53.1 F
New York
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
type here...
Home Blog Page 2054

Russian & Turkish Presidents Reach Cease-Fire Deal in Northwestern Syria

By
Administrator
-
0

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday agreed to a cease-fire in northwestern Syria, following talks in Moscow on easing tensions in the region.

The two leaders said the cease-fire would take effect at midnight local time in the area of Idlib, where a Syrian and Russian offensive has driven more than one million civilians toward the Turkish border over the past three months. Idlib is the last remaining rebel stronghold.in Syria.“

I express hope that these agreements will serve as a good basis for a cessation of military activity in the Idlib de-escalation zone (and) stop the suffering of the peaceful population and the growing humanitarian crisis,” Putin said.

Erdogan said they would “work together to supply aid for the Syrians in need” and said he reserved the right “to respond to all (Syrian) regime attacks in the field.”

The offensive has triggered what may be the world’s worst-ever humanitarian crisis, the United Nations has said.

Putin and Erdogan back opposing sides in the nine-year war, with Erdogan backing some Syrian rebel groups and Putin supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia and Turkey have previously reached multiple cease-fire agreements in Idlib but none has been successful.

The two leaders also agreed to secure a key highway in the Idlib area with joint patrols beginning next week.

The announcement comes days after Erdogan said he would open his borders to western Europe. Since then, migrants have massed at the Turkish-Greek border, leading to clashes with Greek police. Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million people from Syria.

Erdogan and Putin held a high stakes meeting Thursday in Moscow aimed at de-escalating tensions between armies of Turkey, a NATO member, and Russia, a nuclear superpower, in Syria’s war-torn Idlib province.

While nominally partners in a fight against terrorism in the region, Moscow and Ankara have been cast on a seemingly unavoidable collision course in Idlib — the territory in northwest Syria where Russia is helping its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, wipe out one of the last remaining bastions of opposition to his rule.

Turkey, along with western governments, accuses the Syrian government of carrying out a bombing campaign with Russian support that has provoked a humanitarian crisis, with nearly a million civilians fleeing the fighting for the Syria-Turkey border.

The siege has also met with forceful pushback from Ankara because it opposes Assad’s rule. In response, Turkey has launched a military campaign intended to protect what it says are largely anti-Assad rebels, not terrorists, in the Idlib stronghold.

During his briefing with reporters on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped for a compromise with Erdogan, despite those differences.

“We expect to reach a common understanding on the crisis, the cause of the crisis, the harmful effects of the crisis and arrive at a set of necessary joint measures,” Peskov said. (VOA News)

 

Warren Ends Presidential Campaign, Centering Race on 2 Men

By
Administrator
-
0

By: Will Weissert

Elizabeth Warren ended her once-promising presidential campaign on Thursday after failing to finish higher than third place in any of the 18 states that have voted so far. While the Massachusetts senator said she was proud of her bid, she was also candid in expressing disappointment that a formerly diverse field is essentially now down to two men.

“All those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years,” Warren told reporters outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as her voice cracked. “That’s going to be hard.”

Known for having “a plan for that,” Warren electrified progressives for much of the past year by releasing reams of policy proposals that addressed such issues as maternal health care, college debt, criminal justice reform and the new coronavirus. She planned to pay for many of her ambitious proposals with a 2 cent tax on fortunes worth more than $50 million, an idea that prompted chants of “Two cents! Two cents!” at her rallies.

But that energy — and an impressive organization — didn’t translate into support once voters started making their decisions last month. She failed to capture any of the 14 states that voted on Super Tuesday and finished an embarrassing third in Massachusetts.

The Democratic contest now centers on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is trying to rally progressives, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is appealing to moderates. They are both white men in their late 70s, a fact that is prompting soul-searching for some Democrats who heralded the historic diversity that characterized the early days of the primary.

“I think we all have to really interrogate why being for someone other than someone who looks like almost every other president we’ve had, in terms of age and gender, why everything else is seen as risky,” said Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood.

While she said she will rally behind whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also lamented the challenges facing women in politics.

“Every time I get introduced as the most powerful woman, I almost cry because I wish that were not true,” she said Thursday. “I so wish that we had a woman president of the United States.”

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is still in the race but faces steep odds and has won just two delegates in her quest for the nomination.

Although she’s no longer a presidential contender, Warren will likely remain a force in Democratic politics and could play a prominent role in a future administration if the party wins the White House. Clearly aware of her power, Warren didn’t rush to endorse either Sanders or Biden.

Warren suggested Thursday that she would take her time before deciding whom to back. She didn’t endorse Sanders in 2016 — something that infuriated some of his supporters — and only backed Hillary Clinton after she effectively won the nomination.

Top advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations indicated Warren wouldn’t wait that long in 2020.

Sanders wasted little time making an appeal to Warren backers, saying in Vermont on Thursday, “I would simply say to her supporters out there, of which there are millions: We are opening the door to you. We’d love you to come on board.”

But the divisions among Democrats run deep. Toni Van Pelt, the president of the National Organization for Women, urged Warren against siding with Sanders and noted Biden’s involvement in the passage of the Violence Against Women Act.

“She has a lot of leverage right now. We do trust her to make the right decisions on how to proceed. But we’d like her not to rush into this,” Van Pelt said. “Sanders doesn’t have a record. He’s really, as far as we know, done next to nothing for women and for our issues and for the things that are our priorities.”

After a strong summer, Warren’s poll numbers began to slip after a series of debates in which she repeatedly refused to answer direct questions about if she’d have to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for universal, government-funded health care under a “Medicare for All” program. Warren’s top advisers were slow to catch on that not providing more details looked to voters like a major oversight for a candidate who proudly had so many other policy plans.

When Warren finally moved to correct the problem, her support eroded further. She moved away from a full endorsement of Medicare for All, announcing that she’d work with Congress to transition the country to the program over three years. Biden and other rivals pounced, calling Warren a flip-flopper, and her standing with progressives sagged as Sanders stood by his unwavering support for government-run health care immediately.

After long avoiding direct conflict, Warren and Sanders clashed in January after she said Sanders had suggested during a private meeting in 2018 that a woman couldn’t win the White House. Sanders denied that, but Warren refused to shake his outstretched hand after a debate in Iowa — which only further hurt her polling numbers.

By the time the campaign turned to the South Carolina primary late last month, an outside political group began pouring millions of dollars into television advertising on her behalf. That forced Warren to say that, although she rejected super PACs, she’d accept their help as long as other candidates did. Her campaign, meanwhile, shifted strategy again, saying it was betting on a contested convention.

Warren said outside her house on Thursday that “gender in this race, that is a trick question,” since any woman running for office who acknowledges sexism is derided as a “whiner” and those who don’t aren’t accepting reality. But she nonetheless suggested her road might have been harder than that of the male candidates.

“I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes, a progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for and a moderate lane that Joe Biden is the incumbent for,” she said. “And there’s no room for anyone else in this. I thought that wasn’t right, but, evidently, I was wrong.” (AP)

Mayor DeBlasio Provides Updates on New York City’s COVID-19 Response

By
Administrator
-
0

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday updated New Yorkers on the City’s response efforts regarding COVID-19. As community transmission increases, the Mayor is reminding New Yorkers to take basic precautions while going about their lives: wash your hands, cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, stay home if you are sick and call your doctor if you experience the following symptoms: fever, cough and/or shortness of breath.

“As New York City continues to see more cases, I am reminding New Yorkers to remain vigilant, but not alarmed,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are continuing to do everything in our power to keep New Yorkers safe and healthy, and are asking our federal partners to help us increase testing capacity so we can get the job done faster.”

