincere effort to kick fossil fuels (California, Scotland) there are other capitals just as paralyzed as Ottawa. Australia's fires creep ever closer to the seat of government in Canberra, yet the prime minister, Scott Morrison, can't seem to imagine any future for his nation other than mining more coal. Australia and Canada are both rich nations, their people highly educated, but they seem unable to control the zombie momentum of fossil fuels.There's obviously something hideous about watching the Trumps and the Putins of the world gleefully shred our future. But it's disturbing in a different way to watch leaders pretend to care – a kind of gaslighting that can reduce you to numb nihilism. Trudeau, for all his charms, doesn't get to have it both ways: if you can't bring yourself to stop a brand-new tar sands mine then you're not a climate leader. * Bill McKibben is an author and Schumann distinguished scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, Vermont. His most recent book is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
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| Wuhan is scrambling to fill 11 sports centers, exhibition halls, and other local venues with over 10,000 beds to create makeshift coronavirus hospitals Posted: 04 Feb 2020 05:42 PM PST  The epicenter of the viral outbreak is converting local facilities into hospitals with over 10,000 beds. See what these makeshift hospitals look like.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley are skipping the State of the Union Posted: 04 Feb 2020 02:08 PM PST  The State of the Union will have a few empty seats Tuesday night.Some of the House's highest profile representatives won't be listening to President Trump's annual address on Tuesday in the wake of his impeachment and ongoing Senate trial. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) all announced Tuesday they wouldn't be showing up."After much deliberation," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted she would be skipping the State of the Union because she didn't want to "normalize Trump's lawless conduct and subversion of the Constitution." Pressley borrowed a common Republican adjective to say she wouldn't be attending the "sham SOTU." And Waters, one of the House committee leaders who led the investigation into Trump, gave a similarly strong statement.> To think that I would attend the SOTU to hear the message of an IMPEACHED president is a thought that in no way would be consistent w/ my fight and struggle against this dishonorable president. I will certainly NOT be there!> > — Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) February 4, 2020Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), another member of the progressive "Squad" of freshman representatives, tweeted to confirm she would be showing up. "My presence tonight is resistance," she clarified. Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, and the dozens of other women Democrats of the House all attended the State of the Union last year dressed in a striking suffragette white.A few other congressmembers, including Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), have stayed home from every State of the Union address Trump has given in his presidency. And if they have their way, this will be the last time they have to skip out.More stories from theweek.com Trump just won the Iowa Democratic caucuses Should financial markets be freaked out by coronavirus? America is doing so much better than you think
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| Erdogan warns Syria to back off from Turkish outposts Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:09 AM PST  Ankara demanded on Wednesday that Damascus pull back from Turkish-manned posts in Syria's last rebel enclave, after deadly clashes this week triggered plans for emergency UN talks. The escalation between Turkish and Syrian troops, which killed more than 20 people on Monday in northwestern Idlib province, is testing uneasy relations between Turkey and Russia -- the key foreign powerbrokers in the conflict. The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Thursday following requests from the United States, Britain and France, diplomats said on Wednesday.
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| Warrants served in 1996 disappearance of California student Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:14 AM PST  Search warrants were served Wednesday at locations in California and Washington state in the investigation of the disappearance of college student Kristin Smart in 1996, authorities said. Smart, who attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, vanished while returning from a party.
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| Ohio man calls police 25 times for help finding hoodie, is charged with felony Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:07 PM PST  A Cincinnati man was arrested early Monday after authorities said he called police more than 25 times to get help looking for his lost hoodie.
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| Data suggests virus infections under-reported, exaggerating fatality rate Posted: 05 Feb 2020 02:13 AM PST  Fatalities from the coronavirus epidemic are overwhelmingly concentrated in central China's Wuhan city, which accounts for over 73% of deaths despite having only one-third the number of confirmed infections. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease, one person has died for every 23 infections reported. Experts say the discrepancy is mainly due to under-reporting of milder virus cases in Wuhan and other parts of Hubei province that are grappling with shortages in testing equipment and beds.
