| Arabs urge Yemen's Houthis to allow UN to assess oil tanker Posted: 19 Mar 2020 05:41 PM PDT |
| Cuomo emerges as Democratic counter to Trump virus response Posted: 19 Mar 2020 05:00 PM PDT  Before President Donald Trump stepped into the White House briefing room on Thursday to provide an update on the coronavirus, an opening act was broadcast across cable news of another chief executive calmly reciting statistics and safety tips. For the second straight day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's matter-of-fact and slightly scolding demeanor from an epicenter of the pandemic was a stark contrast to the often haphazard and hyperbolic messages coming from Trump. Through daily briefings and scores of media appearances, Cuomo has emerged as one of the key faces responding to the pandemic.
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| Iran furloughs imprisoned US Navy vet amid virus concerns Posted: 19 Mar 2020 04:20 PM PDT  Iran has granted a medical furlough to a U.S. Navy veteran who has been imprisoned in for more than a year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday. Michael White of Imperial Beach, California, is now in the custody of the Swiss Embassy and must remain in Iran as a condition of his furlough, which was granted as the Islamic republic works to curb the spread of coronavirus. The U.S. government will seek his full release, Pompeo said, as he called on Iran to free other Americans who remain jailed there.
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| Fatigue Will Be the Carrier of the Second Coronavirus Wave Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:00 PM PDT |
| Pakistani doctor arrested in Minnesota on terrorism charge Posted: 19 Mar 2020 02:54 PM PDT |
| Trump nixed harsh response to attacks by Iranian proxies because of coronavirus, officials say Posted: 19 Mar 2020 02:00 PM PDT  Trump worried that hitting back hard at Iran would make the U.S. look bad given Iran's struggle to contain COVID-19, officials say.
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| CSX, Union Pacific, Canadian National Pledge To Reduce Emissions Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:52 PM PDT  Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP), CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX) and Canadian National (NYSE: CNI) are setting goals to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in part through a pledge with the global initiative Science Based Targets.The overall goal of the three railroads, as well as other companies that have signed onto the initiative, is to limit global warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The initiative is a partnership between global environmental nonprofit CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature, with collaboration from the We Mean Business Coalition. A total of 839 companies globally have signed on to the initiative, which assesses corporate emissions reduction targets to ensure their participation in meeting Paris Agreement goals.CSX, which announced its involvement with the initiative on March 18 and joined the initiative in January, said it aims to reduce GHG emissions intensity by 37.3% between 2014 and 2030 through investments in technologies and operational practices. CSX said that in 2018, it achieved its 2020 goal of reducing emissions intensity by 6%-8%."Reducing emissions is important to CSX and its customers. Rail is already the most fuel-efficient mode of freight transportation, and CSX further delivers by continuing to set fuel efficiency records," CSX said. "CSX is the only U.S. class I railroad to have crossed the threshold of operating below one gallon of fuel-per-thousand gross ton miles, and the company is pursuing opportunities for additional improvement as part of its commitment to sustainable business practices."Union Pacific (UP) said last week it submitted a commitment letter to the initiative. It will use the initiative's sectoral decarbonization approach transport tool, which models targets for direct and indirect transportation emissions. "As one of the nation's largest freight railroads, it is our responsibility to act as environmental stewards, reducing emissions and enabling sustainable economic growth across our supply chain," said UP CEO Lance Fritz. "This is a challenging task as it means examining every aspect of our operation and looking for innovative solutions while continuing to create long-term value for our shareholders, customers, employees and the communities where we operate."Canadian National joined the initiative in June 2017. It set a target of reducing GHG emissions per metric ton kilometer by 29% by 2030 with 2015 as a base year.See more from Benzinga * Commentary: Coronavirus Sickens US Economy, Could Kill Container Volumes * Cargojet Shifts Aircraft To Handle Domestic Surge In Essential Supplies * Trump Administration Continues To Target Iranian Oil(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| Trump focuses attention on possible coronavirus treatments Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:51 PM PDT  President Donald Trump focused attention on possible treatments for the new coronavirus on Thursday, citing potential use of a drug long used to treat malaria and some other approaches still in testing. At a White House news conference, Trump and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn cited the malaria drug chloroquine, along with remdesivir, an experimental antiviral from Gilead Sciences, and possibly using plasma from survivors of COVID-19, the disease the new virus causes. Also on Thursday, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it was working with the U.S. government to start a study of Actemra, a drug used now for rheumatoid arthritis and some other conditions, against the coronavirus.
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| US citizens freed in Iran, Lebanon as coronavirus fuels fears Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:46 PM PDT  The United States on Thursday hailed the release of its citizens in Iran and Lebanon as the coronavirus pandemic heightened global fears for prisoners' health. The United States also pressed Venezuela to free dual nationals detained from oil company Citgo and President Donald Trump held out hope for Austin Tice, a journalist missing in war-ravaged Syria since 2012. In two very different cases, Iran transferred a US veteran who had apparently gone to the rival nation to see a woman he met online, while Lebanon handed over a naturalized American accused of abusing prisoners as part of a pro-Israel militia.
