| Trump snubs Jeff Sessions, backs Tommy Tuberville in Alabama Senate runoff Posted: 10 Mar 2020 07:47 PM PDT  The president endorsed the former Auburn head coach over his onetime attorney general in the runoff election set for the end of the month.
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| Pakistan fighter jet crashes in capital during parade rehearsal Posted: 11 Mar 2020 04:31 AM PDT  A Pakistani F-16 fighter jet crashed in Islamabad Wednesday, killing the pilot, during a rehearsal for a national day military parade, officials said. Footage on social media showed a plume of smoke billowing into the sky after the plane hit the ground having apparently attempted a loop. A Pakistani Air Force spokesman said the pilot, Wing Commander Nauman Akram, died in the crash.
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| Norwegian F-35 stealth fighters sent out for the first time to intercept Russian sub hunter aircraft Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:38 AM PDT  Norway scrambled F-35 stealth fighters over the weekend to intercept a pair of Russian Tu-142 anti-submarine warfare aircraft off its coast.
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| US border officer charged with smuggling 17 kilos of cocaine Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:03 PM PDT |
| Why Did the USS Thresher Sink? Finally, the Navy Is Being Forced to Tell Us Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:35 PM PDT  The submarine mysteriously went down in 1963, killing everyone on board. Thanks to a lawsuit, we're about to learn why.
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| Get the Look of Dakota Johnson's Cozy L.A. Home Posted: 11 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| MSNBC Contributor Dr. Jason Johnson Out at The Root After Misogynistic Anti-Bernie Screed Posted: 10 Mar 2020 03:34 PM PDT  Weeks after being benched by MSNBC after making misogynistic comments about Bernie Sanders supporters, Dr. Jason Johnson is out at digital outlet The Root, The Daily Beast has confirmed.The political commentator appears to have removed the affiliation from his Twitter bio, and his contact information no longer appears on The Root's authors page. Sources at The Root confirmed that he is no longer employed by the site.Johnson, who served as politics editor of the influential African-American-focused news and culture website owned by G/O Media, drew widespread outrage last month after claiming "racist white liberals" support Sanders, who has done "nothing for intersectionality." "I don't care how many people from the island of misfit black girls you throw out there to defend you," he added in the Feb. 21 appearance on SiriusXM's The Karen Hunter Show.His comments, particularly those about black women who support Sanders, resulted in calls for his firing as a paid contributor for MSNBC, where he had become a fixture of Democratic primary analysis. "I hope we can have political disputes without engaging in open racism and sexism," Sanders' national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray tweeted about Johnson. "This misogynoir is disappointing, but not surprising from [him]."In a statement on Twitter, the political commentator apologized, saying his comments were "harmful and unnecessary."Several days later, The Daily Beast reported that MSNBC had quietly benched Johnson. After making nearly 40 on-air appearances in the first two months of 2020, including post-game coverage of the several Democratic primary debates and votes, the Morgan State University professor was nowhere to be found during MSNBC's coverage of the Nevada caucuses. He has yet to return to MSNBC's air.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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| A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators Posted: 10 Mar 2020 10:36 PM PDT  A lack of test kits for the new COVID-19 coronavirus is still obscuring the extent of the outbreak in the U.S., but for a critical period in February, there were no functional federal tests and "local officials across the country were left to work blindly as the crisis grew undetected and exponentially," The New York Times reports. The coronavirus has now infected more than 1,000 people in 36 states and Washington, D.C., according to Johns Hopkins University's count.The first U.S. outbreak was in Washington state, where authorities confirmed the first patient — suffering from respiratory problems after visiting Wuhan, China — only after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made an exception to strict testing criteria. In Seattle, Dr. Helen Chu, an infectious disease expert who was part of an ongoing flu-monitoring effort, the Seattle Flu Study, asked permission to test their trove of collected flu swabs for coronavirus.State health officials joined Chu in asking the CDC and Food and Drug Administration to waive privacy rules and allow clinical tests in a research lab, citing the threat of significant loss of life. The CDC and FDA said no. "We felt like we were sitting, waiting for the pandemic to emerge," Chu told the Times. "We could help. We couldn't do anything."They held off for a couple of weeks, but on Feb. 25, Chu and her colleagues "began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval," the Times reports. They found a positive case pretty quickly, and after discussing the ethics, they told state health officials, who confirmed the next day that a teenager who hadn't traveled abroad had COVID-19 — and the virus had likely been spreading undetected throughout the Seattle area for weeks. Later that day, the CDC and FDA told Chu and her colleagues to stop testing, then partially relented, and the lab found several more cases. On Monday night, they were ordered to stop testing again."In the days since the teenager's test, the Seattle region has spun into crisis, with dozens of people testing positive and at least 22 dying," the Times notes. "The scientists said they believe that they will find evidence that the virus was infecting people even earlier, and that they could have alerted authorities sooner if they had been allowed to test." Read more about the red tape at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Coronavirus is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu, Trump's task force immunologist says Health analyst says slowing 'tidal wave' of coronavirus cases is key to avoid overwhelming hospitals March Madness will take place without fans amid coronavirus fears
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| Dem senator asks for investigation into agencies' cooperation on Biden, Trump probes Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:22 AM PDT  Senator Chris Murphy wrote that he is "deeply concerned" that the agencies "may not be applying a consistent test" for congressional demands.
