Current News: February 2020

Saturday, February 29, 2020

South Carolina exit polls: Black and moderate voters fuel Biden to victory

The former vice president won 60 percent of the black vote and received solid backing from moderate and religious voters Saturday.

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Americans of all parties agree: Joe Biden is old, Michael Bloomberg is rich

Pollsters at The Associated Press and NORC gave the public a chance to describe presidential candidates in one word or short phrase. The results were... telling.Democrats described former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as nearly equal parts "smart," "young," and "gay." Independents and Republicans were far more likely to describe him as "gay," as well as "inexperienced," and "centrist." Philanthropist Tom Steyer was more overwhelmingly described as "rich" by Democrats, while independents and Republicans opted for "inexperienced."While former Vice President Joe Biden scored some mentions of "good person" among Democrats, he mostly got "old." Independents and Republicans also mostly called him "old," followed by "corrupt" and "creepy."Democrats and independents similarly described Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as "old" at the highest rate, though Republicans went straight for "socialist," followed by "old," and "communist."> How poll respondents described 2020 candidates in one (or a few more) words. https://t.co/I53LZ1dSR1 pic.twitter.com/GbcahfoHCl> > — Philip Bump (@pbump) February 28, 2020Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is older than Biden and just months younger than Sanders, is universally regarded as "rich" (a fair assessment), and Republicans said he's "buying the election."Democrats were split in describing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as "smart" and "strong," though independents and Republicans view her primarily as a "liar," as well as "crazy" and a "woman," which is hardly up for debate.While the Democratic candidates were generally regarded more positively by members of their own party, surveyed Republicans didn't come up with great words for President Trump. Most Republicans simply said "president," followed by "bumbling" and "jerk."The AP-NORC poll was conducted Feb. 12-16 via phone interviews with 1,074 adults. The margin of error is ±4.2 percentage points. View the full results at AP-NORC.More stories from theweek.com Stock markets are headed for a 40 percent plunge, says economist who predicted financial crisis Trump mocks Bloomberg's height, Biden's age in wild CPAC speech The growing viral threat

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The Islanders Are Saying Goodbye to Brooklyn

By BY ALLAN KREDA from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/399PJK8

At CPAC, Trump Takes Aim at Rivals

By BY ANNIE KARNI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2wkvvhX

Biden Wins in South Carolina, Adding New Life to His Candidacy

By BY JONATHAN MARTIN AND ALEXANDER BURNS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2I7NCdQ

Joe Biden wins South Carolina primary with overwhelming support.

By BY NICK CORASANITI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2I5QPKK

After 12 hours, the polls in South Carolina have closed.

By BY LISA LERER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/388KTeQ

A crowd waits for Warren in Houston: ‘I just love her energy.’

By BY MICHAEL HARDY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32ER890

Looking to Super Tuesday, Buttigieg campaigns in Nashville.

By BY DANIEL JACKSON from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32FTaWd

Wikipedia article of the day for March 1, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for March 1, 2020 is König-class battleship.
The König class was a group of four battleships built for the Imperial German Navy on the eve of World War I. The class was composed of König, Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf, and Kronprinz (pictured). The Königs were an improvement over the preceding Kaiser class, mounting ten 30.5 cm (12 in) SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets. Two turrets were mounted forward of the main superstructure in a superfiring pair, the third was placed on the centerline amidships, and the fourth and fifth turrets were aft, also in a superfiring pair. This allowed all 10 guns to fire in a large arc. The most powerful warships of the German High Seas Fleet at the outbreak of war in 1914, the class operated as a unit throughout World War I. The ships took part in the Battle of Jutland, where they acted as the German vanguard. They survived the war and were interned at Scapa Flow in November 1918. All four ships were scuttled on 21 June 1919. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Germany.)

South Carolina primary: Joe Biden projected to win

It comes as a major boost to the former vice-president's flagging presidential campaign.

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Berlin International Film Festival: Iranian film about executions wins top prize

Director Mohammad Rasoulof is banned from leaving Iran and filmed There Is No Evil in secret.

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Afghan conflict: What will Taliban do after signing US deal?

A sense of cautious optimism is rising, but Afghanistan's political future is yet to be decided.

