| A Public Health Expert’s 5 Point Plan to Combat the Coronavirus Posted: 24 Mar 2020 03:46 PM PDT  Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act in the Obama administration, outlined a proposal in The New York Times Tuesday for fighting the coronavirus – a battle he says we are currently losing. Emanuel recognizes there's reason to worry about the economic cost of the current approach, but we must keep in mind the millions of deaths that could occur in the next year if we fail to "flatten the curve" of infections as quickly as possible."[T]he economy cannot be fixed without solving the pandemic," Emanuel says. "Only after the virus is contained can we reopen restaurants, bars, gyms and stores; allow people to travel, attend conferences and visit museums; and persuade them to buy cars and houses."To get to that point, Emanuel calls for a seven to 14-day period of mobilization to confront the pandemic. "If the United States intervenes immediately on the scale that China did, our death toll could be under 100,000," he says. "Within three to four months we might be able to begin a return to more normal lives."Here's Emanuel's plan: 1. President Trump should immediately issue a shelter-in-place order for the whole country, closing all schools and non-essential businesses. The policy could be lifted gradually over two or three months. 2. The federal government should take over all testing for the virus, with the aim of analyzing the entire population on an on-going basis. 3. Coordinate production of medical equipment at the federal level, paid for by Congress on a cost-plus basis, similar to defense contractors. 4. Publicly-funded assistance for hospitals, with a national overseer to manage care, equipment and personnel. 5. Grants to businesses to maintain payrolls, and use of the unemployed to help combat the pandemic, with tasks such as contact tracing and disinfecting public spaces.In the end, the country needs to mobilize as it has rarely done before, Emanuel says. If successful, "in two to three months the country can begin to return to normal, stores can reopen, people can work, and the United States will have a rapid, V-shaped economic recovery." But if the country fails to act quickly and decisively, he warns, the U.S. "will follow Italy's course or, worse, that of Iran, and recovery may take a decade or more with extraordinary levels of death and dislocation."Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter.
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| Arizona appeals court upholds Jodi Arias' murder conviction Posted: 24 Mar 2020 03:15 PM PDT  The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld Jodi Arias' first-degree murder conviction and life prison sentence in the 2008 killing of her former boyfriend. "We conclude that Arias was convicted based upon the overwhelming evidence of her guilt, not as a result of prosecutorial misconduct," the ruling said. The panel condemned Martinez's "argumentative phrasing of questions" to defense witnesses, adding that his "aggressive tone and combative, bullying behavior" were recurring issues in the trial and Arias' attorneys moved for a mistrial six times.
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| Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review likely postponed Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:57 PM PDT |
| 'Cacophony of coughing': Inside NYC's virus-besieged ERs Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:43 PM PDT  Overworked, sleep-deprived doctors and nurses rationed to one face mask a day and wracked by worry about a dwindling number of available ventilators. Such is the reality inside New York City's hospitals, which have become the war-zone-like epicenter of the nation's coronavirus crisis. Faced with an infection rate that is five times that of the rest of the country, health workers are putting themselves at risk to fight a tide of sickness that's getting worse by the day amid a shortage of needed supplies and promises of help from the federal government that have yet to fully materialize.
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| 'Imaginary clock': Governors reject Trump's virus timeline Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:04 PM PDT  Governors across the nation on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump's new accelerated timeline for reopening the U.S. economy, as they continued to impose more restrictions on travel and public life in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The dismissal of Trump's mid-April timeframe for a national reopening came from Republicans and Democrats, from leaders struggling to manage hot spots of the outbreak and those still bracing for the worst. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the head of the National Governors Association and a Republican, called the messaging confusing since most leaders are still focused on enforcing the restrictions, not easing them.
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| Biden's challenge: Breaking through with virus response Posted: 24 Mar 2020 01:59 PM PDT  Joe Biden is working to reassert himself in national politics three weeks after taking command of the Democratic presidential primary. Like most Americans, Biden has stayed close to home recently to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. In an interview with CNN, Biden took an increasingly aggressive stance against the president's coronavirus response, urging him to "stop talking and start listening to the medical experts."
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| Falwell Misled Me on Reopening Liberty University, City Manager Says Posted: 24 Mar 2020 01:16 PM PDT  When Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. announced on Monday that he was reopening the school's residence halls to students amid the coronavirus pandemic, he implied that he had received the blessing of officials in Lynchburg, Virginia, to do so. "They thanked us for making that decision," Falwell told the Liberty University News Service, describing a call to move classes online but also, in his words, to get his students "back as soon as we can—the ones who want to come back."In fact, Lynchburg city manager Bonnie Svrcek says that while she did thank Falwell for moving to online classrooms, she was led to believe that the school was also abandoning plans to invite students back into residence halls following spring break. Neither she nor Lynchburg Mayor Treney Tweedy said they signed off on Falwell's decision to re-open Liberty's dorms. On Tuesday, Svrcek told The Daily Beast that Falwell was not "totally transparent" with her or Tweedy during an exchange on March 16 in which, according to Svrcek, Falwell told the two leaders that his school would "move to an online platform.""He added that some food services would remain open for on-campus international students who have not gone home and some lab classes and the school of aviation will continue," Svrcek told The Daily Beast. "The mayor and I thanked him for this shift that we believed meant that students would be told to not come back to campus with a few exceptions."Jerry Falwell Jr. Suggests to 'Fox & Friends' That North Korea Created the CoronavirusThat Falwell chose to go forward without the blessing of the city officials wasn't surprising. He