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‘The Mueller Report proves journalists were right” read a April 19 headline in Slate. “If some of the revelations in Robert S. Mueller III’s redacted report sound familiar,” noted a New York Times’ subtitle, “it’s because many of them were previously published by The New York Times and other news outlets.” Meanwhile, CNN’s Reliable Sources, touted the fact that CNN, The Washington Post, and the New York Times were cited 203 times in the report.
While self-congratulation has its place, it should not displace self-examination. Because it hid the identity of the reporters in question, one passage in the Mueller report may not draw the level of newsroom discussion that it deserves. “GRU (the Russian intelligence agency) officers using the DCLeaks persona gave certain reporters early access to archives of leaked files by sending them links and passwords to pages on the dcleaks.com website that had not yet become public,” it read.
Importantly the Russian contacts with these unnamed journalists occurred in July and September — before the Oct. 7 joint statement by the director of national intelligence and the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security that the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democratic accounts. Nonetheless, the Russian-press nexus flagged by Mueller raises the question, What should the press learn from its use of Russian hacked content in 2016?
The question is an important one because press amplification of the Russian-hacked content is a probable explanation for the October 2016 erosion in the public perception that Hillary Clinton was qualified to be president. Among the press lapses at play during that period were inadequate disclosure of sources and sundering hacked statements from context.
The failure to adequately disclose was on display as early as summer 2016, when Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum, who was herself the object of a 2015 Russian smear campaign for her writings about the Russian invasion of Crimea, cautioned about it. Most “of those covering this story, especially on television, aren’t interested in the nature of the hackers, and they aren’t asking why the Russians apparently chose to pass the e-mails on to WikiLeaks at this particular moment, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention,” she wrote, “They are focusing instead on the content of what were meant to be private e-mails.” Unsurprisingly, then, the press largely sidelined the statement by national intelligence and Homeland Security that the Russians were behind the hacking. In the subsequent news coverage and in the final two debates, the illegal Russian provenance of the stolen content was all but ignored by journalists.
In the process, instead of casting the purloined Democratic communications as “stolen,” “hacked,” or “illegally gotten” the go-to label for reporters was “leaked. ” At the same time, rather than sourcing them either to Russian operatives or to fugitive from justice Julian Assange, they were credited to his organization, WikiLeaks.
To assess the impact, let me offer a thought experiment. Suppose instead of declaring “We’ve learned from WikiLeaks, that you said this,” in the third debate, moderator Chris Wallace had said, “We’ve learned from WikiLeaks, which is an organization created by Clinton-antagonist Julian Assange, an operative she sought to prosecute for disclosing classified government documents.” Or alternatively, “My next question is based on stolen Democratic materials, whose accuracy we have been unable to verify, gotten by Russian hackers through cyber-theft.” Had such characterizations been top of mind, I suspect that reporters would have been more careful in their use of the pirated content and viewers more prone to ask, “Why would the Russians and Assange want to defeat the Democratic nominee?”
One injudicious use occurred when reporters joined the Republican nominee, Breitbart News, and Rush Limbaugh in asserting that, in a hacked segment of a closed-door speech, Clinton had unequivocally supported “open trade and open borders.” Instead, what she had said was, “My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.”
Over 71 million viewers never heard the second part of that sentence when, in the final presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked her to “clear up your position on this issue because . . . we’ve learned from WikiLeaks, that you said this. And I want to quote. ‘My dream is a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders.’ ” Because news reports and Wallace’s question both assumed that in private Clinton supported open trade and open borders, her protest that those words were out of context sounded disingenuous.
Importantly, “open borders” organized Trump’s central appeals into one resonant phrase that signaled: immigrants crossing our national boundaries to rape, murder, suppress wages, and steal jobs; trade policies that transformed working-class dreams into a nightmare; and terrorists threading their way toward a next 9/ 11. In short, a central Republican indictment of the Democratic nominee was legitimized by the problematic press use of Russian-stolen content. In “Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President,” I show that those who viewed the third debate were more likely than those who didn’t to conclude that Clinton said one thing in public and another in private, an inference that predicts a reduced likelihood of projecting a vote for her. So too does the drop in her perceived competence.
To ensure that past is not prologue, the nation’s news outlets would do well to promulgate policies regarding use of hacked materials that confirm that they will examine stolen, leaked material with care, tell their audiences whether it has been independently verified, and disclose relevant information about its origins. Doing so would not only prevent decision-making on the fly but also would warn aspiring hackers that future theft-and-release will not be rewarded in 2020 and beyond in the ways in which it was in 2016.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and author of the “Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President.”
Sharp contractions in personal consumption, exports, inventories, investment and spending by state and local governments all converged to bring down GDP, which is the combined tally of all goods and services produced during the period.
Personal consumption, which historically has accounted for about two-thirds of all activity in the U.S., subtracted 25% from the Q2 total, with services accounting for nearly all that drop.
Spending slid in health care and goods such as clothing and footwear. Inventory investment drops were led by motor vehicle dealers, while equipment spending and new family housing took hits when it came to investment.
Prices for domestic purchases, a key inflation indicator, fell 1.5% for the period, compared to a 1.4% increase in the first quarter when GDP fell 5%, The personal consumption expenditures price index dropped 1.9% after rising a tepid 1.3% in Q1. Excluding food and energy, the “core” PCE prices were off 1.1%.
However, personal income soared, thanks in large part to government transfer payments associated with the coronavorus pandemic. Current-dollar personal income rose more than six-fold to $1.39 trillion, while disposable personal income shot up 42.1% to $1.53 trillion.
Despite the rise, personal outlays tumbled by $1.57 trillion, due in large part to a drop in services spending.
Imports surged 10% for the month, offsetting the 9.4% drop in exports.
India is in the grip of a Covid-19 surge that has hit with more speed and ferocity than any seen before in the more than yearlong coronavirus pandemic. It has overwhelmed New Delhi’s chronically underfunded government hospitals and turned securing a private-hospital bed into a nearly impossible feat.
India’s surge came after loosening restrictions and public complacency set in, with highly contagious variants now spreading around the globe potentially serving as an accelerant. The outbreak threatens to extend the pandemic itself, driving world-wide numbers to new highs and creating an enormous viral pool that could become a breeding ground for new and potentially dangerous mutations.
“It is a major point of concern that more troublesome variants can emerge if left unchecked,” said Rakesh Mishra, director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, who works on genome sequencing of Covid-19 samples. “I don’t even want to imagine a more nasty variant.”
The U.K., South African and Brazilian variants have all been identified in India, as well as one first identified in India.
India’s coronavirus surge shows no signs of abating. The number of confirmed infections among its population of over 1.3 billion has continued to rise each day since India first recorded the highest ever number of cases—more than 314,000 infections—on Thursday. It was the world’s biggest ever single-day jump of new infections.
Dos personas fueron detenidas entre la madrugada y la mañana de hoy, por su presunto vínculo con la muerte del policía Wilson Coronel en una pizzería de Pocitos en la madrugada del lunes, confirmaron a El País fuentes del Ministerio del Interior.
Una de estas personas fue capturada en la madrugada de hoy. Por la mañana, se llevó a cabo un allanamiento en el que se detuvo al segundo implicado. Ambos quedaron a disposición judicial. Ambos son mayores de edad.
Si bien en un principio se informó que había tres sospechosos capturados, desde el Ministerio del interior se aclaró que el tercer detenido no está vinculado a este caso.
