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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/05/politics/biden-vs-sanders/index.html

Sean Hannity addressed Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden‘s age and gaffes Wednesday, reacting to the former vice president’s strong performance during Super Tuesday. He also blamed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander‘s performance on his praise of “mass-murdering” dictators.

“Now, in the two weeks prior to the Super Tuesday, Bernie’s never-ending effusive praise of mass-murdering communist dictatorships was likely what pushed many radical socialist Democrats late deciders towards Joe Biden,” Hannity said on his television program. “‘Bolshevik’ Bernie’s bizarre love affair with, let’s see, the former Soviet Union that killed millions and the Castro regime, that killed all hundreds of thousands of people and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and the violent socialist regime that he had.”

BIDEN ROARS BACK: SUPER TUESDAY LEAVES EX-VP IN AIRTIGHT CONTEST FOR DELEGATES WITH SANDERS

“Even Democrats, they could not support that,” Hannity said. “And by the way, they had no other option at that point but to circle the wagons around a very frail, obviously struggling [Biden].”

Hannity began to focus on the health of Biden.

“There are serious, significant issues percolating around [Biden],” Hannity said. “Joe, let me put it this way, [I’m] not a doctor, not going to perform any kind of armchair psychology. But as I have been saying, if a 78-year-old Democrat ever had a fastball, even a slow pitch seems to be long gone.”

“This is now a pattern of daily embarrassing gaffes that is only getting worse and worse and worse,” Hannity said.

The host then also brought up accusations of corruption and the Ukraine scandal involving his son Hunter.

“Joe, seems to be in a rapid state of decline and not up to the rigors needed, even on a campaign,” Hannity said. “It is also fair to ask what would someone as corrupt as quid pro quo Joe do with the most powerful position in the country?”

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“This will be a campaign issue. We all know his sons zero experience,” Hannity said. “Hunter got paid millions of millions of dollars sitting on a board of a corrupt Ukrainian oil and gas company named Burisma Holdings.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/sean-hannity-says-biden-not-up-to-the-rigors-of-the-campaign-blames-sanders-fall-on-his-love-affair-with-dictators

Facebook on Wednesday said that a worker in the company’s Seattle offices tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, making it the second major tech company in the city to be affected by the outbreak.

The tech industry is vital to the economy of Washington State, where a cluster of infections has taken root and 10 people have died, leading companies there to take extra measures to halt the spread of the virus.

“A contractor based in our Stadium East office has been diagnosed with Covid-19,” said Andy Stone, a company spokesman. “We’ve notified our employees and are following the advice of public health officials to prioritize everyone’s health and safety.”

The Seattle area is Facebook’s largest engineering outpost outside of its Bay Area headquarters. It had 5,000 employees in the region as of last September, when it announced plans to expand even more.

The contractor was last in the office on Friday, Feb. 21, the company said. The Seattle office would be closed for three weeks. As an extra precaution, Facebook asked its Seattle-based employees to work from home until the end of March.

Amazon and Microsoft also told their employees to work from home.

In a message to employees Wednesday night, Amazon said it was recommending that all employees in the Seattle region work from home for the month of March, if their job can be done from home. The message came a day after Amazon told employees that a worker in one of its many office buildings in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood had tested positive for the virus.

“We are supporting the affected employee, who remains in quarantine,” said Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/world/coronavirus-news.html

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement on Wednesday defending his newest colleagues, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned at a rally earlier in the day that the two Trump appointees would “pay the price” if they voted against reproductive rights activists.

“Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous,” Roberts wrote. “All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”

The statement directly named Schumer but did not name Gorsuch or Kavnaugh. The court heard arguments on Wednesday in the first major abortion case since Gorsuch and Kavanaugh joined the bench, one of the most high-profile disputes of the term. 

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” Schumer said at a rally coordinated by the Center for Reproductive Rights around the arguments.

Justin Goodman, a Schumer spokesperson, said that the New York lawmaker’s comments referred to the “political price” Republicans will pay for confirming the two justices “and a warning that the justices will unleash major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights against the decision.”

Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, almost never issues statements. In 2018, Roberts issued a statement defending a federal judge who had been criticized by President Donald Trump as an “Obama judge,” writing that America does not have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.”

“What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them,” he wrote at the time

President Donald Trump responded to Schumer’s comments late Wednesday, tweeting: “There can be few things worse in a civilized, law abiding nation, than a United States Senator openly, and for all to see and hear, threatening the Supreme Court or its Justices. This is what Chuck Schumer just did. He must pay a severe price for this!”

A controversy last year over a friend-of-the-court brief filed by several Democratic lawmakers, who warned that the court should “heal itself” or face being restructured, prompted a response from all of the Republicans in the Senate.

“It’s one thing for politicians to peddle these ideas in Tweets or on the stump,” the senators wrote. “But the Democrats’ [friend-of-the-court] brief demonstrates that their court-packing plans are more than mere pandering. They are a direct, immediate threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rights of all Americans.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/04/chief-justice-roberts-defends-gorsuch-kavanugh-after-schumer-comments.html

The US Congress has voted for a $8.3bn emergency funding package to fight the coronavirus.

The move comes as the country reported a total of 11 deaths, including one in California, the first outside Washington state. More cases have also emerged in New York and Los Angeles with California declaring a state of emergency. 

Meanwhile in Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina has marked its first case of coronavirus while Italy has closed schools and cancelled public events.

Globally, more than 93,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the vast majority of them in China where the virus originated late last year.

More:

The country’s National Health Commission announced on Thursday that a further 31 people had died from the illness pushing the death toll above 3,000.

The country has now confirmed 80,409 people with the virus although many have now recovered.

This is Mersiha Gadzo in Doha taking over for Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Here are all the latest updates.

Thursday, March 5

09:35 GMT – Kuwait confirms two more cases

Kuwait’s Ministry of Health confirmed two more coronavirus cases, during the past 24 hours.

The ministry said that the two cases came from Iran, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 58.

09:20 GMT – Germany reports 109 new cases within a day

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 109 within a day, a public health institute said.

As of Thursday morning, there were 349 cases across all but one federal state, up from 240 on Wednesday morning and compared with 262 on Wednesday afternoon, the Robert Koch Institute said.

The hardest-hit state is the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous, with 175 cases.

09:15 GMT – More than 290 million students missing school: UN

More than 290 million students have been affected by school closures across 13 countries to curb the coronavirus outbreak, the UN said.

“While temporary school closures as a result of health and other crises are not new unfortunately, the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education,” Audrey Azoulay, director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said in a statement.


09:06 GMT – Switzerland reports first death

A 74-year-old woman in western Switzerland has died after contracting the new coronavirus, the country’s first death, regional police said.

The woman had been hospitalised in the canton of Vaud since Tuesday, police said. She was a high-risk patient suffering from chronic disease, authorities said.

07:43 GMT – Bosnia and Herzegovina reports first two cases

Bosnia and Herzegovina has reported its first two cases of coronavirus, confirmed by the health ministry of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity. 

Alen Seranic, the regional health minister said at a press conference that a middle-aged man, who returned to Bosnia a month ago from Italy where he works, has been infected with coronavirus as well as his child.

The man was confirmed earlier this week as having coronavirus. He’s currently in stable condition and is being kept in isolation in hospital in the city of Banja Luka.

Health authorities will test school children who have had contact with the infected child, as well as all other members of the infected family, he said. The school will be closed for the next couple of days.

07:36 GMT – Chinese President Xi’s visit delayed

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan has been postponed because as countries have agreed to prioritise the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, Japan’s top government spokesman said.

The Asian neighbours agreed that a new itinerary would be arranged at a better time, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

Suga said the delay in Xi’s visit, which had been originally planned for early April, would not affect Japan-China relations.

