| Facebook, Microsoft, and Tesla report earnings: Tech Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:14 AM PST  Weekly highlight of Yahoo Finance's top tech news, features and analyses.
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| Mitt Romney asks impeachment lawyers exactly when and why Trump froze Ukraine military aid Posted: 29 Jan 2020 07:55 PM PST  While questioning House impeachment managers and President Trump's lawyers on Wednesday night, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) posed a query: "On what specific date did President Trump first order the hold on security assistance to Ukraine, and did he explain the reason at that time?"Romney is one of the handful of Republicans who might vote to allow additional witnesses in the impeachment trial.Last year, Trump froze $391 million in military aid to Ukraine. The impeachment managers argue Trump abused his power by withholding the aid to pressure Ukraine into launching an investigation into a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly confirms this in his forthcoming book.One of Trump's lawyers, Patrick Philbin, responded to Romney, "I don't think there is evidence in the record of a specific date." He went on to say that in late June, Trump began asking how much money other NATO members spent to help Ukraine, and insisted Trump was concerned about corruption in the country. "So the evidence in the record shows that the president raised concerns, at least as of June 24th, that people were aware of the hold as of July 3rd," Philbin said.There is testimony in the record showing that Office of Management and Budget officials knew of a hold on the aid as early as June 3, The New York Times notes. More than a month later, on July 25, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and asked him to "do us a favor" and investigate Biden.More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Did John Bolton actually do Trump a favor? Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah dump on Dershowitz's dangerous Trump-can-do-anything defense
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| Mom fails to meet deadline to bring missing kids to Idaho Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:57 PM PST  The mom of two children missing since September failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to bring the kids to authorities in Idaho on Thursday. "The only word coming to mind right now is 'monster,'" Kay Woodcock, JJ's grandmother, said during a press conference Thursday evening. Police have said Lori Vallow and her new husband Chad Daybell have lied about the children's whereabouts and even their very existence, with Chad Daybell allegedly telling one person that Lori Vallow had no kids, and Lori Vallow allegedly telling another person that her daughter had died more than a year earlier.
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| Q4 GDP: US economy grows by a better than expected 2.1%, but personal consumption growth slows Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:30 AM PST  The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the fourth-quarter U.S. GDP reported Thursday.
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| Sarcophagus dedicated to sky god among latest ancient Egypt trove Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:45 AM PST  Egypt's antiquities ministry on Thursday unveiled the tombs of ancient high priests and a sarcophagus dedicated to the sky god Horus at an archaeological site in Minya governorate. The mission found 16 tombs containing 20 sarcophagi, some engraved with hieroglyphics, at the Al-Ghoreifa site, about 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Cairo. One of the stone sarcophagi was dedicated to the god Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and features a depiction of the goddess Nut spreading her wings.
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| Iranian factory makes U.S. and Israeli flags to burn Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  Business is booming at Iran's largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. The factory produces about 2,000 U.S. and Israeli flags a month in its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year. Tensions between the United States and Iran have reached the highest level in decades after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a U.S. base in Iraq days later.
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| The Best Headlight Restoration Kits Posted: 31 Jan 2020 12:40 PM PST |
| A Harvey Weinstein accuser testified that they were in a secret, abusive relationship and gave graphic testimony about his body Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:25 PM PST  Jessica Mann elicited audible gasps in the courtroom when she described sexual encounters with Harvey Weinstein and described his body.
