| Roosevelt who? 2020 Democrats steer clear of talking history Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:01 PM PDT  Modern politicians talk less and less about the traditions and legacy of their own political parties. Joe Biden's rise in the Democratic primary shows this might be a misjudgment.
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| Should daylight saving time be eliminated? Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:22 AM PDT  A push to end the practice of changing clocks twice a year is gaining steam in parts of the U.S. Should daylight saving time be abolished nationwide?
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| Experts: Rapid testing helps explain few German virus deaths Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:27 AM PDT  Germany has confirmed more than 1,100 cases of the new coronavirus but — so far — just two deaths, far fewer than other European countries with a similar number of reported infections. Experts said Monday that rapid testing as the outbreak unfolded meant Germany has probably diagnosed a much larger proportion of those who have been infected, including younger patients who are less likely to develop serious complications. "We in Germany were simply at the forefront in terms of diagnostics," said Christian Drosten, the director of the Institute for Virology at Berlin's Charite hospital.
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| 'We'll disappear': Thousands of Mexican women strike to protest femicide Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:58 AM PDT  Day Without Women protesters aim to shine a light on government inaction as more than ten women are murdered every dayAs rush-hour began on Monday morning, there were no ticket-sellers in Mexico City subway stations.Nor were there female tellers at many of the banks. Nail salons, massage parlors, and hairdressers closed. And in cities across the country, far fewer women were on the streets than on an ordinary day.Countless thousands of women and girls across Mexico have joined a historic strike to protest against the country's startling rates of gender-based violence – and the government's failure to respond to the crisis in which more than ten women are murdered every day..From factories along the Río Grande to businesses in the capital and offices in cities near the Guatemalan border, women and girls joined the unprecedented protest, billed as a Day Without Women.The strike sent a clear message to Mexican society, said Sandra Reyes, 33, a biologist at the National Cancer Institute, who was one of at least 80,000 people who joined the country's largest ever women's march on Sunday."In some ways, it's a taunt: if you do not want us out here in the streets, we'll disappear," she said.Many marchers on Sunday expressed frustration with the country's federal and state authorities: most murder cases go unsolved, and families often search for the missing on their own.Elsa Arísta González, who founded a Facebook group to report disappearances and abuse in the city of Nezahualcóyotl, in Mexico state, said that people were fed up with the impunity."We used to be able to walk home from school alone, and leave open the door to your house. Not anymore," said Arista González, 40, a law student and coffee shop employee. "We've become used to living in fear."But many protesters have reserved particular fury for the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in December 2018 on a promise of sweeping change, but has shown little interest in the issue of violence against women.The president, popularly known as Amlo, has attributed femicides to the "neoliberal policies" of previous governments and repeatedly suggested that the women's protests are part of a rightwing plot against him.On Monday, he repeated the allegation, saying that women were free to protest, but claiming that some "wanted our administration to fail"."For a whole year, this government has responded with promises to the people's demands. But the situation for women has not improved. Women are facing the same kinds of violence as before and the country has become even more militarized. Nothing has changed," said Alejandra Santamaría, 28, a law professor.Though some women continued to work in shops, cafes, and restaurants – often for fear of being docked pay – far fewer women than usual were riding the subway to work."The strike has given us the chance to challenge our labor conditions. The question is whether we'll be able to keep up the social pressure," said Nélida Reyes Guzmán, 56, a striking metro worker.Many businesses supported the strike and told their female employees to stay at home, and some women worried that the backing of mainstream politicians and major business had diluted some of its ideological force.But others argued that the such support merely showed the strength of the women's cause."Without us, all of this collapses," said Paula León García, 33, the director of one of the closed branches of BBVA Bancomer, Mexico's largest bank.Women's strikes have been held previously in Argentina and Chile, as well as Poland and Spain. But Amneris Chaparro, a researcher at the gender studies center at the National Autonomous University, said Mexico had never before had a major women's strike – despite its long tradition of labor and student activism.But the spiraling death toll of women and girls targeted for their gender – and a horrific recent string of high-profile crimes – has inspired new passion in the country's women's movement."Every day we have more evidence that they are killing us specifically for being women," said Maria de la Luz Estrada, the executive coordinator of the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide."If this government wants a transformation of this county, they have to face the problem."
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| CDC Warns Americans Against Taking Cruises and Long Flights as Coronavirus Cases Grow Posted: 08 Mar 2020 10:43 PM PDT  More than 540 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the U.S., and at least nine states have declared emergencies
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| Wuhan Official Called for ‘Gratitude Education’ to Teach Citizens to Thank Xi Jinping for Coronavirus Response Posted: 09 Mar 2020 12:09 PM PDT  The top Communist Party official in Wuhan suggested Saturday that the government conduct "gratitude education" to teach citizens how to properly thank the party and general secretary Xi Jinping for the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak."The people of Wuhan are heroic people who understand gratitude," Wuhan party secretary Wang Zhonglin said in comments published by Changjiang Daily. "[We] must through various channels carry out gratitude education among the citizens of the whole city as well as cadres so that they thank the general secretary [Xi Jinping], thank the communist party, listen to the party's words, follow the party's way, and create strong positive energy."The comments were first reported on in English by the China Media Project, and were subsequently seen by The Guardian. China Media Project reported that the remarks drew strong backlash on social media and from Chinese journalists, and Changjiang Daily apparently removed the article from its website.Chinese authorities have faced unprecedented criticism from the country's citizens over its response to the coronavirus outbreak. On Thursday, quarantined Wuhan residents angrily shouted from their windows as Vice-premier Sun Chunlan, one of the highest-ranking officials in the government, visited a residential complex."It's fake, it's fake, everything is fake!" residents shouted. Video of the incident went viral, and was even shared by China state newspaper The Global Times.> "It's fake! It's fake!" shout residents of a community in COVID19 epicenter Wuhan in a viral video on China's social media. They have accused property management of cheating them by only appearing to provide promised necessities. Investigation is underway https://t.co/kzq4gbB4RM pic.twitter.com/0ujObfedR8> > -- Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 6, 2020Wuhan residents have been quarantined at home for weeks now, relying on local government workers to provide basic necessities.China has confirmed over 80,000 cases of the coronavirus and reported 3,119 deaths from the illness.
