| S. Korea reports 161 new virus cases, bringing total to 763 Posted: 23 Feb 2020 05:32 PM PST  South Korea on Monday reported 161 more cases of a new virus that has spread rapidly around a southwestern city, bringing the nation's total to 763 cases a day after the president called for "unprecedented, powerful" steps to combat the outbreak. Two more deaths were confirmed, raising South Korea's death toll to seven from the COVID-19 illness, which is caused by a newly identified coronavirus that has infected tens of thousands of people, mostly in China. More than 140 of South Korea's new cases were in and near the city of Daegu, where most of the country's infections have so far occurred.
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| Trump administration backs off sending coronavirus patients to Alabama -governor Posted: 23 Feb 2020 05:17 PM PST |
| Hamburg voters punish Merkel party Posted: 23 Feb 2020 04:53 PM PST  Voters in German city-state Hamburg punished Chancellor Angela Merkel's crisis-racked conservatives in a regional election Sunday, while the incumbent centre-left held off a challenge from the Greens according to exit polls. It was a "bitter day" for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), party general secretary Paul Ziemiak said. Turmoil in the federal party, as Merkel's designated successor stepped down following a scandal over cooperation in an eastern region with the far right, had been "anything but a tailwind" in Hamburg, Ziemiak said.
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| PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times - Feb 24 Posted: 23 Feb 2020 04:17 PM PST |
| Points Mean Pain for Small Firms in U.K. Immigration Overhaul Posted: 23 Feb 2020 04:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s plans to tighten immigration could hurt small businesses, who can't find local workers as it is and will soon face tough restrictions on hiring from the European Union.Almost 40% of firms say they've struggled to recruit the right staff in the past year, and more than a third of those say a reason is that U.K. citizens are unwilling to do the jobs, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.The survey highlights the economic challenge facing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government as it attempts to take greater control over its borders after Brexit. The nation has long relied on imported labor for jobs such as construction, agriculture and social care, and many firms are ill-prepared for the change."Firms want to upskill their workforce, improve productivity and bring through the next generation, but they need support to make that happen," said Mike Cherry, FSB national chairman. "It's critical that we get this new system right, particularly when timeframes are so tight."With the Brexit transition period due to expire at the end of the year, the U.K. government is proposing using a scorecard system to favor skilled people coming to the country. Among the EU nationals currently in Britain, 70% wouldn't make the cut under the new rules.While the FSB said a points-based system might work, it also has concerns. Locals may not be able to fill in, hiring foreigners may become too expensive and there will be a bigger administrative burden for companies that have never filed immigration paperwork before.Nearly half of companies in the survey said they can't afford the fees that will be levied on them for employing EU staff. That charge, currently applied to non-EU workers, can exceed 3,000 pounds ($4,000).The changes give little time to adapt for businesses that have long relied on the free flow of people from the EU.Small businesses should be allocated funds for training and new technologies, Cherry said. That could prove key in addressing the lack of efficiency in the economy.In 2018, gains in U.K. output per hour were almost 20% below their pre-crisis trend. Economists say that the increasing use of artificial intelligence will help, but it has yet to have much of an impact.To contact the reporter on this story: Jill Ward in London at jward98@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, Paul GordonFor 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 facing 'big test' with virus, global impact spreads Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:52 PM PST  China's leader said Sunday the new coronavirus epidemic is the communist country's largest-ever public health emergency, but other nations were also increasingly under pressure from the deadly outbreak's relentless global march. Italy and Iran began introducing the sort of containment measures previously seen only in China, which has put tens of millions of people under lockdown in Hubei province, the outbreak's epicentre. Italy reported a third death while cases spiked and the country's Venice carnival closed early.
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| Syrian capital rocked by explosions as Israel hits targets Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:13 PM PST |
| Iran’s Election Turns Back the Clock on Reconciliation With West Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The victory by hard-liners in Iran's election puts parliament back in the hands of people determined to turn the clock back on reconciliation with the West. Expect a retreat from commitments to the hollowed-out nuclear deal as the Islamic Republic's economy bleeds from President Donald Trump's sanctions onslaught."The results that we're seeing in the parliamentary elections are basically a manifestation of what's been going on since early summer last year, when Iran started its more confrontational foreign policy approach," said Adnan Tabatabai, Iran analyst and co-founder of the Bonn-based Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient. "It makes things much more difficult for safeguarding the nuclear agreement."At the same time, because conservatives now have such a strong representation in government, "talks with Washington will be a function of a strategic calculus, not a balance of domestic power,"said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group consultancy. That means engagement will be tougher, but isn't necessarily doomed, he said.Conservative factions loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and wedded to the theocratic ideals of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution prevailed in Friday's vote. It was a repudiation of the policies of President Hassan Rouhani, who eased Iran's long-running standoff with global powers but was unable to build a new era of prosperity at home because of crippling U.S. sanctions.With sentiment against the 2015 nuclear deal and the West running high, especially after the U.S. killed a top Iranian general in a drone strike in January, the powerful Guardian Council was freed to disqualify most moderates and centrists from running in the election. The disqualifications, along