France’s Louvre Museum shut down Sunday amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus in Europe.

“We are very worried because we have visitors from everywhere,” Andre Sacristin, a Louvre employee and union representative, told The Associated Press. About 75 percent of the art museum’s 9.6 million visitors last year were from abroad.

“The risk is very, very, very great,” he added, saying that it was “only a question of time” before a case emerged among the museum’s 2,300 employees, although no cases have been reported as of Sunday afternoon.

Museum management made the decision to close the museum after the French government on Saturday banned indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people, while Sacristin said Louvrew workers had also expressed concern about workers from northern Italy who were at the museum to collect on-loan works by Leonardo da Vinci.

Italy has been the center of the European outbreak, with more than 1,100 cases and 29 deaths thus far.

Sacristin said a meeting between management and union representatives is scheduled for Monday, saying that all visitors should undergo health checks for the sake of staffers and that managfgement should close the museum if any cases are detected, according to the AP.

He added that while workers have asked for masks to be distributed, so far they have bonly been given hand disinfectant, which he said “didn’t please us at all.”  

Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/485378-frances-louvre-closes-amid-coronavirus-fears

Pete Buttigieg made history as the first openly gay presidential candidate to win a presidential nominating contest and after running a trailblazing campaign which included winning the race for delegates in Iowa, he announced that he would be dropping out of the race on Sunday.

As reported earlier, the news was revealed as Buttigieg was en route to his home court of South Bend, Indiana, where he served as that city’s mayor. When word got out that Buttigieg’s was bowing out, his fellow candidates kindly bid adieu to him and congratulated him on running a strong campaign.

“Thank you, @PeteButtigieg. I know you’ll continue giving back and serving our country for many years to come,” tweeted  Elizabeth Warren.

Tom Steyer, who also recently dropped out of the race, added “@PeteButtigieg brought a fresh perspective and sense of optimism to the race. His call for inclusivity is laudable. As the first openly gay candidate to mount a major bid, he has proven we aren’t limited by who we love. #MayorPete has a bright future and will help us #WinTheEra.”

“Pete Buttigieg ran an awesome campaign that catapulted him from unknown mayor to top-tier contender,” said Andrew Yang, who exited the race earlier this month. “It was only possible because Pete is a world-class talent who represents the future of our country. He is only getting started. Congrats on an incredible run.”

In addition, Hollywood took to Twitter to laud Buttigieg. George Takei said, “I am proud of Mayor Pete and what he has accomplished. I see him going all the way to the White House one day.”

American Horror Story star Billy Eichner said: “As someone who’s dealt with fewer opportunities in my chosen industry for being openly gay years before that was welcome, I’m grateful to @PeteButtigieg & @Chas10Buttigieg for ignoring the odds & assumptions & creating a path for LGBTQ in politics that simply did not exist. 🙏🌈”

GLAAD President and Sarah Kate Ellis tweeted and issued the following statement when the news was announced: “Pete Buttigieg’s campaign was historic and he showed the world that Americans are ready to accept and embrace qualified LGBTQ public leaders. His candidacy came after decades of LGBTQ Americans fighting to be heard, be visible, and have a place in the American experience. Pete’s success will no doubt lead to more LGBTQ candidates in political races large and small.”

Read more reactions below.

Source Article from https://deadline.com/2020/03/hollywood-reactions-pete-buttigieg-drops-out-presidential-campaign-glaad-lgbtq-george-takei-billy-eichner-1202871823/amp/

WASHINGTON – Former mayor Pete Buttigieg calling it quits just two days before one of the largest contests of the primary cycle means his supporters are now looking for a new candidate.

Buttigieg’s exit could bring a significant shift to the race, as he was one of several moderate candidates running to win many of the same voters. Will his supporters flock to fellow center-left Democrats, such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Vice President Joe Biden or Michael Bloomberg? 

Or could the more progressive candidates, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, benefit from the now unattached voters?

Here’s a look at where some of Buttigieg’s support could move:

Klomentum, Part 2?

Klobuchar and Buttigieg each billed themselves as the person who could unify all voting blocs of the Democratic Party, particularly rural and suburban voters. But Klobuchar often slammed Buttigieg in debates for his lack of experience. 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/01/pete-buttigieg-exit-democratic-primary-amy-klobuchar-joe-biden/4926426002/

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/asia/north-korea-projectiles-intl-hnk/index.html

As Mr. Sanders, in his second presidential run, built a devoted following of progressives with a call for political revolution, Mr. Buttigieg tried to offer an alternative: an upbeat message of unity and more ideological flexibility, aimed at attracting moderate Democrats, independents and crossover Republicans. But the pitch, which some found contained more platitudes than passion, was no match at a time of rising anger on the left that the political establishment has failed to address health care, income inequality and climate change.

In his quest to earn black support, Mr. Buttigieg spent more time visiting South Carolina than any other candidate, spent more on TV ads in the state than any candidates besides Mr. Steyer, and rolled out a sweeping proposal, called the Douglass Plan, to redress the legacy of racism. None of it made much of a dent with African-American voters who had developed a deep trust in Mr. Biden over decades.