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| Saudi Arabia’s Economy Can Ill Afford Oil-Price War It Began Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:27 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has just started an oil-price war. Winning it will come at a cost he might not be ready to pay for long.If oil prices fail to recover and stay at less than half the level Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget, the economy -- and the crown prince's big ambitions to reform it -- may be among the biggest victims. The energy sector accounts for about 80% of the kingdom's exports and two-thirds of its fiscal revenue.Should Brent crude remain at $35 without an adjustment in spending, Saudi Arabia would run a deficit of nearly 15% of economic output in 2020, while its net foreign reserves could run out in about five years unless it uses other funding sources, according to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sees this year's fiscal shortfall at almost 12%, boosting the government's financing requirement by $36 billion for the year."Saudi has accumulated significant reserves that will allow it to see through a prolonged period of low prices, but this may come at a cost," said Tarek Fadlallah, chief executive officer of the Middle East unit of Nomura Asset Management in Dubai. "The cost is the money that might otherwise be used to help the economy diversify."Oil markets had the biggest plunge since the 1991 Gulf War on Monday after the disintegration of the OPEC+ alliance pitted Saudi Arabia against Russia, which refused another round of production cuts to prop up crude prices.In response to Russia's refusal to curb production to support oil prices, Saudi Arabia aggressively cut its prices and ramped up production. The moves are an effort to demonstrate Saudi Arabia's dominance over global oil markets, boost revenues even amid declining global demand, and win back market share from Russia and U.S. shale producers.Global benchmark Brent clawed back some losses after its biggest drop in three decades, trading around $36 a barrel on Tuesday. Bank of America Global Research and Goldman Sachs said it could dip into the $20s.Still damaged by the oil collapse six years ago, the kingdom enters the showdown with its economic defenses on the mend but possibly no match for Russia's. The Saudi central bank's net foreign assets are down about a third from their 2014 peak. The government is targeting a fiscal deficit of 6.4% of gross domestic product this year under the assumption that Brent would average about $65 per barrel. It needs oil at almost $84 to balance this year's budget.The severity of the oil shock at a time when the spreading outbreak of the novel coronavirus is crippling global demand for energy might shift the economic calculus for Saudi Arabia. The market has already delivered its verdict, with Saudi bonds and stocks pummeled on Monday and riyal forwards rising fourfold."Clearly the market is pricing in a significant deterioration in the credit," said Abdul Kadir Hussain, the head of fixed-income asset management at Arqaam Capital in Dubai. "In the short run, Saudi Arabia has enough ammunition to get through this time. But the longer it goes, the more fundamental questions will arise."The kingdom's bonds were among the hardest hit in the region on Monday, with the securities due 2029 and 2049 poised for their biggest declines since they were issued. Shares of Saudi Aramco plunged by the maximum allowed, shattering the government's $2 trillion valuation for the state oil company."There are some buffers to wait and see how the oil market develops and how Russia responds," said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. "However, the buffers are weaker now than they were in 2014. If this oil war continues and oil prices remain suppressed, Saudi will have to pull back spending and implement austerity measures again."The havoc unleashed by the falling out with Russia is presenting Saudi Arabia with hard choices. If the decision is to hunker down, austerity would be a fraught proposition in a country where citizens have grown accustomed to handouts, state subsidies and secure government jobs.By contrast, Russia was willing to walk away from talks with OPEC in order to hurt U.S. rivals since it's more resilient to lower prices, after the central bank rebuilt its international reserves to the highest since August 2008. Russia has a floating currency -- unlike Saudi Arabia -- and can sustain its budget with lower oil revenues.Given the importance of public spending on projects and welfare, Saudi Arabia's "domestic political sensitivity to economic stress is much higher than that of Russia," according to Hasnain Malik, Tellimer's Dubai-based head of equity strategy."Both sides have enough financial capacity and sufficiently divergent goals to sustain the oil price war for some time -- quarters, rather than months," Tellimer's Malik said. "But such a sharp drop in the oil price, down over 35% in a week, may actually shorten the length of this war."Also at stake is the crown prince's economic transformation plan for the world's largest oil exporter, which calls for diversifying away from crude and building new industries like mining, tourism and entertainment.But despite overhauling regulations and smoothing bureaucracy, officials have been unable to restore foreign direct investment to levels the kingdom reached a decade ago, when it was about eight times higher than today.To ease pressure on its finances, Saudi Arabia can buy time by turning to the debt market. Less than two months ago, it issued $5 billion of debt as part of a plan to plug its growing budget deficit by selling about $32 billion of local currency and international debt over the course of the year.Investors placed more than $23 billion of orders for the debt in January.As the government ran elevated budget deficits even at higher oil prices, Saudi Arabia needs its currency reserves to allow for a gradual adjustment of fiscal policy, according to Steffen Hertog, a Gulf specialist at the London School of Economics."A price war will shorten its runway for this, forcing potentially faster and more painful adjustments," he said. "Saudi Arabia has larger fiscal and currency reserves so can withstand low prices for a while, but its cushions are about a third smaller than they were in 2014 during the last oil price collapse, so a protracted price war would be damaging."(Updates Brent price in seventh paragraph)\--With assistance from Netty Ismail, Sylvia Westall and Filipe Pacheco.To contact the reporter on this story: Abeer Abu Omar in Dubai at aabuomar@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Paul AbelskyFor 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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| Former Bloomberg campaign staffers are reportedly being offered the chance to keep their work iPhones and laptops as a type of severance — but they'll have to pay taxes on them if they do Posted: 10 Mar 2020 08:12 AM PDT  The devices are reportedly worth $1,400 to $1,700, and the former staffers will have to pay taxes if they keep them.
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| Gunfire, burning vehicles in Mexican city; officials deny gang leader held Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:27 PM PDT  Gunmen blocked roads with burning vehicles and exchanged fire with security forces in a central Mexican city on Tuesday, while security officials denied that a wanted gang leader had been captured. The brazen skirmishes in the city of Celaya in Guanajuato state sparked rumors on social media that security forces had closed in on Jose "El Marro" Yepez, the head of the Santa Rosa de Lima criminal cartel, and possibly arrested him. The cartel is believed to be behind the massive theft of gasoline from illegal taps on pipelines belonging to national oil company Pemex, a criminal racket that had grown significantly in recent years.