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| Netanyahu Recruits Trump, Putin for Election Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:45 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.Benjamin Netanyahu is a man in a hurry. The Israeli prime minister faces a corruption trial and a third parliamentary election in less than a year that he hopes will put off his legal Judgment Day.Securing extra support after two tight and inconclusive polls is of the essence. The U.S. and Russia looked to be obliging this week.A beaming Netanyahu stood next to Donald Trump in Washington as the U.S. president laid out a Middle East peace plan that heavily favors Israel. He then traveled to Moscow where President Vladimir Putin gifted him the release from prison of Israeli-American backpacker Naama Issachar, having previously snubbed multiple pleas to pardon her on drug-smuggling charges.So far, though, polls aren't showing the back-to-back diplomatic coups helping Netanyahu all that much.He had barely left the stage with Trump when he announced his cabinet would vote on Sunday to annex West Bank land on which Jewish settlements stand. But then an aide said technical issues would delay that vote, and senior White House official Jared Kushner urged Israel not to act until after its March 2 election.While Netanyahu's Likud party got a boost in opinion polls, so did its main rival, former military chief Benny Gantz's Blue and White. Both gained by cannibalizing votes from potential allies and neither has an easy path to forming a government.If an Israel-tilted U.S. peace plan and the freeing of Issachar, whose fate became a cause celebre at home, can't get Netanyahu over the line, then what would?Global HeadlinesVirus spreads | China said more than 7,700 people have been infected by the deadly novel coronavirus, as the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee meets today to consider issuing a global alarm. Airlines are suspending more flights to China while the U.S., U.K., and other countries moved to evacuate their citizens from the outbreak's epicenter in Wuhan.Fears the virus is spreading quickly present a conundrum for other nations: How to protect public safety without stigmatizing China's entire population?Impeachment sparring | Former National Security Advisor John Bolton wants the White House to expedite the classification review of the Ukraine portion of his book in case he's called to testify in Trump's Senate impeachment trial. The president and his defense team are trying to discredit Bolton after reports said his draft alleges Trump told him he wanted military aid to Ukraine withheld unless Kyiv probed his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.Democrats' chances of getting Bolton and others to testify are dwindling as the pool of Republicans willing to potentially defy Trump shrinks.Conservative curse | Ever since Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher made the case for the U.K. joining the European Union's forerunner, the Conservative Party has been bedeviled by internal rifts over its relations with the continent. Boris Johnson will hope his delivery of Brexit puts an end to that. But as Robert Hutton reports, history suggests the Conservatives have a seemingly limitless appetite to argue about Europe.Shattered dreams | Wish Town was once a sought-after destination for India's aspiring middle classes seeking a slice of the "good days" promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now its unfinished apartments are a symbol of an economy in distress, with consumers too worried about job cuts and rising costs to spend. India's slumping consumption is so severe it's denting global growth. It's unclear whether Saturday's budget can turn the country's fortunes around.A lone shooter opened fired at a prominent site of protests against the contentious religion-based citizenship law in New Delhi, wounding one person today.Health horror | A fire during an operation on a woman who later died in one of Romania's top hospitals is fueling anger in a nation that spends less on health care than any other EU state. Compounded by widespread graft, the situation resonates beyond the country's borders: As many as 5 million Romanians now live elsewhere, stoking populism — as in the case of Brexit — and leaving uncertain economic prospects back home.What to WatchTrump ally Senator Lindsey Graham is targeting giant internet platforms with a proposed child protection measure that could threaten encrypted services such as Apple's iCloud and Facebook's WhatsApp chat. A group of citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo are asking the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office to recognize them as victims in its investigation of alleged corruption by Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources. Chile's congress approved a tax bill presented by President Sebastian Pinera's government to raise as much as $2.2 billion to fund its social agenda and ease months of unrest. It now goes to the Constitutional Court.Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally...Corrupt officials, soaring temperatures and prowling lions are among challenges facing truck drivers like Nyoni Nsukuzimbi that stymie attempts to boost intra-African trade. The continent's leaders say they're acting to change all that by signing up to an agreement that would establish the world's biggest free-trade zone by area. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called it a "game-changer." It will have to be if Africa's economies are ever going to achieve their potential. \--With assistance from Alan Crawford, Michael Winfrey, Ruth Pollard, Rosalind Mathieson and Karen Leigh.To contact the author of this story: Amy Teibel in Jerusalem at ateibel@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Halpin at thalpin5@bloomberg.net, Karl MaierFor 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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| US hits Iran with new sanctions, keeps some waivers in place Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:30 PM PST  The Trump administration said Thursday that it will continue — at least for now — its policy of not sanctioning foreign companies that work with Iran's civilian nuclear program. Brian Hook, U.S. envoy to Iran, said the U.S. would renew for 60 days sanctions waivers that permit Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran's civilian nuclear facilities without running afoul of U.S. sanctions.