Travel, Testing and Self-Isolation:

The Department of Health is asking New Yorkers who return from the following countries to self-isolate for 14 days as a precaution: China, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and Japan.

In addition, the Health Commissioner has ordered any educator, healthcare worker, or first responder employed by the City of New York, New York City Department of Education, and the New York City Health + Hospitals Corporation who the Department determines presents a danger of infection to others, in accordance with accepted public health guidelines or information about the contagious period of COVID-19 shall submit to testing for COVID-19 by the Department or a medical professional..

The Commissioner may order any educator, healthcare worker or first responder required to be tested by this order who declines to submit for such testing to self-quarantine at home, or such other location determined by the Department, until such date as the Department determines such person no longer presents a potential danger of infection to others, in accordance with accepted public health guidelines or information about the contagious period of COVID-19.

The Department of Health is monitoring 2773 New Yorkers for home isolation, as of this morning.

The Mayor has called on the federal government to provide more test kits to increase the City’s testing capacity and allow private companies to develop alternative, automated testing approaches for COVID-19. 

Department of Education Updates:

The Department of Education has sent principals updated guidance regarding cleaning, travel, and symptomatic staff and student protocol. If a student is symptomatic while in school, they will be separated from other students and their parents will be notified to pick them up. If a staff member is symptomatic, they will be advised to leave work and go to the doctor. Additional guidance is being shared with schools including: ensuring adequate supplies via communication with building managers, daily announcements on PA systems for staff and students, identifying private rooms within schools to isolate staff or students who may present symptoms, and advising students and teachers to remain home and contact a doctor if sick.

Police Department Updates:

Four NYPD officers have self-isolated since returning from the following four countries: China, Italy, Iran, and Japan. All four are asymptomatic and have not been back to their precincts since returning to the United States.

Fire Department Updates:

The FDNY Incident Management Team has been activated. IMTs are federally trained teams of first responders responsible for overseeing large-scale long-duration incidents and emergencies. The FDNY IMT consists of more than 180 FDNY members from all ranks in the Department with specialized training in incident command, rescue operations, logistics and planning.

One team will assist New York City Emergency Management with their creation of an Incident Action Plan regarding COVID-19. A second team will assist in the planning and development of a strategy associated with COVID-19 for the FDNY.

Department Of Correction / Correctional Health Updates:

In order to protect the safety and wellbeing of all those living and working in DOC custody, DOC, in partnership with CHS, is proactively walking through various emergency scenarios designed to test our readiness, identify vulnerabilities, and remedy issues before they have a chance to occur.

All DOC housing units, dayrooms, and common spaces are cleaned and sanitized once per day with shower areas cleaned three times per day.

Transport buses will be cleaned and sanitized daily. Any transport bus that is transporting a person who is symptomatic of a respiratory illness will be sanitized immediately after transporting that individual.  DOC’s environmental health unit is providing additional sanitation and sanitization training to all institutional aids and sanitation work details.

Any uniformed staff member who shows up to work with respiratory ailments will be sent home and required to provide a doctor’s note with clearance of COVID-19 or flu in order to return. Staff have also been instructed to refer any person in custody who is exhibiting respiratory symptoms to CHS for evaluation.

Administration for Children Services Updates:

ACS is revising and recirculating emergency protocols for each of the three ACS-operated congregate facilities (Children’s Center, Crossroads Juvenile Center, Horizon Juvenile Center). ACS has developed and is implementing an infectious disease protocol for our three congregate care facilities. ACS has also disseminated DOHMH COVID-19 guidance to all 34 ACS borough locations and ensuring that these locations (including the three congregate care facilities) have adequate cleaning supplies and protective equipment. 

Ferry Updates:

Staten Island Ferry:

Ferry crews are conforming to cleaning schedules similar to the MTA and ensure that each ferryboat is subject to deep cleaning of all surfaces and touch points once every 72 hours.

DOT ferry terminals are cleaned around the clock and we are preparing for supplemental cleaning on the boats throughout the day. In addition, they will continue with cleaning regime in all public areas of the terminals. DOT crews have also been handing out flyers at the Whitehall terminal to educate people on the virus. 

NYC Ferry:

NYC Ferry crews are cleaning and servicing each vessel daily and are performing hourly inspections of high use areas such as restrooms and concession areas. As an additional precautionary measure, crews will wipe down these high use areas regularly. In addition, graphics advising hand washing and cough covering will go up on the digital screens inside all NYC Ferry vessels, as well as messaging on social media.

Housing Preservation and Development / Housing Development Corporation Updates:

The City’s housing agencies, Housing Preservation and Development and the Housing Development Corporation, have shared the most up-to-date information from the Department of Health with all of the buildings they touch through their many programs, including 1.5 million homes in privately owned housing, serving approximately 3.75 million New Yorkers.

Department for the Aging Updates:

DFTA has issued a third guidance to all City contracted and non-contracted senior providers on cleaning and readiness. DFTA is also developing a plan to visit over 600 senior congregate settings weekly to ensure implementation of congregate setting protocols. DOHMH, DFTA, NYCHA, HPD, HDC, NYCEM, and PEU are having daily meetings regarding the City’s elderly population.

Human Resources Administration / Department of Homelessness Services Updates:

HRA distributed educational materials on safe hygiene practices to their community partner and provider network. DHS convened shelter medical directors to discuss homeless shelter guidance and protocols to inform planning for shelter preparedness.

If New Yorkers Experience Discrimination:

The City Commission on Human Rights is monitoring and responding to potential bias incidents due to fear and stigma around COVID-19 which may manifest themselves as harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, nation of origin, or other protected classes under the NYC Human Rights Law. The Commission has a dedicated East Asian Communities Liaison with strong community relationships who is in constant communication with community members across the city. If you experience any discrimination, dial 311 and ask for the Commission on Human Rights.

 

 

Shame on the CDC for Letting Down America!

By
Administrator
-
0
The CDC had knowledge that people in China were afflicted with the Coronavirus for months before it emerged globally and especially in the US but did nothing to prepare for it. That includes preparing a sufficient number of test kits and a vaccine as well.

By: TJV Staff

As the ever present threat of the novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 continues to take hold of our everyday lives, we are witnessing unprecedented measures being implemented to help protect us from this deadly Chinese-based virus.

Schools are being closed as are businesses including those in the travel industry which has taken the hardest hits thus far. Public gathering spaces have issued rules for washing of one’s hands and where to go to receive help if symptoms should manifest themselves.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed more than 89,000 cases of this virus around the world. Thus far, COVID-19 has claimed 3,048 deaths since the virus emerged in December. People with underlying conditions and those who are elderly are considered to be at greatest risk of the disease.

Because the volume of cases of those contracting the Coronavirus is escalating significantly with each passing moment, concrete steps must be taken in order to test people in a highly expedited and efficient manner.

According to a recent press release from Northwell Health, (a leader in state-of-the-art health services in a string of hospitals in the Northeast and beyond) it said:

“Dwayne Breining, MD, executive director of laboratory services at Northwell, said manual testing for coronavirus could begin this week, with 75-100 tests processed daily. Once the lab automates the process, it will have the capability to process hundreds and eventually thousands of tests daily, he said.

Once the process is fully automated, we will have the ability to conduct tests within three-to-four hours of receiving samples at the lab, and report the results immediately,” said Dr. Breining.