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| Lawyers: Chelsea Manning attempts suicide in Va. jail Posted: 11 Mar 2020 05:08 PM PDT  Chelsea Manning's legal team said Wednesday that the former intelligence analyst tried to take her own life Wednesday, but was transported to a hospital where she is recovering. Manning has been in jail since May 2019 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. In the motion filed last month, Manning's lawyers argued that Manning has shown during her incarceration that she can't be coerced into testifying before a grand jury.
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| House Speaker Pelosi to unveil coronavirus aid package for workers Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:32 PM PDT  Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving swiftly toward House passage of a coronavirus aid package possibly this week as Congress rebuffs President Trump's proposed payroll tax break and focuses instead on sick pay and other resources to more immediately help workers hit by the crisis.
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| Analyst who predicted 2008 global financial crash warns another one is on the way — and not just because of coronavirus Posted: 10 Mar 2020 04:11 PM PDT  An analyst who predicted the 2008 global financial crisis has warned that another crash is on the way, and this time it will be much worse.Jesse Colombo, an economic forecaster and columnist who identified a housing and credit bubble in the US prior to the 2008 crash, says a number of new bubbles in markets around the world are set to burst.
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| 'DC sniper' Lee Boyd Malvo marries while serving life in prison Posted: 11 Mar 2020 10:43 AM PDT  Lee Boyd Malvo's attorney and his friend said the man convicted in the D.C. sniper attacks when he was a teen married earlier this month in prison.
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| Trevor Noah Accuses Kamala Harris of ‘Gaslighting’ Voters With Biden Endorsement Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:05 PM PDT  On the eve of what some cable news networks are calling "Super Tuesday 2," Trevor Noah dubbed the Democratic presidential primary race "2 Old, 2 Furious." And as Joe Biden looks to extend his delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, The Daily Show host examined the "hostage-style" video endorsement the former vice president's received from Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA)."Now please send $10,000 in unmarked bills so that my family can see me again," Noah said, imitating Harris. "I'm very happy to be here." The host went on to joke that "even the Taliban is looking at this video like, 'we had better lighting and we were in a cave!'" As an outsider to American politics, Noah said he found the whole thing "a little strange." Stephen Colbert Unloads on Trump Over Coronavirus: 'You're a Monster'Bill Maher Goes Full Sexist, Defends Chris Matthews and Mocks His Sexual Harassment Accuser"How is Kamala gonna endorse Joe Biden and not acknowledge that she once called him a friend of racists who opposed integrated public schools?" he asked, accusing Harris of "gaslighting" voters by pretending their infamous debate confrontation never happened. "For me, you have to at least say, 'Look, we've had our differences, but—' or something like that," Noah said. "Otherwise, you make it seem like we're crazy." For more, listen to Jordan Klepper on The Last Laugh podcast. 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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| China slams US for warship sail-by in disputed waters Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:43 AM PDT  Beijing on Wednesday accused the United States of a "provocative" act by sending a warship into disputed territorial waters in the South China Sea. The Paracel Islands are a chain of disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. "Under the guise of 'freedom of navigation', the US has repeatedly flexed its muscles, been provocative and stirred up trouble in the South China Sea," PLA Southern Theatre Command spokesman Colonel Li Huamin said.
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| Supreme Court Lets Trump Make Asylum-Seekers Stay in Mexico Posted: 11 Mar 2020 04:43 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court backed the Trump administration on a key border policy, letting the government keep enforcing a rule that has forced 60,000 people to wait in Mexico while they seek asylum.The justices, over a dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, blocked a federal appeals court decision that would have let future asylum seekers stay in the U.S. temporarily while their applications are being processed. The appeals court ruling, which would have applied to new applicants in California and Arizona, was set to take effect Thursday.The Supreme Court action suggests the justices are likely to uphold the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the "remain in Mexico" program, should they take up the challenge directly at some point. Neither the court nor Sotomayor gave any reasons.The high court order also averts what President Donald Trump's administration argued would have been a "rush to the border" if the appeals court decision had taken effect. Crowds of migrants gathered at border crossings in February after that court issued the ruling."The injunction is virtually assured to cause chaos at the border, thereby seriously compromising the government's compelling interests in safety and in the integrity of our borders," U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued in court papers.White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement the Supreme Court order was a "major victory for the Trump administration."'Humanitarian Crisis'Opponents represented by the American Civil Liberties Union say the asylum seekers are being exposed to kidnapping, assault and rape in Mexico. The group said the policy violates U.S. obligations under domestic and international law not to send people to places where they will suffer persecution or torture.The policy "has created a humanitarian crisis on Mexico's northern border, putting asylum seekers in harm's way, increasing the burden on local Mexican cities, and triggering an increase in nativism and xenophobia," the ACLU argued.Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer with the ACLU, said asylum seekers "face grave danger and irreversible harm every day this depraved policy remains in effect."She added, "The Court of Appeals unequivocally declared this policy to be illegal. The Supreme Court should as well."The opponents said a trial judge's order upheld by the appeals court would apply to a limited number of people, including the ACLU's clients and new asylum applicants, and wouldn't require the immediate re-entry of people previously forced to stay in Mexico.The New York Times reported last week that the administration was sending troops to the border in anticipation of action by the Supreme Court. The administration told the high court that 25,000 of the 60,000 people sent to Mexico still have pending asylum claims."We are gratified that the Supreme Court granted a stay, which prevents a district court injunction from impairing the security of our borders and the integrity of our immigration system," the Justice Department said in an emailed statement after the court acted.The Supreme Court last year backed Trump on a separate border issue, clearing his administration to enforce a new rule that sharply limited who can apply for asylum at the southern border. That rule requires people who came from countries other than Mexico to first apply for protection from one of the countries they passed through on the way to the border.The case is Wolf v. Innovation Law Lab, 19A960.(Updates with White House reaction in sixth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| At least 18 Americans who've come down with the coronavirus are linked to an Egyptian cruise ship quarantined in the Nile River Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:32 PM PDT  "It's still unclear how many people came in contact with the group in the infected ship," a local police officer told the Associated Press.
