| China reports fall in new virus cases for 3rd straight day Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:08 PM PST  China reported Sunday a drop in new virus cases for the third straight day, as it became apparent that the country's leadership was aware of the potential gravity of the situation well before the alarm was sounded. There are 2,009 new cases in mainland China, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 68,500, according to the country's National Health Commission. The death toll in mainland China from COVID-19, a disease stemming from a new form of coronavirus, now stands at 1,665.
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| Air strikes on Yemen kill 31 civilians after Saudi jet crash Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:55 PM PST  Thirty-one people were killed in air strikes on Yemen Saturday, the United Nations said, the victims of an apparent Saudi-led retaliation after Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed to have shot down one of its jets. The deadly violence follows an upsurge in fighting in northern Yemen between the warring parties that threatens to worsen the war-battered country's humanitarian crisis. "Preliminary field reports indicate that on 15 February as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit Al-Hayjah area... in Al-Jawf governorate," the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen said in a statement.
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| Germans hit the streets against deals with far right Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:54 PM PST  Thousands of anti-fascist protesters on Saturday took to the streets in Erfurt, capital of Thuringia state in Germany's former communist east where far-right lawmakers last week helped install a new state premier. Thuringia rocked national politics on February 5, when state lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right CDU party voted with far-right, anti-immigrant AfD representatives to elect liberal politician Thomas Kemmerich state premier.
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| UK post-Brexit rules to 'turn off tap' of low-skilled foreign labour Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:01 PM PST |
| Candy, cheese soar to space station to satisfy crew cravings Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:22 PM PST  Northrop Grumman launched its Cygnus capsule from the Virginia seashore. It took three tries over the past week to get the Antares rocket off the pad, with it finally taking flight at 3:21 p.m. — an auspicious 3-2-1. "Awesome launch," Joel Montalbano, NASA's deputy space station program manager, said once the capsule reached orbit.
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| Mississippi braces for flooding amid cresting river Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:13 PM PST  Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday amid predictions that a river running in the area around the state capital of Jackson could burst its banks and spark widespread flooding. Forecasters believe the Pearl River will crest at 38 feet (11.6 meters) Sunday evening to levels not seen in decades, following days of torrential rains across the Southeast. Reeves said the state should prepare for "the third worst flood" in its history.
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| Israeli military says 2 rockets fired from Gaza Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:47 AM PST  The Israeli military said two rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The rockets set off warning sirens in nearby Israeli communities but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired a number of rockets and explosive balloons into Israel in recent weeks as tensions have risen following the Jan. 28 release of the Trump administration's Mideast initiative, which strongly favors Israel.
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| Sanders' bond with Latinos gets first test of many in Nevada Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:15 AM PST |
| Canada, others nations push Iran on downed airliner probe Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:56 AM PST  Diplomats from nations that lost citizens when Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner pushed Iran's foreign minister Saturday for more cooperation from Tehran on the investigation and other issues. Amid heightened tensions with the United States, Iran said it accidentally shot the aircraft down Jan. 8 after mistaking it for an incoming missile attack. All 176 people aboard the Ukraine International Airlines plane died.
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| Egypt sentences ex-minister's brother for artifact smuggling Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:46 AM PST |
| Germany wants another crack at a EU mission in the Strait of Hormuz Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST  Berlin last summer rejected a request to join a U.S.-led naval protection mission for fear of getting tangled up in shooting war between the United States and Iran.
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| The Latest: Some who back Sanders more confident this time Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST  Some Nevada Democrats who made Bernie Sanders their first choice in the state's early caucus voting say they think he has a better chance of being elected president now than he did in 2016. Solana Kline of Reno says she supported Sanders last time too, but didn't think he could win so she opted for Hillary Clinton because she was more mainstream. Kline says the whole political climate has changed since then and Sanders vs. Donald Trump would be viewed more as good vs. evil.
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| 2 charged in multimillion-dollar prostitution operation Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:52 AM PST |
| Iran: Trump wrong if he thinks Tehran regime will collapse Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:26 AM PST  Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump is receiving bad advice if he believes an American "maximum pressure" campaign against his country will cause the government in Tehran to collapse. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a group of top defense officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference that the information provided to the president has dissuaded Trump from accepting offers from other leaders to mediate between Washington and Tehran. "President Trump has been convinced that we are about to collapse so he doesn't want to talk to a collapsing regime," Zarif said.
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| WHO chief praises China's virus fight, urges more from world Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:55 AM PST  The U.N. health agency's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told a gathering of international foreign policy and security leaders Saturday that WHO has been encouraged that there has not yet been widespread transmission of the virus outside of China. "The steps China has taken to contain the outbreak at its source appear to have bought to the world time," Tedros told the Munich Security Conference.
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| Virginia emerges as South's progressive leader under Dems Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:23 AM PST  In a state once synonymous with the Old South, Democrats are using their newfound legislative control to refashion Virginia as the region's progressive leader on racial, social and economic issues. Lawmakers are on the verge of passing the South's strictest gun laws, broadest LGBTQ protections, highest minimum wage and some of its loosest abortion restrictions, churning through landmark legislation on a near-daily basis. The leap to the left has sparked fierce pushback from rural Virginians, social conservatives and others who are chafing under the political shift in the state, where a holiday honors Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and monuments to those men dot the landscape.
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| Turkey, Russia to discuss grave situation in Syria's Idlib Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:18 AM PST  A Turkish delegation will travel to Russia on Monday to discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib province amid mounting fears of a humanitarian disaster there, Turkey's foreign minister said. Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Idlib province are scrambling to escape a widening, multi-front offensive by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
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| Shift to digital census raises fear of Iowa-like breakdown Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:07 AM PST  The stakes are high when a major civic exercise involves a large population, new technology that has not been thoroughly tested and an entire country waiting on the results. Just ask the organizers of the Iowa caucuses, which offered a cautionary tale on the technological woes that could befall a big political event. The U.S. Census Bureau plans to try out a lot of new technology.