06:42 GMT – Greece reports tenth case, shuts schools in three areas

Greece reported its tenth case of coronavirus. The person had recently returned from a religious pilgrimage to Israel and Egypt, health authorities said.

Greece on Wednesday ordered schools to be closed and banned public gatherings in three districts in western Greece from Thursday as a precaution after a person from the region tested positive for coronavirus.

The ban was in effect for 48 hours and subject to review, authorities said.


06:41 GMT – Italy may raise support spending to five billion euros

Italy’s government is likely to increase to five billion euros ($5.57bn) the value of measures to help the economy withstand the largest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, Deputy Economy Minister Laura Castelli said.

“It is likely that the government will reach [five billion euros]” Castelli said in an interview with daily Il Messaggero, adding that she thought it was “necessary to raise the bar as much as possible”.

Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri has promised tax breaks and other measures for the affected sectors worth 3.6 billion euros.

A government source told Reuters on Wednesday this may be raised to 4.5 billion, or 0.25 percent of GDP.

06:35 GMT – UAE advises against travel abroad

The United Arab Emirates has urged citizens and other residents to avoid travelling abroad because of concerns over a coronavirus, state news agency WAM said.

Authorities in the Gulf state may order medical checks on returning travellers and ask them to stay in isolation at home, pending the outcome, WAM said, citing a health ministry statement.

The UAE, which has closed schools and educational institutions for four weeks, said students and education workers would have to spend two weeks in home isolation on returning to the country.

06:30 GMT – IMF: Virus will slow global economic growth this year

The spread of the coronavirus will hold 2020 global output gains to their slowest pace since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday.

The IMF now expects 2020 world growth to be below the 2.9 percent rate for 2019 and revised forecasts will be issued in the coming weeks.

The IMF is making available $50bn in emergency funding to help poor and middle-income countries with weak health systems respond to the epidemic, Georgieva said after a call with the IMF’s steering committee.

Read more here.

05:40 GMT – More people evacuated from Hong Kong

Hong Kong is evacuating more of its people from Wuhan where the coronavirus originated late last year.

The first group of evacuees arrived on Wednesday, after going through health checks before boarding. They will spend 14 days in quarantine.


05:20 GMT – Thailand reports four more cases

Thailand has diagnosed four more cases of coronavirus; an Italian man who arrived in the country on March 1, a Thai man who returned from Italy, a Chinese man who was in transit from Iran to China and was found to have the virus during screening. and a Thai student who had come back from Iran.

The country now has 47 confirmed cases. 

04:35 GMT – Japan’s Anges to work on vaccine with Osaka University

Reuters is reporting that Japanese biopharmaceutical firm Anges will work with Osaka University on developing a coronavirus vaccine.

Anges says it will be a ‘preventative DNA vaccine’, according to Reuters, which also cites a professor at Osaka University saying such vaccines could be mass produced in a short period of time.

Researchers around the world have been working to develop effective treatments and vaccines since Chinese scientists first isolated the coronavirus genome back in January.

04:20 GMT – China, Hong Kong cautiously getting back to work 

Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan has been giving us an update from Hong Kong where she says there are now more people on the street, and more traffic than there have been in weeks.

China is also trying to get its people back to work after a prolonged shutdown to stop the virus from spreading.

The strict quarantines appear to be paying off in terms of lower numbers of daily confirmed cases, but there was a slight uptick in the data released on Thursday – 139 new cases, compared with 119 the day before – and the country has revised its counting methods a few times. 

“China is far from out of the woods,” Gopalan says. “It’s changed the way it tallies the numbers several times. At the moment, it does not include those who are asymptomatic – people who have the virus but are not showing symptoms.” 

03:52 GMT – UK airline Flybe collapses as coronavirus hits flights 

Britain’s biggest operator of domestic flights, Flybe, has announced that it is grounding all its flights following a declaration of bankruptcy, as the coronavirus epidemic takes toll on airline companies worldwide.

“All flights have been grounded and the UK business has ceased trading with immediate effect,” said the airline, which employs an estimated 2,000 people.

02:45 GMT – Olympics will go ahead: Minister Seiko Hashimoto 

Japan’s Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto said on Thursday the country was still preparing for the Summer Games, which are due to start in July.

“Cancellation or delay of the Games would be unacceptable for the athletes,” Hashimoto told the Upper House budget committee. “An environment where athletes can feel at ease and focus should be firmly prepared.”

Hashimoto was speaking as the western prefecture of Shiga reported its first coronavirus case – a man in his 60s – and the country’s total number of cases rose above 1,000.


02:15 GMT – Australia announces second death; more travel restrictions

Australia says a second person has died from the coronavirus; an elderly woman who was diagnosed with the illness after a worker at the nursing home where she lived was confirmed to have the virus.

Most of Australia’s 52 cases are people from the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was quarantined off Japan, but the country has also introduced travel restrictions with a number of countries.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said non-Australians coming from South Korea would not be allowed to enter the country, while people arriving from Italy would have to go through enhanced screening.

A ban on visitors from China and Iran was also being extended, he said.

02:05 GMT – South Korea cases continue to climb

South Korea has just given its first update of the day on the coronavirus situation there. It’s confirmed 438 new cases taking total infections to 5,766.

The Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention also said three more people died from the virus, bringing the total to 35.

The US has also reported two more cases among the 28,500 soldiers stationed in the country, bringing the total to six.

01:55 GMT – Watchdog tells Qantas to improve cleaning standards

Australia’s national carrier has been told to spruce up its cleaning to ensure passengers are better protected from the coronavirus.

The Sydney Morning Herald says Safework NSW issued a notice to the airline on February 26 warning of an “inadequate system of work used to clean planes that may have transported passengers with an infectious disease.” 

01:35 GMT – Singapore delays flight after passenger confirmed with COVID-19

Singapore’s Transport Ministry grounded a Turkish Airlines flight on Wednesday after one of the passengers tested positive for the coronavirus.

TK54, a Boeing 787-9, arrived in Singapore from Turkey on March 3, but was delayed on the return leg after the case was discovered, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

“(The) Ministry of Health has started contact tracing for flight passengers who may have had contact with the case while the case was infectious,” it said.

Local media reported there were 220 people on the plane, which flew back to Turkey with crew but no passengers in the early hours of Thursday morning.

00:35 GMT – China coronavirus deaths exceed 3,000

China’s National Health Commission has just released its daily update on the coronavirus.

It reported 139 new cases on Wednesday, compared with 119 the day before. That brings the total number of cases on the mainland 80,409.

The number of deaths rose to 3,012 after an additional 31 people died from the illness.

00:25 GMT – California declares state of emergency over virus

California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus after the state  reported its first death from the disease.

Newsom told a media briefing the state had 53 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur opening today’s blog.

A recap of Wednesday’s developments:

The US Congress has approved emergency funding of $8.3bn to tackle the coronavirus with more than 100 people diagnosed with COVID-19 and 11 deaths. The upper house will vote on the measure on Thursday.

Other countries tackling more severe outbreaks of the disease announced new measures.

Italy, where the death toll has risen to 107, is closing schools and universities and no fans will be allowed to attend large sporting events.

Iran has banned top government officials from leaving the country. The vice president, the deputy heath minister and 23 members of parliament have all been diagnosed with the disease.

In Iraq, a second person died from COVID-19.

Click here to read all the updates from March 4.

Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/backs-83bn-funds-china-death-toll-tops-3000-live-updates-200305000715579.html

Thousands of people on Princess Cruises’ Grand Princess may have been exposed to coronavirus after sailing with 62 passengers who company officials say had previously been on a voyage with a man who eventually died from the virus.