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| Russian lawmakers move to keep Putin in power past 2024 Posted: 11 Mar 2020 01:54 AM PDT  Russian lawmakers on Wednesday rapidly rubber-stamped sweeping constitutional changes that could keep President Vladimir Putin in power until 2036. If Putin won and completed two more terms as president, it would make him the ruler of Russia for 36 years — longer than any other leader in its modern history. The measure must still be approved by the country's Constitutional Court and by a nationwide vote next month before they come into force.
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| India suspends tourist visas over coronavirus Posted: 11 Mar 2020 12:11 PM PDT  India on Wednesday suspended all tourist visas until April 15 and said it would quarantine travellers arriving from seven virus-hit countries in an attempt to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, the government said in a statement. The visa suspension begins March 13 at 1200 GMT at the port of departure, the statement read. Diplomatic visas and visas for international organizations, employment and projects however are exempt.
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| A plane made an unscheduled landing after one person's sneeze caused a major disruption on board Posted: 11 Mar 2020 10:31 AM PDT  As coronavirus fears run high, a United flight was diverted when passengers became disruptive when another person sneezed.
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| Japan unveils $4 billion coronavirus package, not yet eyeing extra budget Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:59 PM PDT  Japan unveiled on Tuesday a second package of measures worth about $4 billion in spending to cope with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, focusing on support to small and mid-sized firms, as concerns mount about risks to the fragile economy. To help fund the package, the government will tap the rest of this fiscal year's budget reserve of about 270 billion yen, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. The move is likely to affect what the Bank of Japan decides at its March 18-19 policy review.
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| 'You get fed up': Man facing death row for Fresno shooting spree says racism drove him to murder Posted: 10 Mar 2020 07:11 PM PDT  A man accused of killing four people told detectives in a recording that he was fed up with racism and that he might as well keep killing as many white men as he could.Kori Ali Muhammad, a black man who is currently on trial for a shooting spree that took place in California in 2017, could face the death penalty if convicted, Fresno Bee and ABC30 (KFSN-TV) reported.
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| New York's solution to hand sanitizer shortage: Prison labor, hourly wages below $1 Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:05 AM PDT  How does New York keep its hand sanitizer costs down? By having its prisoners make it.
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| Late night hosts are increasingly convinced Trump is part of the coronavirus problem Posted: 10 Mar 2020 01:56 AM PDT  "There are now over 600 cases of coronavirus in the United States," Stephen Colbert said on Monday's Late Show. Italy has shut down entirely, and "Wall Street S&Peed its pants." with the Dow suffering its "largest single point drop in history.""This is the first crisis of Trump's presidency that he did not cause himself, and he is shanking it," Colbert said. "Trump spent the weekend golfing" and continues to post callous tweets, "but when he hunkers down focuses on the problem, that's when he really sucks." He recapped Trump's trip Friday to the CDC, shaking his head at Trump's assertion he surprises doctors with his deep understanding of the virus, crediting his "natural ability" to his "super genius" Uncle John. "Epidemiology is not genetic!" Colbert said. "Knowledge does not get passed down in the family -- that's why, no matter how much we all know it now, future generations are going to have to learn for themselves that you're an idiot."Yeah, "I'm not sure that Trump has 'a natural ability' for science, especially considering he thinks scientific knowledge can be passed down through his uncle," Trevor Noah marveled at The Daily Show. And really, "Trump can't afford to be uninformed about corona -- not just because he's president, but because as an older man who's not in great shape and spends his time touching strangers, he's definitely at risk.""The president publicly seems determined to keep shaking hands," but reportedly, he's "privately terrified about getting the virus" and "thinks journalists will purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One," Jimmy Kimmel said on Kimmel Live. "That doesn't seem paranoid at all." People are canceling major events, "selling off stocks, and buying up toilet paper," and freakily, "Costco is pulling their free samples," he said. "Trump needs to send Mike Pence to Costco to figure this out, right now!""We are now seeing what it's like when a lifelong scam artist is in charge of responding to a public health crisis," Seth Meyers said at Late Night. Trump told CDC experts he's getting his coronavirus information from Fox News, "public health officials are worried about making him angry by telling the truth," and "Trump appointees keep going out of their way to compliment him."Conan O'Brien had a a PSA about fighting misinformation.At The Late Show, the coronavirus took a victory lap. More stories from theweek.com Trump's former pandemic adviser: 'We are 10 days from our hospitals getting creamed' After finding piles of portraits in an abandoned studio, man finds a way to get them to rightful families A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators
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| Taliban reject Afghan offer to free 1,500 prisoners before talks Posted: 11 Mar 2020 08:27 AM PDT  The Taliban rejected the Afghan government's attempt to resolve a spiralling crisis over the release of insurgent prisoners Wednesday, as Kabul warned it was ready to resume offensive battlefield operations. The decree issued earlier by President Ashraf Ghani had raised hopes that Kabul's offer to free 1,500 insurgents as a "gesture of goodwill" before talks begin, would prompt the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. Any changes amounted to "a violation" of the deal struck between the insurgents and Washington in Doha last month, he added.
