| AOC and Michael Moore urge Iowa voters not to 'play it safe' as they stand in for Sanders Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:22 AM PST  Two of Bernie Sanders's highest-profile allies, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, filled in for him on the campaign trail Friday night, speaking to a rally here at the University of Iowa, as the Vermont senator participated in the impeachment trial in Washington, D.C.
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| Dutch Prime Minister apologizes for country's role in Holocaust Posted: 26 Jan 2020 10:27 AM PST  Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Sunday he was sorry for his country's role during the Holocaust and the lack of action against the persecution of Jews, becoming the first Dutch premier to make such an official apology. "With the last remaining survivors among us, I apologize on behalf of the government for the actions of the government at the time", Rutte said at an event in Amsterdam to mark the 75th anniversary on Monday of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Earlier Dutch governments have made apologies for the way Jews who survived World War Two atrocities were treated when they returned home from concentration camps, but have shied away from condemning the country's part in the persecution of Jews and other minorities during the German occupation.
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| Hong Kong Protest Against Quarantine Facilities Turns Violent Posted: 26 Jan 2020 05:47 AM PST ![Hong Kong Protest Against Quarantine Facilities Turns Violent]( "Hong Kong Protest Against Quarantine Facilities Turns Violent") (Bloomberg) -- A protest against a Hong Kong government plan to use a new and unoccupied public housing estate as a possible coronavirus quarantine facility turned violent as demonstrators set fires and destroyed some property.A group of masked protesters initially barricaded a road in the Fanling district to object to a proposal to use a nearby estate as an emergency medical facility. Some said the building was too close to their homes, while others complained that approved applicants risked losing their flats in the estate should it be implemented.Demonstrators blocked roads, built barricades with trash and paralyzed traffic in Fanling, police said. Later, they damaged traffic lights and set fire to the lobby of buildings by throwing petrol bombs, it said. Riot police were seen walking around the estate asking people to show their identities and inspecting their bags.Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Saturday upgraded the government's response against the coronavirus to the highest level and said the outbreak could extend the city's recession into 2020. Hong Kong has six confirmed infections as of Sunday.Disease Scare Gives Hong Kong Leader Lam a Diversion From UnrestHong Kong has been on high alert regarding communicable diseases since the 2003 outbreak of SARS, which originated in China's Guangdong province in 2002 and ripped through the financial hub the following year. The virus infected about 2,000 people and killed nearly 300 in Hong Kong, crippling tourism and real estate industries and dealing a major blow to the economy.The government said it readied at least three quarantine facilities and is preparing a fourth for the new coronaviris. It will halt plans to use the Fai Ming Estate in Fanling as a possible site, it said."The government acknowledges and understands that there is concern among some residents in the North District of the requisition of Fai Ming Estate," it said in a statement late Sunday. "Representatives of relevant government departments will attend North District Council meeting this Wednesday to explain and discuss on the issue. Meanwhile, the government will cease the related preparation work in Fai Ming Estate."On Saturday, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters who gathered in the crowded shopping hub of Mong Kok at the site of a 2016 protest that marked a violent turn by the city's pro-democracy movement. A rally initially planned for Sunday to mark the so-called Fishball Revolution was canceled.More than seven months of pro-democracy protests have battered the former British colony's economy, undermined its reputation for political stability and increased geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China. Beijing has governed Hong Kong since 1997 under a "one country, two systems" framework that preserves its freedom of expression, independent courts and capitalist financial system.The demonstrations since June were ignited by a proposed law to allow extraditions to jurisdictions including mainland China. After a couple of months of demonstrations, the government withdrew the bill but the protesters' demands had broadened to include greater democracy and an independent inquiry into police conduct during the unrest.To contact the reporters on this story: Julia Fioretti in Hong Kong at jfioretti4@bloomberg.net;Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Andrew DavisFor 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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| Photos show the horrors of Auschwitz, 75 years after its liberation Posted: 26 Jan 2020 06:15 AM PST  Over 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly a million Jews. On the day of liberation 75 years ago, only 7,000 were saved.
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| 3 dead in protest against Gambian head Barrow: hospital Posted: 26 Jan 2020 11:58 AM PST  Three people died Sunday as hundreds of people took to the streets demanding the resignation of Gambian President Adama Barrow who wants to extend his term. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who responded by throwing stones and setting tyres on fire, an AFP correspondent at the scene saw. "I can confirm that there have been three dead," said Kebba Manneh, director of the Serrekunda hospital where victims were taken.
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| China stiffens its defences against epidemic as death toll hits 56 Posted: 26 Jan 2020 03:59 AM PST  China on Sunday expanded drastic travel restrictions to contain a viral epidemic that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as the United States, France and Japan prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre. China has locked down the hard-hit province of Hubei in the country's centre in an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people to slow the spread of the respiratory illness. The previously unknown virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pathogen, which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
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| U.S. veteran group 'expects' apology from Trump for comment Posted: 26 Jan 2020 09:38 AM PST  A U.S. war veterans group is "expecting" an apology from President Trump for his comments that downplayed traumatic brain injuries suffered by service members in Iran's recent attack on a base in Iraq, an official said on Friday.
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| As defense opens, Trump attorneys accuse Democrats of 'blind drive' to impeachment Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:22 PM PST  Attorneys for President Trump opened their defense in his Senate impeachment trial Saturday morning by charging that the case presented by House Democrats was full of "bluster and innuendo," and that "devastating evidence" would lead to the inevitable conclusion that the two articles of impeachment now being considered have no merit.