with a reported surge in coronavirus cases in Iran this week, saw turnout fall to record low 42.5% and handed Khamenei a pliant legislature.After four years of a moderate president and parliament, arch-conservatives now control most branches of the state for the first time since the end of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency in 2013.While the fierce infighting that characterized Rouhani's tenure is likely to ease, it will come at the cost of public support for a political system already faced with outbreaks of dissent and unrest. And the parliamentary election comes ahead ahead a vote next year for a new president.The increased representation of former security figures in parliament -- including from the powerful Islamic Republic Guard Corps -- may diminish tolerance for discussions around civil society, social liberties and media freedom. Still, Tabatabai said the new lawmakers aren't necessarily monolithic in their thinking, and include reform-minded elements as well.Friday's election was tilted in the conservatives' favor months before grievances against the government erupted into four days of protests that unleashed the fiercest crackdown since the 1979 revolution. More than 300 people were killed in the demonstrations, according to human rights groups' estimates.Iran's Bid to Integrate With Global Economy Coming to an EndKhamenei, who has accused European signatories to the nuclear accord of joining forces with the U.S. against Iran (Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact in 2018), has called for a pivot to a "resistance economy." His plan would depend less on imported goods while relying on China and Russia for investment and technology transfers. Sanctions, however, are only part of the problem in an economy where productivity is low and the private sector is weak.The new legislature will "have to deal with the same problems of the current parliament, which are economic and socioeconomic problems of ordinary people, and they will also have to offer solutions to that," Tabatabai said.Iran's economic policy may steer away from Europe entirely, after it failed to find a way to skirt the American sanctions and allow crucial Iranian oil exports to flow. A more concerted effort to broaden and deepen trade ties with China and Russia could follow. The Guard, already a major contractor and builder, is likely to be awarded further domestic infrastructure projects as sanctions have killed most avenues to foreign direct investment.Pompeo Calls on Iran to Abide by Financial Action Task ForceGiven the more conservative legislature, Rouhani may struggle to ratify any key legislation during his final year in office, including efforts to bring Iran's banks within international anti-terrorism financing standards. Ongoing attempts to impeach some key ministers, including Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, are also likely to escalate.In a timely reminder of how hard-liners can influence economic policy, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force announced on Friday that Iran's banking system will be returned to its so-called black list of countries after failing to ratify legislation required to bring the sector in line with counter-terrorism financing and anti-money-laundering standards.Hardliners have for several years stalled the pro-FATF legislation that Rouhani promoted.For all the stumbling blocks, Iran may not snap shut its doors to the West entirely, said Vaez from the International Crisis Group."If past is prelude, engagement with Iran's hardliners is much harder for the West," Vaez said. "The new parliament is bound to adopt a much more militant approach to foreign and nuclear policies. But at the end of the day, the deep state in Iran is likely to still calculate pragmatically to ensure self-preservation."\--With assistance from Amy Teibel.To contact the reporter on this story: Golnar Motevalli in London at gmotevalli@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Ros KrasnyFor 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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| Moderates hustle to blunt Sanders' momentum after Nevada win Posted: 23 Feb 2020 01:23 PM PST  Bernie Sanders' commanding Nevada caucus victory made him a top target for his Democratic rivals and a growing source of anxiety for establishment Democrats worried that the nomination of an avowed democratic socialist could cost the party in November. Sanders' win solidified his front-runner status in the crowded field as the race turned to Saturday's presidential primary in South Carolina, where his moderate opponents scrambled to try to blunt the Vermont senator's momentum.
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| Iraqi officials: 1 protester shot dead in fresh violence Posted: 23 Feb 2020 01:12 PM PST  One protester was shot dead and at least six wounded in renewed violence between anti-government demonstrators and security forces in central Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi officials said. Separately, Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Allawi received a call from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who congratulated him on his nomination and emphasized joint coordination between Iraq and the U.S. as relations between the two countries soured after a Washington-directed attack Jan. 3 near Baghdad airport killed top Iranian general Qassem Solimani.
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| Buttigieg questions 3rd place finish in Nevada, cites errors Posted: 23 Feb 2020 11:41 AM PST  Pete Buttigieg's campaign has questioned his third-place finish in Nevada's caucuses and called for the state's Democratic party to release a more detailed breakdown of votes and address reports of more than 200 problems allocating votes in Saturday's caucuses. The campaign also said it received reports that volunteers running caucuses did not appear to follow rules that could have allowed candidates to pick up more support on a second round of voting.
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| Haiti police exchange fire with troops near national palace Posted: 23 Feb 2020 11:37 AM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian police officers exchanged gunfire for hours Sunday with soldiers of the newly reconstituted army outside the national palace, in a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions. At least three police officers were wounded, fellow officers told The Associated Press. Haiti's raucous three-day Carnival celebration was to have started Sunday afternoon in Port-au-Prince and other major cities but the government announced Sunday night that Carnival was cancelled in the capital "to avoid a bloodbath." Police protesters and their backers had burned dozens of Carnival floats and stands at recent protests, saying they did not believe the country should be celebrating during a crisis.
