Anothers news...
- Democrats face risks and limits in Trump's impeachment trial
The challenge is becoming increasingly clear for House Democrats prosecuting President Donald Trump's impeachment case as the Senate convenes for a second day of arguments in the landmark trial. No matter how overwhelming the evidence confronting Trump, it becomes less compelling when presented again and again, day after day, as Democrats try to convince not just fidgety senators but an American public deeply divided over the president in an election year. The team led by Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of House Intelligence Committee, constructed a gripping account of Trump's political pressure on Ukraine and attempt to cover up the ?corrupt scheme? central to the charges.
- Russian lawmakers to debate Putin's constitution reform
Russia's State Duma on Thursday was set to discuss the constitutional amendment bill submitted by President Vladimir Putin, a reform plan unlikely to meet any serious criticism in parliament. The bill is on the agenda to be debated in the first of three readings just a week after Putin's call for reforms -- followed in quick succession by the dismissal of parliament and the appointment of a new premier and cabinet. The breakneck speed of the changes have fuelled speculation about Putin's plans, but the overwhelmingly Kremlin-loyal parliament is likely to fully back Putin on the proposed constitutional amendments before some form of a public vote on the issue.
- Brexit Deal Clears Parliament, Paving U.K.?s Way to Leave the EU
(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson?s Brexit deal cleared its final hurdles in Parliament, bringing the crisis that paralyzed U.K. politics since the country voted to leave the European Union almost four years ago to a close.The passage of the law vindicates Johnson?s gamble to call an election last month in which he asked voters to back his blueprint for leaving the bloc on Jan. 31. His 80-seat majority in the elected House of Commons meant he could sweep aside objections from pro-EU politicians in the upper chamber of Parliament, the Lords, and break the deadlock that cost his predecessor, Theresa May, her job last year.?At times it felt like we would never cross the Brexit finish line, but we?ve done it. Now we can put the rancour and division of the past three years behind us,? Johnson said, according to an emailed statement.Later Wednesday, members of the unelected House of Lords formally dropped their opposition and accepted the legislation as approved by the Commons. The bill will now go to Queen Elizabeth II who will sign it into law, putting Britain on track to leave the EU in eight days? time.The agreement with the EU will now need to be formally ratified by the European Parliament on Jan. 29, before the U.K. leaves the bloc at the end of the month. Britain will then enter a transition period, scheduled to last until the end of the year, during which it will continue to be bound by EU laws until it negotiates a new trade deal with the remaining 27 member states.Johnson is expected to sign the agreement in the coming days, and the European Council and Commission presidents may sign it Friday in Brussels, according to a U.K. government official.U.K., EU Draw Battle Lines as the Hard Part of Brexit Begins?We?re in a very happy position in that we leave the EU in a position of absolute grace and uniformity,? Johnson said as he answered questions from the public about the future negotiations with Brussels on Facebook. ?We are in perfect alignment with our EU friends and partners.?Looking ahead, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid acknowledged Johnson?s Dec. 31 deadline for reaching a new trade deal with the EU was ?tight.??Both sides recognize that it?s a tight timetable, a lot needs to be put together in the time that we have, but it can be done,? Javid said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ?And it can be done for both goods, where we want to see free trade, zero tariffs, zero quotas -- but also on services.?The House of Lords had tried to amend the Brexit legislation to enhance EU citizens? rights in Britain, allow judges -- rather than ministers -- to decide on the use of rulings by European Courts, and to ensure unaccompanied refugee children can join family in the U.K. All the measures were rejected by the Commons. Johnson?s government rejected these changes and pushed the Lords to back down.\--With assistance from Lucy Meakin, Olivia Konotey-Ahulu, Ian Wishart and Jessica Shankleman.To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Edward EvansFor 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.