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Trump Team Testing ‘Off-the-Shelf’ Drugs to Cure Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration is testing existing “off-the-shelf” drugs to combat the coronavirus, a cabinet official said Saturday.A national lab in Tennessee recently made “an important discovery” involving existing drugs, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.“The scientists at our Oak Ridge National Laboratory were able to look at the protein strains and determine -- perhaps, it’s still early -- that we can find some off-the-shelf drugs that can help us not only cure the disease but stop the spread of the infection,” Brouillette said.Brouillette was responding to a question about what his agency is doing to help combat the virus, which has caused markets to plunge and killed nearly 3,000 people across the globe. In the U.S., where 22 cases have been reported, the virus has killed one person -- a woman from Washington state -- and more cases are likely, President Donald Trump said Saturday.In addition to the laboratory tests, Brouillette said he’s harnessing the power of his agency’s “super computers” as well as artificial intelligence capabilities to assist organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and the World Heath Organization to conduct modeling on the virus.“We want to know how far is this going to spread and at what point might it peak,” he said.To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Matthew G. Miller, Virginia Van NattaFor 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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Man whose son was found encased in cement sentenced to 72 years in prison

A Colorado man whose seven-year-old son was repeatedly abused before being found encased in concrete in a Denver storage unit has been sentenced to 72 years in prison for the death.Leland Pankey received the sentence on Friday, with one count of child abuse landing him 48 years in prison and 24 years for tampering with the body.

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After chemical attack and kidnapping, migrant mom tries again to enter U.S.

“They’re putting us at risk,” the asylum-seeker said. “After all we’ve been through.”

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South Korea virus cases surge as WHO sounds maximum alert

South Korea reported its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases on Saturday as concerns grew of a possible epidemic in the United States and the World Health Organization raised its risk alert to its highest level. The virus has rapidly spread across the world in the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy. The vast majority of infections have been in China but more daily cases are now logged outside the country, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as major hotspots.

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Billionaire Tom Steyer shakes up primary with slavery reparations plan

For centuries, South Carolina’s Charleston was the largest port of entry for the transatlantic slave trade. Now, billionaire presidential candidate Tom Steyer is shaking up the state’s Democratic primary by advocating slavery reparations for African-Americans.

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The FDA just announced the first drug shortage caused by the coronavirus, but wouldn't identify the drug

China is a critical player in the global supply chain for drugs, as many ingredients in the medicines we take are manufactured there.

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Rejected by Jamaica, Caymans over virus fears, cruise ship docks in Mexico

A cruise ship turned away from Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member tested positive for flu has docked in Mexico and passengers will be allowed to disembark as long as "health standards" are met, the country's president said Thursday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that the Meraviglia, which has been anchored off Cozumel island in the Caribbean since Wednesday, "is being allowed to dock" and those aboard may be allowed off. The operator, MSC Cruises, lashed out at authorities for refusing to allow it to dock at its previous destinations for "acting out of fears" over the new coronavirus.

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Biden wins South Carolina Democratic primary, Fox News projects, in crucial boost to campaign after early losses

02/29/20 4:01 PM

Joe Biden to win South Carolina vote - US media

It comes as a major boost to the former vice-president's flagging presidential campaign.

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Berlin International Film Festival: Iranian film about executions wins top prize

Director Mohammad Rasoulof is banned from leaving Iran and filmed There Is No Evil in secret.

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Friday, February 28, 2020

Who Will Care For Society’s Forgotten?

By BY THERESA BROWN AND LEAH NASH from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2weKSc1

Joe Biden Needs a Win in South Carolina. Will He Get It?

By BY NU WEXLER from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2weKQAV

We Don’t Really Know How Many People Have Coronavirus

By BY ELISABETH ROSENTHAL from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2Tcnghj

Tom Steyer showered South Carolina in political spending. Will it pay off?