is perhaps Donald Trump's most unapologetic ally in evangelical circles, and the president himself is eager for schools, businesses, and public establishments to reopen and get the country past its coronavirus-induced economic slump. But for some students at Liberty, the notion that they will now be coming back from various parts of the country to mix and mingle in one shared campus was less than appealing, and yet another sign that their college president was putting loyalty to Trump over other considerations. "It seems like [Falwell] wants everything to be open pretty quickly, following Trump. I saw this morning that [Trump] wants businesses to reopen," said one Liberty senior, who asked to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation by Liberty administrators. "Jerry literally follows anything that Trump says."Falwell has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus crisis, even suggesting that nationwide efforts to control its spread represent a plot to undermine the Trump presidency. Last week, however, he did move the school to online classes while keeping it open for students who wished to return to campus or who, in the cases of some international students, simply had nowhere else to go. Student: Jerry Falwell Jr. Axed Anti-Trump Story from Liberty University's School NewspaperSvrcek said that she had implored Falwell to keep students away until the public health crisis abated. And, initially, it looked like the school would stay open but would encourage students not to return. "While students are currently allowed to return to live in the residence halls, we are encouraging you to consider staying home," Liberty's office of residential life wrote in a March 17 campus-wide email.But three days later, the office walked back that pronouncement. "The intent of encouraging students to consider remaining at home was to simply advise students to think carefully about their choice and discuss the matter with their parents," the school wrote, according to the emails, which were obtained by The Daily Beast. "It was not an endorsement or recommendation of that particular course of action."It's that vagueness towards the threat posed by the coronavirus that has some students frustrated and concerned. "It's the constant overemphasis of the effectiveness of the university's mitigation measures and a constant downplaying of the dangers posed by this virus," said Liberty senior Calum Best in an interview with The Daily Beast. "I don't envy [Falwell's] decision, it's a tough one to make and ultimately he's going to be criticized no matter what he does. But he can work through that decision without being misleading."Liberty's plan currently is to reopen the school's dormitories to incoming students, but classes and other campus gatherings will be held online or canceled altogether. Nonetheless, experts told The Daily Beast that clustering students in on-campus housing poses extreme and unnecessary risks and will almost surely lead to more cases of the virus among the student body."If Liberty University reopens, people will die," said Dr. Max Cooper, an emergency room doctor at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Pennsylvania who served in the U.S. Navy and is now leading his area's Emergency COVID-19 Task Force. "To say nothing of the many educators and university support staff whose age and mortality likely skews older and higher. It's imperative that Liberty and other universities stay closed."Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, called Liberty's decision to reopen "utterly irresponsible."Some faculty at Liberty, which just last year received a federal research grant from the National Institutes of Health, have gone further than to downplay the dangers of the virus. One professor even suggested that students disregard state government measures designed to limit the virus' spread."There is no evidence that quarantine works, just ask Italy or Spain right now about that," Liberty University history professor Benjamin Esswein told his class on Tuesday morning, according to a copy of digital classroom chat logs obtained by The Daily Beast. The statement came in response to a student who said she wouldn't be able to complete an assignment requiring her to visit a museum due to the mandated closure of non-essential businesses in both Virginia and her home state. "We're not even supposed to leave our houses," she said.Asked whether students could "visit" a virtual museum to satisfy the requirement, Esswein denied the request. "Be safe about it, but remaining active is the best way to fight off the virus, you should try to go to a park or other area that might have a free-standing exhibit," Esswein told his class. "You should leave your house, it's unhealthy to stay inside for the rest of the semester."Esswein did not return a request for comment. But shown a copy of that exchange, Gostin scoffed. The "discussion just isn't fact-based," he said. "Quarantines do work and for every student that is infected, he or she will infect two others, and so forth. The rise in cases could be exponential."That's to say nothing of the faculty and staff who could be exposed to the virus and then return to their off-campus homes, potentially exposing individuals who never even set foot on campus, noted Dr. Adrian Hyzler, the chief medical officer for Healix International, which provides medical information to organizations whose clients travel internationally. Hyzler called Falwell's decision to reopen the school "nuts.""We have seen how gatherings to people at conventions, prisons, religious meetings, and teaching facilities can be breeding grounds for transmission and this could well become another of those epicenters," said Hyzler.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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| Virtual volunteers offer help to strangers amid virus stress Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Sitting cross-legged in her living room, Donna Borak rested her palm on her heart as she guided a small group of virtual participants in meditation and deep breathing. From her Washington, D.C., home, Borak has been hosting a free virtual meditation class daily for anyone who wants "a respite during such a moment of uncertainty." As social distancing has emerged as a key tool to staunch the spread of the coronavirus, ordinary people around the globe have turned to technology to overcome physical barriers.
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| With isolation, abuse activists fear an 'explosive cocktail' Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:46 PM PDT  As the world's families hunker down, there's another danger, less obvious but just as insidious, that worries advocates and officials: a potential spike in domestic violence as victims spend day and night trapped at home with their abusers, with tensions rising, nowhere to escape, limited or no access to friends or relatives — and no idea when it will end. "An abuser will use anything in their toolbox to exert their power and control, and COVID-19 is one of those tools," said Crystal Justice, who oversees development at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a 24/7 national hotline in the United States. On a normal day, 1,800 to 2,000 people will call that national hotline.
