| West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin responds to Trump calling him 'weak & corrupt' over impeachment vote Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:24 AM PST  Sen. Joe Manchin defended his vote to convict President Donald Trump on the two articles of impeachment.
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| Biden jokingly calls New Hampshire voter 'dog-faced pony soldier,' attributes odd insult to John Wayne Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:39 AM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden is battling for third place in New Hampshire's primary, and at a campaign stop in Hampton on Sunday, he got a question from a young woman about why he thinks he isn't doing better in the Democratic presidential race. Biden said it was "a good question" and asked the woman if she had ever been to a caucus. When she nodded yes, he replied: "No, you haven't. You're a lying dog-faced pony soldier. You said you were, but now you gotta be honest. I'm going to be honest with you."It was pretty clearly meant in a joking manner, and the audience laughed, but on video, "lying dog-faced pony soldier" just seems like an odd insult to throw at a prospective voter.> Joe Biden calls a woman at a campaign event in New Hampshire a 'lying dog-faced pony soldier' after she asked him about his Iowa caucus performance https://t.co/yTfLtvvFBP pic.twitter.com/f9OxtBbskj> > — Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2020Biden has used the phrase before, and he says it's a John Wayne line from the 1953 movie Hondo. TMZ disagrees, suggesting maybe Biden borrowed it from the 1952 Tyrone Power film Pony Soldier. Either way, it's probably time to retire the insult, lighthearted or not.More stories from theweek.com Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| Gunman ambushes NYC police twice in 12 hours, spawns outrage Posted: 09 Feb 2020 05:49 AM PST  A gunman was arrested after he ambushed police officers in the Bronx twice in 12 hours, authorities said, wounding two in attacks that brought outrage from officials who blamed the violence on an atmosphere of anti-police rhetoric. Robert Williams, 45, of the Bronx, was captured after he walked into a police station in the Bronx and started shooting shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, police said.
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| Latest on the spread of the coronavirus as death toll hits 908 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:08 AM PST  China's National Health Commission said on Monday that the death toll has risen to 908, as employees began trickling back to offices and factories around China after the government eased some restrictions on work and travel.
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| WHO warns overseas virus spread may be 'tip of the iceberg' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:31 AM PST  The head of the World Health Organization has warned that confirmed cases of coronavirus being transmitted by people who have never travelled to China could be the "tip of the iceberg". Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's remarks come as members of a WHO-led "international expert mission" flew to China on Monday to help coordinate a response to the outbreak that has so far infected more than 40,000 people and killed 908 in the country. "There've been some concerning instances of onward #2019nCoV spread from people with no travel history to (China)," Tedros tweeted Sunday, using the virus's provisional scientific name.
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| Taiwan again scrambles jets to intercept Chinese planes, tensions spike Posted: 09 Feb 2020 01:55 AM PST  Taiwan's air force scrambled for a second day in a row on Monday to intercept Chinese jets that approached the island claimed by Beijing as its own, as tensions between the two took on a potentially dangerous military dimension. Taiwan's Defence Ministry said Chinese jets, accompanying H-6 bombers, briefly crossed an unofficial mid-line in the Taiwan Strait that separates the two, prompting its air force to rush to intercept and give verbal warnings to leave. The H-6s were on a training mission in the Pacific having passed through the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, the ministry added and shared a picture of a Taiwan F-16 accompanying one of the H-6 bombers.
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| North Korea’s Secret Coronavirus Crisis is Crazy Scary Posted: 10 Feb 2020 12:41 AM PST  SEOUL–North Korea's not saying a word about deaths or illnesses from the coronavirus, but the disease reportedly has spread across the border from China and is taking a toll in a country with a dismal health care system and scant resources for fighting off the deadly bug.From Lobsters and Steak to Coronavirus: One Couple's Surreal Cruise NightmareOne sure sign of the regime's fears is that it failed to stage a parade in central Pyongyang on Saturday, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the country's armed forces. Last year, Kim Jong Un himself presided over the procession that displayed the North's latest missiles and other fearsome hardware along with goose-stepping soldiers in serried ranks.This year, nothing about the nation's nuclear warheads, much less the "new strategic weapon" that Kim has vowed to unveil. Rodong Sinmum, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, merely cited the armed forces' supposed success combating "severe and dangerous difficulties"—and said nothing at all about the parade.But reports have filtered out about Kim's subjects falling prey to coronavirus despite the country's decision to seal its 880-mile border with China, most of it along the Yalu River into the Yellow Sea to the west, and its 11-mile border with Russia where the Tumen River flows into the Pacific.Among the first to report fatalities in North Korea, the Seoul-based website Daily NK said five people had died in the critical northwestern city of Sinuiju, on the Yalu River across road and rail bridges from Dandong, which is the largest Chinese city in the region and a key point for commerce with North Korea despite sanctions.Daily NK, which relies on sources inside North Korea that send reports via Chinese mobile phone networks to contacts in China, said