By BY STEPHANIE SAUL AND KIM BARKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2TcmYHf

Celine: Fall 2020

By Unknown Author from NYT Fashion https://ift.tt/397CDwY

Wikipedia article of the day for February 29, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 29, 2020 is Zoo TV Tour.
The Zoo TV Tour (29 February 1992 – 10 December 1993) was a concert tour by Irish rock band U2. Supporting their 1991 album Achtung Baby, the tour visited North America, Europe, Oceania, and Japan. In contrast to U2's previously austere stage setups, Zoo TV shows were elaborate multimedia events, satirising television and media oversaturation by attempting to instill sensory overload in the audience. The stages featured dozens of video screens as well as Trabants as lighting fixtures. Concerts included channel surfing, prank calls, a belly dancer, and transmissions from war-torn Sarajevo. On stage, Bono portrayed characters such as "The Fly" (pictured), "Mirror Ball Man", and "MacPhisto". Zoo TV was the highest-grossing North American tour of 1992 and sold 5.3 million tickets overall. Continuing their 1990s reinvention that began with Achtung Baby and Zoo TV, U2 recorded the album Zooropa during a break in the tour. Many critics gave the tour high praise as a memorable spectacle.

Walkout as Polanksi wins 'best director' at Césars

The Polish-French director is wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in the 1970s.

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Leap Year: What it's like being born on 29 February?

People around the world tell us what it's like being born on 29 February.

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Latvia railway: Why I love living in an old train station

Milda Romanova's home is an old rail station, and at 88 she still loves all things trains.

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Coronavirus Live Updates: Second Unexplained Case Found in California, This Time in Santa Clara County

By Unknown Author from NYT World https://ift.tt/32DG7EJ

Map: Confirmed coronavirus cases, worldwide

More than 81,000 people have been sickened by a coronavirus, mostly in China. This map is updated daily.

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The Sinister Sanders Child-Care Plan

Bernie Sanders announced a “universal child care” proposal at the end of his wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper. The plan would guarantee “every child in America free full-day, full-week, high-quality child care from infancy through age three,” and the campaign estimates that it would cost taxpayers 1.5 trillion dollars over ten years. But aside from being prohibitively expensive and distressingly vague, the plan looks an awful lot like social engineering.Start with the price tag. After failing to explain how he would pay for his expansive agenda — “I can't rattle off to you every nickel and every dime,” Sanders told Anderson Cooper in a disastrous moment of candor — the Sanders campaign released a partial list of pay-fors the day after the interview, laying out the cost of the senator’s major proposals alongside the tax hikes a Sanders administration would pursue to finance its domestic agenda. The campaign pegged the child-care proposal at a $150 billion annual price tag, more expensive than current federal outlays on unemployment insurance and the SNAP program combined.Add the child-care initiative to the bevy of programs Sanders has already promised to enact as president, and the fiscal feasibility of a child-care proposal grows more uncertain.The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released their analysis of Sanders’s universal child-care plan yesterday, and raised concerns that the Sanders campaign was overestimating federal receipts from its proposed “tax on extreme wealth”:> Based on the work of economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the Sanders campaign estimates this wealth tax would raise $4.35 trillion. This would be enough to finance Senator Sanders's $1.5 trillion universal child care and pre-K plan, his $2.5 trillion housing plan, and $350 billion of his Medicare for All plan (note that our analysis previously assumed he would dedicate $800 billion, not $350 billion, to Medicare for All).> > In our assessment, however, Senators Sanders’s wealth tax is likely to raise significantly less than advertised due to high levels of tax avoidance and the erosion of taxable wealth over time. We believe the wealth tax is likely to raise roughly $3.3 trillion. Assuming the proceeds are distributed evenly, that would leave the universal child care and pre-K plan nearly $400 billion short.As a point of reference, that $400 billion shortfall is larger than the sum total currently allotted to all federal welfare programs combined.While Sanders’s innumeracy was perhaps to be expected, the senator’s defense of the child-care plan on the merits was surprising. For a candidate with well-documented disdain for corporate America, it was strange to see how much of Sanders’s child-care proposal was concerned with the “career outcomes” of “mothers” who — heaven forfend — make “career sacrifices in order to care for their children.” The Sanders campaign presents female labor participation growth as one of the central selling points for its child-care scheme: “Mothers,” the campaign proclaims, “are 40 percent more likely than fathers to report a negative impact on their career outcomes due to child care considerations,” making the institution of a government-funded child-care scheme a “moral responsibility.” The campaign presents the welfare of the children whose stay-at-home parents enter the workforce as an ancillary concern.The Sanders campaign hardly seemed to consider — or, worse, seemed to have considered and proceeded to ignore — the possibility that those mothers making “career sacrifices” might want to raise their own children. As a 2015 Gallup poll found, 56 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 said they would rather remain at home than enter the workforce, if given the choice. Instead, the socialist appears eager to incentivize more mothers to join the workforce, whereupon they will be presumably “exploited” by the “greedy” corporations the senator has spent a lifetime deriding.Most alarming is the power the senator’s plan vests in the federal government to insert itself into the child-rearing process. Sanders proposes a one-size-fits-all, government-funded child-care model, with no provision for those parents who wish to remain at home. If the Sanders campaign were simply concerned about the costs associated with raising children — both in the home and at a day-care center — it could have proposed a subsidy that also conferred benefits to stay-at-home parents or to relatives providing child care. But the social-engineering component of the plan is unmistakable, as Sanders would essentially create a scheme to augment the “career outcomes” of mothers who might otherwise raise their children at home, thereby boosting enrollment in government-funded child-care centers. Of course, all of those child-care centers will be subject to “quality standards” concocted in Washington.The implications of Sanders’s child-care agenda are clear enough. Right in the heart of the proposal, the Sanders campaign acknowledges that “ages 0 through 4 are the most important years of human life intellectually and emotionally.” Parents ought to be the ones to impart their values to their children in such a formative window, not a Sanders-administration functionary.

