| Bloomberg campaign calls Trump a ‘pathological liar’ with ‘fake hair’ and ‘spray-on tan’ Posted: 02 Feb 2020 07:23 AM PST  President Trump seems to have former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on his mind at the moment and has repeatedly attacked him leading up to the Super Bowl, where they're both running ads.
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| Does 'Never Again' Mean Nothing to the Left? Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:16 AM PST  Antisemitism is antisemitism, period.
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| Americans are largely dissatisfied with the state of the union, poll finds Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:58 AM PST  The turbulence of impeachment, a contentious presidential campaign and a global virus health threat confront President Trump as he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But one thing about the Trump era has remained remarkably steady: public opinion on the president.
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| El Chapo's daughter got married in a lavish but secretive wedding, complete with fireworks, armored cars, and cartel gunmen Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST  Her father, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is currently serving a life sentence in the American super-max prison ADX Florence.
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| China accused the US of spreading global 'fear' over the Wuhan coronavirus, which has now killed 362 people Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:32 AM PST  "All it [the US] has done could only create and spread fear, which is a bad example," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
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| The More Macron Does, the More Unpopular He Gets Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:52 AM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- "Remember when we all believed in Emmanuel Macron?" The question comes not from an angry trade unionist but a stand-up comedian in central Paris, facing a crowd of thirty-something urbanites cut from the same cloth as France's 42-year-old president. A collective groan of "yes" rises from the audience, many of whom spent the winter struggling through transport strikes triggered by a flagship pension reform that crippled the city. Only one dismissive "no!" rings out. "There's always one person who voted for Jean-Luc Melenchon," the comedian shoots back, referring to a far-left leader who's one of Macron's most scathing critics.While highly unscientific, the groan-o-meter fits with the bigger national picture for Macron, who seems to get less popular the more he achieves. The president's approval ratings declined after his election in 2017 amid a flurry of reforms, and sank below 30% in late 2018, when the Gilets Jaunes protests that spawned from anger over plans to hike gasoline prices were at their peak. He's still polling at around 25%, even after striking a compromise with France's biggest trade union to ease the gridlock on public transport. Disappointment is now starting to seep into his core fan-base of young, urban professionals — the bloc bourgeois of center-left and center-right white-collar workers who are pro-reform and pro-EU. Paris, where Macron got 90% of votes in 2017, may well re-elect its Socialist mayor in March.The barometer of anti-Macron feeling, ranging from quiet disillusionment to violent street protests and death threats against politicians, has little to do with economic performance or a failure to carry out reform pledges. The French economy grew 2.3% in 2017 and 1.7% in 2018; unemployment fell to a decade low in 2019; and business investment has rebounded. A surprise contraction in the fourth quarter of last year put annual growth in 2019 at 1.3%, but Barclays economist Francois Cabau expects that to be a one-off and is cautiously optimistic. The 91 reforms passed by the Macron administration and its ruling party, En Marche! (Onward!), should start to bear fruit soon. They have moderately or largely kept their promises 69% of the time, according to think-tank iFRAP.Yet Macron has managed to lose the French people in the process. Some of it is personal: His star-pupil attitude, combining youthful arrogance and Jupiterian haughtiness, grates. Some of it is institutional: If Macron behaves like a monarchical, top-down ruler, it's also because the Fifth Republic concentrates a lot of executive power in the presidency and has no mid-term elections to worry the ruling party in parliament. And some of it is political: The first-timers that stuff the ranks of Macron's party got over-confident in long-term planning, completely underestimated the Yellow Vest movement and failed to do the groundwork necessary to negotiate pension reforms.There's also the changing nature of French society. Life is becoming less comfortable than it used to be, as Pierre Brechon of Sciences Po Grenoble puts it. Since 2000, several bells have tolled for the establishment: A rise in the far-right vote that almost won the presidency in 2002; a " no" referendum vote on an EU constitutional treaty in 2005; and the respective failure of both Right and Left to win re-election in 2012 and 2017. Despite relatively low income inequality and a cradle-to-grave welfare state, France hasn't stamped out divisions among socioeconomic and cultural lines, which author Jerome Fourquet says has created an "archipelago" of disparate social islands. The postwar era's influences of Catholicism and communism are fading, traditional media is on the wane, and conspiracy theories like "chemtrails" and anti-vax arguments spread by social media are on the rise. Macron was a net beneficiary of this anti-elitist atmosphere in 2017, as a relative newcomer leading a new party. In 2020, he is on the receiving end. Ambivalence now reigns supreme. Macron's reform agenda was promoted as a soft, Scandinavian-style answer to France's woes — now it's viewed as harsh medicine that will leave winners and, more importantly, losers in its wake. True believers who think France has changed since 2017 and will change in the coming years are in the minority, between 30% and 40%. That doesn't mean revolution is in the air. Support for the pension protests is split, while the proportion of people who defined themselves as Yellow Vests in late 2018 and early 2019 oscillated at 10%-20%. Either way, the pace of reform is likely to slow. Macron's government has already given up budgetary rigor.It's still too early to write off Macron but, if recent history is any guide, this kind of unpopularity is almost impossible to reverse. The backlash against globalization and a lack of social mobility are powerful forces, as they are in Trump's America and Brexit Britain. Whoever wins the presidential election in 2022 will either hit upon a new narrative that binds the Parisians of the bloc bourgeois to other parts of French society — maybe with a nod to the environment — or, as far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Melenchon and his far-left party France Unbowed are already doing, declare war on them entirely. To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Black Americans got the right to vote 150 years ago, but voter suppression still a problem Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:33 AM PST  On the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment, voting rights continue to be assailed. America lacks a national voting right for all citizens.