Detenidos vinculados con la muerte del Policía son solo 2, el otro detenido no se lo vincula al caso.
Coronel fue despedido ayer sin honores. Compañeros del funcionario policial hicieron una colecta para comprar una bandera de Uruguay, que fue llevada sobre el féretro, cargado por otros policías
Las autoridades del Ministerio del Interior sostienen que Coronel estaba ejerciendo un servicio de guardia irregular, por lo que no merece un tratamiento honorífico. La madre de dos de los cuatro hijos del Policía, Fabiana Criado, exhibió su recibo de sueldo. En efectivo ganaba $ 16.807 por mes.
Horas antes del sepelio, la mujer escribió un mensaje a las autoridades: “Se fijan en un tecnicismo, ellos que viven con un sueldo de reyes mientras él cobraba 16 mil pesos como tantos otros que están obligados a hacer un 223 para vivir”, dijo Criado.
Joe Biden’s national polling lead against President Donald Trump has been relatively stable for months. But the looming question for Biden is whether he can get the right combination of voters to turn out for him on Election Day — and in the right places.
Barack Obama beat his Republican challengers in 2008 and 2012 by driving historic turnout among African American voters and winning working-class white voters in Midwestern Rust Belt states.Replicating that exact playbook may not be realistic; Trump’s hold on white working-class voters can’t be underestimated.
“Michigan and Pennsylvania are prerequisites for a Biden victory,” said election analyst Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “After that, what can put him over the top? Is it Wisconsin, Arizona, or Florida?”
The Biden campaign strategy will take a series of carefully executed plays. Cut into Trump’s margins with rural and exurban voters in states from the Upper Midwest to Florida. Make sure African American, Latino, and Asian American turnout is strong in Sun Belt and Rust Belt states alike. Appeal to a subset of voters where Democrats have been racking up big wins lately: suburban voters (especially women) who may have voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 but are wary of Trump.
And — maybe the biggest play of all — see if the campaign can win or at least significantly cut into the president’s margins with older voters, a traditionally more conservative and reliable bloc that suddenly seems to be turning away from the president.A recent Fox News poll found voters aged 65 and older said they preferred Biden to Trump by 17 points. A recent Quinnipiac University poll also showed Biden 22 points ahead with women 65 and older (and Trump leading men in the same age group). These polls could certainly change, but they’re worrying sign forTrump, who won older voters by 7 points in 2016.
“Even if Joe Biden cuts the margin of what Trump won [with older voters], because they’re the largest single age group, it is a huge, huge game changer,” said Biden adviser and pollster John Anzalone.
It’s going to be tough to pull off. Trump has an incumbent advantage and vast financial resources. And Democrats could risk stretching themselves thin; as much as there are new opportunities, there are also a lot of areas where they need to play defense.The former vice president’s strength with the African American community may not be enough to garner Obama’s levels of support from black voters. The Trump campaign’s attempts to woo black voters certainly haven’t escaped Democrats’ attention, and they’re worried black voters in Midwestern states who stayed home in 2016 may do the same in 2020.
However he gets there, Biden needs to find the right combination of voters in the right states. And with the coronavirus and a tanking economy upending the political landscape, he may have more opportunities to draw a distinction between himself and Trump.
“At this point, we see very few voters as off the table,” said Becca Siegel, the Biden campaign’s chief analytics adviser.
Rather than replicate the Obama coalition, Joe Biden wants to build his own.
Biden needs to win with a combination of white and black voters in the Rust Belt
Biden’s national polling lead of 5.5 points over Trump, according to RealClearPolitics, certainly doesn’t mean the election is a lock for him. As Hillary Clinton saw in 2016, where you win is more important than how many people you win nationally; if you don’t have the Electoral College, you don’t have the White House.
The Cook Political Report’s most current Electoral College forecast projects Democrats currently have a slight advantage with 232 electoral votes in states that are either solid, likely, or lean blue, compared to 204 electoral votes in red states for Republicans. Keep in mind these ratings could certainly fluctuate. There are just six states that Cook currently rates as true toss-ups (plus Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District; Nebraska is one of two states that assigns Electoral College votes to individual House districts).
Trump won all these toss-up states in 2016: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina.
The Midwestern trifecta of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin is an area where Democrats historically had solidly won presidential elections from the early 1990s, until Trump came along. Of the three, election forecasters believe Michigan and Pennsylvania are likelier to go blue in 2020 than Wisconsin.
Biden supporters and campaign staffers cheer after a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 10.Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Getty Images
The RealClearPolitics average of head-to-head state polls shows Biden up 6.5 percent in Pennsylvania, 5.5 percent in Michigan, and a smaller 2.7 percent lead in Wisconsin. (In the rapidly diversifyingSun Belt states, Biden has a 4 percent lead in Arizona, a 3.3 percent lead in Florida, and Trump has a 1 percent lead in North Carolina.)
Biden winning the three Rust Belt states will take a combination of strong African American turnout in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit, suburban voters, and working-class white voters where Democrats can get them. While Biden is strong with African Americans overall, Trump’s campaign is doing outreach that could cut into that lead.
“We should take the Trump efforts with black men and younger black men seriously,” said Addisu Demissie, former campaign manager for Sen. Cory Booker’s presidential run. “When you’re talking about margins in the tens of thousands in some of these states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida, that could be the difference. On the margins, any constituency matters.”
Polls so far show Trump still has a pretty strong hold on working-class white men nationwide, which he won by nearly 50 points in 2017. This is the core of Trump’s base, and they have largely remained loyal. Still, there is the potential for some movement among white non-college-educated women, who Trump carried by 27 points in 2016.
“There seems to be a bit more movement, you can peel a few more of them off,” said Monmouth University Polling Director Patrick Murray, adding that Biden is “certainly going to lose men in that group by a huge margin.”
Winning back working-class areas with Democratic roots and a heavy union presence in 2020 “isn’t rocket science,” said Rep. Conor Lamb, the Pennsylvania Democrat whose long-shot win in a 2018 House special election in western Pennsylvania was a sign of life for the party there. “You can win a lot of votes in these areas, but you’ve got to fight for them.”
When Lamb was first running in the special election, he met plenty of voters who felt left behind by the Democratic Party. “They just kind of felt ignored in a general sense,” Lamb told Vox. Although Clinton had poured resources into Pennsylvania, voters in rural areas outside of Pittsburgh where steel and coal-mining jobs were disappearing didn’t feel it. Many voted for Trump.
This year, Lamb said his constituents aren’t interested in hearing Democrats bash Trump as much as they are in issues that hit their pocketbooks, like the cost of prescription drugs, support for Medicare and Social Security, and well-paying jobs in Pennsylvania’s energy sector. Ties to organized labor in Pennsylvania and Michigan are still strong; less so in Wisconsin after state Republicans there passed a bill to gut unions.
“One of my messages to the Biden campaign has been and will be, it’s important to talk about who we are, what we are for, without mentioning the president,” Lamb said. “People want to know, ‘what are you going to do for me.’”
Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat elected to Michigan’s heavily suburban 11th Congressional District outside Detroit, similarly said voters in her communities are tired of the constant partisan bickering in Washington, DC. It also happens the district had the 10th highest turnout in 2018, nationwide. It could see even greater turnout this year.
“We have a lot of people very eager to see the drama stop and see DC get to work for them,” Stevens said.
Biden needs to win over retirees to win Florida, the retiree state
The southern coastal swing state is key to any candidate’s victory on election night. It was crucial to Trump’s Electoral College win in 2016, when the Republican candidate over-performed Mitt Romney in white and rural exurban counties.
