After what both pundits and participants called a “chaotic” voting process, partial results of the first Democratic primary in the US show former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg in the lead for the nomination.

With only 71 percent of districts reporting as of Wednesday afternoon, the 38-year-old military veteran and Rhodes Scholar is in the lead with 26.8% percent, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in second with 25.2%, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in third with 18.4%. The leader in national polls, former Vice President Joe Biden, is currently sitting at 15.4%, followed by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar with 12.6%.

While Iowa only has 41 delegates of the 1,991 necessary to win the official nomination of the Democratic party, the Iowa primaries have traditionally given the winner a key boost in prestige, legitimacy, and fundraising potential. The winner in Iowa has been the eventual Democratic nominee in each of the four previous presidential campaigns.

State party officials blamed the delay in reporting on “ technical problems” with the app used to record votes, forcing officials to do a laborious recount by hand. Before results had been announced most of the candidates had already departed to campaign in the state of New Hampshire, the site of the next Democratic primary on February 11th.

Trump delivers State of the Union address amidst impeachment tensions

In his third State of the Union address before Congress last night, US President Donald Trump praised his administration for „shatter[ing] the mentality of American Decline.”

In his speech, Trump highlighted positive economic developments such as increased employment numbers and the US-Mexico trade deal, while simultaneously warning against the dangers of “sanctuary cities” and the need to protect US borders.

While his comments were met with praise by members of his own party, the reception from the Democratic opposition was decidedly less enthusiastic, with representatives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez boycotting the annual event. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was also seen tearing up her printed copy of Trump’s remarks after he had finished speaking, allegedly in response to his refusal to shake her outstretched hand earlier in the evening.

Trump’s apparent rebuff was widely rumored to be in response to the House’s decision to bring forward articles of impeachment last month, a process which is predicted to wrap up today with a vote for acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Duda signs controversial judicial bill into law

Yesterday Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a controversial judicial disciplinary bill into law despite protests from the opposition, judicial associations, and the Venice Commission.

The move raises the stakes in a standoff between Poland and the European Commission (EC), which has asked the EU’s highest court to freeze the new rules. Critics, including members of the opposition-controlled Polish Senate, have claimed that the disciplinary measures could undermine judicial independence and allow the government to gag dissenters.

Last year, the EC triggered the rule of law procedure against the Polish government under Article 7 of the EU Treaty, claiming that the proposed legislation “undermines the judicial independence of Polish judges by not offering necessary guarantees to protect them from political control.”

The governing Law and Justice party, which came to power in late 2015 and won a second term last October, has insisted that sweeping changes are needed to reform an inefficient and sometimes corrupt judicial system tainted by the communist past.

Gdańsk native and seven-time world champion Piotr Murdzia was one of three Poles sweeping the podium at a chess problem-solving tournament in the UAE over the weekend.

Kacper Piorun, a 29-year-old from Łowicz, won the gold medal at the third Fujairah Chess Endurance Championship and World Solving Chess Composition Championship with the 44-year-old Murdzia taking the silver and 31-year-old Piotr Górski taking the bronze.

Via Facebook, Murdzia wrote that he was “happy I could be a part of [the tournament] again,” while thanking the organizers for the invitation and “such beautiful conditions.” Like his colleagues, Murdzia is an International Solving Grandmaster of the FIDE (International Chess Federation) and previously took first place in the Polish Chess Solving Championships last month.

Problem-solving is different from a traditional chess match as the composer, or problemist creates an artificial chessboard arrangement, which requires the solver to find a solution to the problem in the fewest moves possible.

Poland has a long history of great chess problemists stretching back to Marian Wróbel, who between 1947 and 1950 was considered the leading chess problematist in the world. During his lifetime he published more than 1,000 problems and was a FIDE International Master of Chess Composition.

Weather

Today will be partly cloudy with only a slight chance for rain throughout the day and a strong breeze coming from the northwest. Temperatures will peak around 4 degrees Celsius, or 39 degrees Fahrenheit, with skies clearing later in the afternoon. The clouds are expected to return overnight, with a potential chance for rain in the morning but warmer temps throughout the day tomorrow.

(Fot. wikipedia.org/CC 4.0 – Gary Riggs)

RG/EP/ak