Month: February 2020

Michael Bloomberg waited until November to launch his campaign to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the 2020 presidential election.His opponents in Wednesday night’s debate in the Western state of Nevada did not wait at all to attack his political record as the former mayor of New York City, allegations of sexism and sexual harassment, and his status as a multibillionaire.Before Wednesday, people across the United States were largely aware of Bloomberg’s campaign through television ads, which have saturated airwaves since November at a cost of nearly $400 million of his own money.But the debate put him on stage with the top contenders for the Democratic nomination for the first time, meaning he had to answer questions in real time about his past and why he should be the one to oppose President Donald Trump in November.From left, Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas.The pushback began with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.“In order to beat Donald Trump, we’re going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. Mr. Bloomberg had policies in New York City of stop and frisk, which went after African American and Latino people in an outrageous way. That is not a way you’re going to grow voter turnout,” Sanders said.Bloomberg countered by casting doubt about the electability of Sanders, the front-runner in national polls.“If he goes and is the candidate, we will have Donald Trump for another four years, and we can’t stand that,” Bloomberg said.Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, left, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., talk during a break at a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas.Whatever momentum Bloomberg may have felt from the first exchange of the debate was immediately challenged by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who said she will support whoever is the party’s eventual nominee but that the party would “take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse faced lesbians. And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg. Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like redlining and stop and frisk,” she said.While Bloomberg was the initial focus on the debate, as the night went on he was not as involved as the other candidates who each had taken part in eight debates dating back to June of last year.Warren, Sanders, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden all spoke more than Bloomberg. Tallies of speaking time showed the gap between the leader — Warren — and Bloomberg was about three minutes.From left, Democratic presidential candidates, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., participate in a Democratic presidential primary debate, Feb. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC.Bloomberg and Warren sparred several times, including pointedly about the allegations against Bloomberg and his company of sexism and sexual harassment, and the number of non-disclosure agreements people involved in those accusations have signed, agreeing not to discuss them publicly.“None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg said. “These would be agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet. And that’s up to them. They signed those agreements, and we’ll live with it.”Warren countered that Bloomberg at that moment could announce he was releasing the signatories from those agreements in the name of transparency.Bloomberg declined to do so, saying the agreements were made consensually, “and they have every right to expect that they will stay private.”WATCH: Bloomberg Targeted in Debate DebutSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyHis campaign said the attacks against Bloomberg meant he was “a winner,” and that he “was the grownup in the room.”“He was just warming up tonight,” campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement. “We fully expect Mike will continue to build on tonight’s performance when he appears on the stage in South Carolina next Tuesday.”The same six candidates have qualified for that debate ahead of what will be the last contest Bloomberg decided to skip as he focused his first electoral efforts on the 14 states where voters will cast ballots on March 3.
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Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a new proposal to amend the state’s legally contentious voter-registration restrictions that are currently blocked from being enforced during the 2020 elections.Last year, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed GOP-backed legislation that made Tennessee the first state in the country to fine registration groups for turning in too many incomplete signup forms. It also criminalized intentional infractions of other new rules with misdemeanor charges.FILE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee delivers his State of the State Address in the House Chamber in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 3, 2020.However, the law immediately prompted two lawsuits and sparked national criticism from those who argued that the law would suppress efforts to register minorities and other voters.A federal judge later blocked the implementation of the law as it awaits trial in February 2021, saying the law would have a “chilling effect” on organizations and individuals seeking to register voters.In the interim, Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday decided to once again back new rules on how to sign up new voters.FILE – Tre Hargett, right, is sworn in as Tennessee secretary of state in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 15, 2009.The latest version would require the state to offer voluntary training on voter registration laws and require voter registration applications be submitted within 15 days of a voter registration drive. The measure would then prohibit the retention of voter information for non-political purposes, as well as require “cybersecurity to be considered” when certifying a voter registration system.”In the face of the federal injunction, these protections are better than no protection at all,” wrote Secretary of State Tre Hargett in a recent letter to lawmakers.Hargett, who had previously argued the original 2019 voter registration law would bolster election security, is submitting a separate bill this year that will criminalize “intentional dissemination of misinformation” surrounding the qualifications to vote, voter registration requirements, voter eligibility, and polling dates, times and locations.Under that proposal, it would also be a felony to tamper with voting systems, gain unauthorized access to voter registration databases, “willfully” substitute fake election results and “intentionally deface” an election website.’Encouraging’ changesThe proposals submitted Wednesday were both approved by the House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee after almost no discussion or opposition. The bills must now pass the full House Local Committee before they can head to the House floor for consideration.FILE – Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, debates a proposal on the first day of the 2020 legislative session in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 14, 2020.If approved, the proposals would go into effect immediately — likely after Tennessee’s March 3 presidential primary, but ahead of the August state primary election.”Penalizing voter registration drives was a bad idea in the first place,” said Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat from Nashville. “It was predictably blocked in court because the legislature acted too rashly and thoughtlessly. We shouldn’t repeat the mistake by rushing through some fix without input from the civic groups affected.”However, at least one group who sued the state over the voter registration law described Wednesday’s changes as “encouraging.””It appears our litigation had an impact,” said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Preliminary review suggests the problem that led us to sue has been addressed.”2019 measureIn 2019, Tennessee lawmakers backed a measure allowing the state to fine groups if they submit 100 or more voter registration forms within a calendar year that lack a complete name, address, date of birth, declaration of eligibility and signature. Penalties can reach $10,000 per county where violations occur if more than 500 incomplete forms are submitted. The measure went on to outlaw out-of-state poll watchers.The misdemeanor penalties would kick in if groups intentionally turn in forms after new deadlines, pay people based on quotas, fail to fill out state registration, don’t undergo training, and more.Only paid groups could be penalized under the law, though the groups’ legal filings contend the distinction is murky due to their use of grant money and stipends for workers in certain cases.
 
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FBI Director Christopher Wray recently called violent extremism motivated by race or ethnicity as a “top-level priority … on the same footing as ISIS.”  And these extremist groups are using Islamic State tactics to recruit new members, often young, impressionable, alienated teenagers, according to a former member of a hate group. Mil Arcega reports.