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| UN official says airstrikes kill over 30 civilians in Yemen Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:54 AM PST |
| Saudi fighter jet crashes in Yemen, rebels say they downed it Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:44 AM PST A Saudi fighter jet crashed in conflict-torn Yemen, the Riyadh-led military coalition supporting the government announced Saturday, as the Iran-backed Huthi rebels said they downed the plane. The Tornado aircraft came down on Friday in northern Al-Jawf province during an operation to assist Yemeni government forces, the coalition said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The insurgents reported multiple coalition air strikes on Saturday in the Huthi-controlled area where the plane went down as local residents gathered near the wreckage, according to Al-Masirah.
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| Egypt upholds detention of student critical of el-Sissi Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:36 AM PST  An Egyptian court Saturday rejected the appeal of an activist and vocal critic of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi for release from detention, his lawyer said. Police detained Patrick George Zaki, 28, an Egyptian student at the University of Bologna in Italy, after he arrived in Cairo last week on what was supposed to be a brief visit home. Zaki's detention has generated tremendous interest in Italy because of a 2016 case involving an Italian graduate student who was found dead in Cairo.
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| South Korea Presses Japan to Quickly End Export Curbs Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:50 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Japan should take faster measures to lift export curbs on key semiconductor components.Japan should carry out "more visible and sincere steps" to remove the restrictions of such shipments to South Korea, Kang told her Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi at a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.Japan removed South Korea from its list of trusted export destinations last year, which threatened the latter's semiconductor and display sectors because of uncertainty over imports of key materials. The dispute started in part after South Korean courts demanded Japanese companies compensate Korean workers forced into labor during the 1910-1945 colonial era.Kang reiterated the country's position on the forced-labor issue, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement on the meeting with Motegi, without elaborating.South Korea and Japan will cooperate in responding to global coronavirus outbreak and North Korea's nuclear threats, according to the statement.In a separate meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Kang discussed the alliance between the two countries and pledged to resolve the troop-funding deal in a smooth way. At a trilateral meeting, Pompeo, Kang and Motegi also discussed how to respond to global threats including situations in North Korea and the Middle East.To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Xi says China must keep economic, social order while battling coronavirus Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:48 AM PST |
| Your Weekend Reading: Knocking on Hell’s Door Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:30 AM PST |
| The Marine Corps’ New Armored Vehicle: Can It Fight in Cold Weather? Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:30 AM PST  Russia, North Korea and China are surely smiling. Here is what is going on.
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| Xi Details Hands-On Approach in Virus Fight From Early January Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:20 AM PST |
| Ukraine Plans Local Elections, Including in Breakaway Donbas Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:15 AM PST |
| Everyone would fall for a Trump deepfake Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:00 AM PST  Suppose tomorrow, or during the Republican National Convention, or maybe two days before the election, a video of President Trump appears. It's filmed vertically, obviously with a cell phone, and a corner of paper sometimes appears in the frame for a few seconds, as if the filmmaker — an administration intern? an aide? the anonymous author of that New York Times piece? — is trying to hide his camera work. Trump is standing in a hallway, maybe at the White House or Mar-a-Lago, and you can't see his conversation partner, whose voice from around the corner is a little muffled. But you can clearly see and hear Trump, and he says the n-word. Or he admits to committing election fraud in Michigan in 2016. Or he describes raping a woman on the set of The Apprentice. Or he reveals he already has bombers in the air, heading for Tehran. Or he says anything which fits with some established attribute or habit — his racism, his campaign's willingness (if not competence) to play dirty, his long history of sexual misconduct and assault, his militarism and snap judgments — but takes it to a newly horrifying level.You'd believe it, right?And when Trump started issuing denials on Twitter, railing about the "fake news" and the "witch hunt" against him and the "lying do-nothing Democrats" who somehow made this compromising video, you'd smirk. C'mon. He obviously said it. We have video, and even if we didn't, it's entirely in step with his decades of public life. Plus, Trump lies constantly! He lies about stuff that doesn't matter at all. He has a record of denying saying things he said on tape. Remember "Tim Apple"? That's on video, but Trump still denied saying it. Or there's the time he called Meghan Markle "nasty" in a recorded interview, then pretended he didn't. So yeah, obviously the video is real. Obviously Trump is lying.But what if it wasn't real? What if Trump were telling the truth? What if the election outcome changed or we got into war with Iran over a deepfake? Tech experts have warned that a well-timed deepfake video could be used to sink the eventual Democratic nominee's campaign against Trump — but I suspect the president's unique history of immorality and dishonesty makes a convincing Trump deepfake the far greater risk.Truly convincing deepfakes have two elements. The first is technological proficiency, which, so far, most deepfakes lack. For example, a French charity released a Trump deepfake last year as a stunt to raise awareness about AIDs. The voice isn't great, and the face is visibly wonky:No one would be fooled by this for more than half a second — nor were they supposed to be.Likewise, a parody clip which inserted Trump's face into a scene from Better Call Saul is easily identified for the deepfake it is (the use of "[Deepfake]" in the title of the YouTube upload is also a giveaway):But deepfake tech is improving rapidly, and with a skilled voice actor, a Trump deepfake could be perfectly convincing. An organization with the resources of a movie studio could do it right now, and it won't be long before this type of lie is far more accessible than that. Look at this TikTok I ran across recently, in which footage from The Office combined with the right head shape and skin tone makes for a pretty solid deepfake of Steve Carrell:> @iamjesserichards> > Like Mike michaelscott theoffice getthelook deepfake> > ♬ Sunday Best by Surfaces - rapidsongsTrump may be the most filmed man in the world. Any word you want him to say, you can find footage of him saying it and get