A 71-year-old man from California died from coronavirus after sailing on the Grand Princess on a cruise from San Francisco that visited Mexico from Feb. 11 through Feb. 21. Health officials in Placer County, where the man died, said he was “likely exposed” to the virus on board the Grand Princess.

The 62 passengers who may have come in contact with the man who died are now being confined to their staterooms on board, by order of the CDC. The ship was on its way to Mexico from a Hawaiian port, according to CruiseMapper.

But the cruise line has ordered the ship to re-route to San Francisco, where it is expected to arrive Thursday afternoon, according to a letter that Princess officials sent to passengers on board and which is available to read on the company web site.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/03/04/coronavirus-princess-cruises-ship-met-protest-over-no-testing/4950651002/

Shaun King has faced a backlash from Twitter users after claiming Rachel Maddow reported the Democratic Party was interfering in the primaries to stop Bernie Sanders.

The activist wrote: “BREAKING: @msnbc & @maddow just reported that multiple “senior officials” within the Democratic Party are interfering with the primaries to stop @BernieSanders. They reported that the party has asked Bloomberg to drop out so that Biden would have an easier time against Bernie.”

Maddow, the host of The Rachel Maddow Show, responded directly to King’s tweet from her own account: “What? No. I didn’t report any such thing.”

Since his post, King has received backlash from users on the social media platform, with some accusing him of pushing propaganda to support Sanders. Others have also defended Maddow saying that the host never reported King’s accusations.

One user, @yankees1958, said: “Funny, since I’m watching @MSNBC and@maddow. Those lies have not passed through her lips! Pathetic!”

Another said: “Outright lie. I’ve had the channel on non-stop tonight and never was anything remotely resembling this discussed. This is just downright DIRTY.”

Through the Democratic presidential campaign, King has been vocal in his support for Sanders as well as coming forward with anonymous “tip offs.” On Tuesday, March 3, the activist claimed that he had had former staffers of former U.S. representative Beto O’Rourke’s contact him in regards to O’Rouke’s endorsement of candidate Joe Biden. In the tweet, he said: “Had several former staffers of @BetoORourke reach out to me, some near tears, saying that his endorsement of@JoeBiden “felt like a betrayal” of all they had worked for with Beto. One said he loathed Biden’s campaign for President. They just couldn’t make it make sense.”

The activist has also been critical of Mike Bloomberg—one of the Democratic presidential candidates and former mayor of New York City between 2002 and 2013—accusing the billionaire businessman of racism. In February 2020, he tweeted: “If you live in New York, or know our history, you’ve been knowing that #BloombergIsRacist. He’s awful. The world will soon know just how deep this man’s bigotry goes.”

The controversy comes following Super Tuesday, which sees the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses for the Democratic presidential candidate. As shown in the graph below from Statista, Biden has now pulled ahead of Sanders in terms of delegates.

Newsweek has contacted King’s representatives for comment on the story as well as Maddow.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/rachel-maddow-calls-out-shaun-king-twitter-after-activist-claims-democratic-party-interference-1490508

What Super Tuesday tells us is that a lot of Democrats would rather risk losing to President Trump with Joe Biden than allow a socialist like Bernie Sanders to hijack their party.

That’s good for America, but it’s also a treacherous Hail Mary pass for the party.

The 77-year-old former vice president showed why, moments after taking the stage in Los Angeles on Tuesday night: He mistook his wife for his sister.

“They switched on me,” he tried to explain.

He went on to give a good speech about healing the nation, and dutifully kept to the script on his teleprompter.

But then a protester leaped on stage and Biden’s wife, Jill, 68, instinctively stepped between him and the lunging vegan, grabbed the woman by the wrists and shoved her away.

It was a heroic performance, but it also showed Biden’s peculiar passivity: He just stood there, not reacting, as his wife went into physical battle for him.

When the scuffle was over, he placed a protective arm on her back, but it was as if he didn’t realize what had just happened.

The truth is that anyone who has seen Biden up close knows he has some sort of cognitive impairment. He often seems bewildered, can’t remember what state he is in, if he’s running for the Senate or the presidency or even whether it’s Super Tuesday or “Super Thursday.”

On Monday, in Texas, he forgot the words of the Declaration of Independence mid-sentence, substituting “the thing” for God.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” he began. “All men and women created by the [pause, consternation, hands waving] go, you know, you know, the thing.”

It’s sad to see the fear in his face when he suffers these “senior moments.”

Everyone has memory lapses, but the problem for Biden is that his are all too frequent and bizarre, and the attempt to explain them away as a function of his childhood stutter are only a temporary diversion.

These are not just the tall tales and malapropisms that long have been part of the Biden persona. It’s something new.

We know he underwent surgery for two brain aneurysms in 1988, although his surgeon, Dr. Neal Kassell, recently said Biden did not suffer any brain damage “whatsoever.”

But the kindness that has suppressed any honest discussion about Biden’s mental acuity will be swept away if he wins the nomination.

The campaign can’t keep him in witness protection forever. At some point, he’ll be caught without the teleprompter, and an off-the-cuff Joe is a ticking time bomb.

As soon as voters saw him up close and personal in Iowa and New Hampshire, the light switched on for them that the lights weren’t all on with him.

That’s when his poll numbers started plunging.

He was low energy and frequently befuddled. If he were your grandfather, you’d take away the car keys. His aides hauled around a teleprompter to small gatherings so he safely could deliver a stump speech that any other candidate could do in their sleep, but even then, he strayed off course.

It got to the point where Democratic insiders in New Hampshire started a story that Biden’s heart wasn’t in it, that he was running only to fulfill a promise he had made to his dying son, Beau.

To be fair, his team had always said to wait until the South Carolina primary, where his appeal to black voters would kick in.

Sure enough, 72 hours after a resounding victory there, he defied even the most optimistic expectations with his Super Tuesday triumph at the expense of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Now he’s the “Comeback Kid” with “Joementum.”

He won states in which he had no campaign offices, no money, and which he barely visited. That’s impressive, but what it also tells you is that a lot of Democrats went for the “idea” of Biden: the decent, compassionate, moderate candidate they desperately want to believe exists.

They didn’t want a revolution or free stuff or an autocratic billionaire. So they closed their eyes and signed up for the Biden mirage.

But if, by some miracle he does happen to become president, how would he fare dealing with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping? Would he have the bandwidth to manage war and the economy at a time of global turmoil?

How would he cope with 14-hour days, having to jump off Air Force One straight into the heat of India for meetings and outdoor rallies, and then race back to handle a pandemic?

Jill obviously feels he needs protecting, even from small vegans. How do we know that if Biden became president, he wouldn’t be a puppet manipulated by others?

A couple of weeks ago, he promised not to seek a second term “if anything changed in my health, making it incapable for me to fully exert all the energy and mental acuity that was needed.”

Who votes for a president who admits he doesn’t have the juice for two terms?

The Democratic-friendly media may nurse him through the campaign, but President Trump will be merciless to “Sleepy Joe.”

The party machine knows this. They are throwing him to the wolves.

It’s cruel to him and it’s a dirty trick to play on voters.

Schu’s shame

What a disgraceful fraud Chuck Schumer is, telling Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh that they will “pay the price” unless they do what he wants.

If anyone else threatened a judge, they’d be arrested.

“You have released the whirlwind,” he said, directing the comment at the justices as he addressed protesters in front of the court as it considers a Louisiana law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

But it’s a good law for women. You just have to remember abortionist butcher Kermit Gosnell, a k a “America’s Biggest Serial Killer,” to know why health authorities should not give free rein to abortion clinics.