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| Pakistan, northern India face renewed threat of flooding from rounds of showers, thunderstorms Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:14 AM PDT  After flooding and landslides caused numerous deaths in Pakistan late last week, parts of the country are bracing for the arrival of another potent storm system.The storm will track from southern Iran into Pakistan through Tuesday before arriving in northern Pakistan on Wednesday.Showers and thunderstorms will spread from eastern Afghanistan into far northern India, including the states of Himachal, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh by Wednesday. Steadier and heavier rain is forecast for far eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and into far northern India as the storm forces moisture into the meeting point of the Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountains.By Friday, the storm will begin to move east. Rain and storms will begin to gradually taper off across Pakistan, but they will spread east along the Himalayas into northeastern India and Bhutan.Through the second half of the week, isolated showers and thunderstorms are also expected to develop in parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal of eastern India.A couple of storms can drift into northwestern Bangladesh.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPRainfall totals up to 13-25 mm (0.5-1 inch) will be common across the region from this system, but totals can accumulate up to 25-50 mm (1-2 inches) in areas of heavier rain. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 150 mm (6 inches) is possible in the mountains of Pakistan and far northern India.Localized flooding will be possible in areas of poor drainage and in any downpours that develop through the second half of the week. Northern Pakistan will face the greatest risk after torrential rain caused flooding late last week and into this past weekend.Flooding and landslides in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan were to blame for at least 17 deaths and officials in the province declared a weather emergency to help relocate residents displaced by the disaster, reported The Express Tribune.Colder air arriving with the storm will cause precipitation to fall as snow in higher elevations, but it could also pose a risk to those displaced in the mountainous areas of Pakistan.Flooding and chilly conditions will not be the only concerns as storms return to the area. Frequent lighting strikes will be dangerous for anyone caught outside during the unsettled period.Residents are reminded to head inside at the first rumble of thunder.Some of the wet weather may prove beneficial. Lengthy periods of rain could improve air quality across northern India where air pollution reaches dangerous levels during the drier season.Occasional showers and thunderstorms are forecast to continue into the weekend near the mountains of northern India and Nepal.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Trump impeachment: Key witness says Putin has US 'exactly where he wants us' Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:17 AM PDT  One of the former officials who testified in the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump has warned that Vladimir Putin has the US "exactly where he wants us".Speaking to CBS's 60 Minutes in her first major interview since her testimony last year, Fiona Hill said that while the Russians did not invent the divisions in US politics and society they knew how to exploit them.
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| Thousands of people in Italy panicked and tried to flee its 16-million-person coronavirus quarantine after the plan leaked Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:37 AM PDT  "Some of those who fled will be infected with the disease," said one virus expert — increasing the risk it will spread further.
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| Hillary Clinton says Biden's following in her footsteps Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:02 AM PDT  Hillary Clinton said in a new interview that Joe Biden's path to the 2020 nomination looks similar to hers back in 2016.
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| China closes makeshift hospitals as virus cases plunge Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:08 PM PDT  China has closed most of the makeshift hospitals opened to receive coronavirus patients in the epidemic's epicentre as the number of new infections in the country hit a record low. There were 40 new cases nationwide, the National Health Commission said Monday, the lowest number of fresh cases since it started reporting the data in January. Most of the new cases, as well as 22 new deaths, were in Hubei, the central province at the epicentre of the outbreak.
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| Turkey issues new arrest warrant for jailed businessman Kavala Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:01 PM PDT  A Turkish court issued a new arrest warrant on Monday against Turkish businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, who was re-arrested last month after being acquitted in a separate trial, one of his lawyers told Reuters. Kavala had been cleared of charges related to nationwide protests in 2013, but was re-arrested the following day, accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order in a failed coup in 2016. On Monday, a second arrest warrant was issued in relation to the coup attempt, this time for espionage.
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| Coronavirus live updates: US death toll hits 21; Grand Princess to dock Monday; Sen. Ted Cruz to self-quarantine Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:59 PM PDT  The U.S. death toll climbed to 19 this weekend, but there was some good news for passengers and crew of a cruise ship hit by the new coronavirus.
