| Trump, trying to head off testimony, says Bolton would have started 'World War Six' Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:37 AM PST  As pressure mounts on senators to allow John Bolton's testimony in President Trump's impeachment trial, the president used Twitter to trash his former national security adviser.
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| Bloomberg Says He Won’t Accept Contributions to Make the Debates Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:38 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Michael Bloomberg reaffirmed Thursday that he won't be accepting contributions just to qualify for the Democratic presidential debates.The Democratic National Committee has required candidates to have a certain number of individual donors to qualify for debates, and Bloomberg is self-funding his campaign. The DNC has said candidates could make the Feb. 7 debate in New Hampshire by winning at least one pledged delegate in Monday's Iowa caucuses, but the former New York mayor is not competing in the early nominating contests."I always said I'd like to participate in the debates. But the rules are the rules, and it's up to the Democratic Party to set those rules," Bloomberg told reporters after a speech in Washington, according to The Hill.Some Democrats who believe that Bloomberg is avoiding scrutiny by not participating in televised debates with other candidates are pushing the party to allow the billionaire on stage. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group that's endorsed Elizabeth Warren, has said he's proposed that the party add an exception for candidates who exceed some of the other criteria, such as doing very well in a number of recognized polls.Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar told MSNBC this week that she would welcome Bloomberg to the debate stage."I'd be fine with him being on the debate stage because I think that instead of just putting your money out there, he's actually got to be on the stage, and be able to go back and forth so that voters can evaluate him in that way," Klobuchar said.But Bloomberg has said he won't accept even token $1 donations just to qualify for the debate stage because he's never accepted contributions and doesn't want the appearance he can be bought. He has said he made his fortune building a business that allows him to spend money on the race and issues he cares about, and that his rivals had the same opportunity but are using money from contributors who "expect something from them."This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, 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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| New Jersey mayor admits getting drunk, taking off his pants and passing out in employee's bed Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:19 AM PST  The mayor of a New Jersey town admitted that he had "too much to drink" when he took off his trousers and crawled into an employee's bed at a party.Mahwah mayor John Roth told NorthJersey.com that he "did go upstairs to bed" and apologised for his drunken behaviour at staff party after a letter from the "concerned employees of the township of Mahwah" circulated in local reports following the incident.
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| Warren Vows to Give ‘Young Trans Person’ Veto Power over Her Secretary of Education Pick Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:23 AM PST  Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said earlier this week that she would only nominate a Secretary of Education who was pre-screened by a "young transgender person" in order to ensure that her pick would be "committed to creating a welcoming environment, a safe environment, and a full educational curriculum for everyone."Speaking Sunday at a townhall in Iowa, Warren responded to a question about how to address a lack of LGBTQ history and sexual education in public schools."It starts with a Secretary of Education who has a lot to do with where we spend our money, with what gets advanced in our public schools, with what the standards are," she replied.The Massachusetts Democrat went on to explain that any candidate for the position first had to be a former public-school teacher, and then had to go through an interview conducted by a young transgender person Warren had met on the campaign trail who was worried about the lack of a "welcoming community" in public schools."I said, I'm going to have a Secretary of Education that this young trans person interviews, on my behalf, and only if this person believes that our Secretary of Education nominee is truly as committed to creating a welcoming environment, a safe environment, and a full educational curriculum for everyone, will that person be actually advanced to be Secretary of Education," Warren explained.> Warren says that she will have a "young trans person" interview her future Secretary of Education and only hire this future secretary if the young trans person approves.> > This in reference to a question about sex education/LGBTQ history in public schools. pic.twitter.com/txyt6OI6FX> > -- Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) January 30, 2020Warren has released several plans highlighting her agenda to promote transgender talking points. A recent plan detailing how to restore "Integrity and Competence to Government after Trump" included a commitment to have at least half of Warren's Cabinet be filled by "women and non-binary people."In October, Warren released her criminal justice reform platform, which included an end to the "Trump Administration's dangerous policy" of jailing prisoners based on their biological sex, and also proposed providing "transition-related surgeries," to already-incarcerated inmates.In 2012, Warren told a Massachusetts radio station that "I don't think it's a good use of taxpayer dollars" to pay for sex-change operations for prisoners.
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| British officials: Tanker on fire in Gulf off Sharjah in UAE Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:00 AM PST ![British officials: Tanker on fire in Gulf off Sharjah in UAE]( "British officials: Tanker on fire in Gulf off Sharjah in UAE") The United Kingdom's Maritime Trade Operations said the fire struck the vessel northwest of Sharjah, an Emirati sheikhdom. Emirati officials said they were working to put out the blaze some 21 miles (34 kilometers) off the coast of Sharjah. The blaze comes amid heightened tensions in the region after the U.S. killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad and Iran fired ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.
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| Family of handcuffed man fatally shot expresses sorrow, relief after officer charged Posted: 29 Jan 2020 02:39 PM PST  Michael Owen Jr., a veteran of the Prince George's County Police Department, was charged with murder Tuesday in the shooting death of William Green.
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| Iranian factory makes U.S. and Israeli flags to burn Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:38 PM PST  Business is booming at Iran's largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. The factory produces about 2,000 U.S. and Israeli flags a month in its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year. Tensions between the United States and Iran have reached the highest level in decades after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a U.S. base in Iraq days later.
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| Here's what the White House letter about Bolton's book really means Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:25 PM PST  What appeared to be a White House bid to stop former national security adviser John Bolton from publishing his book, which may have explosive claims about his interactions with President Trump, is really just a standard letter regarding classification review, according to legal experts.