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| Biden tells pro-gun worker he’s ‘full of s***’ Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden told a pro-gun worker he was "full of s***" during a testy exchange after speaking at an auto plant in Detroit.
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| Italy enters its first day of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown as it becomes the worst-hit country outside China Posted: 10 Mar 2020 02:00 AM PDT  The number of coronavirus cases in Italy surpassed 9,100 on Monday night, prompting the government to quarantine the whole nation.
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| Court: House entitled to Mueller probe grand jury testimony Posted: 10 Mar 2020 05:20 PM PDT  The Justice Department must give Congress secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, giving the House a significant win in a separation-of-powers clash with the Trump administration. The three-judge panel said in a 2-1 opinion that the House Judiciary Committee's need for the material in its investigations of President Donald Trump outweighed the Justice Department's interests in keeping the testimony secret.
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| Don’t Let the Chinese Government Escape Blame for Coronavirus’s Initial Spread Posted: 10 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT  From almost the very beginning of the COVID-19/coronavirus crisis in January and early February, it's often been asked whether it might be the "Chinese Chernobyl." Could the crisis expose the weakness of the mix of oppression, information control, and social disgust that underpin the Chinese Communist regime and trigger its collapse? Others have suggested that it might instead be "president Xi Jinping's Tiananmen," meaning he will use all the tools at his disposal to tighten down and prevent, well . . . a Chinese Chernobyl.It is too soon to know what may happen. But it's not too soon for attempts to whitewash the timeline and Chinese-government actions in the earliest moments of the crisis. Indeed, even now, the level of public anxiety about both the virus and what the Chinese government is doing and saying about it remain high.It is helpful to review the current status and the timeline that got us here. On Monday, February 24, the World Health Organization determined that reported cases of COVID-19/coronavirus had peaked. At the time, there were about 76,000 reported cases in China, and about 1,800 cases elsewhere in the world. In the United States, there were 14 reported cases. As of March 7, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and state and local public health reporting suggest the number is more than 300 cases, a twenty-fold increase. Globally, there are more than 100,000 cases, with more than 350 deaths in Italy alone.The world has barely begun to reckon with what the Chinese government claims to have gotten under control. It's true that forced quarantining and other extreme measures in China played a critical role. The World Health Organization report of its February mission to China praises the PRC for its response: "The response structures in China were rapidly put in place according to existing emergency plans and aligned from the top to the bottom. This was replicated at the four levels of government (national, provincial, prefecture and county/district)." The leader of the World Health Organization mission to China in February, Canadian epidemiologist Dr. Bruce Aylward, encouraged the world to "access the expertise of China," adding that "if I had COVID-19, I'd want to be treated in China."But the WHO report and subsequent reporting about what the world can learn from China represents a real-time cleansing of the actual record, a record that includes intentional obfuscation and failure to respond in the early stages of the crisis. This includes the government's early attempts to stifle communication about the virus, the censorship of doctors and others on social media as cases were being observed in late December, and the continuing suppression of information on social media across the country about how the government, from President Xi Jinping to local administrators, continues to mislead the public and the rest of the world.On March 3, researchers at the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy published "Censured Contagion," a report that meticulously documents a timeline and body of facts that paint quite a different picture than the WHO report, and placing WHO's accolades for China's "response structures" that were "rapidly put in place" in doubt. The WHO report concludes that the beginning of the epidemic was December 30, 2019, with the collection of samples from a pneumonia patient in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. Data provided in graphics in the report show essentially zero cases before that date.Yet the Munk School researchers found that censorship of certain keywords in social media had already begun by then. They highlight social-media reports during the prior week by doctors reporting an unknown pathogen, linking it to the Wuhan seafood market. By December 31, social-media channels, including WeChat, were already censoring the terms "Wuhan seafood market" and "unknown Wuhan pneumonia."As careful as the recent Munk School report is, its essential elements were available to WHO researchers before they made their February 16-24 trip and wrote their report praising the PRC response. On February 1, the Washington Post published a story excoriating Beijing's early handling of the outbreak. The story includes anecdotes consistent with the Munk School analysis, such as how the Wuhan Public Security Bureau on New Year's Day had begun detaining people for "spreading 'rumours' about Wuhan hospitals receiving SARS-like cases." The government-controlled Xinhua News Agency, the Post reported, called on those online to "jointly build a harmonious, clear and bright cyberspace."WHO and its director-general, the Ethiopian politician Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have received criticism for their own response to the crisis. Michael Collins at the Council on Foreign Relations labeled it a joint "dereliction of duty" in a searing blog post in late February. Collins correctly concludes that WHO "laundered" the PRC record, damaging its own credibility by doing so.The most galling result of that image-burnishing is the ubiquity of coverage -- and repetition by third parties who don't care to find out the truth -- to the effect that the world should actually thank the PRC for its strong reaction, because it bought the world the necessary time to prepare for the challenge. Science magazine online, the publication of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, posed the question this week: "Can China's COVID-19 strategy work elsewhere?" This is just one example.This reflects what we already know about the Chinese government. It is developing into a modern state, one whose public-health system has significantly advanced from its ordeal with the SARS epidemic just 20 years ago. Per capita wealth is up more than 300 percent, and the Chinese share of the global GDP has more than doubled, from about 7 percent to more than 16 percent over the same period.Alongside that growth and progress, though, China under President Xi is ever more repressive. It uses some of the most sophisticated technology in the world simply to control its population. That includes Internet censorship, social-media monitoring and tracking of ordinary citizens, and the mass detention of Muslims and other minorities.But Chinese government face-saving is not stopping at the Chinese border. It is also attempting to control the narrative through state-controlled media, and through their willing partners in the West, including WHO. Government propagandists published a compendium of state-news agency articles, official government statements, and other documents in a book called A Battle Against Epidemic: China Combatting COVID-19 in 2020. The publication faced immediate scorn in social media within the country.Fortunately, despite the well-documented censorship of social media, citizen journalism continues. A popular meme shows Dr. Li Wenliang, the Wuhan ophthalmologist whose social media questioned the "Wuhan pneumonia" in late December and who eventually died from the virus, with barbed wire where his facemask should be. Several citizen journalists have gone missing, including in Shandong province, where there have been reports including in the Epoch Times that significant underreporting of COVID-19 by official statistics continues despite the WHO declaration that the caseload has peaked.In times of duress, the most innate qualities of countries tend to predominate. That's what we've seen with the PRC. We can recognize the intensity of China's public-health response. But we should acknowledge and condemn the methods by which the world was kept in the dark for too long, and the means by which Beijing continues to interrupt the flow of information. We should not be thanking Beijing for its actions. Instead, we need honesty and the pursuit of the truth to defeat this challenge. And we must acknowledge that the Chinese government's actions early on almost certainly led to the global crisis we're facing.