Clinton did well in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, but Trump’s performance in the corridor along Interstate 4, around Tampa and St. Petersburg, was too much for Democrats to overcome. They don’t want to make the same mistake twice.
Biden is currently leading Florida by 3.3 percent, according to RealClearPolitics. That’s causing some politicos who had written Florida off as a solid Trump win to rethink its competitiveness. If history is any indicator, the election there could be very tight; the last two presidential elections in the state were decided by less than a point.
“I’ve never understood why people didn’t think Florida was going to be in play,” said Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale, Obama’s Florida state director in 2008.
An election worker assists a voter during the Florida primary in Miami, Florida, on March 17.Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP/Getty Images
Like Arizona, Florida boasts a sizable Latino population, but it’s largely made up of Cubans and Puerto Ricans rather than Mexican-Americans in the southwestern US. Because Florida is home to a contingent of people who fled socialist governments in Cuba and Venezuela, its Latino population tends to be more right-leaning. The GOP has found success with this group in the past. Biden also bested Sanders with Florida Latinos in the 2020 primary.
“What’s fascinating there is it’s a population of people who for the most part came to the US with status,” said Schale, explaining why immigration issues aren’t as salient in Florida as they are in other parts of the country.
When it comes to November, Democrats are looking for opportunities along the I-4 corridor, and the suburbs and exurban communities between Orlando and Tampa are a prime target for them. Older voters account for another big reason why Florida is back on the table for Democrats in 2020. Florida is where many Americans go to retire, including large shares of retirees from places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
“The swing voters in Florida, they tend to be the retired versions of people who live in the upper Midwest,” Schale said. “[If] the Democrats do well in Florida, they’re also going to do well in the upper Midwest. And if they do well in the upper Midwest, they’re also going to do well in Florida.”
Older voters will be key in Florida, but they’re also a key contingent in really any Electoral College state, whether it be in the Rust Belt or Arizona.
As FiveThirtyEight’s Geoffrey Skelley wrote, Trump’s average margin with older voters in head-to-head polls this year is underperforming his 2016 margins. Among voters 55 and older, Trump’s current margin is 10 points behind where it was in 2016. And among voters 65 and older, the president’s margin is about 14 points behind where it was in 2016. Biden isn’t necessarily winning these voters outright in polls, but he’s catching up to Trump’s numbers. Biden’s team considers even cutting into Trump’s margins with older voters a win.
“We’ll all be cautious about what the margin is,” Anzalone said. “I think we’ll do better, I’m not sure we’ll win them, but even if we cut the margin in half, it’s significant electoral impact.”
To win Florida, Biden needs plenty of retirees in his corner. But he also can’t ignore younger generations in that state, or any other.
Polls around the country show Biden has some work to do with younger voters. These voters tend to be more progressive; they also tend to turn out less reliably than older voters. The former vice president is doing outreach; he has already assembled policy-focused task forces with his former competitor Sen. Bernie Sanders, a popular figure among the younger generation. But more work will need to be done to make up an enthusiasm gap.
“In a close and tight election, these are the difference makers, these are the people who could swing this election,” said Sanders’s former 2020 campaign Faiz Shakir.
A combination of Latinos and suburban whites could put Biden over the top in Arizona
With a 4 percent lead on the RealClearPolitics state polling average, Biden’s campaign seems particularly bullish on Arizona. This southwestern state is a traditionally Republican stronghold that’s trending purple, owing to a combination of a growing Latino vote and white, college-educated suburban voters.
“We believe there will be battleground states that have never been battleground states before — Arizona on the top of the list,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters recently. “We are not only ahead [in Arizona], but we have a strong opportunity there to build our pathway to victory.”
Arizona voted for Trump in 2016, but pollsters see substantial demographic changes contributing to Democrats’ recent success there. Democratic US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was elected in 2018, as was a Democratic secretary of state. And this year’s Arizona Senate race is one of the most competitive in the country.
“The reason states are moving bluer in the Southwest is we’re forming coalitions,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told Vox. “What happened there is a combination of moderate white Anglos joining with progressive Latinos to win and put progressive Democrats in office.”
A number of Arizona Latinos are progressive, and the Democratic primary between Biden and Sanders was competitive for that reason. Biden’s team plans to do significant outreach there, and Gallego said the work of contacting Latino voters needs to happen as soon as possible.
Changing demographics in North Carolina make it competitive
Out of all the Electoral College toss-ups, North Carolina is the biggest reach state for Democrats in 2020. Trump slightly overperformed Mitt Romney in the red-leaning swing state in 2016, but its cities and suburbs are a growing worry for Republicans.
Trump’s razor-thin 1 point lead in North Carolina’s polling average reflects the state’s complicated political dynamics. In 2008, Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1976, and he did it by the slimmest of margins.
But even though Republicans have consistently won presidential elections in the state, the last three elections have been close, 2 to 3 points at the most. Many voters there are moderate, and Democrats successfully took the governor’s seat in 2016, a bright spot in an otherwise dismal election for them.
Joe Biden supporters celebrate his primary victory in Raleigh, North Carolina, on March 3.Eamon Queeney/The Washington Post/Getty Images
The reason North Carolina is so competitive this year, both with the presidential contest and the Senate race, is its growing suburbs. People are moving to North Carolina cities and their suburbs; in 2017 and 2018, a full 63 percent of the state’s population growth happened in the Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham metropolitan areas, which are all considered blue spots and a potential opportunity for Democrats.
As Cook’s Amy Walter noted in a recent analysis, Super Tuesday election results in the state showed that the suburbs around cities saw markedly increased Democratic turnout; 61 percent of the vote for Democrats compared to 38 percent for Republicans (keep in mind, the Republican primary this time was less competitive with Trump as the incumbent). In 2016, Walter wrote, the Republican share of the votes in these suburbs was 54 percent Republican compared to 46 percent Democratic.
In addition to doing better in the North Carolina suburbs, Democrats will also have to cut down Trump’s margins in more rural areas and exurban communities if they have any hope of a good night there.
Obama won in 2008 in part because of enthusiastic black voter turnout, which also helped lift Democrat Kay Hagan to the Senate. Biden likely won’t be able to get the same levels of black support in North Carolina as the first black president did. His best hope there is combining strong black turnout with a surprising level of white suburban support, and cutting into Trump’s rural and exurban voters.
“This is very much about narrowing the margins from 2016,” said Anzalone. “I think that what Biden has going for him in terms of his connection with voters, he has the ability to narrow the margins with rural voters, with exurban voters.”
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A man adjusts a boy’s protective face mask on Thursday as they try to avoid contracting a new coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea. The country is reporting a spike in COVID-19 cases, predominantly in its south.
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A man adjusts a boy’s protective face mask on Thursday as they try to avoid contracting a new coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea. The country is reporting a spike in COVID-19 cases, predominantly in its south.
Heo Ran/Reuters
Updated at 2 p.m. ET
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Korea has doubled in just 24 hours, to 104 from 51, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Many of the new cases of coronavirus are linked to a Christian sect in Daegu, a city in southern South Korea.
Korea’s CDC says a woman who became the country’s 31st confirmed patient on Feb. 18 had attended services held by a religious group called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony.
The woman, who was born in 1959, had visited Wuhan, China — where the novel coronavirus was first discovered in December — the KCDC says. It adds that she was reported to have 1,160 contacts – by far the most of anyone on its list of patients.
