| In coronavirus crisis, Trump's stock market advice keeps looking worse Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:36 PM PDT  Almost forgotten in the rush of doom-and-gloom headlines about the spread of coronavirus and Monday's record-breaking stock market sell-off is President Trump's two-week old advice to would be investors to buy stocks.
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| 'You're full of s***': Joe Biden gets in heated gun control debate with Detroit plant worker Posted: 10 Mar 2020 03:17 PM PDT  The worker, among a group surrounding Biden at the Fiat Chrysler plant, accused Biden of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right."
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| Italy is in a nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus. Here are the rules all 60 million citizens now have to follow. Posted: 10 Mar 2020 05:01 AM PDT  The nationwide lockdown began Tuesday. Citizens now need police permission to travel, and businesses can open only if customers stay 3 feet apart.
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| Sniper Lee Malvo marries while serving life in prison Posted: 10 Mar 2020 02:10 PM PDT  Lee Boyd Malvo, who is serving life in prison for his role in the 2002 sniper spree that terrorized the nation's capital region, is now a married man. Carmeta Albarus, who has served as an adviser and mentor for Malvo since testifying at his 2003 trial, confirmed the wedding took place earlier this month. Malvo, now 35, was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad embarked on a killing spree in October 2002 that left 10 people dead and three wounded in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
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| Coronavirus: Sinister people are knocking on doors claiming to be part of official disease response, police warn Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:11 AM PDT  Scammers are knocking on people's doors and claiming to be part of the official response to the coronavirus, police in New Jersey have warned.The people could then try and take advantage of anxiety around the spread of the disease to sell products at inflated price or otherwise try and scam anyone in the house, authorities warned.
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| Saudi Arabia, Russia raise stakes in oil standoff Posted: 10 Mar 2020 05:31 AM PDT  DUBAI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will raise its crude supply to a record high in April, the kingdom announced on Tuesday, as it ratcheted up a standoff with Moscow over market share and appeared to reject Russian overtures for new talks. The clash of oil titans Saudi Arabia and Russia sparked a 25% slump in crude prices on Monday, triggering panic selling and heavy losses on Wall Street's main stock indexes, already hit badly by the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a call on Monday to discuss global energy markets, the White House said on Tuesday.
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| Hypersonic Missiles Just Aren't Accurate Posted: 10 Mar 2020 08:54 AM PDT  Everyone wants Mach 5-plus weapons, but they still have a long way to go.
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| Fox News Host: 2 People Died in Florida From Coronavirus, but They Were Old So No Biggie Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:59 AM PDT  Fox News anchor Ed Henry appeared a bit cavalier when discussing recent deaths from the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, highlighting how two people who died in Florida were both elderly and had recently traveled abroad so, in the end, it's nothing "scary" for viewers at home.Speaking with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on America's Newsroom, Henry noted at the outset that Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis had recently declared a state of emergency to deal with the viral outbreak.Pointing out that Scott himself is a former governor, Henry said that people may tend to "have fear" when they hear the term "state of emergency" but it is sometimes just about a governor "asserting power so they can respond quickly."Henry, meanwhile, said he needed to add some "important context" having Scott discuss the emergency action in Florida."There have been 18 cases of COVID-19, two people, sadly, have died, but both of those residents were elderly and had traveled internationally," the anchor declared. "So when you hear the context, it's not quite as scary."White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham Promises 'Healthy' Trump Will Be 'Just Fine'The notion of a Fox News host shrugging off deaths of coronavirus victims because of their age wasn't lost on critics of the network who have observed that many Fox personalities have downplayed the growing crisis or blamed it on Democrats playing politics. Henry's dismissiveness also rings as tone-deaf considering the Fox audience's median age is 65—part of an age group that is at the highest risk of complications from the virus."Dear old folks watching this show, (which is essentially everyone watching this show) don't worry, the coronavirus is only coming for you," Media Matters reporter Lis Power, who first spotted the moment, mocked in response on Twitter. "Sincerely, Ed."But it isn't just liberal detractors who have taken issue with the way President Donald Trump and Fox News have soft-pedaled the virus outbreak. During his Monday night monologue, Fox News host Tucker Carlson took aim at those who have been "minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem."Stephen Colbert Unloads on Trump Over Coronavirus: 'You're a Monster'Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Trump Tells GOP He Wants Payroll Tax Waived Through Election Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:15 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump told Republican senators on Tuesday that he wants a payroll tax holiday through the November election so that taxes don't go back up before voters decide whether to return him to office, according to three people familiar with the president's remarks.Trump spoke to the Republicans at their weekly conference lunch at the Capitol as his administration prepares a package of economic measures to combat the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. But the administration does not have a particularly detailed plan, several Republicans said including John Thune of South Dakota."Until we have a little bit more of an idea of what it is exactly they're asking for, it's hard to react quite yet," Thune said.