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A lawyer for Julian Assange said Wednesday that the WikiLeaks founder plans to claim during his extradition hearing that he was offered a pardon by the Trump administration if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 U.S. election campaign.Assange is fighting extradition to the United States on spying charges, and his full court hearing is due to begin next week.At a preliminary hearing, lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that in August 2017, then-Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher visited Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.Wikileaks founder Julian Assange leaves in a prison van after appearing at Westminster Magistrates Court for an administrative hearing in London, Jan. 13, 2020.Fitzgerald said a statement from another Assange lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, recounted “Mr. Rohrabacher going to see Mr. Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr. Assange … said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks.”The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Emails embarrassing for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were hacked before being published by WikiLeaks in 2016.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said the evidence was admissible in the extradition case.Assange appeared at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday by video-link from Belmarsh prison, where he is being held as he awaits his extradition hearing.U.S. prosecutors have charged the 48-year-old Australian computer hacker with espionage over WikiLeaks’ hacking of hundreds of thousands of confidential government documents. If found guilty, he faces up to 175 years in jail.He argues he was acting as a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection.Assange spent seven years in Ecuador’s embassy after holing up there in 2012 to avoid questioning in Sweden over unrelated sexual assault allegations.Assange was evicted from the embassy in April 2019 and was arrested by British police for jumping bail in 2012. In November, Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed.There is no quick end in sight to Assange’s long legal saga. His full extradition hearing is due to begin with a week of legal argument starting Monday. It will resume in May, and a ruling is not expected for several months, with the losing side likely to appeal.
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Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich held his first scheduled press event Wednesday since President Donald Trump commuted his sentence for political corruption, answering questions about his future plans and the crimes that landed him in prison.
The Democrat spoke outside his family home in Chicago. A large sign hanging on the home read, “Thanks Mr. President.”  One man wore a rubber Blagojevich mask and hoisted the former governor’s 2006 campaign sign.
“We want to express our most profound and everlasting gratitude to President Trump,” Blagojevich said from outside his house. “He didn’t have to do this …. this is an act of kindness.”
Blagojevich, 63, walked out of a federal prison in Colorado on Tuesday after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence for wide-ranging political corruption, just hours after Trump granted him a commutation.
“I’m a Trumpocrat,” Blagojevich said. “If I had the ability to vote, I would vote for him.”
Blagojevich, a one-time contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice,” has been radioactive politically since his arrest as governor in 2008. It’s not clear who might be willing to offer him a job or a lead role in organization or movement.
His convictions included seeking to sell an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat Barack Obama vacated to become president, trying to shake down a children’s hospital and lying to the FBI.  
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A federal judge in Texas has dismissed Chinese tech giant Huawei’s lawsuit challenging a U.S. law that bars the government and its contractors from using Huawei equipment because of security concerns.The lawsuit, filed last March, sought to declare the law unconstitutional. Huawei argued the law singled out the company for punishment, denied it due process and amounted to a “death penalty.”But a court ruled Tuesday that the ban isn’t punitive and that the federal government has the right to take its business elsewhere.Huawei, China’s first global tech brand, is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tensions over technology competition and digital spying. The company has spent years trying to put to rest accusations that it facilitates Chinese spying and that it is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.The lawsuit was filed in Plano, Texas, the headquarters of Huawei’s U.S. operations. It was dismissed before going to trial. Experts had described Huawei’s challenge as a long shot, but said the company didn’t have many other options to challenge the law.Huawei said it was disappointed and will consider further legal options.The Trump administration has been aggressively lobbying Western allies to avoid Huawei’s equipment for next-generation, 5G cellular networks. Administration officials say Huawei can give the Chinese government backdoor access to data, allegations that the company rejects.U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also spoken out against Huawei, including during a talk with reporters in Brussels on Monday, turning U.S. opposition to Huawei into a bipartisan effort.
 
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A look at the charges against Harvey Weinstein, 67, and the punishment the once-revered Hollywood titan could face if convicted. A jury of seven men and five women started deliberating Tuesday in the closely watched #MeToo trial. To convict or acquit Weinstein on any charge, their verdict must be unanimous.WHAT IS WEINSTEIN ACCUSED OF?Scores of women have come forward in recent years to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, but his New York City trial stems from just three allegations.The “Pulp Fiction” producer is charged with raping a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman, TV and film production assistant Mimi Haleyi, at his apartment in July 2006.The most serious charge, predatory sexual assault, requires jurors to decide two things: if he raped actress Annabella Sciorra in the mid-1990s and if he committed one of the charged acts.(The Associated Press has a policy of not publishing the names of people who allege sexual assault without their consent. It is withholding the name of the rape accuser because it isn’t clear whether she wishes to be identified publicly.)WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST WEINSTEIN?One count each of first- and third-degree rape for the March 2013 allegation. The first-degree charge alleges Weinstein used physical force or an implied or expressed threat that led the alleged victim to fear immediate death or injury. The third-degree charge alleges only that there was a lack of consent.One count of criminal sex act for Haleyi’s forced oral sex allegation.Two counts of predatory sexual assault, one for each of the charged acts.HOW DOES THE PREDATORY SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGE WORK?Under New York law, one way a person can be found guilty of predatory sexual assault is if he or she committed certain sex offenses in the past, even if that conduct didn’t result in criminal charges.In Weinstein’s case, prosecutors allege that he raped Sciorra in late 1993 or early 1994 — an accusation that is too old to be the basis for criminal charges on its own because of the statute of limitations.DOES THE JURY HAVE TO REACH A VERDICT ON ALL CHARGES?No. Weinstein is charged with five counts, but the way the verdict form is designed, jurors won’t have to make a decision on all of them.The form instructs the jury to start by reaching a verdict on the predatory sexual assault counts, which encompass the other charged acts. Depending on what they decide on those counts, they can move onto or skip other charges.For example, if jurors find Weinstein guilty of the predatory sexual assault count alleging he both raped Sciorra and assaulted Haleyi, then the jury does not need to decide the criminal sex act charge involving Haleyi.If the jury finds Weinstein guilty of the second predatory sexual assault count, alleging that he both raped Sciorra and raped the woman in 2013, then the jury does not need to decide the standalone rape charges involving the woman.If the jury decides Weinstein didn’t rape Sciorra, then it can’t find Weinstein guilty of either predatory sexual assault count.If jurors acquit Weinstein of the second predatory sexual assault count because it they don’t feel it was a first-degree rape, they can still consider a third-degree rape charge involving the woman.WHAT IS WEINSTEIN’S DEFENSE?Weinstein maintains the encounters were consensual. His lawyer said that the allegations are “regret renamed as rape.” The defense grilled Haleyi and the 2013 accuser about meetings they had with Weinstein after the alleged assaults and highlighted friendly, flirtatious emails they sent him.HOW MUCH TIME COULD HE FACE?Each of the predatory sexual assault counts is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.The first degree rape and criminal sex act counts each carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.Third degree rape carries a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison.WHAT’S THE WORST CASE SCENARIO FOR WEINSTEIN?He’s convicted of predatory sexual assault. Even if the jury finds him guilty on just one of those top-level counts, a minimum sentence would keep him in prison until he’s in his early 90s.WOULD HE HAVE TO REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER?Yes. If Weinstein is convicted on any of the charges he would be required to register as a sex offender under New York’s version of what’s known as Megan’s Law.WOULD WEINSTEIN BE HAULED OFF IN HANDCUFFS RIGHT AWAY?If Weinstein is convicted on any of the charges, there’s a good chance his bail will be revoked and he’ll be taken to jail right away. Prosecutors could argue he’ll have extra incentive to flee and that he’s rich enough to do it. Even before the trial, prosecutors say he was showing signs of restlessness. A judge hiked his bail in December after prosecutors accused him of futzing with his electronic monitoring bracelet.WHAT’S NEXT FOR WEINSTEIN?Win or lose, Weinstein faces more criminal charges in a California case announced last month, just as his New York trial was getting underway. In that matter, Weinstein is accused of sexually assaulted one woman and raping another on back-to-back nights days before the Oscars in February 2013.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has announced pardons for several high-profile individuals convicted of fraud. He has also commuted the prison sentence of former Governor Rod Blagojevich. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the president’s acts of clemency on Tuesday sparked controversy.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives in Riyadh on Wednesday at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. Some issues on the agenda include tensions with Iran, the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan, the ongoing war in Yemen and human rights issues. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports the meetings take place at a time when both countries are recalibrating their approach to open regional matters and to their bilateral relations.