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| U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Coronavirus Fears Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:27 PM PST  Federal officials declared a public health emergency and will be restricting entry into the United States in light of the 2019 novel coronavirus that has killed at least 200 people and infected nearly 10,000 more worldwide. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Friday that President Trump would sign a proclamation temporarily suspending entry to foreign nationals deemed to pose a transmission risk.Azar also said any U.S. citizen who traveled to China's Hubei province within the past 14 days before arriving home would be subjected two weeks of mandatory quarantine. And citizens who traveled to any other regions in China would undergo a "proactive entry health screen" and 14 days of monitored self-quarantine."The risk for infections for Americans remains low," Azar said, adding that these steps were "measured" reactions that would help officials deal with "unknowns" surrounding the virus.Earlier Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they were putting 195 people who recently returned from China under quarantine for two weeks, dubbing it an "unprecedented" step that was now warranted."We are preparing as this is the next pandemic, but hopeful this is not and will not be the case," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a call with reporters. "We would rather be remembered for overreacting to under-reacting."The move came after one of those recently-returned travelers reportedly attempted to leave the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, after arriving from Wuhan, China. The CDC declined to provide more information on the individual. There are currently over 9,800 cases of coronavirus in China, while the number of confirmed cases in the United States remained steady at six. Only one, the husband of a woman who recently traveled abroad, had been spread in-country, the CDC said previously. No one had died as a result of infection in the United States by the CDC's latest count.But Messonnier pointed to the most recent number of cases in China, which she said represented a 26 percent increase over Thursday's numbers, as a cause for growing vigilance. She also mentioned an increasing number of reports of person-to-person spread, including growing evidence that the 2019 novel coronavirus can be spread by people who have not yet experienced symptoms. The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday released a study describing a case in Germany that appeared to show the spread of the virus from a person who traveled to China to several others."The current scenario is a cause for concern," Messonnier said.WHO Calls Coronavirus 'Emergency' as Person-to-Person Spread Confirmed in U.S.When asked if the coronavirus were more dangerous than the flu, Messonnier said there appeared to be "significant mortality related with this disease" based on cases coming out of China. However, she still didn't recommend face masks for the general public and urged people to stay calm."Please do not let fear guide your actions," she said, adding that the public shouldn't assume Asian Americans have the virus amid reports of surging xenophobia against people of Chinese descent worldwide. "There are about 4 million Chinese-Americans in this country."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 glides past Warren to No. 3 in Democratic race — Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:02 PM PST  After steadily rising in popularity over the last several weeks, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have surpassed Sen. Elizabeth Warren among registered voters for the 2020 Democratic nomination, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national public opinion poll released Thursday.
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| Why The Navy Risked Everything To Assassinate The Admiral Who Planned Pearl Harbor Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:00 AM PST  There was no escape for Admiral Yamamoto.
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| China virus toll passes 250 as travel curbs tightened Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:59 PM PST  The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak has surpassed 250, the government said Saturday, as foreign nations tightened restrictions on travellers from China in response to the rapid spread of the illness. At least 258 people have died and more than 11,000 people have been infected in China by the new coronavirus, according to new figures from officials in hard-hit Hubei province. The top Communist Party official in Wuhan, the central city of 11 million people where the virus first emerged in December, on Friday expressed "remorse" because local authorities acted too slowly.
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| Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:36 PM PST ![Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained]( "Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained") Armed men blocked roads, burned cars and there were reports of shootouts in the city of Uruapan in western Mexico after a senior leader of the Los Viagras cartel was detained, local media and a source from the prosecutor's office said. Luis Felipe, also known as "El Vocho", was captured earlier in the day in the western state of Michoacan, which has long been convulsed by turf wars between drug gangs and where unrest is not uncommon after the detention of senior cartel figures. Michoacan's state security services, without giving names, said on Twitter that three people have been detained.
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| American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:43 PM PST ![American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims]( "American Airlines agent said Orthodox Jews only bathe once a week, lawsuit claims") A Michigan couple say they've been defamed by American Airlines' continued statements that they were removed from a flight because of their smell.
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| ‘You know your client is guilty’: Trump impeachment lawyer’s defence accused of ‘descent into madness’ Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST  Senator Adam Schiff, lead impeachment manager in the Senate trial of Donald Trump, has called arguments made by the president's defence team a "descent into constitutional madness".Mr Schiff's indignation with the president's defence came in response to comments made by Mr Trump's lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who argued his client couldn't be impeached for an action he thought might get him re-elected.
