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China on Sunday expanded drastic travel restrictions to contain a viral epidemic that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as the United States and France prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre. China has locked down the hard-hit province of Hubei in the country's centre in an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people to slow the spread of a respiratory illness that President Xi Jinping said posed a "grave" threat. Originating in Hubei's capital of Wuhan, the virus has spread throughout China and around the world -- with cases confirmed in around a dozen countries as distant as the United States.

Sun, 26 Jan 2020 04:38:36 -0500

His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport -- long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports -- a few already expired and some approaching the date -- said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps.

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:18:12 -0500

What if it falls apart?

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 20:00:00 -0500

(Bloomberg) -- The Des Moines Register endorsed progressive favorite Senator Elizabeth Warren a little more than a week before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, saying the Massachusetts lawmaker would “push an unequal America in the right direction.” The influential newspaper in Iowa’s largest city revealed its pick for the first-in-the-nation nominating contest on its website Saturday evening."At this moment, when the very fabric of American life is at stake, Elizabeth Warren is the president this nation needs," the Register's editorial board said.The Register said that many of Warren’s ideas “are not radical. They are right.  They would improve life in America, and they are generally shared by the other Democratic candidates, who bring their own strengths to this race.” The candidate is “tough and compassionate,” the newspaper said.   ``Thank you, @DMRegister, for your endorsement! Iowans are ready to make big, structural change—and I’m going to fight my heart out for everyone in Iowa and across the country,’’ Warren said on Twitter. Fair Markets Warren, 70, is polling at 16.3% in Iowa. She’s trailing Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, and statistically tied for third pace with Pete Buttigieg, in the RealClearPolitics polling average of the state. In a New York Times Iowa poll released on Saturday, Warren’s standing had slipped recently. The newspaper said the second-term senator is ``a capitalist” but one that ``wants fair markets, with rules and accountability. She wants a government that works for people, not one corrupted by cash.” Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor, ``believes government should actively work to prevent and respond to abusive practices that jeopardize individuals and the country’s economy,’’ the Register’s editorial said.  The newspaper wrote at length about what it described as the pluses and minuses of other Democratic candidates contesting next month’s caucus. Biden, the former vice president, was said to lack Warren's specific expertise on income inequality issues. Biden was also said to represent ``incremental improvements on the Obama years'' rather than ``the bold agenda the times demand.''  Poor Predictor The newspaper said it had doubts about whether Sanders, who is not a member of the Democratic Party, could build the consensus needed to govern. The Vermont senator has also opposed trade agreements supported by Iowa's farmers, it noted. Buttigieg was said to offer ``refreshing, common-ground approaches unburdened by the constraints of Washington insider politics." But his eight-year tenure as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, ``hardly seems adequate preparation for leading this vast, diverse, divided country,'' the editorial board said.While coveted by candidates, the Des Moines Register’s endorsement has been a poor predictor of caucus-night performance. Since the Register started making recommendations in 1988, only three of its endorsed candidates went on to win the state’s caucuses: Republicans Bob Dole in 1988 and 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000, and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.    (Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.) To contact the author of this story: Gregory Korte in Washington at gkorte@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Max Berley at mberley@bloomberg.net, 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.

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 19:53:54 -0500

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit southern Puerto Rico on Saturday at a shallow depth, raising concerns about unstable infrastructure in a region that has been hit by quakes every day for nearly a month. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred at a depth of eight miles (13 kilometers) around the southern coastal town of Guayanilla, located close to the epicenters of most of the recent earthquakes. “We felt it really hard,” town spokesman Danny Hernandez told The Associated Press, saying authorities were patrolling the area to investigate any potential damage.

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 16:07:24 -0500