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A group of more than 1,100 U.S. military veterans from all five branches have signed a statement lashing out at President Donald Trump for firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council.Vindman testified before a House committee during the Trump impeachment hearings in November. He expressed his concerns about Trump’s drive to push Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.The Military Times newspaper published the statement, whose signatories invited other veterans to add their names.The statement said the president’s “actions and insults” toward Vindman “appear to be motivated by nothing more than political retribution, and deprives the White House of expertise necessary to defend our collective national security.”Long-standing U.S. military code of conduct requires servicemen and women to report wrongdoing and illegal acts through the proper military channels. But U.S. law forbids them from speaking out in public.The veterans say Trump knows this and believes he can verbally attack Vindman with “impunity.””We consider President Trump’s sustained attacks on an active duty Army officer … to be an affront to the constitution that we have all sworn to uphold. We are speaking out precisely because neither LTC Vindman nor his fellow active-duty service members can,” the statement said.The veterans’ statement also criticizes what they say is Trump’s association with those they call war criminals, his public threat of war crimes, and minimizing the traumatic brain injuries some troops suffered in January’s Iranian missile attack on a military base in Iraq.The White House has not yet responded to the statement.The Ukrainian-born Vindman was the NSC’s Director for European Affairs until he was reassigned three weeks ago.The White House said Vindman was not fired and gave the official reason for his reassignment as downsizing within the NSC.However, Trump has publicly accused Vindman of being a poor worker who did “a lot of bad things,” including allegations of leaking classified information — charges Vindman’s supporters deny.
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A week after Attorney General William Barr overturned the Justice Department’s recommendation for a stiff prison sentence for U.S. President Donald Trump’s friend Roger Stone, the public uproar over political meddling in the U.S. system of justice rages.A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Stone will be sentenced Thursday while she decides whether to grant the presidential friend’s request for a new trial. Stone’s motion for a retrial came after Trump accused the jury forewoman in the case of “significant bias.”He was convicted last November of seven counts, including lying to Congress about his role in Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and tampering with a witness.Whether or not Stone is given a new trial, the decision to sentence him rests with Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Trump has railed at Jackson for subjecting another former associate to solitary confinement. The likelihood that she will send Stone to prison has heightened speculation that Trump could respond with a pardon for a friend he thinks has been unjustly prosecuted.FILE – This courtroom sketch shows Roger Stone talking from the witness stand as Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during a court hearing at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.Trump has not ruled out pardoning Stone. While he has the power to pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime for any reason other than impeachment, shielding a friend convicted of serious crimes from prison could raise new questions about the independence of the system of justice under his administration.If Trump were to pardon Stone, it would “turn this into a very, very big political event,” said David Axelrod, a former Justice Department prosecutor.”It would further undermine faith in law enforcement in this country and show normal people that if you’re a friend of the president or those in power, you may not be treated the same as average Americans,” Axelrod said.Pardoning powerHans von Spakovsky, another Justice Department official now with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the president’s pardon power is near absolute and that it would not be out of the ordinary for a president to pardon a convicted friend.”He’s got the ability to do that and it can’t be questioned,” von Spakovsky said. “Neither Congress nor anyone else can overrule or somehow prevent a pardon issued by the president.”In 2001, just hours before leaving office, then-President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive trader Marc Rich in one of the most controversial presidential pardons. Rich’s wife had pledged large sums of money to Clinton’s presidential library.FILE – Denise Rich, left, ex-wife of Marc Rich, presents U.S. President Bill Clinton with a saxophone as first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton applauds at the G&P Foundation gala in New York City, Nov. 30, 2000.”It was very clearly done for political reasons and not because this individual Marc Rich had somehow acknowledged wrongdoing or anything else,” von Spakovsky said.Trump and Stone have been friends for decades. In the 1980s, Stone, a self-described “political trickster” who has an image of the disgraced former President Richard Nixon tattooed on his back, encouraged Trump, then an up-and-coming New York real estate developer, to run for president.Last November, a jury found Stone guilty of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress about his efforts during the 2016 presidential election to obtain stolen emails of Hillary Clinton from the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.The controversy over Stone’s sentencing erupted last week when Barr and other top Justice Department officials overturned four career prosecutors’ recommendation that Stone receive seven to nine years in prison, in line with federal sentencing guidelines.Barr’s decision came shortly after Trump tweeted that the recommended sentence was “a miscarriage of justice” that could not be allowed to move forward, fueling concerns that Barr was carrying out the president’s wishes. The four prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest.Although both Trump and Barr later said they had never discussed the Stone case, the fury did not subside amid new reports that Barr had brought in outside prosecutors to oversee politically sensitive investigations and review a number of criminal cases, including the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.In an open letter issued Sunday, more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials called on Barr to resign. A national association of federal judges called an emergency meeting to address the controversy.”It is really a wake-up call to the country to make sure that we’re paying attention to the importance of having an independent Justice Department,” said Derek Cohen, a former senior Justice Department official who signed the letter.Trump’s pardonsWhether Trump will pardon Stone remains uncertain. But Trump has the authority to pardon him. The U.S. Constitution empowers the president “to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” A presidential pardon restores a convict’s civil rights, such as the right to vote.Since taking office, Trump has pardoned 18 convicted felons, including several well-connected figures in conservative circles. In 2017, he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio a month after Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop arresting immigrants on suspicion that they were undocumented.FILE – Financier Michael Milken leads a discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., April 30, 2018.On Tuesday, Trump issued full pardons to several prominent individuals, including Michael Milken, a former Wall Street financier, and Bernard Kerik, a former New York City Commissioner and business partner of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.Trump has previously expressed openness to pardoning his former associates, saying it was unfair that former campaign manager Paul Manafort got a stiff sentence while former FBI Director James Comey walked free. More recently, however, Trump batted away questions about an immediate pardon. Last week, he told radio talk show host Geraldo Rivera that he didn’t “want to talk about pardons right now.”The implications of pardoning Stone “are not good for our country and the independence of our judiciary moving forward,” said Cohen, the former Justice official. “In past administrations and past history, if presidents were to go out of their way and abuse or appear to abuse the pardon system to benefit their friends, that would be the sort of thing that one would expect either the voters or the Congress would have a problem with.”
