| Trump storms New Hampshire on eve of primary looking to 'shake up the Dems' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:21 PM PST  President Trump held a campaign rally Monday in Manchester, where he encouraged his supporters to cast votes for the "weakest candidate" in the Democratic field in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.
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| 'Sanctuary' battle heats up as Trump kicks New Yorkers from program for expedited entry Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:33 PM PST  The Trump administration's war on so-called sanctuary cities and states is being taken to a new level, with a court battle looming in New York over a rule that may keep hundreds of thousands of residents from enrolling in a program meant to speed reentry in the country from abroad.
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| Jury being chosen for trial of man charged with killing 8 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 06:00 AM PST  Jury selection continues Tuesday in north Mississippi for the death penalty trial of a man accused of killing eight people on the other end of the state in May 2017. Willie Cory Godbolt, now 37, said "I'm sorry" while a reporter was recording him after the shootings in south Mississippi's Lincoln County. Jury selection started Monday at the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, which is near Memphis, Tennessee.
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| Passenger tried to sneak package of tiny dead birds into US at Washington Dulles airport Posted: 11 Feb 2020 06:20 AM PST  U.S. Customs and Border Protection found a bag of dead birds in luggage at Washington Dulles airport. The passenger said it was cat food.
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| WHO warns of 'very grave' global virus threat Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:42 AM PST  The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that the novel coronavirus was a "very grave threat" for the planet as it hosted the first major conference on fighting the epidemic. "With 99 percent of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world," WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the start of the meeting. The virus, first identified in the city of Wuhan in central China on December 31, has killed more than 1,000 people, infected over 42,000 and reached some 25 countries.
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| A Maryland school district apologized after a 'clearly visible' Nazi flag in a school window 'caused hurt' in the community Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:10 PM PST  The flag horrified some members of the school's community, while others saw it as a teaching tool, not a declaration of anti-Semitism.
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| 'I was scared to death': Patients jailed over unpaid medical debt in rural Kansas Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:42 AM PST  At a time when healthcare policy dominates national debate, a county in Kansas is jailing individuals with medical debt.Judge David Casement is a magistrate judge in Coffeyville, Kansas, where the poverty rate is twice the national average. He presides over cases in which individuals with medical debt are brought to court to face the medical companies they owe. During the hearings, the debtors must make a case for their own poverty during what is known as a "debtors exam."
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| Bernie Sanders looks to young voters to help him recapture the magic in New Hampshire Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:53 AM PST  Four years ago, Bernie Sanders scored a resounding victory in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary. This year Sanders urgently needs a repeat performance, and his campaign is turning to young voters to make it happen.
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| Manchin to Trump: I'm no Munchkin, and by the way, you're 'much heavier than me' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:35 PM PST  Sen. Joe Manchin and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg respond to taunts by President Trump in a similar way.
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| Police: Driver traveling 79 mph when Oklahoma students hit Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:47 AM PST  A pickup truck was traveling 79 mph (127 kph) in a 25 mph (40 kph) zone when it struck members of a high school cross-country team on a sidewalk in suburban Oklahoma City, killing two and injuring the others, a police sergeant said Tuesday. A police report said the driver, Max Leroy Townsend, 57, was traveling at about 24 mph (39 kph) in Moore on Feb. 2 before accelerating, crossing two lanes of traffic onto the sidewalk, striking several parked vehicles and slamming into the students.