Another factor may have been the sometimes troubled history of Mr. Buttigieg’s relationship with black residents of South Bend, including his demotion of a black police chief and the shooting last summer of a black resident by a white officer. Mr. Buttigieg tried to counter poor impressions by campaigning with African-American leaders from his hometown who vouched for him.

All along, he believed that winning in Iowa would beget winning in later states with more racially diverse voters.

Despite an early exit from the race, Mr. Buttigieg’s candidacy will be remembered for its remarkably high trajectory: the mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city outran, out-raised and outpolled senators and governors who dropped by the wayside.

Mr. Buttigieg’s decision, just before Super Tuesday, echoed one he made three years ago during his first foray into national politics. In late February 2017, Mr. Buttigieg dropped out of the contest to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee on the morning of the vote after it became clear he had commitments from fewer than 10 D.N.C. members. After his withdrawal, Mr. Buttigieg received a single vote, from Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio.

Reid J. Epstein reported from Selma, Ala., and Trip Gabriel reported from Charlotte, N.C. Alexander Burns contributed reporting from New York.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/us/politics/pete-buttigieg-drops-out.html

The first case of coronavirus in New York has been confirmed and the patient, a woman in her late thirties, is isolated in her home, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in a statement late Sunday.

The woman was recovering in Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal reported. She contracted the virus when she was traveling abroad in Iran and has been experiencing respiratory symptoms but was not in serious condition and has been in a “controlled situation” upon her arrival in New York, Cuomo said.

The Wadsworth Center in the state’s capital, Albany, confirmed the positive test for the coronavirus — which has resulted in 3,000 deaths including one in the U.S. — but Cuomo said, “there is no reason for undue anxiety.”

CORONAVIRUS VACCINE SHOULD BE COVERED BY MEDICARE FOR SENIORS, SCHUMER SAYS

Just a day before the virus hit his state, Cuomo said New York had received approval by the Food and Drug Administration to conduct its own tests for the coronavirus, a move aimed at providing quicker turnarounds for results, at the Albany lab.

“There is no cause for surprise — this was expected,” Cuomo said. “As I said from the beginning, it was a matter of when, not if, there would be a positive case of novel coronavirus in New York.”

New York City is the most populous city in the United States, more than twice the size of the second-largest city, Los Angeles, and had a population of over 8.5 million people as of July 2015, according to the NYC Department of City Planning.

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Cuomo highlighted his push for state legislatures to pass a $40 million emergency management authorization to fund coronavirus response efforts in the state.

Still, he insisted, “the general risk remains low in New York.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/health/new-york-1st-coronavirus-case-cuomo

The novel coronavirus and Covid-19, the disease it causes, have become a global health issue. But increasingly for President Donald Trump, a member of his family, and his administration officials, the virus is being seen as a weapon the president’s enemies hope to use against him as much as it is a public health concern.

The president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., offered the most pointed encapsulation of this view on Friday, when he told Fox News that Democrats “seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning.”

No elected official, Democratic or otherwise, have said any such thing. Some Democrats — and some Republicans — have, however, been critical of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have both called on the administration to spend more to combat the virus, for example.

Despite this, on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence — who is in charge of the White House’s efforts to deal with the outbreak — defended the president’s son’s remarks as “understandable.”

“This is no time for politics. And frankly, I think that was Don Jr.’s point: that there has been some very strong rhetoric directed at the president by some members of Congress,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But responding to the kind of things that have been hurled is understandable.”

Pence’s defense of the president’s son is just one of several examples of how he and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar argued on the Sunday morning that Democrats and liberal commentators — not the Trump administration or the right — were to blame for the politicization of the coronavirus.

When NBC’s Chuck Todd questioned Pence on Meet the Press over politicizing rhetoric on the right, such as right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh’s claim that Democrats have “weaponized” the coronavirus as well as Trump Jr.’s inflammatory remarks, Pence declined to condemn them. Instead he drew attention to liberals.

Pence said Trump Jr. was “pushing back” at Trump critics, and that “it’s time for the other side to turn down the volume.”

Pence cited Gail Collins’s New York Times column entitled, “Let’s call it Trumpvirus” as an example of how “there have been irresponsible voices” on the left criticizing the president. Beyond pressure from Democrats for the administration to speed and better fund its response efforts, it is not clear what “volume” Pence was referring to.

Trump himself has claimed that criticism of his handling of coronavirus in the US is part of a Democratic Party “hoax.”

“One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it,’” the president said at a rally in South Carolina Friday. “They tried the impeachment hoax. And this is their new hoax.”

At a Saturday press conference, the president made it clear he used the word hoax in connection to the coronavirus — which has killed at least 2,990 people globally and infected at least 22 people in the US — because he felt his administration’s work was being attacked.

When questioned over the use of the term hoax on Saturday, Trump said that it referred to “the action that [Democrats] take to try to pin this on somebody because we’ve done such a good job.”

