Ashton Kutcher is expected to testify Wednesday in the trial of an alleged serial killer called the “Hollywood Ripper.” Los Angeles prosecutors say Michael Gargiulo murdered three women including Ashley Ellerin who was friendly with the actor. Kutcher’s testimony is only expected to take a few minutes but it will be the first time we’ve heard Kutcher speak publicly about the case.
As a prosecution witness, Kutcher is expected to help establish the time of death for Ellerin. Kutcher and Ellerin were scheduled to go out on a date on the night she was murdered. When Ellerin failed to answer her cellphone earlier in the evening, Kutcher went to her Hollywood home and knocked on the door.
During opening statements, prosecutors told jurors they believe Ellerin was attacked from behind by Gargiulo after she exited her shower on February 21, 2001. Around 10:45 p.m., Kutcher arrived to take her to a Grammys party. According to deputy district attorney Daniel Akemon, Kutcher looked in the window when he arrived at Ellerin’s home and thought he saw wine spilled on the floor. “We believe now the evidence will show that was actually blood,” Akemon said.
Kutcher allegedly told police, when she didn’t answer the door he left. Ellerin was found brutally stabbed to death by her roommate the next morning.
Prosecutors describe Gargiulo as a “methodical and systematic” killer. He is accused of attacking at least four women, three in California and one in Illinois.
Michelle Murphy, the prosecution’s first witness, was allegedly Gargiulo’s only survivor. Prosecutors claim Murphy battled for the knife and say Gargiulo used to stab her, cutting him, and leaving his DNA at the crime scene – DNA that was found years earlier on another victim, Tricia Pacaccio, across the country.
The family of 18 year-old Tricia was called to testify in this trial because of the similarities between Tricia’s 1993 death in suburban Chicago and the three cases from L.A. County. Investigators believe Pacaccio was Gargiulo’s first victim.
Her murder was unsolved until 2011, when two witnesses came forward after watching a “48 Hours Mystery” report on the case. Within a few weeks, Gargiulo was indicted, but has not yet been tried. His attorneys deny he killed anyone.
The Pacaccio family had never met the two witnesses who blew open the case until they all came to L.A. to testify. But the Pacaccios must wait for the trial in L.A. to end, before Gargiulo can be brought back to stand trial for their daughter’s death.
“Fighting for this case goes on with me forever. And that’s the way it’s gonna be,” Diane Pacaccio said.
“My critics are political people,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
His critics, he said, are seeking “political gain.”
The shootings in El Paso and Dayton, in which at least 31 people were killed, have once again thrust Trump into the increasingly familiar role of consoling communities reeling from the brutality of the killings while navigating the tricky politics of gun control.
This time, however, at least some residents of the affected communities may not welcome Trump so warmly. Some critics argue that Trump’s rhetorical broadsides on migrants in particular created an atmosphere of hate that presaged the attacks.
Air Force One touched down in Dayton shortly before 11 a.m. ET.
The president said lawmakers are working toward a deal on legislation to increase background checks for gun purchases. Some lawmakers are discussing the possibility of red-flag provisions. Background checks would be a higher hurdle.
Red flag laws allow law enforcement, family members and others to petition a judge to confiscate guns from individuals who may cause harm to themselves or others.
“I’m looking to do background checks,” Trump said, adding that there is a “great appetite” for background checks.
When the president lands in El Paso in the afternoon, after visiting Dayton in the morning, he will be confronted by a front-page editorial in the El Paso Times lauding the city’s response and questioning the way his administration characterizes the community.
“Mr. President, in your February State of the Union address, you claimed that El Paso was ‘one of our nation’s most dangerous cities’ before a border wall was built,” editor Tim Archuleta wrote. “Mr. President, that is not El Paso.”
The El Paso Times is part of the USA TODAY Network.
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President Donald Trump said our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy following two mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso. USA TODAY
Trump expressed grievances in pre-trip tweets, criticizing Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke around midnight on Tuesday after the former congressman said the president should stay away from El Paso.
Trump also urged the news media to focus on reports that the shooter in Dayton allegedly used a Twitter account to express support for Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. While it’s true that other mass shooters have supported Democrats, Trump did not address the fact that his own rhetoric is unusual among national politicians in the intensity he brings to his attacks on immigrants.
Several El Paso officials urged Trump not to visit the area.
“Don’t come here President Trump, you are not welcome,” wrote Cassandra Hernandez, a city council member representing the neighborhood where the shooting occurred.
Mayor Dee Margo, the Republican mayor of El Paso, said he will meet with Trump.
In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told SiriusXM on Tuesday said he would not join Trump on the Dayton visit. “I don’t have any interest because of what he’s done on this – total unwillingness to address the issue of guns, his racist rhetoric.”
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said she planned to tell him that his proposals on gun control as outlined in remarks Monday are inadequate.
“His comments weren’t very helpful to the issue around guns,” Whaley told reporters.
Trump has at times struggled to fulfill the role of consoler-in-chief increasingly demanded of modern presidents. The president was greeted by hundreds of protesters singing softly in Hebrew or holding signs as he visited the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last year, days after a gunman killed 11 worshipers.
Months earlier, after the president spent an hour meeting with people who lost family members and the survivors of a shooting at a Texas high school, one of the mothers who lost a child described Trump’s presence in the private gathering as polarizing.
“It was like talking to a toddler,” she said.
Trump remained mostly out of sight Tuesday, even on Twitter. White House aides said the president spent the day meeting with staff and preparing for Wednesday’s travel.
“This is a very, very serious moment in our country’s history,” Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters. “This president recognizes the gravity of this moment.”
Americans overwhelmingly blame the mental health system, racism and white nationalism and loose gun laws for a series of mass shootings that have shaken communities across the country, according to a USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll this week.
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Jamila McNichols embraces her son, Mason, 2, in front of her brother Thomas “TJ” McNichols’ makeshift memorial on East Fifth Street in Dayton’s Oregon District Monday, August 5, 2019, the day after a gunman killed nine people, including TJ. “Life is so short for all the crazy madness going on, life is too short,” said McNichols, as she reflected on her brother’s death, “You just can’t get them back.” Meg Vogel
Nearly three of four Democrats said some of the responsibility should be held by the president, who has been criticized for racist tweets and provocative rhetoric aimed at Latinos, Muslims, blacks and others. That compared with just 23% of Republicans.
White House officials declined to say where within El Paso and Dayton the president is traveling, citing security concerns. The president is expected to visit Dayton first.
Critics questioned Trump’s sincerity in dealing with mass shootings, noting he backed away from an initial tweet calling for “strong” background checks for gun purchases. During subsequent remarks at the White House on Monday, Trump called on the nation to condemn “racism, bigotry and white supremacy.”
Democrats, including those who are making gun control an issue in the 2020 election, said Trump’s words after the shooting don’t erase his previous statement.