Show some grace, Liz

If Elizabeth Warren can’t win the votes of the people who know her best, in her home state of Massachusetts, she’s finished. It’s a lame excuse from her supporters that she can’t quit the presidential race because that would disillusion little girls who look up to her as a role model. No, the message she sends them by clinging on is that humility, grace and self-knowledge are for suckers.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2020/03/04/democrats-should-be-wary-of-backing-joe-biden-and-his-senior-moments-devine/

At 3,012 deaths and 80,409 confirmed cases, China remains by far the worst hit overall. But the epidemic there is now slowing, while other countries are seeing outbreaks grow rapidly. In South Korea, mass testing has turned up almost 6,000 cases, with a death toll nearing 40. Italy has confirmed more than 3,000 cases, along with more than 100 deaths.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/05/coronavirus-live-updates/

Joe Biden surged to a surprise victory in delegate-rich Texas after winning nine other states in a dominant Super Tuesday showing, according to NBC News projections, though the biggest prize of the night, California, remained unclaimed.

There are 228 delegates at stake in Texas, more than in any other state voting Tuesday except for California.

The results from the night indicate that the Democratic primary has essentially become a two-man race between Sanders and Biden. The race in California, where 415 delegates are up for grabs, remains too early to call as ofearly Wednesday, according to NBC News, though Sanders leads.

Sanders prevailed in his home state of Vermont and in Colorado and Utah, according to NBC News, and had been polling ahead in Texas prior to Super Tuesday. But Biden, after running neck-and-neck with Sanders in the Lone Star State early Wednesday, prevailed in the popular vote. He picked up 56 delegates, while Sanders netted 47 as of 5 a.m. ET Wednesday. It could take days, and possibly longer, for those all-important delegates to be fully allotted to the candidates, however.

Biden, for his part, also won the Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Minnesota and Massachusetts Democratic primaries, according to NBC News projections, sweeping the South with his strength among black voters and making an inroad in the upper Midwest after a key endorsement from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. His projected wins in Massachusetts and Minnesota were unexpected. He was also the apparent winner in the Maine Democratic primary, according to NBC News.

Follow live: Latest results, analysis from Super Tuesday

As of 3:15 p.m. ET Wednesday, Sanders led Biden in California 33.6 percent to 24.9 percent with 54 percent of the vote in.

Biden, at a rally in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, made no secret of his happiness with the evening’s results so far.

“It’s a good night, a good night,” the smiling former vice president told supporters. “They don’t call it Super Tuesday for nothing.”

Sanders, for his part, had projected optimism at a rally in Essex Junction, Vermont, and previewed his prospects in California.

“Tonight, I tell you with absolute confidence, we are going to win the Democratic nomination and we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country,” he said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen later tonight. We are doing well in Texas right now, we won Colorado and I’m cautiously optimistic that later in the evening we can win the largest state in this country, the state of California,” Sanders added.

A total of 1,344 pledged delegates will ultimately be awarded as a result of the biggest voting night of the primary calendar. The goal of the Democratic presidential primary is to amass delegates to capture the nomination, not popular votes, and winning states does not necessarily mean a candidate will win the most delegates.

As of 3:15 p.m. ET Wednesday, Biden led in the pledged delegate count with 513. Sanders had 461.

Elizabeth Warren, who lost her home state of Massachusetts to Biden but was above the threshold to receive delegates in at least four states, had just 39, while Mike Bloomberg — who earned his first delegates after NBC News projected a win for him in American Samoa’s Democratic caucuses — had 18.

To earn pledged delegates, a candidate must get at least 15 percent support statewide or in an individual congressional district. Delegates are awarded proportionally in each state to candidates who surpass those thresholds.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts on the latest news

Biden’s narrow win in Texas was driven by older voters.

About 25 percent of Democratic primary voters in in the state this year were 65 or older (about twice the level it was in 2008), according to the NBC News exit poll, and nearly half of those voters went for Biden in the state.

Biden’s wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee, meanwhile, were fueled in large part by strong support from African American voters, according to early results from the NBC News exit poll in the states.

In Virginia, Biden won the support of 63 percent of black voters, the poll showed. By comparison, only 17 percent of black voters backed Sanders, according to the survey. The former vice president also won solid majorities among those 45 and older, as well as moderates and conservatives.

In North Carolina, Biden was the overwhelming favorite of the state’s black Democrats, having received about 6 in 10 of votes cast, according to the poll. His performance among African Americans there was far ahead of his nearest rival, Sanders, who received just 16 percent of the black vote.

In Alabama — the state with the highest proportion of black voters on Super Tuesday — 72 percent of African American voters backed the former vice president, the poll showed. That level was even higher than the 61 percent of black voters who supported him in South Carolina on Saturday.

In Tennessee, 62 percent of black voters backed Biden, the poll showed. He also won majorities in the state among military veterans, moderates and conservatives, as well as voters 45 and older.

Biden’s support from African American voters in states outside the South, however, was weaker.

In California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota and Vermont, black voters were about half as likely as those in the South to support Biden, according to early results from the NBC News exit poll.

There was a large division by age: Black voters under 45 are about three times as likely to support Sanders than those 45 and over. Black voters 45 and over, on the other hand, are nearly 30 percentage points more likely to support Biden than Sanders, according to the poll.

Six in 10 voters in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primaries care most about nominating a candidate who can beat President Donald Trump in November, according to the NBC News exit polls conducted in 12 of 14 Super Tuesday states across the country. Those voters favor Biden over Sanders by a margin of 36 percent to 25 percent.

Sanders, meanwhile, did well among first-time Democratic primary voters — getting 43 percent of their support compared to 24 percent for Biden — but those voters represented just 13 percent of the Super Tuesday electorate.

In Texas, Sanders performed strongly among Latino voters, getting 41 percent of their support, according to results from the NBC News exit poll.

There were reports of long lines at polling locations throughout Texas and in California — where there were also reports of broken voting machines.

Voters in Los Angeles in particular faced long lines, malfunctioning machines and limited polling staff, creating problems for those trying to cast primary ballots in the state with the largest delegate prize on Super Tuesday. Some voters said they waited in line as long as three hours before they were able to vote.

The race for the Democratic nomination changed rapidly in the days leading up to Super Tuesday. On Saturday night, Biden, who had poor finishes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, won the South Carolina primary in a landslide victory. His big win — which signaled that he could be the presumptive favorite in the party’s moderate lane — prompted Pete Buttigieg to exit the race Sunday and Klobuchar to follow suit Monday. Both endorsed Biden on Monday.

Many voters in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primaries waited until just recently to pick a candidate, according to early results from the NBC News exit polls — and Biden got support from nearly half of them.

Riding his wave of endorsements, Biden was favored by 47 percent of Super Tuesday voters who said they picked a candidate in the last few days. He left Sanders, Warren and Bloomberg far behind with these late-deciding voters. By contrast, Sanders built a comfortable lead over Biden, 37 percent to 25 percent, among voters who picked a candidate earlier than the last few days.

About 1 in 10 voters said they waited until Tuesday to make their choice, and another 19 percent of voters decided in just “the last few days.”

Klobuchar’s endorsement of Biden seemed to especially impact voters in her home state. According to the NBC News exit poll, Biden drew 49 percent of the late-deciding vote in Minnesota — more than twice the amount that Sanders did at 21 percent.

Klobuchar remains extremely popular in Minnesota — 75 percent of the state’s Democratic voters expressed a favorable opinion of her, according to the NBC exit poll on Super Tuesday — suggesting her endorsement had some pull.

Biden also rode his momentum to a win in Massachusetts, where Warren and Sanders had been battling. He captured the lion’s share of support from late-deciding voters, with 43 percent of those who made up their minds in the last few days breaking for him, according to NBC News exit poll results.

Warren, who finished third in her home state and who was all but certain to win zero Super Tuesday states, urged supporters at a rally in Detroit to “cast a vote from your heart” and said that “the pundits have gotten it wrong, over and over.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg, following his win in American Samoa — his only one of the night — told supporters at a Florida rally that “no matter how many delegates we win tonight, we’ve done something no one else thought was possible.”

