| Don't look back, Bernie — Bloomberg is gaining on you Posted: 12 Feb 2020 01:54 PM PST  The problem with the argument that Bloomberg isn't running a real campaign with real supporters, however, is that it isn't true. And progressives — particularly those who want Sanders to win the Democratic nomination — ignore that at their peril.
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| YouTube Removes Clip of Rand Paul Speaking on Senate Floor, Citing Concern He Named Ukraine Whistleblower Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:08 AM PST  YouTube removed a clip of Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) speaking on the Senate floor, in which he asked why Chief Justice John Roberts had blocked a question of his, which some have speculated contained the name of the Ukraine whistleblower.Paul told Politico Playbook that the tech platform's decision was "dangerous and politically biased," and denied knowing who the whistleblower was. "Nowhere in my speech did I accuse anyone of being a whistleblower," he stated."It is a chilling and disturbing day in America when giant web companies such as YouTube decide to [censor] speech. Now, even protected speech, such as that of a senator on the Senate floor, can be blocked from getting to the American people," Paul added.YouTube told Politico that the decision was part of a larger effort to purge the name from the platform, and said that the company had already deleted "hundreds of videos and over ten thousand comments that contained the name.""Videos, comments, and other forms of content that mention the leaked whistleblower's name violate YouTube's Community Guidelines and will be removed from YouTube," YouTube spokeswoman Ivy Choi said. She added that uploaders had "the option" to edit the name out of their footage and re-upload.After Roberts — who was tasked with reading aloud questions submitted by senators during the impeachment trial — refused to read Paul's question on January 29, Paul submitted a second question the next day, and left the trial to hold an impromptu press conference after Roberts blocked the question a second time."It's very important whether or not a group of Democratic activists part of the Obama, Biden administration were working together for years looking for an opportunity to impeach the president," Paul said, claiming his question had nothing to do with the whistleblower.> Sen. @RandPaul: "It's very important whether or not a group of Democratic activists part of the Obama, Biden administration were working together for years looking for an opportunity to impeach the president." https://t.co/e0kl6NUKFH pic.twitter.com/TAnetrmc40> > -- The Hill (@thehill) January 30, 2020"I'm the biggest defender of the whistleblower statutes," Paul added, but argued that Democrats "shouldn't be able to use statutes to somehow make a whole part of the discussion over this impeachment go away."
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| Trump is elevating judges who could gut the Voting Rights Act Posted: 12 Feb 2020 10:51 AM PST  Fresh from handing President Trump a victory in his impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate has moved to install federal judges who have expressed disdain for the Voting Rights Act.
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| US woman wanted for husband's 2002 death arrested in Rome Posted: 13 Feb 2020 06:20 AM PST  An American woman wanted in the 2002 death of her husband, whose remains were so badly burned they weren't identified for more than a decade, was arrested in Rome after a multinational search, police said Thursday. Rome police arrested Beverly McCallum, 59, overnight after she and her teenage son checked into a Rome hotel on the northwest outskirts of the Italian capital. Italian hotels are required to register guests in an online system linked to a police database.
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| Mexico says number of migrants in 'Remain in Mexico' program drops sharply Posted: 12 Feb 2020 08:46 AM PST  Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Wednesday that the number of migrants awaiting the outcome of their U.S. immigration cases in Mexico has fallen from 50,000 to about 2,500.
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| Coronavirus updates: COVID-19 deaths near 1,500 in China as 15th case confirmed in U.S. Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:25 PM PST  As the number of new cases of novel coronavirus rises starkly in China, here is the latest.
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| The coronavirus has reportedly spread to North Korea. Experts say the country isn't equipped to fight it. Posted: 13 Feb 2020 08:39 AM PST  Reports say the novel coronavirus has spread to North Korea. But the isolated country's "crumbling" healthcare system may not be equipped to fight it.