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| Merkel’s Party Drops to Record Low in Hamburg Vote, Greens Gain Posted: 23 Feb 2020 11:06 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's party plunged to a post-World War II low in a state election in Hamburg as voters gave their first verdict on political turmoil in Germany that has upended her succession plans.Merkel's Christian Democratic Union took 11.2% of the vote on Sunday, a drop of more than 4 percentage points, according to projections by ARD public television. The city-state's governing Social Democratic Party secured a clear victory with about 38.6%, even as its support eroded from 45.6% five years ago.The biggest gainer was the Green party, which doubled its share to a projected 24.8%, a surge that parallels its rise in national polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany party was at risk of dropping out of the Hamburg legislature with a slight drop in support.Merkel's party has been hobbled after her heir-apparent, CDU national leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, announced her resignation on Feb. 10. That followed a crisis in Germany's political establishment after CDU lawmakers in the eastern state of Thuringia cast their lot with the AfD to install a regional premier, who quit within days amid an outcry."It's a bitter day for the CDU in Germany," party General Secretary Paul Ziemiak told reporters, placing part of the blame on the Thuringia controversy. "What happened there and all the discussions linked to it was anything but a tailwind for the CDU."Next StageThe CDU's worst-ever result in Hamburg, a city it governed as recently as 2011, sets the stage for a meeting of CDU national leaders on Monday, where Kramp-Karrenbauer will seek to steer the process for her succession as party chief. Whoever wins that post is likely to be the party's candidate for chancellor in the next national election.Merkel, 65, has said she won't run again after her fourth term ends in 2021 at the latest. Should a new party leader emerge in the coming months, a complex cohabitation with Merkel in the chancellery may prove tenuous.Adding to the sense of chaos, tensions around extremist activity in Germany have intensified since an assailant killed 11 people, including himself, in the city of Hanau near Frankfurt on Wednesday. Authorities said the gunman, a 43-year-old German, was motivated by xenophobia. Merkel vowed to eradicate racist "poison."The repercussions may have cost the AfD, which has won seats in the Germany's Bundestag and all 16 state assemblies. After that series of victories, failing to re-enter Hamburg's 121-seat parliament would be a setback.Eastern FiascoSupport also fell for the pro-business Free Democrats, who triggered the Thuringia debacle when the party put forward a candidate for state premier. Projections showed the FDP at 5%, on the cusp of also exiting parliament.In Thuringia, Merkel's party sought to restore a semblance of stability on Friday by agreeing to support the re-election of the previous state premier, whose anti-capitalist Left party is anathema to the Christian Democrats at the national level. The deal would avoid relying on AfD votes in the state legislature.The plan was thrown into question on Saturday as several national CDU leaders, including former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, raised objections, saying it would harm the party's credibility.(Updates with CDU comments, consequences for AfD from fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net;Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, Chad ThomasFor 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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| Earthquake kills nine in Turkey, injures dozens in Iran Posted: 23 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST  A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in northwestern Iran on Sunday killed nine people, including children, in neighbouring Turkey and injured dozens on both sides of the border, authorities said. Ambulances and teams of medics rushed to the scene after the quake left homes in piles of rubble in eastern Turkey, picking through the wreckage, while nearby schools were also reported damaged. Turkish officials said four children were among the nine dead, and Iran reported more than 65 people injured, including 39 who were hospitalised.
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| Bernie Sanders Says as President He Would Meet With Dictators Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:46 AM PST |
| Moscow's preferred U.S. candidate reportedly isn't Trump or Sanders, but 'chaos' Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:38 AM PST  If you saw the reports that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was briefed by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia was trying to aid his Democratic presidential campaign, you might have wondered, why exactly, Moscow was targeting him. After all, President Trump is still apparently the candidate the Kremlin hopes wins, and Sanders and Trump certainly have different ideological stances.GQ's Julia Ioffe set out to answer that question, and while she reports that some people think Sanders' non-interventionist foreign policy platform is appealing to Moscow, or that he will be easier for Trump to defeat than other more moderate candidates, she also found that it may be more about optics. "The ideal scenario is to maintain schism and uncertainty in the States till the end," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a Russian political scientist who used to advise Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Our candidate is chaos."Essentially, as described by Ioffe's sources, Moscow is licking its chops over what could be the most extreme U.S. presidential election in quite some time, if not ever, and they want to see the country turn on itself. "All of this infighting, this cannibalism, they create and deepen the crisis of the American system," said Andranik Migranyan, a close friend of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who used to run a Russian government-funded think tank.Migranyan went on to question — perhaps facetiously — whether the U.S. will still exist after 2025. "Your country is hurtling toward the abyss," he said.Of course, it's unclear if that's precisely why the Kremlin seems okay with a Sanders victory — and Migranyan denies Russia is actually meddling — but it's not difficult to imagine Moscow would enjoy an even more hotly contested election than in 2016. Read more at GQ.More stories from theweek.com CNN analyst: Republicans 'may regret' hoping Sanders wins nomination The stunning Southern Baptist controversy over Donald Trump and Russell Moore, explained White House officials are reportedly hoping to scale back surveillance powers
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| Conservatives claim victory in Iran polls after record low turnout Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:04 AM PST  Iran's conservatives claimed victory Sunday in a general election marked by the lowest turnout since the 1979 Islamic Revolution amid public anger against the government, an economic downturn and the disqualification of half the candidates. A conservative resurgence would heap pressure on beleaguered President Hassan Rouhani and signal a shift from four years ago when reformists and moderates won a slender majority in parliament. "Victory for the anti-American candidates, a new slap for Trump," crowed the ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper.
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| Germany's SPD biggest party in Hamburg state vote, Merkel's party third Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST |
| Same Goal, Different Playbook: Why Russia Would Support Trump and Sanders Posted: 23 Feb 2020 08:57 AM PST  At first glance, it may seem contradictory that the nation's intelligence agencies were telling Congress that President Vladimir Putin of Russia is presumably striving to get President Donald Trump reelected, while also warning Sen. Bernie Sanders of evidence that he is the Russian president's favorite Democrat.But to the intelligence analysts and outside experts who have spent the past three years dissecting Russian motives in the 2016 election, and who tried to limit the effect of Russian meddling in the 2018 midterms, what is unfolding in 2020 makes perfect sense.Trump and Sanders represent the most divergent ends of their respective parties, and both are backed by supporters known more for their passion than their policy rigor, which makes them ripe for exploitation by Russian trolls, disinformation specialists and hackers for hire seeking to widen divisions in American society.While the two candidates disagree on almost everything, both share an instinct that the U.S. is overcommitted abroad: Neither is likely to pursue policies that push back on Putin's plan to restore Moscow's influence around the world, from former Soviet states to the Middle East.And if you are trying to sow chaos in an already chaotic, vitriolic election, Putin could hardly hope for better than a faceoff between an incumbent with a history of race-baiting who is shouting "America First" at rallies -- while darkly suggesting the coming election is rigged -- and a democratic socialist from Vermont advocating a drastic expansion of taxes and government programs like Medicare."Any figures that radicalize politics and do harm to center views and unity in the United States are good for Putin's Russia," said Victoria Nuland, who served as ambassador to NATO and assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and had her phone calls intercepted and broadcast by Russian intelligence services.The intelligence reports provided to the House Intelligence Committee, inciting Trump's ire, may make the U.S.' understanding of Putin's plans sound more certain than they really are, according to intelligence officials who contributed to the assessment. Those officials caution that such reports are as much art as science, a mixture of informants, intercepted conversations and intuition as analysts in the nation's 17 intelligence agencies try to get into the heads of foreign leaders.Although intelligence officials have disputed that the officer who delivered the main briefing said Russia was actively aiding the president's reelection, people in the room said that intelligence officers' responses to lawmakers' follow-up questions made clear that Russia was trying to get Trump reelected.Intelligence is hardly a perfect process, as Americans learned when the nation went to war in Iraq based in part on an estimate that Saddam Hussein was once again in search of a nuclear weapon.But in this election, the broad strategy -- as opposed to the specific tactics -- are not exactly a mystery. Putin, analysts agree, mostly seeks anything that would further take the sheen off American democracy and make presidential elections in the United States seem no more credible than his own. After that, he is eager for a compliant counterpart in the White House, one unlikely to challenge his territorial and nuclear ambitions.Not surprisingly, the Kremlin said this is all an American fantasy aimed at demonizing Russia for the United States' own failings. "These are more paranoid announcements which, to our regret, will multiply as we get closer to the election," Putin's confidant and spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted by Reuters telling reporters Friday. "They have nothing to do with the truth."No matter who is elected, Putin has likely undermined one of his own primary goals: getting the United States and its allies to lift sanctions that were imposed after he annexed Crimea and accelerated a hybrid war against Ukraine."By actively exploiting divisions within American society and having its activities revealed, the Kremlin has ensured that its longer-term goal of having the U.S. remove sanctions and return to a less confrontational relationship so far has been thwarted," Angela Stent, a former national intelligence officer for Russia and now a professor at Georgetown University, wrote in her book, "Putin's World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest."On Saturday, Stent noted that if the Russians are in fact interfering in this election, "it could bring about new energy sanctions." She noted that one piece of legislation in the Senate, the DETER bill, would require new sanctions if evidence of Russian meddling emerges from intelligence agencies. Stent noted that, so far, Putin may have concluded that the penalties are a small price to pay if he can bring his geopolitical rival down a few more notches. And the early intelligence analyses suggest that, by backing Sanders in the primary and Trump in the general election, he would probably have a good chance of maximizing the electoral tumult.Sanders is hardly a new target for the Russians. The 2018 indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for their activities in the last presidential election -- issued by the Justice Department under the Trump administration -- claimed that the officers "engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump."Robert Mueller, in the report on his investigation into Russian operations, concluded that the release of memos hacked from the Democratic National Committee were meant to inflame Sanders' supporters by revealing that the committee was funneling assets to Clinton.The more recent public reports emerging from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, and classified reports generated by the CIA and others, suggest that while the Russian objectives have remained the same, the techniques have shifted."The Russians aren't going to use the old playbook; we know that," said Christopher Krebs, who runs the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.His organization, along with the National Security Agency and British intelligence, has been steadily documenting how Russian operatives are becoming stealthier, learning from the mistakes they made in 2016.As they focus on evading more vigilant government agencies and technology companies trying to identify and counter malicious online activity, the Russians are boring into Iranian cyberoffense units, apparently so that they can initiate attacks that look as if they originate in Iran -- which itself has shown interest in messing with the U.S.' electoral process. Russians are putting more of their attack operations on computer servers in the United States, where the NSA and other intelligence agencies -- but not the FBI and Homeland Security -- are prohibited from operating.And, in one of the most effective twists, they are feeding disinformation to unsuspecting Americans on Facebook and other social media. By seeding conspiracy theories and baseless claims on the platforms, Russians hope everyday Americans will retransmit those falsehoods from their own accounts. That is an attempt to elude Facebook's efforts to remove disinformation, which it can do more easily when it flags "inauthentic activity," like Russians posing as Americans. It is much harder to ban the words of real Americans who may be parroting a Russian storyline, even unintentionally.Krebs noted that this was why the Department of Homeland Security had to focus on educating Americans about where their information was coming from. "How do you explain," he asked last year, "'This is how you're being manipulated; this is how they're hacking your brain'?"In 2018, the U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA mounted a new and more public campaign to push back at the Russians, attacking and blocking their Internet Research Agency for a few days around the November elections, and texted warnings to Russian intelligence officers that they were being watched. The NSA is preparing for similar counterattacks this year: On Thursday, the United States cited intelligence and blamed Russia for a cyberattack last fall on the republic of Georgia, another place where Putin seems to be holding dress rehearsals.Now U.S. intelligence agencies face a new question: How do they run such operations and warn Congress and Americans at a moment when the president is declaring the intelligence on Russian election meddling is "another misinformation campaign" that is "launched by Democrats in Congress"?The intelligence agencies are loath to cross him. The acting director of national intelligence at the time, Joseph Maguire, resisted appearing in public to provide the "Worldwide Threat Assessment" that is usually given to Congress before the president's State of the Union address. (He was dismissed last week before he had to testify.) Because Trump was so angered by how his predecessor's testimony contradicted his own statements last year -- particularly on Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State -- Maguire was in no hurry to repeat the experience.His successor, Richard Grenell, the current U.S. ambassador to Germany, is known for his political allegiance to Trump, not for his knowledge of the U.S. intelligence agencies. He is widely viewed by career officials as more interested in making sure public intelligence reports do not embarrass Trump than sounding the clarion call that the Russians are coming, again.