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| Bernie Sanders told Ninth Graders the U.S. Committed Acts in Vietnam ‘Almost as Bad as what Hitler Did’ Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:27 AM PST  During his 1972 gubernatorial run, Senator Bernie Sanders told high-school students that the U.S. had committed acts in its war with Vietnam that were "almost as bad as what Hitler did."An article in the Rutland, Vermont, newspaper, The Rutland Herald, reported on the comments, made while Sanders was campaigning for governor as a member of the Liberty Union party. The article was first unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon.The North Vietnamese "are not my enemy," Sanders told a class of ninth graders in Rutland while on the campaign trail. "They're a very, very poor people. Some of them don't have shoes. They eat rice when they can get it. And they have been fighting for the freedom of their country for 25 years. They can hardly fight back."The American death toll from the Vietnam War was over 58,000. The Herald reported that students pushed back against Sanders's support for amnesty for draft evaders, saying it wouldn't be fair to the parents of soldiers killed in the fighting.Sanders also outlined other positions that may sound familiar to today's voters, including increasing the minimum wage and availability of low-income housing, as well as increased access to dental care. He also charged that the Democratic Party was too beholden to large corporations.The Vermont senator received around one percent of the vote in that election. Sanders is currently the strongest presidential candidate from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and has polled ahead of moderate Joe Biden in various Iowa and New Hampshire surveys.Establishment Democrats have been worried by Sanders's rise and durability throughout the primary. The senator has relied on an enthusiastic base of younger progressive voters, and has received strong grassroots financial support.
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| Venezuela's Maduro offers some diplomacy with Colombia Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:36 PM PST  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Wednesday he is willing to mend broken diplomatic relations with neighboring Colombia by restoring consular services amid a standoff stemming from the capture of a fugitive lawmaker. Police in Venezuela this week arrested Aída Merlano, a former senator in Colombia who escaped jailers to evade a 15-year prison sentence on a conviction including election fraud and weapons charges. With guards waiting outside while she underwent a dental procedure, she slipped down a rope from the third-story window and then made her way across the border into Venezuela.
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| U.S. Escalates Virus Response With Entry Limits, Cuts in Flights Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:27 PM PST ![U.S. Escalates Virus Response With Entry Limits, Cuts in Flights]( "U.S. Escalates Virus Response With Entry Limits, Cuts in Flights") (Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration on Friday declared a public health emergency and announced series of steps to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has stricken China and spread to countries around the world.President Donald Trump signed an order temporarily barring entry to foreign nationals who have visited China and pose a risk of spreading the illness, unless they are immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The administration also said flights from China would be funneled through just seven U.S. airports."The risk of infection for Americans remains low," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who is coordinating the federal response, told reporters at a White House news conference. "With these and our previous actions, we are working to keep the risk low."U.S. citizens returning from China's Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, will face a mandatory quarantine. Americans traveling back to the U.S. from other areas of mainland China must undergo screening and monitored self-quarantine to ensure they are not at risk of spreading the virus.The measures, which take effect at 5 p.m. Washington time on Sunday, apply to visits in the past two weeks. The quarantines last 14 days.The White House's announcement comes as the coronavirus continues to spread, triggering increasing alarm from health officials. The World Health Organization this week declared a global health emergency, giving the United Nations agency the power to coordinate response efforts.Almost 9,700 cases have been confirmed in China with more than 200 deaths, said Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He added that six cases have been confirmed in the U.S. and that 191 people are being monitored.U.S. health officials have sought to reassure Americans the risk of contracting the virus remains low, but they have also said there is much they still do not know about the illness."This is a significant global situation that continues to evolve," Redfield said.Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the U.S. decided to step up its efforts because of reports that a traveler from China spread the disease in Germany without showing any symptoms. He said that is different from the Ebola virus, which cannot be spread by people who are not very ill.Health officials added that tests to detect the virus haven't been used enough times to assure they are reliable. Only one in six U.S. cases of coronavirus has been detected through airport screening, they said.All U.S.-bound flights from China will be routed to airports in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Honolulu and Los Angeles. More drastic flight restrictions are not currently being considered, according to Joel Szabat, a Transportation Department official.Limiting the number of airports where flights to China can land will allow the U.S. government to streamline screening and set up quarantine centers, officials said.The CDC announced earlier Friday it had issued a quarantine order of 14 days to 195 U.S. citizens evacuated from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province. It's the first time in nearly a half century such an order was given.On Thursday, the State Department issued its highest level do-not-travel advisory for China, warning American citizens there they could be subject to travel restrictions with little to advance notice and urging them to "consider departing using commercial means."The rapid outbreak of the virus has sent financial markets tumbling. The S&P 500 Index on Friday erased all of its 2020 gains and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 600 pointsas investors grow worried about how the illness could effect the world economy.Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank is "very carefully monitoring the situation" and "there will clearly be implications at least in the near term for Chinese output."\--With assistance from Justin Sink.To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, John HarneyFor 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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| This Picture Might Be How China Starts World War III Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:51 AM PST  A barrage of anti-ship missiles moving at Mach 20?
