3 Stories You Should Read 02/07/2020: Electoral Map, Coronavirus, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
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In the category of: Fair play?
How Trump Rewired the Electoral Map
This presidential race will be fought on electoral terrain that would have been unthinkable four years ago, before everything blew up.
When President Barack Obama launched his 2012 reelection campaign, he did it with back-to-back rallies in a pair of logical places: Virginia and Ohio. The two essential swing states, with 31 electoral votes between them, were vital to Obama’s chances of winning a second term.
Ohio, a traditional Midwestern bellwether, epitomized the old electoral map, from the now-distant era when presidential elections featured dozens of contested states and candidates sought to campaign in all of them. Virginia, a Southern state that for decades had voted Republican for president until Obama broke the streak in 2008, represented a new map, one in which rapid demographic change created new opportunities for Democrats. Together, they were emblematic of the Electoral College map Obama and his diverse coalition rewired in 2008 to win the White House.
In the category of: Lockdown
Coronavirus: Hong Kong imposes quarantine rules on mainland Chinese
Hong Kong has begun a mandatory quarantine of two weeks for anyone arriving from mainland China, in fresh efforts to contain the new coronavirus.
Visitors must isolate themselves in hotel rooms or go to government-run centres, while returning Hong Kong residents must stay inside their homes.
Anyone caught flouting the new rules faces a fine and a prison sentence.
Tens of thousands of travellers queued at the Chinese border city of Shenzhen ahead of the midnight deadline.
Hong Kong has seen 26 confirmed cases of the virus and one person has died. The number of confirmed cases in mainland China stands at 31,203, with 636 deaths.
In the category of: Dictator tantrum
Trump lambastes his critics as he moves to target perceived enemies over impeachment
President Trump is preparing to push out a national security official who testified against him during the impeachment inquiry after he expressed deep anger on Thursday over the attempt to remove him from office because of his actions toward Ukraine.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — a National Security Council aide who testified during House Democrats’ impeachment hearings — will be informed in the coming days, likely on Friday, by administration officials that he is being reassigned to a position at the Defense Department, taking a key figure from the investigation out of the White House, according to two people familiar with the move who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel decisions.