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| G-20 Finance Chiefs Go on Alert With Global Growth at Risk Posted: 23 Feb 2020 08:52 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Finance chiefs and central bankers from the world's largest economies say they see downside risks to global growth persisting as the coronavirus raises uncertainty and disrupts supply chains.While delegates at the Group of 20 meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, spent much of their time talking about a response to the outbreak that originated in China, their final communique only mentioned the epidemic once, saying they'd enhance risk monitoring. And although it said the participants agreed on a "menu of policy options" to counter the emergency, the statement included few details on a coordinated response.The coronavirus has so far killed more than 2,300 people and infected about 80,000. Countries such as Japan, and institutions including the OECD, have been pushing for nations with surpluses to spend more to help avert a deeper economic slump.The G-20 countries "agreed to be ready to intervene with the necessary policies related to these risks," Saudi Finance Minister Mohammad Al Jadaan said Sunday in remarks concluding the meetings at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in the Saudi capital. "Global economic growth is continuing but remains slow and downside risk persists, including those arising from geopolitical, remaining trade tensions, as well as policy uncertainty."China's representatives were absent from the G-20 gathering as authorities there focus on countering the fallout. The world's second-largest economy is likely to pick up quickly after the coronavirus is contained and stage a "V-shaped" recovery, according to Chen Yulu, a deputy governor at the People's Bank of China.International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Saturday the outbreak had led the lender to cut its forecast for Chinese growth to 5.6% from 6% and to trim 0.1 percentage points from its global growth forecast, but that it's also looking at more "dire" scenarios."We do not know what will be the next steps, indeed if the epidemic will turn to pandemic or not," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Bloomberg TV in Riyadh. "But we have to be prepared and that is exactly what we decided today among the G-20 members."Budget AppealsGermany was the primary target of the calls for more spending. So far, the export-driven country has showed little interest in significantly boosting expenditures, arguing fiscal stimulus can't bolster foreign demand."Fiscal policy should be flexible and growth-friendly while ensuring debt as a share of GDP is on a sustainable path," the communique said. "Monetary policy should continue to support economic activity and ensure price stability, consistent with central banks' mandates."The delegates managed to extract a key concession from the U.S. by including a mention of climate change in the final communique for the first time since President Donald Trump took office in 2017. Jadaan called it a "very important issue" on the Saudi agenda.The concession came after several days of heated debate, including France finance chief Bruno Le Maire cornering Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin late Saturday as the G-20 economic leaders dined, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mnuchin said he didn't bow to European pressure on the issue, and the mention of "climate" in the communique was simply a statement of fact about what the financial stability board was doing.Tax DebateThe final communique didn't include any breakthroughs on efforts to introduce a global minimum tax or a tax system for multinational tech giants like Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook Inc., according to the people.Europeans have balked at a U.S. proposal that new global rules should be a "safe harbor" regime. If there's no agreement, several European nations, who have called for an agreement by year-end, will go ahead with taxes on revenues of multinational digital firms. That could spark a transatlantic trade war as the U.S. says such measures are discriminatory and has already threatened France with tariffs.In a press briefing after the meetings concluded, Mnuchin said there was a disproportionate focus on some elements of the digital tax discussion, and called on his counterparties to "step back" and focus on the global minimum tax, for which he said there was broad agreement. He declined to define what he meant by "safe harbor," but said the U.S. has been consistent in stating that the digital services tax would be discriminatory to U.S. companies.France and the U.S. have held tense discussions on the subject since France introduced a 3% levy last year on the digital revenue of companies that make their sales primarily online. The move was supposed to give impetus to international talks to redefine tax rules, and the government has pledged to abolish its national tax if there is agreement on such rules.France and other countries have insisted that the digital tax and the global minimum tax, which is designed to prevent multi-national companies from shifting their profits to low-tax locales to avoid taxation, be implemented as part of the same package."We're striving between now and July 2020 -- whether at the Berlin OECD conference or the meetings in Jeddah of the G-20 ministers -- to reach an agreement related to the tax," Al Jadaan said.(Updates with French finance minister comments in seventh paragraph. A previous version was corrected to say the final communique did mention the coronavirus outbreak.)\--With assistance from Saleha Mohsin and Vivian Nereim.To contact the reporters on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net;Jana Randow in Frankfurt at jrandow@bloomberg.net;William Horobin in Paris at whorobin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, Paul AbelskyFor 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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| Carnival in Belgium again has Jewish stereotypes in parade Posted: 23 Feb 2020 08:32 AM PST |