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President Donald Trump objected on Tuesday to U.S. proposals that would prevent companies from supplying jet engines and other components to China’s aviation industry and suggested he had instructed his administration not to implement them.In a series of tweets and in comments to reporters Tuesday, Trump said national security concerns, which had been cited as reasoning for the plans, should not be used as an excuse to make it difficult for foreign countries to buy U.S. products.The president’s comments came after weekend reports by Reuters and other news media that the government was considering whether to stop General Electric Co from further supplying engines for a new Chinese passenger jet.The president’s intervention illustrated that, at least in this case, he would prioritize economic benefits over potential competitive pitfalls and national security concerns.FILE – Technicians build engines for jetliners at a General Electric (GE) factory in Lafayette, Indiana, March 29, 2017.His views on the issue contrasted with the sharp restrictions his administration has placed on U.S. companies trading with Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, also for national security reasons.”We’re not going to be sacrificing our companies … by using a fake term of national security. It’s got to be real national security. And I think people were getting carried away with it,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing for a trip to California.”I want our companies to be allowed to do business. I mean, things are put on my desk that have nothing to do with national security, including with chipmakers and various others. So we’re going to give it up, and what will happen? They’ll make those chips in a different country or they’ll make them in China or someplace else,” he said.The United States has supported American companies’ business with China’s aviation sector for years.”I want China to buy our jet engines, the best in the World,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I want to make it EASY to do business with the United States, not difficult. Everyone in my Administration is being so instructed, with no excuses…”Trade lawyer Doug Jacobson said limitations on jet engines and chip makers would hurt U.S. companies.”This is ultimately akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face because ultimately you’re hurting U.S. manufacturing companies but you’re not having a material impact on your target,” he said.U.S.-China tradeThe United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, have a complicated and competitive relationship.Trump signed a first-phase trade deal with China earlier this year after a long trade war in which the countries levied significant tariffs on each others’ products, many of which remain in place.
 
Washington is also eyeing limits on other components for Chinese commercial aircraft such as flight control systems made by Honeywell International Inc.Central to the possible crackdown is whether shipments of U.S. parts to China’s aircraft industry could fuel the rise of a serious competitor to U.S.-based Boeing Co or boost China’s military capabilities.The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said it welcomed Trump’s comments.”We applaud President Trump’s tweets supporting U.S. companies being able to sell products to China and opposing proposed regulations that would unduly curtail that ability,” John Neuffer, the group’s president, said in a statement. “As we have discussed with the administration, sales of non-sensitive, commercial products to China drive semiconductor research and innovation, which is critical to America’s economic strength and national security.”HuaweiHuawei is at the heart of a battle for global technological dominance between the United States and China. Washington placed Huawei on a blacklist in May last year, citing national security concerns. The United States has also been trying to persuade allies to exclude its gear from next generation 5G networks on grounds its equipment could be used by China for spying. Huawei has repeatedly denied the claim.”So, national security is very important. I’ve been very tough on Huawei, but that doesn’t mean we have to be tough on everybody that does something,” Trump said.
 
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President Donald Trump has gone on a clemency blitz, commuting the 14-year prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoning former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.Trump also told reporters that he has pardoned financier Michael Milken, who pleaded guilty for violating U.S. securities laws and served two years in prison in the early 1990s. Trump also pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal who built one of the most successful NFL teams in the game’s history.Blagojevich, who appeared on Trump’s reality TV show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” was convicted of political corruption, including seeking to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. But Trump said he had been subjected to a “ridiculous sentence” that didn’t fit his crimes.Kerik served just over three years for tax fraud and lying to the White House while being interviewed to be Homeland Security secretary.“We have Bernie Kerik, we have Mike Milken, who’s gone around and done an incredible job,” Trump said, adding that Milken had “paid a big price.”Earlier, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned DeBartolo Jr., who was involved in one of the biggest owners’ scandals in the sport’s history. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to failing to report a felony when he paid $400,000 to former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gambling license.He also pardoned Ariel Friedler, a technology entrepreneur, who pleaded guilty to accessing a computer without authorization; Paul Pogue a construction company owner who underpaid his taxes; David Safavian, who was convicted of obstructing an investigation into a trip he took while he was a senior government official; and Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.Blagojevich, a Democrat who hails from a state with a long history of pay-to-play schemes, exhausted his last appellate option in 2018 and had seemed destined to remain behind bars until his projected 2024 release date. His wife, Patti, went on a media blitz in 2018 to encourage Trump to step in, praising the president and likening the investigation of her husband to special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — a probe Trump long characterized as a “witchhunt.”Blagojevich’s conviction was notable, even in a state where four of the last 10 governors have gone to prison for corruption. Judge James Zagel — who in 2011 sentenced Blagojevich to the longest prison term yet for an Illinois politician — said when a governor “goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured.”Blagojevich became the brunt of jokes for foul-mouthed rants on wiretaps released after his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest while still governor. On the most notorious recording, he gushes about profiting by naming someone to the seat Obama vacated to become president: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f—— golden. And I’m just not giving it up for f—— nothing.”When Trump publicly broached the idea in May 2018 of intervening to free Blagojevich, he downplayed the former governor’s crimes. He said Blagojevich was convicted for “being stupid, saying things that every other politician, you know, that many other politicians say.” He said Blagojevich’s sentence was too harsh.Prosecutors have balked at the notion long fostered by Blagojevich that he engaged in common political horse-trading and was a victim of an overzealous U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said