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| Michelle Malkin Endorses Racist CPAC Rival Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:14 AM PST  This week: * CPAC gets a racist rival, with help from Michelle Malkin * Fox News leak questions Sean Hannity's guest list * Check out this book! * Seth Rich conspiracy theorists get a big boostCPAC, but for white nationalists: Later this month, conservative operatives from all over the country will head to a hotel outside Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual mega-confab for all things Trump. But this time, CPAC will face a racist rival conference at an undisclosed location nearby: the "America First Political Action Conference," featuring two speakers who marched in the white supremacist Charlottesville rally in 2017. Ordinarily, a gathering this fringe wouldn't mean much for the right—except for the fact that Michelle Malkin, one of the most prominent conservative columnists in the country, is also speaking. Malkin's headlining role raises questions about how far racist ideas are infiltrating the mainstream right. The backstory here is that a particularly online section of the right has been riven for the past few months between "groypers"—the white nationalist activists and their fellow travelers—and more establishment conservative elements like Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and the organizers of CPAC. Organized around white nationalist Nick Fuentes, the "groypers"—who take their name from an obese toad version of Pepe the Frog—started showing up at Turning Point events and shouting down speakers like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). They claimed that Crenshaw and his allies aren't conservative enough, and many of their questions were aimed at questioning the United States' support for Israel, in an attempt to "red-pill" campus conservatives toward more extreme views.Malkin has gone all-in on the groypers, apparently because of her hardline stance on immigration. She joined the encrypted messaging app Telegram—their preferred social media platform—and even lost her speaker's bureau contract over it. Now Malkin, who had a headlining speech at CPAC just last year, is positioning the racist AFPAC variation as the real conservative conference. She'll appear at the event alongside Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, and Patrick Casey, the leader of a white nationalist group that rebranded after its internal chat logs leaked. Malkin's appearance at AFPAC raises the embarrassing possibility that plenty of CPAC attendees will head over to AFPAC on Friday night, linking the conservative movement's leading conference with white nationalists.Malkin has promoted AFPAC on Twitter and declared that, unlike CPAC, it would have no "swamp lobbyists lurking backstage." Malkin didn't respond to a request for comment. But her appearance at the white nationalist event suggests that the far-right, racist "groyper" ethos is getting more entrenched with conservatives. Want this in your inbox? sign up now!* * *Fox critiques its own Ukraine coverage: Even some of Fox News' own researchers do not believe the claims made by a number of Sean Hannity's most frequent guests, according to an internal Fox document I reported on last week. In a report from Fox's in-house research unit, a researcher blasted guests like John Solomon and Rudy Giuliani, accusing them of pushing a Ukrainian disinformation campaign.* * *Right Richter Reading Corner: If you like Right Richter and its coverage of marginal, bizarre Trumpland characters, you're going to love the new book Sinking in the Swamp. It's the latest from my colleagues Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay, it's coming out on Tuesday, and it's filled with bizarre stories about what the Trump era means for our country. Check it out!* * *Seth Rich conspiracy theories flare anew: It's been a lean couple of years for Seth Rich conspiracy theorists. The people fixated on the 2016 murder of the Democratic National Committee staffer had their high point in 2017, when Hannity and a Fox reporter pushed the baseless idea that Hillary Clinton had Rich killed for leaking hacked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. Hannity started losing advertisers, Rich's family sued Fox, and the channel ditched the story. Since then, the most prominent Rich conspiracy theorist has been vlogger Matt Couch—a guy with a sizable fringe following but not exactly a household name on the right. That all might be about to change now, though, after redacted emails obtained from the Department of Justice with the subject line "Seth Rich" were released earlier this month.While the emails are all brief and are just about people dismissing the idea that Rich was involved in the WikiLeaks email hack, they've been seized on by Rich conspiracy theorists. And they've made their way over to OAN, the cable network that Trump increasingly praises in an attempt to push Fox rightward. Last week, OAN ran an entire segment about the emails, with the headline proclaiming: "Attorney: FBI Had Been Lying About The Murder Of Seth Rich." The blast of cable news attention has reinvigorated Seth Rich conspiracy theorists, suggesting that the saga the Rich family has long asked speculators to end won't be stopping anytime soon. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Texas Attorney General asks Supreme Court to repeal a California travel ban Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:04 PM PST  The Texas attorney general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a California law prohibiting state employees from using taxpayer-funded business trips to expos or conferences in Texas.
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| These 10 Women Are Changing the Way We Talk About Science Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:39 PM PST |
| China's Communist Party is purging local officials as public anger mounts at coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:53 PM PST  China has removed high-ranking officials in the Hubei province amid public outcry over the mounting death toll of the coronavirus outbreak.
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| As coronavirus spreads on cruise ships, what does it mean for cruisers and cruise lines? 'It's day-by-day' Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:11 PM PST  Coronavirus has forced the cruise industry to take measures to keep the outbreak at bay. But how will it impact the industry and cruisers?
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| Former Ohio State wrestlers call for investigation into university's ties to Jeffrey Epstein Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:00 PM PST |
| Klobuchar surge in New Hampshire could reshuffle Democratic White House race Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:31 PM PST  U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar's poll numbers are rising, her crowds are building and she says it is finally her time. Voters in New Hampshire will decide on Tuesday if she is right. Klobuchar, a moderate U.S. senator from Minnesota who has been stuck in the middle of the crowded Democratic presidential pack, rose to third place in New Hampshire in a pair of opinion polls released on Monday, the day before the state's vital primary.
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| More than 2,400 fetuses found at Illinois home to be buried Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:25 PM PST  In what's sure to be a politically charged ceremony, more than 2,400 fetuses found last year at the suburban Chicago home of one of the Midwest's most prolific abortion doctors will be buried Wednesday in Indiana, a state with some of the nation's toughest anti-abortion laws. Indiana's top law enforcement official will preside over the mass burial in South Bend. The service comes five months after relatives sorting through Dr. Ulrich Klopfer's belongings after his Sept. 3 death came across 2,246 sets of preserved fetal remains stacked floor to ceiling in his garage.