“The church has shut down” because of the outbreak, NPR’s Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul. “Daegu has closed some public facilities,” he adds. “A U.S. Army garrison in Daegu restricted travel in and out of the base and imposed a quarantine on personnel who had visited the church.”
In a message posted online, the Shincheonji church expressed deep regret over the coronavirus cases. It also said it’s cooperating with authorities and is spending several days sterilizing its buildings in Daegu.
The same woman who attended the church also visited Cheongdo Daenam Hospital, which has emerged as a second cluster of infections. Patients and staff there are being tested for the respiratory virus, and the hospital is being disinfected, according to the KCDC.
South Korea is also reporting its first coronavirus-related death — and the patient was from the Cheongdo Daenam Hospital cluster. While the 63-year-old man had tested positive for the virus, the exact cause of death was still being investigated, the KCDC says.
The virus has killed more than 2,000 people — most of them in China’s Hubei province, the center of the outbreak. Globally, nearly 17,000 people had recovered from the illness as of Thursday afternoon ET.
A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he drives a trike in Beijing, China, Thursday. The novel coronavirus has killed more than 2,000 people – most of them in China’s Hubei province.
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A Chinese man wears a protective mask as he drives a trike in Beijing, China, Thursday. The novel coronavirus has killed more than 2,000 people – most of them in China’s Hubei province.
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2 Diamond Princess passengers die after contracting COVID-19
Two Japanese passengers who had been on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship have died after being infected with the novel coronavirus. Japan’s health ministry says the male and female passengers were hospitalized last week. They were both in their 80s.
The man and woman are the first Diamond Princess passengers to die during the virus outbreak. The cruise ship has been under a quarantine at Yokohama’s port near Tokyo since Feb. 3.
A bus carrying passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship is escorted as it leaves the terminal in Yokohama, Japan, on Thursday. Two people who were recently taken off the ship have died after contracting COVID-19.
Eugene Hoshiko/AP
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A bus carrying passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship is escorted as it leaves the terminal in Yokohama, Japan, on Thursday. Two people who were recently taken off the ship have died after contracting COVID-19.
Eugene Hoshiko/AP
Both of the passengers died about a week after tests confirmed they were infected with the respiratory virus. The male passenger was from Kanagawa prefecture and the female passenger was from Tokyo, the health ministry said. It added that while the man died from COVID-19, the woman died from pneumonia.
A total of 634 people from the Diamond Princess have tested positive for COVID-19, the Japanese agency said. More than half that number are identified as “asymptomatic pathogen carriers,” meaning that while they don’t show signs of the illness, they can still transmit the disease to others or become sick themselves.
The deaths were reported as the shipwide 14-day quarantine expires and as the governments of Hong Kong, Australia, Israel, Canada and other countries work to repatriate their citizens. Like the Americans who recently arrived in the U.S., those passengers face new quarantines back home.
When passengers test positive for the novel coronavirus, they’re taken off the Diamond Princess and sent to local hospitals. Those diagnoses also reset the 14-day quarantine period for their traveling partners and close contacts.
About 3,700 passengers and crew were aboard the ship when it initially arrived at the Yokohama terminal. That number is now dropping by the hundreds
President Trump’s plan to slap new tariffs on Mexican imports, weeks after escalating his trade war with China, leaves the United States fighting a multi-front campaign that threatens more instability for manufacturers, consumers and the global economy.
The president’s bombshell announcement that he would impose 5 percent tariffs on Mexican imports, with the possibility of raising them to 25 percent if Mexico doesn’t stop migrants from crossing into the United States, left some economists fearing there were few limits to Trump’s appetite for trade conflict.
“In our view, if the U.S. is willing to impose tariff and non-tariff barriers on China and Mexico, then the bar for tariffs on other important U.S. trading partners, including Europe, may be lower than we previously thought,” Barclays economists said in a research note. “We think trade tensions could escalate further before they de-escalate,” Barclays added.
Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, called Trump’s move against Mexico a turning point for financial markets and the U.S. economy.
In global markets Friday, investors spooked by new tariff threats sought safety in German government bonds and the Euro rather than their customary dollar-denominated havens. This “seems to me an indicator that the concerns about the U.S. are rising,” Posen said.
The president’s latest move rocked business leaders who were already scrambling to reshape supply chains to avoid fallout from the U.S. confrontation with China. The added uncertainty may paralyze executives who can’t be sure their next supply chain location will be any safer than their last.
(David Zalubowski/AP)
“A lot of companies feeling pressure to get out of China are looking at Mexico if they want to serve the US market, Vietnam if they’re more focused on Asia,” said William Reinsch, a former Commerce Department trade official. “Trump’s action yesterday scrambles all those plans.”
In one example of a company caught in the crossfire, GoPro of San Mateo, Calif., last month announced it would move manufacturing of some of its cameras from China to Mexico, so that it could stop paying tariffs to import them to the United States — tariffs resulting from the U.S. trade war with China. Weeks later, GoPro now faces new tariffs to import those goods from Mexico. The company declined to comment Friday.
As U.S. companies race to find new tariff-free places to manufacture, so far few have reported returning production to the United States, despite the president’s stated aim of using trade policy to help bring jobs back home. Many are still seeking alternative locations overseas, where labor is cheaper.
Trump said he would impose the new tariffs because the Mexican government wasn’t doing enough to stem the flow of migrants, many of whom travel through Mexico from Central America. Some White House officials who support Trump’s approach believe the threat of tariffs is the only way to get the attention of Mexican leaders.
The Mexican government tried to defuse the tension Friday, saying the two sides would meet in Washington on Wednesday for high-level talks.
If no solution is found, Mexico is certain to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, with likely targets including U.S. pork, beef, wheat and dairy products, said Former Mexican diplomat Jorge Guajardo.
Some prominent Republicans, including Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley, raised concerns that the new tariffs could threaten a trade agreement the Trump administration clinched only months ago with Mexico and Canada, to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
Others said the about-face treatment of Mexico would damage Trump’s ability to negotiate trade deals it is pursuing with other partners, including China and Europe.
“You can’t negotiate a trade agreement with someone and then turn around and whack them,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican economist and former Congressional Budget Office director.
In late March, Trump threatened to shut the entire southern border to curb illegal immigration, but backed down a week later after an outcry. That has left some wondering how seriously they should take the latest tariff threat.
If Trump follows through with new tariffs on Mexico, it would hurt U.S. economic growth and increase the possibility of the Federal Reserve reversing course and cutting interest rates this year, economists said.
“The drag to the US economy could be meaningful, especially if the tariffs reach 25%,” the upper limit that Trump has set, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists wrote Friday. Even if the tariff remains at 5 percent, the effective cost could be higher because many parts cross the border several times as products are assembled, and the tariff must be paid upon each crossing into the United States.
U.S. automakers will be among the principal casualties. Last year, the United States imported roughly $350 billion in merchandise from Mexico, including about $85 billion in vehicles and parts, according to the International Trade Administration.
A full 25 percent tax “would cripple the industry and cause major uncertainty,” according to Deutsche Bank Securities.
“The auto sector – and the 10 million jobs it supports – relies upon the North American supply chain and cross border commerce to remain globally competitive,” said Dave Schwietert, interim president of the Auto Alliance, an industry group. “This is especially true with auto parts which can cross the U.S. border multiple times before final assembly.”