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| Scientists discover 'baby giant' exoplanet already 10 times the mass of Jupiter Posted: 12 Feb 2020 11:39 AM PST  Scientists just discovered a "baby giant" planet closer to Earth than any other — a mere 330 light years away.The exoplanet — a planet beyond our solar system — was discovered by scientists at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the findings were published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.Named 2MASS 1155-7919 b, the planet has an uncommonly wide orbit around its "parent" star — 600 times farther than the distance between Earth and the sun. The origin of systems so far from their parent star are the "subject of vigorous debate," according to the findings. Scientists are hoping to further study 2Mass 1155-7919 b to understand how giant planets can have such wide orbits, per a press release from RIT.The planet's parent star is just 5 million years old, making it 1,000 times younger than the sun, per the release.2Mass 1155-7919 b is an infant, so it's likely still in the process of forming, said Annie Dickson-Vandervelde, lead author of the paper. But it's already roughly 10 times the mass of Jupiter, one of the gas giants in our solar system. The new planet was discovered using data from the Gaia space observatory, which was launched in 2013 by the European Space Agency.More stories from theweek.com Andrew Yang asks his gang to support Democrats everywhere in DNC email blast The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren The Don seizes the Justice Department
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| Think The U.S. Army Is Powerful? By 2027 It Will Be Even Deadlier Posted: 11 Feb 2020 07:00 PM PST  Thanks to this first-of-its-kind attack missile.
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| 'There will be dad and mum': Putin rules out Russia legalizing gay marriage Posted: 13 Feb 2020 09:07 AM PST  President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would not legalize gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin. During his two decades in power, Putin has closely aligned himself with the Orthodox Church and sought to distance Russia from liberal Western values, including attitudes toward homosexuality and gender fluidity.
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| 'We can't change the rules midstream': DNC Chair Tom Perez defends commitment to diversity despite lack of it in Iowa debate Posted: 13 Feb 2020 09:04 AM PST  "I take a back seat to no one in my commitment to diversity and inclusion," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez.
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| Leaked photos of woman's murder by partner with 'It was cupid’s fault' headline spark outrage in Mexico Posted: 12 Feb 2020 06:15 AM PST  The brutal murder of a young woman, who was allegedly stabbed to death by her partner, has sparked mass outrage in Mexico after photos of her mutilated body were leaked to the press.Ingrid Escamilla had her organs and skin removed, in what is believed to have been an attempt to hide evidence of her grisly murder.
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| Prosecutors seek nearly 5 years for former Baltimore mayor Posted: 13 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST  Federal prosecutors want the disgraced former mayor of Baltimore to be sentenced to nearly five years in prison for the scheme involving sales of her self-published "Healthy Holly" children's books. In a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday, prosecutors told a judge that a sentence of 57 months in prison would be an "adequate and just" punishment for Catherine Pugh's "longstanding pattern of criminal conduct" and would deter other politicians from breaking the public's trust. Pugh pleaded guilty in November to federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges in a deal with prosecutors.
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| Latinos gave over $23M in 2019 to Democrats in presidential race Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:32 AM PST  The lion's share, $8.3 million, went to Bernie Sanders, who leads in Latino contributions in almost every state and city.
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| Court rules Apple must pay California workers during bag checks Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:07 PM PST  The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Apple must pay employees for time spent waiting for their bags and personal electronic devices to be searched when they leave work. The decision means that the tech giant will have to pay millions of dollars to more than 12,000 hourly workers at California retail stores who fall under the mandatory bag-search policy. According to court documents, Apple employees are required to clock out before submitting to an exit search which can take from five to 20 minutes.
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| Striking photo shows a wall of traders on an auction floor in China working with masks on amid spread of coronavirus Posted: 12 Feb 2020 03:04 PM PST  Close to 100 traders at a flower auction in China were seen working while wearing masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.
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| No One Is Prepared For China's H-20 Stealth Bomber Posted: 13 Feb 2020 12:30 AM PST  It could be a game-changer.
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| Here’s the US Army’s top 10 canceled and reduced programs in FY21 Posted: 13 Feb 2020 10:29 AM PST  The service has revealed where it is drawing $1.13 billion out of lower priority programs to inject into modernization priorities, but has not accounted for more than $1.2 billion in program changes and cuts it intends to make in FY21.