the facial movements exactly right.The second part of a convincing deepfake is content plausibility. A few years ago, actor Jordan Peele made a PSA about deepfakes in which he voiced a video of former President Barack Obama. Peele's voice acting and the video quality are quite good — but, as "Obama" notes, he's saying things the real Obama would never say, signing off with, "Stay woke, bitches."All of the leading Democratic candidates are conventional enough that it would be fairly difficult to hit on something their deepfake could say which would be both plausible and irreparably damning. For all but the reflexively partisan Republicans who never would have voted for a Democrat regardless, these candidates' vehement denial of a deepfake video would hold some weight. It would at least buy them time for an investigation. The content plausibility would be hard to get so precisely right that no one would be skeptical.Not so with Trump. After "both sides" and "shithole countries," would Trump saying the n-word when he believed himself to be speaking in private surprise you? After "fire and fury" and the Soleimani assassination, would a sudden attack on Iran be inconceivable?This is why Trump strikes me as the more likely candidate for an election-swinging deepfake attempt than any of his Democratic challengers. He has lied so much and so pointlessly, and he has said and done so many reprehensible things, that even his defenders probably would not question a well-designed deepfake.Done right, I might well fall for it. You — and Iran — might too.More stories from theweek.com The arguments for and against Bloomberg's stance on the origins of the 2008 financial crisis The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Giuliani claims he can 'prove' a 'Democratic scam' in Ukraine with iPad full of 'reports' he never actually shares
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| Surprise Downfalls and a Rare Trump Rebuke Posted: 15 Feb 2020 03:45 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Want to receive this post in your inbox every day? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more.It was a week of sudden downfalls, from the U.K.'s finance minister Sajid Javid to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Javid's exit left the government's economic policy in tatters, while Merkel's plan to serve out her term is now in doubt.In the U.S., the Justice Department was in uproar over allegations of undue political influence, leading Attorney General William Barr to take a rare public stance that placed him in potential conflict with Donald Trump. His message to the president: "It's time to stop the tweeting."Dig into these and other topics with the latest edition of Weekend Reads and click here for more of the most compelling political images from the past week.Boris Johnson Ambushed His Chancellor in a Quest for ControlSajid Javid never saw it coming. Britain's finance minister began his day expecting to be confirmed in his position as a mere formality, in Boris Johnson's reshuffle of his cabinet team. It ended with his resignation, as Jessica Shankleman and Tim Ross report.Merkel Role in Heir's Exit Puts Her at Center of German TurmoilMerkel has helped avert the meltdown of the euro, navigated an influx of refugees and handled the tricky personality of the U.S. president. But as Patrick Donahue and Arne Delfs write, how she deals with the German political vortex left by the sudden resignation of her heir apparent may be the final test of her crisis-management skills.Trump's Asylum Crackdown Traps Dissident Fleeing Maduro's ThugsAfter escaping Venezuelan secret police at home, lawyer Carlos Marcano has endured agonizing months in U.S. lockups as Trump's actions to seal the border from Central Americans have ground the system to a near standstill. It's testing the endurance and dignity of even the strongest candidates, Thomas Black reports.Xi's Pick to Save China From Virus Is Loyalist Who Lured TeslaA month ago, then-Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong was sharing a stage with Elon Musk to celebrate the release of Tesla's China-built Model 3 sedans. Ying, a former top judge who previously served under Xi in positions in Zhejiang province, has now been tapped to manage Hubei, a region simmering with discontent over his predecessor's failure to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak.What Happens When a Virus Runs Rampant on a Cruise ShipFor 3,700 passengers quarantined on a cruise liner off Japan, it began as a carefree voyage. For the new coronavirus, it was an opportunity to run rampant. Keeping it from spreading on land is hard enough. At sea, K Oanh Ha writes, it's a whole different challenge.Putin Squeezes Belarus Strongman in Bid to Skirt Term LimitsVladimir Putin's surprise firing of Russia's government and unveiling of constitutional changes that would weaken the presidency may only be Plan B for retaining power after his final term ends in 2024, Henry Meyer, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, and Stepan Kravchenko write. It came after his plan to create a "super state" with Belarus was rebuffed by his counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.Duterte Tests Trump With Move to Unravel Decades-Old AllianceOver the years, Rodrigo Duterte's regular rants about the U.S. appeared to amount to little more than bluster. This week the Philippine leader finally moved to dismantle an alliance that has endured since World War II, Philip Heijmans and Andreo Calonzo write.A Bold Plan to Defuse 'Time Bomb' of Inequality in U.S. SchoolsRising inequality is now at the heart of U.S. public debate, Craig Torres explains, looming over just about every policy discussion from trade to interest rates and likely to take center stage in this year's presidential election. America's classrooms are one place where the trend could be halted.Rewards Outweigh Risks for Assad in Drive to Retake IdlibWith his decision to make a final push to retake Idlib province, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is walking a perilous line between risking retaliation from neighboring Turkey and saving his economy and moving closer to restoring the nation's territorial integrity, write Sylvia Westall and Donna Abu-Nasr.And finally ... Climate change and the coronavirus are threatening Kim Jong Un's ambition to ski his way out of international sanctions, Heesu Lee and Sam Kim report. The North Korean leader, who once went to school in Switzerland, has made tourism a centerpiece of his economic vision, building ski resorts to attract winter-sports enthusiasts and hard currency. Now that's all under threat. To contact the author of this story: Ruth Pollard in New Delhi at rpollard2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UK faces another fierce storm; 2 found dead in rough seas Posted: 15 Feb 2020 03:14 AM PST  Rescuers pulled two male bodies from rough seas off the coast of southeast England and military personnel mobilized to help build flood barriers Saturday as a second straight weekend of stormy weather wreaked havoc across Britain. The fourth named storm of the season, dubbed Dennis by Britain's Met Office weather service, prompted widespread travel disruptions and had the potential to cause more damage than last weekend's Storm Ciara given the already saturated ground in much of the country. The body of one man was pulled out of the sea by a lifeboat from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and followed a seven-hour search that involved a Royal Navy vessel.