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin she called "pleasant" that she and the White House would "exchange further information.""We know more needs to be done," she said. She said Democrats have prepared legislation but they're seeking budget estimates and the advice of legislative counsel and declined to provide a timeline to advance it.Trump said Monday that he would announce "substantial" economic measures in a Tuesday news conference to combat the virus, a statement that dismayed some of his aides because details of such a plan are still under discussion. Democrats have expressed reluctance about a tax cut to address the economic impact of coronavirus and several Republican senators also held back from endorsing the idea before Trump's visit to the capitol."What we are doing has to be related to the coronavirus," Pelosi said.Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the government should focus on guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers who are infected and extending unemployment insurance for people put out of work.Trump also pitched Republican senators on economic relief for the travel and hospitality industries, which have been hard-hit by coronavirus-related cancellations, said Senator Lindsey Graham.Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said reaction to the idea of waiving payroll taxes was "mixed."Most of the payroll tax funds Social Security, with employees and employers each paying 6.2% on wages up to $137,700. Another 1.45% is paid to fund Medicare.The cost of a payroll tax cut or holiday would depend on how much of the tax is rolled back and for how long. A 2 percentage point cut for employees, as President Barack Obama signed at the end of 2010, would cost $150 billion in government revenue over a year and $300 billion if the employer portion also was cut."The payroll tax, as a general stimulus -- I've got to think about that," Graham said.Graham said that his colleagues John Hoeven of North Dakota and James Lankford of Oklahoma suggested a federal bailout for the shale drilling industry, which is under sudden stress due to an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.Thune said the shale issue was "one of many" that came up during the meeting. "I don't know at this point if that will be in any final package," he said.After the meeting, the Republicans were largely in agreement that some sort of economic stimulus is necessary."Our economy is going to take a hit," said Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. "You don't have to be a senior at Cal Tech to figure that out. The world economy's going to take a hit. It won't be a permanent hit. But we don't know how much."Kennedy defended the Federal Reserve, which the president has harshly criticized this week even after the central bank issued an emergency half-point cut in interest rates to stave off a coronavirus-related slowdown."I do not think just cutting interest rates is going to do it," Kennedy said. "I don't think doing this on the monetary side will succeed. We're going to have to do it on the fiscal side as well."Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said that a payroll tax holiday should be paid for because it would otherwise weaken Social Security. Payroll deductions finance the trust funds that support both the retirement program and Medicare, the health program for the elderly and disabled.Senator John Cornyn described coronavirus as presenting a potential "economic 9/11" to the country, a day after he expressed skepticism about passing stimulus measures. Cornyn said that Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming suggested an infrastructure bill to Trump and the president was receptive.If lawmakers "don't get ahead of it you're going to see unemployment rise," Cornyn said, justifying a payroll tax cut.(Updates with Thune and Pelosi remarks. An earlier version of this story corrected the spelling of Senator John Barrasso's name.)\--With assistance from Erik Wasson, Daniel Flatley and Ari Natter.To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Kevin WhitelawFor 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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| Biden Snaps at Construction Worker During Heated Gun-Control Argument: ‘You’re Full of Sh**’ Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:43 AM PDT  Former vice president Joe Biden on Tuesday berated a construction worker in Michigan after the man challenged his stance on gun control."You are actively trying to end our Second Amendment right and take away our guns," the man told Biden as the candidate greeted workers building a Fiat-Chrysler assembly plant."You're full of sh**," Biden responded. A Biden aide tried to end the discussion, but the candidate silenced her in order to continue speaking with the worker. "I support the Second Amendment … from the very beginning. I have a shotgun. I have a 20-gauge, a 12-gauge. My sons hunt," he said.> WATCH: "You're full of sh*t," @JoeBiden tells a man who accused him of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right."> > "I support the Second Amendment," Biden adds while vising under-construction auto plant in Detroit. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/sueOSBaY9P> > -- Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 10, 2020The two men then argued about whether Biden had said he would try to take away Americans' guns."This is not okay, alright?" the worker said, to which Biden responded, "Don't tell me that, pal, or I'm going to go out and slap you in the face.""You're working for me, man!" the worker responded."I'm not working for you," Biden shot back. "Don't be such a horse's ass."The exchange took place hours before Biden was scheduled to meet with gun-control organizations in Ohio.Failed presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke endorsed Biden before Super Tuesday, and Biden said O'Rourke would lead gun control efforts during his presidency. O'Rourke became infamous among gun-rights advocates after threatening to seize certain firearms from their legal owners."Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15," O'Rourke said at an early Democratic primary debate.