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| A Look at the Complete Works of Antoni Gaudí Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:02 PM PDT |
| Why Is Alleged Quack Dr. Oz the Face of NBC’s ‘Coronavirus Crisis Team’? Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:41 AM PDT  For the past week—as the global COVID-19 death toll surpassed 3,800, including at least 22 fatalities in the United States—NBC News has been promoting celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz as the most visible member of the Today show's so-called "Coronavirus Crisis Team."The 59-year-old Oz, an Oprah Winfrey protégé who registered the trademark "America's Doctor" as his self-awarded title, has been urging Today viewers to vigorously scrub their thumbs and fingertips as part of a 20-second hand-washing ritual to combat the spread of the pandemic, and on Friday, exhorted people over the age of 60—those at highest risk of succumbing to the disease—to stick close to home."If I was younger I would go ahead and travel, but if I was older, I wouldn't—and would avoid crowded places," Oz told Today co-host Craig Melvin, suggesting that senior citizens keep at an "arm's length" distance from strangers. "Why take a chance?"That is prudent counsel, to be sure. (Never mind that it directly contradicted Oz's recommendation to 88-year-old William Shatner—on Monday's episode of Access Daily—that the "apprehensive" Star Trek actor proceed with his plans for an international lecture tour: "He can go anywhere he wants. Do not make decisions based on fear… We've gotta live our lives.")The telegenic Oz might well be a talented thoracic surgeon—best known as the host of the popular syndicated daytime program The Dr. Oz Show—but he is hardly an ideal dispenser of medical advice for an increasingly anxious American public."He's just a quack," said physician and scientific researcher Henry I. Miller, one of Oz's more vocal critics in the medical community, but by no means unique in his condemnation of, among other transgressions, Oz's enthusiastic endorsements of phony weight-loss remedies, his bogus claims of dangerous levels of arsenic in children's apple juice, and his willingness to provide a platform to the debunked assertion that genetically modified food causes cancer."He's been dishonest and he has been dispensing misinformation to millions now for years," said Miller, who in 2015 led an unsuccessful campaign to pressure Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons to fire Oz from its faculty. "I wouldn't trust any of his observations, and don't see how he would have responsible and valid views on coronavirus."NBC News declined to comment on Oz's critics or his role on the Today show, where he is one of several paid physician-contributors—but surely the most famous and camera-savvy—who've been enlisted in recent days as on-air experts to address viewers' coronavirus concerns.In a statement to The Daily Beast, Oz responded: "There are lots of detractors in life who have trouble hearing the truth or engaging in difficult debates about multi-sided topics. I have spent my career with the belief that knowledge is power and I have never shied away from that mantra. We are in the midst of one of the biggest epidemics in recent time and my focus is on educating and calming a fearful public. That's what we all should be focused on right now."Oz and the 72-year-old Dr. Miller—a former Food and Drug Administration official and ex-academic fellow at Stanford University's conservative-leaning Hoover Institution—are longtime adversaries. On an April 2015 installment of The Dr. Oz Show, Oz countered Miller's headline-grabbing open letter to Columbia University demanding his dismissal by slamming Miller as a paid shill for the tobacco, pesticide, and genetically modified food industries. (Indeed, Miller was dropped as a columnist by Forbes magazine in 2017 after The New York Times reported that one of his 2015 bylined columns largely echoed a draft prepared by employees of Monsanto.)In addition, Oz noted that one of the letter's 10 physician co-signers, Dr. Gilbert Ross, was a convicted felon who served prison time for Medicaid fraud.Still, most of Oz's critics are not so easily attacked.Three Mayo Clinic scientists—Dr. Jon C. Tilburt, M.D., and PhDs Megan Allyse and Frederic W. Hafferty—pulled no punches in their February 2017 article in the AMA Journal of Ethics about the troubling questions raised by Oz's public influence."Should a physician be allowed to say anything—however inaccurate and potentially harmful—so long as that individual commands market share?" they wrote. "In a professional sector whose history and growth is marked by the sustained and rightful denouncement of quacks and quackery… an inability to define and fence the epistemic boundaries of scientific medicine from apparent quackery on such a visible scale becomes something akin to a full-scale identity crisis for medicine…"Dr. Oz certainly appears to be someone peddling unproven and ineffective remedies for personal gain… Yet, he remains immensely popular, prompting us to wonder, if we can't effectively sanction Dr. Oz, whom can we sanction?"Meanwhile, a May 2018 article by Rina Raphael, Fast Company magazine's health and technology writer, decried Donald Trump's appointment of Oz to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition."The inclusion of Dr. Oz took many in the health industry by surprise, especially those who have been following the TV star's snake-oil antics over the last few years," Raphael wrote. "Oz has been repeatedly called out for his support of false, deceptive products and unproven medical practices, both from the medical community and consumer watchdog groups."His appointment clearly speaks in no way to his reputation as a trusted medical source, but rather to his celebrity status—and the ability to parlay that into multiple business opportunities. Perhaps that's what Trump, who has shown a preference for pundits over experts, finds appealing."More likely, Trump was simply rewarding Oz for letting the then-Republican presidential nominee and his daughter Ivanka onto the Sept. 15, 2016 installment of his syndicated show to tell whoppers, unchallenged, about his physical condition, especially the obvious sham that the obese candidate weighed only 236 pounds. Oz accepted at face value the conclusions of Trump's discredited doctor, Harold Bornstein, who declared that his patient "will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.""Talk about two snake-oil salesman!" then-Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said at the time about Trump's appearance on Dr. Oz."I mean one of them says, 'Take a pill and you'll be thin'… from your lips to God's ear wouldn't we all love that? Not true. Not medically true. Not scientifically true. And Dr. Oz knows it," said McCaskill, who famously dressed Oz down for pushing diet scams during a 2014 Senate hearing.Trump, meanwhile, is "promising things that are totally not true. Lying every time he opens his mouth," McCaskill added. "So I think it's really a marriage made in heaven."Oz's legion of critics also includes, but isn't limited to, New Yorker science writer Michael Specter, the British Medical Journal, and Popular Science magazine.As of this writing, however, it seems highly doubtful that NBC News and the Today show will spend even a second, much less 20, washing their hands of Dr. Oz.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| 'Every day is getting worse': Coronavirus patient sends stark warning to others about disease Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:28 AM PDT  The first confirmed coronavirus patient in New Jersey has spoken out about his experience of contracting the virus.James Cai, a 32-year-old physician's assistant, who was the first patient to test positive for the virus in the state, spoke to CBS2's Hazel Sanchez about how rapidly he had fallen ill after contracting Covid-19.