“In three months, we went from 1 percent to being a contender for the Democratic nomination,” he said.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/first-super-tuesday-polls-set-close-democratic-contest-heads-crucial-n1148551

The destroyed exterior of The Basement East following a tornado that struck in the early hours of March 3, 2020 in Nashville. At least 24 people have reportedly been killed, with many more still missing.

Jason Kempin/Getty Images


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The destroyed exterior of The Basement East following a tornado that struck in the early hours of March 3, 2020 in Nashville. At least 24 people have reportedly been killed, with many more still missing.

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Early Tuesday morning, a tornado ripped through Nashville and greater middle Tennessee, causing extensive destruction to homes and businesses and claiming the lives of 24 people across four counties. While not the only neighborhood to sustain widespread damage, East Nashville was hit particularly hard, delivering a harsh blow to the city’s vibrant music and arts communities.

One of the first businesses to be reported as damaged was the Basement East, a beloved venue that opened in 2015 and has since been host both to national touring acts and to favorite local artists alike. In the hours after the storm, photos of the venue’s collapsed outer wall — with its “I Believe in Nashville” mural still intact — began flooding social media, accompanied by heartbroken tributes from artists and music fans.

Just hours before the tornado touched down, the “Beast,” as the venue is affectionately known, played host to the second night of “Berniefest,” a collaborative concert that sought to raise funds and awareness for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Artists who performed Monday night include Lissie, Sarah Potenza, Darrin Bradbury and Liz Longley.

At 1:55 Tuesday morning, the Basement East tweeted, “All staff working tonight are okay! Building sustained significant damage.” In a later post to Facebook, Basement East staff said they were working to relocate or cancel upcoming shows, and to “bear with us as this process could take a few days to weeks.” One such show — country singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters’ March 10 date at the Beast — has already found a home on the same date at Exit/In, with all proceeds to be donated to tornado relief.

Emilee Warner co-produced Berniefest alongside local musician and producer Dean Moore. Speaking with NPR Music via phone, Warner says of the venue, “The Basement East is so special because of the community it supports and creates. What the Basement East represents is more of a community than a building. And Mike [Grimes] and Dave [Brown] put that venue in East Nashville intentionally, knowing that it would thrive because the artists and the fans live nearby. That’s where they want to go see music: in their neighborhood.”

The Basement East is located near East Nashville’s popular Five Points Neighborhood, home to numerous bars, restaurants and shops, as well as the historic and densely populated residential neighborhoods Lockeland Springs and Edgefield. East Nashville is known not only as a popular hangout destination for musicians and music fans, but also where much of Nashville’s music community works and lives. Many of the businesses that were lost in the tornado, like restaurant Burger Up and clothing store Molly Green, were part of the city’s vibrant service industry, which often serves as an employment hub for up-and-coming musicians across the city.

Nashville singer-songwriter Mercy Bell tells NPR Music that, when the tornado hit, she was working at Five Points-adjacent bar Rosemary, which she describes as being “run by musicians and music industry folks.” Bell and her co-workers huddled in the bar’s basement for safety when they first heard tornado sirens, before eventually venturing out into Five Points to see if their friends at other establishments were safe.

“I stood in the middle of the street dumbfounded and heartbroken,” Bell says, describing the moment she saw the destruction of establishments like Burger Up. “This was the neighborhood and community that’s given me my music and it was demolished. I felt the wind taken out of me. I don’t know how to explain what it feels like to look at a place you’ve called home for years in ruins.”

Dualtone Records, whose roster includes Shovels & Rope and Angie McMahon, lost its headquarters, which was situated just a block away from the Beast. Dualtone president Paul Roper tells NPR Music that their McFerrin Ave. office was “hit really hard” and that the label “will be rebuilding over the coming months.”

“It is an emotional thing seeing our neighbor’s building at Basement East devastated, and much of Five Points in what now looks like a war zone,” Roper adds. “Amidst it all, we are grateful to so many who have reached out with their love and support. This music community is strong and that is felt nowhere more closely than in Nashville. We saw this with the flood of 2010 and you can feel it again now: This city will lift one another up and come back stronger through it all.”

Neighborhoods north of downtown Nashville were also hit hard. Germantown, Salemtown and Historic Buena Vista all suffered massive property damage, with many displaced residents sheltering, for a time, at the nearby Nashville Farmers Market. These neighborhoods run alongside historic Jefferson Street, a main drag known for its deep roots in Nashville’s soul and R&B communities, and as a hub for the city’s black businesses and historically black colleges and universities, including Fisk University and Meharry Medical College.

The Donelson neighborhood also suffered great damage. The community, which lies just across the Cumberland River from East Nashville, also boasts a high number of musical and creative residents, both for its proximity to East Nashville and for its affordable housing. And while the national spotlight shines on Nashville, neighboring suburbs like Mt. Juliet and nearby Putnam County were also devastated by the tornado, with Putnam bearing the brunt of the death toll at 18 killed and many others still missing. Tuesday also marked “Super Tuesday” in Tennessee, with many residents heading to the polls at alternate locations late into Tuesday evening.

Many artists, both local and otherwise, have already started initiatives to raise funds and collect donations for victims of the tornado. Early Tuesday, country singer-songwriter Margo Price tweeted, “My heart is breaking for Nashville today. We left Five Points just minutes before the tornado hit completely unaware that it was coming. I feel lucky to be alive and still have a home,” before embarking on a day-long effort to deliver supplies to the Red Cross. Fellow Nashvillian and country artist Kacey Musgraves announced, via Instagram story, her plans to sell some of her clothing and accessories to Stage to Closet, with proceeds benefiting tornado relief.

Brittany Howard, known for her solo work and with bands Bermuda Triangle and the Alabama Shakes, posted an Instagram photo of her hands, presumably dirty after a day of helping neighbors sift through the wreckage of their homes, with the caption, “I love this community so much. I don’t know what else to say, really. Everyone is out here today helping with each other and it’s really moving,” along with links to aid organizations like Hands on Nashville, the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and the Red Cross of Tennessee. (For those both in and outside of Nashville looking to help victims of the tornado, the Nashville Scene has compiled a handy guide to local organizations who accept both donations of money and aid items, as well as resources for those hoping to volunteer their time toward the recovery effort.)

Price, Musgraves and Howard are but three of many already working tirelessly to raise funds and help out on the ground throughout their middle Tennessee communities.

Emergency crews are still working to find missing persons, clear roadways and restore power to thousands of residents.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/03/04/812029273/deadly-tornado-leaves-nashvilles-music-community-reeling-and-sticking-together

President Donald Trump reacted to Jeff Sessions’s so-so primary showing in his quest to regain his old Alabama US Senate seat by taking yet another shot at his former attorney general. But in the process of doing so, Trump confirmed one of the Mueller report’s key findings about his efforts to obstruct justice.

On Wednesday morning, Trump quote-tweeted a post from Politico about Sessions’s second-place finish in Tuesday’s Republican primary — one that will result in a runoff next month between Sessions and first-place finisher Tommy Tuberville — and wrote, “This is what happens to someone who loyally gets appointed Attorney General of the United States & then doesn’t have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt. Recuses himself on FIRST DAY in office, and the Mueller Scam begins!”

Trump’s tweet is factually incorrect. Sessions actually served as attorney general for about three weeks before he recused himself from the Russia probe on March 2, 2017, on the heels of revelations that he had misled senators during his confirmation hearing about the extent of his communications with Russians in 2016. But more significant than that fib is the broader point Trump communicated: that Sessions should have quickly shut down the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia instead of recusing himself.