“This president, who helped create the hatred that made Saturday’s tragedy possible, should not come to El Paso,” tweeted O’Rourke, who once represented the city in Congress.
“We do not need more division,” he said. “We need to heal. He has no place here.”
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President Donald J. Trump awards Sergeant John A. Chapman the posthumous Medal of Honor on August 22, 2018 in the East Room at the White House for his actions on March 4, 2002, on Takur Ghar mountain in Afghanistan. Chapman’s aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, ejecting one teammate rom the aircraft, and crippling the helicopter after it crashed in the valley below. Chapman and the remaining joint special operations team members voluntarily returned to the snow-capped mountain, into known enemy stronghold, in an attempt to rescue their stranded teammate. Sergeant Chapman’s spouse, Valerie Nessel, and family joined the President at the White House to commemorate his example of selfless service and sacrifice on Aug 22, 2018. Camille Fine, USA TODAY
Trump responded as he typically does: with a Twitter thread.
“Few people know where they’ll be in two years from now, but I do, in the Great State of Alaska (which I love) campaigning against Senator Lisa Murkowski,” Trump wrote, noting that Murkowski voted against the GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
“Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don’t care, I’m endorsing. If you have a pulse, I’m with you!” the president concluded.
Trump’s response highlights the main reason the vast majority of Senate Republicans refuse to outwardly condemn his actions and statements, fearful that a presidential tweet could cost them in November.
But if history is any indication, unseating Murkowski could prove difficult. Murkowski, known for her independent streak, won the general election in 2010 as a write-in candidate after losing in the Republican primary to a conservative challenger — an extremely rare feat. Murkowski was appointed to the Senate in 2002 and was first elected to a full six-year term in 2004.
Trump’s posture this week has presented several challenges to Senate Republicans as they seek to distance themselves from his recent actions without provoking a response from him. After protesters were cleared from outside the White House so that Trump could participate in a photo-op on Monday night, several GOP senators came out against the move. They also openly criticized his tone and rhetoric in recent days as protests have engulfed the nation.
But Murkowski was the only Republican senator to fully endorse Mattis’ comments, which focused largely on Trump’s threat to deploy the military to American towns and cities to quell unruly protesters.
The GOP is still largely behind the president, an important barometer for an election year. But Murkowski suggested that the party’s calculus could change.
“I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally — and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up,” she said. “And so, I’m working as one individual to form the right words, knowing that these words really matter. So I appreciate General Mattis’ comments.”
Murkowski also noted that while she did not support Trump in 2016, she wants to maintain a relationship with the Trump White House to deliver resources for her state.
“I work hard to try to make sure that I’m able to represent my state well, that I’m able to work with any administration and any president,” Murkowski said. “He is our duly elected president. I will continue to work with him. I will continue to work with this administration. But I think right now, as we are all struggling to find ways to express the words that need to be expressed appropriately, questions about who I’m going to vote for, not going to vote for, I think are distracting at the moment.”
GUADALAJARA, JALISCO (17/AGO/2015).- Revisa lo más importante del 17 de agosto en México en este resumen de noticias publicadas a través de los sitios web de los medios que conforman los Periódicos Asociados en Red.
CHIHUAHUA
Dan de alta a César Duarte tras accidente de helicóptero
Debido a su pronta recuperación, el gobernador César Horario Duarte Jáquez fue dado de alta este lunes en la tarde del hospital Christus Muguersa, dio a conocer el secretario de Salud del estado, Pedro Hernández Flores.
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO
Peña Nieto propone sanciones penales a quienes endeuden a estados
El Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto enviará al Congreso de la Unión una propuesta para establecer sanciones penales en contra de los servidores públicos que endeuden y ocasionen daño a la hacienda pública en las entidades y municipios del país.
El gobierno del Distrito Federal promulgó el nuevo Reglamento de Tránsito de la Ciudad de México que busca reducir en un 35% los incidentes viales y el número de muertes que se registran en dichos percances.
Como parte de las actividades de conservación en carreteras federales de Jalisco, a partir del presente mes la Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) realiza obras de reencarpetado en las carreteras Guadalajara-Tepic, Guadalajara-Zacatecas y Zamora-Guadalajara, donde se invertirán este año aproximadamente 81 millones de pesos de recursos del Gobierno de la República.
Luego de una reunión con representantes de todas las instituciones públicas de educación media superior y superior en el estado, Mario López Valdez anunció que a partir de hoy hay un total de 25 mil 700 espacios en todas las escuelas de Sinaloa, para que ningún egresado de secundaria y preparatoria se quede sin estudiar en la entidad, y se cubra al 100% la demanda para el ciclo escolar 2015-2016.
In response to the U.S. move, activists chanted “Stand with Hong Kong” and “Save Us,” and urged the world to follow in America’s footsteps. Joshua Wong, a prominent activist who was among democracy supporters who lobbied for the new U.S. laws, praised them as a “remarkable achievement,” with human rights triumphing over crucial U.S.-China trade talks.
On Wednesday, Trump signed two bills into law. One prescribes economic sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials found guilty of human rights abuses. The second bill bans the export of certain nonlethal munitions to the former British colony’s police.
A protester holds American flags during a demonstration in Hong Kong’s financial district on Thursday.Kin Cheung / AP
“I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China, and the people of Hong Kong,” said Trump in a statement released by the White House. “They are being enacted in the hope that leaders and representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences leading to long term peace and prosperity for all.”
China, which has been struggling to contain anti-government protests roiling Hong Kong for nearly six months, responded with a stream of angry replies.
“We urge the U.S. to not continue going down the wrong path, or China will take countermeasures, and the U.S. must bear all consequences,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The editor of the Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, responded sarcastically to Trump’s message.
“Out of respect for President Trump, the U.S. and its people, China is considering [putting] the drafters of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on the no-entry list, barring them from entering Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao,” Hu Xijin wrote in a post on Twitter.
Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong expressed “extreme anger” toward the U.S., and added that Hong Kong belongs to China and “the Chinese have the ability to deal with Hong Kong affairs.”
Hong Kong’s government joined in, describing the bills’ passage as “unnecessary and unwarranted,” and warning that they would strike a blow against the “relations and common interests” of Hong Kong and the U.S.
Thousands, many waving American flags, gathered in Hong Kong’s financial district to celebrate the bills signed by Trump.
“This rally is to show our gratitude to America and also President Trump for passing the bill,” said Sunny Cheung, the rally organizer.
Student David So agreed.
“I think it’s a happy news,” he said. “It’s an international recognition on today’s Hong Kong situation.”
“Ultimately it’s up to us. The bills have their deterrent effects but Hong Kongers are the real ones who fight on,” he added.
Millions of Hong Kongers initially took to the streets over the summer to protest a controversial extradition bill that many feared would extend Beijing’s control over the city. The amorphous movement has developed wider demands for greater democracy, such as establishing an independent commission of inquiry into police brutality and universal suffrage.
So the U.S. bills are a major boost for the protesters, according to Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong.