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| Rocket attack in northwest Syria kills 2 Turkish soldiers Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:41 PM PDT |
| Joe Biden, nominee-in-waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:33 PM PDT  In the three weeks since his blowout win in the South Carolina primary, Joe Biden has emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting. Biden holds an essentially insurmountable delegate lead over his last remaining rival, Bernie Sanders, yet the Vermont senator remains in the race. "Three weeks ago, we were on the verge of collapse as a campaign, so this is a very recent phenomenon," said Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn, insisting that the 77-year-old candidate remains focused on playing a productive role in the coronavirus response and sewing up a nominating fight that he doesn't see as finished.
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| US warns Americans against all overseas travel Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:55 PM PDT  The Trump administration has upgraded its already dire warning to Americans against all international travel as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. The State Department on Thursday issued a new alert urging Americans not to travel abroad under any circumstances and to return home if they are already abroad unless they plan to remain overseas. "The Department of State advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19," it said in the new advice.
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| Trump drags coronavirus into the culture war Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:49 PM PDT  The history of epidemics is littered with scapegoats.This shouldn't come as a shock. If the open society of free trade, free ideas, and free movement is made possible, encouraged, and sustained by peace and prosperity, the suspicion and fear bred by a potentially fatal viral outbreak inspires doors of all kinds to slam shut. As it is in a time of war, distinctions between friend and enemy, insider and outsider, come to the fore. Formerly permeable borders seal up. Open minds begin to close. We hunker down — in our homes, but also in our nations and our prejudices, hoping to protect ourselves from the contagion that comes from … out there.This is one reason why the horribly deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 came to be called the Spanish flu — not because it really originated in Spain, or had anything distinctively Spanish about it, but because labeling it as such enabled countries around the world to cast their blame against a country that had remained neutral during the carnage of The Great War. The search for a scapegoat for which we can blame our suffering has often intertwined and conspired with legitimate public health measures to give us, among other examples, the Asian flu of 1957 to 1958, the Hong Kong flu of 1968 to 1969, and, more recently, MERS, which is an acronym for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-related coronavirus.It should therefore surprise no one at all that the self-styled nationalist administration of President Trump, along with its cheering section online and on right-wing cable and radio, has leaned into dubbing the COVID-19 pandemic the "Chinese virus."It's unsurprising because even in the best of times, Trump thinks in terms of "America first" and views the international arena as a zero-sum competition between rivals and adversaries. It's unsurprising because Trump has long treated China as America's most formidable geopolitical opponent, so blaming Beijing for the virus that's threatening American lives and crippling the world economy reinforces the administration's outlook. And it's unsurprising because (despite what Communist Party propaganda would have you believe) the virus did in fact originate in China, and it spread farther and wider than it might have in part because of how the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping initially responded to the outbreak.But there is one additional, very important reason why Trump is pushing the "Chinese virus" line: because it's the perfect way to provoke his progressive critics, generate an angry, overwrought response, and thereby ensure that the president and the press are fighting about political correctness instead of the administration's many potentially fatal fumbles in responding to the novel coronavirus.Trump knows he has nothing at all to lose, and potentially much to gain, by referring constantly to the pandemic in terms that inspire the left to hurl accusations of racism. His own supporters and plenty of other Americans will be very comfortable following the long-established habit of labeling pandemics by their place of origin and find the insistence that this practice must immediately end an expression of moral wokeness run amuck. If the use of the phrase stands out at all to the electorate at large, these voters are more likely to see it as an expression of the president laudably siding with us against them at a time of national anxiety and peril.The "racism" charge, meanwhile, will sound to many like a broken record — the repetition of the same accusation left-leaning critics have lodged against Trump from the beginning of his presidency. This impression will be reinforced by the fact that none of the blame directed at China by the administration and its apologists really concerns race. Is it potentially xenophobic? Sure. Bigoted against Chinese culture, including its diet? In many cases, yes. But racism? Hardly. The repetition of the epithet will only serve to confirm the widely shared conviction that liberals are obsessed with race and far too inclined to use it as a bludgeon to pummel