Evan Vucci/AP

• Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called on Monday for the Senate to censure President Donald Trump for his conduct toward Ukraine.
• Manchin is widely viewed as a Democratic swing vote in the Senate and is known to be friendly with Trump.
• His move is unlikely to gain traction, but it could squeeze Republicans who have been critical of the president —but reluctant to condemn him outright — into a corner.
• Those senators include: Mitt Romney of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia called on Monday for the Senate to censure President Donald Trump for his conduct toward Ukraine.

Manchin, a Democratic senator who represents a deep-red state, is widely viewed as a swing vote in the upper chamber and is known to be friendly with the president. The Washington Post reported last month that the White House has been courting Manchin as it looks for at least one Senate Democrat to vote against convicting Trump and removing him from office following a bruising impeachment process.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives impeached Trump in December for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Both articles of impeachment relate to Trump’s efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into delivering politically motivated investigations targeting former Vice President Joe Bide and the Democratic Party.

While doing so, Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid and dangled a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately wants and still hasn’t gotten.

The House Intelligence Committee, which oversaw the impeachment inquiry, heard from more than a dozen witnesses who testified about their knowledge of Trump’s actions, which included deploying his own agents to carry out his agenda in Ukraine while leveraging official US foreign policy to force Zelensky to cave to his political demands.

House impeachment managers, who acted as prosecutors in Trump’s Senate trial, and the president’s defense lawyers wrapped up their closing arguments on Monday after the Senate blocked a vote to call new witnesses or seek additional documents.

A final vote on whether to convict or acquit Trump is scheduled for Wednesday. Two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 senators, need to vote in favor of conviction to trigger Trump’s removal from office. Given that the Senate is currently controlled by Republicans, who hold 53 seats, it’s highly unlikely the upper chamber will reach that threshold.

Manchin’s motion, meanwhile, is also unlikely to gain traction because of how divided Democrats and Republicans are on removing Trump. Democratic senators have largely come out in favor of convicting him and ousting him, while Republican senators maintain that he did nothing wrong, despite the hours of witness testimony, documents, and Trump’s own statements in which he admitted to soliciting foreign interference in the upcoming election for his personal benefit.

But Manchin’s motion may squeeze some Republican senators who have been critical of Trump — but reluctant to condemn him outright — into a corner.

Sens. Lamar Alexander and Lisa Murkowski, for instance, both acknowledged that the president acted inappropriately. Alexander said Trump’s conduct doesn’t rise to the level of an impeachable offense, and Murkowski announced she will announce her decision on whether to convict or acquit Trump later Monday.

Other Republican senators have also voiced their disapproval of the president, and it’s possible Manchin’s move could put them on the spot.

Those senators are:

• Mitt Romney of Utah
• Susan Collins of Maine
• Rob Portman of Ohio
• Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
• Joni Ernst of Iowa
• Ben Sasse of Nebraska
• Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Read the original article on Business Insider

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday announced a second case of transmission of the new coronavirus within the United States and provided more detailed plans on how it will handle travelers returning from China as the country works to limit the outbreak.

„We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a conference call that included confirmation of a handful of new cases, bringing the U.S. total to 11.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making nearly $250 million in emergency funds available to cover the cost of the response, an agency spokesman said on Monday.

Some of that may be used to support screening and monitoring returning U.S. citizens from China who are exempt from the presidential proclamation issued on Friday suspending entry of foreign nationals who had visited China within the past 14 days.

The CDC outlined enhanced screening plans for family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents returning from China, who may face a 14-day quarantine if they had been in Wuhan or the Hubei province of China, the epicenter of the epidemic.

Passengers arriving in the United States on commercial airlines will be directed to one of 11 U.S. airports for additional health assessments. If they show virus symptoms such as fever, U.S. citizens and those who are exempt will be transferred for medical evaluation, and will not be allowed to complete their travel plans.

„CDC is working with the states to determine where travelers will be quarantined,” Messonnier said.

Flights with U.S. government employees being evacuated by the State department will go to military bases. They will be under federal quarantine for 14 days from when they left Wuhan.

The CDC has sent additional teams to specific locations where the planes will arrive.

Those who do not have symptoms will be allowed to continue to their final destination, and will be asked to stay at home as much as possible and monitor their health for 14 days.

Where people will be quarantined may differ depending on the operational plans laid out by states. Some of the designated airports have military bases nearby, while some states have planned to use hotels.

„It is very localized depending on the state and local considerations,” Messonnier said. „We do not believe these people pose a risk to the communities where they are being temporarily housed. We are taking measures to minimize any exposure.”

HHS on Sunday notified Congress it may need to transfer $136 million to support efforts by the CDC, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Office of Global Affairs to respond to the outbreak, the agency confirmed on Monday.