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| Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing’s control Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:56 PM PST ![Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing's control]( "Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing's control") China's coronavirus outbreak has raised simple but powerful questions about its style of government, in a system with little room for dissent.
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| More than 6,000 people are trapped on a cruise ship in Italy after a woman was suspected of having the coronavirus Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:18 AM PST  Passengers of a Costa Cruises cruise ship can't disembark. Two passengers, one of whom was experiencing coronavirus symptoms, were quarantined.
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| Egypt's population nears 100 million, putting pressure on resources and jobs Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:02 AM PST  Sitting in her sister's apartment on a noisy Cairo street, Rania Sayed one day hopes to leave a city that is becoming more congested as Egypt's population ticks up to 100 million, a milestone it will pass next month. Like many others, she wants to move to one of the new satellite settlements being built for a booming population whose rapid growth President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has identified as one of Egypt's biggest challenges alongside terrorism. Egypt's 100 millionth person is expected to be clocked up on the official statistics agency's digital counter in central Cairo in February.
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| Senators break into laughter as Schiff points out ironic difference between Trump's legal defense and DOJ arguments Posted: 31 Jan 2020 09:13 AM PST  President Trump's impeachment defense team seems to be on a different page than lawyers in the Department of Justice.Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) noted this disparity while answering questions from senators in Trump's Senate impeachment trial on Thursday. Schiff said that while Trump's legal team argued the House should have gone to court to force witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify via subpoena, Justice Department lawyers were — nearly simultaneously — arguing in a separate case that it's up to Congress to enforce subpoenas through measures like... impeachment.> "You can't make this stuff up... The Justice Department, in resisting House subpoenas, is in court TODAY and was asked: If Congress can't come to the court to enforce subpoenas... what remedy is there?> > The DOJ lawyers response? Impeachment." - @RepAdamSchiff pic.twitter.com/eUMkaENXHQ> > — House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) January 30, 2020"You can't make this stuff up," said Schiff. As CNN reports, a DOJ lawyer on Thursday said if the House needs to enforce a subpoena, one of its options is to use its impeachment powers. As a reminder, Trump was impeached on obstruction of Congress after ordering aides to defy subpoenas that would have brought them to the House floor as witnesses. During the court hearing (related to the Trump administration's efforts to change the census, not an impeachment-related hearing), DOJ lawyer James Burnham argued the House can't ask the courts to enforce subpoenas — precisely what Trump's impeachment lawyers are suggesting Democrats should have done. Trump's legal team says Democrats should have fought in court for further witnesses, while Trump administration lawyers say courts have no right to enforce congressional subpoenas.There were reportedly "audible gasps and laughs" on the Senate floor after Schiff pointed out the comedic timing of the opposing arguments.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Man dies after woman trying to help him accidentally runs over him, police say Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:39 AM PST  A man died Thursday after a woman who was trying to help him with a medical issue forgot to put her vehicle in park, and it ran over him, police said.
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| Iraq says joint operations with US-led coalition resume Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:33 AM PST  Joint military operations with the U.S.-led coalition to counter the Islamic State group have resumed after a nearly three-week pause, an Iraqi military statement said Thursday. Meanwhile, anti-government protesters called for 1 million Iraqis to take to the streets Friday in what they said was a "last chance" for the protest movement to build on momentum gained after followers of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr packed up and left last week. The pause in joint anti-IS operations came amid heightened tensions after a Washington-led airstrike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad.
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| Satellite photos show the deserted streets of Wuhan as the city enters its 8th day of quarantine Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:19 PM PST  The city of Wuhan is on lockdown as China tries to stop the coronavirus from spreading. This is what it looks like from above, and on the ground.
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| Why Did the Coast Guard Sail Right by Taiwan and China in 2019? Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:20 AM PST  A good idea?
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| Crude oil tanker in the Persian Gulf caught fire Wednesday night Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:58 AM PST  A crude oil tanker in the Persian Gulf caught fire Wednesday night, prompting a warning from British naval officials to "exercise extreme caution."
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| U.S. envoy warns Palestinians against raising opposition to U.S. peace plan at U.N. Posted: 31 Jan 2020 12:38 PM PST  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will speak in the U.N. Security Council in the next two weeks about the plan, Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour said on Wednesday, adding that he hoped the 15-member council would also vote on a draft resolution on the issue.
