| Trump crashes Iowa ahead of caucuses and crucial impeachment vote Posted: 30 Jan 2020 06:35 PM PST  Four days before the Democratic presidential candidates will compete in the Iowa caucuses, and with the U.S. Senate debating in Washington whether to remove him from office, Trump stormed into the Hawkeye state to try to create headlines of his own.
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| Alleged leader of Iraqi al Qaeda group arrested in Arizona Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:36 PM PST ![Alleged leader of Iraqi al Qaeda group arrested in Arizona]( "Alleged leader of Iraqi al Qaeda group arrested in Arizona") Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, 42, is wanted in Iraq on charges of premeditated murder of the Iraqi police officers in 2006, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Arizona. An Iraqi judge issued a warrant for Al-Nouri's arrest and the government there issued an extradition request to the U.S. Justice Department, the statement said.
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| Venezuela’s Guaido Rallies Supporters, Meets Rubio in Miami Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:01 PM PST ![Venezuela's Guaido Rallies Supporters, Meets Rubio in Miami]( "Venezuela's Guaido Rallies Supporters, Meets Rubio in Miami") (Bloomberg) -- Juan Guaido, Venezuela's opposition leader, rallied supporters in Miami on Saturday and met with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who's played a key role in shaping U.S. policy on the South American country. It's likely to be one of his last stops in a two-week global tour aimed at building support to oust his rival, President Nicolas Maduro."We have a strategy, and the support of the world," Guaido said in Spanish at the rally. "We're not alone." He asked the crowd to imagine a day when the millions of Venezuelans living abroad could return home.Guaido is recognized by the U.S. and some 60 countries as Venezuela's head of state, even as he's struggled to translate that support into concrete gains against Maduro.Rubio met with Guaidó "to discuss the ongoing efforts to restore democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela," the Florida senator's office said in a statement Saturday night. Rubio, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, is "committed to highlighting the Maduro regime's egregious violations of human rights against its citizens," his office said. Representative Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, a Republican, and Carlos Vecchio, Guaido's ambassador in the U.S., also attended the meeting. Hastily-Arranged EventEarlier, Guaido held the hastily-arranged gathering at a convention center near Miami's airport to avoid Super Bowl weekend activities and traffic in the city's downtown, which has seen other widely-attended pro-Venezuelan rallies in recent years.Many of those attending the rally wore the "tri-colored" hat now typical of protest rallies while others sang the national anthem and chanted anti-Maduro slogans.Over the past two weeks Guaido met world leaders including Britain's Boris Johnson, Germany's Angela Merkel, France's Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Justin Trudeau.After just missing Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Guaido's been angling for a meeting with the president in South Florida.Trump Meeting?While Guaido pulled together a rally including Venezuelan exiles at the last minute, the White House hasn't confirmed any talks. Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, just an hour's drive up the coast, where he golfed earlier on Saturday."Stay tuned," Guaido said when asked if he'd meet with Trump before returning to Venezuela. He later said that he thought Trump's stance on Venezuela had been "firm and determined."Rubio spoke at length with Vice President Mike Pence on Friday, said a person familiar with the matter.Guaido was joined in Miami by Florida lawmakers including Republican Senator Rick Scott and Diaz-Balart, and Representatives Donna Shalala and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both Democrats.Guaido's press office said that he met with James Story, chargé d'affaires for the Venezuela Affairs Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, at the convention center ahead of the rally.(Updates with Rubio meeting in fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Bartenstein in New York at bbartenstei3@bloomberg.net;Nathan Crooks in Miami at ncrooks@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Carolina Wilson at cwilson166@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Ian FisherFor 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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| Delta flight attendants fight back against Boeing and a system they claim fed them 'toxic' air Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:59 AM PST  The system in question takes air from an aircraft's engines and brings it into the cabin for pressurization and air conditioning.
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| Atlanta Couple Caught Up in New Zealand Volcano Eruption Have Both Died From Their Injuries Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:41 AM PST  Pratap Singh, 49, died a month after his wife Mayuari
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| How Do Stealth Destroyers Sail the Seven Seas (And Not Sink?) Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:39 AM PST  A vital function.
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| Australian koalas named for American firefighters killed in fires Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:47 PM PST  The brave firefighters and U.S. military veterans were killed in a plane crash while fighting the devastating fires in New South Wales last week.
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| China's isolation grows as virus toll reaches 259 Posted: 01 Feb 2020 01:36 PM PST  China faced deepening isolation over its coronavirus epidemic on Sunday as the death toll soared to 259, with the United States and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary Chinese travel bans. China toughened its own quarantine measures at the centre of the outbreak in Hubei province, a day after the United States temporarily barred entry to foreigners who had been in China within the past two weeks. "Foreign nationals, other than immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents... will be denied entry into the United States," Health Secretary Alex Azar said.