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| Joe Biden flopped in Iowa. And so did the Democratic party's reputation Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST  The apparent malfunctioning of a new app, meant to transmit vote totals, threw the Iowa caucus in disarray. And this benefited some more than others If you're the type of person who thinks the Democratic party is a creaking, incompetent entity whose leadership needs overthrowing, the Iowa caucuses certainly validated your point of view. None of us knew who would win, but we had at least expected a result. We didn't get one, at least not on caucus night. State Democratic party officials announced that due to "quality control" issues, release of the result would be indefinitely delayed. On a conference call with representatives of the candidates, party officials hung up the phone when asked when the totals would be released.So what do we know? Well, one thing we can say confidently is that "frontrunner" Joe Biden flopped. There were places where Biden didn't even meet the 15% threshold needed to maintain viability from the first round to the second round – at one caucus site, the attorney general of Iowa had to switch from Biden to Buttigieg when Biden was disqualified. It explains why Biden's surrogate John Kerry was heard on the phone the other day asking whether it would be possible for him to enter the race at the last minute to save the Democratic party from being conquered by Sanders.Internal numbers released by the Sanders campaign, showing results from 40% of caucus sites, showed Sanders winning with approximately 30% of the vote, Pete Buttigieg coming in second with 25%, Elizabeth Warren third with 21%, and Joe Biden a very distant fourth with 12%. If those numbers match the ultimate totals, they are great for Sanders and absolutely horrific for Biden. Sanders will have kicked the crap out of the frontrunner, Barack Obama's former vice-president and the man most favored to win the nomination. It would be a stunning upset.But Biden caught a lucky break. With the party not releasing the actual result, his campaign sent a letter demanding that the result be suppressed until such time as the "quality control issues" were resolved. If it takes long enough to get the official count, Biden may hope that Iowa is old news, or that the issues surrounding the caucus are discussed far more than the actual result. (That's one reason we need to make sure we don't get bogged down too much in talking about the procedural issues rather than the actual outcome.)So what went wrong? It's still not quite clear, though there were reports that a special app used to transmit vote totals had malfunctioned. Questions were immediately raised about who built the app and how it had been deployed. Ironically, it was introduced in order to "get results out to the public quicker" and had been "hastily put together" over the last two months. There had been security concerns from the start, and when NPR questioned the state party chairman, he "declined to provide more details about which company or companies designed the app, or about what specific measures have been put in place to guarantee the system's security". Ironically, it was apparently developed by a firm literally called "Shadow", partly funded by the Pete Buttigieg campaign.If you're a Sanders supporter, you have reason to be suspicious. We had already seen the Des Moines Register suppress the results of its "gold standard" poll on the eve of the election, after a complaint from Buttigieg. And with 0% of caucus results in, Buttigieg declared himself "victorious", praising the "incredible result" and saying Iowa had "shocked the nation". The only thing that had shocked the nation at this point was Iowa's total inability to perform the relatively simple task of counting people's votes. But Buttigieg, good McKinseyite that he is, was getting a head start on deploying the PR spin.For Sanders supporters, being denied a rightful victory in Iowa gives feelings of déjà vu. In 2016, Sanders may well have won Iowa, possibly by a lot, but the state party did not release the vote totals. Instead, it only released delegate numbers, which showed Bernie narrowly losing the state "701-697" to Hillary Clinton. The delegate numbers are calculated strangely (this time around, in one precinct, Sanders beat Buttigieg 111 votes to 47 votes in the "first alignment" but both ended up with two delegates). If the vote totals had been known in 2016, it might have been clear Bernie had won. With his New Hampshire victory shortly after, Clinton would have been seen as losing the race, and the whole election might have turned out differently. That's why, this time around, the Sanders campaign ensured that the vote totals would be released (and took a count of its own for good measure). This time, if he wins, everyone will know … eventually.Despite the chaos, certain aspects of the Iowa caucus were inspiring. For the first time, a caucus was held in a mosque, and hundreds of Muslims and non-Muslims came together to vote for Bernie. In the first caucus of the day, immigrant pork plant workers, whose evening shifts prevented them from joining the main event, came out early to line up for Bernie. Internationally based Iowans caucused around the world, including in Scotland and Tblisi, Georgia. The Iowa caucus might seem like a good illustration of the dysfunction in American democracy, but some of its participatory elements are beautiful. It would be a shame if the lively, communal caucus system disappeared entirely in favor of secret ballots in voting booths, as some were already recommending as the vote-counting mess unfolded.If the Sanders team's count is close to accurate (bear in mind, it was only 40% of caucus sites), he had the night he needed to have. The progressive vote is still being split between Sanders and Warren, but at least Biden hasn't managed to capitalize on that so far. The good news for Sanders is that, even if Buttigieg does unexpectedly well, Mayor Pete is destined to struggle as the campaign moves toward more racially diverse states. But all of the results remain speculative, since the Iowa Democratic party seemed determined to prove that we need a political revolution that overthrows the party establishment. * Nathan Robinson is a Guardian US columnist. He is the editor of Current Affairs
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