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| 'We Can't Deal With This Tsunami.' As the Coronavirus Spreads, Hong Kong Medical Workers Feel the Pressure Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:53 PM PST  The coronavirus crisis has exposed cracks in Hong Kong's already overburdened healthcare system.
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| Voters' 2nd choices could be decisive in close Iowa caucuses Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:37 PM PST  Democratic presidential candidates seeking victory in next week's Iowa caucuses are navigating a field that is so jumbled that voters' second choice could matter almost as much as their first, adding fresh uncertainty and confusion to the final days of the race. Lower-polling candidates including Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer have been approached by multiple campaigns in recent days eager to form an alliance that could reshape Monday's election. Joe Biden's team has been in communication with lower-polling rivals, according to several people familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
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| Berlin Adopts Five-Year Freeze to Rein In Soaring Rents Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:50 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Berlin's plan to rein in the city's rental market was approved by lawmakers, capping revenue for property owners and potentially driving investors away from the German capital. Shares in major landlords slumped.Berlin's legislature backed measures including a five-year rent freeze Thursday, more than six months after they were proposed by the left-leaning administration. The changes will likely come into force by the end of February, though opposition parties have signaled their intention to challenge them in court.The initiative put forward by the Left party's Katrin Lompscher, head of urban development and housing, is intended to ease the burden on tenants after a property boom caused rents to double over the past decade. The political intervention has spooked investors as a separate campaign attempts to force Berlin's government to expropriate properties from large landlords including Deutsche Wohnen SE."We don't want Berlin to become a copy of overpriced cities like London and Paris, where many people can no longer afford an apartment," Lompscher said during the debate that preceded the ballot. Out of 150 votes cast, 85 lawmakers voted in favor and 64 against, with one abstention.Deutsche Wohnen shares fell as much as 2.1% and were down 0.6% at 1:30 p.m., extending its decline over the past 12 months to about 13%. Vonovia SE, Germany's largest landlord and owner of about 40,000 apartments in the capital, declined as much as 1%, and Berlin-based property owner Adler Real Estate AG dropped as much as 2.4%.The Christian Democratic Union -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, which is in opposition in Berlin -- plans to challenge the measures in Germany's constitutional court "as soon as possible," according to a spokesman. That can only happen once the new legislation takes effect.The adoption of the measures "sends a fatal signal to investors," Ulrich Lange, a deputy leader of Merkel's bloc in the national parliament, said in an emailed statement."What's more, there's a high possibility that the law will be declared unconstitutional," Lange added. "That will create rental chaos. It cannot be emphasized enough that the only solution that will ease the pressure on Berlin's rental market remains: build."'El Dorado'Michael Voigtlaender, an economist at the Cologne-based IW Institute, has also criticized Berlin's focus on rent controls rather than encouraging investors and developers to build more affordable homes to keep pace with the city's rapidly growing population.The government's actions are a catastrophe that "threatens to cause considerable damage to both the housing market and Berlin as a whole," the IW said in a recent report for the CDU. The value of some properties in the city could fall by more than 40% as a result of the rent restrictions, the institute estimates.Lompscher has dismissed such concerns. In an interview this month, she called Berlin an "El Dorado" for real-estate companies. Her department has worked closely with other German cities, and she expects Berlin's intervention in the property market to "have consequences" within the country and internationally.Not everyone agrees, though. Vonovia this month described the rent reforms as "Berlin specific." The company doesn't expect the measures to be replicated by other German states "except in the unlikely event that the Federal Constitutional Court were to rule largely in favor of the legislation," Vonovia said in a Jan. 23 note to investors.(Updates with lawmaker comment from seventh paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Blackman in Berlin at ablackman@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers, Chris ReiterFor 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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| Mayor Pete’s South Bend Awarded No Major Contracts to Black-Owned Firms for Three Years Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:47 AM PST  DES MOINES, Iowa—Of the many pledges that Pete Buttigieg has made in his as-yet unfruitful quest to earn the support of black voters, his guarantee that a quarter out of every federal contracting dollar will be awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses is one of his most ambitious. "Look at what it would be like if we were co-investing in promising businesses led by black entrepreneurs, start-ups and other kinds of businesses that have the best track record of creating the kind of employment that can help lift people up economically," Buttigieg told BET in September. But an analysis of such spending during Buttigieg's tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, shows that the presidential hopeful fell dramatically