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| Trump reportedly told aides he fears journalists will purposefully try to infect him with coronavirus on Air Force One Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:46 AM PDT  President Trump puts on a brave face when talking about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, but things are reportedly pretty different behind closed doors.Vanity Fair reports that Trump — a self-professed germaphobe — is "melting down over this." Perhaps not shockingly, he's focused on the media, in particular, one person close to the White House said. That reportedly includes him telling aides last week that he was concerned journalists would purposefully contract COVID-19 in an attempt to infect him on Air Force One.Another source painted an image more in line with Trump's public reaction to the virus, as well, telling Vanity Fair he reportedly wants the Justice Department to "open an investigation of the media for market manipulation" as he tries to stave off, or at least provide a more optimistic outlook for, the plummeting stock market.The White House did not respond to Vanity Fair's request for comment. Read more at Vanity Fair.More stories from theweek.com Washington nursing home with coronavirus outbreak reported shocking escalation from 'no symptoms to death' Trump retweets White House photo of him fiddling, says he doesn't know 'what this means' GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz self-quarantines for coronavirus exposure just 1 hour after flying with Trump
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| If Biden’s the Nominee, Might He Pick Michelle Obama as His Vice President? Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:14 PM PDT  The good news for Democrats is that the chance that Bernie Sanders will be their nominee in the fall has receded. The bad news is that Joe Biden is no prize as a candidate, which adds urgency to the discussion about who can juice up his ticket as the vice-presidential choice. Party leaders are now hotly debating the topic.A popular line of thinking is that Biden's ticket must offer a bold choice that also ensures the kind of strong minority turnout that eluded Hillary Clinton in 2016. Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip whose last-minute endorsement of Biden delivered a South Carolina primary landslide for him, has a clear idea."I doubt very seriously you'll see a Democratic slate this year without a woman on it," Clyburn predicted to reporters. "I would love for it to be a person of color."Clyburn was echoed by Valerie Jarrett, who was a senior adviser to President Obama for eight years. She told CBS News that the Democratic nominee should "break with conventional wisdom and announce a running mate that's a woman of color."Jarrett was then cut off, so she didn't get the chance to say who she thought that running mate should be. But no one is closer to the Obamas. Few believe that Jarrett would have expressed the preference for a woman of color unless she thought that someone she's been close to for nearly 30 years was in the mix: Michelle Obama.The two have known each other for 30 years. In 1991, Jarrett, then deputy chief of staff to Chicago mayor Richard Daley, interviewed the then 26-year-old Michelle Robinson for a job. The Harvard Law School graduate impressed Jarrett. "She exuded competence, as well as character and integrity," Jarrett wrote in her autobiography. Jarrett hired her, was introduced to her fiancé, Barack Obama, and then took the couple under her wing by introducing them to powerful elites in Chicago. So began the rise of the Obamas to the White House. Why not time for a second act?It would certainly be popular with the Democratic base, and Biden would need the base to turn out in large numbers this November if he becomes the nominee. A poll last month by Stanford's Hoover Institution in conjunction with the Bill Lane Center for the American West and YouGov asked 1,507 registered voters in California whom they wanted as a vice-presidential nominee.Voters clearly expressed a desire for a woman. Michelle Obama was the choice of 31 percent of respondents. California's Senator Kamala Harris was second, at 19 percent; Minnesota's Senator Amy Klobuchar was third, at 18 percent; former Georgia state legislator Stacy Abrams was fourth, at 13 percent; and California venture capitalist Tom Steyer had 10 percent support.Normally the suggestion that Michelle Obama should be the vice-presidential choice would be viewed as out of the question. Michelle Obama is famously assertive, even pushy, behind the scenes. That's not a typical profile for a vice president. And because few people believe that an 82-year-old Joe Biden would run for a second presidential term, there would be a danger of her overshadowing him as a waiting heir apparent. And despite her popularity across wide swaths of the electorate, she has shown almost zero interest in working with Republicans or treating those she considers fools kindly.But Biden has professed comfort with and even support for the idea. In response to a question from an Iowa voter in February, he said he would pick the former first lady "in a heartbeat," although he suggested that both Obamas had found life after the White House "somewhat liberating." He had previously supported the idea in an interview with Stephen Colbert, last September, before clarifying, "I'm only joking, Michelle, I'm joking."But was he? "The Obamas have enjoyed three years away from the glare of publicity," a longtime Chicago ally told me. "But if Trump were to win a second term, he would complete his self-proclaimed task of dismantling everything Obama had done. If the way to guarantee that wouldn't happen involved Michelle running, it's not out of the question."And if Biden were to prefer an African American on the ticket, the other choices all present problems. Biden has said anyone he ran with would have to oppose Medicare for All, which would rule out New Jersey's Senator Cory Booker. The name of Stacey Abrams, an unsuccessful candidate for Georgia governor in 2018, is in the mix. But she has never had experience beyond a state legislature and also has a string of ethical controversies in her past that would be fully scrutinized in the spotlight of a national race.Senator Kamala Harris of California is a possibility. On the negative side of the ledger, she viciously attacked Biden in a debate last summer by unfairly implying that his past opposition to forced busing was racist. But Biden has rarely held a political grudge for too long. Private polls, however, show that when some black voters learn that Harris is of mixed African-American and Indian-American heritage, their enthusiasm for her wanes.A major obstacle to a Biden-Obama ticket is, of course, that Michelle Obama has expressed no interest in the idea. When she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2018, she said she wasn't a candidate for office: "I've never had any serious conversations with anyone about it because it's not something I'm interested in or would ever do. Ever."Her husband agrees. "Let me tell you, there are three things that are certain in life: death, taxes, and Michelle is not running for president -- that I can tell you."That statement makes sense to many Obama allies. They point out Michelle Obama's longstanding disdain for the