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| Prowling Lions and Corrupt Officials Block Roads to Africa Trade Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:01 PM PST ![Prowling Lions and Corrupt Officials Block Roads to Africa Trade]( "Prowling Lions and Corrupt Officials Block Roads to Africa Trade") (Bloomberg Markets) -- Nyoni Nsukuzimbi drives his 40-ton Freightliner for just over half a day from Johannesburg to the Beitbridge border post with Zimbabwe. At the frontier town—little more than a gas station and a KFC—he sits in a line for two to three days, in temperatures reaching 104F, waiting for his documents to be processed.That's only the start of a journey Nsukuzimbi makes maybe twice a month. Driving 550 miles farther north gets him to the Chirundu border post on the Zambian frontier. There, starting at a bridge across the Zambezi River, trucks snake back miles into the bush. "There's no water, there's no toilets, there are lions," says the 40-year-old Zimbabwean. He leans out of the Freightliner's cab over the hot asphalt, wearing a white T-shirt and a weary expression. "It's terrible."By the time he gets his load of tiny plastic beads—the kind used in many manufacturing processes—to a factory on the outskirts of Zambia's capital, Lusaka, he's been on the road for as many as 10 days to traverse just 1,000 miles. Nsukuzimbi's trials are typical of truck drivers across Africa, where border bureaucracy, corrupt officials seeking bribes, and a myriad of regulations that vary from country to country have stymied attempts to boost intra-African trade.The continent's leaders say they're acting to change all that. Fifty-three of its 54 nations have signed up to join the QuicktakeAfrican Continental Free Trade Area; only Eritrea, which rivals North Korea in its isolation from the outside world, hasn't. The African Union-led agreement is designed to establish the world's biggest free-trade zone by area, encompassing a combined economy of $2.5 trillion and a market of 1.2 billion people. Agreed in May 2019, the pact is meant to take effect in July and be fully operational by 2030. "The AfCFTA," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his Oct. 7 weekly letter to the nation, "will be a game-changer, both for South Africa and the rest of the continent."It has to be if African economies are ever going to achieve their potential. Africa lags behind other regions in terms of internal trade, with intracontinental commerce accounting for only 15% of total trade, compared with 58% in Asia and more than 70% in Europe. As a result, supermarket shelves in cities such as Luanda, Angola, and Abidjan, Ivory Coast, are lined with goods imported from the countries that once colonized them, Portugal and France.By lowering or eliminating cross-border tariffs on 90% of African-produced goods, the new regulations are supposed to facilitate the movement of capital and people and create a liberalized market for services. "We haven't seen as much institutional will for a large African Union project before," says Kobi Annan, an analyst at Songhai Advisory in Ghana. "The time frame is a little ambitious, but we will get there."President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana and other heads of state joined Ramaphosa in hailing the agreement, but a number of the businesspeople who are supposed to benefit from it are skeptical. "Many of these governments depend on that duty income. I don't see how that's ever going to disappear," says Tertius Carstens, the chief executive officer of Pioneer Foods Group Ltd., a South African maker of fruit juices and cereal that's being acquired by PepsiCo Inc. for about $1.7 billion. "Politically it sounds good; practically it's going to be a nightmare to implement, and I expect resistance."Under the rules, small countries such as Malawi, whose central government gets 7.7% of its revenue from taxes on international trade and transactions, will forgo much-needed income, at least initially. By contrast, relatively industrialized nations like Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa will benefit from the outset. "AfCFTA will require huge trade-offs from political leaders," says Ronak Gopaldas, a London-based director at Signal Risk, which advises companies in Africa. "They will need to think beyond short-term election cycles and sovereignty in policymaking."Taking those disparities into account, the AfCFTA may allow poorer countries such as Ethiopia 15 years to comply with the trade regime, whereas South Africa and other more developed nations must do so within five. To further soften the effects on weaker economies, Africa could follow the lead of the European Union, says Axel Pougin de La Maissoneuve, deputy head of the trade and private sector unit in the European Commission's Directorate General for Development and International Cooperation. The EU adopted a redistribution model to offset potential losses by Greece, Portugal, and other countries.There may be structural impediments to the AfCFTA's ambitions. Iron ore, oil, and other raw materials headed for markets such as China make up about half of the continent's exports. "African countries don't produce the goods that are demanded by consumers and businesses in other African countries," says Trudi Hartzenberg, executive director of the Tralac Trade Law Center in Stellenbosch, South Africa.Trust and tension over illicit activity are also obstacles. Beginning in August, Nigeria shut its land borders to halt a surge in the smuggling of rice and other foodstuffs. In September, South Africa drew continentwide opprobrium after a recurrence of the anti-immigrant riots that have periodically rocked the nation. This could hinder the AfCFTA's provisions for the free movement of people.Considering all of these roadblocks, a skeptic would be forgiven for giving the AfCFTA little chance of success. And yet there are already at least eight trade communities up and running on the continent. While these are mostly regional groupings, some countries belong to more than one bloc, creating overlap. The AfCFTA won't immediately replace these regional blocs; rather, it's designed to harmonize standards and rules, easing trade between them, and to eventually consolidate the smaller associations under the continentwide agreement.The benefits of the comprehensive agreement are plain to see. It could, for example, limit the sort of unilateral stumbling blocks Pioneer Foods' Carstens had to deal with in 2019: Zimbabwe insisted that all duties be paid in U.S. dollars; Ghana and Kenya demanded that shippers purchase special stickers from government officials to affix to all packaging to prevent smuggling.The African Export-Import Bank estimates intra-African trade could increase by 52% during the first year after the pact is implemented and more than double during the first decade. The AfCFTA represents a "new pan-Africanism" and is "a pragmatic realization" that African countries need to unite to achieve better deals with trading partners, says Carlos Lopes, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and one of the architects of the agreement.From his closer-to-the-ground vantage point, Olisaemeka Anieze also sees possible benefits. He's relocating from South Africa, where he sold secondhand clothes, to his home country of Nigeria, where he wants to farm fish and possibly export them to neighboring countries. "God willing," he says, "if the free-trade agreement comes through, Africa can hold its own."In the meantime, there are those roads. About 80% of African trade travels over them, according to Tralac. The World Bank estimates the poor state of highways and other infrastructure cuts productivity by as much as 40%.If the AfCFTA can trim the red tape, at least driving the roads will be more bearable, says David Myende, 38, a South African trucker resting after crossing the border post into South Africa on the way back from delivering a load to the Zambian mining town of Ndola. "The trip is short, the borders are long," he says. "They're really long when you're laden, and customs officers can keep you waiting up to four or five days to clear your goods." —With Pauline Bax and René VollgraaffSguazzin is a senior writer and Naidoo is a reporter at Bloomberg News in Johannesburg. Latham covers government affairs in Harare.To contact the authors of this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.netPrinesha Naidoo in Johannesburg at pnaidoo7@bloomberg.netBrian Latham in Sandton, Johannesburg at blatham@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Stryker McGuire at smcguire12@bloomberg.netFor 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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| Dems Are Buying ‘Tens of Millions’ of Cellphone Numbers in Huge Voter Contact Push Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:28 AM PST  The Democratic Party wants your cellphone digits. And it's paying a hefty sum in the hopes you'll text or call back.The Democratic National Committee is dropping "six figures" to acquire "tens of millions" of cellphone numbers through a variety of vendors, the group exclusively told The Daily Beast. It's plan is to boost Democratic voter outreach, fundraising, and data collection ahead of a bruising 2020 presidential campaign and the host of down-ballot races that will reshape American politics next year.Republicans believe they've built an "unstoppable machine" to re-elect President Donald Trump, as his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, put it on Tuesday. But Democrats say their new investment will position the party well against the president."Making sure campaigns and state parties have access to reliable cellphone numbers and data helps them reach more voters, more efficiently, especially those who are younger or tend to move around a lot," said Nellwyn Thomas, the DNC's Chief Technology Officer. "The more efficient we can be in our outreach, the more likely we are to win, and this technology will help more volunteers and campaigns have better conversations with voters about why it's so important to elect Democrats in 2020."The cellphone buy marks the first time that the DNC has purchased a bulk file of nationwide phone numbers during a presidential election cycle. Unaffiliated