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| Esper says Taliban deal is promising but not without risk Posted: 15 Feb 2020 03:01 AM PST  Ahead of a formal announcement of the seven-day "reduction in violence" deal, Esper said it was time to give peace a chance in Afghanistan through a political negotiation. "So we have on the table right now a reduction in violence proposal that was negotiated between our ambassador and the Taliban," Esper told an audience at the Munich Security Conference. "It's my view as well that we have to give peace a chance, that the best if not the only way forward in Afghanistan is through a political agreement and that means taking some risk," he said.
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| No handshakes: Viral outbreak spooks Asian places of worship Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:58 AM PST  In a popular Catholic church in the Philippines, nearly half of the pews were empty for Sunday Mass. The few hundred worshippers who showed up were asked to refrain from shaking others' hands or holding them during prayers to prevent the spread of the virus that started in China. In Hong Kong, Cardinal John Hon Tong, wearing a mask, announced the suspension of public Masses for two weeks and urged churchgoers to instead watch them online. Buddhist temples, Christian churches and Muslim mosques have been ordered closed since Jan. 29 in mainland China, where the new coronavirus strain was first detected in the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
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| Macron Says Europe Is Missing the Point With Fight Over Budget Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:51 AM PST |
| Beijing’s Deadly Mistakes on Coronavirus Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:15 AM PST  HONG KONG—Entire economies are stalling in distant parts of the world because of what's going on in China. In a matter of weeks, the novel coronavirus first sighted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan less than two months ago, when it is believed to have made the leap from animal hosts to humans, has traveled to many continents. And the outbreak has changed the world in ways nobody had foreseen. Coronavirus Keeps Spreading With New Cases in California and TexasThe vast, fast-spreading contagion is a classic example of what Nassim Taleb years ago dubbed a "black swan": an event that is highly improbable and unpredicted, a surprise that reshapes history, and is then subject to "retrospective distortion," when everyone says they should have seen it coming.If there is a difference, it's that the initial reaction of the Chinese Communist Party was to deny in real time that anything very important was happening at all until the evidence was quite literally overwhelming. So the question has become, to put it colorfully, whether the black swan will vanquish the red dragon, or the other way around, and as the battle continues how great will the impact be on the rest of the globe.* * *BEIJING QUARANTINES* * *As of Saturday in China, around 35 million people are living in cities that have been placed under mass quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak. That's almost as many people as in California, the most populous state in America.For more than three weeks, people in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital, have been confined to their homes except for medical emergencies or quick supply runs. Police, drones, and zealous apparatchiks have been deployed around the country to maintain various levels of lockdowns.The economy is slowing down, with a dramatic effect on global oil prices, manufacturing supply chains on the far side of the world, and, of course, questions about public health in the many countries that have seen confirmed cases of the sickness. On Friday, the central government declared that all residents of Beijing returning from the Chinese New Year holidays endure a 14-day "self-quarantine or go to designated venues to quarantine."Things look dire, and it's unclear when the viral outbreak will subside.Time and time again during the crisis, people have seen that the Chinese Communist Party, with its readiness to mobilize an enormous security apparatus that fuses waves of manpower with cutting-edge technological accoutrements, still lacks reasonable plans to handle this critical, nationwide emergency.While it's hard to say what the actual toll on China's population is so far—official numbers describing diagnoses and deaths don't reflect conditions on the ground—what's clear is the virus' unexpected emergence and swift spread around the globe has changed how Chinese people express their views about their government.* * *XI TO THE RESCUE?* * *Chinese leader Xi Jinping has stated that officials need to hit economic growth targets for this year even though many businesses have ground to a halt. He expects them to make "adjustments" to minimize the virus' impact on China's economic standing. State-owned enterprises are meant to have zero infections within their ranks. It's unclear how people are to avoid infection and sickness if they're being ordered to head back to work.Heads are rolling in Hubei. Top officials in the province have been sacked and replaced by Xi Jinping's protégés. The message broadcast by the party is clear: Rogue officials are responsible for this mess. The central authorities have come to your rescue.State-run media already are spinning legends about the medical workers who have been dispatched to Wuhan and the rest of Hubei, as well as well-meaning individuals who have poured their savings and supplies into donation funds. There is footage of nurses who worked until they collapsed circulating on Douyin, the domestic equivalent of the viral video app TikTok. Video of quarantined patients dancing in a convention center now used to warehouse patients portrays a rosy picture of sick people feeling better, recovering, having fun. Surely, then, things are looking up.Yet the party's propagandists can't pave over the numbers that every household in China is following. As of Saturday morning, there were nearly 66,600 confirmed coronavirus diagnoses in China. More than 1,500 have been recorded as killed by the virus. These are the official statistics issued by China's National Health Commission. Doctors in Hubei and medical experts around the world believe the figures to be far higher. But by using the numbers for a rough calculation involving only the 9,600 cases where we know the outcome (or failure) of treatment, we can see that while 8,100 people have been reported as "recovered," given that 1,500 are dead the coronavirus has a tremendously high kill rate of between 15 and 16 percent—nearly eightfold the 2 percent lethality cited by Chinese authorities.On Friday, the National Health Commission said that more than 1,700 medical workers have been infected with the coronavirus. Six of them have died.In a feeble attempt to calm the public, the state-run news agency Xinhua tole people this week, "Don't be terrified by the sharp increase in new cases."Officials are redoubling efforts to round up sick people in Hubei and house them in designated quarantine spaces. Suspected carriers are being placed in isolation in hotels and schools that have been outfitted for that purpose. Health officials working in Wuhan estimate that by Feb. 20 they will need 200,000 more beds for patients, including people who are suspected of carrying the coronavirus.And in the southeastern corner of China, more than 1,000 kilometers from Wuhan, the city governments of Guangzhou and Shenzhen issued decrees to requisition private property, including housing and vehicles, that can be utilized to contain the outbreak. It's the first time for local governments to activate an emergency law that was passed in 2007.Starting on Sunday, all passengers of the Shenzhen subway will have to register their identities before rides so that the government can more easily track the movements of anyone who may be diagnosed subsequently as a host for the virus in the future. (The country's vaunted, invasive facial recognition software has proved useless when everyone's wearing protective face masks.) Across China, officials have tapped state-run telecommunication service providers to keep track of citizens, particularly to see if people have visited Hubei. At various public locations, security personnel examine text messages that show where a phone—and presumably its owner—has been in the past 15 days.Chinese enterprises of all sizes have been hit hard, sending ripples through global commerce. Many may fold in the coming weeks, sending millions of workers into unemployment.This is the world's second largest economy, representing roughly 18 percent of global GDP. The more it falters, the more impacts are felt everywhere, and that would be the case even if this plague were confined to China's borders. But of course it is not.