He added, “I don’t like it when they are criticizing [government officials], and that’s the hoax.”

When ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Azar about Trump’s use of the term hoax, Sunday Azar deflected.

“He’s talking about the partisan sniping that we’re seeing, it’s unnecessary, we don’t need to have this made a political issue,” Azar said. “We’re in a public health crisis here, we need to all be banding together.”

The partisan sniping seems to be one-sided — but the coronavirus does inarguably call for banding together. There is still much that isn’t known about it, and new cases within the US are being reported daily. It is true that the US has far fewer Covid-19 cases than other countries, but that does not make the president and his allies’ use of the virus to to attack political rivals any less worrying — or any less of a distraction from life-or-death work that needs to be done.

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/1/21160339/coronavirus-trump-pence-democrats-hoax

Mr. Buttigieg on Monday said in a town hall event on CNN that he and his fellow moderates had not had any talks about one or more of them dropping out. Asked the same question in a post-debate TV interview on Tuesday, Mr. Buttigieg argued that it was he, as the candidate with the second most delegates, whom other moderates should rally behind.

But except for a polling uptick after his strong Iowa finish, Mr. Buttigieg’s support in an average of national polls plateaued around 10 percent. That imperiled him as the race moved to the 14 Super Tuesday states, including California and Texas, where most delegates to the National Convention go only to candidates who win 15 percent in congressional districts and statewide.

As Mr. Sanders, in his second presidential run, built a devoted following of progressives with a call for political revolution, Mr. Buttigieg tried to offer an alternative: an upbeat message of unity and more ideological flexibility, aimed at attracting moderate Democrats, independents and crossover Republicans. But the pitch, which some found contained more platitudes than passion, was no match at a time of rising anger on the left that the political establishment has failed to address health care, income inequality and climate change.

In his quest to earn black support, Mr. Buttigieg spent more time visiting South Carolina than any other candidate, spent more on TV ads in the state than any candidates besides Mr. Steyer, and rolled out a sweeping proposal, called the Douglass Plan, to redress the legacy of racism. None of it made much of a dent with African-American voters who had developed a deep trust in Mr. Biden over decades.

Another factor may have been the sometimes troubled history of Mr. Buttigieg’s relationship with black residents of South Bend, including his demotion of a black police chief and the shooting last summer of a black resident by a white officer. Mr. Buttigieg tried to counter poor impressions by campaigning with African-American leaders from his hometown who vouched for him.

All along, he believed that winning in Iowa would beget winning in later states with more racially diverse voters.

Despite an early exit from the race, Mr. Buttigieg’s candidacy will be remembered for its remarkably high trajectory: the mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city outran, out-raised and outpolled senators and governors who dropped by the wayside.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/us/politics/pete-buttigieg-drops-out.html

Coming off a resounding victory in South Carolina, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the possibility of a contested convention, sending a clear message to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who currently leads in the delegate count, and who has argued a candidate ought to only need a plurality — not a majority, as party rules dictate — of pledged delegates to become the nominee.

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Biden said that he would fight for the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in July if Sanders leads in the delegate count but does not have at least 1,991 pledged delegates, a number that constitutes a majority.

“The rules have been set,” Biden said. “You don’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”

With analysts beginning to argue that it is unlikely any candidate will have a majority of delegates before the convention, Sanders has begun to challenge these rules.

At a CNN town hall in late February, for instance, Sanders said, “If I or anybody else goes into the Democratic convention with a substantial plurality, I believe that individual, me or anyone else, should be the candidate of the Democratic Party.”

And during an appearance on ABC’s This Week Sunday, Sanders said, “If we go into Milwaukee, into the Democratic Convention, with a lead, having won many, many states, having won the people’s vote, and that is reversed at the convention, how do you think people all over this country will feel?”

Should a candidate fail to come to the convention with a majority of delegates, current rules stipulate that party leaders — also known as superdelegates — weigh in to help decide the nominee. Sunday, Sanders also argued a candidate selected in part by superdelegates would be ill equipped to defeat President Donald Trump.

“If you reject the candidate who has the most votes from the people, and you win it through superdelegates,” Sanders said, “do you think you’re going to have the energy and the excitement and the grassroots movement to defeat Donald Trump? I honestly don’t think you will.”

With his South Carolina victory, Biden was able to narrow the delegate gap between himself and Sanders. Biden currently holds 53 delegates, to Sanders’s 58.

Should such a dynamic hold until July, and should both Sanders and Biden fail to meet the 1,991 pledged delegate threshold, Democrats will have to decide whether to pursue the method Biden has advocated for or the one Sanders has suggested.

It is not yet clear what party leaders would do if faced with such a situation, but in February, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told MSNBC in his view a candidate needs a majority, whether it is gained though pledged delegates in the primary or through a vote with superdelegate: “Forty percent at the end of the day, is not enough,” Perez said.

