Coronavirus: CDC issues ‘unprecedented’ federal quarantine for Americans returning from Wuhan as US airlines halt China flights

All 195 US citizens that were repatriated from Wuhan, China, have been placed under a federal quarantine order in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.This is the first time the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a quarantine order in 50 years.

Biden Digs Deep Into Wall Street Rolodex to Brace for Fight

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden’s campaign has added big-name Democratic fundraisers to the candidate’s national finance committee, including billionaire Penny Pritzker and Avenue Capital Croup’s Marc Lasry, as it braces for a protracted fight for the Democratic nomination.Muddied or close results in the first few contests paired with multiple candidates who have signaled plans to stay in the race indefinitely drag the nominating contest deep into the year, and Biden’s camp argued Friday that it’s ready for the fight.“The VP remains in a strong position to perform well in the first four states and on Super Tuesday, but we’re also planning for an extended process into the summer,” campaign manager Greg Schultz said in a memo to Biden supporters, hinting that the campaign expects Bernie Sanders will stay in the race at least until the end of the primary calendar, even if he doesn’t have a delegate advantage.“Monday’s contest begins the process, it doesn’t end it,” Schultz said. “And, it’s a process we are fully prepared and well-positioned to win.” After falling behind top opponents in raising money, January has been Biden’s “strongest month of fund raising since launch,” he said, with much of the growth coming online.Setting the BarWhile Schultz’s memo could be interpreted as an effort to lower expectations ahead of an uncertain showing on Monday, so he could tout the results if Biden does reasonably well, it could also be seen as an effort to head off panic among Biden’s supporters should he perform poorly.For months, Biden’s top aides have stressed that their strategy doesn’t rely upon wins in Iowa or New Hampshire as much as it does on strong performances later in February in Nevada and South Carolina, and on Super Tuesday, March 3. But before Biden began falling behind Sanders in a variety of national and key-state polls, they hadn’t acknowledged the possibility that the nomination fight would stay competitive deep into the primary calendar.Currently, Biden trails Sanders in the RealClearPolitics polling average.In Iowa, Biden and his team are expecting a close finish, the candidate insisted. “I think it’s going to be just a tossup here. It has been all the way along,” Biden told reporters in Mount Pleasant at the end of a day of campaigning that took him to small events in three towns in the southeastern corner of the state.Calendar Favorable?Still he projected optimism, even as operatives and pundits in Iowa have become more skeptical about his chances. “I’ve said from the beginning I expect to do well. I probably shouldn’t tell you that, but I expect to do well,” he said.However Monday night’s caucuses turn out, Biden said he doesn’t see those results defining the race – at least for him if he doesn’t win. “It’s not as consequential in one sense as it has been in years past,” he said. New Hampshire will be “a real uphill race as it always is for a non-New Englander.” Both Sanders and Warren are from neighboring states.The calendar becomes more favorable to him after that. “I feel very strongly that we have a great firewall in South Carolina. I think we’re in a position where we’ll do very well in Nevada,” he said.Big-Name FundraisersIn addition to teasing a strong fundraising announcement as January comes to a close, Schultz big-name Democratic fundraisers who have joined Biden’s finance committee, including Pritzker, the former U.S. Commerce Secretary; former Ambassadors Jane Hartley and Rufus Gifford; Lasry, chairman and CEO of Avenue; Mark Gallogly, managing principal and co-founder of private equity firm Centerbridge Partners; Blair Effron, co-founder of investment banking firm Centerview Partners; and Alex Heckler, founding and managing partner of LSN Partners, a Miami Beach-based consulting firm.Schultz said he anticipates there will be only a small difference between the number of delegates among the top candidates after the Iowa and New Hampshire contests. That will benefit Biden, who has led polls of South Carolina by double-digits for months. To help with delegate strategy, Biden’s campaign has hired David Huynh, a veteran of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and Kamala Harris’s campaign, as delegate adviser. Schultz said that having Huynh, a top expert on delegate strategy, on board will be an “enormous advantage.”(An earlier version corrected the affiliation of Blair Effron.)(DISCLAIMER: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)(Recasts first paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Mount Pleasant, Iowa at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan CraneFor 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.