“Widely applied tariffs on goods from Mexico will raise the price of motor vehicle parts, cars, trucks, and commercial vehicles – and consumer goods in general — for American consumers,” the industry group said. “The potential ripple effects of the proposed Mexican tariffs on the U.S. North American and global trade efforts could be devastating.”
Consumers could pay up to $1,300 more per vehicle if the tariffs are implemented, according to Torsten Slok, chief economist for Deutsche Bank Securities.
Retailers, technology companies and textile manufacturers also will be hurt. U.S. mills now ship yarn and fabric to Mexico, where it is turned into apparel and exported back to American retailers. Last year, the U.S. textile industry exported $4.7 billion in yarn and fabrics to Mexico, its largest single market.
“Adding tariffs to Mexican apparel imports, which largely contain U.S. textile inputs, would significantly disrupt this industry and jeopardize jobs on both sides of the border,” said Kim Glas, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations.
The new dispute with Mexico came as the U.S.-China trade conflict continued to deepen.
China on Friday announced it would establish a blacklist of “unreliable” foreign companies and organizations, effectively forcing companies around the world to choose whether they would side with Beijing or Washington.
The new “unreliable entities list” would punish organizations and individuals that harm the interests of Chinese companies, Chinese state media reported, without detailing which companies will be named in the list or what the punishment will entail.
Chinese reports suggested the Commerce Ministry will target foreign companies and groups that abandoned Chinese telecom giant Huawei after the Trump administration added Huawei to a trade blacklist this month, which prohibited the sale of U.S. technology to the Chinese company.
At a time when Western corporations have cut back executive travel to China after authorities detained two Canadians on national security grounds in December, the new blacklist sent another shock wave through the business community.
“I think foreign and especially U.S. firms now have to worry that China is creating a new ‘legal pretext’ to at least impose exit bans on foreign individuals who make this new list, if not worse,” said Bill Bishop, the editor of the Sinocism newsletter, referring to the Chinese practice of not allowing designated foreigners to leave China.
Aside from the new blacklist, China in recently days also escalated threats to stop selling the U.S. so-called rare earths — 17 elements with exotic names like cerium, yttrium and lanthanum that are found in magnets, alloys and fuel cells and are used to make advanced missiles, smartphones and jet engines.
Analysts said it could take years for the United States to ramp up rare-earths production, after its domestic industry practically disappeared in the 1990s. Roughly 80 percent of U.S. imports of the material come from China, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, carried a stark warning for the United States this week in an editorial about rare earths: “Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
That commentary surprised China experts because the People’s Daily, which often signals official positions with subtly codified language, uses that phrase sparingly: It famously appeared before China launched border attacks against India in 1962 and Vietnam in 1979.
Damian Paletta contributed to this story. Shih reported from Beijing.
It is a response to the toppling of statues and monuments in recent weeks after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted protests for police reform and social justice.
But the order offers little in the way of new authority. It directs federal law enforcement officials to prosecute “to the fullest extent permitted” people who violate existing federal laws that already make it a crime to damage or destroy a monument or statue.
The order also urges prosecution of anyone who is caught “attacking, removing or defacing depictions of Jesus or other religious figures or religious artwork.”
Protesters across the country have knocked down monuments, mostly of Confederate generals. In Raleigh, N.C., the statues of two Confederate soldiers were torn down. And in San Francisco, a crowd toppled a bust of Ulysses S. Grant, despite the fact that he was a Union general who beat the Confederate Army. (Protesters noted that he was also a slave owner.)
In Washington, protesters knocked over a statue of Albert Pike, the only Confederate general honored in the city, and they tried — unsuccessfully — to take down a statue near the White House of Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president.
Democrats initially proposed dropping the funding to a total to 35,520 detention beds, but ultimately have settled on funding for roughly 45,500, according to the senior congressional aides, with flexibility for more beds, if needed.
pamplona – DIARIO DE NOTICIAS ha sido considerada la publicación mejor diseñada de España y Portugal y su rediseño ha merecido la Medalla de Oro en la undécima edición del certamen ÑH Lo Mejor del Diseño Periodístico España&Portugal. Este certamen, organizado por el Capítulo Español de la Society of News Design (SND), premia el diseño de diarios, revistas y publicaciones on line de España y Portugal.
Con estos galardones, la SND premia así el rediseño que este periódico emprendió en febrero de este año de la mano de la empresa Errea Comunicación.
El reconocimiento al esfuerzo y profesionalidad de los trabajadores de este periódico supone un impulso al compromiso que DIARIO DE NOTICIAS tiene con lectores y anunciantes. Asimismo, es un motivo más de celebración en este año del 20º aniversario del nacimiento del diario.
20 años de premios | DIARIO DE NOTICIAS ya fue uno de los protagonistas del XVII Congreso Mundial de la SND, celebrado en Barcelona en 1995, que le otorgó 19 menciones y fue calificado como uno de los veinte periódicos mejor diseñados del mundo (y el segundo más galardonado de los medios españoles, sólo superado por El Mundo, por delante de cabeceras tan importantes como El País, La Vanguardia, El Periódico de Catalunya, Marca y El Mundo Deportivo). DIARIO DE NOTICIAS fue puesto como un ejemplo de innovación. La SND reconoció especialmente la calidad de la portada del día 17 de junio de 1994, fecha en la que daba comienzo el Mundial de fútbol de Estados Unidos. La primera página de aquel día reproducía un gran balón que daba la vuelta por el lomo del ejemplar desde la contraportada.
En 1996 DIARIO DE NOTICIAS recibió diez medallas de la SND como premio a su calidad gráfica, entre ellas una de oro (a las que sólo accedían otros cinco rotativos de todo el mundo). El organismo internacional reconocía especialmente la cobertura gráfica de la muerte del corredor Matthew Peter Tassio en el encierro de los Sanfermines del l 3 de julio de 1995, y el despliegue informativo con motivo de la boda de la infanta Elena de Borbón con Jaime de Marichalar en marzo del mismo año. Este diario consiguió, además, dos medallas de plata y seis distinciones. Asimismo, continuó un año más en el selecto club de los veinte periódicos mejor diseñados del mundo.
Por tercer año consecutivo, en 1997, DIARIO DE NOTICIAS fue reconocido como uno de los dieciséis periódicos mejor diseñados del mundo y recibió seis galardones. En concreto la SND premió la labor de la redacción por el tratamiento de la noticia de la liberación del industrial guipuzcoano José María Aldaya, secuestrado por ETA el 15 de abril de 1996, con una mención honorífica; otorgó un Premio a la Excelencia por el diseño del suplemento dominical Revista y a la portada del 31 de octubre de 1996 dedicada a la proclamación de Bill Clinton como candidato del Partido Demócrata a la presidencia de los Estados Unidos. Además, la portada de la Revista dedicada al otoño, del domingo 22 de septiembre de ese año, logró una Medalla de Plata; y un reportaje dedicado a los viajes de San Francisco Javier, publicado el 1 de diciembre, fue reconocido con otro Premio a la Excelencia.
En 2004 otro organismo, el European Newspaper Award, reconoció a DIARIO DE NOTICIAS como el periódico de ámbito local mejor diseñado de Europa. – D.N.
Category 3 Hurricane Dorian has parked itself over the northwestern Bahamas since Sunday night, unleashing a nightmare 24-hour siege of devastating storm surge, destructive winds and blinding rain. With Dorian perched perilously close to the Florida peninsula, Monday night into the first part of Tuesday has become the critical time that is likely to determine whether the state is dealt a powerful blow or a less intense scrape.