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California bracing for spread of coronavirus

California said Thursday it was monitoring some 8,400 people for the new coronavirus, after officials confirmed a woman had contracted the disease without traveling to outbreak-hit regions. Governor Gavin Newsom said travelers arriving from affected areas were being monitored and sought to reassure the public that the risk of contracting the virus remains low.

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Pence tries to project calm as virus response coordinator

Vice President Mike Pence sought to project calm Thursday in his new role as chief coordinator of the government's response to the coronavirus as the Trump administration rushed to contain mounting public concerns and some of the worst stock market declines in more than a decade. Pence convened his first meeting of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force one day after the president made him the government's point-person for the epidemic.

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The 6 largest coronavirus outbreaks outside of China

More new coronavirus cases were reported outside of China than inside the country on Wednesday — the first time since global health officials began tracking the virus.

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Police identify victims, shooter in Milwaukee brewery shooting rampage

Police in Milwaukee on Thursday identified the five brewery employees shot and killed by a co-worker who later took his own life in the latest spasm of gun violence plaguing U.S. workplaces and schools. The motive for the carnage was unclear a day after the shooting at the landmark Molson Coors Beverage Co complex shook Wisconsin's largest city. "Reasons for this are still under investigation," Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said.

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Turkey loses 33 soldiers in attack, Russia deploys warships to Syria coast

Turkish President Recep Erdogan is looking West for support, and at his country's request NATO will be holding a meeting on the situation.

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Ex-Phoenix area sheriff declares victory despite court loss

Former Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost a bid to erase his criminal conviction for disobeying a 2011 court order, but claimed victory Thursday after an appeal's court said the verdict no longer has any legal consequence because of President Donald Trump's pardon. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals explained Arpaio was pardoned before he could be sentenced and that the final judgment in the case ended up dismissing the contempt charge. “They can’t use that conviction against me in a court of law,” Arpaio said.

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Billionaire Steyer shakes up primary with slavery reparations plan

For centuries, South Carolina's Charleston was the largest port of entry for the transatlantic slave trade. Now, a billionaire activist named Tom Steyer is shaking up the state's Democratic primary by advocating slavery reparations for African Americans. A California financier turned philanthropist and environmental campaigner, Steyer has poured tens of millions of dollars into the state ahead of Saturday's vote -- with a single-minded focus on the black voters who make up 60 percent of its Democratic electorate.

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

President Trump holds a rally in North Charleston, S.C., 24 hours before the polls close in the state's Democratic primary. Watc

02/28/20 4:09 PM

Walkout as Polanksi wins 'best director' at Césars

The Polish-French director is wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in the 1970s.

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Trump urges Afghans to seize opportunity for peace

A deal will be signed with the Taliban on Saturday as the US prepares to exit Afghanistan.

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Latvia railway: Why I love living in an old train station

Milda Romanova's home is an old rail station, and at 88 she still loves all things trains.

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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Jay-Z helps 150 inmates at Mississippi prison sue over 'barbaric conditions'

Inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman "live a miserable and hopeless existence confronted daily by imminent risk of substantial harm," the suit said.