A US warship sailed along Venezuela's cost to gather intelligence and send a message to Maduro

The USS Detroit sailed into disputed waters near Venezuela's coast on a closely watched mission.

Juan Guaidó Takes His Appeal to Venezuelans in Florida

By BY NICK MADIGAN AND PATRICIA MAZZEI from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2GICGCI

Troy Polamalu Highlights Hall of Fame Class

By BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2uUzWzs

Sinn Fein draw level atop opinion poll days from Irish election

Irish nationalists Sinn Fein passed the governing Fine Gael party to draw level at the top of an opinion poll a week before an election that looks set to be a major breakthrough for the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2UjmFLI

More Britons to be evacuated from Wuhan, China on Sunday: Liverpool Echo

Britain will evacuate more citizens from the center of the new coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, on Sunday, according to a message sent to staff at the hospital in northwest England where the first 83 evacuees are being quarantined.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2Ol2xVA

China's Hubei province reports rise in coronavirus deaths to 294

The number of deaths in China's central Hubei province from the new coronavirus outbreak had risen by 45 to 294 as of the end of Feb. 1, Chinese state television reported on Sunday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2uY5Z1G

Trump adds six new countries to travel ban list

Three years after President Trump first signed an executive order barring entry to the U.S. for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, he’s adding six new countries to the so-called travel ban list. 

Iowa City Newspaper Endorses Amy Klobuchar for President

(Bloomberg) -- The Iowa City Press-Citizen on Friday endorsed Amy Klobuchar for president, saying she “has the capacity to unify our country.”In an unsigned editorial, the 14,000-circulation newspaper in Iowa’s fifth-largest city cites the Minnesota senator’s track record in elections in her home state, saying she has the “ability to appeal across urban, rural and progressive, moderate divides.”While noting that some have criticized her as a “moderate incrementalist,” the paper praises her 100-day plan to use executive orders to move ahead on climate change, gun safety and family separation.Still, the editorial notes that she has “struggled to gain national traction in the way that other candidates have.”“Whatever the precincts report Monday night, Klobuchar will have to up her media game if she’s going to be successful moving forward,” it says.She was previously endorsed by the Quad-City Times in Iowa, the New Hampshire Union Leader and co-endorsed with Elizabeth Warren by the New York Times.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)This post is part of Campaign Update, our live coverage from the 2020 campaign trail.To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Teague Beckwith in Des Moines at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Magan CraneFor 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.

Americans living at the center of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak aren't mad at China — they're outraged with the US: 'Why aren't the US embassies calling us?'

Americans at the center of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak said the US government had failed to give them critical information about the pandemic.

Mitt Romney barred from conservative conference after impeachment vote

Mitt Romney has been barred from a major conservative conference after he voted to hear from additional witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial.

Trump crashes Iowa ahead of caucuses and crucial impeachment vote

Four days before the Democratic presidential candidates will compete in the Iowa caucuses, and with the U.S. Senate debating in Washington whether to remove him from office, Trump stormed into the Hawkeye state to try to create headlines of his own.

China virus death toll rises to 304 with 45 new fatalities: govt

The number of confirmed deaths from China's coronavirus outbreak rose to 304, as authorities in hardest-hit Hubei province on Sunday reported 45 new fatalities. In its daily update, figures from the provincial health commission also showed a sharp increase in confirmed infections in Hubei, with 1,921 new cases. China found itself increasingly isolated over the weekend, with the United States and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary Chinese travel bans.