Just tens of miles and subtle storm wobbles could make the difference between the two scenarios.
The storm has come to a standstill over Grand Bahama Island. If it soon starts to turn north, Florida would be spared Dorian’s full fury. But if Dorian lumbers just a little more to the west, more serious storm effects would pummel parts of the coastline. Such small differences in the track forecast will have similar implications farther north, from coastal Georgia to the Carolinas.
In its 2 a.m. bulletin Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center wrote that Dorian will “move dangerously close to the Florida east coast” late Tuesday through Wednesday evening, then up the coast to North Carolina by late Thursday.
For this reason, the National Hurricane Center has issued hurricane, storm surge, and tropical storm watches and warnings from the Atlantic coast of Florida northward into South Carolina. Storm surge refers to the storm-driven rise in ocean water above normally dry land.
“[T]he threat of damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge remains high,” the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Fla., wrote. “There will be considerable impacts and damage to coastal areas, with at least some effects felt inland as well!”
Serious storm effects are likely in coastal Georgia and the Carolinas in the middle and latter half of the week as Dorian picks up speed and heads north.
The latest on Hurricane Dorian
As of 3 a.m. Tuesday, the storm was stalled over Grand Bahama Island. The National Hurricane Center downgraded the storm from Category 4 to Category 3, with maximum sustained winds near 120 mph.
Radar from South Florida showed Dorian’s outermost rain bands pivoting inland producing occasional gusty showers. Late Monday evening Juno Beach pier in northern Palm Beach County clocked a sustained wind of 46 mph (tropical-storm force) and gust to 56 mph and the Weather Service in Miami warned showers coming onshore could produce gusts up to 50 mph or so into the night.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles. The latest forecast from the Hurricane Center calls for Dorian to gradually weaken, but it will remain a formidable hurricane as it makes its closest pass to Florida (around a Category 3) and northward to the Carolinas (around a Category 2).
“Regardless of the details of the intensity forecast, the bottom line is that Dorian is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it tracks very near the east coast of the U.S. from Florida to North Carolina during the next few days,” the Hurricane Center wrote.
Northwest Bahamas taking a nightmarish extended direct hit
While Florida and areas farther north await effects from the monster storm, a “catastrophic” scenario has unfolded in the northwestern Bahamas, where the storm’s eyewall, the ring of destructive winds around the center, struck Sunday and then stalled through Monday evening.
In the process, three islands endured direct hits Sunday: Elbow Cay, Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island. Dorian hardly budged over Grand Bahama Island Sunday night and all of Monday as the Hurricane Center warned of wind gusts between 165 and 220 mph and a storm surge up to 23 feet. At least five people have died.
The Hurricane Center described a “life-threatening situation” in Great Abaco Sunday and on Grand Bahama Island through Sunday night and Monday. It stated the wind and storm surge hazards would cause “extreme destruction.”
The eyewall finally showed signs of lifting north of Grand Bahama on Monday evening but continued to lash its north coast. It could take until Tuesday morning for the worst of Dorian to finally depart.
The extended nature of the direct hit has meant that these areas have been hit with extreme winds and storm surge flooding during multiple high tides, tearing infrastructure apart and subjecting anyone who did not evacuate before the storm to a truly terrifying ordeal.
Pounding rain (totaling up to 30 inches), damaging winds and the storm surge may not entirely ease until the second half of Tuesday in the region.
This is a storm that could reshape the northwest Bahamas, particularly Great Abaco and Grand Bahama, for decades.
Complicated forecast for Florida
The hurricane warnings posted in Florida are focused on the period from Monday night through early Wednesday. Tropical-storm-force winds began Monday afternoon in coastal South Florida and should spread north Tuesday. These winds are likely to continue into Wednesday, perhaps reaching hurricane-force strength late Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how close to the coast Dorian tracks.
Some computer models show the center of Dorian coming closest to the northern half of Florida’s east coast Tuesday night into Wednesday, when conditions may become most hazardous.
The latest storm surge forecast for Florida shows that if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide, the area from Lantana (just south of West Palm Beach) to the Georgia Border could see four to seven feet of water above ground, while the region from Deerfield Beach to Lantana could experience two to four feet.
“The threat for life-threatening storm surge also remains high, and severe erosion of the beaches and dune lines is a near certainty! The combination of surge and high astronomical tides will cause severe runup of waves and water, resulting in inundation of many coastal locations,” the Weather Service office in Melbourne wrote.
On top of that, about four to eight inches of rain is projected to fall.
Because the storm is predicted to be a slow mover, effects from wind, rain and storm surge could be prolonged, lingering through the middle of next week.
The forecast is highly sensitive to the storm track, and subtle shifts to the east or west would result in less or more severe wind, surge and rain.
Forecast for coastal Georgia, the Carolinas, and farther north
Conditions are expected to deteriorate by early Wednesday in coastal Georgia, by late Wednesday in South Carolina and by Thursday in North Carolina. But just how much is uncertain. Where and whether Dorian makes landfall will depend on the exact trajectory of its turn relative to the coast as it turns north and then starts to bend northeastward.
Scenarios involving a direct hit, a scrape and a graze are possible based on available forecasts.
A hurricane watch was issued Monday for coastal Georgia and the South Carolina coast as far north as South Santee Island (which is just south of Myrtle Beach).
“Life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds are expected along portions of … the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, regardless of the exact track of Dorian’s center,” the Hurricane Center wrote. “Water levels could begin to rise well in advance of the arrival of strong winds. “
The Hurricane Center projects a storm surge of 4 to 7 feet in coastal Georgia north to the South Santee River in South Carolina.
While specific projections are not yet available farther north, a direct hit is perhaps most likely in North Carolina because its coast sticks out into the ocean farthest east.
“The risk of life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds continues to increase along the coast North Carolina,” the Hurricane Center wrote. “Residents in these areas should follow advice given by local emergency officials.”
Locations even farther north from Virginia Beach to the Delmarva and even up to Cape Cod could get brushed by the storm Friday and Saturday. Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D) declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.
The overwhelming majority of computer model forecasts keep the center of Dorian just to the east of the Florida coast rather than bringing the eye of the storm ashore.
However, there are still some outliers that bring the eye onshore or right to the coastline, particularly in the northern half of the state.
Group of simulations from American (blue) and European (red) computer models from Monday afternoon for Hurricane Dorian. Each color strand represents a different model simulation with slightly altered input data. Note that the strands are clustered together where the forecast track is most confident but diverge where the course of the storm is less certain. The bold red line is the average of all of the European model simulations, while the bold blue one is the average of all the American model simulations. (StormVistaWxModels.com)
Farther north, from Georgia to the Carolinas, the margin between a landfall and offshore track is also razor thin. However, of all the locations between Florida and the Mid-Atlantic coast, models suggest that the North Carolina coast between Wilmington and the Outer Banks may be most prone to a hurricane landfall on Thursday.
Dorian’s place in history
Dorian is tied for the second-strongest storm (as judged by its maximum sustained winds) ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, behind Hurricane Allen of 1980, and, after striking the northern Bahamas, tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane for the title of the strongest Atlantic hurricane at landfall.
It is only the second Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the Bahamas since 1983, according to Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University. The only other is Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The international hurricane database goes back continuously only to 1983.
The storm’s peak sustained winds rank as the strongest so far north in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida on record. Its pressure, which bottomed out at 910 millibars, is significantly lower than Hurricane Andrew’s when it made landfall in South Florida in 1992 (the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm).