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| Trump adds six new countries to travel ban list Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:34 PM PST  Three years after President Trump first signed an executive order barring entry to the U.S. for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, he's adding six new countries to the so-called travel ban list.
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| Chinese tourists desert Thai resort as coronavirus spreads Posted: 31 Jan 2020 09:05 PM PST  The narrow laneways and pastel-coloured shophouses of Phuket Old Town are usually bustling with Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday, but travel bans and local fears about coronavirus have largely emptied the streets this year. "The impact is tremendous," 45-year old Ausana Akaradachakul told Reuters as she waited behind the counter for shoppers in her store selling postcards, straw bags, clothing and jewellery. "Only a few days after the news broke about the virus, the Chinese tourists were visibly few," Akaradachakul said.
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| Bernie backers unleash their anger at a folk concert in Iowa Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:52 AM PST  Meanwhile, Buttigieg, facing an existential threat to his campaign, remains ever proper and polite.
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| China’s isolation from world grows as virus toll reaches 259 Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:44 AM PST  China faced deepening isolation due to its coronavirus epidemic on Saturday as the death toll soared to 259, with the U.S. and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary bans on Chinese travel.
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| U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Coronavirus Fears Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:13 AM PST  Federal officials declared a public health emergency and will be restricting entry into the United States in light of the 2019 novel coronavirus that has killed at least 200 people and infected nearly 10,000 more worldwide. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Friday that President Trump would sign a proclamation temporarily suspending entry to foreign nationals deemed to pose a transmission risk.Azar also said any U.S. citizen who traveled to China's Hubei province within the past 14 days before arriving home would be subjected two weeks of mandatory quarantine. And citizens who traveled to any other regions in China would undergo a "proactive entry health screen" and 14 days of monitored self-quarantine."The risk for infections for Americans remains low," Azar said, adding that these steps were "measured" reactions that would help officials deal with "unknowns" surrounding the virus.Earlier Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they were putting 195 people who recently returned from China under quarantine for two weeks, dubbing it an "unprecedented" step that was now warranted."We are preparing as this is the next pandemic, but hopeful this is not and will not be the case," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a call with reporters. "We would rather be remembered for overreacting to under-reacting."The move came after one of those recently-returned travelers reportedly attempted to leave the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, after arriving from Wuhan, China. The CDC declined to provide more information on the individual. There are currently over 9,800 cases of coronavirus in China, while the number of confirmed cases in the United States rose to seven on Friday. California officials announced a man who recently traveled to Wuhan had tested positive for the virus. Only one of the seven cases, the husband of a woman who recently traveled abroad, had been spread in-country, the CDC said previously. No one had died as a result of infection in the United States by the CDC's latest count.But Messonnier pointed to the most recent number of cases in China, which she said represented a 26 percent increase over Thursday's numbers, as a cause for growing vigilance. She also mentioned an increasing number of reports of person-to-person spread, including growing evidence that the 2019 novel coronavirus can be spread by people who have not yet experienced symptoms. The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday released a study describing a case in Germany that appeared to show the spread of the virus from a person who traveled to China to several others."The current scenario is a cause for concern," Messonnier said.WHO Calls Coronavirus 'Emergency' as Person-to-Person Spread Confirmed in U.S.When asked if the coronavirus were more dangerous than the flu, Messonnier said there appeared to be "significant mortality related with this disease" based on cases coming out of China. However, she still didn't recommend face masks for the general public and urged people to stay calm."Please do not let fear guide your actions," she said, adding that the public shouldn't assume Asian Americans have the virus amid reports of surging xenophobia against people of Chinese descent worldwide. "There are about 4 million Chinese-Americans in this country."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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| 3 European countries say they will refuse UK extradition requests now Brexit has happened Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST  Austria, Germany, and Slovenia say they will no longer extradite their citizens to the UK if they commit crimes in the country after Brexit.
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| Coronavirus: Is the Media Over Hyping the Threat? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 11:38 AM PST  A contagion will happen at some point, and it's important we recognize it and react. Unless the coronavirus mutates into something far more dangerous, this isn't it. News and novelty seem to be driving policy.
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| Jury foreman regrets convicting teen in girl's 2002 death Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:05 PM PST  "I do feel badly," jury foreman Joe McLean told the AP. No gun, fingerprints or DNA were ever recovered, and the 2003 trial of Myon Burrell centered on the testimony of one teen rival who offered conflicting stories when identifying the triggerman, who was standing 120 feet away, mostly behind a wall. McLean said he and other jurors did the best they could with the evidence presented and were unaware of information turned up in the AP review of the case -- in part because his co-defendants were not allowed to take the stand.