As coronavirus misinformation spreads on social media, Facebook removes posts

Australia PM Seeks to Contain Bushfire Fallout With Energy Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under fire for his climate policies amid a devastating bushfire season, announced a A$2 billion ($1.3 billion) energy deal with the country’s most populous state on Friday that will seek to reduce emissions and lower power bills.The federal government will provide as much as A$1 billion in funding to clean energy initiatives, jointly underwrite investment in two new interstate transmission links to bolster grid stability, and support new generation projects in New South Wales. In return, the state government committed to facilitating investment into gas supply into the east coast market and ensuring coal supplies to its biggest power plant until 2042.The deal may buy the premier some breathing space from the backlash over the bushfires, which scientists have warned are likely to become more extreme as a result of climate change. Still, industry analysts see the package as a costly way to tackle the issue that could serve to crowd out private investment.“Doing negotiated bilateral deals between governments is a very strange way to run an energy market,” said Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute think tank. “This is what you do when you can’t, or you’ve chosen not to, have a policy to steer the industry toward lower emissions in an efficient way.”Morrison’s center-right government has steadfastly refused to bring in a carbon pricing mechanism, a step many in the industry see as the lowest cost way to bring about the transition to cleaner energy. Meanwhile, a plan to underwrite generation has been criticized for favoring projects, potentially deterring investment in alternative ways of boosting grid capacity.By prioritizing more gas supply the deal would “lock in higher power prices, reduced reliability and higher emissions for New South Wales,” climate-focused policy think tank Australia Institute said in a Twitter post, adding that renewable power was already cheaper than gas.New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian said developing Santos Ltd.’s Narrabri coal seam gas resource was one option to meet the state’s supply commitment. Narrabri, which has been the subject of strong environmental protests, is going through the state’s approvals process, with a final decision expected in the first quarter of 2020. Berejiklian added that there were other options, including two projects being developed to import gas from overseas.The Morrison government has championed gas as a transition fuel from coal to renewables, and pushed for states including New South Wales and Victoria to ease restrictions on developing new resources.Morrison’s deal with New South Wales may at least sketch out the beginnings of an energy strategy, Wood said. Given the prime minister is hamstrung by his party on stronger climate targets, “the clever way out is to start to find some projects that he can work on with the states” that would have some impact on emissions reduction and fill the policy vacuum, he said.To contact the reporter on this story: James Thornhill in Sydney at jthornhill3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, Rob Verdonck, Aaron ClarkFor 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.

First case of coronavirus in US: Patient got pneumonia, but now only has cough, study says

The Snohomish County, Washington man remained in the hospital on Thursday. He has no symptoms other than a cough after treatment with antiviral meds.

Alaska Sen. Murkowski ends the suspense by coming out against witness testimony in Trump trial

The Democrats' demand to call witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump evidently failed Friday.

‘The haters will shut up when we win’: Rashida Tlaib boos Hillary Clinton at Sanders rally in Iowa

A rally in support of Bernie Sanders erupted in boos when a moderator mentioned Hillary Clinton’s name – and even Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib joined in from the stage.It came at the end of a panel discussion between Ms Tlaib and fellow representatives Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal. All three have endorsed Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Australian wildfires fan argument over impact of arsonists

What's to blame for scores of wildfires devastating Australia's southeast? There's an increasingly bitter face-off between those who say arson and those who fault climate change. Firefighters blame lightning strikes for most of the major blazes in New South Wales and Victoria states, and many scientists say climate change is the main reason for fires that have claimed at least 33 lives since September, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and razed more than 1 0.6 million hectares (26.2 million acres ).

UK's Johnson plans full border checks on EU goods - Telegraph

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to impose full customs and border checks on all European Union goods entering Britain from next year, in an attempt to increase pressure on the bloc in trade talks, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. "We are planning full checks on all EU imports - export declarations, security declarations, animal health checks and all supermarket goods to pass through Border Inspections Posts," Saturday's Telegraph quoted a senior government source as saying. Under previous government plans for a no-deal Brexit last year, where Britain left the EU abruptly without any trade deal, only a small proportion of goods would have been checked.

The last major poll of the Iowa caucuses comes out tonight.

By BY LISA LERER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2uSA8ze

Three Ex-Presidents Faced Impeachment. We Visited Their Historic Sites.

By BY RICHARD FAUSSET, MANNY FERNANDEZ AND SABRINA TAVERNISE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/36KqID3

Dear Mr. Dershowitz, 'mixed motives' is no impeachment defense when there's corrupt intent

Taken together, Donald Trump's actions — at least seven of them — contradict the defense claim that he had any legitimate national interest in mind.

