| Manchin: Trump needs 'to act like a responsible adult, and he's not' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:41 AM PST  Manchin's retort followed three straight days of attacks by the president on Twitter.
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| Bernie Sanders Tops U.S. Poll; Bloomberg Overtakes Warren in Third Spot Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:46 PM PST |
| Deluge in Australia drenches fires and eases 3-year drought Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:32 AM 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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| 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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| North Korea’s Secret Coronavirus Crisis is Crazy Scary Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:41 AM PST  SEOUL–North Korea's not saying a word about deaths or illnesses from the coronavirus, but the disease reportedly has spread across the border from China and is taking a toll in a country with a dismal health care system and scant resources for fighting off the deadly bug.From Lobsters and Steak to Coronavirus: One Couple's Surreal Cruise NightmareOne sure sign of the regime's fears is that it failed to stage a parade in central Pyongyang on Saturday, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the country's armed forces. Last year, Kim Jong Un himself presided over the procession that displayed the North's latest missiles and other fearsome hardware along with goose-stepping soldiers in serried ranks.This year, nothing about the nation's nuclear warheads, much less the "new strategic weapon" that Kim has vowed to unveil. Rodong Sinmum, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, merely cited the armed forces' supposed success combating "severe and dangerous difficulties"—and said nothing at all about the parade.But reports have filtered out about Kim's subjects falling prey to coronavirus despite the country's decision to seal its 880-mile border with China, most of it along the Yalu River into the Yellow Sea to the west, and its 11-mile border with Russia where the Tumen River flows into the Pacific.Among the first to report fatalities in North Korea, the Seoul-based website Daily NK said five people had died in the critical northwestern city of Sinuiju, on the Yalu River across road and rail bridges from Dandong, which is the largest Chinese city in the region and a key point for commerce with North Korea despite sanctions.Daily NK, which relies on sources inside North Korea that send reports via Chinese mobile phone networks to contacts in China, said authorities had "ordered public health officials in Sinuiju to quickly dispose of the bodies and keep the deaths secret from the public."The victims had crossed the porous Yalu River border despite orders to cut off traffic from China as the disease radiated from the industrial city of Wuhan where the virus originated in December. As of Sunday, more than 700 people had died inside China.One of the first patients in North Korea reportedly was hospitalized in Sinuiju "with symptoms similar to a cold and was given fever reducers and antibiotics," said Daily NK, but the patient died as the fever rose. Two more patients died two days later in another hospital in Sinuiju and another two in a nearby town.North Korea's worries about an epidemic are all the more intense because of its shortage of basic medicine and equipment. As cases mount, authorities are working feverishly to contain a disease that, if unchecked, could undermine Kim's grip over his 25 million people, most of whom live in poverty worsened by hunger."Because health conditions and health care in North Korea are so bad," said Bruce Bennett, long-time analyst at the Rand Corporation, "they cannot allow the replication process to develop without severe intervention"—that is, they have to take drastic steps to keep the virus from spreading fast.The country has just streamlined a headquarters to coordinate operations, Rodong Sinmun reported, marshaling 30,000 workers to combat the epidemic.The Coronavirus Whistleblower Died a Martyr for Free Speech in ChinaBesides blocking international traffic, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported the headquarters had ordered tests for everyone entering the capital city of Pyongyang by road and for anyone who had traveled outside the country. Foreigners working in Pyongyang, including those with diplomatic missions or non-governmental organizations, were banned temporarily from venturing outside for shopping. Even so, with hospitals and clinics largely bereft of needed supplies other than those serving the elite in the capital and elsewhere, a certain desperation was evident in the state media. Rodong Sinmun warned that "the fate" of the country was at stake, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency."North Korea lacks a vaccine or medical abilities," said Bennett,"so they have to act by preventing the disease from coming into North Korea." The point is to "rapidly contain any leakage—exactly what they are trying to do by preventing people-to-people contacts."That's virtually impossible, however, as long as people move illicitly across the border, carrying on low-level commerce in the need to survive a decrepit system. JoongAng Ilbo, a leading South Korean newspaper, cited anonymous source saying that a woman had been diagnosed in the capital and that all those with whom she had had contact had been quarantined.Unlike in China, North Korea officially has denied any cases while attempting to get people to cooperate in stopping the spread of the