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| Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing’s control Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:56 PM PST ![Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing's control]( "Coronavirus outbreak highlights cracks in Beijing's control") China's coronavirus outbreak has raised simple but powerful questions about its style of government, in a system with little room for dissent.
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| Alaska Sen. Murkowski ends the suspense by coming out against witness testimony in Trump trial Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:46 AM PST  The Democrats' demand to call witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump evidently failed Friday.
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| Brazilians sent to Mexico by U.S. say they don't understand why Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:02 PM PST  Bewildered, sad and disappointed, Brazilians migrants sent from the United States to Mexico this week were left wondering how they had ended up in another country whose language they do not understand. The United States on Wednesday began sending some Brazilian migrants who had crossed the border with Mexico back there to await their U.S. court hearings under a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). It is one of several moves by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at reducing the number of people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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| U.S. Escalates Virus Response With Entry Limits, Cuts in Flights Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:27 PM PST ![U.S. Escalates Virus Response With Entry Limits, Cuts in Flights]( "U.S. Escalates Virus Response With Entry Limits, Cuts in Flights") (Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration on Friday declared a public health emergency and announced series of steps to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has stricken China and spread to countries around the world.President Donald Trump signed an order temporarily barring entry to foreign nationals who have visited China and pose a risk of spreading the illness, unless they are immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The administration also said flights from China would be funneled through just seven U.S. airports."The risk of infection for Americans remains low," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who is coordinating the federal response, told reporters at a White House news conference. "With these and our previous actions, we are working to keep the risk low."U.S. citizens returning from China's Hubei Province, the center of the outbreak, will face a mandatory quarantine. Americans traveling back to the U.S. from other areas of mainland China must undergo screening and monitored self-quarantine to ensure they are not at risk of spreading the virus.The measures, which take effect at 5 p.m. Washington time on Sunday, apply to visits in the past two weeks. The quarantines last 14 days.The White House's announcement comes as the coronavirus continues to spread, triggering increasing alarm from health officials. The World Health Organization this week declared a global health emergency, giving the United Nations agency the power to coordinate response efforts.Almost 9,700 cases have been confirmed in China with more than 200 deaths, said Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He added that six cases have been confirmed in the U.S. and that 191 people are being monitored.U.S. health officials have sought to reassure Americans the risk of contracting the virus remains low, but they have also said there is much they still do not know about the illness."This is a significant global situation that continues to evolve," Redfield said.Anthony Fauci, head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the U.S. decided to step up its efforts because of reports that a traveler from China spread the disease in Germany without showing any symptoms. He said that is different from the Ebola virus, which cannot be spread by people who are not very ill.Health officials added that tests to detect the virus haven't been used enough times to assure they are reliable. Only one in six U.S. cases of coronavirus has been detected through airport screening, they said.All U.S.-bound flights from China will be routed to airports in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Honolulu and Los Angeles. More drastic flight restrictions are not currently being considered, according to Joel Szabat, a Transportation Department official.Limiting the number of airports where flights to China can land will allow the U.S. government to streamline screening and set up quarantine centers, officials said.The CDC announced earlier Friday it had issued a quarantine order of 14 days to 195 U.S. citizens evacuated from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province. It's the first time in nearly a half century such an order was given.On Thursday, the State Department issued its highest level do-not-travel advisory for China, warning American citizens there they could be subject to travel restrictions with little to advance notice and urging them to "consider departing using commercial means."The rapid outbreak of the virus has sent financial markets tumbling. The S&P 500 Index on Friday erased all of its 2020 gains and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 600 pointsas investors grow worried about how the illness could effect the world economy.Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank is "very carefully monitoring the situation" and "there will clearly be implications at least in the near term for Chinese output."\--With assistance from Justin Sink.To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, John HarneyFor 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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| Coronavirus is spreading. And so is anti-Chinese sentiment and xenophobia Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:14 PM PST  Coronavirus is spreading. And so is anti-Chinese sentiment and xenophobia
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| Senate votes to block new witnesses 51-49 Posted: 31 Jan 2020 02:59 PM PST  During the tenth day of the Senate impeachment trial, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to block new witnesses from testifying in the impeachment trial of President Trump.
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| Vietnam says suspending all China flights over coronavirus Posted: 01 Feb 2020 02:57 AM PST  Vietnam has suspended all China flights as part of "strengthening measures" against the coronavirus outbreak, its civil aviation authority said in a statement on Saturday. The step applies to all airlines "which have routes between Vietnam and China" and also includes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, it added in the directive which was posted on its website and took effect at 1 pm Saturday (0600 GMT). An AFP correspondent on a flight from Taiwan to Vietnam was among 98 passengers told to disembark just as the announcement went public.