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| Know the terms: A complete COVID-19 pandemic glossary Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:12 PM PDT  Amid the constant flow of new findings, breaking news and widespread fear surrounding SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, a flurry of vocabulary words has turned some important briefings into a dash to the dictionary. The difference between the terms may sound benign, but the implications could be life-altering for millions.Terms such as lockdown and shelter-in-place incited fear after looking at the examples set by other countries such as China and Italy, after confusion temporarily surrounded the terminology of a pandemic earlier in the outbreak.Citizens have been urged to practice social distancing while others have been put in quarantine and others yet have been isolated. What's the difference? A nurse puts on protective gear in the isolation area of Honved Hospital in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, March 16, 2020. All future inpatients and outpatients must go through a health screening, which consists of having their body temperature taken and filling in a medical questionnaire before they can enter the hospital to minimize the risk of transferring the novel coronavirus infection. (Zoltan Balogh/MTI via AP) Further yet, knowing the meanings of values such as case fatality rate, mortality rate and attack rate can help you be better informed while knowing the difference between containment and mitigation can help you better understand policies.Knowing the meanings of the different words and using the correct terms is important for individuals to be best informed and communicate effectively in this age of misinformation. Here is your guide: The WHO says an epidemic can simply be defined as an occurrence of health-related events in a specific region that exceeds the normal expectancy. Because of the different factors surrounding population, previous experience, exposure, time and location (among many other variables), the number of cases needed to qualify for an epidemic varies.Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, spent numerous weeks in February and early March saying COVID-19 had 'pandemic potential' but stopping short of using the official term before officially making the assessment on March 11.A pandemic is recognized officially as a worldwide spread of a new disease. The recognition of COVID-19 as a pandemic was initially held up due to uncertainty surrounding the global scope of the virus's impact. A pandemic refers to how many parts of the world deal with the rate of a disease and doesn't say anything about the disease's seriousness. Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. (Naohiko Hatta/Pool Photo via AP) There have been many different utilities of the word lockdown, but during the current coronavirus pandemic, the standard set by countries like China, Italy and France shows a lockdown as a government-imposed ban on any movement inside the country and the closing of all non-essential businesses. This month, police squads in Rome have checked citizens' documents and imposed fines for individuals that did not have valid excuses, even those out on walks or seen taking pictures outside.Prior to COVID-19, the term 'Lockdown' was used to respond to a threat such as a shooting or bombing while 'Shelter-in-Place' was used for environmental concerns such as hurricanes or chemical spills. Those differences have been muddied with the coronavirus.California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a shelter-in-place, or stay-at-home, order on March 19, mandating social distancing and enforcing home isolation. However, in media briefings, Newsom also said residents can still take walks and have restaurant meals delivered, urging people to use common sense. He also said he didn't expect police presence and law enforcement to be necessary and instead relied on social pressure to enforce the severity of the order.According to the WHO, the idea of flattening the curve is for collective action to be taken in order to slow the number of new cases. This is important in order to give people better access to proper care. Social distancing practices are intended to accomplish this and to slow transmission and spread the infections as thinly as possible over time so health systems can cope. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker listens to a question after announcing a shelter in place order to combat the spread of the Covid-19 virus, during a news conference Friday, March 20, 2020, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) While it is generally up to individual states and municipalities to determine what qualifies as an essential vs. nonessential business, the Department of Homeland Security issued a guidance on workers who are essential to infrastructure. Those businesses include grocery markets, pharmacies, convenience stores, sanitation services, healthcare operations, daycare centers, gas stations, banks, post offices and transportation services, among others.Businesses that are recreational in nature are generally considered nonessential. These include theaters, gyms, museums, casinos, sports venues and others.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPTravel bans imposed by governments and businesses around the world have consistently touted the need to cut down on nonessential travel, whether it is by car or plane. The specifics of the definition can differ by organization. In order to keep faculty healthy, some universities like Colorado State have deemed essential travel to solely be travel that is required to preserve the safety or results of a research activity that cannot be postponed. An MTA employee sanitizes surfaces at the Classon Ave. and Lafayette Ave. subway station with bleach solutions due to COVID-19 concerns, Friday, March 20, 2020, in the Brooklyn Borough in New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is ordering all workers in non-essential businesses to stay home and banning gatherings statewide. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) People who are at risk of COVID-19 due to potential exposure are recommended by health experts to self-quarantine for at least 14 days in order to determine whether or not they will become ill and contagious. Self-quarantining involves staying at home at all times, not having visitors, staying at least 6 feet away from all people in your household and not sharing things like towels and utensils.Self-isolation is necessary for individuals who have been confirmed to have COVID-19. Isolation is a health care term that means keeping infected people away from the uninfected.Social distancing is deliberately increasing the physical space between people in order to avoid spreading illnesses. Also known as physically distancing, examples of social distancing practices include working from home, closing schools, canceling in-person meetings or hangouts and visiting others electronically rather than in person. In guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), social distancing means maintaining a distance of about 6 feet from others. People stand spaced apart while waiting outside a Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles location, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Boston. People observe social distancing out of concern about the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Case fatality rate (CFR), or the fatality ratio, is the proportion of people who died from a disease among the total infected population. It is different from mortality rate in that CFR only measures against the total infected number, where as mortality rate is the measure of deaths in a total population.The attack rate is a helpful measurement to determine the frequency of deaths and the speed of spread in a specific population. In the United States, this has been helpful to examine which states have observed the quickest spread. It is calculated by the number of people infected by the total number of people at risk (or the total population of that specific area).Containment is the effort by a community to determine who is infected and isolate them in order to contain the threat while keeping the healthy population separated.United States Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on March 8 that the country was shifting from a containment strategy to a mitigation focus. A mitigation effort means that the focus is no longer solely on getting rid of the virus, but more so on limiting its effect and severity."Now we're shifting into a mitigation phase, which means we're helping communities understand, 'You're going to see more cases. Unfortunately, you're going to see more deaths.' But that doesn't mean we should panic," Adams told CNN.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| States differ on exempting worship from coronavirus closures Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:06 PM PDT  As multiple governors issue orders to curb large gatherings and implore residents to stay home in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus, at least a half-dozen states have exempted some level of religious activity. The divergent treatment of faith in some states' pandemic-fighting orders comes as a few houses of worship across the nation continue to greet people in person, despite federal public health guidance to avoid gatherings larger than 10 people and decisions by most religious leaders to shift services online. While the pandemic has heightened political tensions, the states including religious exceptions in their orders designed to combat the pandemic are led by governors in both parties.
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| Europe rises from its sickbed Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:00 PM PDT |
| Iran rejects 'foreign' help as virus death toll nears 2,000 Posted: 24 Mar 2020 11:36 AM PDT  A senior Iranian official Tuesday ruled out "foreign" help on the ground to deal with the coronavirus epidemic after an offer from a France-based medical charity, as the country's death toll from the illness neared 2,000. "Due to Iran's national mobilisation against the virus and the full use of the medical capacity of the armed forces, it is not necessary for now for hospital beds to be set up by foreign forces, and their presence is ruled out," Alireza Vahabzadeh, advisor to Iran's health minister, said on Twitter. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour earlier said a record 1,762 new cases have been confirmed in Iran over the past 24 hours and 24,811 people are now known to have been infected with the new coronavirus.
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| UN chief urges G20 to adopt `war-time' plan with trillions Posted: 24 Mar 2020 11:17 AM PDT  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged leaders of the world's 20 major industrialized nations on Tuesday to adopt a "wartime" plan including a stimulus package "in the trillions of dollars" for businesses, workers and households in developing countries trying to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. "Let us remember that we are only as strong as the weakest health system in our interconnected world," the U.N. chief said.
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| Russia ramps up measures against coronavirus as cases grow Posted: 24 Mar 2020 10:52 AM PDT  Russian authorities acknowledged Tuesday that a low number of coronavirus cases in the country could be a result of insufficient screening and warned that the nation must brace for the worst. President Vladimir Putin donned a yellow protective suit to visit the top Moscow hospital treating coronavirus patients and conferred with officials on how to stem the outbreak. Hospital chief Denis Protsenko told Putin the country needs to "prepare for the Italian scenario."