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| A Chinese restaurant chain in California is checking customers' body temperatures and turning diners away amid coronavirus fears Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:33 AM PDT  Sichuan Impression, a Chinese restaurant chain in California, is screening customers and employees for fevers before they enter any of its stores.
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| Olive Garden employee, 16, to file lawsuit after customer requested white server, reports say Posted: 09 Mar 2020 12:19 PM PDT  An Olive Garden customer reportedly requested a white server instead of the server already assigned to the table and the manager complied.
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| Inmate reported as escaping did not flee prison Posted: 10 Mar 2020 06:06 AM PDT  A convicted murderer did not escape from an Alabama prison despite the corrections system initially reporting that he did, state officials said Tuesday. The Alabama Department of Corrections said the inmate reported as escaping in fact never left the prison. An escape notice was sent out as a precautionary matter when the inmate was not at his assigned location at St. Clair Correctional Facility.
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| 22-year-old Guatemalan asylum-seeker dies in ICE custody Posted: 09 Mar 2020 06:41 PM PDT  Maria Celéste Ochoa Yoc de Ramírez died after six months in ICE custody.
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| Guatemalan migrant dies in U.S. custody after gallblader operation Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:21 PM PDT  A Guatemalan migrant who had passed a key hurdle in her bid to win asylum in the United States has died in U.S. custody after a gallbladder operation, the Guatemalan government said on Monday. Maria Ochoa, 22, from the poor San Marcos region near Guatemala's border with Mexico, died on Sunday in a hospital in Houston, Texas, months after she was detained at the border by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in September. Ochoa, whose two brothers live in the United States, had an operation on her gallbladder in the neighboring state of Oklahoma on Feb. 7 and spent a week in hospital afterwards, Guatemala's foreign ministry said in a statement.
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| Why Is Italy's Coronavirus Outbreak So Bad? Posted: 10 Mar 2020 11:18 AM PDT  In less than a month, Italy has gone from having only three cases of the coronavirus to having the highest number of cases and deaths outside of China
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| Protests erupt at Biden’s raucous Detroit rally Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:22 PM PDT  Cory Booker and Kamala Harris joined Biden on stage in Detroit to a roaring crowd.
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| Nigeria sweats after coronavirus sparks oil fall Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:34 PM PDT  Nigeria has reported only two confirmed coronavirus cases, but there are fears the fallout from the global outbreak could debilitate Africa's biggest economy. The finance minister in the continent's largest oil producer said on Monday the government would scale back its budget after crude prices plunged far below the level it had envisioned. "It is very clear that we will have to revisit crude oil benchmark price that we have of $57," Zainab Ahmed said after a hastily convened meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
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| Iran to call dead medical staff 'martrys' as virus kills 291 Posted: 10 Mar 2020 03:59 AM PDT  Iran will recognize doctors and nurses who die combating the new coronavirus as "martyrs" like slain soldiers, the country's supreme leader announced Tuesday as the outbreak killed 54 more people and pushed the nation's death toll to 291. The decision by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes amid a propaganda campaign already trying to link the fight against the virus to Iran's long, bloody 1980s war with Iraq. The rising casualty figures each day in Iran suggest the fight against the new coronavirus is far from over, even as more people die from drinking methanol in the false belief it kills the virus.
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| CDC: Many Americans will probably be exposed to coronavirus at some point, 'and there's a good chance many will become sick' Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:03 PM PDT  In a media briefing Monday, an organization leader said "this virus is capable of spreading easily and sustainably from person to person."