Prior to this week, all nasopharyngeal swab samples from patients who met the criteria for testing established by the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) had to be sent to the CDC’s lab in Atlanta for testing. The turnaround time for results was multiple days. To date, Northwell has referred only four samples from suspected cases to the CDC for testing.

If the virus continues to spread (there is currently only one confirmed case in New York and about 86 nationwide), the ability to have local lab-testing capability is vitally important,” Dr. Breining said.

At this juncture, we can only take the CDC to task for their inability or unwillingness to have sufficiently prepared for not only an outbreak of a virus of this sort but their slow walking in terms of creating and distributing test kits.

According to a report on TheVerge.com by Mary Beth Griggs that was posted on March 2nd, the “CDC faced backlash from local and state governments that were frustrated by flaws and delays in the CDC-developed test. Many wanted to develop and perform tests on their populations, without having to send samples down to Atlanta. The limited availability of testing has been frustrating to public health experts because it means that getting an accurate picture of how the virus is spreading in the country is extremely difficult. Without a centralized number of tests on the CDC’s website, it’s also difficult for the public to tell how much testing has expanded or how much it will expand in the future.”

The report on TheVerge.com indicated that the CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

They added that “a tally of the number of people tested for the novel coronavirus disappeared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website on Monday. The change was first reported by journalist Judd Legum on Twitter.”

The report also indicated that last week was the first week that six public health labs were supposed to be able to perform their own tests for the virus instead of waiting for results from CDC headquarters in Atlanta. On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the ability of local labs and hospitals to perform their own tests. With the newly expanded capacity, the number of people tested is expected to rise rapidly this week, as is the number of confirmed cases in the US.

To make matters worse, there is also the issue of price gouging to contend with. According to a March 4th report by Nick Statt on The Verge.com, such e-commerce web sites like Amazon have been considerably increasing their prices for such items as hand sanitizer and face masks.

According to the report, “the price gouging activity was first picked up on last month as COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, began spreading worldwide. It’s hitting popular health and safety products like 3M-produced face masks and sanitization items like Purell hand sanitizer. Neither of those companies are the ones raising the prices. Instead, it’s third-party resellers who are doing so, and it’s against Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy that specifically warns against price gouging.”

A February 25th story that appeared on Wired.com indicated that “some items were having their prices increased by three to four times the standard level. Since then, the gouging has become noticeably worse, with 24-packs of 2-ounce hand sanitizer bottles seeing jumps from $10 per box to more than $400. Shipping costs are also being raised to exorbitant levels.”

Again, we must ask why the CDC did not prepare enough masks and hand sanitizer to be distributed to all public facilities including day care centers, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and neighborhood community centers. Disadvantaged and economically challenged communities will undoubtedly feel the adverse effects of a lack of masks, sanitizer and other items.

We say equivocally and in a voice riddled with condemnation that the CDC should be held responsible for any deaths that result from the fact that they were unconscionably negligent in preparing more than an adequate number of test kits, masks and sanitizer. Their brazen tardiness is not only unacceptable but is bordering on insane; especially in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

To those who wish to intentionally politicize this issue, we also exhort them to hold their tongues and cease and desist from assigning blame to the White House. This is a matter that should have been dealt with internally at the CDC a very long time ago!

Read more at: theverge.com and wired.com

Northwell Labs to Have Coronavirus Testing Capabilities Within a Week

By
Administrator
-
0

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Northwell Health Labs announced on Monday that it expects to begin testing for the coronavirus within a week, now that the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light for outside labs to conduct the COVID-19 tests once appropriately validated.

At a news conference on Monday with NY Senator Charles Schumer at the 101,000-square foot Core Lab within Northwell’s Center for Advanced Medicine in Lake Success, Dwayne Breining, MD, executive director of laboratory services at Northwell, said manual testing for coronavirus could begin this week, with 75-100 tests processed daily. Once the lab automates the process, it will have the capability to process hundreds and eventually thousands of tests daily, he said.

“Once the process is fully automated, we will have the ability to conduct tests within three-to-four hours of receiving samples at the lab, and report the results immediately,” said Dr. Breining.

Prior to this week, all nasopharyngeal swab samples from patients who met the criteria for testing established by the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) had to be sent to the CDC’s lab in Atlanta for testing. The turnaround time for results was multiple days. To date, Northwell has referred only four samples from suspected cases to the CDC for testing.

“If the virus continues to spread (there is currently only one confirmed case in New York and about 86 nationwide), the ability to have local lab-testing capability is vitally important,” Dr. Breining said.

Over the the next month, he said, the lab is working with test manufacturers to make this testing available within Northwell’s hospitals throughout New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, further expanding the health system’s ability to respond to an epidemic. Those facilities are already doing rapid molecular testing for the seasonal flu using similar technology. “With local labs, you can test quicker and get the results quicker,” he added.

The expanded ability to test patients for COVID-19 will greatly enhance Northwell’s ability to manage patients with potential infection. However, given the limited testing capacity and the CDC’s current recommendations, patients with milder symptoms who do not require hospitalization will not be tested. Such testing is currently reserved for patients who have had contact with someone infected with the virus, or those who are very sick and will require hospitalization.

Over the past six weeks, Northwell has already invested more than $5 million on coronavirus preparation, including more than $2 million for lab testing and supplies.

Constructed at a cost of $59.6 million and opened in 2019, the Core Lab features North America’s largest Roche Diagnostics automated testing line of its kind – and one of the biggest in the world. It currently processes more than 20 million tests annually.

Throughout all of its hospitals and approximately 800 outpatient locations, Northwell continues to maintain a vigilant approach to protecting patients, staff and local communities from the virus. The health system’s clinical protocols are designed to quickly identify potential infectious patients as they enter our facilities, isolate them appropriately, prevent transmission of infections, and protect front-line caregivers from potential exposure.

“Northwell is well-prepared to manage the challenges posed by the coronavirus, as evidenced by our response to previous infectious disease outbreaks, including our Anthrax response in 2001, SARS in 2003, swine flu in 2009 and Ebola in 2014,” said Northwell Health President & CEO Michael Dowling. “It’s important for people to remain calm and take practical steps such as routine handwashing to protect against not only the coronavirus — but the flu, which has already affected 26 million Americans this season and killed more than 16,000.”

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, about 750 outpatient facilities and more than 13,600 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 70,000 employees – 16,000-plus nurses and 4,000 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We’re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

 

German Court Blocks Attempt to Enshrine Sharia Law

By
Administrator
-
1

“The burqa and the niqab are, for me, symbols of oppression. Successful school lessons need good communication at eye level… This is not possible with a full veil.”

By: Soeren Kern 

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that the constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms of Muslims can be curtailed if public displays of religiosity — in this case wearing Islamic headscarves in German courtrooms — endanger the ideological and religious neutrality of the state.

The court’s landmark ruling effectively smashes a backdoor effort to enshrine Sharia law into the German legal system.

The case involves a 38-year-old German-Moroccan law student who was born in Frankfurt and customarily wears a headscarf in public. In January 2017, she began legal training in the German state of Hesse, where the law bans any expression of religion in its courtrooms for judges, lawyers and legal trainees.

According to the law, legal trainees (Rechtsreferendar) are allowed to wear a headscarf — except when they are performing certain official tasks in which they serve as representatives of the judiciary or the state. This means, for instance, that trainee lawyers are not allowed to wear a headscarf when presiding over a hearing, taking evidence or representing the public prosecution office.

The complainant filed a lawsuit claiming that the headscarf ban interfered with her right to freedom of religion. She argued that she was being forced to choose between performing the intended tasks or fulfilling a religious clothing requirement that she considers imperative.

The Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) ruled that, according to the law in Hesse, legal trainees have a duty to conduct themselves neutrally with respect to religion and that, when wearing a headscarf, the complainant was therefore barred from performing any tasks in the course of which she might be perceived as being a representative of the justice system or the state.

The complainant filed an appeal, which was rejected by the Hesse Higher Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof). She then filed an appeal with the Federal Constitutional Court, which affirmed the lower court rulings. In a statement published on February 27, 2020, the high court explained:

“The principle of the state’s religious and ideological neutrality can be considered a constitutional interest that may justify an interference with freedom of religion in this case. The state’s duty to be neutral necessarily also entails a duty for public officials to be neutral since the state can only act through individuals. However, when public officials exercise their fundamental rights as private individuals in the performance of their duties, this cannot be attributed to the state in every case. Yet it can potentially be attributed to the state in cases where the state has specific influence on the visible character of an official act — as is the case in the justice system.

“Freedom of religion can be subject to a further constitutional limitation inherent in the Basic Law (Grundgesetz): the proper functioning of the justice system in general, which is one of the essential elements underpinning the rule of law and is firmly rooted in the values enshrined in the Basic Law, given that every court decision ultimately serves to safeguard fundamental rights.

“The proper functioning of the justice system requires that society not only place trust in individual judges, but also in the justice system in general. It is true that it will not be possible to achieve absolute trust among the entire population. However, it falls to the state to improve levels of trust. In the present case, the negative freedom of religion afforded parties to legal proceedings is also an argument in favor of the ban on wearing a headscarf.

“In the justice system, the state exercises public authority vis-à-vis the individual in the classic hierarchical sense, which gives rise to more serious impairments than public authority exercised in interdenominational state schools, which are meant to reflect society’s pluralism in religious matters….

“From a constitutional-law perspective, the legislature’s decision to establish a duty of neutral conduct with respect to ideological and religious matters for legal trainees must therefore be respected….

“In support of the complainant’s position, it must be taken into consideration that to her, the headscarf is not only a sign of affiliation with a certain religious group that could be taken off at any time — like, for example, the cross worn on a necklace. Rather, wearing the headscarf to her means fulfilling a requirement that she considers imperative. As there is no similarly widespread equivalent requirement in the Christian faith, a general ban on manifestations of religious belief has a stronger impact on the complainant than on other religious public officials….

“In support of the constitutionality of the ban, it must be taken into consideration that it is limited to a few individual tasks. The ban applies where legal trainees perform judicial tasks, represent the public prosecution office in trial hearings and take on quasi-judicial roles. In doing so, legal trainees — like civil servants — must represent the values that the Basic Law lays down for the justice system.”

Hesse’s Minister of Justice Eva Kühne-Hörmann (CDU) described the ruling as “groundbreaking” (wegweisend):

“With this groundbreaking decision, the court sent an important signal in favor of the ideological neutrality of state institutions. Especially in today’s society, in which people from many countries around the world live with different cultural biographies and also with different religions, the state order must place more value than ever on its ideological neutrality. This is only possible if the state parties to judicial proceedings are not allowed to show religious insignia.”

Islamic head coverings have been a recurring issue in Germany, where the Muslim population has surpassed six million to become approximately 7.2% of the overall population of 83 million, according to calculations by Gatestone Institute.

On February 3, 2020, the Hamburg Higher Administrative Court (Oberverwaltungsgericht) ruled that a 16-year-old German-Egyptian student was allowed to wear a niqab, a garment that covers the face, at a vocational school in Hammerbrook.

Hamburg education officials had ordered the girl not wear the veil at school. In a statement, the court explained that according to the Hamburg School Act as it is currently written:

“Education officials cannot require the student to refrain from covering her face while at school. The student can claim the right to an unconditionally protected freedom of religion. Interferences with this fundamental right require a sufficiently defined legal basis.”

Hamburg politicians from across the political spectrum have vowed to change the law to ensure that full-face veils are banned in classrooms. Hamburg’s Senator for Education Ties Rabe, who belongs to the center-left Social Democrats, said:

“In school, it is a matter of course that the teachers and the pupils have an open, free face. This is the only way that school and teaching can function. That is why we are going to change the school law quickly so that this is guaranteed in the future too.”

Hamburg Deputy Mayor Katharina Fegebank from the Greens party also called for the law to be changed:

“The burqa and the niqab are, for me, symbols of oppression. Successful school lessons need good communication at eye level. For this, it is important to see the face of the other. This is not possible with a full veil. That is why we reject them.”

The opposition parties in Hamburg’s parliament, the Christian Democrats (CDU), the Free Democrats (FDP) and the conservative AfD, also support banning niqabs and burqas from classrooms.

The student’s lawyer, Alexander Heyers, said that while his client “does not see herself as the Greta Thunberg of Islam,” a ban would be tantamount to a declaration of war. He has threatened to take the case to the Federal Constitutional Court: “Political questions that have a deep impact on fundamental rights should be clarified before the Federal Constitutional Court.”

In the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, which is governed by a coalition of Greens and Christian Democrats, Culture Minister Susanne Eisenmann (CDU) also announced a ban on veils through adjustments to school legislation:

“Religious freedom has its limits — specifically at our schools, when teachers can literally no longer look at each other’s faces. We do not tolerate full veiling at our schools.”

Other headscarf-related bans in Germany include:

January 29, 2020. The University of Kiel (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, CAU) banned students from wearing face-covering veils while in class:

“The Presidium of the CAU has to ensure that the minimum requirements for communication in research, teaching and administration necessary for the fulfillment of university tasks are ensured. Open communication, which is based not only on the spoken word, but also on facial expressions and gestures, is one of these minimum requirements. Since a face veil hinders this open communication, it must not be worn in courses, exams and discussions relating to study, teaching and advice in the broadest sense.”

December 2019. Officials in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) abandoned plans to ban girls under the age of 14 from wearing headscarves or hijabs in NRW schools. Secretary of State for Integration Serap Güler said that after lengthy legal review, she determined that such a ban had no chance of being upheld by the Federal Constitutional Court.

September 2018. The Federal Council of the State of Lower Saxony approved an amendment that prohibits persons involved in court hearing — in particular parties, witnesses and legal representatives — from covering their faces in whole or in part ban on face coverings in courts. Justice Minister Barbara Havliza explained:

“Checking statements for their truthfulness is often of crucial importance in court proceedings. The judges must be able to look those involved in the face because the facial expressions sometimes say more than words. In addition, a face covering can make it difficult or impossible to identify people.”

August 2018. The justice ministers of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) presented a draft amendment to the Court Constitution Act (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz) that would ban face-covering veils in all German courts. NRW Justice Minister Peter Biesenbach (CDU) said:

“Without facial expressions and gestures, a statement is hardly worth anything. If a witness’s sweat is on his forehead or his facial features slip away, judges must be able to take this into account when evaluating a statement.”

October 2017. The Federal Highway Code (Straßenverkehrsordnung) banned motorists wearing face coverings while driving.

June 2017. The Bundestag banned civil servants and military personnel from covering their faces in public. (Gatestone Institute)

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.

 

 

Israeli Celebrity Sparks Firestorm with ‘Netanyahu, King of the Apes’ Post

By
Administrator
-
0

Yonatan Geffen posted the insult on his Instagram account but erased it hours later.