With Dorian attaining Category 5 strength, this is the first time since the start of the satellite era (in the 1960s) that Category 5 storms have developed in the tropical Atlantic for four straight years, according to Capital Weather Gang tropical weather expert Brian McNoldy.
The unusual strength of Dorian and the rate at which it developed is consistent with the expectation of more intense hurricanes in a warming world. Some studies have shown increases in hurricane rapid intensification, and modeling studies project an uptick in the frequency of Category 4 and 5 storms.
SEOUL (Reuters) – Accounts by former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton of discussions between leaders of the United States and the two Koreas in his upcoming book are inaccurate and distorted, South Korea said on Monday.
Bolton gives details in the book of conversations before and after three meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including how their second summit in Vietnam fell apart.
The book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir”, is scheduled for publication on Tuesday but media outlets have released excerpts.
Reports have cited Bolton as writing that Moon, who is keen to improve relations with North Korea, had raised unrealistic expectations with both Kim and Trump for his own “unification” agenda.
“It does not reflect accurate facts and substantially distorts facts,” South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said in a statement referring to Bolton’s description of top-level consultations.
Chung did not elaborate on specific areas South Korea saw as inaccurate but said the publication set a “dangerous precedent”.
“Unilaterally publishing consultations made based on mutual trust violates the basic principles of diplomacy and could severely damage future negotiations,” he said.
Trump and Kim met for the first time in Singapore in June 2018, raising hope for efforts to press North Korea to give up its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
But their second summit, in Vietnam in early 2019, collapsed when Trump rejected an offer by Kim to give up North Korea’s main nuclear facility in return for lifting some sanctions.
Bolton reportedly cites Chung as relaying Moon’s response to the breakdown as, on the one hand, Trump was right to reject Kim’s proposal but on the other, Kim’s willingness to dismantle the Yongbyon facility was a “very meaningful first step” toward “irreversible” denuclearisation.
Bolton refers to Moon’s position as “schizophrenic”.
Asked about that reference by Bolton, a top official in Moon’s office told reporters: “Perhaps he is in that condition.”
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Robert Birsel
A partial government shutdown looks probable as President Donald Trump digs in his heels on his demand to fund a border wall.
Congress has until midnight Friday to either pass spending bills for seven federal agencies, or approve a stopgap spending measure that would push off a potential shutdown. If those efforts fail, the closure could affect hundreds of thousands of Americans’ jobs through the holidays.
The Office of Management and Budget started notifying federal agencies Thursday that they should prepare for a shutdown. Yet since lawmakers have already funded large portions of the government through the 2019 fiscal year, the current crisis would only shut down parts of the government. The unfunded agencies make up about a quarter of the government.
This is what could happen if there is a shutdown this weekend:
Federal employees will work without pay
More than 420,000 federal employees across numerous agencies will continue to work even if the government shuts down. They just won’t get paid for it immediately.
Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee say that number will include more than 41,000 federal law enforcement and correctional officers from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and thousands of other law enforcement and correctional officers.
The vast majority of Department of Homeland Security employees will also work without a regular paycheck. The nearly 90 percent of workers in the agency affected by a shutdown would include 53,000 Transportation Security Administration employees, as well as 42,000 Coast Guard employees.
As many as 54,000 employees from Customs and Border Protection — the agents who are currently working to secure the southern U.S. border — are also projected to work without paychecks. By forcing a shutdown over border security, Trump would cause the agents he often lauds for their efforts to stop illegal immigration to temporarily go without compensation.
Up to 5,000 Forest Service firefighters and 3,600 National Weather Service forecasters will also keep working without paychecks, according to Senate Democrats.
The special counsel’s office, which is investigating potential criminal connections between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, will continue operating.
Furloughed workers
Another 380,000 federal workers or more would be placed on temporary leave without receiving pay in the event of a government shutdown, according the Democrats.
Furloughs would affect vast swathes of Department of Commerce and NASA staff. About 41,000 people, or 86 percent, would be furloughed from the Commerce Department, along with a staggering 96 percent of NASA employees.
Four-fifths of the Forest and National Park Services, totaling more than 44,000 employees, would be sidelined, as would approximately 52,000 staff from the IRS, and about 7,100 Housing and Urban Development workers — 95 percent of the total.
Thirty percent of Transportation Department employees, equaling about 18,300, would be furloughed, as well.
All of that lost work could cost taxpayers huge amounts of money. An Office of Management and Budget review of a 2013 government shutdown during the Obama administration concluded that the cost of “the lost productivity of furloughed workers” alone was $2 billion. The cost may not go that high this time with five agencies still running.
That shutdown was one of the longest in U.S. history. A failure to fund the government by midnight Friday would likely create a closure that lasts into the new year, when Democrats take majority control of the House.
Trump himself said in a tweet Friday morning that “if the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time.”
Department closures
Nine federal departments will be shuttered if the government shuts down this weekend. They are:
Department of the Treasury
Department of Agriculture
Homeland Security Department
Department of the Interior
Department of State
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Department of Commerce
Department of Justice
“Dozens” of U.S. agencies will also close down during the shutdown, according to the report from the Senate Democrats. Those closures could lead non-federal employees to feel the impact of the shutdown, as well.
For instance, with thousands of their employees furloughed, national parks are likely to close. In the previous shutdown in January, about one-third of the country’s national parks were closed — even following an agency directive to keep parks open.
U.S. housing authorities are also expected to see significant delays in loan processing and approvals.
Other institutions have announced preparations in the event of a partial shutdown. The Smithsonian said it will be able to use existing funds to keep its 19 museums and national zoo open to the public through Jan. 1.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said on its website Friday morning that it also “will remain open for a limited number of days, fully staffed and focused on the agency’s mission” if the government shuts down.
A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative said it “would be an agency affected by a lapse in appropriations.”
“Essential personnel will be on-duty to ensure USTR continues to conduct all necessary operations, including trade negotiations and enforcement,” the spokesman added.
— CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons contributed to this report.
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Mircoles, 15 de Julio 2015 | 12:42 pm
Créditos: Andina
“Queremos una comisin que se centre en la investigacin y no se retrotraiga a hechos anteriores a lo que pleno le ha encargado”, dijo la congresista de Gana Per.
La congresista de Gana Perú, Ana Jara, sostuvo hoy que la comisión que investiga al empresario Martín Belaunde incurrió en vicios legales que anulan su legitimidad al no tener claro por qué investiga a la Primera Dama, Nadine Heredia, y formularle preguntas subjetivas y sobre temas que no son objeto de investigación.
“Queremos una comisión que se centre en la investigación y no se retrotraiga a hechos anteriores a lo que pleno le ha encargado, pero está incurriendo en vacíos, en vicios legales que anulan su legitimidad. Ha excedido su mandato sin duda alguna”, indicó en TV Perú.
Para Jara, en la sesión de la víspera, la comisión reconoció que no tenía en claro la imputación por la cual pasó a condición de investigada a Heredia y que eso se verá recién en el transcurso de las próximas sesiones.
Además, dijo la legisladora, se le hizo preguntas que de por sí cuestionan la vida y la honra personal en base a “chismes de cocina”.
“Eso deslegitima la investigación y hace ver la parcialidad que existe por parte de sus miembros, muchos de los cuales ya han adelantado opinión”, señaló al remarcar que toda comisión debe guardar formas y respeto.