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| Nazi salutes, Molotov cocktails rock massive Mexico women's march Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:38 PM PDT  A group of women outside Mexico City's main cathedral clashed on Sunday with men protesting abortion who made Nazi salutes, among scuffles that left dozens injured during a protest of tens of thousands of people on International Women's Day. The incidents reflected an undercurrent of anger throughout the day, in which the city government said 80,000 people marched through Mexico City's historic core to the public square fronting the cathedral and National Palace. Wearing green bandanas symbolizing support for abortion rights, at least a dozen women ripped down banners describing abortion as femicide and set them on fire.
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| 'It was like I was inside a fishbowl': Diamond Princess passenger details life in quarantine Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:03 AM PDT  Carl Goodman became infected with the coronavirus after sailing on the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was quarantined in Japan.
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| U.S. troops begin withdrawal from Afghanistan, official says Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:36 PM PDT  American troops have begun leaving Afghanistan for the initial troop withdrawal required in the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement, a U.S. official said on Monday, amid political chaos in Kabul that threatens the deal.
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| Washington preparing for 64,000 cases as Massachusetts becomes latest to declare state of emergency Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:09 PM PDT  With more than 900 reported cases and a task force created by Donald Trump to prepare the nation, coronavirus fears have begun to grip the United States as schools cancel classes and officials have urged elderly people to avoid large crowds. Coronavirus concerns have also prompted several members of US Congress to self quarantine after coming into contact with people who were infected, and some politicians have begun to indicate they believe the Capitol building should be shut off to visitors until the growing outbreak has been contained.So far, 30 people have been killed by the virus, including at least 24 in Washington, two in California and another two in Florida. Eight people have so-far recovered from the virus, which has sparked a rare national lock down in Italy. The rapid increase of coronavirus cases in the US and across the world encouraged one expert to compare the numbers to Italy, which has seen more than 9,100 cases. The expert anticipates America's epidemic could look like Italy's in nine to 14 days. The spread of the coronavirus got worse in Italy on Tuesday, with the state revealing the death toll has risen by 168 people in just 24 hours. It made for the largest single day jump and 631 people have died from the virus to date.
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| Coronavirus doesn't stop Purim party for Israel's haredi Jews Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Israel has imposed some of the world's tightest restrictions to contain coronavirus, but that did not stop ultra-Orthodox Jews from hitting the streets Tuesday to celebrate a treasured religious custom: drinking on Purim. Sometimes dubbed the "fun" Jewish holiday, Purim typically includes costumes and boisterous public celebrations marking a story dating from fourth-century Persia that saw Jews defeat a murderous plot against them. One verse in the Megillah text that recounts the story and laws of the holiday instructs Jews to "drink on Purim until you cannot distinguish between cursing Haman and blessing Mordechai," referring to the villain and a hero of the story.
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| World Health Organization: Threat of Wuhan Coronavirus Becoming a Pandemic ‘Very Real’ Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:30 AM PDT  The World Health Organization warned on Monday that the threat of a Wuhan coronavirus pandemic is now "very real.""Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real," WHO General Director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. "But, it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled. The bottom line is we are not at the mercy of this virus."Tedros also noted that most confirmed patients in China, where the coronavirus originated, have recovered."We need to remember that with decisive, early action, we can slow down the coronavirus and prevent infections. Among those who are infected, most will recover," Tedros said. "Of the 80,000 reported COVID-19 cases in China, more than 70 percent have recovered."China has confirmed 80,734 cases of the coronavirus, with 3,119 deaths. After China, the countries hardest-hit by the outbreak are South Korea (7,478 cases, 53 deaths), Italy (7,375 cases, 366 deaths), and Iran (6,566 cases, 194 deaths), although the epidemic in Iran may be much worse than the country's authorities currently report. The U.S. has confirmed 545 cases and 22 deaths.Chinese authorities have taken drastic measures to curb the outbreak since it spread from the city of Wuhan, imposing quarantines on entire cities and severely restricting movement within Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located. However, it is so far unclear if these measures have stopped the coronavirus entirely or if its spread could restart if quarantines are lifted."I think they did an amazing job of knocking the virus down," Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told the New York Times on Saturday. "But I don't know if it's sustainable. What have the Chinese really accomplished? Have they really contained the virus? Or have they just suppressed it?"