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| In Twitter rampage, Trump attacks federal judge set to sentence Roger Stone Posted: 11 Feb 2020 06:48 PM PST  President Trump on Tuesday night attacked the judge presiding over his friend and adviser Roger Stone's criminal case.Stone was found guilty last year of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a House investigation. The Department of Justice recommended he receive seven to nine years in prison, but after Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that this was a "miscarriage of justice!" the DOJ suddenly reversed course, calling the recommendation "grossly disproportionate."All four of the federal prosecutors who worked on the case have withdrawn in an apparent protest, with one of them choosing to resign from the department altogether.Trump began tweeting about Stone's case as the results of the New Hampshire Democratic primary began trickling in. "Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure?" he tweeted. "How did she treat Crooked Hillary? Just asking!"The judge in question is Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has presided over several cases involving people close to Trump, including Manafort, his former campaign chairman. Manafort is now serving a 7-and-a-half year prison sentence after being found guilty of tax and bank fraud and pleading guilty to conspiracy charges. Hillary Clinton has not been on trial for any crimes, and thus has not appeared before Jackson.More stories from theweek.com Marie Yovanovitch says State Department leaders lack 'moral clarity' Brokered convention gets close 2nd place in FiveThirtyEight's Democratic nomination forecast 8 Republicans join Democrats in vote to limit Trump's military powers in Iran
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| $600,000 awarded to man involved in racial discrimination case Posted: 13 Feb 2020 04:15 AM PST  Michael Fesser was awarded $600,000 this week for his wrongful arrest years ago.
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| Bernie Sanders is now the front-runner. And moderates may be too divided to stop him. Posted: 12 Feb 2020 06:02 AM PST  While liberals rally for the Vermont senator, moderate and conservative Democrats are divided among Buttigieg, Biden and Bloomberg. The party establishment is worried.
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| AMLO Sells $80 Million of Raffle Tickets to Mexico’s Super Rich Posted: 13 Feb 2020 08:38 AM PST |
| Paediatrician reveals he faked vaccination records for anti-vaxxer parents in suicide note Posted: 13 Feb 2020 08:49 AM PST  An Illinois paediatrician who committed suicide left behind a note saying he faked records and lied about vaccinating children, according to reports.The note was written by Dr Van Koinis, 58, and detailed his regret for falsifying vaccination reports for his young patients, the Chicago Tribune reports. He led a practice in Evergreen Park near Chicago.
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| Reports: Trump donor accused of spying on Yovanovitch hands 'everything' to Congress Posted: 12 Feb 2020 02:18 PM PST  A donor to President Trump who was accused of "stalking" the former ambassador to Ukraine at the behest of Rudy Giuliani's associates has provided documents to Congress as it opens its investigation into the ousting of Marie Yovanovitch, a crucial witness in the president's impeachment.
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| Alternate History: What If Nixon Didn't Help to Break up China and the Soviet Union? Posted: 13 Feb 2020 12:00 PM PST  No historic trip to China?
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| Deepwater Horizon disaster had much worse impact than believed, study finds Posted: 13 Feb 2020 09:27 AM PST  * Effects of 2010 BP oil spill were 30% larger than calculated * Satellite images unable to detect full extent of pollution in GulfThe environmental impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico a decade ago was much worse than previously believed, according to a new study.The 2010 rig explosion, which killed 11 workers and sent oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days, triggered one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. It released 206m gallons of oil from BP's Macondo well, according to US government estimates, affecting wildlife and water-quality along hundreds of miles of Gulf coastline.At its height, 88,522 sq miles of sea were closed to fishing because of the spill, according to a federal report.But a new study published on Thursday in the Science Advances journal says satellite surveillance at the time was unable to detect large areas of oil contamination.The study's authors found that the effects of the spill were 30% larger, reaching the Texas shore, the Florida Keys, the coast of Tampa and parts of the east coast of Florida. "The satellite footprint does not necessarily capture the entire oil spill extent," the study found.Using in-situ observations, oil spill transport modeling using three-dimensional computer simulations, as well as testing for oil concentration ranges in marine organisms, the paper claims that "that large areas of the GoM were exposed to invisible and toxic oil that extended beyond the boundaries of the satellite footprint and the fishery closures"."When the oil comes to the surface, it comes as a thick layer that you can easily see with a satellite," Claire Paris-Limouzy, one of the study's authors and a professor of ocean sciences at the University of Miami, told CNN.The discrepancy between their results and official estimates is because small concentrations of oil are often invisible to satellite imagery. "You can actually smell it but can't actually see it," Paris-Limouzy said.London-based BP, which leased the rig from Transocean, declined to comment on the study's findings.A Transocean report into the disaster largely blamed BP, claiming the company failed to properly assess, manage and communicate risk, and said cement contractor Halliburton and BP did not adequately test the cement slurry used to seal the well.BP's own internal report placed blame on a cascade of failures by multiple companies. A US government investigation also identified multiple sources for the accident.BP subsequently spent or committed tens of billions of dollars to clean up the mess and compensate victims, and ultimately sold off its US arm. Transocean reached a $211m settlement with businesses and individuals claiming damages, while Halliburton reached a $1bn settlement.A bipartisan investigatory commission appointed by the Obama administration pointed to crew and technical failures in the explosion, but cited overall safety shortcomings by regulators and the oil industry.But safeguards in place to prevent a similar accident in future have been progressively eased by the Trump administration's push to expand drilling off the country's coasts.The new assessment of the Macondo spill's extent is timely, the authors wrote, because "with a global increase in petroleum production–related activities, a careful assessment of oil spills' full extent is necessary to maximize environmental and public safety".