after Blagojevich’s arrest that the governor had gone on “a political corruption crime spree” that would make Abraham Lincoln turn over in his grave.Mueller — a subject of Trump’s derision — was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich. Fitzgerald is now a private attorney for another former FBI director, James Comey, whom Trump dismissed from the agency in May 2017.Trump also expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. As Trump “fired” Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him: “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”He later poll-tested the matter, asking for a show of hands of those who supported clemency at an October, 2019 fundraiser at his Chicago hotel. Most of the 200 to 300 attendees raised their hands, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing several people at the event.Blagojevich testified at his 2011 retrial, describing himself as a flawed dreamer grounded in his parents’ working-class values. He sought to humanize himself to counteract the blunt, profane, seemingly greedy Blagojevich heard on wiretap recordings played in court by prosecutors over several weeks. He said the hours of FBI recordings were the ramblings of a politician who liked to think out loud.But jurors accepted evidence that Blagojevich demanded a $50,000 donation from the head of a children’s hospital in return for increased state support, and extorted $100,000 in donations from two horse racing tracks and a racing executive in exchange for quick approval of legislation the tracks wanted.He originally convicted on 18 counts, including lying to the FBI, wire fraud for trying to trade an appointment to the Obama seat for contributions, and for the attempted extortion of a children’s hospital executive. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2015 tossed five of 18 convictions, including ones in which he offered to appoint someone to a high-paying job in the Senate.The appeals court ordered the trial judge to resentence Blagojevich, but suggested it would be appropriate to hand him the same sentence, given the gravity of the crimes. Blagojevich appeared via live video from prison during the 2016 resentencing and asked for leniency. The judge gave him the same 14-year term, saying it was below federal guidelines when he imposed it the first time.Blagojevich had once aspired to run for president himself but entered the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in suburban Denver in 2012, disgraced and broke. Court documents filed by his lawyers in 2016 portrayed Blagojevich — known as brash in his days as governor — as humble and self-effacing, as well as an insightful life coach and lecturer on everything from the Civil War to Richard Nixon. Blagojevich, an Elvis Presley fan, also formed a prison band called “The Jailhouse Rockers.”
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As a Ph.D. student in linguistics who identifies as a nonbinary, transgender man, Maxwell Schmid was thrilled when the Linguist Maxwell Schmid, who identifies as a non-binary, transgender man, welcomes the selection of “they” as the Word of the Decade. (Photo courtesy of Maxwell Schmid)The selections are a nod to the growing trend on college campuses of sharing one’s pronouns. More U.S. companies are also beginning to encourage employees to use gender pronouns in their email signatures.  It’s an acknowledgment of people who identify as nonbinary, which means they don’t strictly categorize themselves as a man or woman.  “Often the word is meant to reflect something that was meaningful not just to linguists, but a word that was important in society that year or in that decade,” says Evan Bradley, an assistant professor of psychology at Penn State Brandywine.  The selection indicates that American society is paying attention to how individuals view themselves in the context of gender.“If you go back to the beginning of the decade and you ask someone, ‘What are your pronouns?’ most of my students would not have understood what I’m talking about,” Bradley says. “But now when I do that, most students today, they know what I mean. So, it’s been a big shift over the past decade.”Western Washington University provides examples of email signatures that include pronouns on a university website. (Courtesy Western Washington University)Reed Blaylock, a Ph.D. candidate in linguistics at the University of Southern California, was among those who voted for “they” as the Word of the Decade.“I voted for ‘they’ because as a linguist, I like the idea of a pronoun — a part of speech that historically hasn’t gotten a lot of attention from people in day-to-day life — suddenly being in the spotlight,” he told VOA via email. “ I also have a friend who recently started using they/them, and I thought they would appreciate it if ‘they’ was the Word of the Decade.”Schmid, who doesn’t feel strictly male or female, says using the correct pronouns is a matter of basic human respect.“When I go out of my way and I say, ‘My pronouns are he and they, and somebody uses those pronouns correctly with me, then I feel seen, and I feel respected,” he says.  Schmid is encouraged by Sweden’s adoption of a gender-neutral pronoun. In addition to “hon” (she) and “han” (he), the use of gender-neutral “hen” is slowly gaining more acceptance and occasionally appears in Swedish news articles.“Society was actually able to adopt it, and then people’s minds started changing,” he says. “Sometimes we think the opposite, that we have to wait for people to change their minds before something becomes implemented.”FILE – In this May 17, 2016, photo, a sticker designates a gender neutral bathroom at Nathan Hale high school in Seattle in Washington state.As to the future of gender pronouns, Bradley thinks the selection of they as the Word of the Decade might make Americans more open to using neopronouns, the pronouns used in place of he, she, or singular they, primarily by nonbinary people  “I think the work that has been done on they, both by linguists and by activists over the past decade, has kind of laid a foundation or moved the window on the feasibility of neopronouns. So, I’m kind of curious what will happen with them,” he says. “Once people who don’t use they in the nonbinary sense, once they learn how to do it, they might find it easier to use neopronouns, as well.”
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Washington has accused two Russian satellites of tailing a US spy satellite in what it called “disturbing behavior”, prompting a guarded response from Moscow on Tuesday.Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed that he had received a message from Washington regarding the satellites, adding that “Moscow will respond after studying it.””Regarding the manoeuvres of these objects in space, these are practices carried out by many countries,” he added, quoted by Russian press agencies.In an interview with Time magazine published on Monday, General John Raymond, head of the US military’s new Space Force, said the Russian craft began manoeuvring towards the American satellite shortly after they launched into orbit in November, closing to within 100 miles (160 kilometres) of it.”We view this behavior as unusual and disturbing,” Raymond told Time. “It has the potential to create a dangerous situation in space.”He earlier issued a statement to US media saying the Russian satellites were “behaving similar to another set of satellites that Russia deployed in 2017, and which the Russian government characterized as ‘inspector satellites’.”The US Space Force, which came into being in December, is the sixth formal force of the US military, after the army, air force, navy, Marines and coastguard.”There’s going to be a lot of things happening in space, because space is the world’s newest war-fighting domain,” President Donald Trump said at the time.