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| Iran to launch satellite in program that U.S. links to missiles Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:12 AM PST  Iran will launch a satellite into orbit by the end of this week, a government minister said on Monday, as part of a fledging program that the United States says is a cover for ballistic missile development. Iran had at least two failed satellite launches last year. The United States fears long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also be used to launch nuclear warheads.
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| Trump news: President rants about impeachment and Iowa, as Democrats prepare for first real 2020 test Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:28 PM PST  Donald Trump has lashed out in a series of tweets urging Republicans in Iowa to caucus, and questioning where the whistle blower is who sparked the investigation that led to his impeachment (in spite of Republican refusal to allow further witnesses to be brought before the Senate).The president had been facing fresh ridicule after tweeting his congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs after they won Super Bowl LIV by saying they represented "the Great State of Kansas... so very well" when the team is, in fact, based in Missouri (though half of Kansas City is indeed in Kansas).
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| Germany, Austria at odds on European financial trade tax Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:50 AM PST  Germany and Austria are at odds over plans for a new tax on financial transactions, raising more questions about the chances of the levy becoming reality after years of talks. The two countries are among 10 in the European Union that have been working on a financial transaction tax after a wider agreement proved elusive. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has proposed a levy of 0.2% on share purchases and wants to use the proceeds at home to help top up the pensions of low-paid people.
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| Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Was Great for Bacteria Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST  The asteroid moved 24 times faster than a rifle bullet as it struck Earth some 66 million years ago. Its supersonic shock wave flattened trees across North and South America, and its heat wave sparked incomprehensibly large forest fires.The event lofted so much debris into the atmosphere that photosynthesis shut down. The nonavian dinosaurs disappeared. And nearly 75% of all species were extinguished.At the point of impact, the picture was even more dire. The space rock left a sterile crater nearly 20 miles deep in what is now the Gulf of Mexico. Not a single living thing could have survived.But even at ground zero, life managed to return, and quickly.New findings published in the journal Geology last week revealed that cyanobacteria -- blue-green algae responsible for harmful toxic blooms -- moved into the crater a few years after the impact. That's the blink of an eye, geologically speaking, and helps illuminate how life bounces back on Earth following cataclysmic events, even in the most devastated environments.In 2016, scientists drilled into the heart of the so-called Chicxulub crater and excavated a 2,750-foot-long core of sediments, allowing scientists all over the world, such as Bettina Schaefer of Curtin University in Australia, to parse the rocks for their own research.Those samples have answered a number of questions regarding the impact, but Schaefer wanted to better understand how life rebounded at ground zero. Although scientists had seen hints of early life before, the numbers were small and couldn't capture the entire picture.The issue is that not all microorganisms leave behind fossils. Instead, soft-bodied organisms can be identified by the burrows they make and the molecules they deposit. Cyanobacteria, for example, produce fats that can be preserved in sedimentary rocks for hundreds of millions of years.So when Schaefer's team saw those preserved fats in the core near the time of the impact, they knew cyanobacteria must have been present. Crucially, the fats were deposited atop a layer of fossilized plants that were washed into the crater by the tsunami that followed, but below another layer of iridium that was deposited once the debris in the atmosphere rained back down on Earth after a few years. That suggests the bacteria began to populate the crater after the tsunami hit but before the atmosphere cleared and the sun's light had fully returned."The ones that were able to move in right away, the ambulance chasers, if you will, were these cyanobacteria," said Sean P.S. Gulick, a marine geophysicist from the University of Texas at Austin, a scientist on the drilling expedition and Schaefer's co-author.Moreover, the team was able to detect a host of other organisms that arrived on the scene later, which helped to better characterize the toxic waters that pooled in the crater. Some of the molecular fossils they discovered, for example, can only originate from organisms that live in waters devoid of any oxygen -- a so-called dead zone similar to what occurs every summer in the contemporary Gulf of Mexico.Chris Lowery, a paleoceanographer at the University of Texas at Austin and an author of the recent study, suspects that the crater was only partially dead, in part because the team also saw evidence for fossils of plankton that rely on oxygen. Perhaps the crater's oxygen-depleted waters existed within only certain layers of its water column. Or, like the dead zone in the modern gulf, maybe those waters were only seasonal.Knowing that life thrived in the Chicxulub crater while it was still fresh could help scientists better understand how living things adapt to catastrophe today, said Jason Sylvan, an oceanographer at Texas A&M University who was not involved in the study.Climate change has raised temperatures, depleted oxygen and acidified waters in the world's oceans. But scientists remain unsure how microbial communities -- which help control the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere -- will respond.To better forecast our future, they will continue to dig up fossils of the past -- particularly those from one of the greatest extinctions on Earth.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| A woman bit off an inch of a man's tongue after she told him not to use it while kissing her, authorities say Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:47 AM PST  Youlette Wedgeworth, 52, was charged with aggravated assault after police said she bit off part of a man's tongue.