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| U.S. to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China - WSJ Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:01 AM PST  The plane, with around 230 people, will carry diplomats from the U.S. consulate as well as U.S. citizens and their families, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the operation. A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that on Thursday, the State Department had ordered the departure of family members and all U.S. government employees at its Wuhan consulate, but declined to comment on the report that other U.S. citizens would be evacuated from the city.
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| Warren Says She’s Ready to Fight After Des Moines Register Nod Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:53 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The Des Moines Register endorsed progressive favorite Senator Elizabeth Warren a little more than a week before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, saying the Massachusetts lawmaker would "push an unequal America in the right direction." The influential newspaper in Iowa's largest city revealed its pick for the first-in-the-nation nominating contest on its website Saturday evening."At this moment, when the very fabric of American life is at stake, Elizabeth Warren is the president this nation needs," the Register's editorial board said.The Register said that many of Warren's ideas "are not radical. They are right. They would improve life in America, and they are generally shared by the other Democratic candidates, who bring their own strengths to this race." The candidate is "tough and compassionate," the newspaper said. ``Thank you, @DMRegister, for your endorsement! Iowans are ready to make big, structural change—and I'm going to fight my heart out for everyone in Iowa and across the country,'' Warren said on Twitter. Fair Markets Warren, 70, is polling at 16.3% in Iowa. She's trailing Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, and statistically tied for third pace with Pete Buttigieg, in the RealClearPolitics polling average of the state. In a New York Times Iowa poll released on Saturday, Warren's standing had slipped recently. The newspaper said the second-term senator is ``a capitalist" but one that ``wants fair markets, with rules and accountability. She wants a government that works for people, not one corrupted by cash." Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor, ``believes government should actively work to prevent and respond to abusive practices that jeopardize individuals and the country's economy,'' the Register's editorial said. The newspaper wrote at length about what it described as the pluses and minuses of other Democratic candidates contesting next month's caucus. Biden, the former vice president, was said to lack Warren's specific expertise on income inequality issues. Biden was also said to represent ``incremental improvements on the Obama years'' rather than ``the bold agenda the times demand.'' Poor Predictor The newspaper said it had doubts about whether Sanders, who is not a member of the Democratic Party, could build the consensus needed to govern. The Vermont senator has also opposed trade agreements supported by Iowa's farmers, it noted. Buttigieg was said to offer ``refreshing, common-ground approaches unburdened by the constraints of Washington insider politics." But his eight-year tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, ``hardly seems adequate preparation for leading this vast, diverse, divided country,'' the editorial board said.While coveted by candidates, the Des Moines Register's endorsement has been a poor predictor of caucus-night performance. Since the Register started making recommendations in 1988, only three of its endorsed candidates went on to win the state's caucuses: Republicans Bob Dole in 1988 and 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000, and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. (Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.) To contact the author of this story: Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor 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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| NASA is hiring someone to help figure out how to get Mars rocks back to Earth — and the position pays at least $182,000 Posted: 25 Jan 2020 05:31 AM PST  The Mars Sample Return mission aims to get pristine rocks from the red planet back to Earth, perhaps by the end of the decade.
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| To Combat the Soviets, the U.S. Almost Built Its Own "Skyfall" Nuclear Powered Missile Posted: 26 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST  The mistake was narrowly avoided.
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| Chinese Uighurs in Saudi face impossible choice Posted: 25 Jan 2020 06:18 PM PST  His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport -- long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports -- a few already expired and some approaching the date -- said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps.
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| Hong Kong, U.S. take steps to curb coronavirus spread Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:14 AM PST  As experts tell people not to panic about the unfamiliar coronavirus, several governments are taking steps to limit its spread.A second case of the respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan, China, leaving more than 40 people dead and causing quarantines and transit closures throughout China, has been confirmed in the United States. Officials said Friday that a Chicago woman in her 60s has been diagnosed with the virus, and they're monitoring 63 other possible cases across 22 U.S. states. The Chicago patient, who last week returned home from Wuhan, is reportedly isolated in the hospital, and officials say she's doing well and has had limited contact with others.The U.S. is reportedly planning to evacuate its citizens and diplomats from Wuhan on Sunday via a chartered plane — any additional seats may be offered to non-U.S. citizens. Elsewhere, Hong Kong, where there's five confirmed cases, on Saturday declared the outbreak "an emergency," scrapping Lunar New Year celebrations, restricting links to the mainland, and keeping schools closed. Australia, Malaysia, and France also reported cases Friday.More than 1,300 have been infected across the globe, mostly in China. Read more at The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.More stories from theweek.com The Grammys are America's worst awards show 9 dead in helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant Trump is winning the impeachment battle — but losing the war
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| Inmate found dead at Mississippi prison Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:30 PM PST ![Inmate found dead at Mississippi prison]( "Inmate found dead at Mississippi prison") A Mississippi inmate was found dead in his one-man cell, the corrections department said Sunday, the latest fatality in the state's troubled prison system. Joshua Norman, 26, was found hanging in his cell at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, according to a news release from the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton said foul play is not suspected in the death.