Democrats said that the news of the purchase was welcomed as the party tries to make up a tech deficit it faces against a well-funded Trump re-election effort. In 2016, the DNC was focused on acquiring numbers strictly in battleground states. This time around, it says it's looking to build a list of every American cellphone number that they can definitively match to a voter—and that they don't already have on file.The purchase signals a renewed effort to adapt to an era in which voters—and Democratic constituencies in particular—are increasingly foregoing landlines in favor of cellphones. That trend has, of course, been going on for a while. But in recent years, political candidates and parties have dramatically expanded the use of cellphones to contact voters and organize politically, including through peer-to-peer texting—voter outreach campaigns that use centralized databases of phone numbers to send personalized appeals to millions of potential voters, donors, and volunteers. Firms that facilitate peer-to-peer texting note that the method is significantly cheaper than mail and that the response rate can be twice that of phone calls.Republicans, for their part, portrayed the DNC's new bulk phone number purchase as a desperate attempt to play catch-up."We have been spending well over seven figures on this every year since 2012, so spending six figures this late means Democrats are way behind," said RNC communications director Michael Ahrens when asked about the DNC's move. "Hillary Clinton said she inherited 'nothing' from the DNC," Ahrens added, "and it sounds like their 2020 nominee won't be faring much better."But the DNC insists that its purchase can't be measured by volume alone. The numbers it's acquiring, the committee says, are not just voluminous, but culled to produce high quality data. That means focusing only on phone numbers that the committee can confidently match with voters who are likely to respond, and ensuring that candidates and state parties aren't working with lists of duplicative phone numbers.The committee, which is purchasing the numbers through a number of unidentified vendors, also plans to continuously update its list of cellphones throughout the cycle, and expects the total number of voters available for contact to grow before election day. They're also constructing a proprietary data science model dubbed "Sonar" to help campaigns prioritize who to call or text. A DNC aide said the information was "being rolled out on the file now, so it will be available to campaigns almost immediately" to Democratic candidates with access to the DNC's larger voter file and its suite of data and technology offerings. That access will be given free of charge to state parties and down-ballot candidates. The presidential campaigns currently are paying for the DNC's voter file, and there will be no additional cost for the cellphone information. The DNC estimates that the new purchase and the launch of Sonar will end up making cellphone outreach by campaigns roughly 35 percent more efficient. And the majority of it is expected to be through actual phone calls. But there could be some unforeseen hurdles elsewhere. Telephone carriers have express reservations about peer-to-peer texting in particular as users have complained about being spammed against their will. Within political circles there is fear that the carriers may simply outlaw the practice entirely. A DNC official told The Daily Beast that they were monitoring the situation but did not "have any reason to think there have been significant developments" or that "a change is imminent."For the time being, the DNC hopes to integrate its new list of phone numbers into existing data and voter contact tools such as its Facebook advertising efforts. The phone numbers, it hopes, will allow the party to engage voters through multiple channels in a complementary way that gives the party and its candidates a fuller, more detailed well of voters from which to draw support, financial or otherwise.Whether that will be enough to counter the voter contact tools that the Trump campaign and the RNC have assembled over the past three years remains to be seen. Parscale himself took to Twitter on Tuesday to mock Democrats' attempts at cellphone outreach, sharing a photo of a text he received from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign."Almost feel bad for the @DNC and @SenSanders for having such bad data," Parscale jibed. "If you think my phone number is a possible Bernie supporter you are wasting big bucks."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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| Tom Cotton Claims Coronavirus Epidemic ‘Much Worse’ than China Admits Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:52 AM PST  Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) claimed on Thursday that the coronavirus epidemic spreading across China is worse than the country is willing to admit."There was a 28% increase in coronavirus cases overnight in China," Cotton wrote in a Twitter post. "Make no mistake, though: these aren't 'new' cases. Just what China is willing to admit. It's much worse."By Thursday morning over 7,700 cases of the virus were confirmed worldwide, mostly in mainland China, while 68 cases were recorded in other locations around the world. 170 people have died from the virus so far.Cotton has repeatedly pushed for a travel ban to China due to concerns over the spread of the virus. On Tuesday Cotton sent a letter to members of President Trump's cabinet, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging the administration to enact a travel ban."As of [Tuesday] morning, China has reported that the Wuhan coronavirus has infected more than 4,500 people and killed more than 100," Cotton wrote in the letter. "But the real number is likely far higher — perhaps in the hundreds of thousands — given the Chinese Communist Party's long history of covering up and minimizing these crises."On Friday Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) himself called for a ban on U.S.-China travel as the epidemic spread.The World Health Organization will meet on Thursday to determine whether to announce a global-health emergency. W.H.O. director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has praised China's response to the outbreak."I was struck by the determination of Chinese leadership & it's people to end the new coronavirus outbreak," Dr. Tedros wrote on Twitter.
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| The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS likely started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like. Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:03 AM PST  The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak likely started in a Chinese wet market, where livestock and poultry are sold alongside animals like dogs and civets.
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| Mayor banned from Trump rally after asking campaign to cover costs of event: Report Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:18 AM PST  President Trump's "Keep America Great" rally on Tuesday for his 2020 reelection bid welcomed thousands of people to a seaside town in New Jersey — except for the city's mayor.
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| A Purple Heart recipient who feds say faked his own death after raping his step-daughter is now on the '15 most-wanted' list Posted: 29 Jan 2020 01:46 PM PST  US Marshals say that Jacob Scott is a survivalist and a military veteran who knows how to live off the grid.
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| The U.S. Interior Department Grounds All of Its Chinese-Made Drones Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:12 PM PST  If it was made in China—or uses Chinese parts—it ain't flying.
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| So Long, Spitzer, You Were a Good Telescope and Friend Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:41 AM PST |
| It’s D-Day for Doomsday Mom Lori Vallow to Produce Missing Kids Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:44 AM PST  In the six weeks since Idaho police announced that Tylee and J.J. Vallow were missing, the investigation into the siblings' disappearance has taken more turns than one of their stepfather's Mormon apocalypse novels.And there's likely to be another one Thursday—the court-ordered deadline for their mother, Lori Vallow, to produce them or face a contempt of court charge and possible arrest and extradition from Hawaii.That's where she and husband Chad Daybell have been holed up since cops started looking into the whereabouts of their children, the deaths of their previous spouses, and other bizarre incidents connected to the couple.Last weekend, police on the island of Kauai served Vallow with a court order signed by an Idaho judge, giving her five days to turn up with 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old J.J., who was adopted and is autistic.Ominously, police found no sign of the kids or any indication that they had been in Hawaii. Now, authorities in Kauai are waiting to see if Vallow complies with the order and brings an end to the troubling mystery.Idaho Doomsday Couple Found in Hawaii—Without Missing KidsKauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that he's been involved in other missing persons cases over the last decade, "but I've never seen one with so many twists and turns."He did not know if Vallow and Daybell had left Hawaii for Idaho, and Kauai police did not return calls for comment. In Idaho, authorities are being very close-lipped because much of the child-protection case is sealed."We hope and pray that the children will be produced or found and that they are safe and healthy," Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood said in a statement.A reporter for East Idaho News, who was in Kauai when police stopped the couple with a search warrant last weekend and seized their vehicle, pelted them with questions about the children that they refused to answer. Told that people were praying for Tylee and J.J., Vallow had a two-word response: "That's great."Beyond that, the newlyweds have only commented on the situation in a single, brief statement from an Idaho