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| China just completed work on the emergency hospital it set up to tackle the Wuhan coronavirus, and it took just 10 days to do it Posted: 02 Feb 2020 06:49 PM PST  When work started on the Huoshenshan hospital, 26 people had died from Wuhan coronavirus. When it finished on Sunday, the number had passed 300.
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| Des Moines Register-CNN Poll Held Back After Buttigieg Complaint Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:55 PM PST ![Des Moines Register-CNN Poll Held Back After Buttigieg Complaint]( "Des Moines Register-CNN Poll Held Back After Buttigieg Complaint") (Bloomberg) -- The Des Moines Register and CNN canceled the release of their much-awaited final poll before the Iowa caucuses after Pete Buttigieg's campaign raised concern about how it was conducted.The poll, long considered the gold standard in Iowa, was shelved just minutes before CNN was set to host a special hour of TV on Saturday night dedicated to the poll results and the state of the race in Iowa.An Iowa City man reported to Buttigieg's team on Thursday that the poll-taker who called him didn't name "Pete Buttigieg" in the list of candidates, and told him her computer was glitching. When she repeated the question on candidate preference, she mispronounced Buttigieg's name, the voter said, according to a senior campaign official.The voter who experienced the issue declined to comment to Bloomberg News on Saturday night."A respondent raised an issue with the way their interview was conducted, which could have compromised the results of the poll," CNN said in a statement. "We were unable to ascertain what happened during this respondent's interview, and cannot determine if this was a single isolated incident."The survey was conducted by Selzer & Co., a respected Iowa pollster."CNN, The Des Moines Register and Selzer & Company aim to uphold the highest standards of survey research, and therefore the partners decided not to proceed," the statement said.Responding to the decision, Buttigieg campaign senior adviser Lis Smith said in a tweet, "We applaud CNN and the Des Moines Register for their integrity."Bernie Sanders' spokesman said on Twitter that the race remains very close."Let me break the suspense: It's a very tight race," Faiz Shakir, Sanders' campaign manager, wrote. "And any of a number of candidates could win. So let's work hard to turn people out."Closely WatchedThe final Iowa Poll, released just days before the caucuses, is closely watched because it can give a boost to the leading candidate or demoralize supporters of one who falls short. The problem with the poll was first reported by the New York Times.The Register/CNN poll has marked the changing fortunes of the top candidates over the past year: Joe Biden led in early 2019, Elizabeth Warren took the lead in September, Buttigieg led in November and Sanders was in the top spot in early January.In the final days before Monday night's caucuses, candidates have crisscrossed the state, making their final pitches to voters. But until Saturday Buttigieg and Biden had had much of the state to themselves as Sanders, Warren and Amy Klobuchar were in Washington for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.Now, with the senators back on the trail, the race has kicked into its final stage. Sanders hosted a massive rally in Cedar Rapids with Vampire Weekend on Saturday night. Buttigieg flew around the state hosting rallies, and Biden has been on a week-long bus tour.For Buttigieg, Warren and Klobuchar, the Iowa caucus results could make or break their campaigns. Each of them are banking on strong performances in the state to catapult them forward through the primary season. Biden and Sanders, meanwhile, still far outpace their rivals in national polls.(DISCLAIMER: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)(Updates with new details on incident starting in third paragraph)\--With assistance from Ryan Teague Beckwith.To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Des Moines at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Tyler Pager in Des Moines at tpager1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan Crane, Larry LiebertFor 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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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: A 'Dangerous' Mistake for Democrats Not to Embrace the Eventual Nominee Posted: 02 Feb 2020 07:08 PM PST  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rockstar who is currently Sen. Bernie Sanders' most powerful surrogate, warns that Democrats will be making a "dangerous" mistake—and hurt…
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| Hong Kong suspends four more border crossings to curb spread of virus Posted: 02 Feb 2020 11:19 PM PST  Hong Kong's leader announced the closure of four more border crossings with mainland China on Monday, leaving just three checkpoints open, but stopped short of demands for the entire border to be closed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Hong Kong has 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which emerged in central China in December and has killed more than 360 people there and sent jitters through global markets. Carrie Lam, chief executive of Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, was speaking hours after more than 2,500 workers from the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA) went on strike to call for the border to be shut and better protection for hospital staff, among other demands.