disease. JoongAng Ilbo quoted a North Korean health official, Song In Bom, as having called on North Korean TV for "civil awareness" and unity in dealing with the disease while assuring his audience there had so far been no cases."I believe absolutely nothing of what I'm hearing from Pyongyang," said Evans Revere, a former senior U.S. diplomat who specializes in North Korean issues."It simply defies credibility that a country with a grossly inadequate public health infrastructure and a malnourished population, a country that depends on China for some 90 percent of its trade, and a country that had until recently opened itself up to a major influx of Chinese tourists in order to earn foreign exchange has avoided having a lot of victims," said Revere. "The total closure of the border and other measures Pyongyang has taken reflect a real sense of emergency in the North about the threat."In fact, he went on, "I can't help but think it may also reflect panic if the number of patients is growing."Indeed, "the coronavirus arguably poses a unique threat to North Korea," wrote Victor Cha and Marie DuMond of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in an article in Beyond Parallel, which is published by CSIS."The regime's relative isolation from the international community hinders the widespread penetration of many diseases from abroad," they wrote, but "the porous nature of the border with China and frequent travel is a clear vector for the virus' transmission." Thus, "If there are reports of the virus inside of North Korea, we should expect that the virus would spread rapidly given the state's inability to contain a pandemic."By now, it may be too late for North Korea to stamp out all signs of the disease."Several suspected coronavirus infections have occurred in North Korea even though it shut all its borders," said Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's biggest-selling newspaper, citing anonymous sources. "The infections most likely spread through porous parts of the border with China that see plenty of smuggling and other clandestine traffic," said the paper, reporting suspected cases among those "engaged in smuggling between the North and China." "Bottom line," said Steve Tharp, who's been analyzing North Korean affairs as both an army officer and civilian expert for many years here, "the coronavirus has tightened up sanctions enforcement more than any other measure over the years because the North Koreans are actually self-enforcing the sanctions, against their will, through the tight closing of their borders in order to save the regime from being wiped out by this human pandemic coming."North Korean leaders, said Tharp, "understand very well that this pandemic would rip through their population and be much more dangerous in North Korea than other places because of their inadequate medical infrastructure and the low resistance disease of the general population after so many years of surviving under near-starvation conditions."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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| NYPD protesters to mayor: Don't blame us for attacks on Bronx officers Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:26 AM PST  Criminal justice activists in NYC lashed out at the mayor and police commissioner for linking weekend attacks on officers to recent protests.
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| Vindman dismissal spurs Chuck Schumer to request all 74 inspectors general look into potential whistleblower retaliation Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:03 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 Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| 2 U.S. service members killed during shootout in Afghanistan Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:20 PM PST  A government official in eastern Afghanistan told CBS News three Afghan troops were wounded.
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| A US Army drill sergeant is suspended after a profanity-laced shoving match with a recruit in Georgia Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:48 PM PST  Video shows a US Army drill sergeant hitting a recruit after he used profanity. Now the drill sergeant is suspended.
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| Barr offers skepticism on Giuliani's offer of info on Bidens Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:56 AM PST  "We have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from the Ukraine," Barr told reporters on Monday.
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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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| WHO warns overseas virus spread may be 'tip of the iceberg' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:31 AM PST  The head of the World Health Organization has warned that confirmed cases of coronavirus being transmitted by people who have never travelled to China could be the "tip of the iceberg". Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's remarks come as members of a WHO-led "international expert mission" flew to China on Monday to help coordinate a response to the outbreak that has so far infected more than 40,000 people and killed 908 in the country. "There've been some concerning instances of onward #2019nCoV spread from people with no travel history to (China)," Tedros tweeted Sunday, using the virus's provisional scientific name.
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| Does China's J-11 Fighter Jet Have Russian SU-27 "DNA"? Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:00 PM PST  We think so.