grubbiness of politics and its fundraising, the desire to protect her two daughters, and her unwillingness even to pretend to be friendly with people with whom she has disagreements. "When I had my photo taken with the Obamas after I became the first black chair of the Republican National Committee, she was pure ice," recalls Michael Steele, now an MSNBC contributor. "There was no smile, only a glare. And I never got the photo."But there are countervailing arguments. As a vice-presidential nominee, she'd have to campaign for only 15 weeks -- versus the two years that a presidential run takes. And she could probably avoid fundraising, if she insisted on it. Her two daughters are now both in college, and the mainstream media would largely continue to respect limits on coverage of them. And as for her alleged dislike of meeting swarms of people? "She could literally just show up at events, wave, not say much, and the crowds would love her," a Democratic pollster told me.Even with all that, the answer might be no. But there might be a sweetener that would prompt Michelle Obama to say yes. At an Iowa campaign stop in February, Biden was asked if he would nominate Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. After all, one previous president, William Howard Taft, made the journey from the Oval Office to the highest court, in the 1920s. Biden responded: "Yeah, I would, but I don't think he'd do it. He'd be a great Supreme Court justice."But I wonder if Biden's view is accurate. Obama, a former law-school professor, would enjoy the court's intellectual atmosphere. And who would more appreciate being on the nation's highest court? He would provide an alternative to Justice Clarence Thomas's black-empowerment conservatism and could provide the swing vote needed to strike down much of the Trump administration's legacy.Some Democrats are so taken with the idea of putting Michelle on the ticket that they have speculated that Biden could even choose Barack himself as his running mate. But a similar idea came up in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was asked if she would pick her husband as vice president. She admitted that the idea had "crossed her mind" but then shot it down as unconstitutional. "He would be good, but he's not eligible, under the Constitution," she told Extra's Mario Lopez. "He has served his two terms, and I think the argument would be that as vice president, it would not be possible for him to ever succeed to the position -- at least that's what I've been told."Everyone with whom I discussed a potential Michelle Obama candidacy said it would provide short-term pluses for a Democratic ticket by energizing it as nothing else could. Much of the media would be ecstatic and provide their normal fawning coverage of an Obama. But her presence on the ticket would probably create problems as well as opportunities for the Democrats. Regardless, party members worried about Biden's shaky campaigning skills and performance would cling to the choice of Michelle Obama like a life raft.Of course, most political observers with whom I spoke predicted that Biden would not pick Mrs. Obama. On the other hand, few believed that George W. Bush would pick Dick Cheney as vice president, or that John F. Kennedy would choose Lyndon Johnson as his running mate.Stranger things have happened in politics, and in the Age of Trump, they often do.
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| The Army general in charge of US soldiers in Europe may have been exposed to the coronavirus Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:36 PM PDT  An Army general and his staff are self-monitoring for coronavirus after they may have been exposed during a conference, the Army said Monday.
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| Czech prime minister says China should replace its ambassador Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:46 AM PDT  China should replace its ambassador in the Czech Republic after the Chinese embassy sent a threatening letter to Czech authorities, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said.
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| Oil price war, Mecca ban are latest risks by Saudi prince Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:26 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is behind the kingdom's boldest and riskiest moves in decades, most recently shutting down Islam's holiest sites to pilgrims to stymie the spread of a new virus and the government's decision to slash oil prices in what analysts say has sparked a price war with major producer Russia. As his father's favored son, the 34-year-old prince oversees nearly every major aspect of the country's defense, economy, internal security, social reforms and foreign policy. The prince's headline-grabbing path to power has been paved with controversy, conflict and combat.
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| South Korea sees coronavirus 'stable phase' but 'too early to be optimistic' Posted: 08 Mar 2020 06:33 PM PDT  South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed guarded hope for the country's fight against the coronavirus on Monday, saying a downward trend in new infections could lead to a phase of stability, but he warned that it was too early to be optimistic. The numbers showed the rate of increase in new infections fell to its lowest level in 11 days in one of the most severely affected countries outside mainland China. Moon said South Korea can enter the "phase of stability" soon if it continues to reduce the number of new cases.
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| The Muslim running for mayor in Christian Bavaria Posted: 07 Mar 2020 09:28 PM PST  With his neatly trimmed beard, sharp suit and broad smile, Ozan Iyibas looks like a typical politician out to win votes ahead of a municipal election in southern Germany's Bavaria region. "I don't see any contradiction in this choice," says the 37-year-old, sitting back in an armchair and clutching a mug of tea in the town of Neufahrn. While Iyibas won the local CSU's nomination unanimously, such support is not always a given in the region where party chief Markus Soeder in 2018 ordered crosses to be displayed at the entrances of all public buildings, as a way of honouring the region's "cultural heritage".
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| A GOP congressman's tweet about quarantining himself from the 'Wuhan coronavirus' sparks debate about racism surrounding the disease Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:57 PM PDT  After Rep. Paul Gosar announced his self-quarantine from the "Wuhan coronavirus," people were torn about whether the term is inherently racist.
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| 'It is likely that people you know will die': Coronavirus could be like 1918 flu pandemic, warns ex-CDC expert Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:25 PM PDT  The coronavirus crisis could be as serious and deadly as the 1918 flu pandemic which killed up to 50m people around the world, a former CDC infectious disease specialist has warned.As health experts from Milan to Wuhan scrambled to try and stop the spread of COVID-19, which has now infected more than 108,000 people and killed 3,800, an epidemiologist in Washington state has warned that "people you know" will likely die.