By: Batya Jerenberg

Outspoken veteran composer, singer and journalist Yonatan Geffen reacted with intense dislike to the triumph of the right-wing bloc Tuesday night, insulting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his constituents by calling them monkeys.

Over a picture of Netanyahu kissing his wife Sarah after his victory speech Monday night, Geffen wrote on his Instagram account: “Love in the days of Corona [virus]. How sad after the victory speech of Tarzan, King of the Apes. Tarzan is not leaving us. And I apologize if I offended the apes.”

The internet erupted with angry reactions to the post. A fellow journalist, Ariel Shenbal, wrote, “Mr. Yonatan Geffen, you say these kinds of things a day *before* the elections, not a day *after*. Now you’ve outed yourself not only as a primitive racist and an idiot but also useless in bringing in mandates, so what have we gained by this.”

A few hours later, the post disappeared from his account.

Geffen, 73, is a known leftist, and this wasn’t the first time he reacted acidly to a Netanyahu win. After the 2015 elections, he called the prime minister a racist during a musical performance.

“The nation has again chosen one whose rule is based on scaring the nation,” he said.

“A racist who on Election Day told the media, ‘The Arabs are streaming to the voting booths in large numbers.’ What would you say if during German elections they’d say, ‘The Jews are running like mice to the voting booths?’ …. All those who put Bibi’s name in the voting box, do me a favor: Don’t cry when your children will die in the next stupid military campaign…. You chose a leader who promises us death.”

He also called Netanyahu a “Caesar” who divides the nation.

Geffen was attacked at the entrance to his home on Moshav Beit Yitzchak a few days afterwards. An anonymous man knocked on his door, and when Geffen opened it, he hit the singer in the face, called him a “traitor,” and threw eggs at him. (World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

 

 

Bloomberg Out, Biden Resurgent After Super Tuesday Victories

By
Administrator
-
0

The former mayor of New York City ended his presidential bid on Wednesday, as Elizabeth Warren watched her prospects fade after a win-less Super Tuesday.

By: AP

New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his presidential campaign and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reassessing her candidacy Wednesday as the winnowing process in the Democrats’ 2020 nomination fight lurched forward after a consequential Super Tuesday.

Bloomberg quit the race just over 100 days after he got in despite pouring more than $500 million of his personal fortune into his campaign. The massive investment netted him a win in American Samoa.

Bloomberg joined Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke as former Democratic presidential contenders to endorse Joe Biden.

The development came just hours after a resurgent Biden scored Super Tuesday victories from Texas to Massachusetts, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. Biden and Bloomberg spoke Wednesday morning, according to two people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to disclose private conversations.

Biden’s rival Bernie Sanders seized the biggest prize with a win in California, which ensured that he — and his embrace of democratic socialism — would drive the Democrats’ nomination fight for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, Warren huddled with advisers on Wednesday to determine if there was a reason to stay in the race after her Super Tuesday wipe-out. She didn’t win a single state and finished in third place, after Biden and Sanders, in her own home state of Massachusetts.

And suddenly, the Democratic Party’s presidential field, which featured more than a half-dozen candidates a week ago, transformed into a two-man contest.

Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future, were locked in a delegate fight a day after 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s presidential primary.

It could take weeks — or months — for Democrats to pick one of them to take on President Donald Trump in the November general election. But the new contours of the fight between Biden and Sanders crystallized as the former vice president and the three-term Vermont senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches delivered from opposite ends of the country Tuesday night.

“People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement,” Biden said in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders’ signature lines.

‘Same-old, same-old politics’?

Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont.

“You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics,” Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. “This will become a contrast in ideas.”

The Sanders campaign announced Wednesday that it would begin airing three new campaign ads in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington, states that hold primaries March 10 and March 17.

One of the new ads features archived footage of former President Barack Obama praising Sanders. It’s a not-so-subtle attempt by the Vermont senator to undercut Biden’s frequently spotlighting his closeness to Obama.

Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to call Biden’s strong Super Tuesday showing “a perfect storm” and amplify his long-running argument that the Democratic Party would move to stop Sanders from winning the nomination.

“The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN!” Trump tweeted.

Trump also called Warren “selfish” for staying in the race because it “hurts Bernie badly.”

Biden’s victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots — a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45.

Sanders’ success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decades-long political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast.

The balance of Super Tuesday’s battlefield — with Biden winning at least nine states and Sanders four — raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner.

Biden’s strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats’ establishment wing.

The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with a victory in Massachusetts. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas — in addition to Oklahoma.

Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the night’s biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado.

Biden: outspent and outstaffed

Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000.

The Democratic race has shifted dramatically as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Klobuchar and Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. O’Rourke, who dropped out of the race last year, appeared at a Texas rally, where he endorsed Biden.

In a statement announcing his departure, Bloomberg vowed to stay engaged in the 2020 election and his ultimate goal to ensure Trump is defeated this fall.

“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden.”

In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump.

Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party’s far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nation’s political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party’s Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change.

Across the Super Tuesday states, there were early questions about Sanders’ claims that he is growing his support from his failed 2016 presidential bid.

Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. In Virginia, where Democratic turnout this year surpassed 2016’s numbers by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders’ vote share dropped significantly. And in Tennessee, Democratic turnout was up more than 30% from 2016, but Sanders’ raw vote total was only a few hundred votes greater than four years ago.

With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 487 delegates to Biden, 415 to Sanders, 53 to Warren, 46 to Bloomberg and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates.

The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. (Associated Press)

 

 

‘Bob Durst Killed His Wife,’ Prosecutor Says at His Trial

By
Administrator
-
0

By: Andrew Dalton

Robert Durst has never been charged in the 1982 New York disappearance of his wife Kathie Durst, who was later declared dead despite no body being found, but on Wednesday a prosecutor in a Los Angeles courtroom repeatedly told a jury that he killed her.

“Bob Durst killed his wife,” Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said at one point during his opening statement at the trial of the real estate heir Durst, who is charged only with the murder of his friend Susan Berman in 2000.

The judge in the case has ruled that the prosecution can provide evidence and say that Durst killed his wife to establish motive for Berman’s killing, and Lewin took full advantage, repeating and emphasizing the statement.

“On the day that Durst killed her,” Lewin said as he opened one part of his presentation. “They were married at the time he killed her,” he said in another part, “Durst killed Kathie when they were spending the weekend together,” he said later .

He said it so much that it drove Durst’s attorney Dick DeGuerin to interrupt.

“I’ve got to object to this conclusion that Bob Durst killed Kathie,” said DeGuerin, who said it was an impermissible legal argument and not a presentation of evidence. He was overruled.

It was one of many clashes the two lawyers had on a day that at one point got out of control.

“You present what you want to present and I’ll present what I want to present!” Lewin shouted directly at DeGuerin after a morning of constant objections and interruptions to his opening statements.

DeGuerin is the attorney who got Durst acquitted in his first murder trial in 2003 in Texas, when Durst testified that he had dismembered and disposed of his neighbor Morris Black, but his death had been an accident in a struggle over a gun.

The 76-year-old Durst, who looked frail and walked very slowly when he entered the courtroom, has denied killing Berman or having anything to do with his wife’s disappearance.

He has long said that on Jan. 31, 1982, the last day anyone saw Kathie Durst, he had spent the day with her at their suburban home in South Salem, New York, then put her on a train to Manhattan, where they had a penthouse and where Kathie had a shift at a clinic in her work as a medical student.

“The evidence will show that there are no witnesses or evidence that Kathie ever got on that train,” Lewin told jurors. “We’ll demonstrate that Kathie Durst never left that house. He came home, and he killed her.”