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| 'You do not know what you're talking about': Joe Biden irked by reporter's questions about Hunter, Ukraine Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:47 AM PST  'You're saying things you do not know what you're talking about,' an agitated Joe Biden said when asked if Burisma hired his son to gain access to him.
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| Experts say Wuhan coronavirus will likely become a pandemic Posted: 02 Feb 2020 10:08 PM PST  Experts believe that the highly contagious Wuhan coronavirus, which has killed at least 360 people in China and one in the Philippines, will likely become a pandemic.Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, now operates a nonprofit called Resolve to Save Lives, which works to fight epidemics. Frieden told The New York Times it is "increasingly unlikely that the virus can be contained," making it "therefore likely that it will spread, as flu and other organisms do, but we still don't know how far, wide, or deadly it will be."A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease. This coronavirus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and there are 17,205 confirmed cases in the country. The World Health Organization said Sunday there are 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside of China, including nine in the United States. The elderly and those with pre-existing health issues are most at risk.There are travel restrictions in place worldwide for people coming from China, where doctors are struggling to help patients. Face masks are sold out across the country, and goggles and gloves are in short supply. Some hospitals have gone on social media and asked for donations, but those posts have since been deleted by government censors, The Washington Post reports. A hospital that was built in 10 days is set to open Monday in Wuhan, with 1,000 beds and 1,400 medical workers able to assist patients with coronavirus.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Susan Collins’ Campaign Is Being Helped by a Mysterious Hawaii Company Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:27 AM PST  A mysterious Hawaii company may have illegally funneled a six-figure contribution to a political group boosting an embattled Republican senator 5,000 miles away, an ethics watchdog alleged on Monday.The company, Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers LLC, was formed in late November, according to corporate records in Hawaii. Just over a month later, on December 31, the company donated $150,000 to 1820 PAC, a deep-pocketed super PAC with ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that was created to help reelect Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).There is scant public information about the company. It does not appear to have a website or any social media presence. Its listed address is a P.O. box in Honolulu (listed as a "unit" number in 1820's FEC filings). Google searches turn up no information on the company. And there's no record of prior political involvement by its sole officer, Jennifer Lam.All of that suggests that the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers was set up for the sole purpose of making political contributions, according to the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint on Monday asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate its December contribution to 1820 PAC, which was named after the year Maine was founded."The available facts do not suggest that SYWSE conducted any business or had sufficient income from assets, investment earnings, business revenues, or bona fide capital investments to cover the $150,000 contribution to 1820 PAC at the time the contribution was made, without an infusion of funds provided to them for that purpose," the group wrote.CLC goes on to suggest that the group likely made an illegal straw donation designed to conceal the true source of the funds.How Susan Collins Became the Senate's Most Vulnerable RepublicanBrendan Fischer, CLC's director of federal and FEC reforms, compared the alleged scheme to a 2018 donation made by a company, Global Energy Producers, to another Republican super PAC, pro-Trump group America First Action, that wound up at the center of the impeachment case against President Donald Trump. That case also involved a six-figure donation by a newly formed corporation with no web presence or documented business activity. At the time, GEP and its executives, most notably Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, flatly denied CLC's allegations. They were subsequently indicted for allegedly using GEP to flout federal campaign finance laws. Both men have pleaded not guilty.At the very least, CLC claims in the complaint filed on Monday that the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers should be required to disclose the sources of the funds it used to donate to 1820 PAC.The only public information about the company is in corporate documents filed with the Hawaii government. Those documents list a woman named Jennifer Lam as its registered agent. There are multiple people by that name in Hawaii and elsewhere in the United States. It was not immediately clear who the person behind the company is.The 1820 PAC is one of the most prominent super PACs in the fight over control of the U.S. Senate, which could very much rest on Collins' ability to hold her seat in the 2020 elections. As The Daily Beast has reported, 1820 PAC has notable ties to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business lobby and a heavy hitter in national politics. The 1820 PAC has raised more than $1.5 million for its pro-Collins campaign. Its top donors include prominent financial services executives Stephen Schwarzman and Warren Stephens. The group has reported just $500 in contributions from donors in Maine.The PAC's treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, did not respond to a request for comment on CLC's complaint.It's not likely that much will come of that complaint. The FEC is currently operating without a quorum of commissioners, meaning it is unable to take any legal action against alleged violators of the laws the commission is charged with enforcing.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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| Russia Claims Its New S-500 System Can Shoot Down An F-35 Posted: 02 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST  The Syrian Civil War will give us an example.