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| Beijing orders quarantine for all international arrivals Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:14 AM PDT  Beijing on Wednesday ordered people arriving in the city from any country to go into 14-day quarantine as China reported an increase in imported coronavirus cases, threatening its progress against the epidemic. China has made major strides in its battle against the virus, prompting President Xi Jinping to visit Wuhan, the central city at the heart of the global epidemic, on Tuesday and declare that it has "basically curbed" the spread of the disease. People arriving in Beijing for business trips must stay in a designated hotel and undergo a nucleic acid test for the virus, he added.
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| A travel agent with over 40 years of experience says the coronavirus is causing a cancellation surge 'in a way I've never experienced' Posted: 11 Mar 2020 07:21 AM PDT  A travel veteran on coronavirus-related cancellations, thousands of dollars in lost income, and how even 9/11 didn't disrupt things this much.
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| Mississippi prisons 'a ticking time bomb' of squalor, violence and death. Who's at fault? Posted: 10 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Deadly prison riots and a continuing high rate of deaths have renewed outrage over Mississippi's long-troubled correctional system.
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| India cancels almost all visas, closes Myanmar border, as regional coronavirus cases rise Posted: 11 Mar 2020 02:34 AM PDT  India said on Wednesday it will suspend the vast majority of visas to the country in a wide-reaching attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as cases across the region continued to rise. The virus has hit Europe and the United States far harder than China's most immediate neighbors in South Asia, where no one has yet died. "All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, U.N./international organizations, employment, project visas, stand suspended till 15th April 2020," India's Health Ministry said in a statement.
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| Russia reaches out to OPEC as Riyadh opens oil taps Posted: 10 Mar 2020 08:16 AM PDT  Russia said Tuesday it was open to renewing cooperation with the OPEC oil cartel even as kingpin Saudi Arabia escalated a price war with Moscow by announcing it would flood markets with new supplies. The oil price conflict broke out after OPEC and a group of non-member countries dominated by Russia -- the world's second largest oil producer -- on Friday failed to agree on production cuts.
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| Joe Biden predicted to win every primary on 'Big Tuesday' in bitter blow to Bernie Sanders Posted: 10 Mar 2020 08:25 AM PDT  As voters head to the polls in five states across the country for "Big Tuesday", the latest predictions show Joe Biden sweeping each state in what would be a devastating blow to Bernie Sanders and what appears to be his increasingly long odds of becoming the Democratic nominee.While close, the primaries across the country could serve as a clarifying moment in the campaign, especially if Mr Biden pulls off decisive wins that cement his status as frontrunner.
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| Airlines may soon stop flying near-empty 'ghost flights' thanks to a potential European Commission rule change Posted: 10 Mar 2020 09:01 AM PDT  Empty aircraft have been flying over Europe in order to maintain valuable slots at top airports, but a rule change may end the practice.
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| News agency: Iran VP, 2 Cabinet members have new virus Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:59 AM PDT  Iran's senior vice president and two other Cabinet members have contracted the new coronavirus, a semiofficial news agency reported Wednesday as the death toll in the Islamic Republic from the outbreak rose by 62 to 354. The report by the Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, comes as President Hassan Rouhani took control of the country's much-criticized response to the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Authorities announced that there were some 9,000 confirmed cases of the virus across Iran.