Lewin gave the jury a chronology of the disintegration and descent into domestic violence of Durst’s marriage to Kathie, a middle-class woman nine years his junior.

The prosecution played several clips of Durst admitting to pushing, shoving and pulling the hair of his wife, taken from interviews Durst did in 2010 for “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” the HBO documentary series that helped lead to his arrest in 2015.

“I remember dragging her by her hair, and grabbing her arm,” Durst said on the video shown to the jury. He also is heard saying, “The hair pulling wasn’t even the worst.”

Lewin also played a clip from a DVD commentary Durst did with the filmmakers of 2010’s “All Good Things,” which starred Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst as characters based Robert and Kathie Durst. In one scene on a rainy night, Gosling terrorizes Dunst so much that she climbs out the window on to the terrace of their Manhattan penthouse.

“This is more or less accurate,” Durst says.

Prosecutors alleged that just days after Kathie Durst’s death, her husband enlisted his best friend Berman to act as his media spokeswoman and to help him cover up her killing, at one point posing as Kathie Durst in a phone call to her medical school to demonstrate that she was still alive.

Prosecutors allege that 19 years later, when New York police had reopened the investigation and were about to interview Berman, Durst shot and killed her.

Lewin gave the jury biographies of Durst and Berman, who met as students at UCLA in the 1960s, casting him as the careless millionaire son of a real estate giant who didn’t believe rules applied to him, and her as the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster who learned from her father that nothing was more important than loyalty.

“She adopted the idea from the mafia that you were always loyal to her friends,” Lewin said. ”She maintained a strict code of honor.”

That code drove her to keep Durst’s secrets, knowledge that would lead to her death, prosecutors said.

The evidence also shows that Berman, who was paranoid and never answered the door for strangers, had allowed her killer into her house in Beverly Hills, Lewin said.

“She was unafraid,” Lewin said as he showed jurors a photo of Berman lying dead in a pool of blood in her bedroom. “She wasn’t scared. And then she was executed.”

The prosecution’s opening statement is scheduled to resume Thursday. (AP)

 

CORONA VIRUS : The Latest: Australia bans travel from S Korea over virus

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0

A.P

Australia has banned travel from South Korea and will more thoroughly screen travelers from Italy in a bid to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.

The travel ban from late Thursday follows similar bans on travel from China and Iran.

Australian citizens and permanent residents are exempt from the ban. Those returning from Korea are asked to self-isolate for 14 days when they return home.

The new measures come as a 95-year-old nursing home resident became the second person in Australia to die with COVID-19 disease.

********

China’s deaths from the new COVID-19 illness have surpassed 3,000 though new cases have fallen steadily.

Authorities on Thursday reported 31 deaths over the previous 24 hours.

Another 139 cases of infection with the new corona virus were reported, all but five of them in the hardest-hit province of Hubei.

While Hubei hospitals admitted another 134 patients, a further 1,923 were declared cured and released.

The update brings China’s totals to 80,409 cases and 3,012 deaths. It has the vast majority of cases and deaths though the virus has spread to more than 70 countries.

China’s numbers have fallen steadily. Though Thursday’s cases were up by 20 from Wednesday’s, deaths were seven lower.

************

U.S. officials say a medical screener at the Los Angeles International Airport has contracted the coronavirus.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it’s unclear if the person contracted the virus through their work as a medical screener or from community transmission. The agency said no travelers screened at LAX have tested positive for coronavirus.

The person, who is a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security, is being quarantined at home and has mild symptoms.

The patient last worked at the airport on Feb. 21 and began feeling cold-like symptoms on Feb. 29. The patient’s doctor tested them for corona-virus on March 1.

Officials say the screener wore protective equipment at the airport.

*********

Korean Air suspended service last month from several airports in South Korea to Beijing and other cities in China, Japan and Asia.

According to the new schedule, direct flights will stop by next Monday to Boston, New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle. It expects service to resume to many cities in late April.

Reductions in flights were announced for service to Honolulu, Chicago, Washington and Atlanta, as well as Vancouver and Toronto.

***********

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a “small cluster” of patients with the new coronavirus in Northern California who were passengers of a Grand Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico in February, including a patient who died at a hospital Wednesday.

The Grand Princess’ chief medical officer says the ship is at sea off the coast of Mexico and will skip a scheduled stop in Ensenada and return directly to San Francisco, where CDC and cruise officials will meet to determine the next course of action. He said guests who sailed on the Feb. 11-21 voyage and are currently on the ship need to remain in their rooms until they are cleared by medical staff.

The ship is expected to dock in San Francisco Thursday.

(Associated Press)

 

China’s Virus Slowdown Offers Hope for Global Containment

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0

By LINDSEY TANNER (A.P)

The slowdown in coronavirus cases out of China offers a sliver of hope that the global outbreak can be controlled, but whether that can happen anytime soon without drastic measures remains to be seen, public health authorities say.

With China accounting for the overwhelming majority of the world’s 94,000 infections and 3,200 deaths since the virus first surfaced there in late December, it’s hard to see the country as a success story. But some experts believe the easing of the crisis — there are now more new cases being reported outside China than inside it — suggests containment is possible.

(AP)

Super Tuesday Sizzles as Biden Sweeps South, Sanders Wins in West

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
Addressing a large crowd of supporters in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday night, former Vice President Joe Biden said, “People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement." Photo Credit: Chris Carlson/AP

By: AP

A resurgent Joe Biden swept to victory across the country on Tuesday, scoring primary wins in the upper Midwest and African American strongholds in the South, in a dramatic offensive against progressive rival Bernie Sanders, who was hoping to tap into delegate-rich Western states to maintain his lead in the Democratic presidential contest.

At the time of this writing, Biden has won Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Minnesota. After leading for most of the evening in Texas, Sanders lost his lead to Joe Biden in the Lone Star state and it appears that the former vice president has won there.

Biden credited Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar for helping him win her state through her endorsement of his candidacy after she dropped out of the race. He also thanked South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg for his endorsement as well.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders declares victory on Tuesday night from his home state as he addresses supporters and suggests that he will ultimately win the Democratic nomination for the White House. Photo Credit: AP

Thus far, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who is running as a far-left progressive candidate has won his home state of Vermont as well as Colorado.

As to the delegate distribution, unlike previous presidential races it is not a “winner take all” situation but rather delegates will be distributed to all candidates who meet a 15% threshold.

Biden a Democrat, who spent decades in the US Senate representing the people of Delaware and then served as vice president under former President Barack Obama and Sanders, an Independent who served in the House of Representatives and currently in the US Senate representing his adopted state of Vermont are  lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America’s future.  On this Tuesday, they were battling for delegates as 14 states and one U.S. territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party’s 2020 nomination fight.

The clash between Biden and Sanders, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democrats’ 2020 nomination fight will stretch all the way to the party’s July convention or be decided much sooner.

It was increasingly looking like a two-man race.

“People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement,” a fiery Biden charged in California.

Sanders swiped at Biden from a victory speech in Vermont: “You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old type of politics.”

He added: “One of us in this race led the opposition to the war in Iraq,” the Vermont senator declared. “You are looking at him. Another candidate voted for the war in Iraq.”

Mike Bloomberg’s sole victory was in the territory of American Samoa. The billionaire former New York mayor will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Elizabeth Warren had yet to post any early wins, and even in her home state of Massachusetts, she was locked in a three-way race with Biden and Sanders.

Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent by moderate rival Bloomberg, who poured more than $19 million into television advertising in Virginia. Biden, meanwhile, spent less than $200,000.

A key to Biden’s success: black voters. Biden won 60% of the black vote in Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half the Democratic electorate. Bloomberg earned 25%, and Sanders won about 10% of African American votes, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate.

The Democratic race has shifted dramatically over the past three days as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign.

Biden’s win in South Carolina, his first in the 2020 election season, rescued his campaign from the brink after three consecutive weak finishes last month.

Sanders, meanwhile, was predicting victory in California, the day’s largest delegate prize. The state, like delegate-rich Texas, plays to his strengths, given its significant factions of liberal whites, large urban areas with younger voters and strong Latino populations.

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg did not rack up any victories on Super Tuesday, but he did have a respectable showing in California where he came in second, right under Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Photo Credit: Getty Images

In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against President Donald Trump in November.

Sanders, 78, is a democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party’s far-left flank that embraces his decades long fight to transform the nation’s political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party’s Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change.

On foreign policy, Sanders has generated acrimony over his hostile positions on Israel and his embrace of such controversial legislators as Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, New York City congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Muslim activist Linda Sarsour, among others.

Across the Super Tuesday states there were early questions about Sanders’ claims that he is growing his support from his 2016 bid.

Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. And in Virginia, where Democratic turnout surpassed 2016 by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders’ vote share dropped significantly.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country.

“We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016,” he said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida.

Warren was also fighting to be optimistic.

Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist she’s willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesn’t claim an outright victory anywhere.

“Here’s my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart,” Warren declared. She added: “You don’t get what you don’t fight for. I am in this fight.”

With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 302 to Biden, 193 delegates to Sanders, 19 to Bloomberg, 17 to Warren and one for Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift dramatically throughout the night as new states, none bigger than California, report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates.

The ultimate nominee must ultimately claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. Political pundits and television news analysts have suggested that at this rate and with this system of delegate distribution, none of the leading candidates will reach the “magical” delegate number before this summer’s Democratic national convention.

In an exclusive report, AP indicated that many Democratic voters in Super Tuesday’s presidential primaries made up their minds just before casting a ballot — and Joe Biden appears to be benefiting from their indecision.

Late deciders in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia broke for Biden, helping the former vice president win those states and capitalize on new momentum in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The indecision shows voters grappling with their choices and reluctant to throw away their votes in a race that is changing quickly. Biden’s big win in South Carolina on Saturday revived his struggling campaign and helped push three of his rivals toward the exit.

(Associated Press)

Surprise Cut from Fed Fails to Stem the Stock Market’s Dread; Coronavirus Spreads

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
2020 Wall Street NY . (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

By: Stan Choe

Stocks are falling sharply on Wall Street Tuesday after an emergency interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve failed to wipe out fears that a fast-spreading virus outbreak could lead to a recession.

Major indexes were down more than 3% in afternoon trading, bringing the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 800 points.

It took just 15 minutes for an early rally to evaporate following the Fed’s surprise move. While the cut helped raise confidence for some investors, traders were still debating how effective a rate cut can be on what is ultimately a health crisis. Some investors are also questioning whether more aid is on the way to stabilize the market, while others called the Fed’s move premature to begin with. For more than a few, the Fed’s steepest rate cut since 2008 recalled the dark days of the financial crisis.

After popping to a 1.5% gain shortly after the Fed’s announcement, the S&P 500 swung between modest gains and losses for about an hour before turning decisively lower in the late morning. The index was down 3.2%, as of 2:11 p.m. Eastern time, and on pace for its eighth drop in the last nine days. Other indexes had similar, jagged moves.

Everything from bonds to a gauge of traders’ fear of large stock moves swung sharply following the Fed’s cut, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell below 1.00% for the first time in history. Markets have been on edge for nearly two weeks, as the virus spreads beyond China and companies across continents and industries say they expect it to hit their profits.

The Fed has a long history of coming to the market’s rescue with lower rates and other stimulus, which has helped this bull market in U.S. stocks become the longest in history. Some analysts said the Fed’s latest cut should provide some more confidence.

“Confidence in markets is crucial,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. “Without confidence, you don’t have a market.”

The Dow had jumped 5% Monday to its best day in more than a decade on rising anticipation for aid from the Fed and other central banks. Even before Tuesday’s rate announcement, traders were convinced that the Fed would cut rates by half a percentage point at its next meeting, scheduled for March 17-18. Monday’s surge followed up the worst week for the S&P 500 since the financial crisis as worries about the virus’ economic toll mounted.

But doubts are high about whether the medicine provided by central banks can be as effective this time around. Lower rates can encourage shoppers and businesses to borrow and spend more, but they can’t reopen factories that have been shut or recall workers out due to quarantines.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that central banks can’t solve the health crisis. But he said the Fed recognizes the fast spread of the virus is a risk for the economy, and he cited concerns from the travel and hotel industries.

The high stakes pushed the Fed to cut rates outside of a regularly scheduled meeting for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, when investors were considering a complete meltdown of the world’s financial system as possible if not likely. That in itself may have added to the market’s dread Tuesday.

“I don’t believe that market participants woke up this morning thinking we were facing a crisis similar to the global financial crisis,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. “But that’s what the Fed’s actions suggested to some.”

She said investors will likely have mixed emotions about the move for days.

Some economists also called the Fed’s move premature, given that U.S. economic data has yet to show a sharp drop due to the virus.

“The nature of today’s announcement could send the wrong signal to market participants, including individual investors who are concerned with recent market volatility,” said Roger Aliaga-Diaz, chief economist of the Americas at Vanguard.

The Dow was down 849 points, or 3.2%, at 25,862. It was down as many as 356 points shortly after trading opened, only to swing to a gain of 381 points after the Fed’s announcement before turning sharply lower as day went on. The Nasdaq was down 3%.

European stock markets were broadly higher. Asian markets were also generally strong, though Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2%.

Bond yields swung following the Fed’s announcement. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slumped to 0.96% from 1.08% late Monday. The 10-year yield tends to fall when expectations are for weak economic growth and inflation.

Shorter-term yields, which move more on Fed actions, had even more dramatic drops. The two-year Treasury yield sank to 0.64% from 0.81%. The one-month yield fell to 0.92%.

Gold jumped $49.50, or 3.1%, to $1,644.30. Investors often pile into the metal when they’re looking for safety or when they’re anticipating lower interest rates.

A gauge of fear in the stock market swung wildly up and down through the day. The VIX measures how much traders are paying to protect themselves from future swings in stocks, and it was down roughly 25% immediately after the Fed’s announcement, only to swing to up 10% in the afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the Group of Seven major industrialized countries pledged support for the global economy, but they stopped short of announcing any specific new measures. Disappointment in the lack of action helped push U.S. stocks lower at the opening of trading, before the Fed surprised markets with its announcement of the steep, half-point rate cut at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

The G-7, which includes the U.S., Japan and Germany, among others, made its statement after weeks of warnings from companies that the virus will hit their finances. Economic groups have also warned of worsening forecasts for global economic growth.

Investors are still speculating whether other central banks will join and cut rates and offer stimulus in a coordinated effort around the world. Before the Fed made its move, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut its key interest rate to a record low 0.5%.