authorities had "ordered public health officials in Sinuiju to quickly dispose of the bodies and keep the deaths secret from the public."The victims had crossed the porous Yalu River border despite orders to cut off traffic from China as the disease radiated from the industrial city of Wuhan where the virus originated in December. As of Sunday, more than 700 people had died inside China.One of the first patients in North Korea reportedly was hospitalized in Sinuiju "with symptoms similar to a cold and was given fever reducers and antibiotics," said Daily NK, but the patient died as the fever rose. Two more patients died two days later in another hospital in Sinuiju and another two in a nearby town.North Korea's worries about an epidemic are all the more intense because of its shortage of basic medicine and equipment. As cases mount, authorities are working feverishly to contain a disease that, if unchecked, could undermine Kim's grip over his 25 million people, most of whom live in poverty worsened by hunger."Because health conditions and health care in North Korea are so bad," said Bruce Bennett, long-time analyst at the Rand Corporation, "they cannot allow the replication process to develop without severe intervention"—that is, they have to take drastic steps to keep the virus from spreading fast.The country has just streamlined a headquarters to coordinate operations, Rodong Sinmun reported, marshaling 30,000 workers to combat the epidemic.The Coronavirus Whistleblower Died a Martyr for Free Speech in ChinaBesides blocking international traffic, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported the headquarters had ordered tests for everyone entering the capital city of Pyongyang by road and for anyone who had traveled outside the country. Foreigners working in Pyongyang, including those with diplomatic missions or non-governmental organizations, were banned temporarily from venturing outside for shopping. Even so, with hospitals and clinics largely bereft of needed supplies other than those serving the elite in the capital and elsewhere, a certain desperation was evident in the state media. Rodong Sinmun warned that "the fate" of the country was at stake, according to Yonhap, the South Korean news agency."North Korea lacks a vaccine or medical abilities," said Bennett,"so they have to act by preventing the disease from coming into North Korea." The point is to "rapidly contain any leakage—exactly what they are trying to do by preventing people-to-people contacts."That's virtually impossible, however, as long as people move illicitly across the border, carrying on low-level commerce in the need to survive a decrepit system. JoongAng Ilbo, a leading South Korean newspaper, cited anonymous source saying that a woman had been diagnosed in the capital and that all those with whom she had had contact had been quarantined.Unlike in China, North Korea officially has denied any cases while attempting to get people to cooperate in stopping the spread of the disease. JoongAng Ilbo quoted a North Korean health official, Song In Bom, as having called on North Korean TV for "civil awareness" and unity in dealing with the disease while assuring his audience there had so far been no cases."I believe absolutely nothing of what I'm hearing from Pyongyang," said Evans Revere, a former senior U.S. diplomat who specializes in North Korean issues."It simply defies credibility that a country with a grossly inadequate public health infrastructure and a malnourished population, a country that depends on China for some 90 percent of its trade, and a country that had until recently opened itself up to a major influx of Chinese tourists in order to earn foreign exchange has avoided having a lot of victims," said Revere. "The total closure of the border and other measures Pyongyang has taken reflect a real sense of emergency in the North about the threat."In fact, he went on, "I can't help but think it may also reflect panic if the number of patients is growing."Indeed, "the coronavirus arguably poses a unique threat to North Korea," wrote Victor Cha and Marie DuMond of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in an article in Beyond Parallel, which is published by CSIS."The regime's relative isolation from the international community hinders the widespread penetration of many diseases from abroad," they wrote, but "the porous nature of the border with China and frequent travel is a clear vector for the virus' transmission." Thus, "If there are reports of the virus inside of North Korea, we should expect that the virus would spread rapidly given the state's inability to contain a pandemic."By now, it may be too late for North Korea to stamp out all signs of the disease."Several suspected coronavirus infections have occurred in North Korea even though it shut all its borders," said Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's biggest-selling newspaper, citing anonymous sources. "The infections most likely spread through porous parts of the border with China that see plenty of smuggling and other clandestine traffic," said the paper, reporting suspected cases among those "engaged in smuggling between the North and China." "Bottom line," said Steve Tharp, who's been analyzing North Korean affairs as both an army officer and civilian expert for many years here, "the coronavirus has tightened up sanctions enforcement more than any other measure over the years because the North Koreans are actually self-enforcing the sanctions, against their will, through the tight closing of their borders in order to save the regime from being wiped out by this human pandemic coming."North Korean leaders, said Tharp, "understand very well that this pandemic would rip through their population and be much more dangerous in North Korea than other places because of their inadequate medical infrastructure and the low resistance disease of the general population after so many years of surviving under near-starvation conditions."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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| 'We are floating around the ocean': Cruise ship with no coronavirus shut out of ports Posted: 09 Feb 2020 01:31 PM PST  There are no cases of the coronavirus aboard Holland America's MS Westerdam, but after a stop in Hong Kong, it can't find a port to dock.