their ideological adversaries.It would be one thing if such accusations were limited to opinion journalism. It's quite another to have them shaping the agenda and priorities of reporters, as they did during a White House press briefing on Wednesday and Thursday, when several questions raised and lingered on the issue. The coronavirus has much of the world in various stages of lockdown, schools are closed, the number of confirmed cases and deaths are spiking, the U.S. stock market and global economy are in free fall, layoffs have started in multiple industries, Congress is preparing numerous bills in response to the crisis — and journalists are maximally agitated about what word the president uses to describe the pandemic? That's a stunning example of journalistic misjudgment.If you were a president who'd dithered about the virus for more than two months, who actively downplayed the threat until a little over a week ago, and who oversaw the federal government's failure to ramp up testing in the U.S. — a failure that has left us groping around in the dark for weeks and from which we are only now beginning to emerge — wouldn't you be thrilled by getting to wage a battle in the culture war instead of having to defend your own dismal record during the opening weeks of the most monumental event in decades?President Trump is an abysmal manager and wholly unfit to be sitting in the Oval Office, least of all during a genuine emergency. But he has one pre-eminent political skill and that is provoking his political enemies. Progressives who rise to the bait at this point should be embarrassed by their own incontinence. They're letting themselves get played.It's totally fair to point out the problems with and potential dangers of naming COVID-19 after its country of origin. But the issue needs to be seen as what it is — a distraction from about a dozen more pressing problems and potential dangers facing the United States and the world at the present moment. Those who treat it as more significant than that have been tricked by the president's most tried and tested head fake.Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me dozens of times in a single presidential term, shame on no one but myself.More stories from theweek.com Lindsey Graham is reportedly trying to talk Trump out of coronavirus relief checks for Americans 7 funny cartoons about coronavirus hoarding Senate GOP prioritizes business tax cuts in coronavirus stimulus package
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| Trump Administration Continues To Target Iranian Oil Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:48 PM PDT  The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has placed sanctions on five companies in the United Arab Emirates for their role in sales of embargoed Iranian oil in overseas markets.According to OFAC, the companies – Petro Grand FZE, Alphabet International DMCC, Swissol Trade DMCC, Alam Althrwa General Trading LLC, and Alwaneo LLC Co. – together purchased "hundreds of thousands of metric tons" of oil from the National Iranian Oil Co. Three of the companies falsified shipping documents to conceal the origin of the oil, the Treasury agency said.The five companies were added to OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List. U.S. persons and companies are generally prohibited from conducting business with individuals or entities on the list.The Trump administration began strengthening unilateral economic sanctions against Iran after withdrawing the U.S. from the multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May 2018. Trump has repeatedly faulted the effectiveness of the 2015 treaty.The U.S. sanctions have especially targeted the Iranian oil sector for its alleged funding of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and its terrorist activities throughout the Middle East."The Iranian regime uses revenues from petroleum and petrochemical sales to fund its terrorist proxies, like the IRGC-QF, instead of the health and well-being of the Iranian people," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement. "The Trump administration will continue to target and isolate those who support the Iranian regime and remains committed to facilitating humanitarian trade and assistance in support of the Iranian people," Mnuchin added.[Photo: Flickr/Kees Torn] See more from Benzinga * Large Displacement Diesels Still Rule Tractor Purchases * Volumes Start To Slip In A Key Market- FreightWaves NOW * Yes, The US-Canada Border Remains Open For Freight(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| American released from Iranian prison on medical furlough amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 19 Mar 2020 11:43 AM PDT  Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran in fragile health, is now in the custody of the Swiss embassy but must remain in Iran.
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| American released from Iranian prison on medical furlough amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 19 Mar 2020 11:43 AM PDT Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran in fragile health, is now in the custody of the Swiss embassy but must remain in Iran.
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| Europeans sing health workers' praises nightly from windows Posted: 19 Mar 2020 11:20 AM PDT  At a time of isolation, people in many European cities hit hard by the new coronavirus are taking at least a minute each night to come together in gratitude. The adulation is for the doctors, nurses and other health care workers putting themselves at risk on the front lines of the pandemic that is forcing most residents to stay home. A 52-year-old nurse on Thursday became the first medical professional in Spain to die of COVID-19.