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| This Plane Might Get The Air Force To Give Up The F-22 Raptor Posted: 31 Jan 2020 09:00 PM PST  The F-35 is that impressive.
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| Asylum seekers learn about obstacles ahead in a hearing room on the border Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:08 AM PST  "DHS will treat you as someone who is attempting to enter against U.S. law," a judge said.
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| Impeachment endgame: Here's what we know about how and when the Senate trial will end Posted: 31 Jan 2020 09:09 AM PST  There are a few things we know about the final stage of the Senate impeachment trial that begins Friday afternoon, but there are still quite a few things that are unclear about how things will go down. The Senate will hear up to four hours of debate from President Trump's lawyers and from the Democratic House impeachment managers, starting just after 1 p.m., on whether to call witnesses. And then there will be a vote on whether to consider witnesses, probably around 5 p.m.
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| U.S. confirms its 8th case of coronavirus, quarantine in effect Posted: 01 Feb 2020 11:19 AM PST ![U.S. confirms its 8th case of coronavirus, quarantine in effect]( "U.S. confirms its 8th case of coronavirus, quarantine in effect") U.S. health officials on Saturday confirmed an eighth case of the fast-spreading new coronavirus in the United States in a person who had traveled to China. The latest U.S. patient, who was not identified, is in Massachusetts, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an emailed statement. The person recently returned from Hubei province in central China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
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| Boris Johnson’s Plan to Kill ‘Brexit’ Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Shortly after his election victory in December, it was reported that Boris Johnson wanted the word "Brexit" retired. Not just retired, but expunged as a matter of urgency once the U.K. has left the European Union on Jan. 31.This would be like Donald Trump telling White House staff that they need to drop the "Make America Great Again" thing. Without Brexit — and his "Get Brexit Done" campaign — we'd mainly know Boris Johnson as just another former mayor, a talented politician who wrote amusing newspaper columns.This attempted change of language seems trivial, but it's not. For nearly four years, the neologism "Brexit" has dominated British politics, and resonated around the world. Why try to retire it now? I can see two reasons: The word is a constant and powerful reminder of the division and open wounds in British society; and while it was a weapon Johnson wielded successfully against his opponents, it might easily be used against him in future. The first concern is honorable, the other more Orwellian. But how successful Johnson is in changing the language of British politics might prove as important as anything he gets around the trade negotiating table with the European Union and the U.S. this year.The word "Brexit" appeared back in 2012. Peter Wilding, a former lawyer and aide to former Prime Minister David Cameron, had little idea of its impact when he coined it in a May 2012 blog, inspired by the Greeks:Unless a clear view is pushed that Britain must lead in Europe at the very least to achieve the completion of the Single Market, then the portmanteau for Greek euro exit [Grexit] might be followed by another sad word, Brexit.A few years later, it spread like bush fire. By 2016, it had a place in the Oxford English Dictionary and was later named "word of the year." But Wilding was appalled to find his invention used as a tool of destruction. Now chairman of the British Influence think tank, he sees Brexit as a "narcissistic victim syndrome ignited by charlatan nostalgists." He has said it might do to Britain what the Treaty of Versailles did to Germany.Brexit, in Johnson's hands, wasn't a flaccid noun but a powerful verb. One might argue that you could have called Britain's EU departure campaign pretty much anything and the result would have been the same. Perhaps, but something happened when those two words — British exit — fused. It became a rallying point for a passionate, but small, euroskeptic core of Johnson's ruling Conservative party. It anchored a Leave campaign whose language invoked national pride, appealed to people's bias for action over inaction and their preference for simplicity.In his book, "The Language of Brexit," the linguist Steve Buckledee shows how skillfully this was done. Brexit stirred passion and represented action; Remainer language was limp by comparison and passive. The British Twitter poet Brian Bilston captured the power of the word in the last stanzas of a poem titled Meaningful Vote, which was the name given to the attempts of Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, to win parliamentary approval for her Brexit deal:How foolish, it seems; How senseless, absurd,To re-define a nation In pursuit of a word.Johnson, of all politicians, understands the mobilizing and seducing power of language. He's probably the most prolix (and prolific) political leader Britain has had since Winston Churchill. He loves words that pack heat. He famously denied an affair by calling the allegations an "inverted pyramid of piffle." He often invents words where a conventional formula won't do — such as "backstop-ectomy" to denote his determination to remove an element of May's Brexit deal known as the Irish backstop, which he and other Brexiters disliked.But now that the war is over, the weapon looks unsightly. Brexit represents a heroic and victorious campaign for freedom to one side of the divide, but a perfidious act of self-harm to the other. RELATED: Why Brexit Opponents Lost the Vote and the ArgumentEven many Brexiters are battle-weary and spent, no doubt worried about how well things will go from here for Britain. Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, a vocal Brexiter, is holding back on the mirth. Sarah Vine, the columnist wife of cabinet member Michael Gove, says being on the winning side has left her numb. "I think, like many Leave voters the length and breadth of the country, I have found the hatred and vitriol of the past few years ultimately very brutalizing," she wrote for the Daily Mail (not exactly a bastion of temperateness). "We Leavers have been accused of innumerable crimes, cast as racist, short-sighted, xenophobic and, above all, thick and uneducated. We've been compared to the Nazis, been blamed for the actions of every lunatic extremist, accused of lying — not to mention held responsible for every stock market fluctuation (downwards, naturally) or passing economic squall." If that's how the victors feel, spare a thought for the losers. Johnson won the war, but he won't succeed in keeping his new Conservative coalition together (which includes plenty of Remain voters who were fearful of allowing Labour's hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn into power) if the loaded language of Brexit frames all discussion.But burying "Brexit," the word, is a way of shirking responsibility too. If everything that happens from now is just another tick on the plus or minus side of the Brexit ledger, the divisions will eventually tear away at Johnson's power and every concession over fish or drop in GDP growth will be seen as an indictment of the Brexit campaign that swept him into Downing Street.By getting rid of the Department for Exiting the EU and rechristening the U.K. negotiating side something positive like Taskforce Europe, Johnson is saying "nothing to see here but some tedious trade negotiations." Why should voters worry about such minutia as will be discussed when Britain and the EU sit down to work out their future trade relationship? If the word "Brexit" is a call to battle, "trade taskforce" is an invitation to snooze. That must be the hope, anyhow: That if Brexit is only muttered occasionally, somewhat apologetically, or better yet, not said at all, there will be less scrutiny — and criticism — of what lies ahead. Separating Britain from the EU is bound to be painful. Johnson's ultimate political survival may depend on whether he can denuclearize the domestic conflict he waged so successfully with Wilding's B-bomb.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@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.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.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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| NRA to drop lawsuit over Los Angeles disclosure law Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:58 PM PST ![NRA to drop lawsuit over Los Angeles disclosure law]( "NRA to drop lawsuit over Los Angeles disclosure law") The National Rifle Association is dropping its lawsuit against Los Angeles after the city repealed a law that required would-be city contractors to disclose ties to the gun-rights group, according to a court filing Friday. The law passed last year by the City Council required firms seeking city deals to disclose any NRA contracts or sponsorships with them or their subsidiaries. The NRA sued, arguing that the requirements violated the constitutional First Amendment right to free speech and association and the 14th Amendment right to equal protection.
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| High school teacher charged with secretly recording students to create child porn Posted: 31 Jan 2020 06:26 AM PST ![High school teacher charged with secretly recording students to create child porn]( "High school teacher charged with secretly recording students to create child porn") The charges follow an investigation triggered by the discovery of cameras in the Minneapolis hotel room of students David Kruchten was chaperoning.
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| Coronavirus Has Europe Treating Chinese People Like the Plague Posted: 31 Jan 2020 10:12 AM PST  ROME—The sign taped to the glass door of a popular gelateria in front of Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain is perfectly clear, and perfectly ugly. Written in both Chinese and English, it states what pretty much everyone in a country of hypochondriacs and the rest of Europe is thinking: "Due to international safety measures, all people coming from China are not allowed to have access to this place." The writer then apologizes for any inconvenience. WHO Calls Coronavirus 'Emergency' as Person-to-Person Spread Confirmed in U.S.Italy has confirmed just two coronavirus cases despite quarantining 7,000 people on a cruise ship this week over a feverish woman from Hong Kong who had, as it turned out, nothing but the flu. A full 24 hours after the woman was cleared, citizens of the port town of Civitavecchia near Rome staged a protest at the port, demanding that all 750 Chinese passengers on board be tested for the disease before anyone could get off the ship. The two cases that actually are confirmed in Italy are a Chinese couple who traveled from Wuhan to Milan and then across the peninsula on a bus tour with more than 100 other Chinese tourists over the last five days, sparking a panic across the entire country as authorities alert everyone at every stop of their tour—highway rest areas included. The hotel where they were staying, just a block from the Colosseum, was cordoned off with armed police on Friday, prompting passersby to ask each other if there was a terrorist threat. You would think the epidemic has reached plague proportions. On Friday, Italy's civil protection authority announced a six-month "state of emergency" over the health crisis—the first time in the country's history. Twelve people who are tied to the confirmed cases are in Rome's Spallanzani Infectious Disease Hospital under surveillance. But Chinese restaurants, Chinese-owned convenience stops, and even coffee bars with Chinese staff have been empty all week. In Tuscany, where the