attorney. "Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori (Vallow) Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor," lawyer Sean Bartholick said.Idaho police maintain there's a lot more than speculation at play. No one has seen the children since late September. Daybell and Vallow got hitched soon after their previous spouses died—deaths that are now under new scrutiny. And they have refused to assist police in any way."We strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger," Rexburg police said last month.Chad Daybell, 51, is a prolific author of books aimed at a Mormon audience. With titles like Days of Fury, Evading Babylon, and The Rise of Zion, they focus on doomsday scenarios and near-death situations.A memoir, Living on the Edge of Heaven, catalogs what he says were his own near-death experiences, during a cliff-jumping incident when he was 17 and being hit by a wave at La Jolla Cove in California in his twenties."While his body was being tossed by the wave, his spirit was visiting with his grandfather, who showed him future events involving his still-unborn children," an Amazon summary of the book reads. "This accident caused his veil that separates mortal life from the Spirit World to stay partially open, so he often feels as if he has a foot in both worlds."Lori Vallow, 46, was living in Hawaii with her fourth husband Charles, Tylee, and J.J. when she reportedly began reading Daybell's florid end-times prose and became obsessed with his worldview.It's not clear exactly how or when they met, but by 2018, she was involved with a group called Preparing a People that put on conferences, lectures and podcasts for those who, as its website says, "look forward to the rapidly coming changes to our current Telestial way of life, and rejoice in the hope of a far better world to soon come!"By then, Lori and Charles had moved from Hawaii to Arizona—and their 12-year marriage was on the rocks.Slain Hubby Claimed Doomsday Mom Threatened to Kill HimFamily members have said that Lori took Tylee and J.J. and disappeared for weeks. Charles filed for divorce in February 2019, painting a disturbing picture of his wife.He said she had become "obsessive about near-death experiences and spiritual visions" and refused to see a mental health professional. She claimed to be "a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020," Charles wrote in his petition, obtained by the Arizona Republic. He said she threatened to him kill him if he interfered with her plans.Charles didn't go through with the divorce, though, withdrawing the petition a month later. He decamped to Texas while Lori stayed in Arizona. Four months later, he was dead.On July 11, 2019, he showed up at Lori's home to see J.J. and was shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, who told police it was self-defense. By his account, Charles got into an argument with Lori, became physical and then came at him with a baseball bat. "We knew immediately that was wrong," Charles' sister Kay Woodcock, who is also J.J,'s grandmother, said at a press conference earlier this month. "It was a setup."Cox was not charged at the time and was found dead himself five months later of unknown causes. Arizona police have said the case was still open at the time.Within weeks of Charles Vallow's killing, Lori moved to Idaho with Tylee and J.J. Kay Woodcock and her husband Larry, who live in Louisiana, said their contact with the little boy became more limited. "That was very concerning to us," Kay said. By the end of September, J.J. was reportedly no longer attending Rexburg Elementary School.Over the next couple of weeks, police in Arizona and Idaho were alerted to two strange incidents that have since taken on greater significance.On Oct. 2, Brandon Boudreaux—who was in the midst of a divorce from Lori Vallow's niece—was driving home from the gym in Glibert, Arizona, when a bullet came whizzing into his vehicle. He has said police told him the Jeep that raced away from the scene was registered to the late Charles Vallow.A week later, in Salem, Idaho, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy, 49, had just returned from the grocery store when, as she described to police, she was ambushed by someone clad in black and a ski mask who pointed what appeared to be a paintball gun at her. She called for Chad and the person took off."She wasn't shot, and there wasn't any evidence to who it was. She figured it was a prankster. That's what we wrote it up as," Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told the Rexburg Standard Journal. "She wasn't injured. Beyond what she told us, we had nothing to go on."Ten days later, there was another call from the house. Tammy was dead.Doomsday Writer's Friend Says He Prophesied Wife's Mysterious DeathAn obituary said the mother of five grown children "passed away peacefully in her sleep." Her father, Ron Douglas, told a Salt Lake City TV station Chad called him crying, saying that Tammy had a coughing fit the night before and simply never woke up. Chad turned down an autopsy and the death was listed as natural causes.According to the obituary, Tammy and Chad had met when she was a freshman at Brigham Young University and quickly married. She supported the family while he continued his education and helped him build the Spring Creek Book Company, which published his novels.Tammy and Chad had been married for nearly 30 years, but within weeks of her death, he remarried—reportedly traveling to Hawaii to tie the knot with Lori.By late November, the Woodcocks had grown very worried about J.J. and Tylee and asked authorities to check on them. When police showed up, Chad and Lori said the children were with relatives in Arizona. A quick check showed that was not true, but when cops returned the next day, the couple were gone. Investigators learned the children had not been seen in two months and, chillingly, that the couple had told people that Tylee was dead or that Lori did not have children.Now police were just as concerned as the Woodcocks—and not just about Tylee and J.J. In early December, they secured permission to exhume Tammy Daybell's body to determine if there was foul play. (Autopsy results have not been completed). And police in Arizona began investigating Charles Vallow's death with a new eye.Others began to reassess the couple, as well. Nancy and Michael James, who run Preparing a People—which they describe as a media company, not a religious organization—wrote on their website that they returned from a vacation to news of Tammy's death."We considered Chad Daybell a good friend, but have since learned of things we had no idea about," they wrote last month in a post that has since been removed. "We recently learned of Chad's new marriage to Lori Vallow a couple weeks after Tammy Daybell died... We did not know Lori as well as we thought we knew Chad."The Jameses announced they were removing any content on their site from Daybell or Vallow. "We pray for the truth of whatever happened to be quickly manifest," they wrote.Those prayers would not be answered. On Dec. 30, Rexburg police issued an extraordinary statement, publicly blasting Vallow for refusing to cooperate with their search for her children."We know that the children are not with Lori and Chad Daybell and we also have information indicating that Lori knows either the location of the children or what has happened to them. Despite having this knowledge, she has refused to work with law enforcement to help us resolve this matter," they said.Police said that Vallow had left Idaho, but they did not say where she was. That became clear over the weekend when East Idaho News revealed that they were in Hawaii. They moved into a townhouse condo in a gated community bordering a golf course where neighbors said they kept to themselves.On Saturday, Kauai police served Vallow with the child protective order requiring her to produce the children in Idaho by Jan. 30. On Sunday, they stopped the couple at the Kauai Beach Resort, served search warrants and took their SUV away.On Wednesday, the Woodcocks—who have put up a $20,000 reward for information leading to the return of Tylee and J.J.—flew from Louisiana to Idaho in the hopes that Vallow does show up with the children. It's what everyone hopes, even though nearly every development in the case has only raised more questions. As Tammy Daybell's father, Ron Douglas, told Fox 13: "Every time you peel a layer off the onion it makes you scratch your head."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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| Clinton Refuses to be Served Tulsi Gabbard’s Defamation Lawsuit Posted: 30 Jan 2020 07:57 AM PST  Hillary Clinton has twice refused to see a process server attempting to convey Representative Tulsi Gabbard's (D., Hawaii) defamation lawsuit against her, Gabbard's lawyer told the New York Post on Wednesday."I find it rather unbelievable that Hillary Clinton is so intimidated by Tulsi Gabbard that she won't accept service of process," attorney Brian Dunne said. "But I guess here we are."According to Dunne, the server first visited Clinton's home in Westchester, N.Y. to deliver the lawsuit but was refused entry by secret service agents. The agents told the server to contact Clinton lawyer David Kendall, but Kendall told the server on Wednesday that he would be unable to accept the lawsuit for the former presidential candidate.Clinton had suggested in an October podcast that Gabbard was being "groomed" by Russia to run for president, and further termed the congresswoman "the favorite of the Russians." In response, Gabbard sued Clinton for defamation. on January 22."If Hillary Clinton and her allies can successfully destroy my reputation — even though I'm a war veteran and a sitting member of Congress — then they can do it to anybody," Gabbard wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit. "I will not allow this blatant effort to intimidate me and other patriotic Americans into silence go unchallenged."Gabbard is in the midst of a long-shot presidential bid. She is currently polling at leass than one percent nationally, according to a RealClearPolitics average. In October, Gabbard said she would not run for reelection to Congress and was "fully committed" to her presidential bid.