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| In Iran, Coronavirus Is Suffocating an Already Strained Experimental Music Scene Posted: 24 Mar 2020 08:47 AM PDT  Following U.S. sanctions, widespread protests, internet blackouts, and government crackdowns, COVID-19 is the latest calamity to befall Iran's avant-garde.
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| Russia has no 'clear picture' of extent of virus outbreak: official Posted: 24 Mar 2020 08:29 AM PDT  Russian authorities do not know the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak across the country and should step up measures to stem the pandemic, a top official said Tuesday. Russia, which shares a border with China and has a population of 144 million, has officially reported 495 cases of the coronavirus but no confirmed fatalities. "The problem is that the volume of testing is very low and no one has a clear picture" of the situation in Russia and the world, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told President Vladimir Putin during a meeting.
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| Can blood from coronavirus survivors treat the newly ill? Posted: 24 Mar 2020 08:20 AM PDT  Hospitals are gearing up to test if a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and tried more recently against SARS and Ebola, just might work for COVID-19, too: using blood donated from patients who've recovered. Now a network of U.S. hospitals is waiting on permission from the Food and Drug Administration to begin large studies of the infusions both as a possible treatment for the sick and as vaccine-like temporary protection for people at high risk of infection. "We won't know until we do it, but the historical evidence is encouraging," Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University's school of public health told The Associated Press.
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| Putin dons hazmat suit as Moscow says coronavirus outbreak is worse than it looks Posted: 24 Mar 2020 08:18 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin donned a hazmat suit and respirator on Tuesday during a visit to a hospital treating coronavirus patients and the mayor of Moscow said the outbreak in the Russian capital was much worse than official figures showed. The comments, by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, marked the strongest statement yet by Russian authorities suggesting they do not have a full grasp of how widely the coronavirus has spread throughout the world's largest country by territory. Putin has previously said the situation is under control, but some doctors have questioned how far official data reflects reality, a point taken up by Sobyanin, a close Putin ally, on Tuesday.
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| Brazil's Bolsonaro buries hatchet with China's Xi to fight coronavirus Posted: 24 Mar 2020 08:15 AM PDT |
| As Governments Tout Virus Aid, Companies Struggle to Tap It Posted: 24 Mar 2020 07:45 AM PDT |
| Lorry in Mozambique found with 64 dead stowaways Posted: 24 Mar 2020 07:41 AM PDT  The authorities suspect the dead are migrants from Ethiopia and that they died of asphyxiation.
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| UN calls for Syria ceasefire to tackle virus threat Posted: 24 Mar 2020 07:04 AM PDT  The United Nations top envoy for Syria on Tuesday called for a nationwide ceasefire to allow for a better response to the threat of the novel coronavirus. The government in Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19 but fears are high that the virus could spread rapidly among the war-battered country's most vulnerable communities. The aid community has warned that Syria, where around a million people have been displaced by conflict in the northwest since December alone, is particularly vulnerable.
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| Africa Needs $150 Billion in Emergency Funds, Ethiopian PM Says Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:52 AM PDT |
| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:32 AM PDT  As virus deaths accelerate in the U.S., President Donald Trump has gone against the advice of scientists and top health experts, claiming he will reopen the country and its ailing economy in weeks, not months. More than 400,000 people worldwide have been infected and over 18,000 have died, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University. — President Donald Trump said he is hoping the country will be reopened by Easter, as he weighs how to refine nationwide social-distancing guidelines to put some workers back on the job amid the coronavirus outbreak.
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| How to Help Iran Fight the Virus Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:25 AM PDT |
| Why defeating coronavirus in one country isn't enough – there needs to be a coordinated global strategy Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:15 AM PDT  Policymakers in countries where there are severe outbreaks of COVID-19 are doing what they can to slow the spread and "flatten the curve." But so far, there hasn't been much global coordination, raising the risk of a second wave of contamination even after individual countries halt the virus' advance. That's the dilemma facing China and South Korea right now. Both countries appear to have halted or slowed the internal spread of the new coronavirus and are beginning to worry about contaminated travelers from abroad setting off a new outbreak – including by their own citizens returning home. In other words, as long as the virus is present in any country, it can reenter those that have managed to slow it down – or even ones that eventually eradicate it. As an economist, I worry that efforts to prevent a second wave of contagion will prompt countries to put up more borders to international travel and trade. This would compound and prolong the adverse economic impact. That's why I believe the only effective long-term solution against the coronavirus is a global solution – which requires a coordinated response. An uncoordinated messDozens of countries are taking a variety of strong measures to fight the spread of the new coronavirus, from social distancing and mass quarantines to severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods. But there's been little or no coordination, the timing has varied considerably and the piecemeal manner in which restrictions have been put in place demonstrates that lessons are not being shared, which has made it harder to defeat the virus. Moreover, the lack of coordination among countries when imposing travel bans has led to diplomatic tensions that will only make matters worse, such as when the Trump administration banned flights from Europe without consulting longstanding allies.Even in the hunt for a vaccine there is a clear lack of international coordination, which can speed up the process. Furthermore, most countries seem to be adopting a nationalistic rather than a collaborative approach that could limit a potential vaccine's effectiveness in ending the pandemic, with the possibility that each country will favor its own citizens over others. While these efforts are slowing the spread of the coronavirus in some places, it continues to worsen in others such as the U.S., Europe and Iran, which demonstrate that they are not enough to eradicate the threat completely. And that means successful countries will have to impose or continue severe and costly constraints on international travel – and those that have managed to avoid an outbreak, such as Russia, must continue to keep their restrictions in place. In Russia's case, closing border crossings to China has severely hurt trade as well. If a large number of countries impose such restrictions simultaneously, everyone suffers, adding to the already high economic costs of the coronavirus with no end in sight. Working togetherRight now, I believe the world needs to coordinate in three key ways: 1. Agree on a two-week global lockdown across all countries, even those not severely affected by COVID-19. Several countries are currently imposing such mass quarantines, with mixed success. A global, synchronized lockdown would be more effective. 2. The World Health Organization should lead global efforts to find an effective vaccine and treatments for COVID-19, ensuring they are widely available. The group could help disseminate research findings quickly and coordinate activities to avoid duplication. Consequently this would reduce the amount of time it takes to find a pharmaceutical solution. 3. Restrictions on international travel and trade should be implemented in cooperation with other countries. Rather than nationalistic restrictions that benefit one country at the expense of others, the cost of the needed restrictions could be distributed among all trade partners in a fair manner that motivates all governments to participate in these painful economic measures. Global coordination has worked well in past crises like this one. For example, in 2014, President Barack Obama took the lead in the global fight against the Ebola virus, which affected several countries in Africa. American leadership played a crucial role in mobilizing and coordinating the global fight that ultimately contained the epidemic. That's the kind of leadership the world needs right now. Surprisingly, the strongest call for global coordination against COVID-19 has come from Saudi Arabia, which currently leads the Group of 20 largest economies, instead of the U.S., China or the European Union. Although there's been no commitment so far to attend this virtual meeting, I hope the political leaders of the world's largest economies accept this invitation. A coordinated response to this pandemic cannot come too soon. [You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read our newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Job guarantees, basic income can save us from COVID-19 depression * Workers left out of government and business response to the coronavirusNader Habibi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Grim find: Bodies of virus victims in Spanish nursing homes Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Spanish army troops disinfecting nursing homes have found, to their horror, some residents living in squalor among the infectious bodies of people suspected of dying from the new coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday. Defense Minister Margarita Robles said the elderly residents were "completely left to fend for themselves, or even dead, in their beds." A judicial probe into the horrific discovery was opened Tuesday as Spain announced a record one-day jump of nearly 6,600 new coronavirus infections, bringing the overall total to more than 39,600.