The manner in which delegates are awarded — and the size of the primary field — makes a contested convention a possibility

As Vox’s Andrew Prokop has written, the fight for delegates isn’t simply a question of winning states (which Sanders has repeatedly done), but also of picking up a more significant share of votes (which is how Biden, even with dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, holds the second-highest number of delegates).

That distinction becomes especially complicated during a race like this, where so many candidates remain. Heading into Super Tuesday, there are still six candidates in the race: Biden; Sanders; Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren; former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Prokop explains:

What makes things especially tricky this year is, for the first time in nearly three decades, the Democratic field won’t just be a two-candidate contest on Super Tuesday. Because of that, small changes in the vote count — and particularly in who manages to top the 15 percent threshold necessary to get any delegates — can shape the delegate totals in surprising ways.

For instance, if the leading candidate gets 30 percent of the vote somewhere, they could end up getting around one-third of delegates at stake. But with the exact same vote share, they could also end up with two-thirds of delegates — a dramatic difference, particularly since a majority is necessary to win.

The difference depends entirely on how many other candidates top 15 percent and on how far above it they are. Voters may not realize that if they cast their ballot for a candidate who ends up falling below that threshold, they could be supercharging the leading candidate’s delegate haul.

This can all translate into “quirky results,” as Prokop has written, in such a crowded field: thanks to how proportions of votes are rounded, a candidate towards the middle of the field may end up picking up a handful of delegates here and there — enough to cut into a frontrunner’s lead.

That’s part of reason the majority versus plurality question is being raised now. There are only 3,979 pledged delegates to go around, and the fact that there are still six people competing for them makes it all the more likely no one candidate will win a majority.

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/1/21160201/biden-sanders-delegates-contested-convention

Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday defended comments from President Trump and his supporters accusing Democrats of politicizing the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, including Donald Trump Jr.’s assertion that his father’s opponents hope the disease “kills millions” of Americans. 

“When you see voices on our side pushing back on outrageous and irresponsible rhetoric on the other side, I think that’s important, and I think it’s justified,” Pence said when asked about the remarks from Trump Jr. and others on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” 

Since the outbreak began, Trump has taken fire from liberal pundits, Democrats on Capitol Hill and his 2020 election opponents for comments that appeared to downplay the severity of the threat from the virus, including an assertion that it would simply die out once the weather warms. Critics also accused him of trying to defund programs and agencies designed to deal with exactly this kind of threat. 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/01/mike-pence-defends-trump-jr-rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-comments/4923560002/

Because Cuccinelli’s USCIS position was designated initially as “first assistant” to the USCIS director, the Trump administration reasoned that Cuccinelli could become acting chief under a provision of the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

But Moss wrote that Cuccinelli’s appointment did not comply with the FVRA because “he never did and never will serve in a subordinate role — that is, as an ‘assistant’ — to any other USCIS official.” Rather, Cuccinelli was “assigned the role of principal on day-one,” Moss wrote.

The order strikes down directives from Cuccinelli that sped up asylum-seekers’ initial screenings limited extensions of those hearings, on the grounds that Cuccinelli lacked authority to issue them.

When Cuccinelli was promoted to No. 2 at DHS he told the staff he would be succeeded as acting USCIS chief by his deputy, Mark Koumans. Eventually, however, the Trump administration decided Cuccinelli should perform both jobs simultaneously. Today, Cuccinelli’s USCIS job title is “senior official performing the duties of the director,” according to the agency’s website.

The lawsuit was brought by the pro-immigration advocacy groups Democracy Forward and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network on behalf of an immigration legal center and seven asylum-seekers.

“This is both a victory for the rule of law and a significant blow to the Trump administration’s xenophobic agenda,” Democracy Forward Executive Director Anne Harkavy said in a written statement.

Trump never nominated Cuccinelli to fill either of the two positions that he holds at USCIS and DHS, and he likely won’t because of Cuccinelli’s unpopularity with leading Senate Republicans due to his previous stewardship of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which ran primary campaigns against Republican incumbents, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/01/federal-judge-cuccinelli-appointment-unlawful-118477

More countries reported their first coronavirus fatalities and the toll grew in places such as China, as the number of deaths from the epidemic globally nears 3,000.

Hours after the U.S. reported its first fatality, Australia on Sunday announced its first death from the disease known as Covid-19. So did Thailand, more than a month after it became the first country outside of China to report an infection. Italy added five more deaths, with 528 new confirmed cases since Saturday.

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-will-be-a-long-battle-more-countries-report-first-coronavirus-deaths-11583056323

Sens. Bernie SandersBernie SandersWinners and losers from the South Carolina primary 5 takeaways from the South Carolina primary On The Trail: Steyer’s flop a warning to Bloomberg MORE (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenWinners and losers from the South Carolina primary On The Trail: Steyer’s flop a warning to Bloomberg Head of key teachers union says she’s backing Warren MORE (D-Mass.) are statistically tied in Massachusetts ahead of the Bay State’s Super Tuesday primary, according to a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll released Saturday.