short of that goal. According to a 2019 study analyzing the city's contract data conducted by Colette Holt & Associates, a national law and consulting firm specializing in disparity studies, the city of South Bend did not award a major contract to a black-owned business for three straight years.The study found that from 2015 through 2017, the city of South Bend distributed $83,675,547 in contract dollars, roughly 12 percent of the city's contracts, to businesses owned by racial and gender minorities—and none to a black-owned business, despite the study finding that there were more than 200 qualifying minority-owned firms in the market at the time.Minority-owned and women-owned businesses make up 15 percent of the market in the city, which means that while South Bend was close to achieving proportional awards for some categories, black-owned businesses continued to lag. While the city is more than 25 percent black by population, eligible black-owned contractors make up a mere 3.25 percent. More than 88 percent of contracts between 2015 and 2017 went to businesses not owned by women or racial minorities.At the same time, Buttigieg's administration awarded numerous lucrative contracts to past campaign donors and to corporations whose lobbyists and executives had given to Buttigieg's mayoral election efforts.One minority business owner told the study's authors that South Bend employees "are trained to believe that black folks, poor people, or minorities can't deliver," and that she keeps her status as the owner of a minority-owned business under wraps because the "stigma" has kept her from winning contracts."I really felt like [the city of South Bend] didn't want me to have the job. It wasn't because I wasn't the best at what I do, because I am—it was just because they would say, 'Well, you don't need that much money,' like, 'You just a little black girl. You won't need that much money,'" she told the study's authors. "Our problem is that people are trained to believe that black folks, poor people, or minorities can't deliver… There's a whole lot of black people in here that wanna do something, and somebody needs to see that." Another black business owner said that the difficulty in obtaining South Bend city contracts had even led to some minority-owned businesses to go under."There are black-owned construction companies, but one reason a lot of them that I talked to went out of business [is] because they can't get contracts with the city," the business owner said. "So, they can't get any big contracts, then they have to try to build their business with only small ones, and it's hard to maintain a cash flow with the other issues that you deal with." The analysis, titled "The South Bend Disparity Study" and produced at Buttigieg's behest, measured contracts and subcontracts worth $50,000 and up, and found a 72.38 percent disparity ratio for contract utilization of minority-owned business enterprises in the city. That ratio measures the participation of a group in contracting opportunities by dividing that group's utilization by the availability of that group to participate in the contracting process.A disparity ratio of less than 100 indicates that a given group is utilized less than would be expected based on availability; a ratio of less than 80 percent has been presented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as indicating a prima facie case of discrimination.Buttigieg's poor track record on awarding city contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses has been reported before. In November 2019, shortly after his proposal mandating that the city award 15 percent of its contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses was passed through South Bend's city council, the Intercept reported that Buttigieg had only awarded 3 percent of city contracts to black-owned businesses as mayor, citing annual audits conducted by the city.But the outside analysis by Colette Holt & Associates, revealing the eye-popping three-year stretch with zero contract awards to black-owned businesses, has not been reported, and comes at a moment when even Buttigieg's most diehard fans are growing increasingly anxious that his statistically insignificant support among black registered voters represents an insurmountable obstacle to his electability."It is a concern! It is a concern about the South—can he win in the South? Can he win the black vote?" June Schindler, a potential supporter, told The Daily Beast, at a Buttigieg town hall in Ottumwa on Tuesday. "It's a concern."Buttigieg's campaign pointed to the small number of eligible black-owned firms in the region as a partial explanation for why South Bend lagged so far behind the former mayor's Douglass Plan. In an interview with Charlamagne Tha God last week, Buttigieg explained that the disparity study was a painful but crucial step to understanding how the city would address the problem in the future."We found out that we are below where we ought to be," Buttigieg said, of the city's contracts with black-owned firms. "That wasn't a surprise, but now I had the legal power to do something about it."While Buttigieg has touted the creation of a training program aimed at helping minority-owned and women-owned businesses apply for city contracts, the city was slow to improve the city's designated official in charge of ensuring minority- and women-owned businesses were being included in the selection process. In 2014, Buttigieg's office proposed cutting the hours for the city's Diversity Compliance Officer position from 32 hours a week to 18 hours per week. At the time, members of the city's Common Council expressed open concern that cutting the officer's hours would undermine efforts to expand the number of contracts awarded to such businesses."I don't think 18 hours per week is going to be enough to support the goals of the ordinance," said Valerie Schey, a Democrat on the council, in August 2014. "Even with a 32-hour workweek, the workload has been enormous."The move would have saved the city