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| How the Covid-19 Recession Is Like World War II Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| How the Covid-19 Recession Is Like World War II Posted: 24 Mar 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| Germany Mulls Stimulus Package to Boost Post-Virus Economy Posted: 24 Mar 2020 04:58 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's government is evaluating a stimulus program to help revive the German economy after the coronavirus crisis subsides.Should Germany enter a deep recession after the pandemic is contained, a debt-financed spending package to get the economy growing again would be needed, according to a person close to the discussions.The measures, which could involve consumer spending and corporate-tax relief, would be targeted for short-term impact, though a broad distribution of funds isn't on the table, said the person who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The finance ministry declined to comment.After speaking with the government's economic advisers in a conference call on Tuesday, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said he was presented with a range of proposals beyond the government's 750 billion-euro ($814 billion) rescue package.The goal is to "prevent the pandemic from leading to an infection, an enduring crisis for the economy," he said in a briefing with journalists in Berlin."We can't lose sight of the prospects of a new upswing after the crisis has been overcome," said Altmaier. "We must do everything to ensure that -- as the infections decrease and public life starts up again and companies return to normal production -- forces of growth gain the upper hand."An initial estimate by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz projects a contraction of about 5% this year, but some government officials fear the recession could be even deeper. Altmaier said the damage will likely be bigger than the financial crisis more than a decade ago.New data on Tuesday acted as a reminder for how devastating the virus-fighting measures are for Germany's economy. In March, IHS Markit's gauge of manufacturing and services activity plunged sharply, signaling that GDP in the euro area's biggest economy could drop by around 2% in the first quarter already.Lars Feld, the government's top economic adviser, said that while he expects a V-shaped recovery, the rebound depends on the length and severity of the lockdown."It is absolutely clear that it depends on how much and how rigidly we have to maintain this shutdown," said Feld, speaking alongside Altmaier via video conference.Merkel's government has unleashed an unprecedented barrage of measures to cushion the blow from the near complete halt of modern life across much of the world. The sharp drop in commercial activity poses a significant challenge to Germany's export-led economy.The chancellor has suspended her government's commitment to a balanced budget, lining up hundreds of billions of euros to provide small- and large business with liquidity and has even opened the door to buying stakes in stricken companies.Government officials are concerned that these measures may not be enough to kick-start the economy once the virus has been contained and are considering a more classical stimulus program largely financed by new debt, the person said. Bolstered by years of budget surpluses, Germany has sufficient fiscal fire power to act, the person added.In unveiling the rescue package on Monday, Scholz said that the federal government would "not hesitate" to protect German jobs and businesses from the effects of the crisis.(Updates with additional comments from the German economy minister beginning in fourth paragraph)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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| Putin’s Internet Censor to Lead Russia’s Largest Media Holding Posted: 24 Mar 2020 03:37 AM PDT |
| 'Wartime' coronavirus powers could hurt our democracy – without keeping us safe Posted: 24 Mar 2020 03:11 AM PDT  During a war, the liberal democratic order is temporary suspended. We must proceed with careWe are not at war with a virus. I don't care how many politicians say it, from Xi Jinping's "people's war" to Donald Trump's "our big war", or how many pundits repeat it: we are not "at war" with the coronavirus. I know that in deeply militarized countries like the US, the term "war" is now simply used to emphasize the importance of an issue – from the non-existent "war on Christmas" that conservatives talk about to the liberal "war on poverty". But words have meanings, and often real consequences, as we are still seeing in the "war on drugs" and "war on terror".During a war, the liberal democratic order is temporarily suspended, and extraordinary measures are passed that significantly extend state powers and limit the population's rights. Some of the extended state powers only marginally infringe upon the lives and rights of citizens, such as the creation of a "war economy" (ie making economic production subservient to wartime efforts), but others have traumatic consequences, such as the mass internment of Japanese Americans during the second world war.Across the world, government leaders have declared (and extended) states of emergency, in countries such as Spain, provinces such as Nova Scotia, Canada, and cities such as Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I'm writing this column in my liberal college town of Athens, Georgia, which declared a state of emergency a week ago and recently added a "shelter-in-place" ordinance to it – which is partly undermined by the much laxer response by nextdoor (Republican-run) Oconee county, so that Athens residents can still dine and shop there.> State-of-emergency measures should be strictly related to the crisis at hand and proportional to the threatState-of-emergency measures are necessary in a real crisis, whether economic or health-related, but they can be taken without the use of "war" language. They also should be strictly related to the crisis at hand and proportional to the threat. At this stage, the threat of contagion is very high, which means that measures to limit the movement of people are legitimized.Similarly, most countries are woefully ill-prepared for the pandemic, with hospitals dangerously overcrowded and underresourced, requiring urgent state intervention. In addition to using massive funds to buy much-needed medical supplies, this could also include enlisting the military to create temporary hospitals, as New York is currently doing.But many politicians have gone much further, trying to use the health crisis to push through dubious repressive legislation. For instance, in the United Kingdom, where the Conservative government response so far has shown almost criminal negligence, Boris Johnson has pushed through a draconian "coronavirus bill", which, among others, gives police and immigration officials sweeping powers to arrest people suspected of carrying the coronavirus – this could make innocent Brits of Chinese descent targets of state repression in a similar way that post-9/11 measures have targeted innocent British Muslims.In Israel, the embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hoped that the coronavirus could do what three elections have failed to achieve: extend his government rule and keep him out of prison. Linking anti-corona measures to anti-terrorism measures, Netanyahu proposed a package that critics have called "anti-democratic" and has led to public protests in several Israeli cities.Never to be outdone, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has