That followed a Jan. 25 notice to Congress that the CDC would tap as much as $105 million from a rapid response reserve fund to cover the costs for enhanced screening, transportation, and monitoring of U.S. citizens arriving from China.

Of the five new U.S. cases announced on Monday, one is in Massachusetts and the other four in California. Four of the five had recently traveled to Wuhan, where the outbreak originated.

One of the patients in California was infected through close contact with someone in the same household who had been infected in China. It marked the second instance of person-to-person spread of the virus in the United States after such a case was announced last week in Illinois.

The agency said it is currently monitoring 82 people for potential infection with the virus.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; additional reporting by Manas Mishra in Bangaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

World

President Zelensky Claims Leaked Audio Shows Iran Knew Immediately It Shot Down Ukrainian Flight

Tobias Hoonhout

,

National Review•February 3, 2020

51 Comments

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that a leaked audio recording proved that Iran knew it had shot down a Ukrainian airliner almost immediately, despite authorities in Tehran initially denying the allegation.

The recording, revealed on Ukrainian television on Sunday, played the voice of an Iranian airline pilot telling a control tower that he saw “the light of a missile” before Ukrainian International Airways Flight 752 crashed soon after taking off.

“Is this an active area? There’s lights like a missile. Is there anything?” the pilot says.

“Nothing has been reported to us. What’s the light like?” the controller asks. The pilot then states “it’s the light of a missile.”

Zelensky said that the audio “proves that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane had been hit by a missile.” The disaster, which occurred just hours after Iran launched 15 missiles at U.S. troops stationed in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of general Qasem Soleimani, killed all 176 passengers aboard.

“He says that ‘it seems to me that a missile is flying’, he says it in both Persian and English, everything is fixed there,” Zelensky stated.

Iranian state media had initially reported that the plane crashed due to “technical issues,” and Ali Abedzadeh, who leads the country’s civil aviation organization, said initially he would not hand over the recovered black boxes to the United States.

Abedzadeh then dismissed allegations the plane was shot down, saying it was “scientifically impossible and such rumors make no sense at all.”

“What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane,” Abedzadeh said at a press conference. “If [Western governments] are really sure, they should come and show their findings to the world.”

Iran later admitted that it had accidentally shot down the plane due to a “human error.”

China’s Stocks Fluctuate; U.S. Futures Advance: Markets Wrap

Andreea Papuc

,

Bloomberg•February 4, 2020China’s Stocks Fluctuate; U.S. Futures Advance: Markets Wrap

More

(Bloomberg) — China’s stocks fluctuated after plunging on Monday, while most Asian equities rose with U.S. futures as investors gauged efforts to contain the coronavirus and awaited potential responses from policy makers.

In a wild start to trading Tuesday, Chinese equities tumbled more than 2%, then recouped all that loss within minutes. South Korean shares outperformed in Asia, with Hong Kong, Japanese and Australian benchmarks seeing more modest gains. Oil recovered a slice of recent losses, and traded back above $50 per barrel. U.S. Treasury yields also edged up, while the dollar was flat.

China earlier set the daily yuan fixing at stronger than 7 per dollar, a sign of support for the exchange rate, though it continued to trade weaker than that level offshore. Analysts are anticipating a series of measures to support economic growth as the hit to the country mounts. In the latest tally, China said its total death toll from the virus stood at 425 and cases rose to more than 20,000.

“We feel like the world is moving under our feet because the probability of containment, looking at statistics daily, is a little bit of a fool’s errand,” Richard Lacaille, chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors.

Meanwhile, traders will also be watching the results of the Iowa Caucuses, as the 2020 Democratic presidential race kicks off. The Australian dollar ticked higher after the central bank keep interest rates unchanged as expected.

Here are some key events coming up:

The Iowa caucuses are Monday, the first contest to choose a Democratic nominee to run against Donald Trump in November.Tuesday brings a policy decision from the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Reserve Bank of India’s interest rate decision is due Thursday.Friday has the U.S. employment report for January.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.9% as of 12:32 p.m. in Tokyo.Topix index rose 0.4%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.5%.South Korea’s Kospi index rose 1.4%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.9%.Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% after dropping as much as 2.2%S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%. The S&P 500 closed 0.7% higher Monday.

Currencies

The yen was at 108.66 per dollar, little changed.The offshore yuan rose 0.1% to 7.0056 per dollar.The euro traded flat at $1.1063.

Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries edged up to 1.53%.Australia’s 10-year bond yield fell two basis points to 0.92%.

Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% to $50.42 a barrel.Gold was little changed at $1,577 an ounce.

–With assistance from Claire Ballentine.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andreea Papuc in Sydney at apapuc1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Joanna Ossinger

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Women’s tennis ‘never been more open’ as Kenin becomes latest Slam surprise

Peter STEBBINGS

AFPFeb 2, 2020, 8:48 AM

53 Comments

• 

• 

• 

1 / 3

Sofia Kenin of the United States was the surprise winner of the Australian Open

Sofia Kenin of the United States was the surprise winner of the Australian Open (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

Melbourne (AFP) – The last five women’s Grand Slams have now been won by five different players. Good luck trying to predict who triumphs at the French Open.