Jara refirió, asimismo, que la Primera Dama no elude la acción de la justicia ni del Congreso, pues en las ocasiones que fue convocada siempre asistió, y señaló no conocer si la comisión la citará nuevamente.
“No sé cuáles serán los próximos actos de la comisión, pero nada impide que (los investigados) sean citados. Lo que no debe quedar duda es que esta comisión nació muerta y sus actos procesales no surten efectos legales”, añadió.
Según el mandato del pleno del Congreso, la referida comisión debe investigar las denuncias periodísticas sobre las presuntas actividades ilícitas de Martín Belaunde Lossio para obtener contratos a favor de empresas vinculadas a él, y la posible vinculación con ellas de altos funcionarios del Estado.
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El expresidente uruguayo, Julio María Sanguinetti, calificó al gobierno venezolano como “la dictadura más destructiva de toda la historia latinoamericana”.
En una entrevista publicada hoy por Infobae, el primer presidente electo democráticamente en el país tras el régimen cívico-militar del período 1973-1985 consideró que “muchos (dictadores) podrán haber sido terribles desde los puntos de vista político, de las libertades y de los derechos humanos, pero ninguno llegó a este nivel de destrucción del aparato económico y del funcionamiento de la vida normal de la sociedad”.
Sanguinetti dijo que en el país caribeño “el Poder Judicial está subordinado inequívocamente, tanto como que se arrogó en favor del gobierno la facultad de sustituir al Parlamento” y cuando “se armó un gran griterío, el presidente se reunió con su Consejo de Defensa y resolvió retrotraer la decisión de la Justicia, lo cual demuestra que eran empleados suyos”.
El dos veces presidente señaló que se está ante “un poder omnímodo” en el que “el Congreso (parlamento) es desconocido (…) no hay separación de poderes, no hay Estado de Derecho”.
Sobre el futuro del presidente venezolano, Nicolás Maduro, dijo que “va a pelear hasta el último cartucho” porque no se ve “la voluntad de conciliar”. “A la altura en que han llegado las cosas, creo que Maduro está pensando en su cuello y en la soga con la cual lo podrían colgar. Su horizonte hoy es un exilio en una Cuba donde Raúl Castro va a estar hasta marzo”, indicó. Esto, según Sanguinetti, se debe a que “la carga de pasión, de enfrentamiento, de ilegalidad que le ha impuesto al país le va a generar una oleada que puede ir más allá de la justicia, de la venganza”.
Según el exmandatario, el diálogo entre gobierno y oposición fracasó porque “no han partido de lo esencial: ¿Usted está dispuesto a hacer elecciones? Si me dice que no, no seguimos hablando. Si me dice que sí, vamos a discutir todo: cuándo, cómo, quién vota, quién no, qué partidos sí, qué partido no, que políticos sí. Pero es evidente que el gobierno no está dispuesto a afrontar el veredicto de las urnas porque ya lo hizo por medio de la Asamblea General y tiene un Congreso con dos tercios en contra”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen JORDI BEDMAR / HANDOUT
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El gobierno catalán da como válidos los resultados de la votación.
El presidente del gobierno catalán, Carles Puigdemont, proclamó la victoria del “sí” en el referéndum de independencia que los tribunales declararon inconstitucional y el gobierno español intentó impedir con un fuerte dispositivo policial.
Puigdemont dijo que el “sí’ a la independencia es mayoritario” y anunció que trasladará ahora los resultados al Parlamento de Cataluña “para que se implementen”.
Según cifras difundidas por las autoridades catalanas, cerca del 2,3 millones de ciudadanos de esa región (en torno al 30% de la población catalana) votaron este domingo en el referéndum. De ellos, el 90%se inclinó por la independencia de la Cataluña.
En una declaración institucional desde el Palau de la Generalitat en Barcelona, Puigdemont afirmó que Cataluña ha “conseguido celebrar el referéndum que el Estado se ha esforzado tanto en impedir” e hizo una “apelación directa” a la Unión Europea para que intervenga ante la “intransigencia y la represión” con la que, a su juicio, actuó el gobierno español.
Puigdemont aseguró que “el gobierno español escribió hoy una página vergonzosa de su relación con Cataluña”.
También dijo que “con esta jornada de esperanza y de padecimientos, los ciudadanos de Cataluña nos hemos ganado el derecho a tener un Estado independiente que se constituya en forma de República”.
Según los datos del Departamento de Sanidad catalán, los enfrentamientos entre policiales y manifestantes dejaron más de 800 heridos.
La policía desaloja violentamente a los votantes en Cataluña.
El Ministerio del Interior desde Madrid aseguró que 33 policías también sufrieron heridas de diversa consideración.
De acuerdo con las denominadas “leyes de desconexión”, aprobadas por la mayoría independentista en el legislativo regional, el Parlament,y suspendidas después por el Tribunal Constitucional español, tras el referéndum, la cámara catalana deberá proclamar la independencia de Cataluña en un plazo de 48 horas.
La pregunta ahora es si se producirá la declaración unilateral de independencia, una posibilidad respecto a la que el propio Puigdemont no se había mostrado concluyente en las jornadas previas al referéndum.
Derechos de autor de la imagen JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images
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El presidente del gobierno español acusa a los independentistas catalanes de quebrar el orden constitucional.
Resultados
El secretario de la presidencia de la Generalitat de Cataluña, Jordi Turull, aseguró que durante el referéndum se contabilizaron 2.262.424 papeletas, en las que el “sí” a la independencia de Cataluña alcanzó el 90% de los votos, frente a un 7,8% de votos en contra.
Las autoridades catalanas dijeron que 319 de unos 2.300 centros de votación en la región habían sido cerrados por la policía, mientras que el gobierno español dijo que se habían cerrado 92 estaciones.
Pese a que, al haber sido declarado ilegal, la votación no pudo contar con el censo oficial de electores y a que muchos colegios permanecieron cerrados por orden judicial, la Generalitat da validez a los resultados del referéndum de este domingo.
Entre los detractores de la votación, se subraya que se llevó a cabo sin garantías y que en los colegios que permanecieron abiertos se produjeron diversas irregularidades. Varios medios españoles reflejaron casos de personas que pudieron votar varias veces y hubo denuncias de urnas que llegaron ya llenas de votos a los colegios.
La policía desaloja violentamente a los votantes en Cataluña.
El jefe del gobierno español, Mariano Rajoy, aseguró en una comparecencia que “ha prevalecido la democracia” y culpó de los incidentes violentos a quienes, a su juicio, “han promovido la ruptura de la convivencia y la legalidad”.
Mientras que Puigdemont planea activar el procedimiento para la secesión en el Parlamento regional, Rajoy anunció que convocaría a todos los partidos a un proceso de diálogo en el Congreso español.
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Miles de personas salieron a la calles para celebrar el resultado del referéndum.
Tras los resultados de este domingo, distintas entidades sociales de Cataluña anunciaron la convocatoria de una huelga general en respaldo de la reivindicación de una república catalana independiente.
Grandes multitudes de partidarios de la independencia se reunieron el domingo por la noche en el centro de la capital regional, Barcelona, agitando banderas y cantando el himno catalán.
Los manifestantes antiindependencia también realizaron manifestaciones en Barcelona y otras ciudades españolas.
Cataluña es una región rica de 7,5 millones de habitantes ubicada el noreste de España que tiene su propia lengua y cultura.
También tiene un alto grado de autonomía, pero no es reconocida como una nación separada bajo la Constitución española.
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