“Certainly, a lot of us are quite helpless in front of Beijing and Carrie Lam’s administration and the police,” he said, referring to the territory’s beleaguered chief executive. “I think what worries the Chinese authorities [is] the turning tide in the public opinion of the United States and the Western world.”
Hay, también una razón tecnológica: por sus características de servicio de mensajería, y no de página web, Telegram queda fuera de la legislación rusa sobre medios y blogs. La aplicación creada por Pavel Durov, el hombre al que llaman “el Mark Zuckerberg ruso” —quien antes había lanzado, y perdido a manos de Putin, la red social VKontakte; desde 2014 vive exiliado, y cada diez semanas se muda de ciudad—, explota un hueco en las leyes rusas. Quién sabe por cuánto más: el Servicio Federal de Supervisión de las Telecomunicaciones ya ha convocado a reuniones a varios usuarios.
But Democrats in both the Senate and Assembly also made a key concession, dropping their demand that Newsom agree to provide healthcare to all California residents, regardless of immigration status. The governor’s proposal, an expansion of the program that was ultimately accepted, will allow those in the U.S. illegally full access to Medi-Cal services up to age 25, as long as they meet financial eligibility requirements. Legislators had wanted to include older immigrants too, a proposal that carried a substantially larger price tag.
For the third time in four days, Florida broke its record for new cases of COVID-19 in a day, with the Florida Department of Health reporting nearly 10,000 new cases on Saturday.
Florida now has 132,545 total cases of the virus, sixth most in the country.
On June 13, Florida’s percentage of positive tests was 4.39 percent. By Tuesday, it had ballooned to 15.84 percent, and it is currently 12.82 percent, nearly three times higher than it was two weeks ago.
DeSantis on Friday also said that the state was starting to see younger adults being more affected by the virus.
“What we’ve seen, particularly over the last week, is a real explosion in new cases among our younger demographics,” he said. “When we started this in March, the median age of people who tested positive was, I think, 65. As the testing ramped up, that went into the 50s. But it was pretty much in the 50s for most of the time and then just recently has really plunged.”
The median age of new cases on Friday was 34, by comparison.
The possible visit has also created political complications for the White House. “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now,” President Joe Biden said of the trip July 20.
Pelosi herself has long been a critic of China for its record on human rights. In 1991, she showed up in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with a banner that paid tribute to dissidents who were murdered in pro-democracy protests there two years earlier. Chinese authorities briefly detained her, as well as then-Reps. Ben Jones (D-Ga.) and John Miller (R-Wash.), over their protest.
“Tiananmen Square is a magnet for us. There is no way we could come here without being drawn to the square,” Pelosi said at the time.
China has considered Taiwan part of its territory since Mao Zedong established a communist state on the mainland in 1949 and nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. The U.S. did not recognize the mainland’s government until the 1970s; since then, American governments have had awkward, indirect relationships with Taiwan.
In her statement, Pelosi said she was traveling with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.).
South Bend mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg faced his constituents at a tense town hall Sunday afternoon one week after the fatal shooting of Eric Logan, an African American man, by South Bend Police Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, a white police officer.
Attendees shouted their concerns and their disappointment at city officials for not taking swifter action to address the strained relationship between the police department and the black community. Buttigieg noted the complex relationship between minorities and police extends beyond the incident that occurred on June 16.
“There is a lot beneath the surface when it comes to trust and legitimacy around policing and race in our city,” the South Bend mayor said.
Buttigieg told attendees that the city has made progress in regard to the promotion process, raising police discipline standards and increasing public data online. And Buttigieg said that he will send a letter to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to look into the city’s police department.
He also said he told the prosecutor handling the case that he thinks an independent investigator should take over the case. The St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit is investigating the shooting.
But Buttigieg also acknowledged he has failed to diversify the police department and ensure that officers wear body cameras. O’Neill’s body camera reportedly wasn’t activated during last Sunday’s incident.
“As the mayor of the city, I want to acknowledge that those last two lines of effort, the effort to recruit more minority officers to the police department and the effort to introduce body cameras, have not succeed,” he said. “And I accept responsibility for that.”
In the question-and-answer section, one attendee told Buttigieg to reorganize his department by Friday of next week to “get the racists off the streets,” in reference to law enforcement officers.
Buttigieg responded to shouts from the crowd, “I will say that if anyone who is on patrol is shown to be a racist, or to do something racist in a way that is substantiated, that is their last day on the street.”
Pete Buttigieg seen at a town hall on the night of Sun., June 23, 2019, in South Bend, Indiana.
WSBT-TV
South Bend Common Councilwoman Regina Williams-Preston, who was present at the meeting, called on Buttigieg to expand his outreach among the African American leaders in South Bend.
“There needs to be more meaningful conversations with a more diverse group because what you see tonight is that African Americans are not monolithic,” Williams-Preston said.
In a press gaggle after the town hall, an emotional Buttigieg said it was his job to hear from the community, regardless of what the ramifications may be.
“I just think it is my job,” Buttigieg said. “I don’t know if it is smart or not. I don’t know if it is strategic or not, but it is my city and I have a relationship with everybody in this city…And when somebody loses their life because of a civilian or because of an officer and it is happening all over the country, but it is happening here. Then I feel like it is my job to face it.”
Rev. Michael Patton, who is the president of the South Bend chapter of the NAACP, moderated the discussion with Buttigieg and South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski.
In an interview Friday afternoon with CNN, Patton supported Buttigieg’s efforts after the shooting, saying he has been doing a “phenomenal job.” Patton has also thrown his support behind Buttigieg in the presidential race.
“I certainly see our mayor as someone who potentially could lead our country as well. He’s led our community, South Bend, well,” Patton said. “I believe that he has — I have full confidence that he could lead our nation as well.”
A resident seen at a town hall hosted by South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sun., June 23, 2019.
WSBT-TV
Lwan Easton, a 37-year-old South Bend resident who attended the town hall, said the city needs to unite, but said he didn’t expect much going into the town hall.
“I just think it’s maybe a ploy to just kind of get us all together to talk, try to calm tensions and try to build confidence in the people that they going to figure everything out,” Easton said.
According to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, O’Neill was responding last Sunday to a report of a person breaking into cars. According to a release from the office, O’Neill encountered Logan in an apartment building parking lot and Logan allegedly approached O’Neill with a knife. O’Neill then reportedly discharged his weapon, shooting Logan in the abdomen.
This town hall comes days before Buttigieg is scheduled to participate in the Democratic primary debates. Buttigieg, who has been on and off the campaign trail since the incident, said he is still planning to debate his fellow candidates later this week.
House Democrats cannot accept the bipartisan border crisis compromise bill the Senate passed Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, and will demand changes to limit how long children can be held in some facilities.
Mrs. Pelosi also said Democrats will insist on more money to pay the communities that illegal immigrant families are being dumped into, and will demand a new method of processing migrants when they arrive at the border “which is culturally, linguistically and religiously appropriate.”