* * *GLOBAL CHILLS* * *So far, only four people have died outside of mainland China due to complications brought on by the coronavirus—in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, and, most recently, in France on Saturday. But its rapid spread has put many health authorities around the world on high alert.In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has confirmed that some of its testing kits for the virus do not function properly. At the same time, new cases of infection are showing up in California and Texas, where evacuees from Wuhan are under medical observation.Airlines based in the U.S., New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Rwanda, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and other countries have suspended flights to mainland China, disrupting travel, commercial shipping, and even normal postal service. At least 50 countries and territories have banned travelers from mainland China, in some cases including departures from any other country where there is a confirmed infection. Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned foreign diplomats to make the case for their governments to reopen borders to Chinese nationals.A cruise ship with more than 2,250 people on board wasn't able to dock anywhere after being turned away from Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Guam, and the Philippines—and it didn't even have sick people on board. Finally, on Thursday, Cambodia allowed it to steer into a port.Another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess floating off the shore of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, has been placed under a two-week quarantine. As of Saturday afternoonFriday morning, 285 of its passengers were diagnosed as carriers of the coronavirus.Quarantined Cruise Ship Passengers Stuck on Journey From Hell Thanks to Coronavirus OutbreakVietnam has quarantined more than 10,000 people 40 kilometers from its capital, Hanoi.There's good reason for nations outside of China to be worried. In Japan, none of the people who most recently tested positive for being infected have direct links to China, whether in their travel histories or interpersonal contacts. Ira Longini, a biostatistician and advisor to the World Health Organization, has warned that two-thirds of the world's population could be infected. His calculation was based on each carrier infecting two to three people.* * *WUFLU NO MORE* * *As the virus made its way overseas, Beijing's geopolitical influence abroad was perhaps most noticeable in the World Health Organization's hesitance to classify the outbreak formally as a "public health emergency of international concern." Although the WHO eventually did make that declaration, its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, continues to heap praise upon CCP leader Xi Jinping, saying that he showed the right sort of "political commitment" and "political leadership" to weather a mass-scale medical crisis.On Wednesday in Geneva, Tedros said, "We have met the president [Xi]. We have seen the level of knowledge he has on the outbreak. Don't you appreciate that kind of leadership?" Tedros, aware of accusations he's been soft on China, added, "We don't say anything to please anyone."When meeting with the WHO head two weeks ago, Xi said he was "personally directing" and "personally planning" the Chinese government's response to the outbreak.Some call it the Wuhan virus. For a brief period, the hashtag WuFlu was trending on Twitter. As infection numbers climbed in China, the WHO temporarily designated it as 2019-nCoV, then on Tuesday labeled it clinically as SARS-CoV-2, calling the disease it caused in humans COVID-19, or Corona Virus Disease 19. The idea, Tedros tweeted, was to "not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people."It wasn't until Saturday that Beijing finally approved the WHO's investigation of the virus on site in Wuhan.* * *THE PARTY ABOVE ALL* * *In the recent past, in times of collective shock and trauma, people in China have taken to social media to vent their frustrations. Two high speed trains crashed and killed 40 people in 2011. More than 87,000 were killed during an earthquake that hit Sichuan province in 2008, including thousands of children in schools constructed using substandard materials and shoddy techniques. These two disasters were exacerbated because of the neglect embodied within the CCP. Though corrupt cadres were routed out in the aftermath, little has changed within the government's structures. Preserving the party's interests is the key objective and the safety of the people decidedly secondary.The Chinese Communist Party has figured out how to govern 1.4 billion citizens—but only by instituting authoritarian, at times dystopian measures during peaceful times. When disaster strikes, the party's bureaucratic machinery lacks fluidity and fails to adapt. It simply falls apart.Many in China, trapped at home, cycle through three feelings—boredom, anxiety, rage. After the death of the young doctor Li Wenliang, who tried to raise the alarm about the virus before it spread beyond one marketplace, the nation mourned—and did so without top-down guidance. The police in Wuhan had detained the doctor and designated him as a "rumormonger." Then, after he died, the state appropriated his actions to repackage him as a national hero, a patriot. Party officials had set out to dye his legacy with the CCP's colors and dogma.But people wouldn't buy it. They raised lights by their windows, shouting with fury into the night, recalling how the doctor was coerced into admitting that he broke the law and "disrupted social order."The collective grieving we saw captured a national spirit that wasn't defined or controlled or controllable by the party's ideologues. It was a moment that has kindled soul-searching in China: if the party can't take care of Chinese citizens in a time of critical need, then the people need to organize on their own, for themselves, to assist each other, independent of the state.SARS-CoV-2 is a global menace, but it required a host—an organizational, systematic deficiency—to make it so deadly so quickly. The way that the CCP's cadres run China is unhealthy for the nation and the rest of the world—as we can see now only too clearly.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| US defense chief slams China as rising threat to world order Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  A frequent critic of China, Esper used an address to an international security conference in Munich, Germany, to give his most comprehensive condemnation yet of a communist country that he said tops the Pentagon's list of potential adversaries, followed by Russia, "rogue states" like North Korea and Iran, and continuing threats from extremist groups. "The Chinese Communist Party is heading even faster and further in the wrong direction – more internal repression, more predatory economic practices, more heavy-handedness, and most concerning for me, a more aggressive military posture," he said. Esper stressed that the United States does not want conflicts with China, and noted that the U.S. government has provided medical supplies to help China combat a coronavirus outbreak that has infected over 67,000 people.