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| American Airlines pilots union sues to stop carrier's U.S.-China service Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:51 PM PST  The Allied Pilots Association has sued American Airlines to stop the company from flying its U.S.-China routes, amid the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak."The safety and well-being of our crews and passengers must always be our highest priority — first, last, and always," APA President Capt. Eric Ferguson said in a statement. "Numerous other major carriers that serve China, including British Airways, Air Canada, and Lufthansa, have chosen to suspend service to that country out of an abundance of caution."The union, which represents 15,000 American Airlines pilots, is asking for a temporary and immediate restraining order halting the flights, CNN reports, citing "serious, and in many ways still unknown, health threats posed by the coronavirus." This new coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China, and the death toll has risen to more than 200. On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global emergency.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi 7 witheringly funny cartoons about the GOP's John Bolton problem
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| China's CH-4 Drones Are No MQ-1 Predator (And Too Good To Be True) Posted: 29 Jan 2020 07:00 PM PST  This is what cutting corners gets you.
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| Movin' on up: Bloomberg glides past Warren to No.3 in Democratic race - Reuters/Ipsos Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:42 PM PST  After steadily rising in popularity over the last several weeks, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have surpassed U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren among registered voters for the 2020 Democratic nomination, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national public opinion poll released on Thursday. The Jan. 29-30 poll found that 12% of registered Democrats and independents said they would vote for Bloomberg in the state nominating contests that begin next week in Iowa. Bloomberg appears to have won over a broad coalition of potential voters, including Baby Boomers, high-income earners, rural Americans and Democrats without a college degree, according to an analysis of the last two months of Reuters/Ipsos polling.
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| Alibaba billionaire Jack Ma, China's richest man, pledged $14.5 million to fight the coronavirus Posted: 30 Jan 2020 01:59 PM PST  The money will be donated through Ma's charitable foundation, which will use it to help medical research efforts and disease prevention.
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| North Korea says it has intensified efforts to block virus Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:47 AM PST  North Korea is intensifying efforts to prevent the spread of a new virus from China into the isolated country by blocking tourists, reducing flights and mobilizing more screening efforts, a health official said Thursday. It has sickened thousands, most of them China, but South Korea has reported six cases.
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| House Democrat says John Bolton told him in September to 'look into' Marie Yovanovitch's ouster Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:15 AM PST  Shortly before the Senate's impeachment trial resumes, another John Bolton revelation has arrived. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, revealed in a statement Wednesday that he spoke with Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, after his White House firing in September. In this conversation that occurred at Engel's request just one day before the impeachment inquiry was announced, Bolton evidently urged the committee to look into the ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. "On that call, Ambassador Bolton suggested to me — unprompted — that the committee look into the recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch," Engel said. "He strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal as our top diplomat in Kyiv." > BREAKING: Rep. ENGEL reveals that BOLTON called him in September and told him to look into the Marie Yovanovitch ouster.> > The committees had already started an investigation into Ukraine matters, but Bolton appears to have supported their effort. >>> pic.twitter.com/a54uwGKkaL> > — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 29, 2020Yovanovitch was removed as ambassador to Ukraine in May 2019, and she testified in the impeachment inquiry her ouster was a result of a smear campaign backed by Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.This latest Bolton revelation comes after The New York Times reported on Sunday that the former national security writes in his upcoming book that Trump tied aid to Ukraine to investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Democrats want Bolton to be called to testify as part of the impeachment trial, and in his statement, Engel says he told his colleagues about this conversation and it "was one of the reasons we wished to hear from Ambassador Bolton, under oath, in a formal setting." More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi 7 witheringly funny cartoons about the GOP's John Bolton problem
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| Remain in Mexico: 80% of migrants in Trump policy are victims of violence Posted: 30 Jan 2020 11:26 AM PST  Asylum seekers sent to Mexico to wait US court hearings under Trump scheme routinely targeted for abduction, survey findsA staggering 80% of asylum seekers sent to Mexico to await US court hearings report being victims of violence, according a survey by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).In one month – October – three-quarters of asylum seekers seen by MSF physicians in Nuevo Laredo reported having been kidnapped for ransom, according to the figures released on Wednesday.Some 44% of MSF patients also reported having been victims of violence in the week leading up to their consultations.Wednesday marked the first anniversary of a scheme officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), under which migrants seeking asylum in the United States are sent to Mexico to wait as their cases wind their way through US courts.Under the scheme, also known as "remain in Mexico", more than 57,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers have been sent to wait in cities along the border – many of which have been plagued by drug-war violence for years.Migrants – who stand out because of their appearance and accents – are routinely targeted for abduction outside migration offices and bus terminals, and held until relatives back home wire ransom payments to the kidnappers."The US continues to send asylum seekers back into danger and into the hands of the cartels that control the migration routes in Mexico," said Sergio Martín, MSF general coordinator in Mexico."The Mexican government lacks the ability to provide the most minimum of conditions for thousands of people who are being sent to its territory," he said.Migrants are at risk along the entire border, "but mainly in places like Nuevo Laredo, where there is serious violence – and migrants are 'merchandise' for organised crime," Martín said.Nuevo Laredo is considered so insecure that the US government has issued a Level 4: "Do not travel" alert to its citizens for the city and surrounding state of Tamaulipas – the same as war-torn countries like Syria and Afghanistan.The Cartel del Noreste – an offshoot of the blood thirsty Zetas cartel – "operates a sophisticated kidnapping business that targets asylum seekers – many of whom are women and children – who enter the city," said Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the Strauss Center at the University of Texas."The kidnappers charge several thousand dollars for each kidnapped asylum seeker and operate with almost complete impunity."The Mexican government promised to provide asylum seekers with shelter, work permits and access to health services, but observers say many of the migrants have been left to fend for themselves.On Wednesday, the US department of homeland security announced that the scheme would be expanded to include Brazilians. Brazilian arrivals at the border have tripled in the past year.
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| Japan Issues Warrants for Taylor, Others Aiding Ghosn Flight Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:06 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Prosecutors in Tokyo issued a fresh warrant on Thursday for the arrest of ex-Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail and fled the country last month to escape trial for alleged financial crimes.The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office issued the warrant on Ghosn for illegally departing Japan, where the former auto executive was charged with failing to fully report his compensation and using company money for personal gain.Ghosn, 65, who made his way in a private jet to Lebanon at the end of December, held a news conference the week after he arrived, lashing out at Japan's prosecutors for what he called a "rigged" criminal justice system. The Justice Ministry has pushed back, issuing government statements and using news conferences and interviews to defend the country. Japan Sees Nothing Wrong With Justice System Ghosn Called Rigged"Without obtaining permission to travel abroad, suspect Ghosn boarded a private jet at Kansai International Airport at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 29, with the intent of traveling to Lebanon via Turkey, illegally leaving the country," prosecutors said in the statement.Prosecutors also issued a warrant for the arrest of American Michael Taylor, 59, a former U.S. Green Beret special forces soldier, and George-Antoine Zayek, 60, a former Christian militia fighter from Lebanon, for allegedly aiding Ghosn's escape. They are also seeking the arrest of a newly identified suspect thought to have aided Ghosn, Peter Maxwell Taylor, 26.The Tokyo Job: Inside Carlos Ghosn's Escape to BeirutThe three are suspected of helping Ghosn in making his way to a Tokyo hotel, and then to the airport and onto the plane using various methods to prevent him from being detected, prosecutors said in their statement.Earlier this month, prosecutors also issued an arrest warrant for Carole Ghosn, the fugitive executive's wife, for allegedly giving false testimony in court last April.The former Nissan chair is believed to have left Japan apparently concealed in an equipment case aboard a charter jet bound for Turkey en route to Lebanon, where Carlos Ghosn holds citizenship. Ghosn has maintained his innocence and defended his decision to flee Japan, saying that he couldn't get a fair trial in the country.(Updates with details from prosecutors' statement in fourth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Chester Dawson in Southfield at cdawson54@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson, Jon HerskovitzFor 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 New and Controversial U.S. Nuclear Weapon Goes to Sea Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:13 AM PST  The missile submarine USS Tennessee is the first to deploy with the W76-2 warhead.