jumped on the coronavirus to push the final nail in the coffin of the country's bruised and battered democracy. On Monday, the Fidesz party-controlled government will vote on a law that, according to one prominent critic, would "give Viktor Orbán dictatorial powers under a state of emergency to fight the coronavirus".In the US, President Donald Trump, forced to finally acknowledge the reality and seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic after weeks of delusional statements, is starting to see the political potential of the crisis. In a recent speech, he stated, in his own unique English: "I view it as a, in a sense, a wartime president."What this "wartime presidency" could look like we could see in the emergency powers the Department of Justice "quietly asked" Congress for. Most involve, unsurprisingly, powers to further restrict immigration – undoubtedly influenced by the anti-immigration zealot Stephen Miller, Trump's longest-serving key adviser (outside of members of his own family). It also includes the request to grant chief judges the power to detain people indefinitely without trial, which critics fear could mean the suspension of habeas corpus (the constitutional right to appear before a judge after arrest and seek release).> To prevent another Patriot Act, each new 'emergency measure' should be assessed individually on the basis of three clear questionsThere are very serious problems with many of the proposed measures, many of them similar to the repressive measures taken after 9/11. First, in many cases the proposals are combinations of repressive measures that are unrelated to this specific crisis. Second, many measures are disproportional to the threat we face – habeas corpus is at the heart of the rule of law; should we really sacrifice that for a health crisis whose lethality is still largely unknown? Third, while they are all explicitly billed as "emergency measures", limited to that emergency, the language is often vague and could be used to justify (endless) extensions. We know from experience that temporary measures often become permanent measures.To prevent another Patriot Act, each new "emergency measure" should be assessed individually on the basis of three clear questions: (1) what is its contribution to the fight against the coronavirus?; (2) what are its negative consequences for liberal democracy?; (3) when will it be abolished? If any of these three questions cannot be adequately answered, the measure should be rejected.While it is important to take the threat of the coronavirus seriously – really, people, stay at home! – and to provide the state with the powers it needs to fight the pandemic, we should not let our fear be used to drag us into yet another false "war". Because if we do, politicians will use it once again to strengthen the already far too strong repressive powers of our surveillance states. * Cas Mudde is a Guardian US columnist and the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. His latest book is The Far Right Today
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| Taking the Politics Out of the Virus, For Now Posted: 24 Mar 2020 03:09 AM PDT |
| This is not how America should be responding Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:55 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic has already proven to be a profound institutional test for countries around the world — a test that many countries have yet to pass.It's a test of state capacity: Can the government formulate and execute a coherent and sensible response to a novel threat quickly enough to make a difference? It's a test of the health-care system: Are there enough trained doctors nurses and other providers; enough basic supplies like masks and pharmaceuticals; enough hospital beds; and can the delivery and financing system get care where needed quickly? And it's also a test of basic social and political cohesion: Can society as a whole pull together to solve a collective problem, something that will require both central coordination and spontaneous cooperation?So far, the United States is failing on almost every level. But it's the last test that matters most, both in terms of being able to dig our way out of the hole we've already dug and recovering afterward.There has been a lot of finger-pointing about the lethargy with which America responded to the initial reports out of Asia. Our mistakes at that time were costly indeed: We had two months to massively ramp up testing capacity, roll out production of masks and other basics, and come up with a plan for tracking and isolating people with the virus. Instead, we mostly dithered; worse, our national political leadership actively denied the problem.It's worth remembering, though, that lethargy was the most common public response outside of those countries that had prior experience with SARS. Countries like Taiwan and Singapore reacted so swiftly and effectively in part because they had already been through a terrifying test drive. Canada and the U.K., France and Germany, Italy and Spain, Iran and Israel didn't all make the same mistakes as we did, and have varied between them in the alacrity and comprehensiveness of their responses. Nonetheless, they are all playing catch-up as their death tolls mount and their economies collapse.America's health-care system has profound flaws that are being exposed by this crisis, most especially the patchwork system of financing that leaves so many falling through the cracks. But the over-investment that is another feature of our system may yet pay some dividends: in the form of more ICU beds per capita than most countries have, for example, or the enormous capabilities of our biomedical research institutions. Whatever our views on single-payer health care in general, a robust response right now to this specific crisis is entirely feasible economically and technologically, provided we demonstrate the necessary political will and coordination.And there's the problem. America's toxic politics, our culture war, the profound alienation between regions, between classes, between left and right, or city and country — these divisions have devoured our sense of the common good, and made it extraordinarily difficult to work together even when faced with the most dire circumstances. Indeed, even in the absence of those divisions, we see the unedifying spectacle of large egos simply refusing to consider the greater good. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) goes to the Senate gym while waiting for his coronavirus test results (which turned out to be positive), and New York's Mayor Bill DeBlasio (D) similarly heads to his favorite gym in Brooklyn for one last turn on the treadmill before announcing that the city's gyms will be shut. The symbolism of such behavior is unmissable: In a time of need, take what you can while you can.Compare the appalling failure of the self-styled world's greatest deliberative body to pass a plan to cushion the economy from what amounts to an asteroid strike, to the situation in Denmark, where the government has basically stepped in to freeze the economy in place, guaranteeing 75 percent of virtually everyone's salaries so as to prevent any layoffs while people are forbidden from working. This is obviously an absolutely insane way to run an economy — which is the point: The economy is largely going to stop for a short time, and the government is temporarily stepping in to make sure existing arrangements are still in place when it's time to restart. It's a solution optimized to solve this particular crisis, not to change things for the long term. And for that reason, it has