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| Why the coronavirus outbreak might be the biggest challenge for China's Xi Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:42 AM PST  COVID-19 might be the greatest challenge yet for China's strongman, President Xi Jinping.
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| China clashes with US over new Huawei accusations of intellectual property theft and North Korea dealings Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:30 AM PST  Chinese and US officials clashed on Friday over the US Justice's Department new criminal charges against Huawei Technologies.Counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice and money laundering were also added to the case.Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi, who also serves as China's foreign minister, said he did not understand why the United States was trying to get its allies to attack a private company, according to Reuters.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (left) and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Photo: Michael Gruber/Aussenministerium via APA/dpa alt=Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (left) and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Photo: Michael Gruber/Aussenministerium via APA/dpaHe said there was no credible evidence that Huawei has a so-called back door that harms US security.In a 433-word rebuke on Friday, Huawei called the new charges "political persecution"."For quite a while, the US government has been using the strength of an entire nation to come after a private company," it said in a statement.The US government "has used every tool at its disposal, whether they be legislative, administrative, judicial or diplomatic, and has even tried to turn public opinion against Huawei to disrupt our normal business operations," it said."They are hoping that if they throw enough mud, some of the mud will stick," Suffolk said at the conference.Senior US officials pushed back against Huawei's defence."Over the last couple of years there's been more than enough evidence of the way the Chinese government has been using its national champions," said Robert Blair, US special representative for international telecommunications policy, told a press conference."So, really, the onus is on Huawei now. They have to show they are a trustworthy partner. They have to separate themselves from the Chinese government."Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said the new charges were related to a decades-long effort by Huawei and four of its subsidiaries, in both the US and in China, to engage in racketeering activities aimed at building the company into one of the world's most powerful telecoms equipment and consumer electronics concerns.As a result, Huawei obtained nonpublic intellectual property about robotics, cellular antenna technology and internet router source code, according to the prosecutors.In response, Huawei released a statement accusing the US of "reintroducing previously resolved civil cases as criminal cases".The US accused Huawei of covering up its business involvement with North Korea. Pictured: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: KCNA alt=The US accused Huawei of covering up its business involvement with North Korea. Pictured: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: KCNA"This is selective, politically motivated enforcement of the law, and contrary to common judicial conventions," Huawei's statement said.The US allegations "are based largely on resolved civil disputes from the last 20 years that have been previously settled, litigated and in some cases rejected by federal judges and juries," the statement said.The company stated that no court had ever found that Huawei had engaged in malicious intellectual property theft, or had required Huawei to pay damages for infringing on others' intellectual property rights.Huawei, however, did not comment on the new charges regarding its business dealings with North Korea. Thursday's indictment accused the company of being involved in a number of projects in the hermit kingdom since at least 2008 and of covering up its activities there.The new indictment also charged Meng Wanzhou, a daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, with making false representation to a bank, leading to the financial institution's decision to continue doing business with Huawei.The US government has previously alleged that Meng lied to banking giant HSBC about Huawei's dealings with Iran because a truthful disclosure might have dissuaded the financial institution from continuing to work with the telecoms supplier.Washington has been engaged in a global pressure campaign against Huawei after taking a series of tough measures against the company in the last year. In May it placed Huawei on a so-called Entity List to prohibit it from doing business in the US.The Trump administration has been cracking down on what it calls "unfair" trade and business practices by Chinese companies to prevent China from gaining an edge over the US in global technology advancement. It is especially concerned about falling behind China in next-generation 5G cellular technology, an area in which Huawei is the world leader.On Thursday, US Senator Rick Scott of Florida introduced legislation to further restrict US companies from selling products to the Chinese company. The bill attempts to close a loophole that has allowed US semiconductor companies to continue doing business with Huawei through foreign units.US Senator Rick Scott has introduced legislation to further restrict US companies from selling products to Huawei. Photo: AP alt=US Senator Rick Scott has introduced legislation to further restrict US companies from selling products to Huawei. Photo: AP"We know Huawei is supported and controlled by the communist regime in Beijing, which continues to violate human rights and steal our data, technology and intellectual property," Scott said in a statement. "Companies in the United States should not be allowed to sell to Huawei, and my legislation will further restrict their ability."Huawei refuted US claims that any of its products or technologies "have been developed through the theft of trade secrets"."Huawei's development is the result of our huge investment in R&D; and the hard work of our employees over the past three decades," it said in the statement.The company said intellectual property disputes are common in the international business sphere. It said data showed that while Huawei is involved in 209 IP lawsuits, Apple has 596 such cases pending and Samsung 519.The Department of Justice declined to comment beyond the released indictments. Representatives with Apple and Samsung did not respond to requests for comment.Purchase the China AI Report 2020 brought to you by SCMP Research and enjoy a 20% discount (original price US$400). This 60-page all new intelligence report gives you first-hand insights and analysis into the latest industry developments and intelligence about China AI. Get exclusive access to our webinars for continuous learning, and interact with China AI executives in live Q&A.; Offer valid until 31 March 2020.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| Iran to vote in general election many see as 'lost cause' Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:14 AM PST  Iranians vote next week in a crucial parliamentary election that is widely expected to herald the return of conservatives and heap pressure on beleaguered President Hassan Rouhani. Friday's vote comes after months of steeply escalating tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States. The Guardian Council, the body that rigorously vets candidates, disqualified more than half of the 14,444 who sought to stand -- including dozens of mostly moderate and reformist incumbents.