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| Joe Biden discusses running mates, whether he'd veto Medicare-for-all, and coronavirus advice for Trump Posted: 10 Mar 2020 04:06 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden sat down with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday, a day before the pivotal Michigan primary, and O'Donnell asked Biden if he understood the "gut punch" many women feel that a Democratic president field that included at least four strong female contenders is now down to him and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Biden said yes, sexism is "real" and "there was sexism in Hillary's race," too.Biden suggested he might pick a female running mate, but promised only that if elected, "my administration, from vice president on, is gonna look like the country." He said his most important criteria "in choosing a vice president is whether or not the person is simpatico with me in terms of where I want to take the country," and could competently share the governing load.O'Donnell also asked Biden if Congress sent him, as president, a version of the Medicare-for-all bill that's at the center of Sanders' campaign, "do you veto it?" Biden said he "would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of health care being available now." He added that getting Medicare-for-all through Congress would be "a miracle," he supports the goal that "health care should be a right in America," and would want to know where the money came from.> Okay, you've seen that viral tweet about how Biden said he'd veto Medicare for All. That's clearly NOT what he said. He says what his opposition is based on, says he agrees with it in principle and goes out of his way not to say he'd veto it. Watch and decide. pic.twitter.com/hcqnnsnIqy> > -- Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 10, 2020Asked about Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, Biden said Americans, the world, and the financial markets have "no confidence in the president, in anything he says or does. He turns everything into what he thinks is a political benefit for himself, and he's actually imploding in the process, but there's a lot of innocent bystanders that are being badly hurt. I wish he would just be quiet" and "just let the experts speak."Biden said "that's a really awful thing to say about a president," but it's also what Nicole Wallace, press secretary to President George W. Bush, advised Trump on Monday's Late Night. Watch below. More stories from theweek.com Trump's former pandemic adviser: 'We are 10 days from our hospitals getting creamed' Early exit polls suggest voters trust Biden to handle a major crisis better than Sanders Sanders, Biden both cancel election-night rallies over coronavirus, will evaluate future events
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| Thousands of people in Italy panicked and tried to flee its 16-million-person coronavirus quarantine after the plan leaked Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:37 AM PDT  "Some of those who fled will be infected with the disease," said one virus expert — increasing the risk it will spread further.
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| Police recording: California killings defendant cites racism Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:33 AM PDT |
| Republicans face backlash over racist labeling of coronavirus Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:02 AM PDT  China says US politicians are stigmatizing the country with 'despicable' practice of calling the virus 'Wuhan coronavirus' and 'China coronavirus' * Follow live updates on the coronavirusSenior Republican figures are facing backlash over an apparent effort to label Covid-19 as "Chinese coronavirus" – as China accused some US politicians of "disrespecting science" in order to "stigmatize" the country.Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, are among those to add a geographical marker to the coronavirus in recent days.Pompeo called the virus the "Wuhan coronavirus" on Friday, referring to the Chinese city where the outbreak started, and McCarthy used the term "Chinese coronavirus" on Monday, when he tweeted out a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency that has led the US effort to fight the virus.The CDC website specifically avoids the phrase when talking about Covid-19, the novel strain of coronavirus at the heart of the global outbreak.Other Republicans, including Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Paul Gosar – who is in self-quarantine – have used similar terms.China reacted furiously on Monday, with a spokesman for the foreign ministry criticizing US elected officials."Despite the fact that the WHO [World Health Organization] has officially named this novel type of coronavirus, certain American politician[s], disrespecting science and the WHO decision, jumped at the first chance to stigmatize China and Wuhan with it. We condemn this despicable practice," said Geng Shuang.Republicans' attempts to associate Covid-19 overtly with China repeats a common theme of associating epidemics with certain countries, such as 1918 influenza pandemic being branded "Spanish flu".Academics have warned the practice leads to stigma and racism, and the World Health Organization sent a memo to governments and media organizations at the end of February, urging people not to use the terms "Wuhan Virus", "Chinese Virus" or "Asian Virus"."Governments, citizens, media, key influencers and communities have an important role to play in preventing and stopping stigma surrounding people from China and Asia in general," the WHO said.The branding fits neatly with Donald Trump's anti-China rhetoric and ongoing trade war, however – as Democratic congressman Ted Lieu pointed out in a tweet, referring to Trump as Potus, the president of the United States."One reason @POTUS & his enablers failed to contain COVID2019 is due to the myopic focus on China. The virus was also carried into the US from other countries & US travelers. Calling it Chinese coronavirus is scientifically wrong & as stupid as calling it the Italian coronavirus."