roughly $18,000 per year.In 2016, that role was instead changed following the signing of an executive order by Buttigieg ordering the creation of South Bend's Office of Diversity & Inclusion, a position intended to boost the number of contracts and subcontracts to minority- and women-owned businesses with the job description of "[leading] efforts to make hiring and management practices more inclusive, and city purchasing more diverse."Christina Brooks, who served as South Bend's first Diversity & Inclusion Officer until last year and hired the firm Colette Holt and Associates to conduct a disparity study, said in a statement that the shift in resources was critical for the city to understand how poor its history of awarding contracts to minority-owned businesses had been up to that point. "It wasn't a priority for three decades until Pete shifted resources to really focus on this by creating a department that was intentional about supporting, creating, and sustaining women- and minority-owned businesses and building up capacity," Brooks said.During the same three-year period that black-owned businesses received zero dollars in city contracts, South Bend did award plenty of city contracts to businesses owned by white men—including several generous political donors who had supported Buttigieg's mayoral campaigns and his ill-fated run for Indiana state treasurer in 2010.Among the beneficiaries of city contracts include lobbyist Brad Queisser, whose lobbying firm, mCapitol, and its parent company, MWH, gave $2,000 in cash and an in-kind contribution of $2,577.82 to Buttigieg's 2011 mayoral campaign. The firm was later contracted to lobby the federal government on South Bend's behalf, and was paid $230,000 over the next three years for its lobbying work. In 2014, MWH was awarded a contract worth as much as $2 million by South Bend's Board of Public Works to modernize the city's sewers—a favorite achievement of Buttigieg's. Four months later, it won an additional $430,000 in city contracts for its work on the system.Another lobbyist later hired to work on the city's sewer plan was Thomas New, executive director of government affairs at the Indianapolis law firm Krieg DeVault. New, who had donated $1,500 to Buttigieg's 2010 treasurer campaign, was later retained by the city to handle federal authorities on the plan.The Buttigieg campaign has explained in the past that both Queisser and New had been involved in city contract work and municipal politics long before Buttigieg first ran for mayor.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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| A coronavirus case has been confirmed in the San Francisco Bay Area near Silicon Valley — a man who recently returned from Wuhan and Shanghai Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:05 PM PST  It's the seventh US case. The patient came into contact with "very few" people and did not leave home except to seek medical care on two occasions.
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| GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander: 'There is no need for more evidence' to prove Trump's actions were 'inappropriate' Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:42 PM PST  Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced on Thursday night that he will vote against allowing additional witnesses and documents in President Trump's impeachment trial.In a statement, Alexander acknowledged that it was "inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation. When elected officials inappropriately interfere with such investigations, it undermines the principle of equal justice under the law. But the Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year's ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate."Alexander declared that there is "no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a 'mountain of overwhelming evidence.'" He concluded that there is "no need for more evidence to prove something that has already been proven and that does not meet the United States Constitution's high bar for an impeachable offense."Alexander got in a few swipes at Democrats, calling the second article of impeachment "frivolous" and the entire process "shallow, hurried, and wholly partisan." If Trump is convicted, he said, it would "rip the country apart, pouring gasoline on the fire of cultural divisions that already exist. It would create the weapon of perpetual impeachment to be used against future presidents whenever the House of Representatives is of a different political party."More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz filmed attacking sheriff deputy inside jail Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:32 AM PST  Video has emerged of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz attacking a deputy inside Broward County's main jail.The attack took place on Nov 13, 2018, and depicts Cruz pacing around a common area before getting into an argument with a guard and attacking him.
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| International crisis looms as 700,000 flee Syria's Idlib: U.S. envoy Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:42 AM PST  MARAAT AL-NUMAN,Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - An assault on rebel-held northwest Syria by government forces has pushed some 700,000 people to flee toward the Turkish border and raised the specter of an international crisis, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria James Jeffrey said on Thursday. Turkey fears a fresh wave of migrants piling across its border and has a dozen observation posts in Idlib, part of a de-escalation agreement it says Russia is now violating. Speaking at an online news briefing, Jeffrey said that in the last three days Syrian government and Russian warplanes had hit Idlib with 200 air strikes "mainly against civilians", and that several Turkish observation posts had been "cut off" by the government advance.
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