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The White House Correspondents Association said Tuesday it will bring comedy back to this year’s annual dinner, a once light-hearted staple of the Washington calendar that has become deeply politicized under U.S. President Donald Trump.The WHCA said Saturday Night Live veteran Kenan Thompson will host the April 25 dinner, while Hasan Minhaj, the Peabody award-winning host of Netflix’s “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” will be the entertainer.”Kenan and Hasan are two of the most engaged and engaging entertainers in America. I’m thrilled they’ll help us celebrate the role of a free press in our democracy,” said Jonathan Karl, ABC News correspondent and president of the WHCA. “We’re looking forward to a lively evening honoring the most important political journalism of the past year.”In 2019, the swanky dinner held in a hotel near the White House featured a talk by historian Ron Chernow, suspending the tradition of having comedians let rip at the media and politicians.This followed an outcry from the White House over barbed jokes made the previous year by comedian Michelle Wolf. The disruption also reflected the often difficult relations between Trump and the journalists covering his administration, as well as accusations that the WHCA bash was self-indulgent at a time of economic crisis in the news media.Most years, presidents have attended the dinner, but Trump, who regularly insults journalists and deems the media the “enemy,” has skipped each one during his administration. 
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The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy in a U.S. federal court Tuesday in a move it says will allow it to compensate men who were abused as boys while taking part in its programs.The group has faced a surge in lawsuits in recent years as multiple states enacted changes to laws allowing those victimized as kids to bring legal action later in life.Several thousand men accuse scoutmasters and other leaders of molestation, with many of their cases dating back to the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.Paul Mones, a lawyer representing many people suing the group, said in a series of Tuesday tweets that the Boy Scouts deliberately concealed sexual abuse for decades and “made their decision to protect their reputation over the safety of innocent children.”It is not clear how large an eventual settlement could be if the Boy Scouts and victims are able to reach an agreement.”The BSA cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting,” President and Chief Executive Officer Roger Mosby said in a statement.  “We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children.”The group says the bankruptcy filing involves only its national organization and not the individual chapters spread throughout the country that will continue carrying their meetings and activities.
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A national association of federal judges will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday after Justice Department officials intervened in the case involving a close confident of U.S. President Donald Trump.The head of the independent Federal Judges Association, District Judge Cynthia Rufe, tells VOA the judges are “concerned about the attacks on individual judges” and it will be the main issue to be discussed.Rufe declined to give any more details, but said the jurists “could not wait” until their spring meeting.The Justice Department stunned the political and legal community last week when it overruled its own prosecutors and recommended a lighter prison sentence for Roger Stone — a longtime friend and confident of Trump who was convicted on lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice stemming from the Russian election meddling probe.Prosecutors in the case had recommended seven to nine years prison time for Stone — a recommendation based on sentencing guidelines for such crimes.But the Justice Department recommended a lighter sentence after Trump complained in a tweet that the seven to nine years would be “horrible” and “unfair.”Three prosecutors in the Stone case withdrew and a fourth quit the agency altogether.Stone is to be sentenced Thursday and it is up to Judge Amy Berman Jackson to decide how long he is to be locked up.This courtroom sketch shows former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone talking from the witness stand as Judge Amy Berman Jackson listens during a court hearing at the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington, Feb. 21, 2019.Jackson has scheduled a Tuesday conference call with attorneys in the Roger Stone case, two days before the former Trump associate is set to be sentenced.Former President Barack Obama appointed Judge Jackson and Trump has been notoriously critical of many decisions and policies made by his predecessor. Trump complained last week about Jackson’s decision to jail former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in solitary confinement and not to try to prosecute former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Judge Rufe says the Federal Judges’ Association has no interest in getting involved in the Stone case, but does support Jackson.”We are supportive of any federal judge who does what is required,” she said.The Roger Stone case has raised questions in Congress about political interference in what is historically suppose to be an independent judiciary.Trump congratulated Attorney General William Barr last week for “taking charge” of the Stone case. But both deny that Trump asked Barr to intervene.Barr is scheduled to appear before Congress next month.More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials have called on Barr to resign, saying his handling of the Stone case “openly and repeatedly flouted” the independence of the judicial branch.Barr told ABC News last week that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible for him to do his job,” saying he will not be “bullied or influenced by anybody, whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president.”   
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Denny Hamlin won his second straight Daytona 500 and third overall, beating Ryan Blaney in an overtime photo finish marred by a terrifying crash that sent Ryan Newman to the hospital on Monday.Newman had surged into the lead on the final lap when Blaney’s bumper caught the back of his Ford and sent Newman hard right into the wall. His car flipped, rolled, was hit on the driver’s side by another car, and finally skidded across the finish line engulfed in flames.It took several minutes for his car to be rolled back onto its wheels. He was placed in a waiting ambulance and taken directly to a hospital.Denny Hamlin, right, celebrates as he and crew members hoist the championship trophy after winning the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 17, 2020, in Daytona Beach, Fla.Hamlin is the first driver since Sterling Marlin in 1995 to win consecutive Daytona 500s, but his celebration in victory lane was subdued.“I think we take for granted sometimes how safe the cars are and number one, we are praying for Ryan,” Hamlin said.Runner-up Blaney said the way the final lap shook out, with Newman surging ahead of Hamlin, that Blaney locked in behind Newman in a move of brand alliance for Ford.“We pushed Newman there to the lead and then we got a push from the 11 … I was committed to just pushing him to the win and having a Ford win it and got the bumpers hooked up wrong,” he said. “It looked bad.”NASCAR gave no immediate announcement on Newman’s status and officials moved bystanders away from the crash scene.Hamlin had eight Ford drivers lined up behind him as the leader on the second overtime shootout without a single fellow Toyota driver in the vicinity to help him. It allowed Newman to get past him for the lead, but the bumping in the pack led to Newman’s hard turn right into the wall, followed by multiple rolls and a long skid across the finish line.Hamlin’s win last year was a 1-2-3 sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing and kicked off a yearlong company celebration in which Gibbs drivers won a record 19 races and the Cup championship.Now his third Daytona 500 win puts him alongside six Hall of Fame drivers as winners of three or more Daytona 500s. He tied Dale Jarrett — who gave JGR its first Daytona 500 win in 1993 —Jeff Gordon and Bobby Allison. Hamlin trails Cale Yarborough’s four wins and the record seven by Richard Petty.This victory came after just the second rain postponement in 62 years, a visit from President Donald Trump, a pair of red flag stoppages and two overtimes. The 0.014 margin of victory was the second closest in race history, and Hamlin’s win over Martin Truex Jr. in 2016 was the closest finish in race history.That margin of victory was 0.01 seconds. The win in “The Great American Race” is the third for Toyota, all won by Hamlin. Gibbs has four Daytona 500 victories as an owner.