“For the children, we must do the best we can,” Mrs. Pelosi said.
Her comments came in a statement late Wednesday, as she huddled with her lieutenants to try to figure out how to respond after the Senate, in a bipartisan vote, rejected her partisan bill and instead passed its own bill.
Republicans said Mrs. Pelosi should accept that bill, pointing to the Senate’s 84-8 vote that suggested a massive consensus on that version.
But President Trump seemed to signal a willingness to compromise, telling reporters earlier in the day he’s spoken with Mrs. Pelosi and saw the outlines of a deal.
The House and Senate bills are similar in the amount of money — one is $4.5 billion while the other totals $4.6 billion — but they differ over how to spend it.
The federal Health Department, charged with caring for Unaccompanied Alien Children, gets a majority of money in each bill. But border authorities, the Pentagon and deportation officers get money in the Senate bill that’s absent from the House version.
And while both bills contain some restrictions on how the money can be spent, the House version contains many more.
Those provisions were added to appease Democrats’ liberal wing.
Mrs. Pelosi’s statement Wednesday suggests she’s willing to forgo most of those — but she said she’ll insist on one big change that would limit how long juvenile migrants can be kept in emergency unlicensed dormitories.
That’s also a key demand of the liberals, who object in particular to one Florida facility where more than 2,000 UACs are.
That facility, known as Homestead, has been the scene of pilgrimages by Democratic presidential candidates this week, demanding its closure.
MOSCOW, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Russia has closed its airspace to airlines from 36 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, in response Ukraine-related sanctions targeting its aviation sector.
Some of the banned countries had already been identified, while others were named by the aviation authority Rosaviatsia for the first time on Monday following the punitive measures imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The flight bans are expected to hurt airlines that fly over the world’s biggest country to get from Europe to Asia. They are likely to force them to find new routes.
Rosaviatsia said that flights from those countries could in exceptional circumstances be authorised if they secure special clearance from Russia’s aviation authority or foreign ministry.
It listed the countries as Albania, Anguilla, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, British Virgin Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Greece, Denmark, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Jersey, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the invasion of Ukraine a “special operation” and justified it by saying “neo-Nazis” rule the country and threaten Russia’s security – a charge Kyiv and Western governments say is baseless propaganda.
Pope Francis will return to St Peter’s Basilica later on Christmas Day to deliver the traditional papal message to the world.
Among those taking part in the Mass were children chosen from countries including Venezuela, Iraq and Uganda.
The BBC’s Rome correspondent Mark Lowen says this is a clear gesture from the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics who often focuses on the plight of migrants and victims of war, as well as on extending the reach of the Church to its periphery.
What did the Pope say?
“Christmas reminds us that God continues to love us all, even the worst of us. To me, to you, to each of us, he says today: ‘I love you and I will always love you, for you are precious in my eyes,'” the 83-year-old pontiff said.
“God does not love you because you think and act the right way. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you.”
And the Pope also alluded to the clerical abuse and financial scandals afflicting the Church.
“Whatever goes wrong in our lives, whatever doesn’t work in the Church, whatever problems there are in the world, will no longer serve as an excuse.”
What’s the context?
From Australian country towns to schools in Ireland and cities across the US, the Catholic Church has faced a catalogue of child sexual abuse accusations in the past few decades.
High-profile cases and harrowing testimony given to public inquiries have continued to keep the issue in the headlines.
Media captionGeorge Pell is the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of such crimes
Last week, the Pope introduced sweeping changes to remove the rule of “pontifical secrecy” that has pervaded the issue of clerical child abuse.
The Church previously shrouded sexual abuse cases in secrecy, in what it said was an effort to protect the privacy of victims and reputations of the accused.
But new papal documents lifted restrictions on those who report abuse or say they have been victims.
The Pope also changed the Vatican’s definition of child pornography, increasing the age of the subject from 14 or under to 18 or under.
Pope Francis has faced serious pressure to provide leadership and generate workable solutions to the crisis, which has engulfed the Church in recent years.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said recently he isn’t worried about President Donald Trump, who continues to rage against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt.” | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Trump ally is showing less urgency to act now that he’s assumed the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Lindsey Graham has long pushed for legislation to shield special counsel Robert Mueller from President Donald Trump. But now that he’s got the power to do something about it, he’s holding off.
“If I see a reason to do it I will, but I think we’re OK right now,” the South Carolina Republican said in a brief interview.
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As the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham will play a key role in how Congress responds to Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Just last month, he suggested he would advance bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel if the probe is still live by the end of February.
But Graham said recently he isn’t worried about the president, who continues to rage against a “witch hunt” that has secured a growing set of indictments and convictions, including those of close Trump campaign associates.
“I see no indication that he is going to do anything untoward toward Mr. Mueller, none,” said Graham.
His colleagues on the Judiciary Committee aren’t so sure — and they’re pushing Graham to act.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a co-sponsor of the Mueller protection bill, noted that Graham is also a co-sponsor and that the committee approved the bill last year under Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.).
“Chairman Graham is on the record having voted for this bill and advanced it to the floor,” Coons said. “I look forward to talking to him about why I think there continues to be urgency around protecting the special counsel.”
Graham has never kept his opinions to himself — expounding on what the president must do for political survival or laying out exactly what’s needed to cut an immigration deal.
But now that he’s Judiciary chairman, with jurisdiction over the Mueller bill, immigration, guns and more, he’ll be judged on more than just his rhetoric.
While Graham will be aided by his close ties to Trump, as well as a history of bipartisanship, it’s not clear that will be enough amid an erratic presidency and polarized Congress. He’s under further pressure as he faces reelection in 2020 in a state Trump won by 14 percentage points; any split with the president could be damaging in a GOP primary.
Last year, the Judiciary Committee approved the Mueller protection bill 14-7 despite opposition from the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Graham told reporters at the time that the Judiciary Committee “has an independent obligation to do what we think’s best” and the special counsel “now and in the future needs protection.”
McConnell kept the bill bottled up the rest of the previous Congress, and he has shown no willingness to reverse course — a decision that is likely to weigh on Graham, who has also cultivated ties with Trump after clashing with him in the 2016 campaign.
“I think Leader McConnell has sent the signal pretty strongly that he doesn’t want those bills brought up, and I suspect that Lindsey, as a new chairman, will want to pick his fights about crossing Leader McConnell when he’s made his position so clear,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), another committee member.
The Mueller investigation took center stage at Attorney General nominee William Barr’s confirmation hearing last month before the Judiciary panel. Barr, who’s set to be confirmed this week, came under fire from Senate Democrats for declining to say whether he’d release Mueller’s final report publicly.
After the hearing, Grassley and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced legislation that aims to ensure Mueller’s final report is provided to Congress and the public.
When asked about the Grassley-Blumenthal bill, Graham said he wants first to see how Barr handles release of the final report and that he has “confidence [Barr will] be transparent.”