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| Manchin: Trump needs 'to act like a responsible adult, and he's not' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:41 AM PST  Manchin's retort followed three straight days of attacks by the president on Twitter.
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| Bloomberg creeps into 3rd place in new national poll Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:43 AM PST  Quinnipiac University released a new national poll Monday and it's a doozy.Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took his first lead among Democratic presidential candidates in the poll, grabbing 25 percent support from those surveyed, while the usual frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, dropped nine points. He's still in second place, but billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks like he's encroaching on Biden's turf, jumping up eight points which puts him in third place and just two behind the vice president. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) comes right behind Bloomberg.> New Quinnipiac poll of Dems nationally shows Sanders overtaking Biden big time:> > Sanders 25 > Biden 17 > Bloomberg 15 (!) > Warren 14 > Buttigieg 10 > Klobuchar 4https://t.co/gltmlDDstw> > — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 10, 2020One of the keys to Bloomberg's rise and Biden's dip appears to be their standing among those surveyed who identify as a moderate or conservative Democrat. Biden generally held a wide lead in the category, per Quinnipiac, but Bloomberg trails him by just 1 percentage point now, 22 to 21.In other news, Quinnipiac has Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all leading President Trump head to head, despite only Klobuchar and Buttigieg carrying favorable ratings.Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,519 registered voters, including 665 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, across the United States over the phone between Feb. 5-9. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points overall and 3.8 percentage points among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Check out the full poll here.More stories from theweek.com Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| A US Army drill sergeant is suspended after a profanity-laced shoving match with a recruit in Georgia Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:48 PM PST  Video shows a US Army drill sergeant hitting a recruit after he used profanity. Now the drill sergeant is suspended.
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| Masked neo-Nazi white supremacists march in Washington DC Posted: 09 Feb 2020 10:02 AM PST  Masked members of a neo-Nazi white supremacist group called Patriot Front marched through Washington's National Mall on Saturday.Patriot Front, which is part of the so-called "alt right" movement, was established by disillusioned members of another white supremacist group called Vanguard America in September 2017 in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
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| Philippines moves to shut down top broadcaster Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:45 AM PST  Philippine government lawyers moved Monday to strip the nation's biggest media group of its operating franchise in what campaigners branded a fresh attack on press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte has repeatedly pledged he would stop the broadcast operations of ABS-CBN, which drew his anger during his rise to power in the 2016 presidential election campaign. The solicitor general's petition filed with the nation's top court alleges ABS-CBN violated provisions of its 25-year operating franchise.
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| 'Under Siege': desperate Mexico region uses guns, children to fend off cartels Posted: 10 Feb 2020 06:49 AM PST  Unable to send their children to school and too afraid to step out of their enclave of 16 mountain villages in the violence-plagued southwestern Guerrero state, residents say they have been left with little choice. "They do this to prepare themselves to defend the family, their siblings and defend the village," said Sanchez Luna, a corn farmer in a rugged region which five years ago formed a self-defense "community police" militia to protect itself. The move by the villagers to offer arms training to school-age children shocked the nation and made global headlines last month after local media broadcast images of children as young as 6-years-old toting guns and showing off military maneuvers.
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| 42,763 coronavirus cases may be 'tip of the iceberg' as death toll passes 1,000 Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:18 PM PST  Chinese health officials said 97 more deaths were reported Sunday, a spike after days of decline, that put the global toll at 910.
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| Does China's J-11 Fighter Jet Have Russian SU-27 "DNA"? Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:00 PM PST  We think so.
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| Trump's GOP guardrails obliterated after impeachment Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:41 PM PST  Republicans are doing little to rein in a vengeful president.
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| Husband tracks down alleged hit-and-run driver who killed wife Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:29 AM PST  A Southern California man who made it his mission to track down the hit-and-run driver who killed his wife and mother of their eight children led police to an 85-year-old suspect, who was arrested, authorities said.
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| The number of coronavirus cases on the Diamond Princess cruise in Japan nearly doubles as passengers report going 'stir crazy' under quarantine Posted: 09 Feb 2020 11:29 PM PST  60 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed on Monday. The ship was placed on a two-week quarantine upon arrival in Yokohama, Japan on February 3.