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| What's in a Moon Name?: A Guide to Lunar Labels Posted: 26 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST |
| Forget impeachment. Republicans fear Ukraine revelations could spill into election. Posted: 25 Jan 2020 03:39 AM PST  It's not impeachment that's worrying Republicans. It's the months of steady revelations about the Ukraine saga that could follow.
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| Public anger grows over coronavirus in Thailand, with eight cases of the illness Posted: 26 Jan 2020 04:38 AM PST  The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting on Sunday with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness. "We can control the situation and are confident in our ability to handle the crisis," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. The number of cases of the disease in Thailand rose on Sunday to eight.
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| Putin Decides Low-Growth Russia Could Use Some Help From Keynes Posted: 25 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Explore what's moving the global economy in the new season of the Stephanomics podcast. Subscribe via Apple Podcast, Spotify or Pocket Cast.With time running out on his final term as president, Vladimir Putin evidently wants to end it with a boom.Putin has been a cautious steward of Russia's $1.7 trillion economy, partly to shield it against blowback from his more adventurous foreign policy. For the last five years, he's imposed some of the world's toughest budget austerity. Combined with high interest rates, that's made Russia a favorite of carry-trade investors –- but it's left living standards mired at 2012 levels and economic growth stuck below 2%.Now, the president is changing course –- and channeling an economist whose pro-growth ideas are mainstream almost everywhere else: John Maynard Keynes. Putin just appointed a new cabinet stacked with advocates for more government spending and investment, a Keynesian recipe. And he's told them to hurry up about it.In power for 20 years, Putin gets credit at home for steadying an economy that suffered a decade of chaos and debt default after the Soviet Union collapsed. But lately, stability has threatened to turn into stagnation.Until now, the government hasn't rushed to the rescue. It's pared borrowing to a minimum in the last five years, and has been stashing any spare cash from Russia's commodity exports into a massive rainy-day fund."Russia's first priority was to secure its borders to reduce its vulnerabilities," said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington. "At the time, it would've been wrong to lean on Keynesian theories. Now they're so comfortable on that front that it's time to start thinking about how to boost potential growth."'Feel the Change'Western sanctions and volatile oil prices have been a key reason for Putin's "fortress Russia" approach, which aimed to make the economy self-sufficient. But the turn to Keynesian stimulus shows that Russia isn't walled off from wider currents of economic thinking. There's been a similar shift in other countries.The U.S. has widened budget deficits even after a decade-long expansion, and the U.K. and Germany have begun to shift away from austerity. India and Turkey are trying to boost growth via fiscal policy.At the first meeting of Russia's new government, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said he wants to get the spending spree underway quickly. Russians should "feel the changes in their lives and surroundings in the near future," he said.Mishustin has appointed former Kremlin adviser Andrey Belousov, who's lobbied for more government borrowing and spending, as his deputy premier. Evgeny Yasin, a director at Russia's Higher School of Economics and one of the country's most prominent economists, calls Belousov a "Russian Keynesian.""Russian political changes at this moment have one goal: to boost economic growth," Billionaire Oleg Deripaska, founder of aluminum producer United Co Rusal Plc, told Bloomberg Television in Davos.There are limits to how far he can loosen the purse-strings. The government is sticking to a budget law that says revenue from oil above $42 a barrel (it currently trades around $61) must be saved, not spent.Still, extra spending this year could total 2.1 trillion rubles ($34 billion), or 1.3% of gross domestic product, according to calculations by ING Groep NV in Moscow. The government will likely tap its rainy-day fund and release about 500 billion rubles left over from last year's budget, which posted a surplus equal to 1.8% of GDP.Any Means NecessaryA key part of the fiscal push will be speeding up an existing plan to invest $400 billion in things like highways, housing and ports over four years. The so-called National Projects got mired in bureaucracy and made little progress in 2019.Other elements are new. Putin proposed last week to spend about $65 billion through 2024 on expanding benefits for families and the poor.Putin's growth program relies mainly on state spending because increased pressure on business and a still-uncertain sanctions outlook has stalled private-sector investment.Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina argues that Russia needs structural reform aimed at improving the business climate and increasing competition. Putin has long claimed to support such measures, but never made much progress on implementing them."This isn't a market economy," and Putin doesn't follow any particular economic principles, Yasin said. The president "uses any methods that seem necessary to him in order to maintain full control."His latest methods may not deliver much of a boost right away. Budget easing will probably add 20 or 30 basis points to economic growth rates in the short term, according to Bloomberg Economics.But as Keynes always argued, spending is better for growth than squirreling away money. Markets have generally welcomed the shift –- including even some of the bond investors who've reaped rewards from years of tight policy.Russian austerity was geared all along to "preparing for a future crisis," said Oleg Shibanov, a finance professor at Moscow's New Economic School."Russia is prepared now," he said. "I expect that there'll be more spending and more investment."\--With assistance from Anya Andrianova.To contact the reporters on this story: Natasha Doff in Moscow at ndoff@bloomberg.net;Evgenia Pismennaya in Moscow at epismennaya@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Ben HollandFor 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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| Trade Truce? China and America Have a Small Trade Deal—but Will It Last? Posted: 25 Jan 2020 05:00 PM PST  What if it falls apart?
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| Military investigating video of Navy members shot through peephole Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:46 AM PST  The Navy is reportedly investigating videos found on the website Pornhub that it believes show unsuspecting Navy service members through a peephole in a bathroom.