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| Trump’s ‘Maximum Pressure’ Is Helping COVID-19 Ravage Iran Posted: 19 Mar 2020 11:06 AM PDT  The Trump administration's policy of crippling Iran economically through "Maximum Pressure" is exacerbating the novel coronavirus outbreak in one of the epicenters of the global pandemic, according to sanctions experts. With Iran experiencing at least 1,284 deaths and over 18,000 reported cases as of Wednesday, Tehran's public health infrastructure is under its own kind of maximum pressure. Iran has identified urgent needs for face masks, ventilators, test kits, x-ray machines, and other supplies. Trump, Iran, and Where 'The Forever War' Was Always HeadedWhile U.S. sanctions formally exempt humanitarian supplies, sanctions-watchers say the reality is more complex. The breadth of the Maximum Pressure sanctions is extensive enough to dissuade firms, foreign governments, and banks from participating in the transfer of life-saving medical supplies, for fear of incurring secondary or third-degree sanctions from Washington. Reports of medical shortages followed very shortly after the Trump administration reimposed sanctions in 2018, long before a global medical crisis arrived. That crisis creates an urgent moral context around Maximum Pressure. The administration's intent is to transform Iran's behavior—or, as critics believe, topple the Islamic Republic. But a pandemic searching for host bodies doesn't discriminate between regime decision-makers and those average Iranians they rule. Nor can Iran's health needs in a global pandemic be separated from America's or the world's. "We are not safe in any place until everyone all over the world is safe," Paul Anatharajah Tambyah, the president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, told the Wall Street Journal about a new wave of COVID-19 cases in east Asia."You have to facilitate these medical goods. Anyone who argues otherwise, or does otherwise, is a sociopath or a moron," said Jarrett Blanc, a former State Department official who monitored Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal that the Trump administration abandoned. "The U.S. should be busting its ass to make sure permissible medical exports are available to Iran. It's in our self-interest."In October, the Trump administration established a channel, through Switzerland, to ease payments for Iran's importation of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. That operation began in late January, coincidentally around the time the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global public health emergency. "A big part of our Iran strategy from the very beginning is standing with the Iranian people instead of standing with the regime," the State Department's Iran special representative, Brian Hook, said at the time. Asked about the sanctions' impact on the Iranian coronavirus outbreak, a Treasury Department official said the administration "encourage[s] companies to use the recently established humanitarian channel in Switzerland." But those who follow the Iran sanctions closely say that the Swiss channel isn't going to be sufficient. Sanctions make it difficult for Iran to access its foreign currency reserves held in banks in countries that purchased Iranian oil. "You can have a channel, but no foreign currency to pay through it," said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of Bourse & Bazaar, which tracks the Iranian economy. "The Swiss channel is a good development, but because it funnels payments through a single Swiss bank, BCP [Banque de Commerce et de Placements], it isn't useful to companies that don't maintain accounts at that bank. Moreover, the Swiss channel has probably the most onerous due diligence and disclosure requirements of any payment channel ever created for Iran. So setting up to work through the channel, though possible, isn't going to cut it at this time of emergency," Batmanghelidj explained. Coronavirus has not convinced the Trump administration to relax Maximum Pressure. Nor has quiet prodding from the British government, first reported by The Guardian. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced new sanctions on Iranian nuclear scientists and third-country businesses said to be trading in Iranian petrochemicals. Pompeo highlighted the Swiss channel as an example of U.S. concern for Iranians' health and offered humanitarian assistance. As he put it, "The Wuhan virus is a killer, and the Iranian regime is an accomplice." On Wednesday, Pompeo announced that Iran agreed to furlough for medical reasons an American in its custody. Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran, was arrested in July 2018 while visiting the Iranian city of Mashad and in March 2019 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "insulting the country's top leader and posting a private photograph publicly." Pompeo called on the regime to release three other prisoners: Morad Tahbaz, Baquer Namazi, and Siamak Namazi, as well as the long-held Robert Levinson.The expansion of sanctions under Maximum Pressure also increases potential liability for violation. Maximum Pressure, Blanc observed, tacitly contends that ever-greater elements of the Iranian economy are adjuncts of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps—including dozens of banks—something that deters outsiders from exporting goods with a humanitarian component like medical supplies. Parsian Bank, a favored avenue for humanitarian trade with Europe, was sanctioned in October 2018. "Banks are so terrified by the sanctions that they don't want to do anything with Iran," a former French ambassador to the U.S. observed that month."There's no specific detail and the lack of guidance [prevents] foreign companies from helping Iran," said Brian Mulier, a sanctions expert with the Bird and Bird law firm in the Netherlands. It didn't take long before Maximum Pressure, created in 2018 when President Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, deprived Iran of medical equipment, regardless of the humanitarian exemptions. CNN reported the following year that imported medicines and medical instruments had tripled in value as Iran's currency dropped. "We have the procedures, but we don't have the instruments," an Iranian doctor told the network. Last year, Human Rights Watch warned that Iranian shortages in everything from epilepsy drugs to chemotherapy could be traced back to the sanctions, writing, "whether intentional or not, [the sanctions] pose a serious threat to Iranians' right to health and access to essential medicines." Last week, with COVID-19 ravaging Iran, the regime—for the first time in its 40-year history—asked the International Monetary Fund for a $5 billion loan. The request creates a test case for the Trump administration. With the U.S. having undisputed influence over the fund, any decision to block the loan will show the administration's "commitment to destabilizing Iran is greater than dealing with this crisis," Blanc said. Representatives for the Treasury and State departments did not answer The Daily Beast's repeated questions about whether the administration intends to oppose the IMF loan. Observers expect that if the administration doesn't object to the loan, Treasury will push to structure it through European banks where Iran holds accounts, giving the U.S. the ability to see where the money goes. The Iranian-American author Hooman Majd considered it ominous that the administration hasn't stated it will permit the loan to go through. "Maximum Pressure is working but at what cost? It's helping to kill a lot of Iranians," Majd said. "Do we want to be responsible for that, as Americans?" "It really is immoral," he continued. "If we're asking our own people to take care of our fellow human beings by not going to restaurants, not going to movies, and by suspending our lives, can't we suspend the sanctions, even if you don't want to lift them?"Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Houston pleads for more tests, gear as cars pack hospital Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:55 AM PDT  Cars lined up for more than a mile outside a Houston hospital Thursday as the nation's fourth-largest city began drive-thru testing for the coronavirus, but officials warned they don't have enough kits or protective gear to meet demand. "I don't want to create false hope that we are ready right now to have a radical increase in testing," said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top county official in Houston. Hours after the drive-thru testing began, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered schools closed for more than 5 million students and shuttered restaurant dining rooms.