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| Pakistan bucks trend and resumes flights to virus-hit China Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:53 AM PST  Airlines in Pakistan resumed flights to and from China Monday after health authorities said they were confident they had systems in place to keep the deadly coronavirus out of the country. The move comes as dozens of global airlines are halting flight services with China, and governments are increasingly barring entry to anyone who has recently visited the country. China has long been an all-weather ally of Pakistan and in recent years has provided Islamabad with billions of dollars in loans as part of Beijing's global Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
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| U.S. Mulls More Charges Against Giuliani Allies; Trial Date Set Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:17 PM PST ![U.S. Mulls More Charges Against Giuliani Allies; Trial Date Set]( "U.S. Mulls More Charges Against Giuliani Allies; Trial Date Set") (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government may file additional charges against Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and others accused of campaign-finance crimes before the start of their trial Oct. 5, a prosecutor said Monday.Parnas and co-defendant Igor Fruman worked closely with Giuliani in trying to dig up dirt in Ukraine on Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden, and in ousting the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the government alleges. Prosecutors had indicated in December that the case could be expanded based on a review of evidence including bank accounts, email addresses and other materials.The government is "still evaluating" whether to file more charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told a federal judge in New York Monday.Roos didn't say what an expanded case might entail or if it would include additional defendants. Bloomberg and other news organizations have reported that Giuliani is a subject of interest in the case.Also during the hearing Monday:Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan federal court they have not been able to completely access 20 electronic devices seized in the case because the defendants have declined to provide their passwords.Oetken rejected a defense request that the government disclose how it obtained information to begin its prosecution, including whether communications by the defendants was intercepted or gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies. The use of such evidence -- or anything else derived from it -- can be problematic in U.S. courts because the means of obtaining it do not always meet legal standards. But "defendants have not established a colorable basis to claim they were aggrieved by any unlawful surveillance," the judge said.To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve StrothFor 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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| Republican senator suggests 'worse than Chernobyl' coronavirus could've come from Chinese 'superlaboratory' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 04:34 PM PST  The US senator described the novel coronavirus as the "biggest and most important story in the world" and "worse than Chernobyl."
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| Virginia Senate blocks another Gov. Northam-backed gun bill Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:01 PM PST  The Virginia Senate blocked one of Gov. Ralph Northam's top gun-control bills Monday, adding to the list of measures the Democratic governor supports that may not pass the legislature.
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| Iowa's anger over Trump's ethanol policy gives Democrats opening Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:45 AM PST  In a speech last month to farmers in Texas, President Donald Trump won applause as he talked up recent U.S. trade agreements. Iowa swung sharply to Trump's Republicans in the 2016 presidential election, but Democrats hope anger over a relaxation of rules mandating use of ethanol by U.S. refineries could put the corn-producing state in the win column this year. "I think they haven't solved the farmers' problems in terms of ensuring farmers will have a consistent market for the ethanol that they produce," said Wayne Moyer, a political science professor at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
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| Air Force colonel slated to command base that hosts Air Force One is sentenced in child porn case Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:22 PM PST  An Air Force colonel slated to command Joint Base Andrews, home of Air Force One, has been sentenced to five years in prison for child porn.
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| 2 Iranian students challenge removal from country Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:49 AM PST  Two college students from Iran have filed civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, saying they were mistreated and illegally denied entry into the country by federal officials at Boston's Logan International Airport. Shahab Dehghani, who attends Northeastern University, and Reihana Emami Arandi, who had been set to start classes at Harvard University, recently filed separate complaints with the agency's civil rights office, requesting the agency investigate the conduct of Customs and Border Protection officials.
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| Canada allows 737 MAX 'ferry' flights since grounding fleet Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:56 AM PST  Canada has allowed at least 162 flights of Boeing 737 MAX jetliners since grounding the fleet last year, public broadcaster CBC said Monday.
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| 'We Will All Be Dead' By the Time Navy Gets to 12 Aircraft Carriers Says Acting Navy Secretary Posted: 03 Feb 2020 05:27 AM PST  Problem? Under current planning, the Navy won't grow to 12 flattops until 2065, Modly pointed out during an event at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C.