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| This endangered wolf traveled nearly 9,000 miles to find love. She was found dead. Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:45 AM PST  The gray wolf that was found dead, known as OR-54, was protected by California and Oregon law and by the federal Endangered Species Act.
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| Philippine airlines cancel flights to Taiwan over coronavirus Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:50 PM PST  Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific said they were cancelling flights to and from Taiwan to manage the risks from the fast spreading virus outbreak.
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| Amy Klobuchar surges to third in New Hampshire polls as she warns against 'socialist' Sanders Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:59 PM PST  Amy Klobuchar really wants New Hampshire to know that she is not a socialist, and she doesn't think it is a particularly good idea to nominate one as the Democratic nominee, either.Just hours before voters in the Granite State were set to start casting ballots in the first in the nation primary, Ms Klobuchar emphasised that point as she mounts what could be her last real chance at turning her long-shot presidential candidacy into a winning prospect.
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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 11:33 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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| Here’s how many bombs the US plans to buy in the next year Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:46 PM PST  The U.S. is slowing down its procurement of weapons that are used in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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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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| 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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| Gunman dead, 2 officers hurt in shooting at Arkansas Walmart Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:03 AM PST  Two police officers were wounded and a gunman was killed Monday morning in an exchange of gunfire at a Walmart store in eastern Arkansas, authorities said. The officers responded to the Forrest City Walmart after someone called police to report a man who was making threats and was "kind of talking out of his head," Lee said at a news conference Monday afternoon. Arkansas State Police Spokesman Bill Sadler said local authorities have identified the suspect as Bobby Joe Gibbs, 40, of Forrest City, though the state crime lab has yet not confirmed his identity.
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| China says Huawei is the victim of a 'witch hunt' as it warns European countries not to freeze the company out of their 5G networks Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:51 AM PST  China's ambassador to the UK says Conservative Party politicians opposing Huawei's involvement in Britain's 5G network are conducting a "witch hunt."
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| It Was China That Stole the Data of 150 Million Americans by Hacking Equifax, Feds Say Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST  The U.S. Justice Department has indicted four members of the Chinese military in connection with one of the biggest data breaches in history, a hack that compromised the data of nearly half of all American citizens.The credit report giant Equifax had its systems compromised in a 2017 security breach that gave hackers access to information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, and addresses. In total, the members of the Chinese military are accused of stealing personally identifiable information from 145 million Americans, as well as driving license numbers for ten million and the credit card numbers of around 200,000.A nine-count indictment unveiled Monday accused four Chinese military members of hacking into the company's computer networks, maintaining unauthorized access to them, and stealing the sensitive data. The four are named as Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke, and Liu Lei—all of them are said to have carried out the hack as part of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) 54th Research Institute, a component of the Chinese military."This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. "This was an organized and remarkably brazen criminal heist of sensitive information of nearly half of all Americans, as well as the hard work and intellectual property of an American company, by a unit of the Chinese military."Barr added: "Unfortunately, the Equifax hack fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information."What remained to be seen was how this might fit into a larger pattern of aggression U.S. officials have attributed to the Chinese military. In 2014, the Obama-era Justice Department indicted five members of the PLA on charges of corporate espionage, specifically intellectual property theft. "Fraud is a surface level strategy," Paul Martini, co-founder of network security platform iBoss, told The Daily Beast. "Equifax is a holy grail in terms of the value of information that can be used to reset passwords and grant access to other systems, like power grids, sensitive devices, even military vehicles."The four Chinese military members are accused of running thousands of queries on Equifax's systems before gaining access to and downloading millions of pieces of information between May and July 2017. They're also accused of stealing valuable trade secret information, including Equifax's data compilations and the company's database designs.When it was disclosed, the hack prompted public fury over the company's vulnerability and the mass exposure of customer information, and ultimately led to the resignation of Equifax chief executive Richard Smith."Ultimately, the company is responsible for its data, as challenging as that can be," Martini said.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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| Bloomberg creeps into 3rd place in new national poll Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:43 AM PST  Quinnipiac University released a new national poll Monday and it's a doozy.