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| DNC chair says party will 'absolutely' have a conversation about the future of Iowa's leadoff status Posted: 09 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST  Iowa might be knocked from its perch next election cycle.Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday the Democratic Party will have a "conversation" about Iowa's role as the first state to vote in the primaries going forward after the 2020 Democratic caucus turned chaotic, suggesting it may move down the lineup in the future.> .@jaketapper: "Is Iowa about to lose their first-in-the-nation caucus status?"> > DNC Chair Tom Perez: "Well, that's the conversation that will absolutely happen after this election cycle" https://t.co/KHdSVpS1Eh CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/xgaGtZlce7> > — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 9, 2020But Perez acknowledged there's not much he can do about the state's decision to hold a caucus instead of a primary. "One of the challenges and the reason we didn't do that in our most recent conversation about this is that you need to pass a state law to have a state-run primary," Perez said during his appearance on State of the Union. "There are some states that still have caucuses where I'm not sure the Republican governor would sign the law to have the election."More stories from theweek.com Why Amy Klobuchar would win by subtraction For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic America needs to stop its natural gas pipeline mania
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| Here’s how many bombs the US plans to buy in the next year Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:46 PM PST  The U.S. is slowing down its procurement of weapons that are used in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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| Iranians feel strain of turmoil and sanctions Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:23 AM PST  On a crisp winter's day the snow glistens on the mountains above Tehran, but the mood is as heavy as the pall of pollution that often shrouds Iran's capital. "The quality of life isn't good at all -- we have pollution, angry people, high prices," she said, pointing also to a "huge class gap" and Iran's deepening "isolation". Iran's economy has been battered since US President Donald Trump in 2018 abandoned an international nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions and a "maximum pressure" campaign.
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| Philippine airlines cancel flights to Taiwan over coronavirus Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:50 PM PST  Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific said they were cancelling flights to and from Taiwan to manage the risks from the fast spreading virus outbreak.
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| This endangered wolf traveled nearly 9,000 miles to find love. She was found dead. Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:45 AM PST  The gray wolf that was found dead, known as OR-54, was protected by California and Oregon law and by the federal Endangered Species Act.
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| China says Huawei is the victim of a 'witch hunt' as it warns European countries not to freeze the company out of their 5G networks Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:51 AM PST  China's ambassador to the UK says Conservative Party politicians opposing Huawei's involvement in Britain's 5G network are conducting a "witch hunt."
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| Sorry, Donald Trump: Nancy Pelosi Didn't Kill Civility In Politics Posted: 09 Feb 2020 07:08 AM PST  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tears up her copy of President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech.
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| He sank Biden’s presidential chances 30 years ago. Now he’s hoping to send him to the White House Posted: 09 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST  In the autumn of 1987, Frank Fahey found himself in the crosshairs of Joe Biden, then a young senator from Delaware who unleashed an angry outburst at a small event early in his first run for president.At a home in western New Hampshire, Fahey figured he would ask a question about a brewing scandal for the future vice president about his academic record, but the stress of Biden's first presidential run – which was already beleaguered by claims that he had plagiarised a speech on the campaign trail – seemed to get the better of him.
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| Death penalty sought in Georgia case of 2 buried children Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:02 AM PST |
| It Was China That Stole the Data of 150 Million Americans by Hacking Equifax, Feds Say Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST  The U.S. Justice Department has indicted four members of the Chinese military in connection with one of the biggest data breaches in history, a hack that compromised the data of nearly half of all American citizens.The credit report giant Equifax had its systems compromised in a 2017 security breach that gave hackers access to information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, and addresses. In total, the members of the Chinese military are accused of stealing personally identifiable information from 145 million Americans, as well as driving license numbers for ten million and the credit card numbers of around 200,000.A nine-count indictment unveiled Monday accused four Chinese military members of hacking into the company's computer networks, maintaining unauthorized access to them, and stealing the sensitive data. The four are named as Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke, and Liu Lei—all of them are said to have carried out the hack as part of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) 54th Research Institute, a component of the Chinese military."This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people," Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. "This was an organized and remarkably brazen criminal heist of sensitive information of nearly half of all Americans, as well as the hard work and intellectual property of an American company, by a unit of the Chinese military."Barr added: "Unfortunately, the Equifax hack fits a disturbing and unacceptable pattern of state-sponsored computer intrusions and thefts by China and its citizens that have targeted personally identifiable information, trade secrets, and other confidential information."What remained to be seen was how this might fit into a larger pattern of aggression U.S. officials have attributed to the Chinese military. In 2014, the Obama-era Justice Department indicted five members of the PLA on charges of corporate espionage, specifically intellectual property theft. "Fraud is a surface level strategy," Paul Martini, co-founder of network security platform iBoss, told The Daily Beast. "Equifax is a holy grail in terms of the value of information that can be used to reset passwords and grant access to other systems, like power grids, sensitive devices, even military vehicles."The four Chinese military members are accused of running thousands of queries on Equifax's systems before gaining access to and downloading millions of pieces of information between May and July 2017. They're also accused of stealing valuable trade secret information, including Equifax's data compilations and the company's database designs.When it was disclosed, the hack prompted public fury over the company's vulnerability and the mass exposure of customer information, and ultimately led to the resignation of Equifax chief executive Richard Smith."Ultimately, the company is responsible for its data, as challenging as that can be," Martini said.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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| Angela Merkel's hand-picked successor steps down in Germany amid split in ruling party Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:39 AM PST  Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the head of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union party and Chancellor Angela Merkel's designated successor to lead Germany, unexpectedly stepped down as party leader Monday and said she won't seek the chancellorship in next year's election. Kramp-Karrenbauer, a CDU moderate in Merkel's mold, will remain defense minister and stay on as party general secretary until the CDU choose her replacement this summer.Kramp-Karrenbauer's departure is seen as tied to a fracture in the party thrown into relief in regional elections last week in the eastern state of Thuringia. Some local CDU lawmakers, bucking the national party, voted with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to elect a far-left leader, who then resigned to rid his election of the stain of AfD involvement. Voting with extremist parties like the AfD is taboo in Germany, and any shift to the right in the CDU would alienate the party's junior coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats.Potential successors to Kramp-Karrenbauer include Health Minister Jens Spahn and North Rhine-Westphalia Gov. Armin Laschet, both seen as moderates. Also in the running is Friedrich Merz, a CDU veteran sidelined by Merkel before she became chancellor 15 years ago, who is positioning himself to the party's right. Merkel's spokesman said Kramp-Karrenbauer's departure did not have Merkel reconsidering her decision to not seek a fifth term.More stories from theweek.com Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| First 24-hour news channel "by and for" African Americans set to launch during Black History Month Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:22 AM PST  The Black News Channel, founded by a former Republican congressman, will try to win the growing Black cable news audience. Concerns about who's running the network have raised the question: Can it succeed?