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| The Labour Party’s Long Road Back Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:30 AM PST |
| The Labour Party’s Long Road Back Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:30 AM PST |
| FAA allows US civilian flights to resume over Persian Gulf Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:23 PM PST  The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday that American civilian flights can resume operations over much of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman region, loosening restrictions announced five weeks ago amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The FAA said it made the decision because Iran has de-escalated its military posture, reducing the danger to U.S. civil aviation operations. The FAA had barred American pilots and carriers from flying in areas of Iraqi, Iranian and some Persian Gulf airspace since early January.
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| William Barr: how the attorney general became Trump's enabler-in-chief Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:00 PM PST  Barr's brazen intervention in the case of the president's crony Roger Stone is the latest grave disappointment to those who thought he might rein in his boss's excessesLawyers who have filled political appointee positions in the Trump administration have been pursued by doubts about their qualifications or caliber.In 2018, a justice department staffer was made acting attorney general, the department's top job.Last week, the president installed a young friend of his aide Stephen Miller atop a pyramid of 2,500 lawyers as general counsel in the Department of Homeland Security.But there is one Trump appointee whose preparedness has never been questioned. William Barr, 69 and a veteran of 40 years in Washington, was confirmed one year ago as attorney general, a position with broad influence over the administration of justice and broad sway over public faith placed in it."Barr is particularly effective," said Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute and veteran of the George W Bush administration, "because he's one of the very few exceptions among Trump appointees – someone who is both qualified to do the job and has sufficient experience to know how to do it well."Sadly, he has decided to be an enabler."At the end of a historically turbulent week for the justice department with unknown implications for the country, that combination in Barr – power plus a knack for wielding it – has provoked intense alarm in Washington and far beyond.The fear is that Barr's competence has flipped from virtue to vice owing to a quality that he appears to lack or have lost: judgment in the face of an untethered president.> Trump's actions reflect his belief that he really has, as he said, an absolute right to intervene anywhere> > Paul RosenzweigBarr was once seen as a potential check on Trump's overt desire to take command of the justice department, deploying its investigators and prosecutors at his whim and his will. But this week, critics warn, the attorney general has been revealed as an eager accomplice in eroding norms meant to insulate the criminal justice system from political interference, threatening the bedrock principle of equality before the law."We fought a revolution against kingly prerogative," said Rosenzweig. "At its most extreme, Trump's actions post-impeachment in the last week reflect his belief that he really has, as he said, an absolute right to intervene anywhere in the executive branch. And there's a word for that."People with absolute rights are kings."Trump has never been coy about his intentions. On Friday morning, he fed the sense of alarm when he insisted that he has "the legal right" to intervene in criminal cases.But the developments of the past week have changed the public understanding of just how aligned Barr is with the president, and just how extensive his cooperation has been.Those developments included Barr's intervention in a case involving Trump's friend Roger Stone, prompting the withdrawal of four career prosecutors; the resignation from government of a prominent former US attorney previously sidelined by Barr; and the issuance of a rare public warning by a federal judge about the independence of the courts."Bill Barr has turned the job of attorney general and the political appointee layer at the top of the justice department on its head," said Neil Kinkopf, a Georgia State law professor who worked in the Office of Legal Counsel under Bill Clinton."In past administrations of both political parties, the function of the political appointees at the justice department has been to insulate the rest of the department from political pressure. And Bill Barr instead has become the conduit for that political pressure." 'Shrewd, careful and full of it'Barr has not been untouched by the turbulence of the last week. Reported threats of additional resignations drove him on Thursday to grant a TV interview in which he complained that Trump's tweets "make it impossible for me to do my job" and vowed: "I'm not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody."A Trump spokesperson said the president's feelings were not hurt. Barr was said to have warned the White House of what he was going to say.The interview was met with outrage and eye-rolls among critics who saw a wide divergence between what Barr said and everything else he has been doing."I think Bill Barr is shrewd, deliberate, smart, calculating, careful, and full of it," tweeted the former US attorney Preet Bharara.The real Barr, critics say, has a 12-month track record as a spearhead for Trump's attack on justice, beginning with public lies about the report of special counsel Robert Mueller and running through his intervention in the case of Roger Stone.In a prominent early incident among many in which Barr's loyalty to the president seemed to critics to exceed his loyalty to the nation, Barr called a press conference last April and offered a misleading preview of Mueller's report. He omitted the report's detailed description of potential obstruction of justice by Trump and falsely claimed the White House had cooperated fully.In May, Barr assigned a US attorney to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation, an obsession of Trump's. In July, Barr traveled to London to ask intelligence officials there for help with the investigation. He made a similar trip to Italy in September.Recently, Barr announced the creation of an "intake process" for information gathered by Rudy Giuliani about investigations tied to Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. On Friday, the New York Times reported that Barr had assigned outside prosecutors to review the prosecution of the former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other defendants tied personally to Trump.In August, Barr declined to recuse himself from a justice department review of a whistleblower complaint charging Trump with soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election, despite his being named in the report. The review found no wrongdoing by the president, who survived impeachment over the matter.