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| Scientists say this planet could unlock insights about Earth Posted: 24 Jan 2020 07:45 PM PST  Venus' heat-trapping atmosphere – 97% carbon dioxide – and 900-degree average surface temperature present both a challenge and an opportunity for learning about Earth's formation.
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| Jordanian charged with 'terror' over tourist stabbings Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:48 PM PST  A Jordanian court on Sunday levelled "terrorism" charges against a man suspected of wounding eight people in a November knife attack at a popular tourist site. The suspect, Moustafa Abourouis, 22, faces up to 20 years in prison after the stabbing of three Mexicans, a Swiss woman, a Jordanian tour guide and a security officer at the Roman city of Jerash. At a hearing open to the press, prosecutors accused Abourouis of committing a "terrorist act" and "promoting the ideas of a terrorist group" -- a reference to the Islamic State (IS) group.
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| Poll: A week before the caucuses, Joe Biden leads an Iowa race that remains unsettled Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:10 PM PST  One week before the opening Iowa caucuses, Joe Biden has pulled into the lead in Iowa, ahead of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in a fluid field.
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| Hong Kong bars Hubei residents from entering city as coronavirus fears intensify Posted: 26 Jan 2020 05:00 AM PST  Hong Kong authorities on Sunday barred residents of China's Hubei province, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, from entering the city, in response to mounting pressure to enact preventative measures to contain the spreading epidemic. The ban includes those who have been in the province in the past 14 days but excludes Hong Kong citizens. Earlier a group of protesters set alight the lobby of a newly built residential building in Hong Kong that authorities planned to use as a quarantine facility for the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Death Toll Rises in Turkey Quake as Erdogan Slams Social Media Posted: 26 Jan 2020 01:12 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Turkey's eastern Elazig province on Friday evening killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds. By Sunday, 45 people had been rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings.A total of 76 buildings were destroyed and 645 heavily damaged, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said in a statement. As many as 20 of the 640 aftershocks since the first temblor had a magnitude greater than 4 on the Richter scale, according to the agency.Speaking on Sunday in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan targeted "provocative" social media posts about the earthquake. "Some messages are terrible, depraved," he said, according to the Anadolu Agency. "For example, some question what the government has done about earthquakes in the past two decades."The earthquake occurred at 8:55 p.m. local time on Friday at a depth of 6.75 kilometers (4.2 miles) on the East Anatolia Fault Line. Tremors were felt in many cities across the region.Prosecutors have launched an investigation into social media posts found to be "provocative," Anadolu reported. Two people in Gaziantep province have been detained.Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, Environment & Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca were in Elazig as of early Sunday to coordinate rescue efforts.Turkey is situated in a seismically active area and is among countries, including China and Iran, that can experience catastrophic earthquakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1999, a 7.5-magnitude quake shook the western Marmara region killing thousands of people and damaging more than 300,000 buildings. The nation's economy contracted 3.4% that year.To contact the reporters on this story: Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.net;Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Michael GunnFor 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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| India Has Fallen Far Behind China’s Military—Here are Five Affordable Steps It Can Tale to Secure Its Border With China Posted: 26 Jan 2020 12:30 AM PST  This could work. Here's how.
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| Seven months detained: seven-year-old is longest-held child migrant in US Posted: 26 Jan 2020 01:00 AM PST  Maddie Hernandez and her father, Emerson, fled crime in Guatemala. After months, her parents says she has changedEmerson Hernandez and his daughter Maddie have withstood hunger and thirst.They've been dumped in a threatening border city in Mexico, a foreign country with nowhere to shelter. And, for seven months, they've been locked up at what critics call a "baby jail".The father and daughter have weathered all of this just for a chance at asylum in the United States after they fled a home in Guatemala that's now overrun with crime."I don't want my daughter to grow up in that environment of delinquency. I really am afraid that something could happen to her," Emerson told the Guardian.Maddie has been detained the longest of any child currently held in family immigration detention across the country, her attorneys say. On 17 January, she turned seven years old at Berks county residential center, a controversial detention facility in Pennsylvania where she has spent roughly 8% of her life.Despite her lawyers exhausting the legal avenues that could get her out, the government won't release her and Emerson together.A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency detaining them, said, "ICE's custodial determinations for Mr. Hernandez and Maddie have been based on the merits and factors of their individual cases and are in conformity with the law and current agency priorities, guidelines and legal mandates."Emerson said Maddie has always been strong, but being confined for such a long time has changed her. She's gone from an easy, smiley little girl to someone who has become violent and throws explosive temper tantrums, according to her parents and an attorney."Her change was sudden," Emerson said. "And she says to me, 'When are we going to leave this place?'"The truth is no one knows. The Flores settlement, a landmark 1997 federal agreement that regulates child and family detention, made it the longstanding rule that kids and families should be released within 20 days. But there have been huge exceptions: Bridget Cambria, a lawyer representing Maddie, said the longest she was aware of a child being held through family detention was 707 days.Emerson and Maddie are desperate to see the rest of their family, Maddie's mother, Madelin, and her newborn baby, who still hasn't met his dad. Madelin traveled to the US with a visa and lives in New Jersey, but Maddie's visa application was denied. She and Emerson made a more perilous journey north last spring, when they went a