| Trump security adviser slammed for 'politicizing intelligence' on Russian meddling Posted: 23 Feb 2020 08:30 AM PST  Robert O'Brien says he has not seen evidence Russia is boosting Trump but seizes on report Moscow is backing Bernie SandersDonald Trump's national security adviser has said he has not "seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything" to get the president re-elected, but also seemed to accept reports that Russia is backing Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.In response, one senior Democrat slammed the "politicisation of intelligence" by the Trump administration and said Robert O'Brien should "stay out of politics".O'Brien's claim, in an interview with ABC's This Week, came at the end of a week in which it was reported that US officials briefed the House intelligence committee that Russia was again trying to help get Trump elected.Reports of Trump's furious reaction were followed by the departure of Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, and his replacement by Richard Grenell, formerly ambassador to Germany and a Trump loyalist. The president has tweeted extensively on the subject, blaming Democrats and the media for "disinformation hoax number 7".It was also reported this week that Trump, congressional leaders and Sanders himself were briefed that Moscow was repeating another tactic from 2016 and backing the Vermont senator.Sanders told Russia to stay out of US elections, then won convincingly in Nevada.O'Brien said Russian backing for Sanders would be "no surprise. He honeymooned in Moscow."Sanders has described a 10-day visit to the then Soviet capital in 1988 as "a very strange honeymoon". O'Brien was repeating a line used by Trump at campaign events.Speaking to CNN's State of the Union, Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said O'Brien had made a "political statement" and as national security adviser should "stay out of politics".Asked if he had seen analysis showing a Russian aim in its election interference efforts was to help the president, O'Brien said: "I have not seen that, and … the national security adviser gets pretty good access to our intelligence. I haven't seen any intelligence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump reelected."O'Brien said he was not making a distinction between seeing actual intelligence material and seeing analysis of it."No, I haven't seen any intelligence on that," he said. "And I haven't seen any analysis on that."He also said Grenell and CIA director Gina Haspel had not seen such material and contended: "President Trump has rebuilt the American military to an extent we haven't seen since Ronald Reagan. So I don't think it's any surprise that Russia or China or Iran would want somebody other than President Trump."Murphy countered that it "stands to reason" that Russia "wants Trump elected because he has been a gift to Russia. He has essentially ceded the Middle East to Russian interests, he has accomplished more in undermining Nato than Russia has in the last 20 years and he continues to effectively deny that they have an ongoing political operation here in the United States that by and large is an attempt to support Donald Trump."US intelligence concluded that Russia ran interference efforts through the 2016 election, aiming to boost Trump against Hillary Clinton and stoke divisions in US society.Trump has rejected such conclusions, including standing with the Russian leader in Helsinki in July 2018 and saying: "I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be."O'Brien, Trump's fourth national security adviser, is a lawyer and former hostage negotiator who according to a New York Times report runs National Security Council meetings that include printouts of presidential tweets. Like the president, he said reports about the House briefing were based on leaks. Speaking to reporters on Sunday as he left Washington for a visit to India, Trump accused House intelligence chair Adam Schiff of leaking the information about Russia and Sanders. He also said he had not been briefed about the Sanders link.O'Brien said he had "seen the reports from that briefing at the intel committee [and] also heard that from the briefers that that's not what they intended the story to be. So, look … I haven't seen any evidence that Russia is doing anything to attempt to get President Trump reelected. And our message to the Russians is stay out of the US elections. We've been very tough on Russia and we've been great on election security."Senate Republicans this month blocked three bills meant to strengthen election security, shortly after being told by intelligence agencies the US was not doing enough to guard against a repeat of 2016. O'Brien said the White House was "working very hard with the states"."We're going to paper ballots in many cases to harden our election infrastructure," he said, "to make sure that not only is there not election influence through trolls and Twitter and that sort of thing, but to make sure that countries can't hack into our secretaries of state in our 50 states and change election results or cause mischief on election day."Reports of Trump's fury at Maguire were incorrect, O'Brien added, saying the acting director's time in the role had simply expired."We needed a Senate-confirmed official to come in and replace him," O'Brien said. "And so we went with a highly qualified person, Ambassador Grenell."Most observers think Grenell is not qualified and would not be confirmed by the Senate. Filling the role in an acting capacity – as many Trump aides do – lets him avoid that hurdle.O'Brien said Trump would "move quickly" to make a permanent appointment but Murphy said Grenell's move made him "worried about the politicisation of intelligence by this administration"."The new acting head of intelligence has no background in intel," he said. "He is a Trump loyalist. And I think we all worry about this administration controlling massive amounts of intelligence, massive amounts of classified information, and leaking it out to the press when it advantages them."
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| After Bernie Sanders' landslide Nevada win, it's time for Democrats to unite behind him Posted: 23 Feb 2020 08:14 AM PST  No other Democrats can beat him at this point. Sill, the liberal establishment is still struggling to come to terms with Sanders' inevitable nomination It was a landslide. Bernie Sanders had been expected to win the Nevada caucuses, but not like this. With just 4% of the vote in, news organizations called the race for Sanders, since his margin of victory was so large. Sanders has now won the popular vote in all of the first three states, and is currently leading in the polls almost everywhere else in the country. He was already the favorite to take the nomination before the Nevada contest, with Democratic party insiders worrying he was "unstoppable." His campaign will only grow more powerful now.Importantly, Sanders' Nevada victory definitively disproved one of the most enduring myths about his campaign: that it could attract left-leaning young white people, but was incapable of drawing in a diverse coalition. In fact, voters of color were a primary source of Sanders' strength in Nevada; he received the majority of Latino votes. Entrance polls showed Sanders winning "men and women, whites and Latinos, voters 17-29, 30-44 and 45-65, those with college degrees and those without, liberal Democrats (by a lot) and moderate/conservatives (narrowly), union and non-union households." The poisonous concept of the white "Bernie Bro" as the "typical" Sanders supporter should be dead.Some members of the media establishment had no idea what to make of Sanders' Nevada victory. On MSNBC, James Carville said that "Putin" had won Nevada, and Chris Matthews declared the primary "over" (ill-advisedly comparing Sanders' victory to the Nazi invasion of France). Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post admitted that Sanders had been stronger with nonwhite voters than she expected, and it might now be "too late" to do anything about him.The other candidates and their supporters did their best to spin a humiliating defeat. Amy Klobuchar said her sixth-place finish "exceeded expectations"—if sixth place is better than you expected, you're probably not a viable candidate. Biden vowed, implausibly (and for the third time) that he would bounce back. Pete Buttigieg took to the stage to denounce Sanders, who he said "believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans." A Warren supporter rather charmingly said that while Sanders had won, Warren had the "momentum," and the Warren campaign itself said the Nevada "debate" mattered more than the Nevada "result."Let's be clear: the other candidates were crushed, and Nevada was yet more evidence that there is no longer much serious opposition to Sanders. Michael Bloomberg fizzled completely in his big debut, and Democrats would be out of their minds to enrage every Sanders supporter by nominating a Republican billionaire. Joe Biden has lost badly in all of the first three contests, and it's very clear that he can't run an effective campaign. Elizabeth Warren's campaign has nearly gone broke and in desperation she has resorted to relying on the Super PACs that she previously shunned. Pete Buttigieg can't win voters of color or young people (and has accurately been described as sounding like "a neural network trained on West Wing episodes"). As Matthews says: it's over. Bernie is dominating the fundraising, dominating the polls, and winning every primary. I am not sure Jacobin is right that "it's Bernie's party now"—for one thing, virtually the entire Congressional Democratic party is still opposed to Bernie. But it's certainly Bernie's nomination. There is simply no other credible candidate.Democrats shouldn't worry, though: Bernie has a strong organization and a lot of money, and can mobilize millions of people to support him in November. He's exactly the kind of candidate you should want your party to have. And for all the fear of his "radicalism," he's really a moderate: his signature policies are a national health insurance program, a living wage, free public higher education, and a serious green energy investment plan. It's shocking that there is such opposition to such sensible plans. On what planet are these things so politically toxic that Democrats are afraid to run on them? Voters like these ideas, and so long as Democrats unify behind Bernie rather than continuing to try to tear him down, they will have a very good shot at defeating a radical and unhinged president like Donald Trump. The polling looks good for Bernie in November, so now we just need to get this primary over with and focus on the real fight. The other candidates had their shot: they lost. They need to accept it.One other takeaway from Nevada is that no future election should occur without significant reform to the caucus process. Nevada wasn't an outright catastrophe like Iowa was—at least we got results on election night. But it was still plagued with "voting rules confusion, calculation glitches and delays in reporting tallies." And the caucus process can be downright bizarre: tied results in the Las Vegas caucuses are resolved with a card game, and at one point Sanders lost a delegate to Pete Buttigieg because the Sanders team pulled an Ace and Buttigieg pulled a 3. (Aces were low.) From the electoral college to the Iowa caucus, American elections desperately need to reworked from the bottom up according to the simple principle "the person with the most votes ought to win."And yet caucuses also produce some truly inspiring on-the-ground stories, from the cab driver who spoke up for Bernie and kept billionaire Tom Steyer from being viable to the guy who switched from Trump to Bernie because he was convinced socialists were good people. Ordinary people gave incredible speeches as part of the caucus process—one reason why it should be fixed rather than ditched entirely. Members of the Culinary Union, whose leadership had prominently opposed Sanders over Medicare For All, ended up defying their leaders and pushing Sanders to victory at a number of caucus sites.All in all, Nevada was an inspiring moment for American democracy, proof that ordinary working people of all races and incomes and genders can come together around a robust progressive agenda. Democrats need not worry: this is a good thing. It's a night to be celebrated. The primary is not completely over, but hopefully it is now clear to every sensible observer that Bernie is cruising toward the nomination and needs to be supported rather than torn down. * Nathan Robinson is a Guardian US columnist and the editor of Current Affairs
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| The Latest: Ex-candidate Marianne Williamson backing Sanders Posted: 23 Feb 2020 07:45 AM PST  Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who was a major supporter of Bernie Sanders in 2016, is endorsing the Vermont senator for president. It was the last of four rallies Sanders held in Texas this weekend coming off his victory in the Nevada caucus, cementing his status as the front-runner in the Democratic field. "It's time for us to take a stand with Bernie," Williamson said.
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| Passage to India: Trump ready for warm embrace, adulation Posted: 23 Feb 2020 07:41 AM PST  President Donald Trump's packed two-day visit to India promises the kind of welcome that has eluded him on many foreign trips, some of which have featured massive protests and icy handshakes from world leaders. After hosting Modi at a "Howdy Modi" rally in Houston last year that drew 50,000 people, Modi will return the favor with a "Namaste Trump" rally (it translates to, "Greetings, Trump") at the world's largest cricket stadium in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Modi "told me we'll have 7 million people between the airport and the event," Trump said to reporters Tuesday, then raised the anticipated number to 10 million when he mentioned the trip during a Thursday night rally.
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| Pence aide: No sign of Russian help for Trump Posted: 23 Feb 2020 07:30 AM PST  Marc Short rejects suggestions of support for the president from Vladimir Putin's regime.
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| Turkey closes borders with Iran over coronavirus concerns Posted: 23 Feb 2020 06:57 AM PST  Turkey's health minister said the border with Iran would be closed from Sunday due to the number of coronavirus cases in its eastern neighbor. Fahrettin Koca said flights from Iran would also cease from 8 p.m. local time (1700 GMT). Iran's health ministry on Sunday has raised the death toll from the new coronavirus to eight, with 43 confirmed cases.
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| G20 finance heads wrap up meeting overshadowed by virus outbreak Posted: 23 Feb 2020 06:37 AM PST |
| Exclusive: If Lebanon needs financial aid, France will be there, finmin says Posted: 23 Feb 2020 06:36 AM PST  France is ready to support Lebanon financially - bilaterally or multilaterally - its finance minister said on Sunday, warning against mixing economic recovery in the small Mediterranean state with U.S.-led efforts to counter Iran in the region. Lebanon's long-brewing economic crisis spiraled last year as the country's capital inflows slowed and protests erupted against the ruling elite.
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| US 'honor roll' of historic places often ignores slavery Posted: 23 Feb 2020 06:26 AM PST  Antebellum Southern plantations were built on the backs of enslaved people, and many of those plantations hold places of honor on the National Register of Historic Places - but don't look for many mentions of slavery in the government's official record of places with historic significance. The register's written entries on the plantations tend to say almost nothing about theenslaved peoplewho picked the cotton and tobacco or cut the sugar cane that paid for ornate homesthattoday serve as wedding venues, bed-and-breakfast inns, tourist attractions and private homes — some of which tout their inclusion on the National Register like a gold star. The National Register of Historic Places lists more than 95,000 sites that are important to the story of theUnited States.
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| Saudi-led coalition says Yemen rebel depots hit in Sanaa Posted: 23 Feb 2020 06:05 AM PST  The Saudi-led coalition said it launched air raids Sunday targeting ballistic missile and drone depots in Yemen's capital of the Iran-backed Huthis, two days after the rebels fired missiles into the kingdom. Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the coalition fighting alongside Yemen's internationally-recognised government, said the strikes were in retaliation for ballistic missiles attacks on "civilian targets" in Saudi Arabia. The coalition "carried out a unique military operation to destroy legitimate military targets for the capabilities of assembling and firing of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones in the capital Sanaa", he said, quoted by the Saudi state news agency SPA.