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| Trump Is Seething Over Having to Work With Pelosi on a Coronavirus Response Posted: 11 Mar 2020 11:13 AM PDT  All of official Washington has come to an agreement that swift, bold action is needed to counteract the dramatic economic impact of the coronavirus' spread. But negotiations around such a package have been complicated by the fact that President Donald Trump can't stand the idea of negotiating one-on-one with his chief counterpart, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Indeed, he suspects that she would use the moment to try to humiliate him.Two senior Trump administration officials described a president who, out of an intense bitterness toward the House Speaker, has shuddered at the prospect of being in the same room with her during the ongoing public-health crisis and economic reverberations.Instead, Trump has deputized some of his more prominent lieutenants to handle the delicate negotiations. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, in particular, has emerged as one of the administration's top envoys to Capitol Hill, as Team Trump and lawmakers attempt to cobble together some form of economic stimulus in the wake of a now-declared global pandemic."At this time, the president does not see it as productive to [personally] negotiate directly with Nancy Pelosi," said one of the senior administration officials. "For now, it's best for her to deal directly with Sec. Mnuchin and others in the administration." The official recalled how Trump bristled at Pelosi for, in the president's estimation, "immediately" leaving recent private meetings the two had to leak its contents and try to, in the source's characterization, "make the president look bad and score political points." "When you're in the middle of a public health crisis, you don't need that kind of theater," this official added. Fears of that happening have animated the president as he has charted out a response to the growing coronavirus threat. During one recent meeting, the president mentioned that he didn't want to "waste my time" right now "with Nancy" and Democratic leaders given how "horrible" Pelosi has been lately, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. At the same meeting, the president made sure to specifically reference Pelosi tearing up a physical copy of his "beautiful" State of the Union speech, as a reason for him believing discussions with her would be fruitless.Accordingly, while Mnuchin and Pelosi have spoken several times this week—including at an in-person meeting in the Speaker's office on Tuesday—the president and the Speaker have not spoken at all in recent days, according to her office. The president has also not spoken to Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), according to his office. At a moment when federal officials are attempting to swiftly address an growing biomedical crisis, the inability of the legislative and executive branches to communicate at the highest levels would seem suboptimal. Whether that lingering animus between Pelosi and Trump will ultimately doom a legislative response to coronavirus seems unlikely, however. House Democrats are planning to unveil a package on Wednesday that targets their specific coronavirus relief priorities: expanding paid sick leave and unemployment insurance, beefing up federal labor protections for health care workers, and broadening access to food stamps and free school lunches.The refrain from Democrats on both sides of the Capitol has been that the most effective way to mitigate the economic effects of the virus is to implement measures that help to slow its spread—like sick leave, which would make it easier for people to stay home. Trump has reportedly been willing to consider backing Democratic-endorsed measures. But his own approach—at least publicly—looks quite different. The administration has floated targeted relief to industries economically harmed by the virus' spread, such as the hotel, airline and cruise ship businesses. And it has embraced the idea of a lengthy, if not permanent, payroll tax cut to get more money directly to employers and employees. Congressional Republicans have sounded squeamish about the price tag for a stimulus measure like the one Trump may be envisioning, and on Wednesday several said that they would be open to quickly passing a House Democratic-drawn bill. After Trump visited them for lunch on Tuesday, Senate Republicans sounded uncertain as to when the White House would roll out a specific set of proposals. But they were certain the president wanted swift action."The president sort of pitched a number of ideas that his team has looked at and recommended them for consideration," said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). "What was clear was that he certainly urges action and thinks action should be taken soon. I think he would prefer sooner rather than later."In that vacuum, Pelosi is making her play. By moving quickly—with a vote possibly as soon as this week—Democrats have an opportunity to set the legislative framework for the debate on how to respond to coronavirus, possibly boxing in the White House and Senate Republicans. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said Democrats should work with Republicans on areas of common concern, but "if the Senate is unwilling to engage in a serious way on that, then my hope would be that we would move forward on what we think is right and then press them to adopt what the House does."But most on the Hill, in either party, recognize that whatever agreement does take shape is going to have to go through Pelosi and Trump—no matter how abysmal their relationship may be."We need a two-way agreement between the House and the President," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a top-ranking House Democrat. "And if we reach that agreement, I'm confident that we'll be able to move a bill through the Senate… We did that on criminal justice reform, we did that on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement… We'll have to do it in this particular instance as well."'Pandumbic': 'Daily Show' Gives Trump the Disaster Movie TreatmentRead 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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| Think it doesn't matter if you catch coronavirus? This chart will change your mind. Posted: 11 Mar 2020 03:05 PM PDT  The phrase refers to a so-called epidemic curve that is commonly used to visualize why public and individual efforts to contain the spread of the virus are crucial.
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| An Australian family accidentally ordered $3,264 worth of toilet paper when they bought 48 boxes instead of 48 rolls Posted: 10 Mar 2020 12:07 PM PDT  Haidee Janetzki of Australia, decided to resell the 2,304 rolls of toilet paper as people panic buy the product during the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Police: Remains identified as missing Tennessee girl Posted: 11 Mar 2020 04:55 PM PDT  Remains found last week in Tennessee were positively identified as those of a 15-month-old girl missing for weeks, police said Wednesday. The remains found Friday are those of Evelyn Mae Boswell, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Leslie Earhart said in a video message posted on Twitter. The remains were found in Sullivan County on property belonging to a family member, the bureau had said earlier.
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| Some in Wuhan told to go back to work as new coronavirus cases subside in China Posted: 10 Mar 2020 06:21 PM PDT  BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Some vital industries in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, were told they can resume work on Wednesday, a day after President Xi Jinping visited there for the first time since the outbreak began. The city of 11 million has been in lockdown since late January but Xi's visit signaled the tide was turning in the government's favor as it fights to contain a virus that as of Tuesday had infected 80,778 people in China and killed 3,158. The lifting of some restrictions in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, comes as the vast majority of new cases are now being reported outside China.
