Former US Vice President Joe Biden "scored a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, reviving his listing campaign and establishing himself as the leading contender to slow Senator Bernie Sanders as the turbulent Democratic race turns to a slew of coast-to-coast contests on Tuesday," the New York Times reported Saturday. Biden won 48.4% of the vote to Sanders' 19.9%, according to the Times. Meanwhile, "Voters in 14 states and one US territory will head to the polls Tuesday to choose between the remaining Democratic presidential candidates," The Hill reported Monday. I say remaining because former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg suspended his campaign on Sunday night, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) followed suit on Monday after finishing third in New Hampshire's primary and sixth in both Nevada and South Carolina.
There is some very interesting and conflicting reporting on this next story. A Saturday New York Times headline reads "Taliban and US Strike Deal to Withdraw American Troops From Afghanistan." The article says, "After more than a year of talks, the agreement lays out the beginning of the end of the United States’ longest war. But many obstacles remain." One of those obstacles could be what’s been reported in a Monday AFP story entitled "Taliban end partial truce as Afghan violence resumes." The article states, "A deadly blast shattered a period of relative calm in Afghanistan on Monday and the Taliban ordered fighters to resume operations against Afghan forces just two days after signing a deal to usher in peace." What’s going on in Afghanistan?
On Sunday, officials reported the first cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in New York, Rhode Island and Florida, which declared a public health emergency. The outbreak continues to grow quickly in countries around the world. What are the latest developments and concerns? "In South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, Germany and now the United States, health officials are trying to stem the growing coronavirus epidemic, tracing all those who had come into contact with infected patients, even as they struggled to get a handle on how far the virus had spread," the New York Times reported Monday. "To date, the American authorities have reported a total of 96 cases nationwide, with six fatalities. But a genetic analysis of the virus in Washington State, where the deaths occurred, suggested that the illness could have been spreading within the community for as long as six weeks before the first case was detected."
GUESTS:
Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression." He also writes at jackrasmus.com.
John Ross — Senior fellow of the Chongyang Institute at Renmin University of China.
Elisabeth Myers — Former editor-in-chief of Inside Arabia.
Catherine Shakdam — Political commentator and analyst focusing on the Middle East, and the author of "A Tale of Grand Resistance: Yemen, the Wahhabi and the House of Saud."
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