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| The FBI Makes a Bizarre Claim About Pro-Choice Terrorism Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:55 PM PST  The FBI is expanding its focus on domestic terrorism, and that includes pro-choice violence—even though such violence is so vanishingly rare, it's all but nonexistent. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray disclosed that the bureau has recently "changed our terminology as part of a broader reorganization of the way in which we categorize our domestic terrorism efforts." It's part of a much-heralded reinvigoration of the bureau's domestic terrorism focus after a rising tide of mostly white-supremacist terrorism.Among four broad categories of domestic terrorism that the FBI confronts, Wray said, is "abortion violent extremism." But Wray wasn't only talking about the pro-life extremism that murders abortion providers in their churches, he hastened to add, but "people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic."His questioner, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), was puzzled at Wray's seeming equivalence: "People on either side of that issue don't commit violence." In fact, the FBI pointed The Daily Beast to just one episode of pro-choice-inspired terrorism—one that did not involve an actual act of violence, but rather a threat in an online comments section.But Wray persisted: "Well, we've actually had a variety of kinds of violence under that, believe it or not. But at the end of the day." Bass asked, "Really, that blow up buildings and threaten doctors?" Rather than responding, Wray moved on to detailing the FBI's next domestic-terrorism category, one about "animal rights and environmental extremism."Wray's comments weren't the first instance of the bureau promoting the idea of pro-choice violence as a real threat. In 2017, the FBI distributed a brief "Abortion Extremism Reference Guide" at a counterterrorism training for local law enforcement, listing "pro-choice extremists" as a group of domestic terrorists. The document, first reported by Jezebel, claimed that these extremists "believe it is their moral duty to protect those who provide or receive abortion services"—though even this document noted that only one "pro-choice extremist" had ever been prosecuted. Additionally, an earlier FBI training document obtained by the ACLU in 2012 referenced pro-choice violence but did not "provide a single example of violence against abortion opponents," the ACLU wrote. "Abortion violent extremism" of any sort accounts for a only small percentage of FBI domestic terrorism cases. Wray on Wednesday that the "top threat" of domestic terrorism comes from what he called "racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists." Out of approximately 850 current cases that a senior FBI official cited in congressional testimony last May, about half concern anti-government extremism and another 40 percent concern racist terrorism. That leaves around 85 cases of violence motivated by animal rights, ecological degradation, abortion and miscellaneous cases. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the total caseload and the breakdown are still current.But abortion extremism doesn't have an "either side." The primary case of pro-choice violent extremism that the FBI pointed The Daily Beast toward—the same one cited in the 2017 FBI document—is the 2012 conviction of Theodore Schulman, who had a long history of threatening anti-abortion activists. Schulman's ultimate downfall was the result of posting a threat in the comments section of religious conservative outlet First Things: "if Roeder is acquitted, someone will respond by killing" Princeton's Robert George and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, he wrote. That itself spoke to the discrepancy in violence between the two sides. "Roeder" was a reference to Scott Roeder, who murdered abortion provider George Tiller in the foyer of a Wichita church in 2009. Other instances of anti-abortion violence include a trio of bombings at Florida abortion clinics in 1985, a string of arson attacks on a Washington clinic in 1983, and a 2015 shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood that killed three. Between 1993 and today, anti-abortion activists murdered 11 people and attempted to kill another 26, according to the National Abortion Federation."Anti-choice violence as we know it is constant, pervasive, and escalating dramatically, and it threatens the civil liberties as well as the lives of our patents, our members, our society," NAF President Katherine Ragsdale told The Daily Beast. Wray's comments, she added, are a "danger to public perception.""It tars everyone with the same brush when in fact pro-choice folks simply are not doing this," she said.The Daily Beast has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI to document the extent of its focus on alleged pro-choice violent extremism.Mila Johns, a domestic terrorism researcher affiliated with the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database, said violence was "very much lopsided in the other direction," the anti-abortion side, and called Wray's equivalence "a very political statement." The database, which tracks terrorist attacks across the world since 1970, records about 300 incidents related to anti-abortion violence and none for pro-choice violence. However, an Austin woman in 2016 was charged with throwing a crude Molotov cocktail at anti-abortion protesters. And last year, an 85-year old anti-abortion protester in San Francisco was knocked to the ground after he attempted jamming the bicycle spokes of a man who appears to have stolen a pro-life group's banner. Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue—a radical anti-abortion group that moved its headquarters to Wichita, Kansas, specifically to target Dr. Tiller—said his movement has been on the receiving end of threats. He estimated he had made between 20 and 50 complaints to federal law enforcement over the last two decades, for everything from anthrax scares to online intimidation. Wichita resident Christopher Thompson, he noted, was sentenced to 12 months in jail last year for making menacing calls to Operation Rescue's office and employees.But when asked about specific instances of pro-choice violence, Newman cited only the murder of James Pouillon, an Operation Save America activist who was shot while protesting abortion outside a high school in 2009. (The judge in that case said the killer's motivations were not tied to abortion.) Newman declined to give examples of abortion-rights violence of the scale and magnitude of that enacted by the anti-abortion movement. "You got your scorecard and I got mine," he said. "All of them are terrible."The FBI's position is that pro-choice activists and groups not concerned with violence don't need to worry about the new domestic terrorism categorization. "We don't investigate ideology or rhetoric or anything of that sort," Wray testified. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, but pointed to comments from the bureau's former assistant director for counterterrorism, Mike McGarrity, from last June. "It is important to remember that in line with our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States, no FBI investigation can be opened solely on the basis of First Amendment-protected activity," McGarrity testified to a House panel in June. "Rather, domestic terrorism investigations on individuals are opened on the basis of information concerning the occurrence or threat of violent criminal actions by the individual in furtherance of an ideology."However, prior episodes during the 18-year-old war on terror show the FBI does not always hold a rigid distinction between ideology that isn't to be investigated and violence that is. In 2011, its counterterrorism training at Quantico included instructional material that held Islam was an ideology, rather than a religion, with violence baked into its doctrines. The point of the training was to portray Islam itself as a threat to national security—which, for an investigative entity with broad domestic powers, was ominous enough for the Obama administration to order the training materials removed. Michael German, a former FBI special agent who investigated domestic terrorism, said the FBI was not only engaging in a false equivalence but "the manufacturing of an imaginary violent movement," reminiscent of its now-discarded "black identity extremism" category. Anti-Abortion Violence at All-Time HighThe bureau "seems to be grasping a tiny number of unrelated incidents that are not part of any organized effort to falsely imply that such a 'domestic terrorist' movement exists," said German, now with the Brennan Center for Justice. "This is a misleading analysis of dubious purpose, apparently to satisfy some political constituency, which is not what an objective law enforcement agency should be doing." But for some in the reproductive rights space, the threat posed by anti-abortion violence is enough that they are willing to accept dubious FBI categorization to ensure it gets investigated."Those of us in this movement have lost friends and family," Ragsdale said. "By all means, investigate the escalating violence.""And if politics requires you to have a category that says pro-choice violence, go right ahead," she added. "I'd be interested to see if anything ever pops up."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Why Is America Still Storing Dozens Of Nuclear Weapons In Turkey? Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:15 AM PST  Isn't it time to bring them home?
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| Nikola announces Badger electric pickup set to compete with Rivian and Tesla Posted: 11 Feb 2020 03:16 AM PST  On Monday, Nikola announced the launch of its Badger electric pickup truck, a model said to generate over 900hp and have a range of 600 miles on a single charge. Joining the ranks of Rivian, Tesla, and now GMC with the revival of the Hummer, Nikola will be launching its own rendition of the electric pickup truck. The Badger is a model "designed to target and exceed every electric or petrol pickup in its class" and handle whatever needs a construction company could have for it.
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| Air Force One may soon get its first new paint job since the Kennedy years — here's what it was like on JFK's version of the presidential airliner Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:20 PM PST  The SAM 26000 arrived in 1962 and would carry eight presidents, numerous dignitaries, and countless diplomats during its 36 years in service.
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| EU Won’t Budge on Open Borders, Switzerland’s Government Warns Posted: 11 Feb 2020 05:49 AM PST |
| Virginia House of Delegates Passes Sweeping Gun-Control Bill Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:23 PM PST  In a raucous session on Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed gun-control legislation that would ban the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles and make the possession of magazines holding more than twelve rounds a felony.The House voted to approve the legislation 51–48, with all Republicans and some Democrats voting against. Capitol police removed gun-rights supporters from the chamber due for the manner in which they protested the bill's passage.The bill would require any owner of a semi-automatic rifle it classifies as an "assault weapon," including AR-15 rifles, to register the weapon with government authorities by 2021. It would also make magazines of over twelve rounds and silencers illegal. It will now head to the state Senate, where previous legislation that would have enacted an "assault weapons" ban failed to get out committee.Democrats in November won control of both houses of the state legislature for the first time since 1994. In concert with Democratic governor Ralph Northam, state lawmakers are attempting to pass a flurry of liberal-leaning laws on gun control, abortion, and other issues. The Washington Post on Tuesday noted that Democrats have introduced so much legislation after years out of power that the legislature has been working late-night hours trying to process the backlog. Democrats have also struggled to take control of the legislative process due to their inexperience holding power.