Sofia Kenin’s three-set victory over Garbine Muguruza in Saturday’s final at the Australian Open underlined just how open the women’s game is.

The young American was seeded 14th in Melbourne and her best performance at a Slam prior to this was reaching the round of 16 at Roland Garros last year.

But here the fiery 21-year-old was, beating world number one and home hope Ashleigh Barty in the semi-finals and then defeating two-time Slam champion Muguruza.

A Kenin-Muguruza final was 750-1 with British bookmakers before the tournament.

Kenin’s victory was the last episode in a wildly unpredictable draw in which six of the top-10 women’s seeds, including Serena Williams and holder Naomi Osaka, went out in round three.

Moscow-born Kenin, who will now jump to seventh in the world and above Williams as the top-ranked American, has confidence in bucketfuls.

The unwavering belief that she was destined for the biggest stage in tennis shone through in the past fortnight in Melbourne.

Yet she was reticent when asked if she will be the one who emerges from the pack behind the 38-year-old Williams to win multiple Major titles.

„I would love to, that would be amazing,” said Kenin, glass of champagne in hand after defeating Spain’s Muguruza.

„Right now I still can’t believe what just happened. I need to somehow come down and just let it all sink in.

„Hopefully I can just keep going, build up on everything that I’ve done these past two weeks, just move forward.”

– Free-for-all –

There is a marked contrast between men’s and women’s tennis.

Last year’s Grand Slam titles in the women’s game were won by Osaka (Australian Open), Barty (French Open), Simona Halep (Wimbledon) and Bianca Andreescu (US Open).

Yet in the men’s game Novak Djokovic triumphed at last year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon, and Rafael Nadal won the French and US Opens.

Those two, along with 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, have reigned over men’s tennis for the best part of two decades.

There is at least a chance for Austria’s Dominic Thiem to gate-crash the „Big Three” on Sunday when he plays Djokovic in the men’s Melbourne final.

But the 33-year-old Spaniard Nadal will once more be hot favourite at the French Open in May-June, having won the crown there a remarkable 12 times.

In comparison, the women’s draw in Paris looks like being another bun fight.

Williams will once more be chasing a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title, but it is her least-favourite surface. She may need to wait until Wimbledon if she is to equal Margaret Court’s record for career Slam titles.

Defending champion Barty and former winners Halep and Muguruza will be expected to challenge at Roland Garros. Now add Kenin to the mix. Osaka has never been past round three.

Or could it be another Jelena Ostapenko, the then-47th ranked Latvian who — much like Kenin — came out of left field to win in 2017? She has lifted one title since.

Some argue that, Williams aside, it shows up the weakness of women’s tennis. British coach Nigel Sears believes the opposite.

„I think the women’s tour is very open, I felt that for quite a while now,” said Sears, coach of Estonian quarter-finalist Anett Kontaveit.

„I have said quite often that I feel there are at least 35 quality players on the WTA Tour now, and any one of 20 different players could win this Slam or any of the others,” he said prior to Kenin’s victory.

„I think it’s never been more open, I think the depth in women’s tennis has improved enormously.”

Why Novak Djokovic is the player men’s tennis desperately needed but never particularly wanted

Alex Pattle

The IndependentFeb 3, 2020, 3:04 PM

20 Comments

• 

• 

• 

1 / 4

What do you think of Novak Djokovic? What do you really think of him?

“I hope he’s found to have taken performance-enhancing drugs, so when he overtakes Federer’s Grand Slam record, it’s kind of dismissed.”

That’s what one tennis fan had to say this week after Djokovic eliminated Roger Federer from the Australian Open at the semifinal stage.

It is without a doubt an extreme take, but an extreme take on a common feeling.

Another fan, who even identified Djokovic as his favourite player, said he still believed Federer to be the greatest of all time, and wanted that to be reflected in number of the two players’ Grand Slam wins at the end of their careers. He wanted Federer to finish with more.

Djokovic’s ex-coach, former world No. 1 and six-time major winner Boris Becker, spoke last year about the Serb’s dismay as to why he couldn’t break that tempered glass ceiling of Federer-level adoration.

Becker admitted the 32-year-old was once “bothered” by the disparity in appreciation, acknowledging this off-court insecurity — which contrasts so starkly with the player’s on-court tenacity, — just days before Djokovic’s historic Wimbledon final against Federer. When Nole emerged the winner of the tournament’s first ever match-deciding, title-confirming fifth-set tiebreak, disappointment diffused throughout tennis clubs, sports bars and living rooms around the world.