The poll found 24 percent of respondents leaning toward or planning to vote for Sanders, with 22 percent for Warren. The two are separated by less than the poll’s 4.4-point margin of error.

The poll found nearly all other candidates in a statistical tie for second place, with former New York Mayor Michael BloombergMichael Rubens BloombergWinners and losers from the South Carolina primary 5 takeaways from the South Carolina primary On The Trail: Steyer’s flop a warning to Bloomberg MORE pulling 13 percent, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete ButtigiegPeter (Pete) Paul ButtigiegWinners and losers from the South Carolina primary 5 takeaways from the South Carolina primary On The Trail: Steyer’s flop a warning to Bloomberg MORE with 12 percent and former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenWinners and losers from the South Carolina primary 5 takeaways from the South Carolina primary On The Trail: Steyer’s flop a warning to Bloomberg MORE with 11 percent.

Sanders has heavily campaigned in Massachusetts ahead of Tuesday, holding rallies in both Boston and Springfield

Although a victory for Warren in her home state is far from assured, supporters have said a loss need not be the end of the line for the Massachusetts senator.

“It comes down to not who is winning how many states, but how many delegates you are getting in each state,” Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, who has endorsed Warren, told the Globe. “There’s not a must-win state for anyone.”

The poll was conducted among 500 likely voters Wednesday through Saturday with live callers surveying respondents on landlines and cellphones.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign-polls/485381-sanders-warren-tied-in-massachusetts-poll

And one thing the polls will almost certainly struggle to measure: any bounce Joe Biden will get out of his runaway victory in South Carolina on Saturday.

Here are five takeaways from the weekend’s Super Tuesday polls:

Sanders leads in California, but others could hit the delegate threshold.

A CBS News Battleground Tracker/YouGov poll out Sunday morning shows Sanders with a significant advantage in the largest delegate prize on Super Tuesday. The Vermont independent senator is at 31 percent in the survey — ahead of Joe Biden at 19 percent, Elizabeth Warren at 18 percent and Mike Bloomberg at 12 percent.

That’s not quite as large a lead as a CNN/SSRS poll on Friday that showed Sanders at 34 percent, with Warren in second place at 14 percent.

The distinctions here are important: Only candidates who break 15 percent will win a proportional share of statewide delegates. If Sanders were the only candidate over 15 percent, he would win all the statewide delegates, even if he captured only about a third of the vote.

But with two or three other candidates potentially joining Sanders above the 15 percent threshold, it would split the delegate haul. CBS News estimates that under the scenario portrayed by its poll — with Biden and Warren also meeting the threshold — Sanders would win a little less than half the delegates available.

Is Bernie going to win Texas, too?

According to four polls released over the past 48 hours, Sanders enters as the favorite in Texas, the second-largest state voting on Tuesday. But the race appears closer than in California, and Sanders’ lead is far from assured.

Sanders has a wide lead in an NBC News/Marist poll: 15 points over Biden, 34 percent to 19 percent. Bloomberg is third, at an all-important 15 percent.

But a CBS News Battleground Tracker/YouGov poll shows a much closer contest: Sanders leads Biden by just 4 points, 30 percent to 26 percent. Bloomberg is within striking distance of the statewide delegate threshold, at 13 percent.

And a Dallas Morning News/University of Texas-Tyler poll shows Bloomberg in a stronger position: Sanders leads Bloomberg by 8 points, 29 percent to 21 percent, with Biden close behind at 19 percent.

Southern states look like the Super Tuesday battlegrounds.

Which states are truly up for grabs on Tuesday? The ones that look — at least a little — like South Carolina.

Alabama has a large share of African-American voters, and Biden, who won roughly 60 percent of the black vote in South Carolina on Saturday, will be the favorite there.

But in other Southern states that have significant — but smaller — black populations, the race looks like a jump ball. An NBC News/Marist poll in North Carolina shows Sanders (26 percent) and Biden (24 percent) essentially tied there, with Bloomberg in third at 15 percent.

Then there’s Virginia, where a Christopher Newport University poll released on Friday shows Biden (22 percent) slightly ahead of Sanders (17 percent) and Bloomberg (13 percent).

There isn’t as much recent polling in states like Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee — but the demographic profiles of those states suggest that similarly close contests are likely.

Can Warren hold off Sanders in Massachusetts?

A Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University poll released Saturday shows the two liberals running neck-and-neck in Warren’s home state. Sanders (24 percent) and Warren (22 percent) are well ahead of the second-tier candidates in Massachusetts: Bloomberg (13 percent), Pete Buttigieg (12 percent) and Biden (11 percent).

The situation is similar for Amy Klobuchar, who is trying to win her home state of Minnesota but isn’t registering in polls elsewhere. The most recent poll in Minnesota, from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Mason-Dixon, is a week old, but it showed Klobuchar holding off Sanders, 29 percent to 23 percent.

Don’t look for signs of a Biden bounce in the polls.

We’ll probably need to wait until Tuesday night to see whether Biden’s strong performance in South Carolina gives him momentum. All of the polls cited in this article were conducted before Saturday’s first-in-the-South primary.