> This kind of direct, presidential interference in specific ongoing criminal prosecutions is extraordinary> > Neil KinkopfBut no previous action by Barr provoked such a crisis as his intervention this week in the Stone case.In that episode, Barr directed the US attorney's office in the District of Columbia, which handles many prominent cases with a nexus to the federal government, to revisit its recommendation of seven to nine years in prison for Stone, who was convicted of obstruction of justice and witness tampering among other felonies.It was unclear whether Barr issued his direction before or after a Trump tweet blasting the case as "a horrible and very unfair situation" and a "miscarriage of justice". In any event, the US attorney, a hand-picked Barr ally, entered a new recommendation for a lighter sentence and the four career prosecutors who signed the original recommendation withdrew from the case in apparent protest."I do think it is something of a break-the-glass moment because of how overt it is," said Harry Sandick, a former assistant US attorney in the southern district of New York who helped draft a letter published by the New York City bar association on Wednesday calling for an "immediate investigation".Kinkopf said: "This is a really significant break. This kind of direct, presidential interference in specific ongoing criminal prosecutions is extraordinary. Even for this president and this attorney general."Barr's intervention in the Stone case came after he orchestrated a replacement of the head of the prosecutor's office in Washington, Jessie Liu, under murky circumstances. Liu had been tapped for a Treasury post and was replaced in the US attorney's office by Timothy Shea, a Barr loyalist. Then, this week, Trump withdrew Liu's nomination – and she resigned from government."One wonders whether other tweets could lead to people being charged, to people seeking harsher sentences," said Sandick. "We watch with concern over the possibility that the US attorney in Washington DC was replaced because of her unwillingness perhaps to charge [former FBI official] Andrew McCabe, or James Comey, or others."A further Trump attack this week on the judge in the Paul Manafort and Stone cases, as well as the DC prosecutors, prompted a rare rebuke on Thursday from the chief US judge in the District of Columbia, Beryl A Howell."The judges of this court base their sentencing decisions on careful consideration of the actual record in the case before them; the applicable sentencing guidelines and statutory factors; the submissions of the parties, the Probation Office and victims; and their own judgment and experience," Howell said."Public criticism or pressure is not a factor." 'Immense suffering, wreckage and misery'Barr grew up in New York City, graduated from George Washington University law school, served in the Reagan administration and was attorney general under George HW Bush, establishing a record as a hardliner on gang violence and immigration and advocating for pardons in the Iran-Contra affair.He is a devout Catholic, describing in a speech in October at the University of Notre Dame how the American experiment depends on the advance of "Judeo-Christian moral standards" and attacking "militant secularists" whose "campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has brought with it immense suffering, wreckage and misery".Barr's long career in public life led some justice department veterans to welcome his nomination as attorney general in late 2018, given concerns about who else Trump might pick.> There was some hope that he would be an attorney general in the traditional model … he has been a grave disappointment> > Paul Rosenzweig"Initially there was some hope that he would be an attorney general in the traditional model," said Rosenzweig. "And I confess that myself, I thought that would be the case and I thought it would be a pretty traditional appointment."And he has been a grave disappointment."But there were also warnings about Barr, particularly attached to a memo he submitted to the department arguing that Mueller's investigation of Trump for alleged obstruction of justice was "fatally misconceived".Kinkopf was among those who warned that Barr's view of executive power was dangerously expansive, telling the Guardian it "comes very close to putting the president above the law".But there was room to believe at the time that Barr's theories would remain theories, Kinkopf says now."Even among people who have advocated that theory of presidential power," he said, "there are very longstanding norms in the justice department and the White House about respecting the independence of the justice department."Barr has not vindicated his supporters, Kinkopf said."His theory is that the constitution allows for this, but good-faith service in the office of president and the office of attorney general maintains the credibility and the apolitical nature of law enforcement. That had long been the norm regardless of one's view of presidential power."Barr has completely obliterated that."
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| Heroes and villains: Beijing crafts its narrative on virus outbreak Posted: 14 Feb 2020 06:48 PM PST  China's government is purging unpopular local officials and commandeering heroic stories of doctors on the frontline as it tries to shield itself from public rage over the handling of the deadly coronavirus epidemic. Facing the biggest challenge of his presidency, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has cast the crisis as a "people's war" and state media have gone into overdrive to regain control of public opinion. Government censors, meanwhile, have made rare exceptions to allow for criticism online -- but mostly when directed at local officials accused of negligence in central Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
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| Has Trump Altered the Course of American Foreign Policy? Posted: 14 Feb 2020 05:25 PM PST  Trump has tip-toed up to the brink of war with Iran but refrained from an all-out confrontation. It will be Trump, and Trump alone, who is the Decider.
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| New virus cases fall; WHO says China bought the world time Posted: 14 Feb 2020 04:34 PM PST  China reported 143 virus deaths and a dip in new cases Saturday while the head of the World Health Organization praised the country's efforts to contain the new disease, saying they have "bought the world time" and that other nations must make the most of it. France, meanwhile, reported Europe's first death from the new virus, a Chinese tourist from Hubei province, where the disease emerged in December. The United States was preparing to fly home American passengers quarantined aboard a cruise ship in Japan.
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| Irked US squeezes Iraq with cash delays, short waivers Posted: 14 Feb 2020 04:01 PM PST  Irked by Iraq's close ties to neighbouring Iran, Washington has begun following through on threats to squeeze Baghdad's fragile economy with delays to crucial cash deliveries and shortened sanctions waivers. This week, the US granted Iraq last-minute leave to import Iranian gas for its crippled power grids, despite American sanctions on Tehran. Iraq is at a crucial crossroads.
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