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| How a New Hampshire family spent Andrew Yang's 'Freedom Dividend' Posted: 10 Feb 2020 04:14 AM PST  A New Hampshire family that received a $1,000-a-month "freedom dividend" for a year from the campaign of Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang spent most of the money on college bills - but also on an improv class for the unemployed dad. Chuck Fassi had lost his job as a manager for a company servicing chemical dispensing equipment when his family got the first check in January 2019.
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| Princess cruise ship forced to turn around after over 300 sickened with norovirus Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:50 PM PST  Coronavirus isn't the only virus causing concern on cruise ships right now. Norovirus has forced Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess to turn around.
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| A KFC food worker in China was infected with the coronavirus, despite efforts to curb spreading with contactless delivery and thousands of store closures Posted: 09 Feb 2020 08:40 AM PST  Yum China, the parent company of KFC in China, has already closed multiple stores to curb further spreading of the deadly disease.
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| How Iran's millennials are grappling with crippling sanctions Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:56 AM PST  In early January, after tensions between Iran and the United States escalated to the brink of war, President Donald Trump announced a detente of sorts, stating, "The United States is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it." It may have sounded like a conciliatory gesture, but the Trump administration went on to levy additional economic sanctions against the country only two days later. As someone who has studied the lives of Iran's working classes, I know just how damaging economic warfare has been. It's hit young Iranians, who comprise a large portion of the population, particularly hard. High rates of inflation – on the order of 38.6% over the past 12 months – and a youth unemployment rate of 28.6% have drastically reduced their ability to purchase basic goods and feel any semblance of financial security.Over the past 12 years, I've studied various groups of lower-class young people and their families in their homes, neighborhoods and workplaces, in shops, and in parks. I've also interviewed 44 youth between the ages of 15 and 29 who have been sidelined to the socioeconomic margins. I wanted to know how they cope with prolonged insecurity and the constant threat of crisis.Interestingly – and despite what you might see on the news – many don't react by rebelling against authority or by regularly taking to the streets. A central observation from my research and forthcoming book has been that, when faced with conditions of uncertainty, the young people I spoke with simply sought respect, acceptance and support from their communities. Life becomes a quest not for revolution, riches or vengeance, but for dignity. A highly conformist cultureThe desire for status and dignity is an integral part of Iranian society. Most of the poor, younger city dwellers I studied try to achieve this through both their conduct and their dress. They want to be seen as classy, diligent and moral. In communities that value prestige and look down on poverty, this becomes their ticket to a better life.So in an attempt to conceal their poverty, they'll spend their limited income on the latest trends so they can attain a "modern" appearance, from having the latest smartphones to wearing brand-name shoes and shirts – or at least knockoffs. In order to avoid being seen as lazy or delinquent, the young people I interviewed work diligently and avoid being associated with petty criminals, like drug dealers. Even though there's rarely enough work to go around, they get creative. They work in the informal economy as shop apprentices, street vendors and seamstresses. Those who can't find work take up unpaid work babysitting for family members or helping with a family business in an effort to appear hardworking. By doing this, they can assume a moral high ground – regardless of how little money they're actually making. As one local, middle-aged woman told me, "There's something wrong with a kid who doesn't work."These young men and women are adhering to a set of values prized by their communities and promoted by society through billboards, national television and official speeches. The result is a relatively stable social order – and a youth culture that's highly conformist.This might come as a surprise to some, since some Western media outlets sometimes fixate on acts of rebellion.In reality, deviance – especially among the lower classes – is rare. Many simply can't afford the consequences of being shunned by those around them. Rewards don't need to be materialThe quest for dignity is only part of the story. Like many young people around the world, most youth in Iran have dreams of a better future. But for those dealing with daily economic hardship, there's a chasm between their goals and what's possible. "I wanted to get my bachelor's degree and have a job where I sat behind a desk," said Babak, a street vendor, "but I had to drop out of ninth grade in order to meet my family's expenses."That gap may never be fully breached. But many young Iranians I met still feel as if it's possible to – in the words of a mechanic's apprentice – "bring themselves up."The young people I interviewed do this not by trying to game the system, but by following the rules: diligence, self-sufficiency, a smart appearance, and moral and sexual cleanliness. For this, communities reward them with jobs, small promotions, or even just more deference. The material benefits might be minimal, but people nonetheless feel validated and included in the broader fabric of the nation. In other contexts, researchers have found that "looking the part" – performing what's deemed to be attractive to society – matters to people's life prospects. The youth I knew in Iran do the same. They