Biden is trying to capitalize on South Carolina, and his campaign has a plan to propel his underfunded campaign in places where they are outflanked by Sanders and Bloomberg, in particular.

There are limits to what a Biden surge can look like in some of these states, however — especially those with robust early voting before the South Carolina primary. In California, the majority of voters mail in their ballots ahead of Election Day. In Texas, 1 million people had already voted early in person through Saturday. In North Carolina, 792,000 voters have already cast their ballots.

Still, there are some signs Democrats have been holding back their ballots to see how the race would play out. In California, political consultant Paul Mitchell told POLITICO he’d seen a significant drop-off in ballots returned among regular primary voters, suggesting they are waiting until the last minute. And in Texas, the early turnout in the GOP primary (1.1 million) is thus far outpacing the Democratic contest, despite no competitive race at the top of the Republican ticket.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/01/super-tuesday-polls-bernie-biden-bloomberg-118459

TOKYO (AP) — The last group of about 130 crew members got off the Diamond Princess on Sunday, vacating the contaminated cruise ship and ending Japan’s much criticized quarantine that left more than one fifth of the ship’s original population infected with the new virus.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told a news conference that the ship is now empty and ready for sterilization and safety checks to prepare for its next voyage. He did not give a timeline.

The British-flagged and U.S.-operated Diamond Princess had carried an infected passenger part way before returning to its home port in Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Feb. 3. Of the 3,711 passengers and crew members on board, 705 were infected on the ship, triggering international criticism of the quarantine and Japan’s disease control capability.

Kato said the government would investigate the handling of the cruise ship. “We should investigate the case so that we will not expand infections again,” he said.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/03/01/coronavirus-final-diamond-princess-cruise-crew-members-vacate-ship/4922243002/

EXCLUSIVE: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Sunday that a new case of the coronavirus appeared in Chicago overnight, marking the latest spread of the outbreak in the United States.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Azar confirmed the latest infection as fears mount that the virus will continue to spread across the country.

“We’ve had 23 cases here in the United States that are not a result of us repatriating individuals from Japan or China,” Azar said. “Of those individuals, we’ve got cases in Chicago as well as Washington and Oregon where we do — and two in California where we do not yet know why they contracted the novel coronavirus.”

CORONAVIRUS FEARS SEND FACE MASK PRICES SKYROCKETING, PROMPT WARNINGS ABOUT PRICE GOUGING

There are now three cases of the coronavirus in Illinois, with the Chicago Tribune reporting Saturday night that the latest case “resulted in presumptive positives for COVID-19.” The patient is hospitalized in isolation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocols have been implemented, as officials try to locate and monitor anyone who had contact with the infected individual.

According to the Associated Press, there have been 62 cases of the coronavirus in the United States with one death so far.

The man who died was in his 50s, had underlying health conditions and no history of travel or contact with a known COVID-19 case, health officials in Washington state said at a news conference. A spokesperson for EvergreenHealth Medical Center, Kayse Dahl, said the person died in the facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.

“At this point we do not know how this gentleman contracted the illness,” Azar said. “Right now there’s a large investigation going on in the nursing home, the hospital, contact tracing to try to determine where that disease was introduced and how it might have spread.”

CORONAVIRUS FEARS SEND FACE MASK PRICES SKYROCKETING, PROMPT WARNINGS ABOUT PRICE GOUGING

A growing number of cases in California, Washington state and Oregon are confounding authorities because the infected people hadn’t recently traveled overseas or had any known close contact with a traveler or an infected person.

Azar tried to assuage concerns that the outbreak of coronavirus wil spread widely among the American public, telling Fox News that the chances on contracting the virus “remains low,” but noted that “things can change rapidly.”

“The risk to any individual American remains low,” Azar said. “Thanks to the efforts the president has taken, they stay low.  We’re working to keep it that way.

He added: “But things can change rapidly.  They should know we have the best public health system in the world though looking out for them.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hhs-sec-azar-says-new-coronavirus-case-appears-in-chicago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leaders in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas rolled out bans on big gatherings and stricter travel restrictions as cases of the new coronavirus spread around the world.

The United States on Saturday reported its first death from the disease, a man in his 50s in Washington state, where officials said two of the state’s three cases have links to a nursing home with dozens of residents showing disease symptoms.

Although most Americans face a low risk from the virus, more U.S. deaths could be imminent following the nation’s first, CNN quoted Vice President Mike Pence as saying.

“We know there will be more cases,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper in a clip released on Saturday, echoing President Donald Trump’s earlier comments that additional cases in America were “likely.”

Travelers from Italy and South Korea would face additional screening, Trump and top officials told a White House news briefing, warning Americans against traveling to coronavirus-affected regions in both countries.

Pence said an entry ban on travelers from Iran would be expanded to include any foreign nationals who have visited Iran in the last 14 days.

The United States may also restrict travel on its southern border with Mexico, officials said. However, they encouraged Americans to travel around the country, including states that have recorded some of its more than 60 cases.