full day without stopping."That day was hard for me," Emerson remembered. "To see that my daughter said to me, 'Papi, I'm thirsty, Papi, I want to eat,' and I had nothing to give her."Madelin said she came to the US because she thought her family would be reunited soon after. But Maddie and Emerson were swept into the Trump administration's increasingly hardline immigration policies, and Madelin hasn't seen them since.Last April, Emerson and Maddie finally made it to the US only to be turned back to Tijuana, Mexico, through the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump-era program that returns people across the border while they await US immigration court hearings.Suddenly, they were homeless in one of the world's most dangerous cities.Emerson called Madelin to say there was no space for them at the local shelter. "I remember that he started to cry, and I did, too, because we didn't know what to do," she said.A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said around 57,000 people had been subject to MPP, and in October, Reuters found that 16,000 migrants under 18 had been sent to Mexico.At least 816 violent attacks against migrants under MPP have been reported, including 201 cases of children who were kidnapped or almost kidnapped, according to the not-for-profit Human Rights First.On days when Emerson and Maddie found housing with good Samaritans, she rarely went outside because the city was so dangerous."Tijuana is not a very pretty place, it's not a safe place," Emerson said.After two months in Mexico, they got their opportunity to go in front of a US immigration judge in June. Emerson made the mistake of following advice he said an immigration official gave him. He told the judge that he had come to the US to give his daughter a better life, a line that completely discredited his case.There are immigration laws that protect asylum seekers. There aren't immigration laws that protect devoted parents.The judge gave him two options: he could return to Mexico and, against all odds, continue to fight for the right to come to the US. Or – after all Emerson and Maddie had endured –they could return to Guatemala.Faced with an impossible choice, Emerson opted for the latter because at least if something happened to him at home, his family could look after his daughter and wife. But when he and Maddie boarded a plane, it didn't land in Guatemala. Instead, they took a long trip deep into the country's interior, to Berks county residential center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.The family immigration detention facility garnered national notoriety a few years ago after an employee admitted to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who was being held there. Critics have advocated for its closure, and reports of poor medical care and racism from employees have hamstrung the facility's reputation.But it continues to operate, as it has since 2001.After Emerson and Maddie arrived at Berks, they met Cambria, the attorney who has helped to revive their asylum bid. When the government flew them to San Diego in July and tried to return them to Mexico again, Cambria quickly filed a federal lawsuit to bring them back to Berks, where they've remained ever since.That lawsuit could eventually set a major precedent as to whether children can legally be placed under MPP. A ruling in Maddie's favor would mean other kids like her could sue the government, arguing they shouldn't be sent to Mexico. (Ice's spokesperson said the agency did not comment on pending litigation.)But Maddie didn't come to the US to challenge immigration policy. She's a kid who celebrated a Christmas and a birthday in detention, without her mom and little brother."This little girl is not doing well psychologically, we'll put it that way," said Cambria. "She's saying things that are scary. She's very sad."Ice has offered for Maddie to leave Berks, but without Emerson. This family separation is legally dubious, and Cambria said it was unprecedented in her experience representing immigrant families.Amy Maldonado, another of Maddie's lawyers, said Ice could release both Maddie and Emerson at any time, and has done so for families in similar situations.Cambria said she doesn't know why Ice is treating Emerson and Maddie differently from any other family at Berks. But the detention center is only for parents with children. If Maddie leaves and Emerson doesn't, he'll be sent away to another facility for adults or returned to Mexico.Maddie is so young that she thinks of everything she's gone through as a vacation, and she keeps telling her parents she's ready for the vacation to be over."When I speak to her, she sometimes cries and says, 'Mami, I want to leave already,'" Madelin said."'I want to leave already.'"
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| France withdraws controversial grenade from police use Posted: 26 Jan 2020 06:16 AM PST  France will withdraw from use an explosive tear gas grenade used by riot police and blamed for injuring numerous protesters, the interior minister said Sunday, amid growing anger at perceived police brutality. Sanctioned for use by French law enforcement since 2011, the GLI-F4 grenade explodes with a loud, powerful blast to release a cloud of tear gas. The grenade is designed to help law enforcers under attack escape from a dangerous situation, but is blamed for maiming protesters in sometimes hairy confrontations with police in more than a year of anti-government "yellow vest" protests.
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| Georgia inmate who came close to execution in 2017 dies Posted: 26 Jan 2020 06:13 AM PST  A Georgia death row inmate whose planned execution was halted in September 2017 by the U.S. Supreme Court after his lawyers argued his death sentence was tainted by a juror's racial bias has died, according to the state Department of Corrections. Keith "Bo" Tharpe, 61, died of natural causes Friday, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Joan Heath confirmed in an email Sunday. In 1991, a jury convicted Tharpe of murder in the September 1990 slaying of his sister-in-law, Jacquelyn Freeman, and sentenced him to death.
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| Buttigieg warns Sanders could alienate GOP and independent voters Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:43 PM PST  Buttigieg also discussed Trump's comments on injured military service members in Iraq and countering the rise of Mike Bloomberg.
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| Postal worker dies a week after being shot while delivering mail in Mississippi Posted: 25 Jan 2020 03:59 PM PST  The local community rallied around Ingold by hosting prayer vigils, dressing in purple and placing purple bows along her mail route.
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| Philippines lowers volcano danger level Posted: 25 Jan 2020 05:48 PM PST  Philippine authorities also narrowed the exclusion zone around the Taal volcano, which sits in the middle of a lake about 70 km (45 miles) from Manila, to seven kms from 14 kms (4-8 miles).