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| Who is No. 1? Whoever gets to fill out 2020 Census form Posted: 23 Feb 2020 05:58 AM PST  It's a question spouses, domestic partners and roommates are going to be forced to confront in the next few weeks as they fill out their 2020 Census forms: Who gets to be the primary person in the household? Everyone else who lives in the home has to be identified on the form by how they are related to so-called "Person 1." It's a question that even the most egalitarian homes are going to have to figure out — though it's sure to spark some intriguing conversations. "Me, because anytime Frankie has paperwork, I do it," said Kleinberg, a credit administrator, who lives with her college-professor wife in an Orlando suburb.
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| 10 things you need to know today: February 23, 2020 Posted: 23 Feb 2020 05:50 AM PST |
| Iran’s Hardliners Win Election by Large Margin, Mehr Says Posted: 23 Feb 2020 05:06 AM PST |
| Victims of 2 African embassy bombings await US court case Posted: 23 Feb 2020 05:04 AM PST  Doreen Oport was pulled from the rubble of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1998 covered in blood. The bombing on Aug. 7, 1998, and the nearly simultaneous one at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were the first major attacks on U.S. targets by al-Qaida. On Monday in Washington, Oport will join other victims of the bombings to hear arguments in a Supreme Court case that could affect the compensation they may receive for their injuries.
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| 'Promises kept' mantra doesn't always match Trump's reality Posted: 23 Feb 2020 04:44 AM PST  Trump has followed through on promises to cut regulations and renegotiate trade deals and to donate his salary, just to name a few. The economy under Trump will grow at a sustainable rate of "at least 3.5 percent and as high as 4 percent." The promise was part of the president's "Contract with the American voter" that was released in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election and fed the story line that he would light a fire under an Obama economy that Republicans repeatedly categorized as sluggish. The nation's economy, or gross domestic product, grew at a rate of 2.4 percent in the president's first year in office, 2.9 percent in 2018 and 2.3 percent last year.
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| Pope cautions against 'unfair' Middle East peace plans Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:59 AM PST  Pope Francis has cautioned against "unfair" solutions aimed at ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. In a speech Sunday during a visit to the Italian southern port city of Bari to reflect on peace in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Francis lamented the many areas of war and conflict, including in the Middle East and Northern Africa. A new U.S. peace plan would let Israel annex all of its settlements along with the strategic Jordan Valley.
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| More Russian weapons for Serbia despite US sanction threats Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:51 AM PST  Serbia has received a sophisticated anti-aircraft system from Russia, despite possible U.S. sanctions against the Balkan state, which is formally seeking European Union membership. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the pro-government TV Prva on Sunday that the Pantsir S1 air-defense system was purchased after suggestions from Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Buy Pantsir, it showed its best efficiency in Syria," Vucic quoted Putin as saying during one of their recent, frequent meetings.
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| Egypt upholds sentence of top customs official on corruption Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:49 AM PST |
| China still in crucial stage of coronavirus battle, says Xi Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:30 AM PST |
| Italy rushes to contain Europe's first major virus outbreak Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  Italy scrambled Sunday to check the spread of Europe's first major outbreak of the new viral disease amid rapidly rising numbers of infections and a third death, calling off the popular Venice Carnival, scrapping major league soccer matches in the stricken area and shuttering theaters, including Milan's legendary La Scala. Concern was also on the rise in neighboring Austria, which halted all rail traffic to and from Italy for several hours after suspicion that a train at its southern border with Italy had two passengers possibly infected with the virus on board, authorities said.
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| Israel strikes Gaza, Syria after Palestinian rockets attacks Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:24 AM PST  The Israel military said early Monday that it struck Palestinian militants targets in Gaza and Syria in response to rockets fired toward southern Israel on Sunday evening, hours after Israel said it killed a Palestinian militant who tried to place a bomb along the Israel-Gaza barrier fence. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the rocket barrages. Palestinians were furious over the image of the man's lifeless body dangling off the front of an Israeli bulldozer that crossed into Gaza to retrieve it.
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| A cross-border love story sweeps up South Korea Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:04 AM PST |
| As plastic bag bans go into effect, some question the unintended consequences Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:01 AM PST  Bans on single-use plastic bags -- one of the most pervasive sources of pollution -- are taking effect in cities and states across the U.S. as efforts to combat global plastic production pick up. Plastic bags were widely introduced to American consumers in 1979 and were marketed as preferable to paper because they are durable, waterproof and have many functions, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Until the early '80s, paper bags were standard for carrying groceries.
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| Iran says in total 43 infected with coronavirus, 8 dead - official Posted: 23 Feb 2020 01:46 AM PST |
| Iran raises death toll from new virus to 8, infections to 43 Posted: 23 Feb 2020 01:40 AM PST  Iran's health ministry raised the death toll from the new coronavirus to eight Sunday, amid concerns that clusters there as well as in Italy and South Korea could signal a serious new stage in its global spread. There were now 43 confirmed cases of the illness in Iran, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told state TV. The outbreak in Iran has centered mostly on the city of Qom, but spread rapidly over the past few days to people in four other cities, including the capital, Tehran.
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| Nine dead in Turkey as 5.7 earthquake strikes western Iran Posted: 23 Feb 2020 12:49 AM PST  Nine people were killed in eastern Turkey by a magnitude 5.7 earthquake early Sunday morning, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. The quake centered just east across the border in neighboring Iran, west of the Iranian city of Khoy, and affected villages in the Turkish province of Van. At least three of the dead were children, according to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
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| Exit polls: Social Democrats win, far-right loses in Hamburg Posted: 23 Feb 2020 12:41 AM PST  The center-left Social Democrats won the most votes in the Hamburg state election Sunday, according to exit polls, followed by the environmentalist Green party in a vote that was overshadowed by a racist massacre and political turmoil in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats appeared to lose badly, receiving the weakest results in Hamburg, which is Germany's second-biggest city and its own state, in the last seven decades. In what would be a large upset, the far-right Alternative for Germany — which has been especially successful in state elections in eastern Germany where it got up to about a quarter of the vote — appears to not have received the 5% of the vote needed to get into the state assembly.
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