Grassley, Graham’s predecessor as committee chairman, still wants his bill brought up, noting that it applies to future special counsel investigations.
“I want to know what [the report] says, but I also want to know what we got for 25 or 35 million dollars and so I would still hope that it would pass because we could have special counsels five years from now 10 years from now,” he said.
In fact, rather than bring up the special counsel bills, he has joined Trump in voicing concern about how Trump associate Roger Stone was arrested.
“The American public has had enough of the media circus that surrounds the Special Counsel’s investigation,” Graham wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Yet, the manner of this arrest appears to have only added to the spectacle. Accordingly, I write to seek justification for the tactics used and the timing of the arrest of Mr. Stone.”
Apart from Mueller, immigration also offers Graham a chance to shape bipartisan legislation in a politically treacherous environment.
Graham has repeatedly sought to play deal-maker on an issue that has dominated Trump’s presidency. He reached an agreement with Senate Democrats to protect Dreamers last year but Trump rejected it. A few months later, when it appeared he would soon have the Judiciary gavel, he suggested he might be able to craft something that could be signed into law.
“On immigration, there’s a deal to be had,” he told POLITICO at the time.
Graham acknowledges that action to help young undocumented immigrants is not on the table at the moment, as lawmakers from both parties struggle to even unite on a modest border security package to keep the government open.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen this round,” he said recently. “It’s too bad, too.”
Still, he’ll “see if there’s any maneuvering” to be done as Judiciary chairman. And he noted that the committee’s ranking member, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have been working on a proposal to address family separations.
Democrats and Republicans alike have praised Graham for how he’s handled his tenure atop the committee so far.
Although Senate Democrats grilled Barr at his confirmation hearing, it was a civil event — a real contrast to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings, during which Graham erupted in anger. At Barr’s hearing, Graham told his colleagues that “the immigration Lindsey will show up,” a reference to his past bipartisan work on the issue.
Blumenthal said Graham’s first committee meeting was “certainly very well done,” while Whitehouse added that Graham has “the prospect of being a very good Judiciary chair.”
Grassley said Graham might prioritize a different set of issues from those he did and described his successor as “more blunt in responding to people that irritate him.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing to be,” Grassley added, “and maybe that was one of my weaknesses.”
Corea del Norte dijo este miércoles que está “examinando cuidadosamente” un plan para atacar el territorio estadounidense de Guam con misiles de mediano a largo alcance, según reportó Reuters citando a la agencia estatal de noticias norcoreana KCNA.
Un portavoz del Ejército Popular Coreano, en un comunicado difundido por la agencia estatal de noticias norcoreana KCNA, dijo que el plan será “puesto en práctica (…) en cualquier momento” una vez que el líder Kim Jong Un tome una decisión.
Esta información se conoce apenas horas después de que el presidente Donald Trump advirtiera que si Corea del Norte amenaza a Estados Unidos “se encontrará con un fuego y una furia que el mundo jamás ha visto” como respuesta. También ocurre a días de que el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU impusiera nuevas sanciones económicas al país por el aumento de su arsenal, algo que recriminó el régimen de Pyongyang al asegurar que no frenaría el impulso que lleva su desarrollo nuclear.
Otro comunicado cita a un portavoz militar, según Reuters, que señaló este martes que Corea del Norte podría emprender una operación preventiva si considera que Estados Unidos muestra señales de provocación.
La agencia AFP, citando a la agencia surcoreana Yonhap, agrega que el ataque sería a instalaciones militares de EEUU en esa isla.
La idea de un posible ataque a Guam solo acrecenta las preocupaciones en EEUU por el crecimiento acelerado del armamento nuclear de Corea del Norte, que hace apenas días realizó una prueba de un misil balístico intercotinental que voló durante 45 minutos, llegó a una altura de 2,300 millas antes de caer al agua y se teme que por su capacidad podría dar en un blanco tan lejano como Alaska.
For them, pursuing the truth has meant prison and harassment. In some cases, it has meant death.
Jamal Khashoggi
Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on May 2, 2012.Ali Haider / EPA-EFE file
The Washington Post columnist and United States resident penned columns critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — and was brutally killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October. The CIA has concluded with “high confidence” that bin Salman ordered his murder, although President Donald Trump has seemingly dismissed that assessment, saying: “It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
The Capital Gazette
Capital Gazette victims clockwise from top left: John McNamera, Rebecca Smith, Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman and Wendi Winters.Baltimore Sun Media Group; via Facebook
Four journalists and a sales associate were gunned down in a mass shooting at Maryland’s state capital newspaper in June.
Authorities said the assailant — who had sued the newspaper and lost after it reported on his guilty plea in a criminal harassment case — targeted the paper in a “coordinated attack.”
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo
Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo arrive at Insein court in Yangon, Myanmar.Ann Wang / Reuters
A judge in Myanmar sentenced the pair of Reuters journalists to seven years in prison in September. Their crime? Breaking a colonial-era state secrets law while reporting on the military’s mass killing of Rohingya Muslims.
Maria Ressa
Maria Ressa, CEO and executive editor of Rappler, attends a court hearing in Pasig City, Philippines, on Dec. 7, 2018.Francis R. Malasig / EPA
The former CNN bureau chief started the online news site “Rappler” in 2012 and has reported critically on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, that coverage earned the site a “campaign of legal harassment” from Duterte’s Department of Justice.
CORRECTION (Dec. 11, 2018, 11:35 a.m.): An earlier version of this article misstated when the Capital Gazette mass shooting took place. It was in June, not July.
Tim Stelloh is a reporter for NBC News, based in California.
The Iowa caucuses are here at last, and the latest polls show a very, very tight race in the Democratic primary, with Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden at the front of the pack.
Aside from that bungled poll, seven major Iowa polls have been released in the past two weeks, with the latest from Monmouth University, Civiqs, and Emerson College.
The Monmouth results, released last Wednesday, found Biden on top — as he has been nationally all along — with 23 percent of likely caucus-goers saying they’d support him. Still, his lead was far from comfortable. Sanders came in a close second, with 21 percent support; Buttigieg nearly tied with Sen. Elizabeth Warren for third, with 16 and 15 percent respectively; and Sen. Amy Klobuchar came in fifth with 10 percent.
The only other candidates Monmouth found to have more than 1 percent support were entrepreneurs Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang, with 4 and 3 percent support, respectively. The poll has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points, making the deltas between candidates perhaps even more narrow than they appear.
Civiqs — which conducted an online poll, opposed to the telephone polling Monmouth did — completed its polling during the same time period as Monmouth (January 23 to 27), but found a slightly different result.
Sanders topped Civiqs’ poll, with 24 percent support from likely caucus-goers. Warren came in second, at 19 percent; Buttigieg third, with 17 percent; Biden fourth, with 15 percent; and Klobuchar still fifth, with the backing of 11 percent of likely caucus-goers.