Here’s the thing: The president isn’t supposed to direct the attorney general to end specific investigations, especially ones directly involving his campaign. In fact, the perception that Trump had interfered in the Russia investigation (by firing then-FBI Director James Comey two months after Sessions’s recusal) led to special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment in the first place.

As part of his investigation, Mueller investigated 10 instances where Trump potentially committed obstruction of justice. A number of them involved Trump’s repeated efforts to cajole Sessions into either limiting the investigation or unrecusing himself and ending it.

As Marshall Cohen of CNN noted, the evidence Mueller laid out indicated that Trump’s conduct met all the criteria for an obstruction of justice charge. But Mueller ultimately determined that because of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel’s 2000 opinion that the department can’t indict a sitting president, charging Trump with crimes while he’s still in office wasn’t an option for him.

Wednesday’s tweet is not the first time Trump has basically publicly admitted that he asked Sessions to end the Russia investigation. He posted a tweet that was even more direct about that demand in August 2018, one day after the trial of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort began on a host of charges related to financial crimes and money laundering that stemmed from the Mueller investigation. This was also back when Sessions was still serving as AG (Sessions resigned under pressure three months later and was replaced by William Barr).

In his report that was released almost a year ago now, Mueller concluded “that Sessions was being instructed” by Trump “to tell the Special Counsel to end the existing investigation into the President and his campaign.”

From the Mueller report (emphasis mine):

The President sought to have Sessions announce that the President “shouldn’t have a Special Prosecutor/Counsel” and that Sessions was going to “meet with the Special Prosecutor to explain this is very unfair and let the Special Prosecutor move forward with investigating election meddling for future election so that nothing can happen in future elections.” The President wanted Sessions to disregard his recusal from the investigation, which had followed from a formal DOJ ethics review, and have Sessions declare that he knew “for a fact” that “there were no Russians involved with the campaign” because he “was there.” The President further directed that Sessions should explain that the President should not be subject to an investigation “because he hadn’t done anything wrong.” Taken together, the President’s directives indicate that Sessions was being instructed to tell the Special Counsel to end the existing investigation into the President and his campaign, with the Special Counsel being permitted to “move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections.”

Trump’s tweet on Wednesday basically confirmed the key passage in bold — that he instructed Sessions to end the investigation and became angry with him when he refused to do it.

Why does any of this matter? Aside from serving as an example of how reckless Trump’s tweeting continues to be — and as an illustration that his long-simmering, one-sided feud with Sessions isn’t over — it’s also worth remembering that while Mueller concluded Trump couldn’t be charged with obstruction of justice while he’s in office, he could still face charges once his presidency ends.

Read in that context, Trump’s tweet reads uncomfortably like an admission.


The news moves fast. To stay updated, follow Aaron Rupar on Twitter, and read more of Vox’s policy and politics coverage.

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2020/3/4/21164977/trump-jeff-sessions-alabama-senate-obstruction-of-justice

“This is literally like trying to stop air, because somebody sneezes, it’s respiratory and it’s inevitable that it will continue to spread,” Cuomo told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Cuomo said there “were going to be many, many people who test positive.” He said local health officials are working to find out who the patients may have been in contact with, adding, “the investigation is still ongoing.”

Earlier in the day, Los Angeles-area officials said they had discovered six new COVID-19 cases in the county over the last 48 hours, prompting them to declare a local emergency to help free up federal and state funding. They later confirmed the state’s first COVID-19 death, bringing U.S. fatalities to at least 11.

Last week, the CDC stepped up its call for the public to start preparing for a possible pandemic outbreak in the U.S., mentioning schools and businesses may need to close.

*This is a developing story. Please check back here for updates.* 

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/04/ny-gov-cuomo-confirms-5-new-cases-of-coronavirus-bringing-the-state-total-to-11.html

In a largely African-American section of Houston called Kashmere Gardens, Barry Williams, 66, a retired pastor, went to a voting site early on Super Tuesday, about an hour after the polls opened. Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, had endorsed Mr. Bloomberg, but Mr. Williams was supporting Mr. Biden, explaining that his work in the Obama administration was the key factor.

“I believe he’s a proven person,” Mr. Williams said. “He has the actual hands-on approach. With his past record, he has shown that he is a person that can handle this position.”

Mr. Biden’s campaign had just four field offices in Texas, in Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. Though the campaign’s overall staff on the ground was relatively small, its effort was augmented by a large coterie of local elected officials who endorsed Mr. Biden, like Representatives Marc Veasey, Colin Allred and Sylvia Garcia, who organized their own get-out-the-vote efforts for Mr. Biden, particularly during early voting.

Mr. Biden’s campaign received its most significant endorsements on Monday in Dallas, when three of his former rivals — Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas — all announced their backing of the former vice president. Late Tuesday night, when results were still trickling in but looked promising for Mr. Biden, he attributed his success in the state to Mr. O’Rourke.

“We won Minnesota because of Amy Klobuchar. And we’re doing well in Texas because of Beto O’Rourke,” Mr. Biden told a buzzing crowd at his campaign’s election-night rally in Los Angeles.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/us/politics/joe-biden-texas-primary.html

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks Wednesday at an abortion-rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. Inside the court, justices heard argument in the first major abortion case of the Trump era. Schumer’s remarks Wednesday critical of the court’s two Trump-appointed justices drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Jose Luis Magana/AP


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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks Wednesday at an abortion-rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. Inside the court, justices heard argument in the first major abortion case of the Trump era. Schumer’s remarks Wednesday critical of the court’s two Trump-appointed justices drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

There were fierce clashes at the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday and a fierce critique from Chief Justice John Roberts afterward upon learning about statements made by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outside while the arguments were taking place inside.

Addressing a crowd of abortion-rights demonstrators, Schumer, D-N.Y., referred to the court’s two Trump appointees, Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and said, “You have unleashed the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Schumer’s statement was apparently a reference to Kavanaugh’s angry statement to Democratic senators at his 2018 confirmation hearing, “You sowed the wind. For decades to come, I fear the country will reap the whirlwind.”

Late Wednesday Chief Justice Roberts responded to Schumer with a stern rebuke. “Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All members of the court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter,” he said in a written statement.

Schumer’s office quickly replied with his own written statement, saying that his comments “were a reference to the political price Senate Republicans will pay for putting these justices on the court, and warning that the justices will unleash a major grassroots movement on the issue of reproductive rights….”

Schumer went on to criticize the chief justice for “remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg” late last month. That failure to stand up for two of the court’s liberals, Schumer said, shows that Roberts “does not just call balls and strikes,” as he promised he would do at his confirmation hearing in 2005.

Wednesday is not the first time Roberts has rebuked a political leader. In November 2018, he issued a statement critical of Trump for denigrating a judge as “an Obama judge” in an immigration case.

The statement Roberts issued then said, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”

Trump immediately tweeted: “Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. … These rulings are shocking. We need protection and security-these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise.”

Facts of the Case

Wednesday’s blast from the chief justice came after fierce arguments before the court in a case that tests whether the court should renounce an abortion ruling that is just four years old.

Back in 2016, the high court struck down a Texas law that required doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. At issue now is a nearly identical law coming out of Louisiana. But in the four years since the Texas case, the composition of the court has changed with the additions of two Trump appointees, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

With the change in the court’s composition, anti-abortion groups have been pressing hard to get the court to backtrack on abortion rights, with an eye to the ultimate aim of overturning Roe v. Wade.

In the Louisiana case before the court Wednesday, the state defended an admitting privileges statute nearly identical to the Texas law that the court struck down in 2016. Supporters of the law argue that Louisiana passed it to protect patient safety.

“There is a long record in Louisiana as there are in other states of really gross violations of health and safety standards in the abortion industry, we have more than 20 years of documentation,” said Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson on the steps of the court following oral arguments Wednesday.

But Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, countered that if Louisiana’s law is upheld, clinics across the state will shutter — leaving only one clinic and one doctor to serve the needs of 10,000 women seeking abortions each year in the state.

“It is not right that we have to be here re-fighting a legal battle that we have already won. But unfortunately we are here because the state of Louisiana is in open defiance of the Constitution and of the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Northup said.

The arguments

Inside the court chamber, lawyer Julie Rikelman, representing the Hope clinic in Shreveport, La., argued that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding the Louisiana law, had disregarded the factual findings of the trial court and openly defied the Supreme Court’s precedents.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who has openly opposed abortion rights for decades, led the charge against Rikelman.

Why should the clinic be allowed to sue on behalf of its patients, he asked, suggesting that there is a “conflict of interest” with those patients.

Rikelman replied that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a plaintiff directly regulated by a law — as abortion providers are here — can challenge that law.

“Really,” replied Alito, his voice rising. “That’s amazing!”

But, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg interjected, is there, in fact, any conflict between doctors and patients here?

“No … This court already held that admitting privileges served no medical benefit,” answered Rikelman, and in fact, the trial court found it “would harm the health of women in Louisiana.” Indeed, she said, “even the federal government” itself has found admitting privilege requirements to be “medically unnecessary” and burdensome, leading it to eliminate the requirement nationally for doctors performing outpatient surgical procedures on Medicaid and Medicare patients.

Moreover, said Rikelman, admitting privileges do not improve the standard of care for most women seeking abortions, particularly the 40% of women seeking abortions who do not have surgery, but use abortion pills instead.

Alito moved on to the facts in the case, seeking to show that the doctors at the clinics simply did not try hard enough to get admitting privileges.

Dr. Doe 3, he noted, did in fact have admitting privileges. Rikelman replied that he has those privileges, but they require that he admits at least 50 patients a year to the hospital. Doe 3, said Rikelman, can only meet that requirement because of his separate private practice delivering babies.

Alito moved on: Wasn’t the Hope Medical Clinic “suspended for regulatory violations?”

“It was … briefly in 2010,” answered Rikelman, but after a court hearing the judge found the clinic had “an excellent safety record.”

Admitting privileges

When Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill rose to make her argument on behalf of the state, she faced a wall of questions from the court’s liberals, especially its three female justices.

Ginsburg: What sense does it make to require doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30-miles of a clinic when most complications arise after the patient is at home, usually far away from the clinic.

And what about a D&C, the procedure that doctors routinely do after a miscarriage and which is virtually identical to abortion procedures — are there hospital admitting privileges attached to those?

Murrill eventually conceded that such procedures, which are done in a doctor’s office, do not require the doctor to have hospital admitting privileges.

When Murrill argued that the admitting privileges requirement serves to ensure that doctors are properly credentialed, Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked: Don’t you have a medical licensing requirement in the state?

Justice Elena Kagan jumped in, pointing out that the record shows that hospitals deny privileges for many reasons. The decision “could rest on the number of patients a doctor has … on whether a particular hospital needs more providers” and it can even “rest on a general view that they don’t want abortion providers in that hospital.” Given the discretion hospitals have when granting privileges, Kagan said, how can Louisiana argue that admitting privileges perform a credentialing function?

Ginsburg jumped in, “Is it not the fact that … in Louisiana in order to get admitting privileges you have to admit a certain number of patients?” And because of how safe abortion is, clinics like Hope “will never qualify because their patients don’t go to the hospital.”

Is it right, Kagan continued,that the Hope clinic has treated some 70,000 patients over the past 23 years and “transferred only four patients ever to a hospital?”

Replied lawyer Murrill: “Only four that they know of.”

But, “you don’t dispute that … first trimester abortion is among the safest” medical procedures, in fact “far safer than childbirth?” interjected Ginsburg. Murrill replied that regardless of safety, “the doctor should have the qualifications to … handle the most likely complication[s].”

Justice Stephen Breyer interjected, “we’re not going to solve this at oral argument.” Which of the doctors is your “best case” for not having tried hard enough to get admitting privileges?

Doe 6, answered Murill.

Sotomayor, exasperated: But Doe 6 for the last 12 years has only done medical abortions with pills, not surgical abortions. So it was “guaranteed that he couldn’t meet the requirement” for admitting privileges at any hospital.

Breyer: The state’s own expert witness testified Doe 6 would “probably not” get admitting privileges.

“In the country, people have very strong feelings” about this issue, said Breyer. “A lot of people morally think it’s wrong, and a lot of people morally think the opposite.” So given that tension, why should the court depart from its repeated precedents over the last 40-plus years?

At the end of the day, of course, it was none of the avid questioners whose votes will count in this case.

It likely will be Chief Justice Roberts’ vote that will be determinative, but he asked few questions and didn’t tip his hand.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/03/04/812222034/supreme-court-weighs-abortion-case-schumer-remarks-draw-rebuke-from-roberts

The House passed a sweeping bill Wednesday allocating more than $8 billion in emergency funds to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The vote was 415-2. Republican Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona were the only members to vote against the legislation.

The emergency funding package, which provides more than $3 billion in vaccine research and $2.2 billion in prevention and preparedness efforts, was unveiled hours earlier following days of negotiations on Capitol Hill.

The coronavirus bill will head to the Senate, where leaders there hope they can quickly bring it to a vote. If the bill passes that chamber, it will move to the Oval Office desk of President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The $8.3 billion congressional spending proposal is more than three times the $2.5 billion the White House proposed last week devoting to the coronavirus effort.

Senate Appropriations Committee Leader Richard Shelby, R-Ala., revealed the plan as the death toll from the outbreak in the U.S. rose to 11 people. California on Wednesday reported the first death in that state from the virus. The other 10 deaths occurred in Washington state.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 138 cases of coronavirus had been identified in the U.S

The fast-spreading disease, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, has killed more than 3,100 people and infected tens of thousands more around the world, prompting fears that a pandemic is imminent.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/04/house-passes-8point3-billion-emergency-coronavirus-spending-plan.html

A contract medical screener at Los Angeles International Airport tested positive for coronavirus, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.

The worker, whose last shift at the airport was on Feb. 21, is self-quarantined at home under medical supervision with mild symptoms, DHS said. The worker’s immediate family is also quarantined, it said.

The county’s board of supervisors and department of health declared a local and public health emergency in response to the growing number of cases in California, including six new cases in Los Angeles County.

The first Californian with coronavirus died Wednesday at a hospital in Roseville in northern California, officials said. The 71-year-old man is believed to have been exposed to the virus while on a cruise to Mexico last month.

There were 153 cases of coronavirus reported nationwide as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. That includes 29 cases in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/03/04/screener-lax-airport-tests-positive-coronavirus-dhs-says/4907877002/

The COVID-19 virus has hit thousands more across the globe, the majority of cases in China, South Korea, Italy and Iran. The U.S. death toll had risen to nine as of Wednesday, all of which were reported in Washington state.

New cases have also been recently reported in Morocco, Latvia, Saudi Arabia and Senegal, according to the latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.

The virus, which was first identified in Wuhan city in the Hubei province of China, has now affected at least 93,160 people. Of that figure, 80,270 are in China, including 2,871 deaths. Around the world, the death toll has reached 3,198, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The WHO warned that “severe and mounting disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment (PPE)—caused by rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse—is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases,” in a statement on Tuesday.

“WHO has so far shipped nearly half a million sets of personal protective equipment to 47 countries, but supplies are rapidly depleting,” it added.

WHO’s director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in the statement: “Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can’t stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first.”

The increase of the virus in the eastern Mediterranean is of great concern, the WHO said.