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| UN chief: World at war with a virus, recession near certain Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:52 AM PDT |
| Egypt holds activists who urged prisoner releases amid virus Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Egyptian authorities on Thursday continued to detain the mother of a prominent jailed activist, after she and three others were arrested earlier this week for staging a protest to demand the release of prisoners amid the new coronavirus outbreak. Laila Soueif's detention came as the Egyptian government tries to maintain its firm grip on dissent amid a burgeoning world health crisis. According to human rights groups, there are tens of thousands imprisoned in Egypt for their political views.
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| U.S. Federalism Isn’t Great at Handling Pandemics Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:30 AM PDT |
| Iran in record virus deaths as calls mount for stricter curbs Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:19 AM PDT  Iran on Thursday announced 149 new deaths in 24 hours from the novel coronavirus -- one every 10 minutes -- as calls mounted for the government to take stricter measures against the disease. The latest toll was a daily record for Iran, where the overall toll of 1,284 dead makes it one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. A total of 18,407 people have contracted the disease in Iran, with 1,046 new cases confirmed in the past 24 hours, he said.
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| American furloughed from Iranian prison as coronavirus raises concerns for those detained abroad Posted: 19 Mar 2020 10:13 AM PDT  Iran has granted medical furlough to a former U.S. Navy veteran who had been detained for over 600 days on trumped up charges, according to his family and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The family of Michael White had been expressing increased concern about his health, saying his immune system is compromised by cancer -- putting him at higher risk amid the novel coronavirus outbreak that has ripped through Iran, including its prison system. More than 1,200 people have been killed by the virus in Iran, with at least 18,000 confirmed cases.
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| U.N. chief says global recession due to coronavirus 'a near certainty' Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:51 AM PDT  United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Thursday that a global recession "is a near certainty" and current national responses to the coronavirus pandemic "will not address the global scale and complexity of the crisis." "This is a moment that demands coordinated, decisive, and innovative policy action from the world's leading economies," Guterres told reporters via a video conference. "We are in an unprecedented situation and the normal rules no longer apply."
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| Russian opposition leader urges constitution vote boycott Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:44 AM PDT  Top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Thursday urged Russians to boycott a vote on constitutional changes backed by President Vladimir Putin, slamming plans to hold it during the pandemic. Putin, who has been in power for 20 years, has backed amendments that would allow him to get around a limit on presidential terms and potentially stay in office until 2036. The amendments will be put to a national vote on April 22, although this may be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, authorities say.
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| Detained US veteran released on medical furlough in Iran: Pompeo Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:37 AM PDT  A US military veteran imprisoned in Iran was freed Thursday for medical reasons on condition that he stay in the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Michael White has been transferred for medical examinations to the Swiss embassy, which represents US interests in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations, Pompeo said. "The United States will continue to work for Michael's full release as well as the release of all wrongfully detained Americans in Iran," he added.
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| Governors raise alarm as coronavirus taxes health systems Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:34 AM PDT  U.S. governors told the president Thursday that their states are in dire need of federal help as they expand measures to contain the new coronavirus, with Louisiana's governor saying his state's health system could be overwhelmed in a week. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said a surge in new cases filling hospital beds could push past the state's capacity to deliver health care in seven to 10 days as New Orleans becomes one of the nation's virus hot spots. In a conference call with other governors, Edwards warned President Donald Trump of the "worst-case scenario" modeling.
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| European experts accuse Russia of spreading fake virus news Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Russian state media and news outlets supporting President Vladimir Putin are waging a fake news campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in the ability of European health care systems to cope with the coronavirus, according to a European Union analysis. The report, seen by The Associated Press, said that EU experts noted nearly 80 instances of virus-related disinformation in about the last two months, including claims that the COVID-19 virus was a Western-made biological weapon. "The campaign is designed to exacerbate confusion, panic, and fear, and to prevent people from accessing reliable information about the virus and public safety provisions," states the report, which was compiled by the EU communications division assigned to countering false information.