might not fully escape poverty, but they can escape stigma. To them, that matters. The limits of virtueOf course, not everyone in Iran can maintain an appearance of industry, class and virtue.There are young people who are desperately poor, who can't even scrape together enough money for a new pair of shoes. There are drug addicts. There are young women who have been outed as prostitutes. Focused on only helping those they deem "deserving," communities do little to lift up people who have fallen through the cracks. Friends and acquaintances are unwilling to recommend them for jobs, neighbors avoid connecting with them, families view them with shame. It can all seem a bit Darwinian, with those deemed unfit becoming social pariahs. And yet, there are many youth who persevere, who believe that living by the rules, day in and day out, is the right way to live. As Ibrahim, a laborer, emphasized, "I try to live in a good way. If people remember you as good, this is reason to be proud." To youth like Ibrahim, living a worthy life means not simply accumulating material goods, but staying true to a moral code. In the face of rising prices, dwindling jobs, and few prospects for socioeconomic change, the routines of daily life create space for those who have suffered most under the weight of suffocating sanctions to breathe – and, in many cases, grow. [ Like what you've read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation's daily newsletter. ]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * How the US repeatedly failed to support reform movements in Iran * What does the Trump administration want from Iran?Manata Hashemi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Sanders Tops New Hampshire Polls Ahead of Buttigieg, Klobuchar Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:08 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Polls show the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire taking on a new dynamic about 24 hours before voting begins, with those who have made up their minds clearly preferring Bernie Sanders, but about a third still unsure.Amy Klobuchar's rise to third in a 7 News/Emerson College tracking poll and a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/WBZ tracking poll reflects a surge after a strong debate on Friday.The polls show that about a third of voters could still change their minds, making Monday's campaign stops around the state crucial for candidates who want to persuade voters to their side.Klobuchar got high marks for her closing argument in Friday's debate about the need to elect someone who understands average Americans, and she has stayed out of the bickering that has marked the weekend's campaigning. Her campaign says she has raised $3 million since Friday's debate."I'm also a fresh new face in politics," Klobuchar said when asked on MSNBC Monday to compare herself with Pete Buttigieg, who is in a solid second place in the polls. "My age - 59 - is the new 38."She added, "I've won statewide and that is the one thing that unites our party - we want to win and we want to win big," she said.A UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion poll released early Monday has her in fifth place, but rising 2 points since last week.Sanders is solidly leading in all three polls, ranking outside the margin of error. He has been exhorting his supporters to turn out and vote and that argument is more critical on Monday given the number of undecided voters.Buttigieg, the 38-year-old ex-mayor, and Sanders, the 78-year-old Vermont senator, were essentially tied in the Iowa caucus, but Buttigieg secured more delegates from Iowa to the Democratic National Convention, taking 14 to Sanders' 12.The race gets a little murkier after the top two spots.Klobuchar's third-place standing in the weekend tracking polls may only reflect voters' impressions from the debate on Friday and might not hold when they get to the voting booth on Tuesday, given her fifth place finish in the more traditional UMass survey, which was taken over several days.The polls are bad news for Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who are virtually tied for fourth and fifth place in the various surveys.For Biden, the national front-runner before Iowa's caucuses, the low standing was a sign that he hasn't fully regrouped from the "gut punch" fourth-place finish there. He is banking on strong showings in Nevada's caucus on Feb. 22 and the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29 to maintain his argument that he is best suited to take on President Donald Trump in the fall.After coming in third in Iowa, Warren was counting on a strong finish in New Hampshire, which borders Massachusetts, the state she represents in the Senate. But these polls suggest that Granite State progressives clearly prefer Sanders' brand of democratic socialism over her "I have a plan for that" anti-corruption message.The Emerson tracking poll done for 7 News was conducted Saturday and Sunday and has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points. The Suffolk poll had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points and was also conducted Saturday and Sunday. UMass surveyed 440 likely New Hampshire Democratic voters and was conducted Feb. 4-7. It had a 6.5 percentage-point margin of error.(Updates with Klobuchar comment in fifth, sixth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Benjaminson in Manchester, New Hampshire at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Derek Wallbank, Max BerleyFor 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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| Texas officer charged with manslaughter in fatal shooting Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:18 PM PST  A Central Texas police officer was charged Monday with manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man during a traffic stop, officials said. Temple Officer Carmen DeCruz was charged with the second-degree felony in the Dec. 2 shooting of Michael Dean, Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza said in a statement. If convicted of the charge, DeCruz could face two to 20 years in prison.