“While the numbers inside China have been rapidly declining, the sudden increase in cases in countries outside China, including in our Region, is deeply alarming. We remain concerned about the surge of cases and deaths in the Region and the increase in the number of travel-related confirmed cases,” the WHO regional director of the Eastern Mediterranean region, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandharim, said in a statement.

“We have also seen cases of local transmission in our Region, and it is likely that the outbreak may continue to progress from case importation to local transmission.”

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the spread of the COVID-19 virus as of March 4.

Death toll climbs in the U.S.

The U.S has confirmed three more deaths in Washington, bringing the death toll to nine in the country, all of which were reported in the state. Eight of the deaths were in King County, while one of them was in the neighboring Snohomish County.

There are now 27 confirmed cases across the state, 21 of which are in King County, while the remaining six are in Snohomish County, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

The state has placed 231 others under “public health supervision,” which includes those at risk of having been exposed to the virus “who are monitoring their health under the supervision of public health officials,” as well as those who have returned from China in the past 14 days.

“This is a very fluid, fast-moving situation as we aggressively respond to this outbreak,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, a health officer for Seattle and King County.

A second case has tested positive in New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed. The patient was reported to be a man from Westchester County who commutes to work in Manhattan and lives with school-age children, the governor told Long Island radio station 103.9.

Berkley and Contra Costa County each reported their first case of the virus, while Santa Clara County is expected to see more cases, with older residents, especially those aged above 80, facing the greatest risk of developing serious conditions from infection.

North Carolina’s department of health confirmed the state’s first “presumptively positive” case of the virus on Tuesday, meaning it has been confirmed as positive by a public health lab and is pending confirmation from testing by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lab. The individual, who is from Wake County, was reported to be in isolation at home.

“Local health department officials are identifying close contacts to monitor symptoms and contain spread,” the department said in a statement.

“Today’s [Tuesday] announcement represents an isolated case, and COVID-19 is currently not widespread in North Carolina,” it added.

New Hampshire announced its second presumptive positive case on Tuesday. The individual is an adult male from Grafton County who was in close contact with an infected person, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) confirmed.

The DHHS has also been tracing the contacts of the state’s first presumptive positive case, an employee of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), who has defied the department’s instruction for isolation.

“Through the course of the investigation, DHHS has determined that the first patient, despite having been directed to self-isolate, attended an invitation-only private event on Friday, February 28. DHHS has issued an official order of isolation to the first patient under RSA-141-C:11,” the department said in the statement.

“DHHS is managing the investigation into individuals in the community who may have been exposed to the virus,” it added.

Nearly 120 people who were quarantined for 14 days in the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas after being aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship were released yesterday, while around 15 were reported to be “locally in medical care or quarantine because of their close contact with a confirmed case,” according to a CDC statement.

Two people in Wisconsin are also being tested, while the first person who tested positive in the state last month has recovered and is no longer in isolation, CBS 58 WDJT-Milwaukee said.

South Korea cases surpass 5,000

South Korea, which has the highest number of cases outside China, had confirmed at least 5,328 cases as of Wednesday, an increase of 516 since Tuesday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control.

Most of the cases continue to concentrate around the city of Daegu, which has seen more than 4,000 patients to date, while the capital Seoul has seen 99, followed by 93 cases in Busan.

Most patients have been linked to a religious group known as the Shincheonji, Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ), with several members of the secretive sect reported having been infected by an infected member who attended a service in Daegu.

SCJ is known for hosting large services with people sitting close to each other for long periods.

The leader of the group, Lee Man-hee, issued an official apology to the public after authorities in Seoul accused him of failing to cooperate in containing the outbreak.

Prosecutors have been asked by Seoul officials to file charges of homicide against Lee and 11 other SCJ leaders, alleging the leaders submitted false lists of church members to authorities who were trying to track other possibly affected individuals.

“We remain confident in the South Korean government’s robust and comprehensive response efforts to limit the spread of the virus,” US ambassador Harry Harris said on his official Twitter account Wednesday after meeting with the country’s 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cho Sei-young, to discuss measures around the coronavirus outbreak.

Italy reports highest number of deaths outside China

Italy has reported 79 deaths, surpassing Iran as the nation with the highest number of deaths outside China. Most of the deaths were reported to be in the high-risk category and the older population has seen the highest number of cases so far.

The country has seen the greatest outbreak of the virus in Europe, with at least 2,502 cases confirmed. Italy has reported 27 more deaths and nearly 500 new cases since Tuesday, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

Europe has seen more than 3,190 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, the majority of which has been in Italy, followed by France (212), Germany (203) and Spain (165), which reported its first death, in the city of Valencia, on Tuesday.

“Despite contact tracing measures initiated to contain further spread, there continue to be cases exported between EU/EEA [European Union/ European Economic Area] countries, and an increasing number of sporadic cases across EU/EEA countries,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in its latest assessment on Wednesday.

“The probability of further transmission in the EU/EEA and the UK is considered high. There is still a level of uncertainty regarding several unpredictable factors in a situation that is still evolving.”

A new concentration of cases has been reported in the Italian city of Bergamo, just northeast of Milan, including a newborn baby. It has yet to be determined how the baby was infected.

The recent surge in cases in the Milan area may see another quarantine zone be imposed around the region, according to the head of Italy’s national health institute.

The majority of the cases and deaths in Italy are in the northern region of Lombardy, which has seen around 55 deaths and 1,500 positive cases, while the second worst-hit region is Emilia Romagna with 420 positive cases and 18 deaths.

The Veneto region has reported 307 positive cases and 3 deaths, while two were reported in Marche and one was reported in Liguria. The Alpine region of Valle d’Aosta, the country’s smallest and least populated region, is the only unaffected patch in Italy.

“None of us can be sure about the future evolution of the disease. This is an important week to understand what will happen,” Angelo Borrelli, head of Italy’s civil protection agency, said at a news conference.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on his official Twitter account that the country, which reported its fourth death on Tuesday, will regulate the distribution of face masks to be sure they are reserved for the infected and healthcare professionals.

Nearly 2,000 surgical masks were reportedly stolen from a hospital in Marseille in southern France.

“We requisition all stocks and the production of protective masks. We will distribute them to healthcare professionals and French people affected by the Coronavirus,” Macron said on Twitter.

The country’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has reportedly directed France’s consumer watchdog to launch an investigation following reports that prices for masks and hand sanitizers have doubled or tripled.

“I’m ready to regulate prices of masks and gels by decree if the abuses are numerous,” he said on his official Twitter account.

Elsewhere in Europe, Poland reported its first case on Wednesday, while cases rose to 203 in Germany and doubled in Sweden from 15 on Monday to 30 by Tuesday.

More cases in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia rations toilet paper

Australia’s confirmed cases rose to 41 on Wednesday, which includes 10 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Most other cases involve people who have traveled to China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, while two infections are of unknown origin, Australia’s department of health confirmed.

The panic buying of supplies has ensued since the outbreak, prompting Woolworths, Australia’s largest grocery store, to place a four-pack limit on toilet paper purchases on Wednesday.

“Before this we were seeing people with trolley loads, more than folks need,” a Woolworths spokesperson said.

“The demand has been pretty unprecedented, unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“Our teams are continuing to work hard on restocking stores with long-life food and groceries from our distribution centers,” the spokesman said.

The ration was introduced after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison contacted Woolworths to ensure essential supplies would not run out.

The prime minister has reassured locals that supplies are guaranteed and that they should not panic.

Elsewhere in the world, Algeria confirmed three more cases, bringing its total to eight, while Qatar and India also confirmed new cases.

Six more were confirmed in Oman, bringing its total to 12.

Argentina also reported its first case, while Pakistan’s total cases reached five, following a new case confirmed on Tuesday.

Correction: This article has been updated to say Cho Sei-young is the country’s 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, not the Prime Minister.

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