Colombia rejects Venezuelan proposal to resume diplomatic relations

Colombia rejected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's proposal that the two countries resume diplomatic relations on Thursday, amid a dispute over a fugitive former Colombian congresswoman who was captured in Venezuela. Maduro abruptly cut diplomatic relations with neighboring Colombia last February after Colombian President Ivan Duque helped Venezuelan opposition politicians deliver humanitarian aid to their crisis-stricken country.

Lori Vallow didn't meet the Thursday deadline to turn her kids over to the state. Their grandma believes the 'monster' will face consequences.

Vallow had until Thursday to turn her children over to the state of Idaho. She missed it and is believed to still be in Hawaii.

Boris Johnson’s Plan to Kill ‘Brexit’

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Shortly after his election victory in December, it was reported that Boris Johnson wanted the word “Brexit” retired. Not just retired, but expunged as a matter of urgency once the U.K. has left the European Union on Jan. 31.This would be like Donald Trump telling White House staff that they need to drop the “Make America Great Again” thing. Without Brexit — and his “Get Brexit Done” campaign — we’d mainly know Boris Johnson as just another former mayor, a talented politician who wrote amusing newspaper columns.This attempted change of language seems trivial, but it’s not. For nearly four years, the neologism “Brexit” has dominated British politics, and resonated around the world. Why try to retire it now? I can see two reasons: The word is a constant and powerful reminder of the division and open wounds in British society; and while it was a weapon Johnson wielded successfully against his opponents, it might easily be used against him in future. The first concern is honorable, the other more Orwellian. But how successful Johnson is in changing the language of British politics might prove as important as anything he gets around the trade negotiating table with the European Union and the U.S. this year.The word “Brexit” appeared back in 2012. Peter Wilding, a former lawyer and aide to former Prime Minister David Cameron, had little idea of its impact when he coined it in a May 2012 blog, inspired by the Greeks:Unless a clear view is pushed that Britain must lead in Europe at the very least to achieve the completion of the Single Market, then the portmanteau for Greek euro exit [Grexit] might be followed by another sad word, Brexit.A few years later, it spread like bush fire. By 2016, it had a place in the Oxford English Dictionary and was later named “word of the year.” But Wilding was appalled to find his invention used as a tool of destruction. Now chairman of the British Influence think tank, he sees Brexit as a “narcissistic victim syndrome ignited by charlatan nostalgists.” He has said it might do to Britain what the Treaty of Versailles did to Germany.Brexit, in Johnson’s hands, wasn’t a flaccid noun but a powerful verb. One might argue that you could have called Britain’s EU departure campaign pretty much anything and the result would have been the same. Perhaps, but something happened when those two words — British exit — fused. It became a rallying point for a passionate, but small, euroskeptic core of Johnson’s ruling Conservative party. It anchored a Leave campaign whose language invoked national pride, appealed to people’s bias for action over inaction and their preference for simplicity.In his book, “The Language of Brexit,” the linguist Steve Buckledee shows how skillfully this was done. Brexit stirred passion and represented action; Remainer language was limp by comparison and passive. The British Twitter poet Brian Bilston captured the power of the word in the last stanzas of a poem titled Meaningful Vote, which was the name given to the attempts of Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, to win parliamentary approval for her Brexit deal:How foolish, it seems; How senseless, absurd,To re-define a nation In pursuit of a word.Johnson, of all politicians, understands the mobilizing and seducing power of language. He’s probably the most prolix (and prolific) political leader Britain has had since Winston Churchill. He loves words that pack heat. He famously denied an affair by calling the allegations an “inverted pyramid of piffle.” He often invents words where a conventional formula won’t do — such as “backstop-ectomy” to denote his determination to remove an element of May’s Brexit deal known as the Irish backstop, which he and other Brexiters disliked.But now that the war is over, the weapon looks unsightly. Brexit represents a heroic and victorious campaign for freedom to one side of the divide, but a perfidious act of self-harm to the other. RELATED: Why Brexit Opponents Lost the Vote and the ArgumentEven many Brexiters are battle-weary and spent, no doubt worried about how well things will go from here for Britain. Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, a vocal Brexiter, is holding back on the mirth. Sarah Vine, the columnist wife of cabinet member Michael Gove, says being on the winning side has left her numb. “I think, like many Leave voters the length and breadth of the country, I have found the hatred and vitriol of the past few years ultimately very brutalizing,” she wrote for the Daily Mail (not exactly a bastion of temperateness). “We Leavers have been accused of innumerable crimes, cast as racist, short-sighted, xenophobic and, above all, thick and uneducated. We’ve been compared to the Nazis, been blamed for the actions of every lunatic extremist, accused of lying — not to mention held responsible for every stock market fluctuation (downwards, naturally) or passing economic squall.” If that’s how the victors feel, spare a thought for the losers. Johnson won the war, but he won’t succeed in keeping his new Conservative coalition together (which includes plenty of Remain voters who were fearful of allowing Labour’s hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn into power) if the loaded language of Brexit frames all discussion.But burying “Brexit,” the word, is a way of shirking responsibility too. If everything that happens from now is just another tick on the plus or minus side of the Brexit ledger, the divisions will eventually tear away at Johnson’s power and every concession over fish or drop in GDP growth will be seen as an indictment of the Brexit campaign that swept him into Downing Street.By getting rid of the Department for Exiting the EU and rechristening the U.K. negotiating side something positive like Taskforce Europe, Johnson is saying “nothing to see here but some tedious trade negotiations.” Why should voters worry about such minutia as will be discussed when Britain and the EU sit down to work out their future trade relationship? If the word “Brexit” is a call to battle, “trade taskforce” is an invitation to snooze. That must be the hope, anyhow: That if Brexit is only muttered occasionally, somewhat apologetically, or better yet, not said at all, there will be less scrutiny — and criticism — of what lies ahead. Separating Britain from the EU is bound to be painful. Johnson’s ultimate political survival may depend on whether he can denuclearize the domestic conflict he waged so successfully with Wilding’s B-bomb.To contact the author of this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Therese Raphael writes editorials on European politics and economics for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