- Australian officials say firefighting plane has crashed
Australian officials say a C-130 Hercules aerial water tanker has crashed while battling blazes in the Snowy Monaro region of southern New South Wales state. Officials in Australia on Thursday searched for a water tanker plane feared to have crashed while fighting wildfires. Rural Fire Service officials said helicopters were looking for the plane, which might have crashed in the Snowy Monaro region of New South Wales state.
- China closes off large city to stop spread of deadly virus
China closed off a city of more than 11 million people Thursday in an unprecedented effort to try to stop the spread of a deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds and spread to other cities and countries in the Lunar New Year travel rush. Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan's train station as last-minute travelers arrived, only those holding tickets for the last trains allowed to enter. ?To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science," Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization's representative in China, told The Associated Press in an interview at the WHO's Beijing office.
- Chinese Food Will Determine the Spread of Pandemics
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- With the world?s largest high-speed rail network, a payments system that?s largely conducted via phone apps, and half the world?s solar-power plants, China often looks like a country at the technological frontier. When you consider how it feeds itself, though, it?s still just catching up.About 44% of the country?s livestock in 2010 were still raised in backyards and traditional mixed farms, where they mingle with crops and other animals. While that?s a dramatic fall from a generation ago, when about 97% of livestock were raised in traditional conditions, it trails countries like the U.S. and Europe, where 95% or more of pigs and poultry are raised in so-called ?intensive systems? ? in common parlance, factory farms.That transition is likely to be a major factor in the spread of new diseases such as the coronavirus, which has killed 17 people since it was first detected last month in Wuhan. The central Chinese city was put on lockdown Thursday to contain the virus. How China handles the changes taking place in its food industry will determine the future of infections for everyone on the planet.Epidemics are a product of urbanization. Only when humans started to pack themselves into densely populated cities around 5,000 years ago were infections able to attain the critical mass needed to kill us in large numbers. The worldwide disease outbreaks we call pandemics started to emerge only when our urban civilization went global.Think about that in terms of the livestock industry and the implications are concerning. In the space of 50 years or so factory farming has ?urbanized? an animal population that was previously scattered between small and midsize holdings. Epidemic conditions that once only affected humans can increasingly pose threats to our food animals, too.Then consider each animal as a potential laboratory for the mutations that can cause new epidemics to emerge. Globally, the population of farm animals is about three times that of humans. Some of the most serious disease outbreaks in recent decades have resulted from infections crossing the species barrier from intensively farmed livestock to people.H5N1 avian flu may have started to spread when migratory birds wound up in close proximity to the new intensive poultry farms that sprang up across eastern China in the 1990s. The origins of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic are harder to unpick, but several studies have suggested diverse origins relating to global movements of pigs and poultry between Europe, Asia and North America.The Wuhan virus, similarly, was first found among people linked to the city?s wet market. As my colleague Adam Minter has written, the conditions in these open-air stalls ? where many animals are slaughtered to order or taken home alive ? are a major factor in the spread of disease in China in recent years.It?s not all bad news. Precisely because they?re such potent sources of infection, biosecurity measures and surveillance on intensive farms are generally much tighter than they are on traditional holdings. China?s bureaucracy has often been characterized by secrecy and indecision in the face of epidemics and food safety problems. It seems to take strong direction from the top for this stasis to be reversed, so it?s good that President Xi Jinping has called for action around the latest outbreak. Even so, the devastating spread of African swine fever over the past year suggests that food safety is still weaker than it should be.The changing nature of the retail grocery trade may improve matters. As amazing as the persistence of China?s wet markets may seem to outsiders, it?s easy to overlook how quickly they?re fading. Until the 1990s, supermarkets didn?t exist, rationing was common, and meat in many areas was a treat reserved for rare occasions like the coming Lunar New Year festival. Nowadays, the market share of modern grocery stores is about 65%, according to Euromonitor International. That puts far more of the meat supply chain into large-scale facilities with better biosecurity procedures.The bigger problem is likely to be a political one. Food-safety measures work best where there?s a high degree of trust in society. Farmers are most likely to pay the personal costs of following hygiene rules when they think they can benefit more from the integrity of the system than from smuggling infected livestock. As even Beijing acknowledges, trust is one commodity that?s in short supply in China these days. To contact the author of this story: David Fickling at dfickling@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.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.