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| Why are people saying that Lysol sprays and Clorox wipes fight coronavirus? Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:40 PM PST  No, the current strain of coronavirus was not "developed." And it remains unclear if Lysol or Clorox products work to stop the spread of coronavirus.
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| U.S. hopes to discuss 'entire strategic framework' with Iraq soon Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:15 AM PST  The United States hopes to discuss the entire strategic framework of its relationship with Iraq soon, a U.S. envoy said on Tuesday, as the fate of a U.S. military mission there remains in doubt after a drone strike that killed an Iranian general. Iraq's parliament has voted to ask the United States to withdraw its 5,000-strong force after the Jan. 3 U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, which killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and the Iraqi leader of a powerful pro-Iran armed faction. Washington has paused some of the military activity of its troops in Iraq, which were invited back into the country in 2014 as part of a mission to fight the Islamic State militant group in both Iraq and Syria, after withdrawing three years earlier.
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| Bernie Sanders is starting to get slammed on how he would finance Medicare for All Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:45 AM PST  The attacks on Medicare for All echo what Sen. Elizabeth Warren faced last year as she surged ahead in national polls.
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| Senators break into laughter as Schiff points out ironic difference between Trump's legal defense and DOJ arguments Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:46 PM PST  President Trump's impeachment defense team seems to be on a different page than lawyers in the Department of Justice.Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) noted this disparity while answering questions from senators in Trump's Senate impeachment trial on Thursday. Schiff said that while Trump's legal team argued the House should have gone to court to force witnesses like former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify via subpoena, Justice Department lawyers were — nearly simultaneously — arguing in a separate case that it's up to Congress to enforce subpoenas through measures like... impeachment.> "You can't make this stuff up... The Justice Department, in resisting House subpoenas, is in court TODAY and was asked: If Congress can't come to the court to enforce subpoenas... what remedy is there?> > The DOJ lawyers response? Impeachment." - @RepAdamSchiff pic.twitter.com/eUMkaENXHQ> > — House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) January 30, 2020"You can't make this stuff up," said Schiff. As CNN reports, a DOJ lawyer on Thursday said if the House needs to enforce a subpoena, one of its options is to use its impeachment powers. As a reminder, Trump was impeached on obstruction of Congress after ordering aides to defy subpoenas that would have brought them to the House floor as witnesses. During the court hearing (related to the Trump administration's efforts to change the census, not an impeachment-related hearing), DOJ lawyer James Burnham argued the House can't ask the courts to enforce subpoenas — precisely what Trump's impeachment lawyers are suggesting Democrats should have done. Trump's legal team says Democrats should have fought in court for further witnesses, while Trump administration lawyers say courts have no right to enforce congressional subpoenas.There were reportedly "audible gasps and laughs" on the Senate floor after Schiff pointed out the comedic timing of the opposing arguments.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi 7 witheringly funny cartoons about the GOP's John Bolton problem
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| Authorities find longest Southwest border smuggling tunnel Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:42 PM PST  U.S. authorities on Wednesday announced the discovery of the longest smuggling tunnel ever found on the Southwest border, stretching more than three-quarters of a mile from an industrial site in Tijuana, Mexico, to the San Diego area. The tunnel featured an extensive rail cart system, forced air ventilation, high voltage electrical cables and panels, an elevator at the tunnel entrance and a drainage system. "This one blows past (the second-longest)," said Lance LeNoir, a Border Patrol operations supervisor.
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| Yang’s Pet Issue Could Outlive His Campaign Posted: 29 Jan 2020 10:00 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- When Andrew Yang started thinking about a long-shot bid for the U.S. presidency, he asked Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union, out for lunch in Greenwich Village.Back in 2017, Stern was perhaps the most prominent advocate for the idea of giving every American $1,000 each month. The year before, he had written a book called "Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream." It hadn't made any bestseller lists, but it did help popularize the idea, known as universal basic income, or UBI, amongst a certain kind of politically-minded technologist. Yang, who was then running a nonprofit called Venture for America, fit right into that profile.The lunch seemed to be developing into a classic if-only-the-universe-worked-this-way gripe session until Yang asked the question that he had clearly been gearing up for: Did Stern know anyone running for president on this platform? Stern remembers being surprised by the question, but he told Yang to go for it.UBI has played a central role in Yang's subsequent run for the presidency. Like Stern, he would give all American adults $1,000 a month. The Freedom Dividend, as Yang calls it, would put a family of four—two adults, two children, and no other form of income—$2,200 below the annual federal poverty line.Yang has argued this money would be the solution to almost every ill. Unfair elections controlled by wealthy donors? People can use their "democracy dollars" to support whatever candidate they want. Worried that global warming will flood your coastline property? Use your government check to "adjust and adapt." First and foremost, however, Yang sees UBI as an answer to job losses caused by automation.Yang has outlasted many veteran politicians who were also vying for the Democratic nomination. After failing to qualify for the last debate, he got into the next one, scheduled for Feb. 7. This practically guarantees that at least one candidate on stage will be discussing UBI.Yang spoke Wednesday morning at a Bloomberg News reporter roundtable in Des Moines, Iowa, ahead of the caucuses. "To me, job one is to get more money into the hands of the American people," he told Bloomberg TV's Joe Weisenthal. The chances that Yang becomes president remain minuscule. But even if UBI isn't enough to land him in the White House, his campaign's legacy may be how it contributed to the mainstreaming of UBI. Yang's embrace of one of Silicon Valley's pet causes hasn't come without complications—people associated with some prominent UBI projects take issue with the specifics of Yang's approach. Still, UBI seems more relevant to the American political debate than it has in decades. "Andrew Yang," said Stern, "has done more to promote the idea of universal basic income than almost anybody in American history." The concept of UBI has existed in one form or another for decades, but has mostly faded from the public discussion in the U.S. since the 1970s. Instead, other related ideas were implemented, like the earned income tax credit, which gives tax credits to low-wage workers based on their incomes and number of children.UBI has been inching back into the public conversation in the U.S. for years, with an unusal appeal across ideological lines. The left sees UBI as a step towards socialism; the right sees cash assistance to create a more market-based