San Francisco airport official resigns in wake of FBI report

A member of the board that oversees San Francisco International Airport resigned Wednesday, a day after the FBI and U.S. attorney announced charges against a senior city bureaucrat and a restaurateur alleging they offered bribes to a board member for a restaurant lease at the airport. Airport Commissioner Linda Crayton said in a statement that she is resigning due to “multiple, severe medical conditions" she's had for several years. The complaint unsealed Tuesday against San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and longtime restaurateur Nick Bovis focuses on an aborted attempt in 2018 to bribe a female airport commissioner, who has not been named.

Biden Claims Trump’s Trial is ‘Not a Partisan Impeachment’ While Clinton’s Was

Former vice president Joe Biden argued Friday that President Trump was not subject to “a partisan impeachment” even if no Republicans vote to remove him from office, while simultaneously defending his resistance to “a partisan impeachment” during Bill Clinton’s 1998 trial.Biden, speaking from Iowa, was challenged in an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos over comments he had made in Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. “No president should be removed from office, merely because one party enjoys a commanding lead in either house of Congress,” Biden said at the time.Stephanopoulos then asked the former vice president why a partisan impeachment was no longer wrong, to which Biden replied “it’s not partisan impeachment.” After Stephanopoulos pushed back and pointed out that no Republicans in the House had voted to impeach the president, Biden insisted that the Constitution had been violated, and that those voting against impeachment were denying the facts.“That’s the issue — was the Constitution violated? Period,” Biden stated. “Even if it’s a party-line vote, it just reflects on those who know, in fact, in their heart and in their head, that it’s in fact a violation of the Constitution to do what he did, and in fact vote no.”> Joe Biden on doing a 180 on opposing “a partisan impeachment”: “This is not a partisan impeachment” pic.twitter.com/iaSRDloVWu> > -- Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 31, 2020Biden then attempted to clarify why a party-line vote in impeachment did not count as partisan.“That’s a party-line vote, but that doesn’t make it right,” Biden said of lack of Republican support for Trump’s impeachment. “A party-line vote that is based upon something that doesn’t relate to a Constitutional violation is a different thing.”Several key Republican Senators announced their intentions on the vote for further witnesses and documents late Thursday night, with Senator Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) saying that Trump’s actions were “inappropriate,” but that “the Constitution does not give the Senate the power to remove the president from office and ban him from this year’s ballot simply for actions that are inappropriate.”