Yang and Steyer again topped the second tier of candidates, with pollsters recording 5 percent support for Yang and 4 percent for Steyer. The margin of error for Civiqs’ work is 4.8 percentage points, again meaning the differences in standing — at least among the top four candidates — might be closer than the results initially suggest.
And Emerson’s telephone poll — the most recent of these three, taken from January 30 to February 2 — found Sanders to be the favorite, with 28 percent support; Biden trailed him with 21 percent. Buttigieg and Warren were again nearly tied, with 15 and 14 percent support, respectively, and Klobuchar was fifth, with 11 percent.
Yang’s and Steyer’s results matched Civiqs’ survey: They received 5 and 4 percent support, respectively. The poll’s margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.
Those new results are of a kind with four polls that came in during the penultimate week of January. Back then, Sanders began to emerge as a state frontrunner: An Emerson College poll put his support at 30 percent; a New York Times/Siena College poll placed him at 25 percent, and a CBS News/YouGov poll put him at 26 percent. Biden led in the fourth poll, from Suffolk University/USA Today, with 25.4 percent.
Biden was second in two of the polls led by Sanders (21 percent in Emerson’s poll, and 25 percent in the CBS survey); Buttigieg was second in the Times poll, with 18 percent support. The CBS and Suffolk polls put the former mayor in third place; the Emerson poll in fourth. Warren was fourth in every poll, except for the Emerson survey, in which she was essentially tied with Buttigieg.
If we take a look at all these in aggregate, as RealClearPolitics does in its Iowa polling average, Sanders appears poised to take Iowa, with a lead of 4 percentage points, though depending on how those votes are distributed, it’s hard to say how that will translate into the final results.
Sanders certainly has an advantage. However, it is important to remember that Iowa’s caucuses aren’t run like a regular primary. Just because a candidate gets the most votes doesn’t mean the candidate will get the most delegates, as Vox’s Andrew Prokop explained. Also, because of the way the caucuses are run, quirks in the pollsters’ models and Iowans’ very relatable uncertainty in the eleventh hour, anything could happen.
There are a lot of factors that will affect Monday’s results
Much of how Monday night ends depends on the size of caucus turnout, the demographic groups that come and caucus, which candidates are caucus-goers’ second choices and who the large number of currently undecided likely caucus-goers ultimately decide to caucus for.
Obviously, the more supporters any given candidate can get to show up for them at caucus sites across the state, the better their chances. But as of now, no one knows exactly how big (or small) the turnout will be.
State and national polls of Democrats, likely voters, and likely caucus-goers have shown an incredible degree of excitement around the 2020 primary for months — a January Quinnipiac University national poll, for instance, found 85 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters saying they are either “extremely” or “very” motivated to vote in the primary’s contests.
Based on this enthusiasm, pollsters have — in general — assumed a large turnout. Monmouth’s numbers, for instance, assume a night of crowds reminiscent of the 2008 primary, when around 236,000 Iowans caucused.
That may seem fairly safe, but if pollsters’ assumptions are off by just a little, the results could be strikingly different than the numbers cited above. As Vox’s Ella Nilsen and our former colleague Tara Golshan have explained, the winner of the caucuses is actually decided by a very small number of people:
With a field of 11 candidates, the winner could walk away having only received the support of 40,000 to 50,000 caucus-goers statewide — fewer people than live in Dubuque, Iowa. And political experts here said with five strong candidates going into caucus night, it’s still anyone’s guess who could win.
“Maybe the top candidate ends up with 20 percent, because you’ve got six strong candidates going into caucus night,” Norm Sterzenbach, a former Iowa Democratic Party official said this fall. “Twenty percent could win it, that’s only 40,000-50,000 votes.”
…
“It’s a relatively small number, right? It’s the size of a sort of medium-sized town,” said David Redlawsk, a political science professor at the University of Delaware and an expert on the Iowa caucuses. “In Congressional elections, winners normally have more than 100,000 votes.”
And it’s not just how many caucus-goers turn out that will affect the results — the average age of caucus-goers is also expected to have a marked effect on who is the eventual victor.
The latest polls show that should the turnout skew younger, Sanders has a marked advantage (one that Monmouth’s pollsters found unique to him — that is, caucuses with more younger voters didn’t help Warren or, say, Buttigieg as much as they did the senator from Vermont).
Turnout that skews older, however, would help Biden, whom Monmouth found to have 37 percent support of those over 65 and just 7 percent support among likely caucus-goers 18 to 49, a group Sanders carried, with 39 percent support.
Former Vice President Joe Biden posing with supporters in Des Moines on February 2, 2020.Joshua Lott/Getty Images
Sanders acknowledged this paradigm Saturday in Iowa, telling supporters, “We will know early on in the night if we are going to win. If voter turnout is high, we are going to win … if it is low, quite frankly, we will not.”
Monmouth’s Patrick Murray said this dynamic could make the margin of victory even narrower than Sterzenbach projected.
“A turnout swing of as few of 10,000 voters could determine who ‘wins’ the caucus if it is driven by a specific demographic group,” Murray said in a statement Wednesday.
Based on this, one could say that if Sanders manages to bring out 10,000 more young caucus-goers than expected, Iowa would be — as he predicts — his this time.
But that ignores the fact that some caucus-goers will be required to change their allegiances, a fact that seems as if it could benefit Biden as much as Sanders.
The viability standard could change everything
The caucuses are conducted in a manner that is similar to ranked-choice voting.
Iowans gather at their local precinct and publicly declare their allegiance to their candidate by gathering in groups. This year, officials will tally those supporters using documents called presidential preference cards. Candidates who are found to have more than 15 percent support of a precinct following a count of those cards will be deemed “viable,” and their support will be locked in — that is, Iowans who caucused for them can’t change their minds.
But those who caucused for candidates who fail to meet that 15 percent threshold will be allowed to change their allegiance to one of the viable candidates. This is known as realignment.
This makes caucus-goers’ second choices important. In all three of the latest polls, Warren was the top second choice, with 19 percent of Monmouth respondents putting her second, 16 percent in the Civiqs poll, and 23.8 percent in Emerson’s.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks at Iowa State University on February 2, 2020.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Biden was the second most popular in two, with 16 percent of Monmouth’s poll choosing him as their No. 2, and 15 percent in Civiqs’ survey. Emerson’s pollsters found Klobuchar the top second choice among the top five candidates in that poll, with 18.7 percent second-choice support.
But it’s important to look at where that second-choice support is coming from — many polls have found that Sanders supporters overwhelmingly said Warren is their second choice. For instance, in Civiqs’ latest poll, 31 percent of Sanders backers said Warren is their second choice, more than any other group. And Emerson’s poll saw 50 percent of Sanders supporters saying Warren was their second choice.