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| Migrants raped and trafficked as U.S. and Mexico tighten borders, charity says Posted: 11 Feb 2020 09:45 AM PST  Central American migrants are being kidnapped, raped and trafficked in Mexico as they seek to enter the United States amid a migration crackdown, a medical charity said on Tuesday. In Mexico's Nuevo Laredo city - separated from the United States by the Rio Grande - almost 80% of migrants treated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the first nine months of 2019 said they had been victims of violence, including kidnapping. "They're treated as if they aren't really people," Sergio Martin, Mexico coordinator for MSF, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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| Arkansas lawmaker calls for changes after police encounter Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:50 PM PST  A black Arkansas lawmaker plans to introduce legislation next year aimed at changing police tactics after officers drew guns on her and another black politician who had called 911 to report that they were being harassed. Democratic state Rep. Vivian Flowers, from Pine Bluff, said the planned legislation would address the use of police body-cameras; police increasingly collecting data; penalties for filing false police reports; and creating limits to police use of force. At a news conference Monday, Flowers recalled the Feb. 3 incident outside of a Little Rock fundraiser for state House candidate Ryan Davis, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
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| Bloomberg jumps to 2nd among black Democrats, Biden falls, in new poll Posted: 11 Feb 2020 04:53 AM PST  A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday had universally bad news for former Vice President Joe Biden, right as he heads into the New Hampshire primaries. Nationally, the poll found, Biden dropped into second place at 17 percent, the new frontrunner being Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with 25 percent. Relative newcomer Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor who is significantly outspending everyone in the race, comes in third at 15 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 14 percent.But losing his national lead isn't the worst news for Biden. After New Hampshire, where Biden has low exceptions, comes South Carolina, where Biden's strong support among African American voters was expected to keep him on top. According to the Quinnipiac poll, as Axios noted Tuesday, his black firewall is burning. Biden's support among black Democrats dropped to 27 percent in the new poll, from 51 percent in December. And it appears that much of that support shifted to Bloomberg, who jumped to 22 percent support among black voters, followed by Sanders (19 percent), Warren (8 percent), and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg (4 percent). All the Democrats beat President Trump in head-to-head matchups, but Bloomberg's 51-42 percent margin of victory was the largest.Oddsmakers now have Bloomberg in second place for the Democratic nomination, after Sanders, Axios reports.The sample size of black voters in the poll probably wasn't very large, though. Quinnipiac conducted its poll Feb. 5-9 among 1,519 registered voters, 665 of whom are Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. It has an overall margin of error of ±2.5 percentage points and a ±3.8 point margin of error for the Democrats and Democratic leaners.More stories from theweek.com WHO proposes new name for coronavirus Amy Klobuchar looks to Nevada caucuses with TV ad buy President Bloomberg?
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| The Army's New Interceptor Missiles Are The Swiss Army Knives Of Anti-Air Fire Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:53 PM PST  The Multi-Mission Launcher has already performed well in tests.
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| Elizabeth Holmes is pushing to get the Theranos fraud case thrown out Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:24 AM PST  Elizabeth Holmes' attorney said the government's case against Holmes was too vague and full of "fudging language."
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| China reports the most coronavirus deaths in one day as total surpasses 1,000; US confirms 13th case Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST  The one-day death toll of 103 pushed the total past 1,000 and provided an ominous warning that the coronavirus epidemic was accelerating.