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| Rocket hits Iraq base hosting US troops: military Posted: 13 Feb 2020 12:57 PM PST  A rocket slammed into an Iraqi base where American troops are stationed in the remote province of Kirkuk, Iraq's military and a US security source told AFP on Thursday night. It was the latest in a string of nearly 20 rocket attacks since late October on US troops stationed across the country as well as on the American embassy in Baghdad. According to three separate Iraqi security sources, the Katyusha rocket hit an open area on the K1 base at around 8:45pm local time (1745 GMT).
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| Enslaved labor built these universities. Now they are starting to repay the debt Posted: 12 Feb 2020 02:17 PM PST  Eastern universities are researching their pasts, educating themselves and others about their role in perpetuating slavery.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez congratulated Andrew Yang on running a 'great race' after he ended his presidential campaign Posted: 11 Feb 2020 06:58 PM PST  Both Ocasio-Cortez and Yang became political superstars by running grassroots campaigns centered around issues facing working-class people.
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| Marie Yovanovitch: Ousted Ukraine ambassador slams Trump administration and gets standing ovation at award ceremony Posted: 13 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST  Marie Yovanovitch received a standing ovation from a crowd of diplomats while accepting an award at Georgetown University, where the ousted ambassador delivered a speech warning the State Department was "in trouble" under Donald Trump.The former US ambassador to Ukraine was removed from her post in April 2019 following a covert effort by the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others to have her taken out of the State Department.
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| Airline passenger films man punching her economy seat after she reclines Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:52 AM PST  "Here's a great jackhole! He was angry that I reclined my seat and punched it about 9 times — HARD," the passenger wrote on Twitter.
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| China Won't Make The Same Mistake That Japan Did At Pearl Harbor Posted: 12 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  The Chinese military has done their homework.
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| Soviet spy hailed by Russia for 'saving Krakow' dies at 103 Posted: 12 Feb 2020 04:37 PM PST  Russia on Thursday announced the death at 103 of veteran Soviet spy Alexei Botyan, whom it hailed as a hero for "saving" the Polish city of Krakow from the Nazis, although Poland disputes Moscow's version of events. Russia's SVR military intelligence agency said Botyan, who lived in Moscow, had died after turning 103 on Monday.
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| Blood evidence at forefront of Iowa cold case murder trial Posted: 13 Feb 2020 04:41 AM PST  A prosecutor told jurors on the opening day of a cold case murder trial that they were going on a journey back in time to learn about an Iowa high school girl who was slain more than 40 years ago. Testimony began Wednesday in the trial of Jerry Burns, 66, of Manchester, Iowa. In his opening statement, prosecutor Nick Maybanks revealed a few more details about the crime.