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Officials in the southern U.S. state of Mississippi said floodwaters appeared to hit their peak Monday in Jackson, offering hope the high water will begin receding and allow evacuated residents to return home.Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves warned residents not to rush back home until officials can be sure it is safe. “Please do not move back into your neighborhood or into your home until authorities and officials give you the OK to do so,” he told a news conference Monday.The Pearl River reached its highest level in Jackson in 37 years — 11.2 meters — after heavy rains last week. The rains forced authorities to release water from overflowing reservoirs, further flooding low-lying areas. Reeves declared a state of emergency on Saturday and officials ordered mandatory evacuations for some residents in central Mississippi and southern Tennessee.No deaths or injuries have been reported from the flooding. It is not yet clear how many homes and streets were damaged by the high water.Officials are cautioning that areas downstream of Jackson could still be vulnerable to flooding from the Pearl River. They also are expressing concern that if rain forecast for later this week is worse than predicted, it could trigger more flooding.Monday’s high water mark on the Pearl River was the third highest recorded on the river. The record peak came in 1979 when floodwaters reached 13.2 meters.
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Former U.S. labor leader Owen Bieber, one of the country’s most outspoken anti-apartheid activists who also backed Poland’s Solidarity labor movement, has died at 90.A longtime union member, Bieber took over as the head of the United Auto Workers Union in 1983, securing good wages, job security and other benefits for blue-collar auto workers at a time of recession and rising global competition.He rallied the UAW behind the Solidarity movement in Poland and was a fierce critic of apartheid in South Africa. He traveled to the country, speaking out against racism and imprisonment of labor activists, smuggling photographs of tortured prisoners out of the country back to the U.S.Bieber was arrested demonstrating outside the South African Embassy in Washington. He hosted Nelson Mandela in Detroit, Michigan, after the South African political leader’s release from prison in 1990.
 
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A judge dismissed a professor’s lawsuit against a small, public university in Ohio that rebuked him for not addressing a transgender student using the student’s preferred gender terms.
    
Nicholas Meriwether’s federal lawsuit alleged that Shawnee State University officials violated his rights by compelling him to speak in a way that contradicts his Christian beliefs.
    
Schools officials contended that such language was part of his job responsibilities, not speech protected by the First Amendment, and that the case should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott dismissed it last week, agreeing that the manner in which Meriwether addressed the student wasn’t protected under the First Amendment.
    
A message seeking comment was left Monday for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Meriwether.
    
He had received a written warning for violating the school’s nondiscrimination policy and unsuccessfully challenged his reprimand in a grievance process. Meriwether said he treated the student like “other biologically male students.”
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Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s name is not on any of the ballots for the first four U.S. Democratic presidential nominating contests, and he has yet to qualify for the candidates’ next debate on Wednesday night.But it is Bloomberg who has quickly become a key figure in the Democratic contest, rising to third in national political surveys of Democratic voters behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.Bloomberg has also become the target of stinging barbs from his fellow Democratic rivals, as well as Trump, who mocked him last week as a “mass of dead energy,” and calling  him “Mini Mike” for his short stature.In turn, Bloomberg called Trump “a carnival barking clown,” adding, “Where I come from, we measure your height from the neck up.”Democratic opponents have accused Bloomberg, said to be worth $62 billion, of trying to buy the party nomination.Bloomberg reportedly has spent nearly $400 million of his own money on a wide array of campaign ads, and has hired hundreds of campaign workers ahead of the March 3 voting in 14 states, known as Super Tuesday, when he will be on the ballot.People listen as Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, Feb. 13, 2020.Bloomberg accumulated his wealth as the founder of his eponymous business information company and also the Bloomberg News website.A late entrant in the Democratic race, he is skipping the four February contests, including Saturday’s caucuses in the western state of Nevada.Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, has increasingly attacked Bloomberg, who was New York’s mayor from 2002 to 2013.“Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump,” Sanders said at  one rally.Sanders attacked Bloomberg’s “racist” policy of “stop-and-frisk” arrests of people in high-crime New York neighborhoods when he was mayor, a policy Bloomberg has apologized for as he runs for president.’Stop and frisk’A 2015 recording surfaced last week of Bloomberg saying the best way to reduce gun violence among young, minority men was to “throw them up against a wall and frisk them.”Bloomberg acknowledged over the weekend, “I’ve gotten a lot of grief for (stop and frisk) lately, but I defended it for too long, and because I didn’t fully understand the unintentional pain it caused young black and brown kids and their families. I should have acted sooner, and I should have stopped it. I didn’t, and I apologized for that.”Biden, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news program Sunday, said, “Sixty billion dollars can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can’t erase your record.”On the same show, another presidential contender, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said, “He just can’t hide behind the airwaves. I can’t beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage, and I think people of America deserve that to make a decision.”Bloomberg said he will participate in the Wednesday debate in Nevada if he qualifies. He lacks one poll out of the four needed that shows him with at least 10% support of Democratic voters.Sexist commentsBloomberg has also drawn new scrutiny by major U.S. news outlets. Over the weekend, The Washington Post published a lengthy story of Bloomberg’s profane, sexist and misogynist comments targeting women who worked at his financial services company.Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “The way Michael Bloomberg treated employees — female employees, who were under his wing, who were relying on him for their livelihoods, for their health benefits, for their 401ks — to have created that kind of culture, that unsafe workplace, to feel like you’re being harassed because of your gender, that is problematic. I think you’re going to hear more of it.”The Bloomberg campaign denied some of the quotes attributed to him in the newspaper story, while the candidate offered a more general comment on his attitude toward professional women in the workplace.”I’ve depended on their leadership, their advice and their contributions,” he wrote on Twitter. “As I’ve demonstrated throughout my career, I will always be a champion for women in the workplace.”As for the sudden spate of attacks, the Bloomberg campaign was dismissive.“It’s not surprising that as Mike continues to rise in the polls, other candidates, including Donald Trump, start to get nervous,” it said. 
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Russia said on Friday that plans by the United States to deploy weapons in space would deal an irreversible blow to the current security balance in space, the RIA news agency cited the foreign ministry as saying.Russia does not have plans to solve problems in space using weapons, the foreign ministry added. 