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| Saudi princes' detentions sent a message: don't block my path to the throne Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:58 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia's crown prince meant to send a strong message to critics within the royal family by detaining senior princes this weekend: Don't you dare oppose my succession to the throne. The main target in the crackdown, sources said, is King Salman's brother, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, one of only three members of the Allegiance Council, the royal body that endorses the line of succession, to oppose Mohammed bin Salman becoming crown prince in 2017 in a palace coup.
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| There's another cruise ship being kept at sea pending COVID-19 testing Posted: 10 Mar 2020 03:09 PM PDT  Thousands of passengers on an additional Princess Cruises ship are being kept on board while crew members get tested for COVID-19.
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| Trump Chatted With Taliban Leaders on Secret U.S. Kill-or-Capture List Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:44 AM PDT  President Donald Trump's phone call with Taliban leaders last week was profound and unprecedented in the long timeline that makes up America's longest war. For some in American national security and diplomatic circles, it was a climax in a frustrating, years-long peace process. For others, it was also a worrisome event—not because of what Trump said but because of who, exactly, he spoke with. Some of the Taliban leaders on the other end of the line were also on secret U.S. kill-or-capture lists. The commander in chief was chatting with people his government officially still wanted jailed or dead, two Defense Department sources told The Daily Beast.Of course, any peace initiative is going to require talking with one's enemies—and this call was no exception. But some U.S. defense officials insisted that this was a step too far, and a sign of what they see as a slapdash approach to ending America's involvement in the Afghan conflict.It's the latest indication that Trump, who has long wanted out of Afghanistan, is far apart from the Pentagon on how to wind down the U.S. military's longest foreign war. Military anxieties are understandable. The U.S. is, for the first time, taking a gamble on negotiating an endgame with an enemy it doesn't trust and which has all the leverage in the negotiations. A pre-deal ceasefire already broke down on Wednesday, five days after the deal was unveiled, when the U.S. bombed a Taliban position in Helmand to disrupt an attack by the militant group on a checkpoint run by Afghan security forces. NBC News reported late last week that there is "persuasive intelligence" that the Taliban has no intention of abiding by the deal. But military concerns go beyond whether the other side in the conflict is trustworthy; there are also concerns about the American side of the equation. Four Trump administration officials, two who are generally supportive of the plan for pulling out troops and two who aren't—the withdrawals began on Monday—told The Daily Beast that the administration did not have a clear plan for doing so. The call is just one indicator among many. "It's ground-shaking that the president spoke to individuals on a target list," said a senior Defense Department official. "It was a big give from our side, towards an adversary that traditionally has never held up their side of the bargain in numerous other attempts towards de-escalation and peace. We made a group that lacks absolute operational control over their forces a legitimate player on the world stage."The target lists, known as Joint Priority Engagement Lists, are said to be held by the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military's elite Joint Special Operations Command, according to two U.S. Defense Department sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose such matters. U.S. military and intelligence officials The Daily Beast spoke to said that whenever they receive information through any kind of intelligence, the information is forwarded on to the agency that controls the list for further analysis. If the information is found credible, then someone like Amir Khan Muttaqi, who listened in on the call with Trump and who was wounded in a July 2018 airstrike in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan, could have several military or intelligence operations built around them for their ultimate capture or death. The Central Intelligence Agency referred questions to the National Security Council, which did not respond. The White House also did not respond. The Pentagon did not return requests for comment, but after this story published, provided a statement: "After 18 years of war it is clear that peace in Afghanistan will not come through military means. It will come when Afghans come to the table to talk with one another and decide their future together."Trump praised the phone call he had with Mullah Adbul Ghani Baradar—who is also on one of the targeting lists. Baradar, who was formerly held in a Pakistani prison, is a co-founder of the Taliban and the head of its political office in Qatar. "We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they're looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended. I think we all have a very common interest," said Trump. "We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban." Trump is said to be planning a meeting with Taliban leaders in the near future, an intention the president promised at the White House this past Saturday, but no date has been set. In September, Trump canceled a planned meeting with Taliban leaders at Camp David after a string of bombings that killed multiple Afghan people and an American soldier. "What he doesn't understand is that the president's decision to speak directly to Mullah Baradar and other senior Taliban political leaders was seen by the Taliban as a form of legitimization," said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior editor of the Long War Journal, a project under the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "It raises their so-called Islamic emirate to the status of a political peer of the United States. And the Taliban trumpeted this phone call all across their media in multiple languages, specifically for that purpose." Annie Pforzheimer—a former deputy chief of mission in Kabul, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies—agreed. "It's close and it is more than I think the Taliban deserve," said Pforzheimer. Of course, there are "people"—often, very dangerous people—"you must deal with in order to end the violence." But those people don't have to get access to the commander in chief. "That's something where you could hold your president and your secretary in reserve [during negotiations], for a later point when more has been achieved… It's a tool that a negotiator, in my opinion, should have been allowed to leave for much later in the process." Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers have openly questioned the administration's deal, calling for increased transparency into discussions that led to the agreement. Two sources on the Hill told The Daily Beast that lawmakers are interested in scrutinizing communications, including those between the State Department and White House, about the agreement. The State Department did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast before publication. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) wrote on Twitter late Monday: "I got a classified briefing today on the agreement with the Taliban. I have been a supporter of negotiations with the Taliban, but the more I learn, the more concerned I become that Trump got fleeced. ... The Taliban's security guarantees are so vague as to be effectively void."Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are preparing to hold hearings on the agreement. It is not yet clear exactly what the two committees will focus on. Some lawmakers who this week studied the classified annexes to the deal walked away from the review worried about the agreement and the administration's ability to enforce the deal.Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the top Republicans in the House, said in a statement Feb. 29 that the deal "includes concessions that could threaten the security of the United States." In a hearing Tuesday, Cheney said the annexes did not detail mechanisms that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said would be included in the deal. Pompeo has previously said the agreement would include a mechanism to ensure that the Taliban upheld its end of the deal and that the group would renounce al Qaeda. "What we have seen with this agreement now concerns me as much as the Iranian nuclear deal did, now that I have seen the documents and now that there seems to be still no verification mechanism by which we are going to enforce any of the so-called Taliban promises," Cheney said. But with the November presidential election looming, it's no surprise that the president has been such a public booster of the deal. For Trump, it's an objective that he holds as a highly political conviction. For at least the past two years, the president has regularly told, or angrily demanded of administration officials that he wants "the hell out" of Afghanistan before the end of his first term, according to those close to Trump. In the time since the Taliban deal was publicly announced, the president has repeatedly told close advisers, at times using the same phrasing, he wants it "done before November"—a clear reference to Election Day and signaling that he wants to run on the accomplishment of ending America's longest war—two people with direct knowledge tell The Daily Beast.But the agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban on Feb. 29 in Doha, Qatar, has already begun to show signs of buckling in the region as members of the militant group have restarted offensive operations as of last week. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rejected a provision in the agreement between the United States and the Taliban that calls for the release of 5,000 prisoners, which is a condition for further intra-Afghan negotiations scheduled for March 10 in Oslo, Norway. Pompeo brushed off the Afghan president's rebuke of the clause on CBS' Face the Nation: "There have been prisoner releases from both sides before. We've managed to figure our path forward." "Boy, how the tune has changed," said retired Marine Col. David Lapan, a former Homeland Security and Pentagon spokesman who's now a Trump administration critic. "This is the same Pompeo who criticized Obama's administration for swapping five Taliban militants for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Now we are talking five times a thousand and all of a sudden, it's OK." When discussing the potential for the Taliban not honoring the deal or the possible dangers and uncertainty ahead, one of the sources with direct knowledge recalled Trump cutting off a recent conversation on the matter and immediately stressing, among other things, that "the American people, Republicans and Democrats" want U.S. troops out and that "you can look at any poll" and see that.It was unclear to what polling, public or internal, the president was referring. However, according to a source familiar with the matter, a paper that has circulated among the upper ranks of the White House since 2017 consisted of research demonstrating that Trump did better in the 2016 election in areas of the U.S. that suffered higher Iraq and Afghan war casualty rates. The authors of that paper, professors Douglas Kriner and Francis Shen, even wrote in an August 2017 piece for Politico that "for all his lofty rhetoric, Trump might come to regret this decision [to order a troop surge in Afghanistan]. In a recently released research paper… [what] we found was a significant correlation between war casualty rates and Trump votes. In fact, we think three states key to Trump's victory—Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—might have swung the other way if they'd had even modestly lower" casualty rates."The vast majority of the American people—including the majority of veterans of the recent wars—support bringing our troops home from Afghanistan," said Dan Caldwell, foreign policy campaign manager for Stand Together, a new name for the Koch network's policy advocacy group. "Withdrawing all our troops is not only good policy, but it is a good political move for President Trump. He should follow through with a withdrawal from Afghanistan even if the Taliban and Afghan government can't work out a deal." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Coronavirus in US: Head of New York Port Authority tests positive as MTA urges riders to avoid subways if possible Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:02 AM PDT  The head of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority has tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus and is being quarantined, along with senior members of his team, according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.During a news conference on Monday, the governor said Port Authority chief Rick Cotton has "been at the airports obviously when many people have been coming back with the virus".