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| Germany Is One of the Biggest Brexit Losers Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- A somber feeling is spreading among Germany's elites, as the long-term implications of Brexit sink in. Of the European Union's 27 member states, Ireland obviously has the most to fear from the U.K.'s departure. But Germany may be second. That's because Brexit changes not only the remaining EU but also Germany's role within it — and in ways the Germans have for half a century been trying to avoid.European integration, starting in the 1950s, was for West Germany a way of atoning for its own nationalist and belligerent past. Its citizens were eager to subsume part of their identity in a "post-nationalist," rules-based, non-militarist and largely mercantile entity, in return for being accepted again by their neighbors. Occupied by three of the Allied Powers, they didn't have full national sovereignty, so they didn't worry about ceding more of it to Brussels.To move this European project forward, the Germans relied on different kinds of support from the Allies. To build the structures that later became the EU, they needed France. The French, however, especially under President Charles de Gaulle, saw "Europe" differently: as reconciliation with Germany, yes, but also as a new vector to project French power, the better to keep the mightier "Anglo-Saxons" at bay.Those Anglo-Saxons were of course the U.S. and the U.K., the other two powers the West Germans needed. The U.S. protected them against the Soviets, and kept international order generally. And the Brits were basically a smaller, more familiar — and European — version of the Americans, and thus a welcome counterweight against the French.In fact, German Francophilia was always less a phenomenon than a policy, imposed top-down; by contrast, German Anglophilia spread from the bottom up (even if it wasn't often reciprocated). It helped that the Brits after the war competently ran and rebuilt northwestern Germany — the ancestral homelands, as Germans noted tongue-in-cheek, of the Anglo-Saxons and the Hanoverian kings of England. Once the Beatles showed up in Hamburg, it was basically love all the way.The West Germans also had political motivations for wanting to hug the U.K. inside the European club, against the stubborn resistance of de Gaulle. Germany and France have always had clashing economic traditions. The French one, called dirigisme, is based on state intervention and looks askance at free markets and free trade. The German one, called ordoliberalism, is based on restricting the state to narrow functions (such as antitrust) and otherwise leaving markets and trade pretty free.The Germans thus saw the Brits, like the Dutch, as more naturally aligned in values than the French. Having the U.K. in the club meant that the "north" could gang up in the Council of Ministers (the body in Brussels where member states decide policy). And it did. A fluid "Nordic" bloc has usually had enough votes to veto "southern" ideas it didn't like, even as the European club expanded its membership. Projects driven primarily by the Brits and Germans include the single market, rigorous competition policy and liberal trade deals. Projects they successfully prevented (at least until now) include a European "industrial policy," which tends to be French code for coddling national champions.Brexit means that the center of gravity in the EU has now shifted southeast, in the European Parliament but above all in the Council. With the U.K., the north (defined as Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands) had a blocking minority of 36.8%. Without the U.K., that share has dropped to 27.8%, too small for a veto. Even when Austria and the Baltics are included, the north can now be overruled.Other fault lines crisscross this political geography that are just as treacherous for Germany. They run not only between north and south but also between west and east. For example, the Visegrad four (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) have joined to reject the EU's migrant policy, which they see as dictated by Germany after the refugee crisis of 2015, and they've rallied support from Germany's traditional partners, such as Austria. Depending on the issue, other alliances are constantly taking shape, often aimed against the largest member state, Germany.Geographically and politically, Germany thus finds itself, once again, squeezed in the uncomfortable middle. Historically, this tension is known the German Question and has repeatedly led to troubles. Owing to its "awkward scale," as one former West German chancellor put it, Germany was always either too weak (in the 17th and 18th centuries) or too strong (in the late 19th and early 20th) for the continent to be stable. Other powers either ganged up against it or were dominated by it. As the writer Thomas Mann memorably put it, the continent is forever condemned to choosing between "a German Europe" or "a European Germany."Having the U.K. in the EU mitigated that dilemma. Britain was weighty enough — economically, demographically, militarily — to balance Germany, France and the continent. And nobody was happier about being balanced than the Germans, for the last thing they want is to be forced to lead, knowing that this will invariably rekindle old resentments against them. Brexit means that balance is gone again. The German Question is back.The Brits shouldn't have been surprised that Germany wasn't more forthcoming during Brexit negotiations; for Germans, the cohesion of the EU, and the relationship with France, simply takes precedence. Nonetheless, many Germans have regrets. Some are pushing for a German-British Friendship Treaty to complement whatever deal the EU and the U.K. come up with. Unspoken is an almost primal plea: Dear Brits, please don't leave us continentals to ourselves. To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg's editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. 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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| Marine veterans criticise Buttigieg for overstating his military experience Posted: 11 Feb 2020 11:54 AM PST  A Wall Street Journal op-ed published by a pair of former US Marines has called presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's military experience into question.Greg Kelly, a host at conservative Newsmax TV and a former pilot in the US Marine Corps, and Katie Horgan, a Marine officer deployed in Iraq for 13 months between 2006 and 2012, wrote the piece.
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| Trump's $4.8 trillion budget gets chilly reception from Congress Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:04 AM PST  President Donald Trump's $4.8 trillion (£3.72 trillion) budget plan for the coming fiscal year drew a prompt rejection on Monday from congressional Democrats, who said it betrayed his promise to protect popular health and safety-net programs. The White House presented the budget as a blueprint for the president's policy priorities. The budget is largely a political document that serves as a starting point for negotiations with Congress.
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| Ginsburg: Equal Rights Amendment backers should start over Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:30 PM PST  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Monday that those like her who support an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution should start over in trying to get it passed rather than counting on breathing life into the failed attempt from the 1970s. "I would like to see a new beginning," Ginsburg said during an event at Georgetown's law school in Washington. Congress sent the amendment, which guarantees men and women equal rights under the law, to the states in 1972.