Nevermind the fact Djokovic had just gone 3-0 in Wimbledon finals against the All England Club’s greatest ever guest. Nevermind the startling athletic accomplishment by the best tennis player of the last 10 years — it wasn’t Federer, therefore, for many, it wasn’t worthy of applause.

Even at the Australian Open, where the Serb is the most successful men’s player ever, the comparative admiration for Djokovic’s inevitable straight-sets semi-final victory over Federer on Friday was detracted from by disappointment that the vulnerable, vanquished Swiss would not extend his Grand Slam title record.

It is universally known that Federer is the most beloved tennis player of all time, and while suggesting Djokovic deserves to be more popular or more adored than him would be futile, it is also not the point. The 38-year-old Swiss has largely been as graceful an ambassador for the sport as he is a player when stroking one of those picturesque shots that seem to have come out of some seminal textbook on how one ought to play tennis.

But the giddiness that flows through spectators when they witness a literal stroke of Federer’s genius has somewhat flooded out consideration for Djokovic’s contributions to the game in the last decade.

Before Djokovic lifted the men’s singles trophy in Rod Laver Arena on 30 January 2011, he had one major to his name. Federer, meanwhile, had 16, and Rafael Nadal had 9.

But that fateful day in January would change Djokovic’s career irreversibly, as well as the state of men’s tennis. As of Sunday, the tallies read as follows: Federer on 20, Nadal on 19 and Djokovic with 17.

More

The latter’s searing success has been necessary for the competitiveness and growth of men’s tennis, but maybe no one wanted that after all.

It was fine for a while, but as soon as it threatened Federer’s pre-paved path to an isolated podium of greatness, it started to irk the fairweather followers as much as the Federer followers, though the two groups can understandably be indistinguishable at the best of times.

Federer’s first great rival, Rafael Nadal, has also been mounting a similar assault on the Swiss’ Slam record for the better part of 15 years, but that has always been more welcome in the eyes of most fans, possibly due to the awe of the Spaniard’s passionate play and punishing ground strokes. Who could forget a young Nadal’s tear and sweat-soaked celebration in the July twilight as he dethroned Federer at Wimbledon in 2008, a romancing moment, the like of which has evaded Djokovic despite his multiple major honours.

In fact, the detriment to Nadal’s success that Djokovic’s winning ways inflicted seemed to eventually frustrate the more casual fan, too. Indeed, there was a period in 2011 and 2012 in which simply stepping on court with Nadal almost guaranteed Djokovic a win, even on the clay surface seemingly designed specifically for the Spaniard. Impressive of Djokovic, or irritating?

More

Nole may not possess Roger’s grace or Rafa’s flair, but if you combine the former’s court IQ and the latter’s resilience, you’re some way towards creating a player in the steely Serb’s mould.

So while Djokovic is now viewed in the same echelon as those two giants of the sport in a competitive sense, what is it that has prevented him from equalling or eclipsing their connection with fans?

Could it be the (admittedly too frequent) mid-match withdrawals early in his career? The pomposity of his parents and their interjections between points? Again, a staple of Djokovic’s first few years on courts as a pro.

Is it the ATP Player Council leader’s views on equality between men and women in the sport, which actually approach validity but stumble in somewhat awkwardly?

Could it even be the lack of humorous impressions, those that defined Djokovic in his early years? Maybe, maybe not; the tennis world’s mixed feelings towards live wire Nick Kyrgios show that fans, players and officials have never been certain where they stand on characters in this most noble of sports.

Most of the above, however, point to a player that has grown with time, when Federer and Nadal never needed to. It could be said that makes him more human, even if there is a tendency to view him as anything but that.

Although tennis’ ‘Iron Man’ seems to be the least relatable of the Big Three in terms of his physical capabilities, mentally he is surely the closest to you or I as any of them.

Perhaps Djokovic should have rolled over on Sunday and let Dominic Thiem — already 26 — become the first of the ‘NextGen’ to win a major. Maybe that would have gone some way to improving his standing in the estimation of a large portion of tennis fans around the world, even the majority in attendance at Melbourne Park — who Djokovic loves more than any other group of supporters, but who were audibly very much pro-Thiem. One can’t help but assume who fans would have been rooting for if it had been Federer standing across the net from the Austrian, though.

More

Either way, a greedy Djokovic instead sought more gold; he employed that mental acuity to make adjustments, he called on that trademark tenacity to battle from behind, and he earned a record-extending eighth Australian Open title to regain the world No. 1 spot.

As his overall haul closes in on Federer’s, it seems the most cynical, disappointed observers can only dream of a bolt from the blue to derail the most important player of the last 10 years.

But it seems a more straightforward option would simply be to appreciate what Djokovic brings to the sport: competitiveness and a misunderstood humanity.

Read more

Djokovic relieved after ‘turbulent’ battle against Thiem