approach to services currently provided by government-managed programs. The idea also proved to be a good fit for the odd politics of Silicon Valley, where tech leaders worried about the downsides of the economic disruptions they were creating. "I think automation will cause a lot of job change," said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator, in a recent interview. Y Combinator has funded a UBI research project in Oakland, which is expected to continue for another three years. Elizabeth Rhodes, who is leading it, said in January she expected to share early analysis from the study in "next few months."The interest in UBI doesn't necessarily translate to support for Yang's plan. Rhodes declined to comment on Yang's approach. Even Altman, who has made personal donations to Yang and held fundraisers for his campaign, said the candidate still needs to develop the plan's details. "It's not a policy that I would implement today," Altman said. He wants to see the results of YC's research before settling on an approach, and is concerned about striking the right balance between cash assistance and funding services like education. Altman also said he preferred distributing a "fixed percentage of the money generated by a society each year, not a fixed dollar amount, so that the better a society does, the better everyone does in a very direct way."Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook Inc., in late 2016 helped start the Economic Security Project, a group pushing for what it calls "unconditional cash stipends." His group is funding a research project giving 125 people in Stockton, California $500 a month for 18 months. With the support of the city's mayor, researchers sent a letter to everyone who made less than $46,033, the median income for the city. Then they randomly selected families to receive money.Natalie Foster, co-chair of the Economic Security Project, also met with Yang before his presidential run. But unlike Stern, she's not supporting him. Her group has dropped its insistence on the idea of "universal" income, proposing limiting payouts to just those that need it.Foster also takes issue with Yang's plans to pay for his freedom dividend. Yang's version would implement a so-called value-added tax on everyday consumption to pay for his Freedom Dividend. This would affect everyone, and people on the left have generally supported paying for social programs with targeted taxation on the rich. "We would favor a way of paying for the policy that's more progressive, something like a wealth tax," said Foster.Yang has adjusted his guaranteed income proposal during the campaign. He's had to grapple with what to do about poor people who would no longer qualify for existing government services like food stamps once they receive $12,000 a year from the government. Yang now says he'd give people the option between the two programs. More progressive versions of the proposal would give people both.For some of Yang's supporters, one appeal of the plan is how it doesn't fall easily into existing political camps. "He convinced me that universal basic income is the best way forward," said Pradhyumna Agaram, an engineer at the augmented reality company Magic Leap who became a die-hard Yang supporter after he watched an interview with the candidate on Joe Rogan's popular podcast. "He's not ideological. Everything is based on logic and data."Over the course of Yang's campaign, support for UBI has increased, according to polling data. Voter support for UBI grew to 49% in September, up from 43% in February, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll. According to an Emerson college poll conducted in January, 53% of potential Iowa caucus voters now support Yang's UBI plan, with 30% of them opposing it. None of the leading Democratic candidates have taken up UBI. But they have various proposals based on related ideas. Many want to expand child tax credits, increasing the credit available to parents based on how many children they have, regardless of whether they work. Some candidates also support expanding the earned income tax credit.In Congress, Representative Rashida Tlaib introduced a bill in June that would offer money unconditionally to individuals earning less than $50,000 and married couples earning less than $100,000 a year, a version of a bill introduced the year before by Senator Kamala Harris. An unemployed person could receive up to $3,000, without cutting into their social security or disability payments. Another proposal introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown with widespread Democratic support would offer the child tax credit to families regardless of whether they were working.Even Republicans have toyed with a guaranteed income concept. Senator Mitt Romney co-sponsored a bill in December with Democrat Michael Bennet that would offer parents $1,000 for every child they have under 18 and $1,500 for children younger than seven."I love all of these approaches I think they're all pushing us in the right direction," Yang said Wednesday. "I obviously prefer a dividend for the simplicity and impact."The longer that UBI remains a part of the political discussion, the greater the likelihood that related ideas like these will continue to emerge, said Foster. "A whole lot of people are thinking about what an income floor could mean in America today thanks to the fact that he's running for president," she argued. "That means that we have to take our policy differences even more seriously as the idea gets bigger. And that is what primaries are for."(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)To contact the author of this story: Eric Newcomer in New York at enewcomer@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Brustein at jbrustein@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMeyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Coronavirus influencers are a thing now. You knew it would happen. Posted: 30 Jan 2020 09:19 AM PST  Some social-media influencers are sharing facts about coronavirus while posing in surgical masks and trendy outfits.
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| Indonesia offers reward for plucking tyre off giant croc's neck Posted: 30 Jan 2020 03:31 AM PST  Indonesian authorities are offering a reward to anyone who can rescue a saltwater crocodile with a motorbike tyre stuck around its neck -- and survive. The contest will see one brave croc hunter land an unspecified amount of cash, but it will mean coming face to face with the 13-foot (4-metre) reptile Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi. After a recent sighting, the province's governor instructed his resource-strapped conservation agency to figure out how to end years of fruitless attempts.
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| Gunman fires at Indian protesters after threatening 'final journey' live on Facebook Posted: 30 Jan 2020 12:36 AM PST  A gunman went live on Facebook to warn he was taking his "final journey" before firing at a protest against India's new citizenship law in Delhi on Thursday, wounding a student. The shooter, dressed in a black jacket, brandished a single-barrel weapon as he stood meters away from dozens of policemen outside Jamia Millia Islamia University, where more than 1,000 protesters had gathered for a march. "He was in front of all the people - protesters and policemen who were standing nearby, but he jumped in from this side, brandished the gun and said 'Come I will give you freedom'," a witness who gave his name as Aamir said.
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| One chart shows how the Wuhan coronavirus compares to other major outbreaks and pandemics in the last 50 years Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:04 AM PST  A coronavirus outbreak that started in Wuhan, China, has killed at least 170 people. Here's how that compares to other outbreaks.
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| Is This Picture How China Takes Over the South China Sea? Posted: 30 Jan 2020 10:48 AM PST  The outposts in the South China Sea are a serious threat to demilitarized sea lines.