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| Italy Regions Vote in Test of Salvini Surge: Election Day Guide Posted: 25 Jan 2020 04:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Investors are viewing a Sunday regional vote in Italy as a key test on how long the rocky ruling coalition of the Democratic Party and the Five Star Movement can survive.The opposition League party led by Matteo Salvini is looking to snatch control of the center-left stronghold of Emilia Romagna, one of two regions voting over the weekend.A victory there would bolster Salvini's case for snap national elections he'd likely win. It is a popularity contest that's become even more significant following the resignation of the leader of Five Star, the biggest party in the government.While Salvini's party continues to ride high in the polls, opinion surveys show support for Five Star has cratered. Here's what you need to know.Who is voting?About 3.5 million people in Emilia Romagna and more than 1.5 million in the southern region of Calabria will elect governors and regional assemblies.Who will win?In prosperous Emilia Romagna -- a region historically dominated by the left -- polls have shown a virtual tie between the League and the center-left, with the latter holding the narrowest of leads in final surveys conducted before an electoral blackout period.Pre-blackout polls have pointed to a clear lead for a center-right coalition in Calabria.Though less symbolic than the leftist bastion in Emilia Romagna, a center-right win in Calabria would still be notable for Salvini, who fronts a party that once denigrated the south and called for northern Italy to secede.Will the government collapse if Salvini wins?Probably not, at least not right away. The parties backing Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte insist that regional votes don't have any impact on national politics. But a defeat in Emilia Romagna would be particularly hard to swallow for the Democrats, who might then begin rethinking whether their governing alliance with Five Star is really worth it.Brace for more turbulence in case of a League triumph but keep in mind that the government may actually grow stronger if the coalition parties become weaker. The glue holding them together is, after all, their shared desire to avoid snap elections that would put Salvini in power.What do markets say?Most analysts share the sanguine assessment that, in the short term, the government won't be directly affected by the outcome of this vote. However, they also highlight the concern that a weakened Conte will be even less capable of carrying out reforms that Italy's stagnant economy desperately needs.When to tune in?Voting is on Sunday, Jan. 26, between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Italian time.Once polls close, Italy's state-run Rai television will publish exit polls, though it's possible they won't immediately point to a clear winner. After midnight, projections based on actual vote counts should start giving a clearer picture.The winner will likely be declared in the early hours of Monday morning and full results will come that day.Must readsItaly Coalition Girds for Succession Battle as Di Maio QuitsItaly Prepares for Prime Minister Salvini: Ferdinando Giugliano\--With assistance from Samuel Dodge.To contact the reporter on this story: Alessandro Speciale in Rome at aspeciale@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten, Caroline AlexanderFor 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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| Will China Invade Taiwan Before the Communist Party Approaches its 100th Anniversary? Posted: 25 Jan 2020 12:30 AM PST  Could it happen?
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| 'Doorbell Ditch' Prank Led to Crash That Killed 3 Teens, Officials Say Posted: 25 Jan 2020 07:02 AM PST  A man who the authorities contend deliberately crashed his car into another one on a Southern California road last Sunday, killing three of the six teenagers inside, did so because the group had played a so-called doorbell ditch prank on him, prosecutors said this week.The man, Anurag Chandra, 42, faces several murder charges for his role in the Temescal Canyon Road crash, which the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said Thursday occurred after the boys played a doorbell ditch prank on him.In a doorbell ditch, also commonly known as a ding-dong-ditch, a person rings a doorbell and tries to run away before anyone opens the door.After one of the boys had been dared, all six teenagers drove to a nearby home on Mojeska Summit Road in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the district attorney's office said, citing the California Highway Patrol's investigation. The boy rang the doorbell and returned to the 2002 Prius that they were riding in, and the group took off.But Chandra, who lives at the home, chased after them in his 2019 Infiniti Q50, prosecutors said. His car rammed into the back of the Prius, "causing it to veer off the road and into a tree," prosecutors said.Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, all 16-year-old passengers, were killed in the crash, prosecutors said. The 18-year-old driver and two other boys, ages 13 and 14, were injured but survived."The circumstances in this case are unusual," John Hall, a spokesman with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, said in an email Friday. "Based on the evidence in this case, the response and actions taken by the defendant are egregious and extremely disproportionate to a teen ringing a doorbell and running away."Chandra was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, but "it was continued at the request of the defense," Hall said. A new arraignment has been scheduled for Feb. 21, he said.Chandra "is being held on no bail because this is a potential death penalty case," Hall said. "That is because we have alleged a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, making him eligible for the death penalty."District Attorney Mike Hestrin of Riverside County will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date, he said.Phone calls and messages to numbers listed for Chandra were not immediately returned Friday night. Calls and messages on Friday to the public defender's office, which represented him in court Thursday, were not immediately returned.Speaking to NBC4 in Los Angeles, a bandaged and still-healing Sergio Campusano, the driver of the Prius, said in an interview this week that he had blacked out after the driver of the Infiniti "rammed his car into my back" and his head whipped into his window.Describing the prank, which Campusano said the group came up with during a sleepover, one of the boys was dared to "either jump into a pool at night or go ding-dong-ditch a house."After the boys drove away from the house where the doorbell was rung, the group saw a man from the home following them, and Campusano said the other car got "really, really close.""I was like, 'What is this guy doing?'" Campusano, who tried to drive away from the Infiniti, told the TV station. "Then I felt like a nudge forward, like he hit me from the back.""When he rammed us from the side, I thought, I was like, if anything happens, I love these guys," said Campusano, who described the close-knit group of friends as "all a part of me."The group had been celebrating Jacob's birthday over the weekend, the TV station reported.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Photos show the glory days of Pan Am, a symbol of a bygone era of luxurious air travel before the airline went bust 29 years ago Posted: 26 Jan 2020 03:49 AM PST  Pan American World Airways was once the world's largest international airline, and is remembered for its glamorous cabins, passengers, and crew.