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took his first lead among Democratic presidential candidates in the poll, grabbing 25 percent support from those surveyed, while the usual frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, dropped nine points. He's still in second place, but billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks like he's encroaching on Biden's turf, jumping up eight points which puts him in third place and just two behind the vice president. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) comes right behind Bloomberg.> New Quinnipiac poll of Dems nationally shows Sanders overtaking Biden big time:> > Sanders 25 > Biden 17 > Bloomberg 15 (!) > Warren 14 > Buttigieg 10 > Klobuchar 4https://t.co/gltmlDDstw> > — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 10, 2020One of the keys to Bloomberg's rise and Biden's dip appears to be their standing among those surveyed who identify as a moderate or conservative Democrat. Biden generally held a wide lead in the category, per Quinnipiac, but Bloomberg trails him by just 1 percentage point now, 22 to 21.In other news, Quinnipiac has Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all leading President Trump head to head, despite only Klobuchar and Buttigieg carrying favorable ratings.Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,519 registered voters, including 665 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, across the United States over the phone between Feb. 5-9. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points overall and 3.8 percentage points among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Check out the full poll here.More stories from theweek.com Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| Masked neo-Nazi white supremacists march in Washington DC Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:02 AM PST  Masked members of a neo-Nazi white supremacist group called Patriot Front marched through Washington's National Mall on Saturday.Patriot Front, which is part of the so-called "alt right" movement, was established by disillusioned members of another white supremacist group called Vanguard America in September 2017 in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
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| Schumer asks inspectors general to investigate whistleblower retaliation after Vindman firing Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:30 AM PST  Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a star witness in the House impeachment inquiry, was removed from his position at the White House on Friday.
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| Princess cruise ship forced to turn around after over 300 sickened with norovirus Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:50 PM PST  Coronavirus isn't the only virus causing concern on cruise ships right now. Norovirus has forced Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess to turn around.
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| Texas Democrats weighing ballots, bullets in 2020 campaigns Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:02 AM PST  Texas Democrats are pulling out a new playbook in this year's congressional races, loudly backing gun control in a bet a strategy that paid off in Virginia can also win elections in a conservative-leaning state long associated with gun rights. "I am heartbroken by the loss of life caused by mass shootings across Texas and the United States and determined to take on the corporate gun lobby and its enablers," said Wendy Davis, a former Texas state senator who shot to political fame in 2013 when she filibustered an anti-abortion bill with a speech lasting more than 11 hours.
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| Rip B-1 Bomber: The Air Force Wants a Shiny New B-21 Instead Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:00 PM PST  A good idea?
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| Death penalty sought in Georgia case of 2 buried children Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:02 AM PST |
| A KFC food worker in China was infected with the coronavirus, despite efforts to curb spreading with contactless delivery and thousands of store closures Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:40 AM PST  Yum China, the parent company of KFC in China, has already closed multiple stores to curb further spreading of the deadly disease.
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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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| Xi Jinping made a rare public appearance amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:26 PM PST  China's President Xi Jinping was out and about in Beijing on Monday as part of an effort to show he's taking active role in the country's response to the coronavirus outbreak.Xi doesn't often mingle with the public, per The New York Times, but his absence during the virus' spread has been particularly noticeable. So on Monday, he was seen making stops at various spots in the capital, including a community center, hospital, and center for disease control. The president was wearing a surgical mask and had his temperature taken. He also spoke with medical workers in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, via video conferencing.Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing, said the virus has put "pressure" on Xi to show both the public and Chinese Communist Party insiders that he was at the heart of the government's response. "It has become a matter of political security," Wu said. "Political security does not mean in the sense of popular resistance but rather that the epidemic may spread to Beijing and Shanghai, endangering the political operations of the so-called capital areas." Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| Pete Buttigieg is uniquely disliked by Democrats across the spectrum even as he surges in early states Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:41 AM PST  Even some moderates are challenging Buttigieg's qualifications and and saying that he's not prepared to be president.