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| Trump only wants to hear good news about the coronavirus outbreak, hindering the response, officials say Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:33 AM PDT  When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar met with President Trump in late January, he "was having trouble focusing Trump's full attention on his coronavirus briefing," The Washington Post reports. "Trump instead interjected, badgering the health chief about the administration's messy decision to implement a limited ban on flavored e-cigarettes."Azar "had concluded that the new coronavirus posed a public health risk and tried to share an urgent message with the president: The potential outbreak could leave tens of thousands of Americans sickened and many dead," Politico adds. "But Trump's aides mocked and belittled Azar as alarmist," and Azar, trying to ingratiate himself with Trump after a bruising fight with CMS chief Seema Verma, wasn't "in the position to deliver the message that the president didn't want to hear," one former official told Politico.The coronavirus had already proved its ferocity in China by that point, but "the boss has made it clear, he likes to see his people fight, and he wants the news to be good," an adviser to a senior coronavirus team member tells Politico. "This is the world he's made."Last Monday there were 89 cases in the U.S., Stephen Collinson writes at CNN. But after "a week packed with conflicting messages, misplaced optimism, and obfuscation by the president," the coronavirus "has now spread into 34 states and the District of Columbia, at least 550 cases have been confirmed, and at least 21 people have died," and "the true extent of the crisis was disguised by delays and malfunctions in coronavirus testing that suggest the administration squandered valuable time as the virus ravaged China to properly prepare for its U.S. arrival.""For a president who lives in the moment, rarely planning too far ahead, the coronavirus has proved to be a leadership challenge he was not prepared for either," Peter Baker writes at The New York Times. Trump "has expressed an astonishing lack of knowledge while at the same time claiming to be a medical savant. He has treated the crisis as a partisan battle. ... He even admitted that he wanted to leave passengers stranded on a cruise ship rather than see statistics for the number of cases on American soil go up because it would look bad." Trump also incorrectly said tests were available for anyone who needs them.Trump insists his administration has the COVID-19 outbreak under control.More stories from theweek.com Washington nursing home with coronavirus outbreak reported shocking escalation from 'no symptoms to death' Trump retweets White House photo of him fiddling, says he doesn't know 'what this means' GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz self-quarantines for coronavirus exposure just 1 hour after flying with Trump
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| Pentagon awards contracts to design mobile nuclear reactor Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:42 AM PDT  The Department of Defense has two parallel nuclear reactor programs underway, one for domestic use, one for use abroad.
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| CDC: Many Americans will probably be exposed to coronavirus at some point, 'and there's a good chance many will become sick' Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:03 PM PDT  In a media briefing Monday, an organization leader said "this virus is capable of spreading easily and sustainably from person to person."
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| Chinese Propagandists Stoke Theory That Coronavirus Originated in U.S. Posted: 09 Mar 2020 12:17 PM PDT  Chinese state media are amplifying a conspiracy that the Wuhan coronavirus may have originated in the U.S.The media push may have begun in earnest on February 27 when Zhong Nanshan, a pulmonologist who has made major announcements on Chinese state media, said at a press conference: "The coronavirus first appeared in China but may not have originated in China." Other media outlets have repeated or implied the same message."If it's true that the virus originated in the United States, should China still apologize to the world?" read an article in College Daily, a WeChat account based in New York City popular with Chinese students studying abroad. On Saturday, China's ambassador to South Africa wrote on his Twitter account, "Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone 'made in China.'""Go on WeChat, go on Weibo, look on Baidu search, and it's full of 'look at all the other countries getting sick,' or 'the virus came from the United States,' or all different levels of conspiracy theories," Xiao Qiang, founder of the China Digital Times and adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Information, told the Washington Post."It's more than just some disinformation or an official narrative," Xiao said. "It's an orchestrated, all-out campaign by the Chinese government through every channel at a level you rarely see. It's a counteroffensive."Dali Yang, professor of political science at Chicago University, said the media campaign was an attempt to draw citizens' attention away from China's response to the outbreak."The purpose is to lessen the focus on how China bungled its response," Yang said. "It's a kind of blame-shifting."
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| Google quarantine: Coronavirus fears prompt company to ban visitors in Silicon Valley and New York Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:56 PM PDT  To shield its U.S. workforce from the COVID-19 coronavirus, Google is restricting visitors to offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and New York.
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| Stocks savaged, Italy on lockdown, Trump seeks to reassure as coronavirus spreads Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:37 AM PDT  All of Italy under lockdown, reeling financial markets and rioting prisoners made clear on Monday how the global coronavirus epidemic was extending its reach into all aspects of social and economic life. Major European stock markets dived more than 7%, Japanese indexes fell over 5% and U.S. markets sank over 7% after Saudi Arabia launched an oil price war with Russia that sent investors already spooked by the coronavirus epidemic running for the exits. In Italy, scene of Europe's worst outbreak with infections and deaths still soaring, the government took its most drastic steps yet to contain the outbreak, affecting some 60 million people.
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| Police: Fight over parking spot led to deadly mall shooting Posted: 09 Mar 2020 12:22 AM PDT |
| Embassies close in North Korea as diplomats evacuated over virus Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:10 AM PDT  Several embassies in North Korea closed Monday as many diplomats were flown out following weeks of tight quarantine restrictions imposed by Pyongyang over the spread of the novel coronavirus. North Korea has not confirmed a single infection but has imposed strict rules, including closing its borders and putting thousands of its own people into isolation. It has also subjected hundreds of foreigners -- including diplomats -- to a virtual lockdown in their own premises.
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| Fox Hosts Varney and Bartiromo Look to Joe Biden to Calm the Stock Market Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:29 AM PDT  With the stock market experiencing record-setting drops on Monday morning that prompted trading to briefly halt, pro-Trump Fox Business Network hosts Stuart Varney and Maria Bartiromo turned their eyes to... uh... Joe Biden to boost the stocks.During Monday morning's broadcast of Fox Business Network's Varney & Co., the eponymous host wondered aloud whether the markets—plunging due to fear and uncertainty surrounding a coronavirus outbreak—could "see a bounce" in the next couple of days due to a likely Biden victory this week."I mean, Michigan primary, maybe I'm grasping at straws here," the Fox host added.Bartiromo, meanwhile, said she agreed with her colleague before finding a silver lining in the market volatility, noting that the historically low 10-year Treasury yield meant it was "time to take out a mortgage" and plummeting stock prices represented an "enormous buying opportunity." (Trump took to Twitter on Monday to boast that gas prices plummeting were "good for the consumer.")SNL Roasts Trump's Coronavirus Response: 'We're All Gonna Die'Varney, for his part, wanted to pivot the discussion back to politics and how the markets will react to democratic-socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) possibly losing handily in Tuesday's primaries to the former vice president."I think Bernie's gonna lose," Varney asserted. "I think Joe Biden, he's got the momentum and I think the market will like that. The very hint, if Bernie does well, I think the market has another problem on its hands.""Absolutely," Bartiromo responded. "You wanna see this market taken out even more than today, have a victory for Bernie Sanders. That will really kill any expectation of a comeback here."As the markets have reacted negatively over the past couple of weeks to the impact a likely coronavirus pandemic will have on the global economy, a number of Fox hosts have insisted that the possibility of Sanders becoming the Democratic presidential nominee has also spooked traders.Last month, when the market began its massive sell-off, Fox Business host Charles Payne blamed much of the losses on "the Bernie factor," claiming there was "absolutely no doubt" that Wall Street had taken Sanders' then-rise in the race "very seriously."Varney himself has recently said that a Sanders win would result in both the stock market and economy crashing. "I think I'm totally right," he told Fox & Friends earlier this month, adding that his prediction was "guaranteed." White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham Promises 'Healthy' Trump Will Be 'Just Fine'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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| 'I'm frightened there's not a sense of urgency': Most Americans don't approve of Trump's handling of coronavirus Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:50 PM PDT  A slight majority of Americans disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus outbreak, and just under 40 per cent say his response would make them less likely to vote for his re-election.The survey, conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, found 51 per cent of Americans disapprove of the president's response to the virus, with 42 per cent saying they approve.