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| New York man who posted photos of dead teen online pleads guilty to her murder Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:30 PM PST  "I've thought about Bianca and how she didn't deserve what happened to her," Brandon Clark said in court.
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| 'Soon we will all be infected': Indian crew on quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship pleads for help as coronavirus cases spike Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:33 AM PST  Indian crew members shared a video on Facebook, begging their government to rescue all 160 of them. They are afraid of "who will be next."
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| Russia's Tsar Bomba Nuke Is So Destructive That It Was Only Tested Once Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:45 AM PST  And never used.
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| Coronavirus expert says he knows when the virus 'will burn itself out,' according to leaked analysis Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:48 PM PST  A traffic policeman adjusts his mask on a street in Beijing, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. China's coronavirus death toll on Sunday has surpassed the number of fatalities in the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic, but fewer new cases were reported in a possible sign its spread may be slowing as other nations step up efforts to block the disease. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) With the death toll climbing each day, fear and uncertainty have spread farther and farther around the globe as coronavirus continues to captivate the world's attention. However, John Nicholls, a pathology professor at the University of Hong Kong, says he knows when the virus will become inactive.In a private conference call organized last week by CLSA, a brokerage firm based in Hong Kong, investment analysts had a chance to ask Nicholls, one of the world's foremost experts on the topic, questions about the novel coronavirus. News of the private conference call was first reported by The Financial Times, and in the days since the call, more details of Nicholls' analysis have surfaced on social media and elsewhere online, including a transcript of the call.The transcript of the call showed Nicholls believes weather conditions will be a key factor in the demise of the novel coronavirus. Referencing the SARS outbreak from 2002 and 2003, Nicholls said he thinks similar weather factors will also shut down the spread of the novel coronavirus."Three things the virus does not like: 1. Sunlight, 2. Temperature, and 3. Humidity," Nicholls said in response to a question about when he thinks confirmed cases will peak, the transcript showed."Sunlight will cut the virus' ability to grow in half so the half-life will be 2.5 minutes and in the dark it's about 13 to 20 [minutes]," Nicholls said. "Sunlight is really good at killing viruses."For that reason, he also added that he doesn't expect areas such as Australia, Africa and the Southern hemisphere to see high rates of infection because they are in the middle of summer. Tourists wearing face masks line up to a departure gate at Bali airport, Indonesia, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. Thousands of Chinese tourists are reportedly stranded in Bali following suspending all flights to and from China amid growing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati) Regarding temperatures, Nicholls said the warmer the better for stopping the spread of the virus, according to the transcript of the conference call."The virus can remain intact at 4 degrees (39 degrees Fahrenheit) or 10 degrees (50 F) for a longer period of time," Nicholls said, referring to Celsius measurements, according to the transcript. "But at 30 degrees (86 degrees F) then you get inactivation. And high humidity -- the virus doesn't like it either," he added, the transcript of the call showed.However, Nicholls also said that he doesn't consider SARS or MERS, a Middle Eastern novel virus that spread in 2012, to be an accurate comparison for this year's outbreak. Rather, the novel coronavirus most closely relates to a severe case of the common cold.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP"Compared to SARS and MERS, we are talking about a coronavirus that has a mortality rate of eight to 10 times less deadly to SARS to MERS," Nicholls is quoted as having said on the conference call. "So, a correct comparison is not SARS or MERS but a severe cold. Basically, this is a severe form of the cold."Similar to a common cold, the surrounding environment of the outbreak plays an important role in determining the survivability and spreadability of the virus, he continued. Because of the impending shift in seasons, Nicholls said he expects the spread of the virus to be curbed in a matter of months."I think it will burn itself out in about six months," Nicholls said. A woman with a face protection mask walks along the high street in Brighton, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. Britain has declared the new coronavirus that emerged from China a "serious and imminent threat to public health'' and announced new measures Monday to combat the spread of the disease.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein) According to the transcript, Nicholls elaborated on exactly when he expects the novel coronavirus to subside as investment analysts posed more questions."The environment is a crucial factor. The environment will be unfavorable for growth around May," Nicholls said. "The evidence is to look at the common cold -- it's always during winter. So the natural environment will not be favorable in Asia in about May."Average temperatures typically reach as high as 86 F in Wuhan, the outbreak's epicenter, on June 17. The AccuWeather forecast calls for temperatures ranging from a high of 64 F to a low of 30 F over the next seven days.When asked about the probability of the novel coronavirus becoming endemic, Nicholls responded, "If it is like SARS it will not be endemic. It most likely will be a hit and run just like SARS," according to the transcript.Experts that AccuWeather has spoken to previously have stopped short of linking weather to the spread of the virus.Earlier this month, Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D. professor and vice chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology at Johns Hopkins University, told AccuWeather cooler weather provides more favorable conditions for the spread of most respiratory viruses."Many respiratory viruses transmit better at low temperature and humidity, but we have no data on how this might affect 2019-nCoV transmission," Pekosz said in an email to AccuWeather on Feb. 4."Respiratory coronaviruses do appear more frequently in cooler months (late fall, winter). Since we don't know how this virus was transmitted within its natural host, it's difficult to predict if it will have the same pattern as human respiratory coronaviruses," Pekosz said at the time.Nicholls' comments, while made privately, represent the most definitive tie to the weather a health expert has made yet.At the University of Hong Kong, Nicholls has spent the past 25 years studying coronavirus and he served as a key member of the team that characterized SARS. The Hong Kong University Faculty of Medicine's Clinical Research Centre also created the world's first lab-grown copy of novel coronavirus, according to CNN correspondent Kristie Lu Stout, giving researchers a major breakthrough in understanding the behavior of the virus.However, in an interview with Lu Stout, Nicholls said there is one key difference between prior outbreaks and the current spread of the novel coronavirus. Unlike previous versions of coronavirus, the novel coronavirus has been able to be spread before symptoms present themselves in patients. A personnel wearing protective suit waits near an entrance at the Cheung Hong Estate, a public housing estate during evacuation of residents in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health evacuated some residents from the public housing estate after two cases of novel coronavirus infection to stop the potential risk of further spread of the virus. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) But despite that frightening trait, Nicholls' long-term optimism hasn't changed in other public remarks that he's made recently."My feeling is that this is going to be just like SARS, that the world is going to get a very bad cold for about five months," Nicholls told CNN last week.AccuWeather reached out to Nicholls on Tuesday for comment and is waiting to hear back.The World Health Organization (WHO) officially designated the virus COVID-19 on Tuesday, adding that the first vaccine could be available in 18 months, according to Reuters.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios
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| Wisconsin kindergarten student, 6, killed while waiting for bus; family member injured Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:22 PM PST |
| Joe Biden continues to slip, while Bloomberg climbs to 2nd among black Democrats: poll Posted: 11 Feb 2020 08:38 AM PST  A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday had universally bad news for former Vice President Joe Biden, right as he heads into the New Hampshire primary. Nationally, the poll found, Biden dropped into second place at 17 percent, the new frontrunner being Sen. Bernie Sanders, with 25 percent.
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| Here's the difference between a 'socialist' and a 'democratic socialist' Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:06 PM PST  Despite Trump's claims, what politicians like Sanders are pushing for is not akin to the authoritarian-style socialism in places like Venezuela.
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| Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer vow to 'fight every penny' of Trump's 'heartless' budget Posted: 11 Feb 2020 10:37 AM PST  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to write her own federal spending plan, rejecting Donald Trump's latest budget proposal as "heartless."The Democratic leader, echoed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, used a midday press conference to slam the president's fiscal 2021 spending blueprint over its proposed cuts to social safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
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| Man killed in Tesla crash had complained about Autopilot Posted: 11 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  An Apple engineer who died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier on a Silicon Valley freeway had complained before his death that the SUV's Autopilot system would malfunction in the area where the crash happened. The complaints were detailed in a trove of documents released Tuesday by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the March, 2018 crash that killed engineer Walter Huang. The documents say Huang told his wife that Autopilot had previously veered his SUV toward the same barrier on U.S. 101 near Mountain View, California where he later crashed.
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| Young teen fatally shot 16-year-old who stopped him from bullying a smaller kid, Texas police say Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:48 AM PST  An unidentified teenager in Arlington, Texas, pulled out a handgun Thursday and shot dead Samuel Reynolds, 16, who had stopped the shooter from bullying a smaller boy a few days earlier, police say. "After he broke up the fight, he started having trouble with the suspect," Arlington Police Lt. Christopher Cook said in a news conference Friday. The boy with the gun was between 13 and 15 years old and lived in the same apartment complex as Reynolds, NBC News reports.Police say they have video of the entire incident from security cameras in the apartment complex. "He pulls out a handgun from the rear part of his pants he was wearing, points it at the victim and fires one round," Cook said. The gunman is being charged with murder."This senseless act of gun violence has no place in society and our hometown community," said Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson. "We will direct our attention to how a young teen suspect accessed a firearm used in the offense."More stories from theweek.com Why Wall Street isn't freaking out about Bernie Sanders Why did Eminem perform at the Oscars? He thought his belated performance 'would be cool.' Bloomberg jumps to 2nd among black Democrats, Biden falls, in new poll
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| Climate change models predicted ocean currents would speed up — but not this soon Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:05 PM PST |
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