U.S. envoy warns Palestinians against raising opposition to U.S. peace plan at U.N.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will speak in the U.N. Security Council in the next two weeks about the plan, Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour said on Wednesday, adding that he hoped the 15-member council would also vote on a draft resolution on the issue.

More than 6,000 people are trapped on a cruise ship in Italy after a woman was suspected of having the coronavirus

Passengers of a Costa Cruises cruise ship can't disembark. Two passengers, one of whom was experiencing coronavirus symptoms, were quarantined.

Harvard professor slams Trump's lawyer for incorrectly citing him numerous times during Trump's impeachment trial: 'It's a joke'

Harvard professor Nikolas Bowie said Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump's legal team was wrong during an interview with CNN.

Turkey says it will take extra measures against attacks in Syria's Idlib

Turkey will take additional measures against attacks targeting its forces and civilians in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the national security council said on Thursday, after a nearly 5-hour meeting chaired by President Tayyip Erdogan. Bombardments by Russia-backed Syrian government forces on Idlib have raised concern of a new refugee wave to Turkey. On Wednesday, Erdogan said that Ankara was losing patience with the assault in Idlib and that Russia was violating agreements aimed at stemming conflict there.

U.S. Farm Chief Presses EU to Throw Doors Open to American Foods

(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled that a renewed transatlantic trade truce will require more ambitious European Union efforts to ease imports of American foods.Perdue criticized an idea being pursued by the bloc of a piecemeal accord that would scale back European regulatory barriers to individual American products such as shellfish, saying a U.S. farm-trade deficit with the EU of $10 billion to $12 billion was “unsustainable and unreasonable.”Instead, he said, Europe should reject the “political science of fear” over U.S. farm goods and ease market access for them in general.“We’re looking for real substance,” Perdue said from Rome on Thursday during a conference call with reporters. “It depends on recognizing international standards.”The comments challenge Europe’s better-safe-than-sorry approach to food safety -- a stance that has led to longstanding EU bans on hormone-treated beef and “chlorinated” chicken, and to a slow approval process in Europe for genetically modified foods.The remarks also highlight the obstacles to reviving a July 2018 transatlantic commercial truce. A fraying of that deal in recent months prompted U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen last week to pledge fresh efforts to reach a trade accord, which she said could also include matters related to energy and technology.Any failure could prompt an escalation in tit-for-tat tariffs that began in 2018 when Trump invoked national-security considerations to impose duties on steel and aluminum from Europe.Perdue described talks he held on Monday with EU officials in Brussels as “very productive.” And, while declining to speculate about the elements of any transatlantic farm deal because it is being handled in Washington by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Perdue held out the prospect of results within weeks.To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Nikos Chrysoloras, Peter ChapmanFor 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.

Is This Picture How China Takes Over the South China Sea?

The outposts in the South China Sea are a serious threat to demilitarized sea lines.

Estranged husband accused of killing Jennifer Dulos dies

Fotis Dulos, 52, had been hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning since Tuesday, when he was found unresponsive inside a vehicle in the garage of his house in Farmington, Connecticut. “To those who contend that Mr. Dulos' death reflects a consciousness of guilt, we say no," lawyer Norm Pattis said. Dulos, a luxury home builder originally from Greece, was accused of killing Jennifer Dulos, who has not been seen since she dropped their five children off at school in New Canaan in May. Her body has not been found despite extensive searches.

The Tesla Model Y is now in production, months ahead of schedule — and deliveries are expected to begin in March

The Model Y was said to start production this summer, but Tesla's already at it and expecting to deliver units in Q1 2020.

'Dawn of a new era': UK's Johnson 'respectfully' marks Brexit day

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hail Brexit day on Friday as "the dawn of a new era" and pledge to unite Britain in an address to the nation which he hopes will draw a line under years of angry debate over the European Union.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3943OIH

UK's Johnson plans full customs and border checks on EU goods: Telegraph

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to impose full customs and border checks on all European goods entering the United Kingdom after Brexit, in an attempt to ramp up pressure on the bloc in trade talks, the Telegraph newspaper reported.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/37YqHwE