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Coronavirus fears grow as more cases found across Europe

Coronavirus fears grow as more cases found across Europe

The Guardian reports: The spread of the coronavirus has accelerated across Europe with new cases in four countries and a rising death toll in Italy, which is desperately struggling to contain the outbreak. Concern about the proliferation of cases prompted a dozen UK schools to send home pupils and the teachers who accompanied them on half-term skiing trips in the Italian alps to self-isolate for 14 days after their return. The schools include ones in County Antrim in Northern Ireland,…

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Trump’s most dangerous destruction yet

Trump’s most dangerous destruction yet

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write: During the 2016 presidential campaign, many observers worried about what Donald Trump might do with the U.S. intelligence apparatus. These organizations kill people, after all, with scary flying robots. They have the ability to spy on huge numbers of people all over the world. And they have a history of scandal. So it was reasonable to wonder: What happens when you put organizations such as the CIA and the NSA in the hands of…

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Trump praises Modi’s record on religious tolerance as violence erupts over India’s treatment of Muslims

Trump praises Modi’s record on religious tolerance as violence erupts over India’s treatment of Muslims

The Washington Post reports: As violence erupted in the streets Tuesday over a citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims, President Trump defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record on religious tolerance as he closed out a two-day visit to India that served as a celebration of the bond between two nationalist leaders. Trump avoided any public criticism of his host — whose political biography is also built partly on religious and cultural divisions — along with any comparison of…

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Socialist ideas must be decoupled from the nightmare of totalitarian regimes

Socialist ideas must be decoupled from the nightmare of totalitarian regimes

Masha Gessen writes: There are two ways to misinterpret the comments Bernie Sanders made in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday night. When asked by the host, Anderson Cooper, to explain his long-ago praise of the achievements of Fidel Castro’s regime, in Cuba, Sanders said, “We are very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But, you know, it’s unfair to simply say, ‘Everything is bad.’ When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He…

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Much of the establishment, in reaction to Bernie Sanders’ ascent, is behaving like an out-of-touch aristocracy

Much of the establishment, in reaction to Bernie Sanders’ ascent, is behaving like an out-of-touch aristocracy

This is a wake-up moment for the American power establishment. Many in this elite are behaving like aristocrats in a dying regime — including in media. It’s time for many to step up, rethink, and understand the dawn of what may be a new era in America.pic.twitter.com/tr2jpTD7YY — Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 23, 2020 Jeet Heer writes: Bernie Sanders’s overwhelming victory in the Nevada caucus is sending shock waves through the American political system, perhaps nowhere more than on MSNBC….

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Is the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic yet?

Is the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic yet?

Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker write: On Tuesday, Feb. 18, no coronavirus cases had been reported in Iran. On Sunday, the government announced 43 cases and eight deaths. Some 152 cases (and at least three deaths) were confirmed in Italy on Sunday, up from three cases on Thursday. The number of infected people in South Korea jumped to 763 (and six deaths) in just days. As of Monday, Covid-19 was detected in at least 29 countries. In nations with…

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Trump has sabotaged America’s coronavirus response

Trump has sabotaged America’s coronavirus response

Laurie Garrett wrote last month: When Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the Wuhan coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday, he praised China for taking “unprecedented” steps to control the deadly virus. “I have never seen for myself this kind of mobilization,” he noted. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.” The epidemic control efforts unfolding today in China—including placing some 100 million citizens on lockdown, shutting…

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The coronavirus outbreak could bring out the worst in Trump

The coronavirus outbreak could bring out the worst in Trump

Peter Nicholas writes: When a senior White House aide would brief President Donald Trump in 2018 about an Ebola-virus outbreak in central Africa, it was plainly evident that hardships roiling a far-flung part of the world didn’t command his attention. He was zoning out. “It was like talking to a wall,” a person familiar with the matter told me. Now a new coronavirus that originated in China is confronting him with a potential pandemic, a problem that Trump seems ill-prepared…

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Witch-hunt: The ongoing purge of officials perceived as disloyal to Trump

Witch-hunt: The ongoing purge of officials perceived as disloyal to Trump

The New York Times reports: In some of the most critical corners of the Trump administration, officials show up for work now never entirely sure who will be there by the end of the evening — themselves included. Even for an administration that has been a revolving door since Day 1, this has become a season of turmoil. At a moment when first-term presidents are typically seeking a stable team to focus on their re-election, President Trump has embarked on…

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How JPMorgan Chase became the Doomsday Bank

How JPMorgan Chase became the Doomsday Bank

Bill McKibben writes: Bankers like numbers. Numbers tell the story. No emotion gets in the way. So let’s look at the numbers: Over the past three years — that is, in the years after the world came together in Paris to try to slow climate change — JPMorgan Chase lent $196 billion to the fossil-fuel industry. Over the past three years, JPMorgan Chase lent more money to the fossil-fuel industry than any bank on Earth — 29 percent more. And…

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The strange influence the sun has on whales

The strange influence the sun has on whales

Ed Yong writes: The first clear evidence that some animals have a magnetic sense came from a simple-enough experiment—put an animal in a box, change the magnetic fields around it, and see where it heads. German scientists first tried this in the 1960s, with captive robins. When it came time to migrate, the birds would hop in a particular direction, as if they innately knew the way to fly. But when the team altered the magnetic fields around the robins’…

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World is approaching coronavirus tipping point, experts say

World is approaching coronavirus tipping point, experts say

The Guardian reports: The world is fast approaching a “tipping point” in the spread of the coronavirus, according to experts, who warn that the disease is outpacing efforts to contain it, after major outbreaks forced Italy and Iran to introduce stringent internal travel restrictions and South Korea’s president placed the country on red alert. Some of the countries most affected by the virus are scrambling to halt its progress two days after Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World…

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Sanders eviscerates the conventional wisdom about why he can’t win

Sanders eviscerates the conventional wisdom about why he can’t win

Ryan Lizza writes: On Saturday in Nevada, Bernie Sanders laid waste not just to his five main rivals but also to every shard of conventional wisdom about the Democratic presidential primaries. You could see the dominoes of punditry cliches falling inside the caucus rooms. At the Bellagio Hotel, which held one of several “Strip caucuses” meant to be easily accessible to hospitality workers along Vegas’ main drag, 75 Sanders supporters gathered along the wall of a ballroom. The powerful Culinary…

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Bernie Sanders’ plans may be expensive but inaction would cost much more

Bernie Sanders’ plans may be expensive but inaction would cost much more

Robert Reich writes: In Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg charged that the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ policy proposals would cost $50tn. Holy Indiana. Larry Summers, formerly chief White House economic adviser for Barack Obama, puts the price tag at $60tn. “We are in a kind of new era of radical proposal,” he told CNN. Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, claims Sanders’ agenda would at least double federal…

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