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Democrats thrive in the shadow of a Whole Foods. Here’s why that may be trouble.

By BY DAVID WASSERMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/32AjKQU

No, Not Sanders, Not Ever

By BY DAVID BROOKS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2I3EIy0

With a Rebel Yell, New York Revs Up Its War on Idling Vehicles

By BY JEFFERY C. MAYS from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3cby1HY

Bloomberg’s claim of persuading lawmakers to legalize gay marriage is ‘demonstrably false,’ Cuomo says.

By BY THOMAS KAPLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/398O8nA

Arlene Shechet Creates Beauty Out of Chaos

By BY MERRELL HAMBLETON from NYT T Magazine https://ift.tt/3acBkN8

Wikipedia article of the day for February 28, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 28, 2020 is 15th Tank Corps.
The 15th Tank Corps of the Soviet Union's Red Army fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 during World War II, participating in the capture of Grodno and the Augustów Forest. The tank corps was re-formed in 1942 under Major General Vasily Koptsov as part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army (Soviet Guards insignia pictured) and saw combat in the Kozelsk Offensive, taking heavy losses in proportion to the territory gained. The corps was transferred to the southern front in the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive during January 1943, where it helped encircle thousands of Axis troops around the river Don. In February 1943, the unit fought in Operation Star, capturing the key city of Kharkov in eastern Ukraine. After the Soviet advance outran its supply lines, the corps was worn down and virtually destroyed by a German counteroffensive in the Third Battle of Kharkov. It was later rebuilt as part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army and fought in Operation Kutuzov.

Philippines volcano: Residents allowed to visit island

Philippines residents briefly allowed to return to homes near the Taal volcano find haunting scenes.

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Leap years and why we need them

It's a leap year which means there's an extra day in the calendar - 29 February 2020. But why do we need it?

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Coronavirus: On the front line in Wuhan

The BBC speaks to a Chinese doctor who has been on the front line of fighting Coronavirus in Wuhan.

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Burst water main leaves drivers stranded

Flooding in Houston led to cars being submerged and people having to take refuge on their roofs.

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The US Navy orders ships in the Pacific to stay at sea at least 14 days between port calls over coronavirus concerns

Ships have been instructed to remain at sea at least 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the coronavirus.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says it was 'horrifying' the debate didn't have any climate change questions. Bernie Sanders agrees.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) watched Tuesday night's Democratic debate, and one thing stood out to her."Not a single climate change question," she tweeted. "Horrifying." One of the participants, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), agreed, responding, "A disgrace." The Democratic candidates don't shy away from talking about climate change on the campaign trail; billionaire investor and environmentalist Tom Steyer told voters in South Carolina on Tuesday that climate change is his "No. 1 priority," and if elected, he will declare a climate emergency on his first day in office.Poll after poll has shown that climate change is a key issue for voters; last week, the Pew Research Center released a survey showing that for the first time in two decades, a majority of Americans believe that tackling climate change should be a main priority for the president and Congress.Another poll released last week by the nonpartisan nonprofit Climate Nexus found that for Democrats, climate change is one of the two most important issues facing the country right now. "This is the first time in American political history where climate change is not just a top-tier issue, it is the top-tier issue," Anthony Leiserowitz, a senior research scientist at Yale who helped conduct the poll, told The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Naming Mike Pence coronavirus czar with 'zero experience in the medical area' is 'a total joke,' says 2014 Trump Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears

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Man gets life for kidnapping stepdaughter, holding her captive for 19 years

Henri Michelle Piette kidnapped his victim in 1997 when she was 12 and subjected her to nearly 20 years of physical and sexual abuse before she escaped.

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Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse

Medical professionals inside the Islamic Republic tell TIME they believe the country is now grappling with an “epidemic”

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Biden says he's not worried about Trump refusing to leave if defeated in November

Joe Biden says he isn't worried about the prospect of President Trump refusing to leave his post if he’s defeated in November.

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Critic Says Trump Is 'Ignorant' and 'Incoherent' On Coronavirus. Others Call It 'Trump' Virus.

Can President Trump keep the American people prepared but not panicked?