overwhelming support. As Flemming Larsen, a professor at the Center for Labor Market Research at Denmark's Aalborg University, reported in an interview with The Atlantic: "We have 10 parties in Parliament. From the very left-wing to the really, really right-wing. And they all agree."That's a political system functioning the way it is supposed to in a time of crisis. It's what America conspicuously lacks, because the social foundation on which our political system rests is cracked.I don't want to overstate the failures of American society. There are governors from both parties who have stepped up in the crisis — Ohio's Republican Mike DeWine and New York's Democrat Andrew Cuomo come to mind. There are corporations that took the lead in shifting to work-at-home before ordered to do so by the government, and others that are stepping up to provide vital medical supplies. There will be plenty of examples of both individual heroism and community action that will do the country proud. But you don't count on spontaneous order to win a war, and this is the medical equivalent of war.I am not neutral between left- and right-wing "takes" on how this crisis has played out, and I'll demonstrate that lack of neutrality come election time. But right now, if we can't start acting like one country, we may not have a country to pull together when this is over.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Britney Spears calls for wealth redistribution, general strike on Instagram New Oxford study suggests millions of people may have already built up coronavirus immunity Trump, whose hotel business is losing millions, says 'I'll be the oversight' of $500 billion coronavirus 'slush fund'
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| Coronavirus: Italy has a brief glimpse of hope as new cases drop to a five-day low Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Italy's number of new Covid-19 cases dropped to a five-day low on Monday, easing tension on overstretched hospitals and bringing a glimmer of hope to a nation that has lost more lives than any other country to the pandemic.In Spain, however, more people died in the last 24 hours than at any point since the coronavirus outbreak erupted in what has become Europe's second most devastated country.Italian health authorities announced 4,789 new cases in the last 24 hours, a drop from 5,560 on Sunday and 6,557 on Saturday.It was also lower than the levels of Thursday and Friday, when the figures for confirmed cases were still rising.The number of hospitalised cases in Lombardy " the Italian region enduring the most serious outbreak " also declined for the first time since the contagion took root."Today is perhaps the first positive day we have had in this hard, very tough month," said Giulio Gallera, the top health official in Lombardy, an area known as the economic engine of Italy."It is not the time to sing victory, but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel."Health Councillor for the Lombardy region, Giulio Gallera, wearing a FPP2 face mask, outside a sports centre in Milan where an intensive care unit was set up during the coronavirus pandemic: "Today is perhaps the first positive day we have had in this hard, very tough month." Photo: AFP alt=Health Councillor for the Lombardy region, Giulio Gallera, wearing a FPP2 face mask, outside a sports centre in Milan where an intensive care unit was set up during the coronavirus pandemic: "Today is perhaps the first positive day we have had in this hard, very tough month." Photo: AFPThe number of coronavirus cases in Italy has risen to 63,927 " compared to 81,093 in mainland China.In total, 6,077 people have died in Italy due to Covid-19 " which leads all countries " including 601 who died in the last 24 hours, a decline from the weekend.The overall death rate from the pandemic in Italy has further risen to 9.5 per cent, far exceeding the global average of 4.4 per cent.Of the confirmed cases, 3,204 were in intensive care, while 26,522 were under home quarantine.As Italians watched the news with cautious optimism, Spaniards fear they remain on Italy's previous upwards trajectory.Spanish authorities announced 462 deaths in the last 24 hours, the country's worst day since the start of the epidemic.A high-level health official in Spain suggested that the latest increase rate of daily new cases " at 14 per cent " could be the peak of the crisis, but he was far from certain."The increase reported every day is progressively softened. But we are still not sure whether we have reached the peak of the epidemic," said Fernando Simon, emergency coordinator of the Ministry of Health.In a worrying development, more than one in 10 of Spain's total confirmed coronavirus cases were nearly 4,000 health workers.Spanish first deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, shown on March 6, has been hospitalised for respiratory infection, and awaiting results of a Covid-19 test. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Spanish first deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, shown on March 6, has been hospitalised for respiratory infection, and awaiting results of a Covid-19 test. Photo: EPA-EFESpain's deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, was hospitalised with respiratory infection on Sunday, the government said; she was awaiting coronavirus test results.Two other ministers and the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past weeks.German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been tested negative but will undergo further tests, her spokesman said on Monday. Merkel has been working from home, under quarantine, since Sunday because she had met a doctor who was tested positive for coronavirus.In Britain, 54 more people have died after testing positive for the coronavirus, bringing the country's number of deaths to 335, the government said on Monday.The number of confirmed cases rose to 6,650 on Monday, from 5,683 on Sunday.Britain sent in the army to deliver protective equipment to hospitals and told people to stay at home and heed warnings over social distancing, or the government would institute more extreme measures to stop the coronavirus spread.Purchase the China AI Report 2020 brought to you by SCMP Research and enjoy a 20% discount (original price US$400). This 60-page all new intelligence report gives you first-hand insights and analysis into the latest industry developments and intelligence about China AI. Get exclusive access to our webinars for continuous learning, and interact with China AI executives in live Q&A.; Offer valid until 31 March 2020.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| Likud members urge speaker to defy Israeli high court order Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:25 AM PDT  Israel appeared on the verge of a constitutional crisis Tuesday as top members of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud urged their party colleague and parliament speaker to defy a Supreme Court order to let lawmakers hold a vote for his successor. After suspending parliamentary activities last week, citing procedural issues and restrictions on large gatherings due to the spread of the coronavirus, Yuli Edelstein on Monday dismissed the court's call to explain his delay in convening the Israeli Knesset, or parliament. It sparked an unprecedented judicial rebuttal, with Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut ordering him to hold a vote by Wednesday and ruling that "the continued refusal to allow the vote in the Knesset plenum on the election of a permanent speaker is undermining the foundations of the democratic process."