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| Right-Wing Backlash Greets Modest GOP Foray Into Climate Change Posted: 13 Feb 2020 07:17 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had barely finished presenting his party's modest plan to fight climate change when conservatives began piling on in opposition.The free market-group American Energy Alliance dismissed it as a "Republican-led Green New Deal lite" that amounted to a "climate messaging exercise." The libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute called it "bad policy that will not bring any political relief." And the Club for Growth vowed to not endorse any candidate who backs what it called the "liberal" Republican climate plan."Besides hurting our economy, these measures will not make a single environmentalist vote for a Republican and only alienate conservatives across the country," said Club for Growth President David McIntosh.The blowback illustrates the challenges facing those trying to shed the Republican party's climate-denying reputation, which alienates many young voters and polls well for Democrats. The fierce criticism also illustrates the limits of pragmatism for a party long backed by groups that question climate change.GOP Edges Gingerly Toward Climate Plan After Sowing DoubtsMcCarthy unveiled the first of several planned climate initiatives on Wednesday with a package focused on carbon sequestration. It called for the expansion and permanent extension of a tax credit for oil companies and others that capture carbon dioxide and bury it in the ground; money for the development of carbon capture for natural-gas power plants; and support for a plan to plant 1 trillion trees around the world."Fighting for a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment" has been well-received during member meetings, including the party's full-member retreat in 2019 and a policy conference earlier this year, said Matt Sparks, a McCarthy spokesman. Among the members who participated in the unveiling of the climate plan on Wednesday was Representative David McKinley, a West Virginia Republican steeped in coal-country politics. "The participation of members across the ideological spectrum and representing every region of the country -- including coal country -- at today's event represent just how widespread the support is for House Republicans to reclaim the leadership position on the environment," Sparks said in an email.Republicans Plot Climate Strategy To Counter DemocratsDuring Wednesday's hour-long briefing, McCarthy and other Republican leaders, including Oregon Representative Greg Walden and Representative Garret Graves of Louisiana, made the case that their plan could protect the environment, as well the economy, without mandates embraced by Democrats.Future components are likely to focus on climate resilience, plastic pollution, and increasing energy from carbon-free sources such as nuclear and hydropower."House Republicans stand united against carbon taxes and burdensome regulations," said Graves, top Republican on a special select committee charged with coming up with solutions to climate change. "America leads the world because of free-market principles, innovation, and our abundant energy resources. We should double down on an America First strategy that enhances our global power and influence."While the Republican climate proposals were derided by some environmental organizations, they won praise from at least some right-leaning groups."Any debate on climate change must be rooted in political and technical realism, as well as economic competitiveness," said Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath Action, which promotes energy innovation."It's a good strategy to focus on policies that facilitate breakthroughs relevant for the developing world, instead of divisive policies that would make traditional energy more expensive and only aid deployment of existing technologies," he said. (Updates with lawmaker comment in 10th paragraph)\--With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Ros KrasnyFor 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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| A 'humiliated' 5th-grader withdrew from school after her teacher asked if she was in a relationship with another girl — as their entire class watched Posted: 12 Feb 2020 02:35 PM PST  The teacher reportedly asked her in front of the entire class whether they were dating. She's spending the rest of the year in homeschooling.
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| Boeing is flying the 737 Max around the US with test crews and no passengers to prepare for the plane's return Posted: 12 Feb 2020 03:18 AM PST  Boeing is running test flights in advance of regulators testing the 737 Max to see if it should fly again after two fatal crashed killed 346 people.
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| Meet the 'Napoleon Gun': The Artillery Piece That Saved the Union Posted: 12 Feb 2020 08:30 PM PST  She served honorably at Gettysburg.
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| How America made a mess of measuring poverty Posted: 13 Feb 2020 03:41 PM PST  Since 1963, the United States has been measuring what percentage of its population is in poverty. But it hasn't changed the way it measures poverty since 1963, either. Outside of annual adjustments for inflation, the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) works the same way now that it did six decades ago.