The outbreak is disrupting flight demand and many airlines have suspended or modified services in response. After Saturday’s press conference, the White House held a call with airlines to discuss new travel restrictions.

American Airlines Inc said late on Saturday it was suspending all U.S. flights to Milan.

NEW CASES

Ecuador on Saturday reported its first case, in a woman who had traveled from Madrid, while Mexico reported four cases, all in people who had visited Italy.

Brazilian officials confirmed that country’s second case, a patient in São Paulo who recently visited Italy.

As governments worldwide stepped up efforts to halt the spread of the virus, France announced a temporary ban on public gatherings with more than 5,000 people in confined spaces. It reported 16 new cases for a total of 73, and canceled a half-marathon of 40,000 runners scheduled for Sunday.

Switzerland said it is banning events expected to draw more than 1,000 people.

More than 700 tourists remain quarantined at a hotel in the Canary Islands, after several Italian guests there tested positive for coronavirus.

Schools and universities in Italy, which is experiencing Europe’s worst outbreak of the disease, will stay closed for a second consecutive week in three northern regions. The country has reported more than 1,100 cases and 29 deaths.

Analysts have warned that the outbreak looks set to shunt Italy’s fragile economy into its fourth recession in 12 years, with many businesses in the wealthy north close to a standstill and hotels reporting a wave of cancellations.

FOCUS ON IRAN

Iraq reported five new cases of the disease, bringing its total to 13, and Qatar reported its first Saturday, leaving Saudi Arabia as the only Gulf state not to have signaled any coronavirus cases.

The majority of infections in other Gulf countries have been linked to visits to Iran or involve people who have come into contact with people who had been there.

Armenia reported its first infection on Sunday, in a citizen returning from neighboring Iran.

Tehran has ordered schools shut until Tuesday and extended the closure of universities and a ban on concerts and sports events for a week. Authorities have also banned visits to hospitals and nursing homes as the country’s case load hit nearly 600.

One Iranian lawmaker, elected in Feb. 21 polls, has died from the disease along with more than 40 other Iranians, and several high-ranking officials have tested positive for the virus.

Azerbaijan said on Saturday it had closed its border with Iran for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Two Azerbaijanis who traveled to Iran have tested positive for the disease and quarantined.

Mainland China reported 573 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Feb. 29, up from 427 the previous day, national health officials said on Sunday in China. The number of deaths stood at 35, down from 47 the previous day, taking the toll in mainland China to 2,870.

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The epidemic, which began in China, has killed almost 3,000 people worldwide, the ministry said.

Thailand reported its first death from the virus on Sunday, while in Australia, a former passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined off Japan died in the western city of Perth.

Churches closed in South Korea as many held online services instead, with authorities looking to rein in public gatherings, as 376 new infections took the tally to 3,526 cases.

Reporting by Steve Holland and Julia Harte; Additional reporting by Reuters reporters worldwide; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Clarence Fernandez

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health/gatherings-banned-travel-restricted-as-coronavirus-cases-grow-worldwide-idUSKBN20O14L

Despite their dire warnings earlier this year that President Trump’s foreign policy endangered the United States and assured that the 2020 elections would be riddled with foreign election interference, House Democrats have now essentially dropped their investigative efforts into the Trump administration’s Ukraine dealings.

The drawdown, which has seen Democrats decline to make new witness requests or file relevant subpoenas since the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial, could be a tacit acknowledgement that the probes wouldn’t be politically helpful as the 2020 presidential field narrows. Amid impeachment proceedings, a Gallup poll found that support for both President Trump and the Republican Party had risen to historic highs.

APPEALS COURT DISMISSES DEMS’ EFFORT TO COMPEL MCGAHN TESTIMONY

However, Democrats have insisted that their previous statements still hold true, and that they are merely acceding to legal and political realities.

“There is nothing that Donald Trump can do that would cause [Senate Republicans] to convict him of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Politico. “So that has caused everybody in the House to take a deep breath and figure out what our next steps are.”

In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., holds redacted documents as he speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Added Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.: “I would argue that impeachment actually served its purpose. It highlighted for people what we’re dealing with here and what the stakes are.”

Still, there was no question that top Democrats had only recently touted impeachment not as a method of raising awareness, but of averting a grave national security threat.

“The president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., remarked on the Senate floor in January.

WATCH: SCHIFF WARNS OF RUSSIAN ATTACK ON US MAINLAND UNLESS TRUMP IS REMOVED

Then, drawing rebukes from commentators across the political spectrum, Schiff added, “As one witness put it during our impeachment inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.”

Holdover efforts by Democrats to flex their oversight muscles have fallen flat in recent days. Last Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Democrats’ efforts to compel the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn, who was first subpoeaned last April. The White House has asserted executive privilege to protect McGahn’s testimony and documents from disclosure; the longstanding constitutional principle, which was also routinely asserted by the Obama administration, is designed to protect sensitive White House deliberations.