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| Mexican stock exchange and peso crash amidst coronavirus, oil fears Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:57 PM PDT  Mexico's stock exchange on Monday suffered its largest single-day crash since 2008 as the peso dropped to its lowest exchange rate compared to the US dollar in three years. The falls come amidst global fears over the new coronavirus and plummeting oil prices. The stock exchange plunged 6.42 percent to close at 38,730.56 points.
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| A US medical worker who tested positive for the new coronavirus says his condition is 'getting worse' every day, even though he's 32 and has no underlying conditions Posted: 10 Mar 2020 06:47 AM PDT  "The virus is everything," James Cai told New York City's WCBS. "Diarrhea, watery eyes, shortness of breath, chest pain, you name it. High fever."
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| Police jail woman who paid bail with marijuana-scented cash Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:15 AM PDT |
| As Italy locks down 60 million people over coronavirus, parts of China return to normalcy Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:44 AM PDT  China's leader Xi Jinping visited the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic as Italy locked down 60 million people.
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| Venezuelan police halt protest march led by opposition leader with teargas Posted: 10 Mar 2020 03:14 AM PDT  Venezuelan security forces used teargas on Tuesday to stop protesters led by U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido from marching on the national legislature, which pro-government lawmakers seized control of in January. The march, attended by several thousand opposition demonstrators, advanced only a few blocks towards the congress in downtown Caracas before a phalanx of riot police barricaded the road and began firing teargas to disperse the crowd. "It once again demonstrates the totalitarian nature of this regime," said lawmaker and Guaido supporter Williams Davila, his face and eyes red from the teargas.
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| Trump reportedly told aides he fears journalists will purposefully try to infect him with coronavirus on Air Force One Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:46 AM PDT  President Trump puts on a brave face when talking about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, but things are reportedly pretty different behind closed doors.Vanity Fair reports that Trump — a self-professed germaphobe — is "melting down over this." Perhaps not shockingly, he's focused on the media, in particular, one person close to the White House said. That reportedly includes him telling aides last week that he was concerned journalists would purposefully contract COVID-19 in an attempt to infect him on Air Force One.Another source painted an image more in line with Trump's public reaction to the virus, as well, telling Vanity Fair he reportedly wants the Justice Department to "open an investigation of the media for market manipulation" as he tries to stave off, or at least provide a more optimistic outlook for, the plummeting stock market.The White House did not respond to Vanity Fair's request for comment. Read more at Vanity Fair.More stories from theweek.com Trump may lose the battle with the coronavirus — but nationalists will win the war Weinstein wrote in email Jennifer Aniston 'should be killed,' documents show Late night hosts are increasingly convinced Trump is part of the coronavirus problem
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| Turkey used a new weapon in Syria that was so effective it looks like Russia won't dare confront Turkey directly Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Apparently, there are some wars Russia is not willing to fight.
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| Scandal-ridden K-pop star enlists in army Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:07 AM PDT  Disgraced former K-pop star Seungri enlisted in the South Korean army Monday, meaning a military court will now hear his trial on charges stemming from a sex and drug scandal last year. The 29-year-old singer from popular boyband BIGBANG has been indicted on accusations including prostitution arrangement, embezzlement and illicit gambling. All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged to fulfil around two years of military service to defend the country from nuclear-armed North Korea, with which it remains technically at war.
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