But given recent polls, it seems likely that if Sanders fails to clear the 15 percent mark, he’ll do so in precious few precincts, meaning the majority of his caucus-goers will not be required to throw their support elsewhere. This is a reality that also affects Yang and Steyer, who find most of their second-choice support coming from Sanders backers as well.
Instead, the backers of candidates like Yang, Steyer, or even Klobuchar could make all the difference.
Emerson found Yang’s supporters split in their second-choice support; assuming Sanders, Biden, Warren, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar were still viable, 30.7 percent said they’d caucus for Klobuchar; 22.4 percent said they’d go for Warren; 17.6 said they’d move to Sanders; and 14.1 percent said they’d go home.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang speaking at Des Moines, Iowa’s Drake University in January 2020.Scott Olson/Getty Images
Steyer fans were split almost evenly between Sanders, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar; and Klobuchar backers overwhelming liked Biden as their second choice, with 41.2 percent saying they’d back him, while 25.9 and 23.3 percent said they’d go to Warren and Buttigieg, respectively.
Civiqs grouped all the candidates outside of Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, and Biden together when reporting supporters’ second choices. Respondents who are for a candidate not in this top tier split almost evenly for Warren (19 percent), Biden (19 percent), and Buttigieg (20 percent). Sanders received just 9 percent second-choice support among these caucus-goers.
Klobuchar stands to gain the most if Sanders and Biden don’t make the 15 percent threshold, again, something that isn’t likely to happen. She also has the greatest support among Buttigieg backers after Biden in the Civiqs poll, at 18 percent, and the most in the Emerson poll, with 30.1 percent — numbers that could serve her well in any precincts in which Buttigieg fails to meet the viability standard.
All this would suggest that any realignment boosts would likely benefit Sanders less than his chief rivals — unless there are a lot of districts where Warren misses the 15 percent cutoff, as 33 percent of Warren supporters say Sanders is their second choice.
The good news for candidates counting on realignment boosts is that most Iowans seem to have settled on a second choice. Monmouth asked whom its respondents would caucus for if only the top six candidates in its poll — Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar, and Yang — remained viable, and only 6 percent said they didn’t know. In Emerson’s poll, only 9 percent said they wouldn’t choose one of those five.
The bad news is timing and individual caucus-goers’ commitment to the process is a huge part of how much the realignment process will benefit viable candidates, because caucus-goers can leave.
Say you caucused for Klobuchar, and she was declared nonviable in your precinct, but the night’s growing long and you need to get back to your baby. You can go without realigning your support. Essentially, it’s important to remember that realignment will change things, but it won’t affect final totals in every case, as Vox’s Andrew Prokop has explained. And even in precincts where it may appear as if it will matter a lot, it might not impact things at all.
There’s still a lot of uncertainty around first choices, too
Throughout months of polling, one thing has been constant: Iowans aren’t sure if they’ll actually caucus for their first choices.
In Selzer’s November 2019 poll, 62 percent of respondents said they could be persuaded to support someone other than their first choice. Her early January poll found that number had fallen some, but was still significant: 45 percent of likely caucus-goers.
Monmouth’s most recent work found similar results — 45 percent of likely caucus-goers said they were “open” to caucusing for a candidate other than their current first choice, with 13 percent saying there was a “high possibility” they’ll change their minds before Monday night. And 5 percent said they still have no first choice.
Emerson’s pollsters found 66 percent of likely caucus-goers said they are sure to caucus for their first choice, while — and again, this poll was taken in the three days before the caucuses — 34 percent said they may still change their minds.
Recent polls have found Warren and Sanders support to be more set in stone, and Monmouth’s work appear to bear this out: 62 percent of those who identify as “very liberal” said they know for sure who they will caucus for, while only 41 percent of those identifying as “moderate” or “conservative” said the same. And 34 percent of very liberal likely caucus-goers said they could change their minds, while 50 percent of moderates and conservatives were open to switching.
This would seem to provide an opportunity for a candidate like Klobuchar to win over some last-minute supporters, and it’s an opportunity she told reporters Saturday she plans to capitalize on. “We are punching way above our weight … we clearly have a surge going here.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar greetings a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on February 2, 2020.Getty Images
Also presenting an opportunity is that half of all respondents who said they are “somewhat liberal” said they would be open to changing their allegiance. That presents a situation that could benefit almost anyone given this is the most progressive slate of candidates in decades — even Biden, as Vox’s Laura McGann has pointed out, would be the most progressive president in generations.
All this makes candidates’ last-minute pitches extremely important — they need to make sure they solidify the support they have, while also trying to convince people to defect and win over those still undecided. The campaigns are all aware of this and spent Saturday and Sunday covering the state, holding dozens of events, fending off pranksters, deploying high-profile surrogates, and, in Sanders’s case, holding concerts.
And Emerson’s polling suggests these final pushes are bearing fruit. For instance, 22.6 percent of Yang’s backers told the college’s pollsters they’d settled on him in the past three days — and even candidates who haven’t polled well are earning last-minute supporters: 4.9 percent of those who plan to back Sen. Michael Bennet said he’d won them over in the past three days.
But who is going to win?
As Prokop has explained, more than one candidate could “win” the caucuses given state officials will be releasing three sets of results.
One candidate could win the pre-realignment total, essentially the popular vote; another, the realigned numbers; and a third could come away with the most state delegates (a number that will help determine how many of Iowa’s 41 national delegates each candidate will receive).
Given this, and all the uncertainty and byzantine processes we went through above, it is hard to say who will come out on top in any of these three results.
But we can say whom things are looking good for.
Obviously, Sanders and Biden have a fairly healthy lead in polling averages. We know that the progressive candidates have more stalwart supporters, meaning Biden’s standing many not be as strong as it appears in topline poll numbers.
Sen. Bernie Sanders interacts with supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on February 2, 2020.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
We also know Warren is the popular second choice, but that a lot of her universe of support with that metric comes from Sanders supporters, who probably won’t have to realign themselves. And we know that Biden and Buttigieg also do well as second choices.
Turnout should be fairly high, something that could benefit Sanders greatly, especially if a large number of younger Iowans come out to caucus.
It’s safe to say Sanders appears to be in good stead, particularly in pre-realignment totals, but that any lead he might be able to rack up there will be threatened by the second round, in which we can expect Warren, Biden, Buttigieg — and maybe Klobuchar — to pick up more new supporters than Sanders will. Whether those gains will be enough for him to be knocked off his top spot remains to be seen.
The final state delegate count is what is usually used to determine who wins. But Iowa doesn’t have a winner-take-all system; delegates are distributed proportionately, meaning in a race that has been this close, several candidates could end up with similar numbers.
That won’t necessarily stop whoever gets the most from declaring themselves the winner — like when Hillary Clinton “won” the state by 0.25 percentage points in 2016 — but it would make it difficult for any one candidate to pick up strong momentum boost ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
And that boost is really what the caucuses are about. Iowa’s 41 national delegates represent such a small fraction of the total that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t even bothering to compete in the state.