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| Iran satellite launch fails, in blow to space programme Posted: 09 Feb 2020 01:13 PM PST  Iran said it "successfully" launched a satellite Sunday but failed to put it into orbit, in a blow to its space programme that the US alleges is a cover for missile development. The attempted launch of the Zafar -- "Victory" in Farsi -- comes days before the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and crucial parliamentary elections in Iran. Arch foes Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice in the past seven months.
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| Antarctica's new record high temperature: Is it climate change? Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:14 AM PST  Antarctica made worldwide news when one location – an Argentine research base – set a record high temperature for the continent of 64.9 degrees.
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| White House abandons wildlife board criticized as pro-hunting Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  The Trump administration has quietly abandoned a wildlife advisory board that animal rights groups said was illegally stacked with politically connected donors and hunting enthusiasts, and designed to promote trophy hunting. In a Friday night court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice said the International Wildlife Conservation Council "ceased to exist" on Dec. 21, 2019, when its two-year charter expired. Ryan Zinke, who had been Interior Secretary, created the board in November 2017, saying it would advise on the benefits of recreational hunting, including "boosting economies" and creating hundreds of jobs to enhance wildlife conservation.
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| Texas officer charged with manslaughter in fatal shooting Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:18 PM PST  A Central Texas police officer was charged Monday with manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man during a traffic stop, officials said. Temple Officer Carmen DeCruz was charged with the second-degree felony in the Dec. 2 shooting of Michael Dean, Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza said in a statement. If convicted of the charge, DeCruz could face two to 20 years in prison.
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| Airline workers reveal how they're dealing with being on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak as it spreads around the world Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:20 PM PST  As the coronavirus spreads to countries outside China, flight attendants shared their thoughts about working in air travel during an outbreak.
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| First 24-hour news channel "by and for" African Americans set to launch during Black History Month Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:22 AM PST  The Black News Channel, founded by a former Republican congressman, will try to win the growing Black cable news audience. Concerns about who's running the network have raised the question: Can it succeed?
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| Vanguard is an anomaly in the investment world. Can it stay that way? Posted: 09 Feb 2020 03:20 AM PST  A few years ago, my colleague Ryan Cooper admitted that he doesn't have a dime invested in the stock market. "Much of that can surely be chalked up to laziness and incompetence on my part," he wrote. "But I think it also has to do with how Wall Street malfeasance, vast inequality, and the complexity of the financial system combine to create an enormous psychological barrier ... the whole ordeal just feels like a giant grift that taints your soul."My guess is that John Bogle, the founder of the investment giant Vanguard, would've sympathized. So do I. But I actually do have some money socked away in stocks. And the reason is that one time my father told me about Vanguard.Begun in 1975, Vanguard is an investment firm that specializes in index funds with minimal fees. Bogle himself was a hard-nosed skeptic of Wall Street's investor culture: he thought most investment advisers were bilking customers with fees and riddled with conflicts of interest, and that people claiming they could beat the market were basically snake oil salesmen. Unfortunately, Bogle stepped down as CEO of Vanguard in 1996, left the company entirely in 1999, and died in 2019. And it's not clear whether the company will continue to walk the narrow path its founder laid down.To see why Vanguard has stood out for so long among a sea of Wall Street hucksters, you need to understand two things.The first is the index fund. Most investment occurs through mutual funds — basically big piles of money lumped together from many, many people looking to save and build their portfolios, and managed by one firm. But traditionally, that money pile was "actively managed," meaning there was a conscious strategy behind which companies and assets the money was invested in. The managers at the investment firm would poke through the economy, trying to find the hottest companies and best deals to dump all that money into. And, of course, they charged the firm's customers exorbitant fees for that service.What Bogle realized back in the 1970s was that this was all just useless extraction: If you put those giant pools of money on autopilot, you'd get the same returns, but at way less cost to the customer. That was the index fund, which just tracks a stock index — like, say, the S&P 500 — and allocates