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| No family, fanfare for NASA astronaut launching next month Posted: 19 Mar 2020 09:22 AM PDT  A NASA astronaut who's about to leave the planet for six months will blast off without any family or fanfare because of the coronavirus. Chris Cassidy said Thursday that he won't have any guests at his April 9 launch from Kazakhstan. "It really is going to be strange," Cassidy told The Associated Press from cosmonaut headquarters in Star City, Russia.
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| Michael White: Detained US military veteran freed in Iran on medical furlough Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:38 AM PDT  Iran has released a detained US military veteran from custody due to unspecified medical reasons under the condition that he remains in the country, State Department Secretary Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Thursday.Michael White had been held in the country since 2018 before he was released this week on medical furlough. In a statement, Mr Pompeo said the veteran had been "wrongfully detained by the Iranian regime" as he served a 13-year prison sentence.
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| Wary of official virus claims, Russians brace for worst Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:14 AM PDT  While President Vladimir Putin has reassured the public that the virus pandemic is under control, many Russians instinctively distrust the official claims and fear the true situation is much worse. Russia reacted quickly in late January as the epidemic raged in China, closing its border that runs for 4,200-kilometres (2,600 miles) and banning entry to most Chinese citizens. As late as March 6, Russia had only 10 confirmed cases.
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| Gabbard ends long-shot 2020 bid, throws support to Biden Posted: 19 Mar 2020 07:55 AM PDT  Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard suspended her presidential campaign on Thursday, ending a long-shot effort that saw her feuding with Hillary Clinton and raising fears among Democrats that she would mount a third-party 2020 bid. In an email and a video posted to Twitter, Gabbard offered her full support to former Vice President Joe Biden, saying "it's clear that Democratic primary voters have chosen" him to take on President Donald Trump in November. Noting their political differences, Gabbard said she respected Biden and had confidence in the motivations of his campaign effort.
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| US targets UAE-based firms for shipping Iranian oil Posted: 19 Mar 2020 07:53 AM PDT  The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on five companies based in the United Arab Emirates for allegedly shipping oil from Iran in defiance of President Donald Trump's unilateral sanctions. The Treasury Department said that the five companies bought hundreds of thousands of metric tons' worth of oil last year from Iran's state oil company, declaring it to be from Iraq or otherwise disguising its origin. The sanctions mark a rare US action against firms in the UAE, a close ally of Washington in its campaign against Tehran but also a major trading hub with a significant Iranian expatriate community.
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| 2 Americans imprisoned in Iran, Lebanon released Posted: 19 Mar 2020 07:32 AM PDT  An American jailed for months in Lebanon was released from custody Thursday, while a Navy veteran was granted medical furlough from an Iran prison as the country struggles to curb the spread of coronavirus, U.S. officials said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Michael White, imprisoned more than a year ago for insulting Iran's supreme leader, was released to the Swiss Embassy as part of a furlough that will require him to remain in Iran. The U.S. will work for his full release, Pompeo said.
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| No, We’re Not All Going to Have to Stay Home for 18 Months Posted: 19 Mar 2020 07:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Remember a week and a half ago when CNBC's Rick Santelli said that "maybe we'd just be better off" if we just infected everybody with the coronavirus now? His reasoning:Then in a month it would be over because the mortality rate of this probably isn't going to be any different if we did it that way than the long-term picture, but the difference is we're wreaking havoc on global and domestic economies.Unlike his most famous rant, a February 2009 tirade against mortgage bailouts and in favor of a "Tea Party," this one probably won't help launch a political movement, given that Santelli apologized soon after and political sentiment here in the U.S. seemed to shift firmly in favor of a tougher virus-fighting effort in the days that followed.But Santelli did raise a question that isn't going away: how do we know we aren't doing ourselves more harm with the measures we take to slow or halt Covid-19 than the disease would do to us on its own? As Stanford medicine and statistics professor John Ioannidis, a rather more serious commentator, put it in an essay for the science news site Stat this week, after acknowledging that the coronavirus could kill tens of millions worldwide if simply allowed to run its course:With lockdowns of months, if not years, life largely stops, short-term and long-term consequences are entirely unknown, and billions, not just millions, of lives may be eventually at stake.There are big problems with some of the claims made by Santelli and Ioannidis. Santelli is almost certainly wrong that "the mortality rate of this probably isn't going to be any different" if a large share of the population contracts Covid-19 at the same time. It would likely be much higher because so many people with serious cases wouldn't be able to get treatment, and the resulting death toll would probably drive a similar or even greater amount of economy-damaging self-quarantining and social distancing to what we're seeing now, albeit it with a clearer and nearer end date.Ioannidis, meanwhile, undercuts his argument that we need better data on the impact of the virus before making such monumental decisions by ignoring most of what is currently known about the impact of the virus. Ioannidis is best known for arguing that observational studies that purport to show negative health repercussions from eating meat or eggs are for the most part misdesigned and misleading, so his apparent suspicion