It won’t be until Super Tuesday that candidates get to compete in states with large delegate totals, with 1,344 delegates up for grabs (the first four contests in February only have 155). It’s difficult to make it to Super Tuesday without proving yourself first, however, and Iowa is a chance — for some candidates, like Klobuchar, perhaps a last chance — to do just that.
Rep. Steve King, shown here during a news conference in August 2019, faced criticism for his comments on abortion, including when he questioned whether there would be “any population of the world left” if not for births due to rape and incest.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
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Charlie Neibergall/AP
Rep. Steve King, shown here during a news conference in August 2019, faced criticism for his comments on abortion, including when he questioned whether there would be “any population of the world left” if not for births due to rape and incest.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
After years of incendiary comments on race and other issues that lost him the support of many Republican Party leaders, conservative Iowa Rep. Steve King has lost his bid for reelection to a primary challenge by GOP state Sen. Randy Feenstra, The Associated Press projects.
“I am truly humbled by the outpouring of support over the past 17 months that made tonight possible and I thank Congressman King for his decades of public service,” Feenstra said in a statement. “As we turn to the general election, I will remain focused on my plans to deliver results for the families, farmers and communities of Iowa. But first, we must make sure this seat doesn’t land in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and her liberal allies in Congress. Tomorrow, we get back to work.”
First elected in 2002, King faced the toughest primary campaign of his career in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, trailing in the polls with a limited cash supply and minimal advertising. He faced an onslaught of challengers feeding off of his vulnerability due to inflammatory rhetoric.
His primary opponents focused on an argument that King is unable to effectively represent the interests of his constituents since being stripped of House committee assignments last year, rather than focusing on his history of controversial statements.
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“The 4th District needs a seat at the table, an effective conservative voice,” stressed Feenstra in a May debate hosted by WHO-TV.
Also challenging King were former Irwin Mayor Bret Richards, former state representative and Woodbury County supervisor Jeremy Taylor and real estate developer Steve Reeder. All had similar platforms: opposing abortion rights, securing the southern U.S. border and supporting gun owners’ views of the Second Amendment.
The writing may have been on the wall for King, who President Trump once dubbed “the world’s most conservative human being.” In his last general election, he scraped by with a margin of just 3% of the vote in his bright red district against Democrat J.D. Scholten, a paralegal and former minor league baseball pitcher.
Scholten’s progress at nearly flipping the northwest district, which is home to Sioux City and Ames, prompted this crowded Republican primary with challengers painting King, 71, as ineffective and offering themselves up as a viable conservative alternative without the reputation of being a toxic thorn in the GOP’s side.
Scholten is returning for a second swing at the seat this year and ended up without any competition in the Democratic primary.
Not only did Feenstra raise more than King in the first quarter, he also garnered the high-profile endorsements of former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, the National Right to Life Committee and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The latter released an ad criticizing King for inaction.
“When we’ve needed him most, Steve King has let us down. He got kicked off the agriculture committee, hurting our farmers, and hasn’t written a single farming bill that passed Congress,” the ad proclaimed.
Many top Iowa Republicans have abandoned King this cycle, seeing it as an unnecessary risk to maintaining control of the district, with King’s controversial record considered a distraction to the conservative cause and a possible threat to the reelection Sen. Joni Ernst.
Last year, King wondered out loud to The New York Timeswhy “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” are considered offensive terms. King was widely rebuked by party leadership and stripped from key committee assignments, including his place on the House Agriculture Committee, a panel of particular importance to his home state. King did support a House resolution condemning his comments that was passed nearly unanimously in 2019.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who rarely wades into actions by House Republicans, released a statement at the time calling King’s statements “unworthy of his elected position.”
“If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work,” McConnell wrote.
King issued a public statement shortly after the interview was published, defending himself by saying he wasn’t an advocate for white nationalism but rather supports “western civilization’s values.”
It hardly marked the first time his explosive comments made the news.
In 2008, he said terrorists would “be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11” if Barack Obama were elected president.
He’s also made incendiary comments on multiculturalism, immigration and abortion, falsely expressing skepticism that a woman could get pregnant as a result of rape or incest.
Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korea’s leader who was murdered in a Malaysia airport two years ago, was a Central Intelligence Agency source who met on several occasions with agency operatives, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal, citing a “person knowledgeable about the matter,” said Kim Jong Nam met with CIA agents on multiple occasions and also likely had a relationship with Chinese intelligence officials.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and Unification Ministry said Tuesday it could not confirm the report. The CIA declined to comment on the matter when contacted by USA TODAY.
The Journal said Kim Jong Nam had traveled to Malaysia in February 2017 to meet his CIA contact. He was walking through the airport in Kuala Lumpur when he was attacked by two women who smeared VX nerve gas on his face.
The women were accused of colluding with a group of North Korean men who slipped out of Malaysia during the investigation. Charges ultimately were dropped against the women, who told authorities they were paid for what they believed was a stunt for a TV show.
U.S. and South Korean authorities have blamed North Korea for the murder, but Malaysia never made a formal finding on the matter.
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A woman dressed in a traditional gown pays her respects at statues of late North Korean leaders, Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. Unaware of reports his eldest son – and current leader Kim Jong Uns half-brother – was killed just days ago in what appears to have been a carefully planned assassination, North Koreans marked the birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday as they do every year. Eric Talmadge, AP
Azalea, whose Korean name is “Dalle”, a 19-year-old female chimpanzee, smokes a cigarette at the Central Zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea Oct. 19, 2016. According to officials at the newly renovated zoo, which has become a favorite leisure spot in the North Korean capital since it was re-opened in July, the chimpanzee smokes about a pack a day. They insist, however, that she does not inhale. Wong Maye-E, AP
A picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling North Korean Workers Party, on Sept. 8, 2015, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center front, and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, second from right, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and first vice-president of the Council of State, watching an art performance by the Moranbong Band and the State Merited Chorus in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sept. 7, 2015. Bermudez led a Cuban delegation to North Korea to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between North Korea and Cuba. Rodong Sinmun, European Pressphoto Agency
Men and women pump their fists in the air and chant “defend!” as they carry propaganda slogans calling for reunification of their country during the “Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the U.S.,” attended by approximately 100,000 North Koreans to mark the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War at the Kim Il Sung stadium, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The month of June in North Korea is known as the “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” and it’s a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of the anti-American sentiment. Wong Maye-E, AP
Kim Jong Nam was the oldest son of Kim Jong Il, the despot leader of North Korea for 17 years until his death in 2011. Kim Jong Nam at one time was considered his father’s likely successor before falling out of favor. In recent years he had developed a reputation for living a playboy lifestyle.
Reports of assassinations and purges are not uncommon in North Korea. Five officials were reportedly executed last month for their rolls in a failed summit between North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump. Days later, however, senior official Kim Hyok Chol was shown in state media sitting near Kim at a concert.
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