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| Rip B-1 Bomber: The Air Force Wants a Shiny New B-21 Instead Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:00 PM PST  A good idea?
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| Xi Jinping made a rare public appearance amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 10 Feb 2020 02:26 PM PST  China's President Xi Jinping was out and about in Beijing on Monday as part of an effort to show he's taking active role in the country's response to the coronavirus outbreak.Xi doesn't often mingle with the public, per The New York Times, but his absence during the virus' spread has been particularly noticeable. So on Monday, he was seen making stops at various spots in the capital, including a community center, hospital, and center for disease control. The president was wearing a surgical mask and had his temperature taken. He also spoke with medical workers in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, via video conferencing.Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing, said the virus has put "pressure" on Xi to show both the public and Chinese Communist Party insiders that he was at the heart of the government's response. "It has become a matter of political security," Wu said. "Political security does not mean in the sense of popular resistance but rather that the epidemic may spread to Beijing and Shanghai, endangering the political operations of the so-called capital areas." Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Trump floats death penalty for drug dealers — a big twist from his criminal justice push Iran's missile attack reportedly left more than 100 troops with traumatic brain injury For better pasta sauce, throw away your garlic
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| Two Special Force soldiers killed, 6 wounded during apparent insider attack in Afghanistan Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:41 AM PST  A U.S. official in Afghanistan said troops came under fire during an operation in Nangarhar Province.
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| Priest says "pedophilia doesn't kill anyone" but abortion does Posted: 10 Feb 2020 03:15 AM PST  First he banned legislators who supported an abortion-rights bill from becoming godparents and receiving communion. Now, he's doubling down.
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| NYPD protesters to mayor: Don't blame us for attacks on Bronx officers Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:26 AM PST  Criminal justice activists in NYC lashed out at the mayor and police commissioner for linking weekend attacks on officers to recent protests.
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| China's biggest cities looked like ghost towns on the first day back to work after Lunar New Year, as the deadly coronavirus continues to spread Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:03 AM PST  The New Year holidays were originally set to end on January 30, but amid the outbreak of deadly coronavirus authorities decided to extend the dates.
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| Barr offers skepticism on Giuliani's offer of info on Bidens Posted: 10 Feb 2020 08:56 AM PST  "We have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from the Ukraine," Barr told reporters on Monday.
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| White House abandons wildlife board criticized as pro-hunting Posted: 10 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  The Trump administration has quietly abandoned a wildlife advisory board that animal rights groups said was illegally stacked with politically connected donors and hunting enthusiasts, and designed to promote trophy hunting. In a Friday night court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice said the International Wildlife Conservation Council "ceased to exist" on Dec. 21, 2019, when its two-year charter expired. Ryan Zinke, who had been Interior Secretary, created the board in November 2017, saying it would advise on the benefits of recreational hunting, including "boosting economies" and creating hundreds of jobs to enhance wildlife conservation.
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| Voter registration error risks deportation and criminal charges for immigrants Posted: 10 Feb 2020 01:40 PM PST  A handful of immigrants could face deportation or criminal charges, after a mistake in Illinois' automatic voter registration system allowed of hundreds of people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens to register. Sixteen cast ballots.