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) aims to fix that. She introduced her Recognizing Real Poverty Act in September of last year, part of a larger suite of measures to aid low-income Americans. According to her office, the bill requires federal agencies to "adjust the federal poverty line to account for geographic cost variation, costs related to health insurance, work expenses for the family, child care needs, and new necessities, like internet access."Granted, this is a call for a reform, and a study of what that reform should be. It doesn't lay out precise end goals. But Ocasio-Cortez is right: The way America defines poverty right now is a conceptual trainwreck.Let's run through the problems.First off, the OPM focuses solely on food: Using 1955 data, it defined a basket of foodstuffs any household would need for basic living, adjusted for family size, and determined that a household was in poverty if that basket cost more than a third of its overall budget. Basically, the Johnson administration needed some way to set eligibility for its new welfare programs, so it grabbed some work being done by government statisticians and retrofit it as an overall poverty measure. Other than the inflation adjustments, that's still how we define the poverty line. And it's still what we use to decide eligibility for a whole bunch of programs, from Medicaid to food stamps, school lunch programs, Obamacare's subsidies, and other grants and forms of assistance.But focusing on food leaves out things that existed at the time that any reasonable person would also consider necessary for basic dignified living standards (health care, child care). And, of course, it leaves out other needs that have arisen since (like internet access or mobile phone service). Yet another problem is what sources of income are and aren't counted towards the total family budget, which the food budget is then measured against.The answer to this last question is basically a random hodgepodge: Wage income is counted, along with dividends and interest payments; but capital gains from selling assets are not. Granted, capital gains aren't exactly relevant to the average low-income American, but government aid certainly is: The OPM counts unemployment insurance, Social Security, workers' compensation, and other benefits that are straight cash aid. It does not count assistance that isn't simple cash — say, health coverage in the form of Medicaid, or benefits linked to certain needs, like food stamps or housing assistance. Nor does the OPM count government aid that is distributed via the tax code, like the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Child Tax Credit.This creates a perverse situation: Lawmakers, citizens and journalists all cite the OPM in discussions and arguments over how good a job America does fighting poverty, or what it should be doing differently. Yet a huge swath of the programs that aim to alleviate poverty have no effect on the OPM! Indeed, outside of a dramatic fall from 1960 to 1970, the official poverty rate has bounced between 11 percent and 15 percent ever since.Now, American policymakers are hardly ignorant of this situation. Even in 1963, they knew they weren't creating the best measure — they just needed a measure. And over the last decade the government has developed an alternative metric, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which addresses some of the OPM's problems.The SPM cleans up a lot of the contributions to income: It includes non-cash benefits like food stamps and housing, and it includes transfers within the tax code, like the aforementioned tax credits. It also treats as necessities other expenditures beyond food, by subtracting spending on things like child care and out-of-pocket medical expenses out of its final measurement of a family's income. The result is the SPM arguably comes closer to doing what we demand of the OPM: it actually tells us what effect our poverty-fighting efforts have had over time. When researchers took the SPM methodology and extended it back through time, they found a pretty consistent fall in America's poverty rate, from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent in 2014.But the Supplemental Poverty Measure hardly ends the debate, either. It does not include government programs like Medicaid, for example — there remains a big argument over how to reduce the value of something like health care coverage to a simple dollar figure. The SPM also adjusts for different costs of living in different geographies, meaning the poverty rate it might find in a low-income area of Mississippi will actually be lower than the rate the OPM would find there. Finally, while the SPM treats expenditures like child care and medical bills as necessities — i.e. you're defined as in poverty if you can't afford them — it does not do the same for education costs or the ability to save. Those are effectively treated as luxuries, and whether you can afford them or not doesn't factor into the SPM's assessment.Perhaps the most interesting change from the SPM to the OPM is how they set their thresholds. For the OPM, if that basket of foodstuffs, defined way back when, costs more than a third of your family budget, then you're in poverty. But the SPM does something more complex. It includes a bundle of needs — like food, clothing, shelter, and more — and sets its value at 33 percent of median income. This may sound really technical, but think of it this way: If every American, from the richest to the poorest, suddenly got $10,000 more a year, the OPM rate would drop to zero or something close to it. But the SPM rate would remain largely unaffected.In other words, the OPM measures how many people fall below a standard of living that remains fixed over time. The SPM measures how many households fall past a certain distance from the country's median living standard. Both measures of the poverty rate can theoretically be reduced to zero. But while the OPM could be reduced to zero without affecting inequality at all, inequality would have to shrink — at least for the bottom portion of earners — for the SPM to fall to zero. This is generally understood as a debate between "absolute" measures of poverty, like the OPM, and "relative" measures, like the SPM. (Though technically, both measures are relative comparisons: The SPM to how other people are doing now, the OPM to how other people did in the past.) Which approach is better is a hot topic of debate among people who pay attention to this stuff.And this really gets us to the core problem with defining poverty: There's no right way to do it. We're sufficiently used to the official poverty rate at this point that we treat it almost as an objective, scientific measure. But it's nothing of the sort. How to define poverty is an inescapably political question, and an inescapably moral