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| Why American Scientists Take Chinese Money Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST  Harvard Chemistry Department chair Charles Lieber was charged this week with lying to the Defense Department about receiving funds from the Chinese government. Lieber allegedly took $1.5 million to open a research lab in China, as well as $200,000 monthly in cash and living expenses to conduct research for the Wuhan University of Technology.A pioneer in the field of nanowires — infinitesimally small conductors of electricity with a wide range of potential uses — Lieber is no small fry. "For a person with his status and reputation the work for him [in China] was not important, and it was not necessary for him to do that for the money," a Case Western Reserve professor who had worked with him told the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, Lieber received more than $15 million in grants from the American government. So why did he accept funding from China?U.S. government agencies including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health dole out more than $150 billion in research grants each year. University scientists rely on that money to fund their labs. Because grants can make or break a career, professors spend an inordinate amount of time navigating the funding labyrinth. A 2007 study found that researchers spend 42 percent of their time writing grant proposals and ensuring compliance with the conditions of the grants they receive. Stringent regulations on everything from affirmative action to animal welfare place a needless burden on scientists, reducing their productivity. Since any given proposal has a 20 percent chance of being approved, researchers devote 170 days to proposal-writing for every grant they're awarded.In addition to the administrative burden, American funding programs push researchers toward low-risk, low-reward studies. Since papers are evaluated by the number of citations they generate, professors tend to focus on questions that guarantee a meaningful result, rather than taking risks on novel research that might fail. Though the latter is more likely to deliver high gains in the long run, delayed recognition of breakthrough research means that scientists in new fields may have to wait years before they see results, which reduces their ability to attract funding in the interim. A 2016 paper found that "funding decisions which rely on traditional bibliometric indicators . . . may be biased against 'high risk/high gain' novel research." As a result, American scientists tinker at the margins of existing research but rarely attempt breakthroughs. This partially explains the general slowdown of scientific progress over the past few decades.Enter China. In 2008, the Chinese Communist party (CCP) announced the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP), which was designed to recruit 2,000 high-quality foreign professionals within five to ten years. By 2017, the program had lured 7,000 foreigners — more than triple its target. As part of a broad push to achieve global technological supremacy, China has committed 15 percent of its GDP — equivalent to $2.1 trillion in 2019 — to human-capital development.The TTP doesn't require grant applications or regulatory compliance, either. Faced with a choice between a Byzantine funding apparatus at home and instant cash from China, more than 3,000 university researchers have opted for the latter. In return for that money, the CCP requires its researchers to turn over intellectual property to which they have access, as well as to sign agreements preventing them from disclosing the results of work conducted under Chinese patronage. Some scientists have concluded that those stipulations are worthwhile. And in a perverse sense, it is true that the Chinese system provides a great deal of academic freedom: no applications, no progress reports, no environmental standards. In a few cases, TTP-linked academics have even opened "shadow labs" in China that conduct research identical to what they are doing domestically. The effect is a wholesale transfer of American intellectual capital and property to our largest geostrategic foe.The TTP encompasses not only university labs but also U.S. government facilities. Federal agencies have discovered that employees downloaded classified information before visiting China, and an American defense contractor testified to the Senate that more than 300 U.S. government researchers had accepted TTP money right under the government's nose.In November 2019, the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations issued a long-overdue report on the TTP. The report recommended stricter grant-compliance provisions, stronger cybersecurity, and increased scrutiny of research facilities by American law-enforcement agencies. While these measures would partially combat Chinese intellectual-property theft, lawmakers in Washington should also reflect on why China's money is so alluring to American scientists.Partially, it's because there's a lot of it. While the White House has proposed cuts to the NSF and NIH budgets in recent years, the CCP has committed orders of magnitude more money to its recruitment programs. In addition to beefing up IP protections, Congress should allocate more funding to foundational research. But money alone won't solve the problem. As long as the federal grant-approval process remains sclerotic and risk-averse, American scientists will be unlikely to maintain their global preeminence. Federal agencies should roll back onerous regulations and give researchers more control over grant money and lab operations. By deemphasizing bibliometric criteria, they could also provide scientists more of the leeway necessary for scientific breakthroughs. Outside the public sector, tax incentives could increase the viability of novel research in private labs.The Chinese threat must be confronted head-on, but to truly neutralize it, America will also have to nurture its natural competitive advantage.