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| Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Had Been Laying Low. That's Over. Posted: 10 Mar 2020 05:07 AM PDT  First he ordered the detention of at least four senior members of his own royal family. The next day he plunged Saudi Arabia into a price war with Russia that sent energy and stock markets around the world into free fall.For a while, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had appeared to be living down his reputation for dangerous aggression.Perhaps chastened by the blowback over his connection with the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the 34-year-old crown prince had kept a low profile for more than a year.Now his new power plays are reviving debates in Western capitals about whether he is too rash to trust as a partner. His sudden, steep cut to the price of oil has rocked a global economy already at risk of falling into recession, threatened to burn through Saudi Arabia's cash reserves and undermined his grandiose promises of new investments to lessen the kingdom's dependence on oil."It is mutually assured destruction for any oil exporting economy, certainly including Saudi Arabia and Russia and probably the United States as well," said Greg Brew, a scholar of the region and a fellow at Southern Methodist University."But this is typical MBS, right?" he added, referring to the crown prince by his initials. "He is a risk taker, and he is prone to impulsive decisions."The detention of the senior royals, which began to leak out on Friday, has not been acknowledged or explained by the Saudi officials.Two of the detained princes -- Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the younger brother of the crown prince's aging father, King Salman, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the former crown prince and interior minister -- had once been seen as possible rivals for power. Their arrests stirred anxious speculation among cowed members of the royal family that Crown Prince Mohammed might be sidelining opponents in preparation for taking the throne from his father, who is 84 and has sometimes appeared forgetful or disoriented.People close to the royal court, though, insisted the crown prince had merely lashed out at his uncle and cousins for speaking critically about him. He wanted to teach the rest of the family a lesson."It was quiet for a while and people were wondering if MBS had mellowed," Steffen Hertog, a scholar at the London School of Economics, said. "But clearly his character is pretty persistent."Crown Prince Mohammed slashed the oil price to punish Russia, which he faulted for failing to cooperate in cutting production and propping up prices. The slowdown caused by the coronavirus was already reducing demand for oil."The Russians called their bluff, and now the Saudis are trying to demonstrate to the Russians what the cost is of a lack of cooperation," Hertog said. But for Saudi Arabia, "it is a risky game of chicken."Saudi Arabia has much more to lose than Russia. Russia has more diverse sources of revenue and it has built up its reserves since the last oil price downturn.Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, remains overwhelmingly dependent on oil. What's more, its cash reserves have remained flat for about four years at around $500 billion, down from a peak of about $740 billion in the summer of 2014.Analysts say that the kingdom needs a so-called break-even price of about $80 a barrel to meet its budget without either further drawing down those reserves or adopting painful austerity measures. But the price on Monday fell to about $35 a barrel, less than half the break-even price.A downturn of as much as two years could cut into those reserves severely enough to put pressure on the Saudi exchange rate as well as the plans to diversify the economy, Hertog said.The crown prince's economic plan for the country centered on a public offering of shares in the Saudi state oil company, Aramco, to raise money to invest in other sectors. But plans for a debut on a major international market were pulled in favor of the more lax Saudi domestic exchange, and over the last two days the oil price cut has sent shares tumbling by 20%, shaving $320 billion off the value of the company.The timing of the price war so soon after the roundup of his royal relatives on Friday has aroused speculation that the crown prince sought to contain potential opponents in anticipation of trouble. Perhaps he wanted to preempt any foes before economic pain from the downturn made him politically vulnerable, some suggested."The threat to MBS is not coming from his royal rivals," argued Kristin Smith Diwan, a scholar at the Gulf States Institute in Washington. "It is coming from the collapse in oil revenues and what that does to his ambitious economic plans."But other analysts, former diplomats and officials with experience in Saudi Arabia, and Saudis close to the royal court said that Crown Prince Mohammed had consolidated power so thoroughly that he had little left to fear.With a level of ruthlessness unprecedented in modern Saudi history, the crown prince has seized more direct power over the kingdom than any monarch in decades, largely by intimidating into submission his own sprawling ruling family. Even in a severe downturn, the members of the royal family he detained had little hope of challenging him.He had already put the same royals under tight surveillance, limiting their ability to plot against him, according to people close to the royal court.A spokesman for the Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.The most senior figure detained, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, more than 70 years old, had once been recorded in London making comments distancing himself from the crown prince's policies but had since appeared submissive, at least in public.The other prominent royal detained, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, had already been under house arrest since 2017, when he was removed from his posts as crown prince and interior minister by the current crown prince.Previous Saudi rulers might have provided some advance warning to Washington and London before such high profile detentions, former diplomats said. Crown Prince Mohammed had met in Riyadh last week with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab of Britain and last month with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Yet the crown prince gave no indication that the arrests were imminent, according to diplomats and other officials with knowledge of the matter.Western officials worry about the "reputational risk" of associating with such an unpredictable leader, said Emile Hokayem, a scholar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. But so far Crown Prince Mohammed has faced few adverse consequences.He has led a five-year military intervention in Yemen that has produced a humanitarian catastrophe. He rounded up hundreds of his royal relatives and other wealthy Saudis in a Ritz Carlton hotel in 2017 to squeeze them for repayment of what he claimed was self enrichment. He even temporarily kidnapped the prime minister of Lebanon and forced him to announce a resignation (which the prime minister later retracted).American intelligence agencies concluded that in 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who lived in Virginia.Since then, some analysts have seen signs of maturation, in particular his pulling back from a potential armed clash with his nemesis, Iran, last year. At a meeting last summer in Japan of the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, Crown Prince Mohammed was welcomed as a fellow statesman and tapped to host the group's next summit this fall in Riyadh.President Donald Trump called him "a friend of mine.""You have done a spectacular job," the president told him.And when the crown prince shook world markets on Monday, Trump emphasized the positive."Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!" he said in a Twitter posting.Andrew Miller, a researcher for the Project on Middle East Democracy and a former State Department official, said the detentions and price war were "just MBS.""Contrary to what many had said previously, he has not learned any lessons and he has not matured," Miller said. "He has drawn the opposite lessons, that he is above the law, because Saudi Arabia is so important to its Western allies that he will always be welcomed back into the fold."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Virus-hit Philippines calls off ritual crucifixions Posted: 11 Mar 2020 04:53 AM PDT  The Philippines' crucifixion reenactments will be cancelled this year as coronavirus cases climb, said authorities in the city where the annual tourist spectacle is held. About a dozen Catholics regularly have themselves nailed to wooden crosses on Good Friday as penance for their sins. This year's rituals were planned for farming villages around San Fernando city, north of the capital Manila on April 10, but local officials have stopped the event to prevent mass gatherings and a potential spread of the virus.
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