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Seattle Is Socialism’s Laboratory, and It’s Not Pretty

Democratic socialists are in the middle of a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party. Led by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and the “squad” of newly elected congresswomen, the hard-left coalition has laid out an ambitious agenda to transform the United States into a democratic socialist nation. While many commentators have dismissed the rhetoric around the Green New Deal, Housing for All, and End Cash Bail as pie-in-the-sky abstraction, in Seattle, the socialist coalition is quickly translating this agenda into a political reality.After the socialist Left’s stunning victory over business-backed moderates in last year’s municipal elections, Seattle has effectively become the nation’s laboratory for socialist policies. Since the beginning of the year, the socialist faction on the Seattle City Council has proposed a range of policies on taxes, housing, homelessness, and criminal justice that put into practice the national democratic-socialist agenda. In the most recent session, socialist councilwoman Kshama Sawant and her allies have proposed massive new taxes on corporations, unprecedented regulations on landlords (including rent control and a ban on “winter evictions”), the mandated construction of homeless encampments, and the gradual dismantling of the criminal justice system, beginning with the end of cash bail.Seattle’s socialists have established a narrative that provides the rhetorical basis for their policies. They argue that the corporate-technological elite, led by companies such as Amazon, has hoarded the rewards of the digital economy and created widespread misery for workers, renters, and people of color. As Seattle-based commentator and Marxist theoretician Charles Mudede has written: “We are in the 21st century. We are in one of the richest cities on earth. And yet, the old war between those who employ labor and those who sell their labor is still very much with us.”In the socialist vision, the “new class war” is now entering a more direct phase of conflict. They have launched a political campaign to dramatically curtail the power of corporations, landlords, and traditional neighborhood interests, and to build a coalition of socialists, progressives, unions, and the dispossessed that is capable of achieving power. In short, the solution to the class war is to win the class war.While conservatives and moderates have typically dismissed the socialist movement as a “big-city problem,” the new socialist agenda is no longer confined to the municipal boundaries of places such as Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. Increasingly, the hard-left coalition has turned these cities into “laboratories for socialism,” with the goal of eventually commercializing their policies through the national Democratic Party. Already, Bernie Sanders, the current front-runner in the Democratic primary, has proposed a nationalized version of the Seattle agenda: Tax Amazon, enact national rent control, construct public housing, and end cash bail.But Seattle’s socialists have gone one step further. In order to consolidate their newfound power, the progressive-socialists have begun to manipulate the democratic process in their own favor: first, by providing all Seattle voters with $100 in taxpayer-funded “democracy vouchers,” which are easily collected by unions, activists, and socialist groups; and second, by implementing a ban on corporate spending in local elections by companies like Amazon. At the same time, black-bloc activists and Antifa militants intimidate any potential opposition by disrupting events, vandalizing homes, and even orchestrating death threats against political adversaries.What can opponents of socialism do? First, recognize that it must be fought on all fronts. While the socialists form a small minority of the national electorate, they have demonstrated the capability of seizing power in America’s major cities, which are home to much of the digital “means of production” in tech, media, advertising, entertainment, and research. The business sector in cities such as Seattle must recognize that the progressive-socialists are no longer interested in gaining reasonable concessions; they intend to overthrow capitalism itself.Over the past decade, the dominant corporate strategy has been to quietly advocate for neoliberal economic policies, while pandering to the cultural mandates of “diversity and inclusion.” That era is now over. As the experience in Seattle reveals, the socialist Left cannot be appeased on cultural issues — they are fighting a war against capital and they intend to win it.If the business sector wants to protect its own interests, it must rapidly adapt to this new reality. It’s no longer enough for local Chambers of Commerce to drop leaflets before local elections; they must build a permanent counterbalance to the progressive-socialists. They must begin by commissioning original policy research, funding local neighborhood groups, and building a political alliance of conservatives, moderates, and old-line liberals. In other words, they must reestablish a balance of power in America’s cities.If nothing is done, the laboratories of socialism in America’s cities will become a national problem. It’s time to shut them down.

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Japan woman tests positive for virus after 'recovery'

A woman in Japan who contracted the new coronavirus and was released from hospital after recovering has tested positive again, officials said Thursday. The case is the first time a patient apparently cleared of the virus has subsequently tested positive for it, a local official in Osaka said. The woman in her 40s was first confirmed as infected with the coronavirus on January 29.

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Saturday, February 29, 2020

Friday, February 28, 2020

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Wednesday, February 26, 2020