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| UN Agencies Criticized for Taiwan Exclusion Amid Virus Posted: 01 Feb 2020 11:14 PM PST ![UN Agencies Criticized for Taiwan Exclusion Amid Virus]( "UN Agencies Criticized for Taiwan Exclusion Amid Virus") (Bloomberg) -- U.S. politicians, including Senators Mitt Romney and Cory Gardner, criticized international organizations for excluding Taiwan amid a global effort to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.China has placed pressure on the World Health Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization and International Criminal Police Organization to exclude Taiwan from discussions, Romney said, echoing calls for immediate inclusion of the island. The U.S. State Department also criticized ICAO for allegedly blocking users on Twitter who make reference to Taiwan's non-participation.While the international community works contain the fast-spreading coronavirus, they are also trying to navigate a geopolitical minefield. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory despite the People's Republic never having controlled the island, and treats any talk of formal independence as deeply hostile. China has increased pressure on international brands over the past few years to avoid calling Taiwan a country.The WHO declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday, but didn't permit Taiwan to attend emergency briefings, sparking criticism from the U.S. and Canada. There are 10 confirmed cases of the virus in Taiwan.While Taiwan's government was a founding member of the United Nations, the People's Republic of China took its seat in the body, and all subordinate organizations such as the WHO and ICAO, in 1971."Taiwan has a relevant and credible voice on transnational health issues, and the United States has long supported its active engagement in international venues, including ICAO, where its expertise can be beneficial," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement."We call upon ICAO to immediately and permanently reverse its practice of blocking discussion of Taiwan on its Twitter properties and make clear publicly its understanding that freedom of expression must always supersede the political insecurities of member states," she said.ICAO, the aviation agency of the United Nations, denied blocking Twitter users.Italy confirmed two coronavirus cases on Friday, and decided to suspend all flights from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macao until Apr. 28. Taiwan's Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu on Sunday asked Italy to drop its ban on flights from the island, saying the decision is based on information which includes Taiwan as part of China.The ban affects Taiwan-based carriers China Airlines and EVA Airways. Vietnam on Saturday had banned Taiwan flights as well, but withdrew the decision hours later after Taiwan negotiated with its government.Taiwan has slapped an entry ban to residents of Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, as well as those from the southern Guangdong province. Taiwan's Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said in a briefing Saturday that the ministry won't rule out extending the ban to more Chinese provinces if necessary.\--With assistance from Miaojung Lin.To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Stapczynski in Singapore at sstapczynsk1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Samson EllisFor 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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| Here's what United, American, and other airlines are doing to protect against coronavirus Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:48 AM PST  From disinfecting planes between flights to monitoring passengers, changing meal services, and issuing face masks, here's what airlines are doing.
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| Oregon court shown footage of two men stabbed to death on train for protecting Muslim teen from abuse Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:25 AM PST  A chilling series of witness videos and surveillance footage capture the burst of violence and panicked screams after Jeremy Christian's hate-filled rants led to the murder of two people onboard a public train in Oregon in 2017.Christian is charged with murdering 53-year-old Ricky Best and 23-year-old Taliesin Namkai-Meche and the attempted murder of Micah Fletcher, who was 21 at the time of the attack.
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| Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin 'undecided' on Trump impeachment vote, proposes censure Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:51 PM PST  At least one Democrat might break with his party in President Trump's impeachment vote.Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) announced Monday he's still "undecided" on whether he'll vote to acquit or convict Trump at the end of the ongoing presidential impeachment trial. Manchin was clear in placing some fault on Trump and the arguments made in his defense, but said he will ultimately come to his decision "reluctantly" come Wednesday.On Monday, Manchin used his floor speech to say that even though "I remain undecided on how I will vote," he believed Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky was "not a perfect call." Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz's argument that the president could essentially do no wrong was the "most dangerous" thing Manchin had heard during the Trump impeachment trial, Manchin added. And while he doesn't "see a path" to the 67 votes needed to force Trump out of office, Manchin said he does believe "a bipartisan majority would vote to censure" Trump, and said he has prepared a resolution to do so that he'll unveil soon.> .@Sen_JoeManchin on impeachment: "I remain undecided on how I will vote, but these points I believe to be true; first, it was not a perfect call." pic.twitter.com/aznRJcfaZo> > — CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2020Manchin is a centrist Democrat who narrowly held onto his seat in 2018 after his state firmly favored Trump in the 2016 election. Manchin has since voted in step with Trump's positions more than any other Democratic senator currently in Congress.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| U.S. announces more coronavirus cases, details quarantine plans for returning travelers Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:06 AM PST  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday announced a second case of transmission of the new coronavirus within the United States and provided more detailed plans on how it will handle travelers returning from China as the country works to limit the outbreak. "We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a conference call that included confirmation of a handful of new cases, bringing the U.S. total to 11. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making nearly $250 million in emergency funds available to cover the cost of the response, an agency spokesman said on Monday.