town of Prato has the highest concentration of Chinese residents in the country, Italians have stopped sending their children to school out of fear they'll contract the virus. About five million Chinese tourists visit Italy each year, pouring millions of euros into the economy, but the Rome Tourism Bureau told The Daily Beast that many tour guides have called off group tours for Chinese people "until things blow over" out of fear their very presence will make other tourists feel uncomfortable. There are also 300,000 Chinese residents living and working across Italy, many in the service and fashion industries. The lack of government guidance on how to handle the epidemic has angered the Chinese community across Italy, many of whom feel betrayed that the government seems to be scapegoating them, according to the head of Rome's Chinese Community in Italian media interviews. A Chinese woman who runs a small convenience store in the bustling neighborhood of Trastevere told The Daily Beast that she has simply started wearing a surgical mask and rubber gloves because Italians wouldn't enter her store. "I haven't been to China for more than 10 years, but they are so scared of us, it just makes sense to show them I'm being safe," she said. "It's either this or risk closing if I lose business."Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy's xenophobic far-right League party, didn't miss an opportunity to exploit the situation. "Every day dozens of flights arrive in Italy from China," he said at a recent rally. "We need checks, checks, and more checks." At a civil protection press conference in Rome on Friday, the panel of doctors meant to calm fears continued to insist that only people with symptoms were contagious despite confirmation last weekend that the opposite is true. There have also been troubling reports of blatant racism and bullying in the Italian press including how a Chinese-Italian boy playing in a school soccer match in Milan was told by an opponent, "I hope you get the virus, too."Roberto Giuliani, director of the prestigious Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, was sanctioned by the institution after telling students from China, Japan, and even South Korea that they needed a doctor certificate to attend class—even if they had not traveled to China recently. 7,000 People Trapped on Mediterranean Cruise in Italy Over Suspected Coronavirus CaseThe same paranoia has sparked a race debate in France, where six cases have been confirmed. There, Chinese citizens have started using the hashtag JeNeSuisPasUnVirus or "I am not a virus" after the local newspaper Le Courier Picard used the race baiting headlines "Yellow Alert" and "Yellow Peril" over a photo of a Chinese woman wearing a white surgical mask.The French aren't only stigmatizing Chinese people but all Asians, it seems. Shana Cheng, a 17-year-old Paris resident of Vietnamese and Cambodian origin, told the BBC that she was hassled on a Paris bus last weekend. "There's a Chinese woman, she is going to contaminate us, she needs to go home," Cheng says she heard two passengers say. Then she said they looked at her "in a disgusted way, as if I was the virus."Another woman tweeted, "Not all Asians are Chinese. Not all Chinese were born in China and not all have been there. An Asian who coughs doesn't have the coronavirus. Insulting an Asian because of the virus is like insulting a Muslim because of the bombings."In Germany, the only other continental European country with confirmed cases so far—six and counting tied to the automotive supplier Webasto in Stanberg—things aren't much better. A 33-year-old German who worked there is the first human-to-human contact case in Europe after attending a training session hosted by a visiting Chinese colleague who has since returned to Wuhan. All such training sessions with Chinese visitors have since been suspended.As the number of confirmed cases grows across Europe, fear will surely spread, too. And a continued lack of guidance by authorities about how the virus is actually transmitted and who potential carriers are will undoubtedly feed racism and xenophobia, which risks becoming a worse epidemic than the disease itself. 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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| What Will North Korea Do If Coronavirus Comes to Its Shores? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:25 AM PST  Pyongyang has neither the resources nor the administrative culture – transparency, empiricism divorced from ideology, technocracy – to respond to a genuine epidemic. Sustained foreign assistance and, failing that, brutal repression would almost certainly be necessary to prevent a local plague.
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| Rep. Rashida Tlaib Apologizes After Booing Hillary Clinton at Bernie Sanders Campaign Event Posted: 01 Feb 2020 02:01 PM PST  Clinton had previously said about Bernie Sanders: "Nobody likes him"
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| 9,000 Hong Kong hospital workers are threatening to strike amid coronavirus outbreak if the government doesn't close its border with mainland China Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:41 AM PST  Doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers voted to strike if the Hong Kong government did not close its border with China.
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| As acquittal nears, Trump claims poll numbers up Posted: 01 Feb 2020 03:37 PM PST  US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed his polling numbers were up after the Senate paved the way for his acquittal next week on impeachment charges of abuse of power. The first vote in the US primary process will be closely watched as a sign as to which of 11 Democratic candidates are gaining early momentum to challenge Trump in November's election. As Democratic contenders raced across the Midwest state, the US Senate on Friday rebuffed Democratic calls for witnesses at only the third impeachment trial of a US president.