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| Destroyers left behind: US Navy cancels plans to extend service lives of its workhorse DDGs Posted: 09 Mar 2020 07:16 AM PDT  The Navy is killing a plan to add 10 years to the hull life of its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
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| How the coronavirus compares to SARS, swine flu, Zika, and other epidemics Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:39 PM PDT  To some, the coronavirus outbreak is reminiscent of SARS, swine flu, Zika, and other epidemics that have caused panic in recent memory.
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| World Must Move Fast to ‘Whatever It Takes’ Mode, El-Erian Says Posted: 09 Mar 2020 07:10 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Mohamed El-Erian said the world's policy makers will do all they can to keep the coronavirus from spurring a deeper economic slump, but he said it's worrisome that international policy coordination isn't as solid as it was in the past."I foresee a whatever-it-takes policy approach that is going to be both in central banks and government agencies," El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview Monday. A sudden economic halt "is particularly dangerous because it destroys both demand and supply, and that is what we are living through right now."Policy makers "have massive catch-up to play" as the scope of the challenge becomes clearer, said El-Erian, who's also a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He said he doesn't see direct parallels with the start of the crisis in 2008 because he isn't worried about banks and potential issues with the payments and settlements system. But he said another comparison is more worrying: the world's economic authorities so far aren't acting in concert as they have in the past."The extent of global policy coordination is much lower, and whether it's the coronavirus, whether the excessive reliance on liquidity, whether it is markets that have been mispriced for a long time, this is a global problem that requires collective action," he said.But the kind of action that Group of 20 leaders took during the global financial crisis, when they met in London to coordinate a response, will likely be harder now, El-Erian said. "The bad thing relative to 2008 is that we're not going to get a London Summit quickly." that will allow to put in an economic bottoming."'Do Not Buy'In a subsequent interview on Bloomberg Television as U.S. stocks plunged at the open in New York, El-Erian said it's too soon for investors to start buying again."Do not buy this dip, respect the technicals," he said. "This will sort itself out, but will not sort itself out before some further damage unfortunately. You should also not panic."It's time to stay on the sidelines and wait for technical factors to play out, as painful as it might be, he said. He added that there's been a turn in credit cycle as economic and earnings prospects have worsened and that the corporate bond market is likely to see an increase in defaults."You're going to get more of a freeze on new issuance, companies with vulnerable balance sheets -- meaning little cash, high maturing debt -- are going to have difficulty re-funding themselves," he said.(Updates to add comments from television interview under 'Do Not Buy' subheadline)\--With assistance from Jonathan Ferro, Tom Keene and Sarah Ponczek.To contact the reporters on this story: Max Reyes in Washington at mreyes125@bloomberg.net;Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net, Jeff KearnsFor 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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| Transgender queen crowned in Thailand as coronavirus limits crowd Posted: 07 Mar 2020 06:12 PM PST  After temperature checks for contestants and with a smaller crowd than last year because of coronavirus fears, Mexico's Valentina Fluchaire was crowned in Thailand as winner of what is billed as the world's biggest transgender pageant on Saturday. Although Miss International Queen 2020 went ahead, unlike many events cancelled around the world since the coronavirus outbreak emerged in China, the crowd was markedly smaller than in previous years, with many empty seats. The contestants all had their temperatures taken with hand scanners before being allowed to go on stage in national costumes, swimsuits and glamorous evening gowns.
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| Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea Posted: 08 Mar 2020 09:53 PM PDT  Researchers say China's maritime militia has constantly lingered around Thitu Island, the largest of the Spratly Islands occupied by the Philippines, for over 450 days, but that Manila is proceeding with improvements to the island's infrastructure.