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| Iran may block UN inspectors if it faces a 'new situation' Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:11 PM PST  ML--Iran-Nuclear (AP) — Iran's president said Monday that Tehran might reconsider providing U.N. inspectors with access to Iran's nuclear facilities if the country were confronted with "a new situation," the official IRNA news agency reported. Hassan Rouhani's remarks came during a meeting with Josep Borrell, the European Union's new foreign affairs chief, who was on his first visit to Iran since taking office. The visit is seen as the latest move by the EU to save Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
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| Winter weather is back: Snowstorm wallops West, heads for central, eastern U.S. Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:59 PM PST ![Winter weather is back: Snowstorm wallops West, heads for central, eastern U.S.]( "Winter weather is back: Snowstorm wallops West, heads for central, eastern U.S.") A potent winter storm that dumped heavy snow on the Rockies Monday will crawl toward the central and eastern U.S. this week, weather forecasts say.
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| How One Country Proves That Even a Little Socialism Does a Lot of Damage Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:30 AM PST  Look to Argentina.
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| China to allow in U.S. health experts as virus shows no sign of slowing Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:25 PM PST  BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has agreed to allow U.S. health experts into the country as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) effort to help fight the fast-spreading coronavirus, as the number of cases and deaths continued to mount. In central China's Hubei province, epicenter of the epidemic, China state TV reported there were 2,345 new cases of the virus and another 64 deaths, bringing the total of virus-related fatalities in Hubei to 414 by Monday. The Chinese stock market plunged about 8% on Monday, wiping $393 billion off the value of the Shanghai bourse, on the first day of trading following an extended Lunar New Year holiday in a bid to help keep people at home and contain the virus' spread.
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| Halkbank Wins Reprieve in U.S. Prosecution Over Iran Sanctions Posted: 03 Feb 2020 08:02 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- A federal appeals court granted a temporary halt in the U.S. prosecution of Turkish lender Halkbank over sanctions violation charges while it weighs other requests by the bank.Halkbank had previously sought to pursue a dismissal of the case without entering a plea on the charges. A judge denied the request, and the bank is appealing that ruling. A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will weigh the request on an expedited basis.Prosecutors have deemed the bank a fugitive from justice, asking a judge to hold it in contempt and impose fines until it begins answering the charges.Halkbank, which is owned by the Turkish government, was charged in October with helping Iran access billions of dollars in oil revenue that had been frozen in its accounts under U.S. sanctions. A senior bank executive was previously convicted in the case, and a money launderer pleaded guilty to charges of orchestrating the scheme.The case has become a persistent thorn in the side of Turkey's president, Recep Erdogan, who has pressed President Donald Trump to intervene. The charges were brought at the height of tensions between Washington and Ankara over Turkey's military offensive in Syria. The geopolitical context is complicated by Trump's campaign to hobble Iran.Read More: Turkey's Halkbank Faces U.S. Charges as Tensions MountTo contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor 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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| Zelensky: Leaked audio shows Iran immediately knew it shot plane Posted: 03 Feb 2020 06:38 AM PST  A leaked audio recording of an Iranian pilot talking to the control tower in Tehran shows that Iran knew immediately it had shot down a Ukrainian airliner last month, despite denying it for days, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
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| Delta and United flight attendants reveal their best travel hacks Posted: 03 Feb 2020 10:26 AM PST  A group of flight attendants working for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and other carriers told Business Insider their best secrets for traveling.
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| Here's why Hannity's Trump Super Bowl interview was even worse than we could have expected Posted: 03 Feb 2020 09:11 AM PST  No one expected Sean Hannity's interview with Donald Trump before the Super Bowl 2020 would be tough, but this was basically just a campaign ad.
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| 'Scary but we made it': Damaged plane makes emergency landing in Madrid after circling for hours to burn off fuel Posted: 03 Feb 2020 01:45 PM PST  A Boeing 767 with 136 people on board has safely made an emergency landing in Madrid after circling an airport for four hours with a faulty engine and a burst tyre.The Air Canada flight to Toronto contacted air traffic control about the problems 30 minutes after taking off from the Madrid-Barajas airport in the Spanish capital on Monday.
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| AP VoteCast: Health care, climate are top issues in Iowa Posted: 03 Feb 2020 02:56 PM PST  Iowa Democrats came to the state's caucuses Monday with key issues dominating their thoughts: health care, climate change and a fierce motivation to unseat President Donald Trump. More than the economy, immigration or foreign policy, Democrats in the nation's opening round of presidential primaries were mostly focused on access to medical treatment and the health of a planet being rapidly warmed by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities. AP VoteCast is a survey of more than 2,700 voters who said they planned to take part in Monday's Democratic caucuses in Iowa, conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
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| Ohio man calls police 25 times for help finding hoodie, is charged with felony Posted: 03 Feb 2020 12:07 PM PST  A Cincinnati man was arrested early Monday after authorities said he called police more than 25 times to get help looking for his lost hoodie.
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| Trump, Be Afraid: Will the Ballooning Budget Bubble Burst? Posted: 03 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  There's some key takeaways from the Congressional Budget Office projections, and they're looking dangerous.
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