one.Should education count as a necessity in the bundle of goods we must be able to afford to not count as impoverished? What about savings, or child care, or health care, et cetera? What about leisure time? (Some European measures of poverty do indeed include the ability to go on vacation as a life necessity.) Should our poverty measures factor in inequality or not? Answers will depend on a person's values and worldview and ideology. (For what it's worth, none other than Adam Smith came down in favor of the relative approach, in a famous parable about a linen shirt.)One last interesting factoid: Gallup has actually been asking Americans for decades how much a family of four would need to make "to get along in your local community." In 1963, Americans said it was $5,304, which was relatively close to the OPM's threshold of $3,128. By 2007, the gap had expanded dramatically, with the "get along" response reaching $52,087, while the OPM threshold lagged behind at $21,500. Turns out if you just adjusted the 1963 answer for inflation, you'd get $37,500, which is still way higher than the updated OPM. The conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) surveyed Americans in 2016 to find out what they thought it took for a family of four to not be poor, and the average answer was $32,293. The OPM threshold for a family of four in 2016 was $24,339.And get this: The most common international poverty metric is a relative measure, set at 50 percent of median income. Both the OPM threshold of $3,128 in 1963 and the AEI survey response of $32,293 in 2016 are pretty close to 50 percent of median income at the time. Decades ago, America's official poverty line used to match the 50 percent of median income threshold, then fell behind. But Americans' general opinion of what counts has poor has kept up with or even exceeded that measure.Rep. Ocasio-Cortez may be opening up a can of worms by asking the federal government to rethink its Official Poverty Measure. But she can take heart that her fellow citizens also think there's something way off in how we decide who is and isn't poor.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Andrew Yang asks his gang to support Democrats everywhere in DNC email blast The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren The Don seizes the Justice Department
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| Hundreds of Iraqi women defy cleric to protest authorities Posted: 13 Feb 2020 09:54 AM PST  Hundreds of Iraqi women of all ages flooded central Baghdad Thursday alongside male anti-government protesters, defying an order by powerful cleric Moqtada Sadr to separate the genders in the rallies.
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| 2 teens charged in singer's death will be tried as adults Posted: 13 Feb 2020 12:49 PM PST |
| Europe Notches New Trade Win as Vietnam Pact Clears Final Hurdle Posted: 12 Feb 2020 03:16 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world threatened by trade wars. Sign up here. The European Parliament approved a free-trade agreement with Vietnam after winning concessions from Hanoi that may show the way for ratification of a bigger commercial deal between Europe and South America.The European Union assembly on Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, endorsed an accord that will scrap almost all tariffs on goods traded with Vietnam. The two-way commerce, ranging from cars and pharmaceuticals to footwear and rice, was worth almost 50 billion euros ($55 billion) in 2018.To ensure majority support for the pact in the 705-seat EU Parliament, leading members secured concrete commitments from the Vietnamese government to bolster labor rights in the country. That campaign helped to win over assembly members concerned about respect for fundamental freedoms in Vietnam, a one-party, communist state.Vietnam will eliminate 99% of its import duties over 10 years and the EU will do the same over seven years under the deal, which is due to take effect around July once EU governments and Hanoi go through the formality of giving the final green light. The accord also curbs non-tariff barriers and opens up public procurement.Asian InitiativeReached by negotiators in 2015, the agreement has been delayed in part by a European court case over the role of national parliaments in the EU in approving bloc-wide pacts covering trade and investment.The EU is reacting to a stalled 2007 trade initiative involving the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations by seeking commercial deals with individual ASEAN countries. The bloc, which already secured an agreement with Singapore, says bilateral accords can serve as building blocks to an EU-ASEAN pact.More generally, the EU is sidestepping stalled World Trade Organization efforts to open markets and countering U.S. protectionism under President Donald Trump through deals with nations around the globe. The bloc last year reached a major agreement with the Mercosur group of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay following groundbreaking free-trade pacts with Canada and Japan.The EU-Mercosur accord, whose approval process in Europe won't start for about another year, faces a rough ride as a result of a political anger in the bloc over Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's alleged backsliding on environmental protection including in the Amazon region.In that context, the labor-rights pledges made by the Vietnamese government may serve as a model for the way the bloc addresses opposition in Europe to the Mercosur pact.'Success Story'Bernd Lange, chairman of the EU Parliament's trade committee, said it used leverage offered by the draft market-opening pact to gain Vietnamese commitments to respect three core International Labour Organization conventions and to upgrade the country's labor code. Lange also cited the creation of a group to monitor enactment of the agreement."It's a democratic success story," Lange, a German Socialist, told reporters.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Nikos ChrysolorasFor 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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