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| U.S. Imposes Coronavirus Quarantine on Group in California Evacuated From Wuhan Posted: 31 Jan 2020 12:13 PM PST  The U.S. government has imposed a federal quarantine on 195 people who were evacuated Wednesday from Wuhan, China, to a California military base, officials said Friday.The action means that the group will be held at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, for 14 days, to make sure that they are not infected with the Wuhan coronavirus that has sickened more than 9,800 people in China and killed more than 200 people.Since their arrival, members of the group have had their noses and throats swabbed to test for the virus, and their temperatures taken several times a day. They were originally told that they would be detained for at least 72 hours, and possibly 14 days. Two weeks is thought to be the upper limit of the incubation period; if symptoms don't start by then, a person can be cleared as not infected.Until Friday, the detention was unofficial and the group stayed at the base voluntarily, except for one member, who tried to leave Wednesday and was quarantined by Riverside County.Federal law authorizes the Centers for Disease Control to impose quarantines, but the power is rarely used. The last large-scale quarantine was imposed during the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic.So far, six people in the United States are known to be infected with the virus. Five had been to Wuhan and the sixth is the husband of one of those patients. He had not traveled to Wuhan, but contracted the illness from his wife after she returned home to Chicago. The other cases have been in Washington state, California and Arizona.More than 100 people in the United States are being monitored as "patients under investigation," because they have symptoms like fever and cough and have been to Wuhan or in contact with patients.Hundreds of other contacts of patients have been told to reach out to health officials immediately if they become ill.Concern about spread of the virus has increased as reports have emerged suggesting that people who are infected may be contagious even before symptoms develop.German physicians who identified the first coronavirus case in their country have reported that the patient was infected by a colleague visiting from China who was not yet sick herself.That the disease may be transmitted before infected people show symptoms will make the disease harder to contain, experts say.A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine said the German patient was a healthy 33-year-old businessman who developed a sore throat, chills and muscle aches on Jan. 24, with a fever spiking to 102.4 the next day, along with a cough. He felt better a day later and returned to work on Jan. 27.Before he became ill, he had met with a Chinese business partner from his company near Munich, on Jan. 20 and 21. She was a resident of Shanghai who had been in Germany from Jan. 19-22. Though she was healthy during the visit, she got sick during her flight back to China, where she tested positive for the new coronavirus on Jan. 26. She informed her company, which traced her contacts to alert anyone she might have exposed.The 33-year-old businessman was contacted, and though he was already feeling better, he tested positive for the virus.On Jan. 28, three more employees of the company tested positive for the coronavirus, only one of whom had contact with the woman from Shanghai. The others were apparently infected by their male colleague, before he developed symptoms. All of them were admitted to the hospital, where they were isolated and monitored, and none has developed severe illness.The authors of the letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, who are from Munich and Berlin, said it was "notable that the infection appears to have been transmitted during the incubation period of the index patient, in whom the illness was brief and nonspecific.""It does mean that transmission is more readily achieved than it was in SARS," an earlier coronavirus disease, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "The report from Germany indicates quite conclusively that spread during the incubation period when the person is not sick themselves can take place."But, he said, "We don't know how frequently it happens.""This is a kind of natural experiment, where people were nicely shown to be in a chain of transmission, and it sounds very, very plausible," Schaffner said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| 12-year-old girl in Egypt dies after genital mutilation Posted: 31 Jan 2020 08:39 AM PST  A 12-year-old girl died this week in southern Egypt after her parents brought her to a doctor who performed female genital mutilation, a criminal practice that remains widespread in the region, according to a judicial statement.
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| Brexit no detour for migrants hoping to cross Channel to UK Posted: 01 Feb 2020 08:13 AM PST  Migrants and refugees waiting by the French side of the English Channel say Brexit hasn't derailed their determination to cross over to pursue better lives in Britain. Mingled alongside police officers in the French port of Calais, hundreds of people live in squalid conditions and watch for a boat or truck to carry them to their dreams as stowaways. Many of them came to Calais from former French colonies such as Ivory Coast and Niger, only to have their asylum requests rejected by French authorities.
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| Lori Vallow didn't meet the Thursday deadline to turn her kids over to the state. Their grandma believes the 'monster' will face consequences. Posted: 31 Jan 2020 07:34 AM PST  Vallow had until Thursday to turn her children over to the state of Idaho. She missed it and is believed to still be in Hawaii.