The 2-1 ruling relied on the principle that the federal courts should avoid interference in intrabranch disputes, and was a crushing blow to congressional Democrats’ oversight enforcement both generally, and in the Ukraine matter.

“The Committee’s suit asks us to settle a dispute that we have no authority to resolve,” wrote Judge Thomas Griffith, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.“The walk from the Capitol to our courthouse is a short one, and if we resolve this case today, we can expect Congress’ lawyers to make the trip often.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters shortly after the decision that she would request a so-called “en banc” review of the decision by the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the strategy of pursuing appeals could be fraught with risk, as the possibility remained that the Supreme Court down the line could further strengthen executive privilege. It’s still unclear whether Democrats will pursue such an appeal.

Pelosi herself has signaled that Democrats may be backing off their aggressive approach. In February, she outwardly vowed that Democrats would probe whether there was an “abuse of power” when senior DOJ officials intervened to lower line prosecutors’ 9-year sentencing recommendation for former Trump aide Roger Stone.

But that issue has largely fizzled, as Stone was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison — approximately the same sentence the senior DOJ officials wanted.

And, Pelosi has made sure to temper expectations, telling reporters that House Democrats aren’t going to “spend all of our time going after every lie that the administration henchmen make.”

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Democrats, she said, were preparing for testimony from Attorney General Bill Barr in March. But she stopped short of announcing any new full-scale probes.

“At some point, you’d think they would take a page out of the president’s book and devote themselves to working for the country, but I guess not,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham mused at the time.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-investigations-flatline-despite-vows-to-pursue-trump-after-senate-impeachment-trial

Mike Bloomberg has bought three minutes of primetime TV on Sunday night, in order to address the US about the coronavirus outbreak and Donald Trump’s response.

News of the billionaire former New York mayor’s latest campaign advertising outlay, reckoned to be between $1.25m and $3m, was followed by a pair of tweets from the White House.

“Mini Mike Bloomberg’s consultants and so-called ‘advisors’ (how did that advice work out? Don’t ask!), are on the ‘gravy train’,” Trump wrote, “all making a fortune for themselves pushing Mini hard, when they knew he never had what it takes.

“Don’t pay them anymore Mike, they led you down a very dark and lonely path! Your reputation will never be the same!”

Reportedly impressed, if not cowed, by Bloomberg’s personal fortune of around $60bn, Trump was initially said to have urged aides to take seriously the formerly Republican mayor’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But despite massive spending Bloomberg has struggled in two Democratic debates and failed to oust Joe Biden as the moderate frontrunner. The key test of his ambitions comes on Tuesday, when 14 states and one territory, American Samoa, will stage primaries.

In the ad which will air on CBS and NBC around 8.30pm ET on Sunday – and which is entitled “Leadership in Crisis” – Bloomberg appears in suit and tie and American flag pin, in front of a background which thanks to more flags and a sunlit window looks not unlike the Oval Office.

“At times like this it is the job of the president to reassure the public that he or she is taking all the necessary steps to protect the health and wellbeing of every citizen,” Bloomberg says.

“The public wants to know their leader is trained, informed and respected. When a problem arises, they want someone in charge who can marshal facts and expertise to confront the problem.”

Bloomberg does not mention Trump and instead touts his experience in public health management while mayor of New York City between 2001 and 2013, which he says included dealing with “a hurricane, a blackout, attempted terror attacks, the West Nile virus and swine flu”.

In response, the Trump campaign said the president was “effectively managing the coronavirus situation and has placed the United States ahead of the curve in its comprehensive response”.

A spokesman added: “Mike Bloomberg is shamelessly politicising the issue and only further exposing himself as an unserious candidate. He’s a joke.”

Trump, who complained at a rally on Friday night that Democrats were perpetrating a “hoax” in seeking to use the outbreak against him, has been accused of politicising the virus himself.

On Sunday his vice-president Mike Pence, the leader of much-criticised White House efforts to contain the outbreak, parried questions about remarks by Trump and key supporters.

The first US death from coronavirus was reported in Washington state on Saturday. According to the World Health Organization, there have been 83,652 cases and nearly 2,800 deaths worldwide. Most are in China but international travel, trade, business and sporting events have been affected. This week saw steep falls on most financial markets.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Saturday, meanwhile, Trump mocked Bloomberg physically.

“We’ve got Mini Mike [Bloomberg] but I think he’s out of it,” said Trump, 73 and 6ft 3in, about his 78-year-old, 5ft 4in challenger.

“That was probably the worst debate performance in the history of presidential debates. It just shows you can’t buy an election. I mean, there’s a point at which people say, ‘You gotta bring the goods a little bit, too.’”

Trump then pretended to be Bloomberg, crouching behind the lectern to audience laughter and chants of: “Four more years!”

According to the New York Times, on NBC Bloomberg’s ad will run “during Little Big Shots, a variety show featuring child performers hosted by the [actor] Melissa McCarthy”.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/01/mike-bloomberg-tv-ad-coronavirus