of existing studies on Covid-19 death rates and other consequences is consistent. But the policy reaction so far seems to be based less on a close reading of those studies than on simple observation of what has happened in China's Hubei Province, Iran and Northern Italy as the spread of the disease overwhelmed hospital capacity. Yes, governments are making huge decisions based on inadequate data. What else are they supposed to do?As time goes by, though, we're going to have more and better information, and the pressure on governments to justify their actions in cost-benefit terms should absolutely grow. To get a sense of the decisions to come, the latest report of the Covid-19 Response Team at Imperial College London, which is said to have helped persuade the U.K. and U.S. governments to embrace social distancing this week with its projection of 2.2 million deaths from the disease in the U.S. without it, is a good starting place.That 2.2 million estimate is the result of mathematical modeling based on what is known so far about the disease's deadliness, infectiousness and other properties. It doesn't take into account "the potential negative effects of health systems being overwhelmed on mortality," but it also assumes no changes in behavior in the absence of government edict. So maybe those would cancel each other out — or maybe not, given that study predicts that at the peak of the epidemic there would be demand for 30 times more critical-care beds in the U.S. than can currently be provided. In any case, 2.2 million deaths would amount to a very slightly larger share of the U.S. population than the 675,000 estimated to have died in the influenza pandemic of 1918. So much for a century of medical and technological progress! On the other hand, at least the cases and deaths would under that scenario begin to decline after about three months.The rest of the Imperial College study consists of estimates of what various "non-pharmaceutical interventions," ranging from case isolation and household quarantine of suspected cases to school and university shutdowns and other social distancing measures, might do to shift this trajectory. If you want details, read the paper, but the gist is that, if temporary, such measures would delay and mitigate the peak of the disease but still result once lifted in an epidemic that overwhelmed critical-care capacity and thus might lead to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Only continued "population-wide social distancing combined with home isolation of cases and school and university closure" would keep demand for hospital beds in sync with supply. Continued for how long? "To avoid a rebound in transmission, these policies will need to be maintained until large stocks of vaccine are available to immunise the population – which could be 18 months or more."That 18-month forecast has been getting a lot of attention this week. But it's just a guesstimate of how long an effective vaccine might take (could come sooner, could come never), not advice that we all stay locked up in our homes for the next year and a half. As China and several neighboring countries that have stemmed the spread of the coronavirus pull back on social distancing, we'll get a better sense of whether and how the disease can be kept from resuming its spread while allowing people to return to offices, schools, factories and such. We'll also get a better sense of which social-distancing measures are most cost-effective. Just asking everyone to wear masks — not the fancy N95 ones that keep the virus out but cheap procedural masks that make it less likely the infected will spread it — is a low-cost way to slow transmission that has been underused in the West (in part because there don't seem to be enough of them to go around at the moment). Much-expanded testing for the disease also appears to hold the potential to keep it in check while allowing the uninfected and the recovered to go about their lives. And short of a vaccine there are lots of promising drugs and other medical treatments that before long may start reducing the dangers posed by Covid-19.Locking down the world economy for more than a year to stop the coronavirus would be insane, possibly leading to more deaths — from malnutrition, conflict and other causes — than the virus ever could. But there are paths we can follow other than doing that or letting Covid-19 just wash over us, and as the weeks and months go by I would expect that we will discover more and more of them.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business. He was the editorial director of Harvard Business Review and wrote for Time, Fortune and American Banker. He is the author of "The Myth of the Rational Market."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.
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| WHO head tells Africa to 'wake up' to coronavirus threat Posted: 19 Mar 2020 07:11 AM PDT  The continent has a low number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, but is warned to prepare for the worst.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 19 Mar 2020 06:58 AM PDT  Italy's death toll from the coronavirus overtook China's, underscoring just how much the outbreak has pivoted toward Europe as well as the United States. The Middle East and Africa also are seeing a worrying number of new cases. The grim news from Italy followed the announcement from Chinese authorities that there were no new cases to report from the former epicenter of the virus, which had once seen thousands of cases a day, and its surrounding province.
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| China Faults Local Police in Muzzling of Whistle-Blowing Doctor Posted: 19 Mar 2020 06:51 AM PDT |
| AP-NORC poll: Fear of virus infection spikes among Americans Posted: 19 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT  Concern among Americans that they or a loved one will be infected by the coronavirus rose dramatically in the past month, with two-thirds of the country now saying they're at least somewhat concerned about contracting the COVID-19 illness. "Some set of people is still going about their daily lives, and that needs to change pretty rapidly," said Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president at NORC at the University of Chicago and a health policy expert. The poll found that younger adults have greater concerns about the coronavirus than older Americans, with 43% of adults under 30 being very worried, compared with 21% of those age 60 and over.