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| Joe Biden Owes Clarence Thomas an Apology Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT  On the day Chuck Schumer was threatening Supreme Court justices in front of pack of a cheering partisans, Representative Ayanna Pressley told the same crowd, "We have two alleged sexual predators on the bench of the highest court of the land, with the power to determine our reproductive freedoms. I still believe Anita Hill. And I still believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford!"Now, it is far more accurate to call Hill a "disgraced accuser" than Clarence Thomas an "alleged sexual predator." Not a single person — and Thomas had scores of subordinates working for him during his years in government — ever corroborated Hill's description of Thomas's actions. Nor has single person ever accused Thomas of any similar behavior in his 30-plus years as a justice. Twelve former female colleagues of both Thomas and Hill signed an affidavit supporting Thomas, while not a single person who worked with both vouched for Hill.Unlike Blasey Ford, whose nebulous and unverifiable accusations were decades old, Hill's allegations were a potential criminal matter. So the FBI investigated Hill's claims — though they found her reluctant to cooperate — and failed to uncover any evidence to substantiate the accusations. After the hearings, agents sent affidavits to the Senate accusing Hill of misleading them and the public, skipping portions of her story, and offering testimony that contradicted what she had told law-enforcement officials. This part of the story rarely gets mentioned when the media recount her supposed heroics.And though it isn't particularly important in proving or disproving the veracity of her statements, most people didn't believe Anita Hill at the time, either:> At every point in the final polls, a plurality or majority of black Americans supported the nomination. In the final Gallup/CNN poll (conducted on October 14, 1991), 69 percent said they would like to see the Senate vote in favor of confirming him. Differences by gender were modest throughout, on the confirmation vote. In the final CNN/Gallup poll, 57 percent of women said the Senate should vote in favor, 31 percent said it should not, and 12 percent were unsure.Accusing Thomas and Kavanaugh of being "alleged sexual predators" -- which, incidentally, suggests something even worse than Hill's accusation -- is a politically motivated slander. It is meant to undercut the authority of the court and to intimidate justices (and future nominees) who take the "wrong" side on the issue of life. For contemporary Democrats, the court exists primarily to safeguard the only constitutional "right" that really matters to them anymore: abortion.In that regard, it's curious to see presidential hopeful Joe Biden, who has spent 40 years shifting his abortion position to appease the base of his party, being dragged by progressives for failing to give Hill the unrestrained ability to destroy Thomas back in 1991. After all, it was Biden who helped turn Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into nasty, hyper-politicized smear-fests that set the precedent for the Kavanaugh hearing.In 1986, the year before Biden was lifted to chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antonin Scalia had been approved 98–0 by the Senate. There weren't really any Supreme Court confirmation battles before then. A year later, in 1987, Robert Bork -- who, Warren Burger, the former chief justice, claimed was the most qualified jurist he'd seen in 50 years -- would be grossly caricatured by real-life sexual harasser Ted Kennedy, who warned that "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids." Thomas would be accused of being a puppet of his white colleagues, among other racist stereotypes, merely for his ideological outlook. In those days, hyperbolic statements from Senators were somewhat rare. Now they are a modus operandi.To be fair to Biden, he was an exceptionally incompetent and indecisive chairman, easily cowed and unable to control the hearings. After promising to support Bork, he switched his vote. After promising to afford Thomas some semblance of due process, he presided over what the future justice famously called a "high-tech lynching."Biden now claims to regret that he "couldn't come up with a way" to give Hill "the kind of hearing she deserved." What does Biden think Hill deserved? Without any supporting evidence, the Senate gave her the opportunity to make her case. She was given enormous coverage by the media when her allegations emerged -- leaked to the press, most likely by Democrats -- despite the obvious problems with her story from the start. No one ever stopped Hill from telling that story. Hill still tells her story. Hill wrote a book telling her story. There are hagiographic movies and documentaries about her story. Even today, journalists interview her without a hint of journalistic skepticism.Sensing that the issue might be problematic, Biden called Hill last year to apologize. Hill, a professor, wasn't impressed, saying, "I will be satisfied when I know that there is real change and real accountability and real purpose." Or, in other words, the patriarchy must unilaterally surrender to the poetic truth, rather than to the evidence -- or, in Hill's case, to a lack of it.If Biden should apologize to anyone, it's Clarence Thomas. Or maybe the American people, for allowing judicial confirmation hearings to be turned into partisan-fueled character assassinations, weaponized to destroy the legitimacy of the Supreme Court -- all in the service of nothing more noble than the killing of the unborn.
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| Donald Trump Jr. Defends ‘Hyperbole’ About Democrats and Coronavirus Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:32 PM PDT  Just over a week ago, as the severity of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak was just starting to become apparent, Donald Trump Jr. went on Fox & Friends and said this about Democrats: "Anything that they can use to try to hurt Trump, they will… But for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so they can end Donald Trump's streak of winning is a new level of sickness." In a new clip from Sunday night's episode of Axios on HBO, the first son is asked by co-host Jim VandeHei if he has any "regrets" about those remarks. "Not at all, not at all," Trump Jr. said, looking down. He stammered a bit as he added, "I think I can talk about it in hyperbole. You know, I don't know that they want 'millions' of people—but you could see them, there was nothing that Trump could do that could turn his response to coronavirus into, 'Hey, he did a good job.'" After trying to shift blame to The New York Times for an op-ed column headlined, "Let's Call It Trumpvirus," Trump Jr. repeated, "I'm entitled to speak with hyperbole and I think that drives home the point of what I'm saying." And yet even as he was defending his "right" to accuse Democrats of wishing for mass death, Trump Jr. did finally acknowledge that it was all for political sport. "I don't actually think that," he said. SNL Roasts Trump's Coronavirus Response: 'We're All Gonna Die'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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| Report: Iran commander killed in Syria Posted: 09 Mar 2020 07:39 AM PDT  An official with Iran's Revolutionary Guard who took part in battles around war-torn Syria was killed near the Syrian capital, an Iranian semiofficial news agency and an opposition war monitor reported Saturday.
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| Russia has been accused by the US of spreading conspiracy theories that coronavirus is a biological weapon created by the CIA, and now the UK has set up a unit to fight them Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:45 AM PDT  Thousands of social-media accounts have been made to spread conspiracy theories that the novel coronavirus is a biological weapon created by the CIA.
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| Coronavirus US: Woman tests positive for virus after traveling from Chicago to St Louis by Amtrak Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:52 AM PDT  A 20-year-old woman from Missouri who tested positive for coronavirus traveled from Chicago to St. Louis on an Amtrak train after returning from a trip to Italy on 3 March.
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| Girl who lost sight due to flu regains vision Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:49 PM PDT  "We put our daughter to bed and she never woke up the same," the girls' mother wrote in an update about her daughter's health.
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