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| Mitch McConnell's rare blunder Posted: 30 Jan 2020 02:45 AM PST  Mitch McConnell is reportedly furiously trying to whip the votes necessary to avoid calling witnesses in the Senate's impeachment trial of President Trump.This seems like a rare case where McConnell is making a politically substantive error.Calling witnesses, after all, could be used to legitimize the GOP's acquittal vote, in the same way the cursory "investigation" of Brett Kavanaugh was used as a shield to justify his confirmation. Plowing through this farcical trial, on the other hand, gives Democrats a permanent argument against the trial's legitimacy and, more importantly, leaves the president and all elected Republicans vulnerable to damaging, election-eve revelations.None of this has any bearing on how Republicans will vote. Like the film version of Titanic, everyone knows how the impeachment saga will conclude. The ship sinks. The president is acquitted. And as with the film, the real question is how the audience will react. So far, impeachment has had the curious dual effect of inflating the president's approval ratings to the highest of his presidency while also convincing, in many polls, a slim but real majority of the country that he should be removed from office immediately. More significant majorities believe the president abused his power and witnesses should be called and heard from in the Senate. But that sentiment hasn't budged elected Republicans, because they believe, with ample precedent in recent history, that voters will forgive their trespasses by November.Remember that polling showed, in the spring of 2016, two-to-one majorities in favor of giving Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing in the Senate. Fifty-two percent wanted him confirmed. McConnell, staring down the maw of a massively unpopular position, gambled that voters ultimately wouldn't care enough to cast ballots against Republicans. He held the seat open and was proven right. Emboldened, Republicans abandoned the very idea of taking broader public opinion into consideration when plotting their next act of procedural destruction.Republicans simply have a much better sense of what they can get away with than Democrats, who remain terrified of engaging even momentarily in escalatory or norm-breaking behavior. Knowing this, Republicans in the House and Senate have refused to take the process seriously. House Republicans conducted a made-for-Fox trial-within-a-trial of Joe and Hunter Biden and used their allotted time to browbeat viewers with ludicrous conspiracy theories about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The House strategy was to completely deny that any wrongdoing had taken place, not by seriously disputing the fact accounts of the witnesses, but by shameless misdirection.Many Senate Republicans announced in advance that they would acquit the president no matter what they heard or saw in the House or in the Senate trial. Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's apparent effort to hold onto the impeachment articles until McConnell cracked and agreed to witnesses, McConnell successfully called the bluff. The trial was always going to be whatever he wanted it to be: brief, with a conclusion so inevitable that the audience tunes out.Until Sunday, it was all going according to plan. The president's other lawyers responded to the House managers' meticulous presentation with an impressive-in-its-scope hodgepodge of preposterous constitutional arguments, Federalist Papers mad libbing, and, remarkably, the same nonsense about the "perfect call" and Biden and Burisma that the House stuck with until the bitter end.It's remarkable because, while there genuinely seem to be dozens of House Republicans who are credulous enough to actually believe the president's absurd spin, there aren't more than a handful of true Trump believers in the Senate, where the off-the-record frustration with the president's non-stop, presidency-warping antics are a badly kept secret. They are voting to acquit not because, in their hearts, they think the president did nothing wrong, but because they share the widespread belief that convicting him would cripple the party heading into the 2020 elections and they don't want to cross a man who has no compunction about knifing wavering Republicans.Party over country, every single time.That, you see, is a difficult logic to convey to the public, and to reporters. And it's awkward, because the president's attorneys are laying down the last layer of icing on a B.S. cake that most Senate Republicans will not be able to bring themselves to eat in public. The president's infamous refusal to ever admit that he has done or said anything wrong or improper is now a burden that every elected member of the party must carry. And some of them, including Susan Collins (Maine), Martha McSally (Ariz.), and Cory Gardner (Colo.) are fighting uphill battles for their political lives in November. They long ago gambled that they'd rather fight the general election than the primary, which explains why they will vote to acquit. But they would almost certainly prefer to be saying something along the lines of "While the president committed an abuse of power, it doesn't rise to the level of removal."Sunday's news about former National Security Advisor John Bolton's forthcoming memoir was therefore disruptive not because the GOP is all that terrified of calling witnesses in this trial, but because it makes it that much harder to square the needs of vulnerable Republican senators with the absurd narrative the rest of the party is rolling with. The president's lawyers are up there saying, in essence, that this whole thing is a hoax, and here comes his most senior foreign policy advisor saying not only that Trump did it, but that Trump explained it to him personally.What's done is done though. That's why McConnell's effort to evade witnesses is not only morally wrong, but also especially politically puzzling in the wake of the Bolton manuscript leak. It's not even clear that Republicans should have any genuine substantive fears about what will happen if witnesses are called. Mick Mulvaney and Rudy Giuliani and Rick Perry would just lie. Bolton would describe his incriminating conversations with President Trump. The right-wing media machine, which has already begun the task of delegitimizing Bolton, would package up a neat little narrative so that Republican voters can sleep well after voting to re-elect the president.Much has been made of the need to acquit the president before the State of the Union on Feb. 4, but has anyone thought through that logic? What will happen if the trial isn't wrapped up by then? Will the president spontaneously vaporize? Will his millions of minions suddenly abandon him? Surely not.Why not just rip the band-aid off today and get all of the damaging information that exists out into the open, rather than closer to the election? Now that Bolton's story is out there, rushing a witness-free trial benefits no one in the Republican Party. It doesn't help the purple state senators who have to explain both Bolton's charges and the decision not to call him as a witness. It certainly doesn't help the president. It gives Democrats a cudgel with which to assail their adversaries from now until November. And it will give the spotlight right back to Democratic primary contenders currently starved of media oxygen.McConnell though, presented with the extremely rare opportunity to do the right thing and also to benefit from it politically, looks dug in. We'll find out on Friday whether he has his votes.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 John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi 7 witheringly funny cartoons about the GOP's John Bolton problem
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| Father-son duo of Tennessee deputies beat handcuffed people and bragged about it, feds say Posted: 30 Jan 2020 08:00 AM PST  Prosecutors allege Tony and T.J. Bean used excessive force on at least seven people and then bragged about it, calling it "the Grundy County way."
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| U.K. Will Take Northern Rail Franchise Back Into State Ownership Posted: 29 Jan 2020 06:23 AM PST ![U.K. Will Take Northern Rail Franchise Back Into State Ownership]( "U.K. Will Take Northern Rail Franchise Back Into State Ownership") (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson's U.K. government said it will take the troubled Northern Rail franchise back into state ownership from March 1, in the latest sign that his Conservative administration is willing to intervene in the running of ailing private companies."The service provided by the rail network in the north has failed to meet the needs of passengers," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said as he made the announcement in a written statement to Parliament on Wednesday. "People across the north deserve better, their communities deserve better and I am determined to achieve that."The Northern franchise is currently run by Arriva group, part of Deutsche Bahn. From March, it will be operated by the U.K.'s so-called operator of last resort, owned by Shapps's Department for Transport. That operator has managed another franchise, the East Coast Mainline, for 19 months.The move shows Johnson's government is ready to intervene to prioritize the needs of voters in pro-Brexit districts of northern England who backed his Conservatives in last month's election, even at the expense of private companies.Johnson has pledged to "level up" the regions of the U.K. and the government stepped in two weeks ago to rescue airline Flybe from a collapse that threatened to shutter regional airports and reduce connectivity to badly served parts of the country.PrivatizationShapps said today's decision will "inevitably raise questions about the future of rail privatization," and suggested the performance of further franchises is being scrutinized. He also said the government-backed Williams Review is looking at what reforms can be made."Over the past twenty years, privatization has reversed over two decades of declining passenger numbers and passenger journeys have almost doubled to nearly 2 billion," he said. "However, it is clear that the current model is now struggling to deliver. Across the country a number of franchises are failing to provide the reliable services that passengers require. We know change is needed, and it is coming."In recent weeks, Shapps has also said that FirstGroup and MTR Europe's South Western rail franchise, which runs commuter trains into London, isn't sustainable and has criticized FirstGroup's TransPennine Express for unacceptable services.Arriva apologized for the problems with the franchise and said it will co-operate with the transfer to government control."The scale of the challenges we faced outside of our direct control were unprecedented, particularly around delayed or canceled infrastructure projects and prolonged strike action," Chris Burchell, managing director of the company's U.K. rail unit, said in a statement. "We recognize however that overall service improvements have not come quickly enough, and passengers deserve better."To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas PennyFor 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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| GOP wins handily a closely watched Texas special election Posted: 29 Jan 2020 11:36 AM PST  Republicans won handily a closely watched special election Tuesday to keep hold of a suburban Houston district that President Trump won easily four years ago, fending off a national blitz by Democrats in a Texas legislative race.
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