(AP)

New York Rail Tunnel Repairs Could Mean More Rider Headaches

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
This Oct. 17, 2018 file photo shows damage to the Hudson River rail tunnel in New York. The news that Amtrak is working with federal officials to do extensive repairs to its Hudson River rail tunnel while a plan to build a new tunnel languishes raises the specter of more delays for already beleaguered commuters. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told a House subcommittee Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, that the work needs to happen now instead of waiting for a new tunnel to be built, (Pool Photo/Victor J. Blue/The New York Times via AP)

By: AP

The news that Amtrak will ramp up repairs to its century-old Hudson River rail tunnel while a project to build a new tunnel languishes likely will translate into more headaches for already beleaguered commuters.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told a House subcommittee Thursday that federal officials are working with Amtrak on a plan to accelerate the work now on the 110-year-old tunnel.

The new tunnel, proposed nine years ago as part of the larger Gateway project to transform rail capacity in the New York region, is mired in a funding dispute between the federal government and New York and New Jersey and currently is ineligible for federal grants.

Amtrak already shuts down one of the existing tunnel’s two tubes during overnight and weekend hours to repair damage accelerated by flooding from 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. The Gateway plan called for shutting down the tunnel for a complete overhaul once a new tunnel is built, but Chao said Thursday that beginning the repair work now “is the right move.” She noted that building a new tunnel would take seven to 10 years and cost an estimated $11 billion, under the most favorable conditions.

The new plan calls for more extensive repairs that will require further service disruptions, said Stephen Gardner, Amtrak’s senior executive vice president and chief operating and commercial officer.

“We’re trying to balance what we can do now with the impacts of doing it now,” Gardner told The Associated Press at a transportation conference in New York on Thursday. “If we have to curtail rush hour for the next five years to do some interim work, there’s huge impacts to that. So we’re tying to find that right balance.”

The most disruptive repairs could “require a complete outage at some point,” he added.

The problems — including water leaking in, crumbling walls, an outdated track bed and overhead wire issues — are so extensive that they won’t all be repaired, even under the new plan, Gardner conceded.

Gardner also cast doubt on the idea that 12,000-volt electrical cables currently encased in concrete damaged by Sandy can be installed on racks on the tunnel walls. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo opted for that approach to avoid a lengthy planned shutdown last year of New York City’s L subway line connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. The idea has gained traction for the Amtrak tunnel in recent months, and Chao referred to it Thursday.

“This is not the same situation as the Canarsie tube, which is low voltage, 600 DC volts,” Gardner said. “People get confused about applying a method to a completely different technological solution. With 12,000 volts, it explodes, it arcs. You have to protect it in a fireproof, very robust encasement of some sort.”

  (AP)

Mayor DeBlasio & Billy Idol Announce Campaign to End Idling

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
If idle hands are the Devil’s workshop, what are idling cars? The 1980’s punk rocker Billy Idol has thrown his support behind New York City’s program to cut the number of idling vehicles in the city.

By: Justin Goldhaber

If idle hands are the Devil’s workshop, what are idling cars?

The 1980’s punk rocker Billy Idol has thrown his support behind New York City’s program to cut the number of idling vehicles in the city.

Mayor de Blasio joined Idol to announce a new anti-idling advertising and publicity campaign. The campaign is part of a larger anti-idling initiative aimed at boosting public awareness on the harmful effects of idling, expanding enforcement of anti-idling laws, and encouraging individuals to file citizen complaints.

In 2018, DEP began a “Citizens Air Complaint Program” where individuals who witness and record a truck or bus idling can file a complaint online with DEP and collect 25% of the penalty, $87.50 of a $350 fine. Launching today, the public awareness campaign encourages drivers to shut off their engines to reduce idling and increase accountability for commercial vehicles. Additional information can be found at billyneveridles.nyc.

“Billy Idol never idles and neither should you,” said de Blasio. “It chokes our air, hurts the environment, and is bad for New York. We’re sending a loud message with a Rebel Yell: turn off your engines or pay up.”

“I love New York City and I’m delighted to lend my support to a campaign benefitting our environment. Like most New Yorkers, I‘m troubled when I see cars and trucks sitting idle while polluting our neighborhoods. New Yorkers are some of the most hardworking, passionate people in the world and I hope they will join me in turning off their engines. SHUT IT OFF NEW YORK!” said Billy Idol.

“We need an all hands on deck approach to stop idling throughout New York City,” said Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin. “That includes increasing enforcement, changing the behavior of our drivers, doubling down on our public education of the harmful effects of idling, and yes, enlisting the help of a rock star to ensure sure drivers remember to shut off their engine.”

“Shutting off your vehicle’s engine is one of the simplest things a New Yorker can do to help improve the quality of the air we all share,” said DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza. “We’re thrilled to have Billy Idol lead this campaign and remind drivers to shut their engines off!”

Idol will attend multiple events in New York City today to kick-off the campaign, including a stop at City Hall. The one million dollar ad campaign launches today throughout New York City, features Billy Idol and his message Billy Never Idles, Neither Should You. Shut your engine off. The effort includes 12 high-profile billboard locations, gas station TV, radio and multiple social media platforms (hashtag #billyneveridles), as well as LinkNYC and NYC TaxiTV, exposure and placement on City fleet vehicles equipped with anti-idling and emission control technology.

Weinstein Juror: #MeToo Movement Not a Factor in Sex Abuse Trial

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
In the landmark trial of former Hollywood icon, Harvey Weinstein, an anonymous juror who played a role in convicting the disgraced movie mogul revealed that the rape and sexual assault charges, did not consider factor into the trial’s implications for the #MeTooMovement. Photo Credit: AP

By: Veronica Kordmany

In the landmark trial of former Hollywood icon, Harvey Weinstein, an anonymous juror who played a role in convicting the disgraced movie mogul revealed that the rape and sexual assault charges, did not consider factor into the trial’s implications for the #MeTooMovement.

Harvey Weinstein was initially accused of sexual harassment and rape in 2017 by more than 20 women, all of which claim they were harassed sometime in the past 30 years. The collective action of coming out with their survivor-stories ignited the #MeTooMovement in Hollywood–actress Alyssa Milano took to Twitter, saying “If you’ve ever been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘Me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” In the following weeks, #MeToo would be used by millions of women.” Since then, Weinstein has been in and out of courtrooms, reaching settlements, dismissals, and, now, convictions, all of which tie back to his alleged inappropriate behavior with his female coworkers.

Weinstein, 67, was found guilty Monday of raping an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006. He faces the possibility of anywhere between five and 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in March 2020.

The anonymous juror, who was identified in the CBS interview by his first name, Malbin, alone, said the jury took excruciating pains to make a decision based on the concrete law and evidence. They finally decided that the actress’ testimony, about the 2013 assault, warranted a guilty verdict on the charge of third-degree rape; a smaller charge than the first-degree conviction sought by prosecutors.

“It wasn’t rape in the first degree,” Malbin said. “There was no physical compulsion with the threat of bodily harm or death. But there was no consent given, despite a lack of physical resistance, and a reasonable person should have known that there was no consent given in that instance.” When asked by a CBS reporter whether Weinstein should be in jail, Malbin said, “That’s not for me to say.”

The former Hollywood mogul, who has an injured back and other health problems, has been in Bellevue Hospital’s wing for prisoners while awaiting transfer to New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex. “You know, I could say that a man of his age and of his current health, the general population at Rikers sounds like a pretty dangerous place,” Malbin said.

Weinstein has maintained his defense that any sexual contact was consensual. His lawyers have promised to appeal the conviction.

1...2,0532,0542,055...2,295Page 2,054 of 2,295
DONATE NOW
Subscribe Now

© The Jewish Voice. All rights reserved.

Website managed by Napollo

About Us

Popular Category

Editor Picks