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| India police decommission historic British-era rifles Posted: 26 Jan 2020 02:59 AM PST  Police in northern India on Sunday bid goodbye to the historic British-era bolt-action rifles after using them for one last salute during the annual Republic Day parade. The Lee-Enfield .303 rifle was the main firearm of British colonial military forces and, despite being designated "obsolete" around 25 years ago, it has been the main weapon used by police in Uttar Pradesh state over seven decades. "They have been in use since independence (from the British in 1947) and now they'll be replaced by INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) and SLRs (Self-Loading Rifles)," said police superintendent Amit Verma.
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| 3rd woman accuses Michigan lawmaker of sexual harassment Posted: 26 Jan 2020 09:31 AM PST  A third woman in two weeks has publicly come forward with sexual harassment allegations against a Michigan state legislator, according to a published report Sunday. Melissa Osborn, who works as a regulatory affairs specialist for a trade group, told Crain's Detroit Business that Republican state Sen. Peter Lucido commented on her appearance and clothes while visually scanning her body and touching the region she described as "my lower back/upper butt." Osborn, 40, said it happened at the Michigan Credit Union League's annual government affairs conference in May. Lucido declined to comment to Crain's.
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| How is the most unpopular and divisive president on his way to a second term? Posted: 26 Jan 2020 12:15 AM PST  Donald Trump has been campaigning since his inauguration with a lethal blend of rollicking rallies and rigorous data-gatheringLong after nightfall, an exultant Donald Trump takes the stage in a hotel ballroom, punching the air in front of giant TV screens. A delirious crowd is wearing "Keep America Great" caps and chanting "USA! USA!" These are the early hours of 4 November 2020 and lightning has just struck twice: Trump has won a second term.For millions of people outside America, the notion of Trump's re-election might seem hard to believe. How could one of the most unpopular and divisive presidents in the country's history, impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and reeling from one self-inflicted crisis to another, possibly win the White House again?Yet many here in the US have a gut feeling that is precisely what will happen."The world looks at us and says, 'How can the United States re-elect this guy?'" said Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. "But when you're the average voter and you've been through six to eight years of recession and then you've finally got a good economy, that's a difficult barrier for Democrats to break through."Indeed, Trump has several powerful factors in his favor.Voters tend to stick with what they know: no incumbent has lost the White House since George H W Bush's defeat at the hands of Bill Clinton in 1992. That was during a recession and tax increase, whereas Trump is enjoying steady growth, stock market records and the lowest unemployment for half a century. Some 56% of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy, his strongest rating on the issue since entering office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll this week.He also has advantages of time and money. Trump registered with the Federal Election Commission on the day of his inauguration. He has, in effect, been campaigning ever since with a potentially lethal combination: on the one hand, rollicking rallies and tweets that sell a crude populist message; on the other, a clinically rigorous data-gathering and voter mobilisation operation that leaves nothing to chance. Whereas his first campaign was like a plane being built in midflight, the 2020 version has the power and prestige of Air Force One.Trump, 73, might even suffer another heavy defeat in the popular vote, while winning the handful of key states that decide the electoral college. Schiller added: "The key question in 2020 is: will there be any drop off from the very narrow coalition that elected him?"First, that would be caused by Trump fatigue, a drop off of voters who say, 'I'm going to sit this one out'. That would hurt him in states like Minnesota, which he lost last time, and North Carolina, which he won."The second cause would be any dip in the economy, which has been Trump's coat of armor, his shield, and makes him impenetrable. In a good economy, I don't think there's an appetite for radical change."But Trump's fate might also rest on something beyond his control: his opponent.Democrats are about to begin voting in what has the makings of a messy and complicated primary. The president's two most effective nemeses – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff – are not on the ballot. Whoever does prevail may not be able to unite or enthuse a divided party.Whereas Trump's 2016 effort against Hillary Clinton was insurgent, shambolic and run on a shoestring, this time he has the full weight of the Republican party behind him. The Trump campaign, Republican National Committee (RNC) and related joint committees together raised a staggering $463m in 2019 – over $200m more than Barack Obama in 2011. They have nearly $200m cash on hand heading into the election.Furthermore, Trump's re-election campaign and the RNC already have almost 400 staff across 18 target states. The campaign has announced "Trump victory leadership teams" for 49 states and five territories so far. Its manager, Brad Parscale, is orchestrating a sophisticated data operation that harvests the details of every supporter who donates, buys merchandise, enters a competition or attends a rally.Many experts say the Trump campaign outplayed Democrats on Facebook in 2016 and is determined to do so again with targeted advertising. Facebook has, controversially, announced that it will not fact check political ads on its platform.The president's campaign ads so far are simplistic yet brutally effective. They portray him as a no-nonsense commander in chief – building a border wall, appointing supreme court justices, cutting taxes and taking out terrorists – while rubbishing Obama and accusing Democrats of indulging in political theatre such as impeachment. A $10m ad will be shown during American football's showpiece Super Bowl game next Sunday.But Trump also hopes to win through force of personality. He has held 10 rallies in the past three months. Rally warm-up acts include the president's son, Donald Trump Jr, who has become adept at channeling his liberal-baiting message. A combination of incumbency and outrageous behavior will ensure continued media coverage.His pitch is us versus them. Strategically, that means Trump is likely to focus on energizing his base in critical states such as Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, in part by vilifying his opponent and relying on Republican efforts to purge voter registration rolls.The rout of Republicans in the 2018 midterms, however, suggests that the outcome is far from certain.Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman who poured a fortune into those races, has pledged to fund 500 staffers in battleground states until election day even if he loses the Democratic nomination. And even if Trump is acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate, the stench of impeachment will cling to him in November.Much will depend on Democrats' choice of nominee. In rally speeches and tweets, Trump has made little secret of his line of attack. Former vice president Joe Biden would, like Clinton in 2016, be framed as offering a third term of Obama and as a creature of the Washington swamp with misleading claims of corruption against his son, Hunter, over his business dealings in Ukraine.Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, will be painted as radical leftists who put Americans' prosperity at risk. Trump now has a well rehearsed stump speech that riffs on the perils of socialism in Venezuela before veering off into the Green New Deal and the bird-slaying potential of wind farms.John Zogby, a pollster, author and strategist, said: "He might very well be re-elected. The nation's split, and what compounds things for those who want to defeat him is that those who want to defeat him are split. And if anyone knows how to take advantage of a wedge and drive that wedge further, it's the incumbent and his capacity to use social media."Charlie Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster and Trump critic, agrees. "His chances may be actually stronger than 50-50," he said. "Part of it is the nature of the electoral college and his success in tribalising the electorate and creating alternative reality silos. But also I'm not convinced the Democrats have got their act together."Sykes, who hails from the pivotal state of Wisconsin, believes that Biden has the best shot but remains a flawed candidate. "The Democrats don't have a Barack Obama. They don't have a charismatic leader who's going to inspire people. I do think that Bernie Sanders would have a Jeremy Corbyn-like problem: swing voters are not as into revolution as some Democrats believe."If there is lesson from 2016, when a reality TV celebrity with no political experience came from nowhere to win the White House, it is that anything can happen. Trump's equivocation over white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, caging of children on the Mexican border, coercion of Ukraine for personal political gain and 16,241 false or misleading claims over three years (according to a Washington Post count) are apparently no longer disqualifying for millions of voters.Moe Vela, an LGBTQ and Latino activist and former senior adviser to Biden, said: "We should figure out who they are and why they broke in his favor last time. We've got to better understand what compels a decent person to continue to support something so violent to what used to be our traditional American values."He added: "If we continued to talk past or around those people or distance them or alienate them, then his chances of reelection are strong. Understand their angst. Understand their plight. How could a decent person be OK with 15,000 lies? That's the riddle right there. What would cause them to abandon the values they were raised with to support a man who paid a porn star he had sex with?"In September 2002, George W Bush, an unpopular Republican president, offered some characteristically mangled syntax: "Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me.. You can't get fooled again!" Bush went on to win reelection. Now Trump is attempting to repeat the trick.Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice – shame on me.
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| White House Counsel Cipollone delivers closing remarks Posted: 25 Jan 2020 09:47 AM PST  White House Counsel Pat Cipollone delivered his closing remarks during the Senate impeachment trial on Saturday.
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| Iraqi security forces raid protest camps after Sadr supporters withdraw Posted: 25 Jan 2020 01:01 AM PST  Iraqi security forces fired bullets and tear gas on Saturday in raids on protest camps in Baghdad and southern cities, killing four people and wounding dozens more, police and medical sources said. The new push to end the sit-in protests and restore order came hours after populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has millions of supporters in Baghdad and the south, said he would end his involvement in anti-government unrest. Sadr's supporters, who had bolstered the protesters and sometimes helped shield them from attacks by security forces and unidentified gunmen, began withdrawing from sit-in camps early on Saturday after his announcement.
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| LGBT Rights Group Demands Sanders Renounce Rogan Endorsement Posted: 25 Jan 2020 08:52 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The Human Rights Campaign is calling on Bernie Sanders to renounce an endorsement from radio host Joe Rogan, who has made derogatory comments about African Americans and LGBTQ people.Rogan, who hosts "The Joe Rogan Experience," one of the most downloaded podcasts, said he would "probably vote for Bernie," adding "I believe in him. I like him a lot."In response, HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement that while Sanders' campaign has been "unabashedly supportive of the rights of LGBTQ people," Rogan "has attacked transgender people, gay men, women, people of color and countless marginalized groups at every opportunity."The statement from the largest LBGTQ advocacy group and lobbying organization in the U.S. pointed to instances in which Rogan had compared African Americans to "Planet of the Apes,'' and repeatedly misgendered transgender people, including referring to MMA fighter Fallon Fox as "that tranny."Sanders has appeared on Rogan's show, as have fellow Democratic candidates Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the author of this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor 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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| The Fate of the China-Russia Alliance Posted: 25 Jan 2020 11:34 AM PST  The Moscow-Beijing collaborative relations have already yielded major shifts in the military balance in the Asia-Pacific two times. Will the third time be a global transformation?
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