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| Lynching preachers: How black pastors resisted Jim Crow and white pastors incited racial violence Posted: 10 Feb 2020 05:57 AM PST  White lynch mobs in America murdered at least 4,467 people between 1883 and 1941, hanging, burning, dismembering, garroting and blowtorching their victims. Their violence was widespread but not indiscriminate: About 3,300 of the lynched were black, according to the most recent count by sociologists Charles Seguin and David Rigby. The remaining dead were white, Mexican, of Mexican descent, Native American, Chinese or Japanese. Such numbers, based on verifiable newspaper reports, represent a minimum. The full human toll of racial lynching may remain ever beyond reach.Religion was no barrier for these white murderers, as I've discovered in my research on Christianity and lynch mobs in the Reconstruction-era South. White preachers incited racial violence, joined the Ku Klux Klan and lynched black people. Sometimes, the victim was a pastor. Buttressing white supremacyWhen considering American racial terror, the first question to answer is not how a lynch mob could kill a man of the cloth but why white lynch mobs killed at all. The typical answer from Southern apologists was that only black men who raped white women were targeted. In this view, lynching was "popular justice" – the response of an aggrieved community to a heinous crime.Journalists like Ida B. Wells and early sociologists like Monroe Work saw through that smokescreen, finding that only about 20% to 25% of lynching victims were alleged rapists. About 3% were women. Some were children. Black people were lynched for murder or assault, or on suspicion that they committed those crimes. They could also be lynched for looking at a white woman or for bumping the shoulder of a white woman. Some were killed for being near or related to someone accused of the aforementioned offenses.Identifying the dead is supremely difficult work. As sociologists Amy Kate Bailey and Stewart Tolnay argue persuasively in their 2015 book "Lynched," very little is known about lynching victims beyond their gender and race. But by cross-referencing news reports with census data, scholars and civil rights organizations are uncovering more details.One might expect that mobs seeking to destabilize the black community would focus on the successful and the influential – people like preachers or prominent business owners. Instead, lynching disproportionately targeted lower-status black people – individuals society would not protect, like the agricultural worker Sam Hose of Georgia and men like Henry Smith, a Texas handyman accused of raping and killing a three-year-old girl. The rope and the pyre snuffed out primarily the socially marginal: the unemployed, the unmarried, the precarious – often not the prominent – who expressed any discontentment with racial caste.That's because lynching was a form of social control. By killing workers with few connections who could be economically replaced – and doing so in brutal, public ways that struck terror into black communities – lynching kept white supremacy on track. Fight from the front linesSo black ministers weren't often lynching victims, but they could be targeted if they got in the way. I.T. Burgess, a preacher in Putnam County, Florida, was hanged in 1894 after being accused of planning to instigate a revolt, according to a May 30, 1894, story in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. Later that year, in December, the Constitution also reported, Lucius Turner, a preacher near West Point, Georgia, was shot by two brothers for apparently writing an insulting note to their sister. Ida B. Wells wrote in her 1895 editorial "A Red Record" about Reverend King, a minister in Paris, Texas, who was beaten with a Winchester Rifle and placed on a train out of town. His offense, he said, was being the only person in Lamar County to speak against the horrific 1893 lynching of the handyman Henry Smith. In each of these cases, the victim's profession was ancillary to their lynching. But preaching was not incidental to black pastors' resistance to lynching. My dissertation research shows black pastors across the U.S. spoke out against racial violence during its worst period, despite the clear danger that it put them in. Many, like the Washington, D.C., Presbyterian pastor Francis Grimke, preached to their congregations about racial violence. Grimke argued for comprehensive anti-racist education as a way to undermine the narratives that led to lynching.Other pastors wrote furiously about anti-black violence. Charles Price Jones, the founder of the Church of God (Holiness) in Mississippi, for example, wrote poetry affirming the African heritage of black Americans. Sutton Griggs, a black Baptist pastor from Texas, wrote novels that were, in reality, thinly veiled political treatises. Pastors wrote articles against lynching in their own denominational newspapers. By any means necessarySome white pastors decried racial terror, too. But others used the pulpit to instigate violence. On June 21, 1903, the white pastor of Olivet Presbyterian church in Delaware used his religious leadership to incite a lynching. Preaching to a crowd of 3,000 gathered in downtown Wilmington, Reverend Robert A. Elwood urged the jury in the trial of George White – a black farm laborer accused of raping and killing a 17-year-old white girl, Helen Bishop – to pronounce White guilty speedily. Otherwise, Elwood continued, according to a June 23, 1903 New York Times article, White should be lynched. He cited the Biblical text 1 Corinthians 5:13, which orders Christians to "expel the wicked person from among you." "The responsibility for lynching would be yours for delaying the execution of the law," Elwood thundered, exhorting the jury.George White was dragged out of jail the next day, bound and burned alive in front of 2,000 people. The following Sunday, a black pastor named Montrose W. Thornton discussed the week's barbarities with his own congregation in Wilmington. He urged self-defense."There is but one part left for the persecuted negro when charged with crime and when innocent. Be a law unto yourself," he told his parishioners. "Die in your tracks, perhaps drinking the blood of your pursuer." Newspapers around the country denounced both sermons. An editorial in the Washington Star said both pastors had "contributed to the worst passions of the mob."By inciting lynching and advocating for self defense, the editors judged, Elwood and Thornton had "brought the pulpit into disrepute." [You're smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation's authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Lynching memorial shows women were victims, too * Maryland has created a truth commission on lynchings – can it deliver?Malcolm Brian Foley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Deluge in Australia drenches fires and eases 3-year drought Posted: 10 Feb 2020 07:32 AM PST  Drought, wildfires and now flooding have given Australia's weather an almost Biblical feel this year. Quentin Grafton, an economics professor and water expert at Australian National University in Canberra, said the rain had broken the drought in some towns but had not fallen evenly across all the affected areas. "At this stage, it's very good news, and certainly much more than people could have wished for or expected," he said of the rainfall.
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