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| We Don't Know How Many Bullets, Guns or Planes China Sells Around the World Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:45 AM PST  China may be the world's No. 2 arms producer, according to a new estimate. But we still don't know how many arms it actually sells.
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| A U.S. Plane Crashed in Afghanistan. Why So Many Believed a CIA Chief Was On It. Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:31 PM PST  The wreckage of a U.S. military plane that crashed and burned on a snowy mountain peak in Afghanistan on Monday was still fresh when Iranian…
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| France, Italy Drag Euro-Area Economy to Worst Quarter Since 2013 Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:20 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. The euro-area economy barely grew at the end of 2019 as unexpected contractions in France and Italy dealt the bloc its weakest quarter in almost seven years.The surprise slump in two of the region's biggest nations is yet another blow for their governments. President Emmanuel Macron is already under fire amid protests over controversial pension reforms, while Italy's fragile coalition is scarred by internal skirmishes.Output in the 19-nation region rose just 0.1% in the fourth quarter, down from 0.3% in the previous period, and underlying inflation slowed in January to the weakest in three months. The French economy shrank 0.1%, and Italy posted a 0.3% contraction. Germany has previously said it posted slight growth at the end of 2019 -- the official reading is due next month.The economic gloom may prove to be temporary. Surveys have suggested that the rot has been stemmed for now. The European Central Bank says the risks to the outlook have become "less pronounced," and more signs of improving momentum came Thursday when the European Commission reported a marked rise in sentiment in January, led by manufacturing and construction.What Bloomberg's Economists Say"Growth momentum is set to build into 2020 reflecting fewer risks from the global economy -- trade tension between the U.S. and China have eased somewhat and the worst type of Brexit should be avoided. We see quarterly growth of 0.3% through 2020."\-- Jamie Rush. Read the EURO-AREA REACTStill, the reports could revive calls for more spending by countries that have fiscal space, such as Germany. The ECB has repeatedly called for action, and the European Union's executive arm is planning to publish a document next week asserting that the euro zone's fiscal rules are too convoluted.The yield on German 10-year debt has slipped in recent days and fell below -0.4% for the first time in three months. The euro was little changed at $1.1031 at 11:57 a.m. Frankfurt time on Friday.Trade risks have returned to the fore with the U.S. renewing threats last week to raise duties on imports of cars from the EU, and France only narrowly avoiding American tariffs on wine and cheese in a dispute over digital taxation. The U.S. just reported the biggest drop in imports since 2009, and new concerns are emerging such as the coronavirus and the hit to Chinese and global growth.Read our Virus UpdateFrench cognac maker Remy Cointreau has already sounded a note of caution over the impact of the virus on its business in China and ditched its guidance for the year. Airlines including Germany's Lufthansa cut flights, and Finnish elevator-maker Kone expect a hit on bottom lines amid factory closures.French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire blamed his economy's poor results on disruptions in ports, the rail network and fuel deposits and highlighted resilient consumption and business investment."This temporary slowdown does not call into question the fundamentals of French growth," he said. Without the curb from companies using up stocks rather than increasing production, the economy would have expanded about 0.3%.One bright spot was Spain, where the government woke up to more evidence that the economy is one of Europe's outperformers. Faster-than-anticipated growth of 0.5% was driven by buoyant exports and a strong increase in services.\--With assistance from Harumi Ichikura, Kristian Siedenburg, Jeannette Neumann, John Follain and Zoe Schneeweiss.To contact the reporters on this story: William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.net;Jana Randow in Frankfurt at jrandow@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Paul GordonFor 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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| Trump will demand the NHS pays more for drugs after Brexit, warns outgoing UK ambassador to US Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:10 AM PST  Donald Trump will insist the NHS pays more for American drugs after Brexit, the outgoing British ambassador to Washington has claimed.
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| As coronavirus misinformation spreads on social media, Facebook removes posts Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:44 PM PST  Facebook Inc said it will take down misinformation about China's fast-spreading coronavirus, in a rare departure from its usual approach to dubious health content that is presenting a fresh challenge for social media companies. Hoaxes have spread widely online, promoted by conspiracy theorists and exacerbated by a dearth of information from the cordoned-off zone around China's central city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began. Nearly 12,000 people have been infected in China, according to local health authorities, and more than 130 cases reported in at least 25 other countries and regions.
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| Quarantines await Europeans flown home amid virus outbreak Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:43 AM PST  European governments ramped up flights Saturday to bring their citizens back from China amid the outbreak of a new virus that has sickened thousands of people. A German air force plane arrived in Frankfurt carrying 128 passengers who were expected to spend two weeks quarantined at a military base. Russia sent military aircraft to evacuate citizens from Wuhan and other areas of China most affected by the virus.
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