its money automatically, according to which company is up or down in the index.Philosophically, it was a rejection of the whole idea that those self-important money managers were actually doing the job capitalists are supposed to do; namely, proactively directing resources to their best use. Indeed, follow the logic of the index fund's success to its logical conclusion, and it leaves you wondering if American capitalism actually needs shareholders or the legalized gambling of financial markets at all. A sovereign wealth fund paying out a universal dividend, for example, would be something close to an index fund for every person in the entire country.At any rate, the innovation known as "Bogle's Folly" worked. Index funds today direct roughly a third of all money managed by investment firms. Other companies keep crying uncle and adopting the same model, as they realize they just can't compete with the combination of good returns and minimal fees.The other thing to understand is Vanguard's ownership structure. Most investment firms are owned by wealthy individuals or by other big financial firms further up the food chain. They're the shareholders, and they cast the votes that direct the investment firm's business decisions. Which means the investment firm doesn't just manage their giant pool of money in a way to get the best results for customers; it manages that pool with an eye to extract an extra profit for shareholders on top. Bogle, on the other hand, designed Vanguard as a co-operative: Its customers are its shareholders. (Full disclosure: I rely on Vanguard for the vast majority of my investments, and pretty much all in index funds, so that technically makes me a shareholder too, albeit a very insignificant one. Like Ryan, I'm not wired for this stuff.)But drawing its shareholders from its customer population means Vanguard's internal incentives differ from other investment firms: There's no separate class of people it's trying to generate separate surplus profits for. Instead, Vanguard can just forego that money and plow it back into lower fee structures.You could see the results even in Bogle's own fortune: While $80 million is a gargantuan amount to most people, it's peanuts compared to the vast sums you'd usually expect someone to make after spending decades leading an investment firm that now manages almost $6 trillion.There are limits to what this democratic ethos means in the grand scheme: Only half of Americans own stocks, and 84 percent of all stocks are held by just 10 percent of stock owners. Vanguard's "everyman" approach to investment is only relevant to a privileged population. But that unusual ownership structure does mean there's no material incentive for Vanguard's employees and advisers to sell its customers on fancy assets or newfangled deals, which arguably has a deeper impact on the firm's whole institutional culture. My father felt Vanguard was one of the few investment firms he'd ever relied on that wasn't out to screw him. In my own (admittedly very limited) interactions with Vanguard's people, they've been refreshingly free of cant or sales pitches. I tell them my retirement or savings goals, they point me to a handful of index funds, and that's it.Unlike the index fund, unfortunately, Vanguard's existence as a customer-owned co-operative is not likely to spread. If anything, it may be something the social and economic pressures of the industry force Vanguard to abandon. Bogle was "a public servant masquerading as a businessman," as one of his fans put it. But that sort of discipline and self-denial comes with costs, as Bogle's (relatively) modest fortune shows. There was always tension between him and the people who rose through Vanguard to take it over once he departed. Bogle's out of the picture, but the eternal temptation to make bigger money by being a bit more extractive or exploitative towards the common investment customer who's just looking to save for retirement still looms.Vanguard has begun making overtures to private equity firms — the practitioners par excellence of modern vulture capitalism — in the hope to bring them on as customers. And the old tradition of "active management" is playing a larger role in Vanguard's offering of products and services again. Bigger institutional investors have also managed to push a bit into Vanguard's ownership structure, and now control a modest slice of the company's overall votes.To some extent, Vanguard's been a victim of its own success. It's grown enormously in recent years to oversee that aforementioned $6 trillion, and that's brought huge logistical challenges for the firm's internal infrastructure, just in terms of maintaining a website and a team of employees that can respond promptly and effectively to all those customers' requests to move money around. That, in turn, has hurt the quality of the customer service Vanguard's been known for.It's a dreary lesson that, in the modern U.S. economy, running an investment company with the modest meat-and-potatoes goal of providing a quality service for low cost requires an unusual steely resolve. But it would be a shame if Vanguard evolved to be just like its rivals. Not only did the company show that investment and financial advice are professions that can be done more or less honorably; the success of Vanguard and Bogle's Folly should make us, the common people of America, question whether we need the distant overlords of Wall Street directing our collective economic efforts at all.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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