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| Libya official says 5 women killed in shelling near Tripoli Posted: 19 Mar 2020 04:49 AM PDT |
| The EU's top Brexit negotiator tests positive for coronavirus Posted: 19 Mar 2020 04:15 AM PDT  Michel Barnier, the European Union's top negotiator for the bloc's post-Brexit relationship with Britain, announced Thursday that he has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.> I would like to inform you that I have tested positive for COVID19. I am doing well and in good spirits. I am following all the necessary instructions, as is my team.> > For all those affected already, and for all those currently in isolation, we will get through this together.> > — Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 19, 2020Taken as a whole, the EU has the world's largest number of COVID-19 deaths, due largely to Italy's brutal outbreak. On Thursday, Italy by itself is expected to surpass China's 3,130 recorded coronavirus deaths.More stories from theweek.com Lindsey Graham is reportedly trying to talk Trump out of coronavirus relief checks for Americans 7 funny cartoons about coronavirus hoarding Senate GOP prioritizes business tax cuts in coronavirus stimulus package
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| United Nations NWO (UNNWO) Launches COVID 19 Coronavirus Focused International Day of Happiness 2020 Campaign Theme HAPPINESS FOR ALL TOGETHER Posted: 19 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The HAPPINESSFORALLTOGETHER 2020 United Nations InternationalDayOfHappiness campaign theme is a call on all 7. "A pandemic drives home the essential interconnectedness of our human family.
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| EU’s Chief Brexit Negotiator Barnier Says He Has Coronavirus Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:50 AM PDT |
| Germany Needs Stimulus of Up to $162 Billion, Merkel Ally Says Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:43 AM PDT |
| Oil War, Virus Plight Force $13.3 Billion in Saudi Spending Cuts Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:31 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia announced 50 billion riyals ($13.3 billion) in budget spending cuts after the crash in oil prices and the coronavirus outbreak wreaked havoc on its public finances.As the kingdom doubled down in its price war with Russia, authorities signed off on expenditure reductions equivalent to under 5% of the total outlays approved in this year's budget, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan was cited as saying by state-run Saudi Press Agency. Only days ago, the central bank unveiled a 50 billion-riyal package to support private businesses hurt by the disease known as Covid-19."The government approved a partial reduction in some items with the least social and economic impact," al-Jadaan said, according to SPA."In view of the possible continuation of the effects of the spread of Covid-19 and its consequences on the global economy, the developments will be reassessed, items of expenditures reviewed and appropriate decisions will be taken in a timely manner," al-Jadaan said.Even before falling out with Russia this month over how to manage oil prices, the government embarked on three years of spending decreases by earmarking less money for subsidies, social benefits and the military. It was targeting a fiscal deficit of 6.4% of gross domestic product this year under the assumption that Brent would average about $65 per barrel. It needs oil at almost $84 to balance this year's budget.But the disintegration of the production pact between OPEC and Russia jolted the oil market and threatened to stretch the finances of the world's biggest crude exporter. Benchmark Brent rebounded to just over $26 on Thursday after settling at the lowest since May 2003.Saudi Arabia would run a budget deficit of 23% of GDP if Brent falls to $20, while its current-account shortfall would reach 15.6% of economic output, or $122 billion, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts estimate."Such a situation would imply a very fast rate of depletion" of Saudi foreign-currency reserves, JPMorgan analysts including Nicolaie Alexandru-Chidesciuc said in a report. "It would also be associated with a rapid increase in debt/GDP and would thus create serious financial stability issues. Consequently, the kingdom may not sustain the price war for very long."The kingdom was among the last in the Gulf to report cases of the virus, with a total of 238 identified so far. Authorities responded by suspending travel from neighboring countries suffering from the outbreak, stopped issuing tourist visas and shut down schools.Saudi Arabia even took the unprecedented step of temporarily halting the Umrah religious pilgrimage for its citizens and residents. It also temporarily ordered all but essential workers to stay at home.The kingdom is consulting with other Group of 20 countries about a potential summit next week in an attempt to unify efforts to slow the pandemic. Saudi Arabia is the G-20's host nation this year.For 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.
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| China Sees an Opportunity to Lead Shaken World Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:08 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: South Africa braces for the worst Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:09 AM PDT  Andrew Harding visits a poor South African neighbourhood to see how it will cope with an outbreak.
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| Saudi Arabia to slash spending by 5% as oil prices fall Posted: 19 Mar 2020 12:57 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia said the government will cut spending by 5%, or about $13.3 billion, to offset the impact of plunging oil prices and the effects of the new coronavirus on its economic outlook and deficit. In a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency late Wednesday, Finance Minister Mohammad Al-Jadaan said additional measures would be taken to deal with the drop in oil prices, but he did not elaborate further. Saudi Arabia has around $500 billion in foreign reserves, but with oil prices plummeting to around $26 a barrel and tourism revenue drying up due to a suspension of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, it was expected the kingdom would make cuts to its spending.
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