- Chinese Food Will Determine the Spread of Pandemics
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- With the world?s largest high-speed rail network, a payments system that?s largely conducted via phone apps, and half the world?s solar-power plants, China often looks like a country at the technological frontier. When you consider how it feeds itself, though, it?s still just catching up.About 44% of the country?s livestock in 2010 were still raised in backyards and traditional mixed farms, where they mingle with crops and other animals. While that?s a dramatic fall from a generation ago, when about 97% of livestock were raised in traditional conditions, it trails countries like the U.S. and Europe, where 95% or more of pigs and poultry are raised in so-called ?intensive systems? ? in common parlance, factory farms.That transition is likely to be a major factor in the spread of new diseases such as the coronavirus, which has killed 17 people since it was first detected last month in Wuhan. The central Chinese city was put on lockdown Thursday to contain the virus. How China handles the changes taking place in its food industry will determine the future of infections for everyone on the planet.Epidemics are a product of urbanization. Only when humans started to pack themselves into densely populated cities around 5,000 years ago were infections able to attain the critical mass needed to kill us in large numbers. The worldwide disease outbreaks we call pandemics started to emerge only when our urban civilization went global.Think about that in terms of the livestock industry and the implications are concerning. In the space of 50 years or so factory farming has ?urbanized? an animal population that was previously scattered between small and midsize holdings. Epidemic conditions that once only affected humans can increasingly pose threats to our food animals, too.Then consider each animal as a potential laboratory for the mutations that can cause new epidemics to emerge. Globally, the population of farm animals is about three times that of humans. Some of the most serious disease outbreaks in recent decades have resulted from infections crossing the species barrier from intensively farmed livestock to people.H5N1 avian flu may have started to spread when migratory birds wound up in close proximity to the new intensive poultry farms that sprang up across eastern China in the 1990s. The origins of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic are harder to unpick, but several studies have suggested diverse origins relating to global movements of pigs and poultry between Europe, Asia and North America.The Wuhan virus, similarly, was first found among people linked to the city?s wet market. As my colleague Adam Minter has written, the conditions in these open-air stalls ? where many animals are slaughtered to order or taken home alive ? are a major factor in the spread of disease in China in recent years.It?s not all bad news. Precisely because they?re such potent sources of infection, biosecurity measures and surveillance on intensive farms are generally much tighter than they are on traditional holdings. China?s bureaucracy has often been characterized by secrecy and indecision in the face of epidemics and food safety problems. It seems to take strong direction from the top for this stasis to be reversed, so it?s good that President Xi Jinping has called for action around the latest outbreak. Even so, the devastating spread of African swine fever over the past year suggests that food safety is still weaker than it should be.The changing nature of the retail grocery trade may improve matters. As amazing as the persistence of China?s wet markets may seem to outsiders, it?s easy to overlook how quickly they?re fading. Until the 1990s, supermarkets didn?t exist, rationing was common, and meat in many areas was a treat reserved for rare occasions like the coming Lunar New Year festival. Nowadays, the market share of modern grocery stores is about 65%, according to Euromonitor International. That puts far more of the meat supply chain into large-scale facilities with better biosecurity procedures.The bigger problem is likely to be a political one. Food-safety measures work best where there?s a high degree of trust in society. Farmers are most likely to pay the personal costs of following hygiene rules when they think they can benefit more from the integrity of the system than from smuggling infected livestock. As even Beijing acknowledges, trust is one commodity that?s in short supply in China these days. To contact the author of this story: David Fickling at dfickling@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Rachel Rosenthal at rrosenthal21@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.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.
- US troops in Kenya were hit hard and fast by terrorist militants who broke into a frail base
The attack was largely overlooked as tensions between the US and Iran flared in the Middle East earlier this month.