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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s push to ban the sale of assault weapons failed on Monday after some of his fellow Democrats balked at the proposal.Senators voted to shelve the bill for the year and ask the state crime commission to study the issue, an outcome that drew cheers from a committee room packed with gun advocates.Four moderate Democrats joined Republicans in Monday’s committee vote, rejecting legislation that would have prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, including popular AR-15 style rifles, and banned the possession of magazines that hold more than 12 rounds.FILE – Several types of weapons, including AR-15 style rifles, are displayed at a gun shop in Virginia. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)The bill was a top priority for Northam, who has campaigned heavily for a broad package of gun-control measures. The governor’s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said he’s disappointed with the result but determined to continue to press for the measure.“We will be back next year,” she said.David Majure, a gun-rights supporter who attended the committee hearing, said he’s glad about Monday’s results but not convinced the bill is dead for the year.“I’m happy about it, but I don’t trust them,” he said.Virginia is the current epicenter of the country’s heated debate over guns, as a new Democratic majority seeks to enact strict new limits.Democrats ran heavily on gun control during last year’s legislative elections when they flipped control of the General Assembly for the first time in more than two decades.But gun owners, especially in rural communities, have pushed back hard. Last month, tens of thousands of guns-rights activists from around the country flooded the Capitol and surrounding area in protest, some donning tactical gear and carrying military rifles. And more than 100 counties, cities and towns have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, vowing to oppose any new “unconstitutional restrictions” on guns.The proposed assault weapon ban has received the most opposition. Gun owners have accused the governor and others of wanting to confiscate commonly owned guns and accessories from law-abiding gun owners. Northam and his allies have said repeatedly they do not want to confiscate guns, but argued that banning new sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines would help prevent mass murders.“This bill will save lives,” said Democratic Del. Mark Levine, who sponsored the legislation.Earlier proposals to ban possession of AR-15-style rifles or to require owners to register them with state police have been scrapped. The governor had hoped a watered-down version would win over enough Democratic moderates for passage.But moderate Democrats in the state Senate have said for weeks they are uncomfortable passing legislation that would affect so many current gun owners.An estimated 8 million AR-style guns have been sold since they were introduced to the public in the 1960s. The weapons are known as easy to use, easy to clean and easy to modify with a variety of scopes, stocks and rails.Lawmakers voted to table the bill Monday with little debate, while noting that there was confusion over what types of guns would constitute an assault weapon.“There are obviously a lot of questions about definitions in this bill. Definitions do matter,” said Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds.The Senate has now rejected three of the governor’s eight gun-control measures. Moderate Democrats have already voted with Republicans to kill a bill that would make it a felony to “recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm” in a way that endangers a minor, and a bill that would require gun owners to report the loss or theft of a gun to police.Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have already advanced several other gun-control measures and should finalize passage in the coming days. Those bills include limiting handgun purchases to once a month; universal background checks on gun purchases; allowing localities to ban guns in public buildings, parks and other areas; and a red flag bill that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from anyone deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others.
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The Philippine president’s proposed cancellation of a 32-year-old military pact with the United States gives regional power China chances to strengthen its influence in Asia as U.S. military units would visit less often.Chinese naval ships, military aircraft and coast guard-escorted fishing vessels would find it easier to move around the disputed South China Sea, which lies west of the Philippines, analysts in Asia say. Naval ships also could more freely enter the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan – the first-island chain. Those waters are usually considered an American sphere of influence.China, a political rival of the United States since the Cold War, already gives billions in aid and investment to the fast-growing but impoverished Philippines. More may be on the way, consecrating Chinese influence there, scholars believe. “The Chinese are going to be happy about this, seeing a big hole poked in the first-island chain,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow who specializes in Asia and the Pacific. “They may also seize the opportunity in the extra-military dimension in the sense that they will increase their financial commitment to the Philippines, start building some infrastructure.”The Philippine foreign secretary sent notice to the United States February 11 that it would terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement with effect in 180 days. The U.S. defense sectary called the cancellation request “unfortunate.”Philippines presidential office spokesman Salvador Panelo in Manila told a press briefing Thursday that “What is important to the president is, this is the time to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement to stress a point that…it is not advantageous to us because the more we rely on them, the more our position weakens and stagnate our defenses.”  The current agreement allows U.S. military aircraft and naval vessels free entry into the Philippines and eases immigration rules for American military personnel. The two sides will still uphold a Mutual Defense Treaty that was signed in 1951, after the United States ended colonization of the Asian archipelago.Duterte’s cancellation falls in line with statements since he took office in 2016 about easing reliance on the United States and building ties with China. Most recently, the U.S. government revoked the visa of Philippine senator who as former police chief helped lead Duterte’s deadly anti-drug campaign.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of an ASEAN Summit in Manila, Philippines, Nov. 13, 2017.“We can probably take into consideration how serious President Duterte was when he was talking about separating from the United States at the beginning of his administration, so there must be some degree of seriousness to that,” said Herman Kraft, political science professor at the University of the Philippines.The cancellation raises questions about whether Duterte wants a military pact with China, Kraft said. Beijing maintains Asia’s biggest armed forces, some of which monitor Philippine activity in tracts of the resource-rich South China Sea that both sides call their own.Absent the Visiting Forces Agreement, U.S. ships and aircraft could still help the Philippines – by special invitation – and four other governments that dispute China’s claim to 90% of the sea. But U.S. personnel would be scouting less often, analysts say, meaning fewer chances to check China’s activities.U.S. visits to the Philippines will become less “regular,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, a Manila research organization. He expects joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises to be suspended as well. The two sides do joint drills every year, often with a South China Sea focus that Beijing resents.Philippine military personnel and common Filipinos wonder what China will bring, Rabena said. Based on widespread reactions in Manila, he said, “You would see how many Filipinos really desire American help and assistance. “And they’re saying ‘Is (Duterte) doing this because he loves China so much? So, he’s really turning us into a province now of China?’” the research fellow said.The Chinese navy worldwide had 512 ships as of 2012, according to the British think tank International Institute of Strategic Studies. It had 714 ships last year, the database Globalfirepower.com says.Cancellation of the Visiting Forces Agreement gives Beijing a “freer hand” in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands and will let it accelerate construction of artificial islets there, Bozzato said. Its three biggest Spratly holdings have more infrastructure, such as hangars and radar systems, compared to the 10 islets controlled by the Philippines.The U.S. still sees the Philippines as a key Asian ally that can help hem in China’s growing maritime influence.  Duterte might use the next 180 days to seek concessions from the United States and keep the visiting forces deal if he gets them, Bozzato said.
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