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| Use coronavirus rescue packages to fight climate change - UK adviser Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:10 AM PDT |
| Russia Swore It Whipped the Virus, and Fox and CNN Bought It Posted: 24 Mar 2020 02:03 AM PDT  As the world reels from the novel coronavirus pandemic, Russia is doing its best to turn global turmoil into propaganda fodder. To date, a country of 146 million people straddling Europe and Asia and that has a great deal of commerce with those two great epicenters of the disease reports only 438 confirmed coronavirus cases and no deaths. One previously disclosed fatality has been dismissed by authorities as attributable to other causes. But according to official statistics from Russian state media, over 52,000 people remain under medical supervision "in connection with suspected coronavirus infection." Perhaps the real number of Russia's coronavirus patients lies somewhere in between. Garry Kasparov, a world-renowned former world chess champion and the chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative, told The Daily Beast why the Kremlin's dubious claims shouldn't be taken at face value: "Of course Russia is lying about their coronavirus stats and I can say that confidently because they lie about everything," said Kasparov. "Dictatorships lie when they have to—and when they don't; it's about control. Control of information, shaping reality, and, most importantly, appearing all-powerful and all-knowing. If the regime can be surprised or overwhelmed by a virus, maybe it's not so powerful after all, a dangerous line of thought for a repressed population to have. Until there is truly independent testing—and the stories we're hearing out of Russia are not encouraging—we just don't know what's going on." Even so, Western media outlets have disregarded the Kremlin's less-than-sterling reputation for honesty and transparency, and lauded Russia's self-proclaimed success in controlling the deadly virus.In January, Fox News reported Russia's decision to close its border with China and in early February uncritically repeated the claim that "Russia has only two confirmed cases of the virus, but authorities have taken measures to prevent its spread by hospitalizing people returning from China as a precaution." In late February, Fox News stated that "Russia only has three confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus," without questioning the probability of such fantastic statistics in light of a pandemic raging in neighboring China. Last Sunday, showcasing Russia's coronavirus aid to Italy, Fox News posted photographs released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, with the doors of Russian military trucks adorned with heart-shaped flags that read: "From Russia with love." Apparently accepting Russia's claims as ironclad facts, Fox News fawned: "Russia has so far reported very few confirmed coronavirus cases, noting just 306 infections and one death. As the U.S. and Europe struggle to contain the virus, nations once viewed as rivals are stepping up in the global coronavirus response." CNN wrote on Saturday that, "According to information released by Russian officials, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's strategy seems to have worked. The number of confirmed Russian coronavirus cases is surprisingly low, despite Russia sharing a lengthy border with China and recording its first case back in January." Kasparov, a persistent critic of Putin, wonders why anyone would believe this stuff, much less report it. "Repeating Russia's numbers is ridiculous. Trust must be earned, and Putin lies about everything from his invasion of Ukraine to the more directly comparable epidemic of HIV in Russia that officially doesn't exist. Why should western governments and media treat Putin's dictatorship in good faith when it's not returned, and in fact is exploited?" Putin Worries Coronavirus Could Screw Up His Constitutional 'Coronation'Russia's alleged triumph over the coronavirus coincides with Putin's maneuvers to become the country's president for life, a role all but assured through pending constitutional changes. Amendments in question have already been approved by both houses of parliament and are now pending a nationwide vote on April 22, which will take place come rain or shine—coronavirus notwithstanding. The possibility of conducting the vote by mail is currently under consideration. In the meantime, the Kremlin-controlled Russian state media are reminding citizens that the country's very survival depends on Putin's leadership. Dmitry Kiselyov, the host of Russia's most popular Sunday news program, Vesti Nedeli, is leading the way. "Let's be honest," he insisted earlier this month: "Russia without Putin is non-viable." But there is ample evidence the regime's information war is being disregarded by Russians in the trenches trying to deal with the reality of the disease. On Monday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin gave the authorities five days to develop a system that would track and notify people who have come in contact with any known carriers of coronavirus. The system would simultaneously notify special regional headquarters set up to fight the pandemic.Authorities have begun building a 500-person hospital to house coronavirus patients near Moscow and Russian doctors reportedly are alarmed that some cases are being ascribed to pneumonia and seasonal flu without testing. The same state media TV shows that would have you believe everything is under control are being filmed without audiences. Everyday Russians are stocking up on astronomical quantities of toilet paper and buckwheat, disregarding the government's assurances that coronavirus is being contained. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state media outlets RT and Sputnik, launched a Twitter initiative designed to prove that Russian grocery stores show no signs of panic buying. Simonyan's idea backfired, as multiple citizens responded with photographs of emptied store shelves.Lingering memories of Soviet-era cover-ups are exacerbated by more recent denials, such as Russia's covert warfare in Ukraine, its role in the downing of the Malaysian aircraft MH-17, clumsy denials of the Skripal poisonings and obfuscation of crucial details about a radioactive explosion involving a nuclear-powered missile in northern Russia last year. But the Kremlin's persistent aim to keep the coronavirus numbers down is paying off thus far, since Russia's international flights are unimpeded by worldwide bans. While U.S. President Donald J. Trump barred travelers from China, its largest neighbor continues to receive the benefit of the doubt."Just as China's information crackdown led directly to the massive outbreak now threatening the world," says Kasparov, "Putin's will also have an impact across the Russian border. The radioactive cloud from Chernobyl poisoned much of Europe. The flights still coming out of Russia—not on the banned list because of the low official numbers—could spread disease all over the globe." Painting a rosy picture of Russia's future, the Kremlin-controlled state media predicted doom and gloom for everybody but the motherland, especially the hated United States.Last week, experts on The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev were crowing about economic troubles for the West. Russian economist Mikhail Khazin opined that Russia is the only region that can grow and prosper economically during the challenging times of the coronavirus pandemic. Other experts on the show suggested that America is withering as a superpower, while a new age is dawning for Russia and China. They concurred that "Soviet-like regimes are winning" and the new world will be more authoritarian. Host Vladimir Soloviev concluded: "Enough talk about individual freedoms." With angry animus, Soloviev argued that history would disprove the premise of Francis Fukuyama's book, The End of History and the Last Man and would lead to the uprooting of liberal democracies.As he has in the past, Soloviev referred to President Trump as "Donald Ivanovych" and marveled at the statements and actions of the American leader who is himself in the risk group for contracting coronavirus. The Russian Models Instagramming From China's Coronavirus CapitalStill, Russian state TV pundits kept their usually sharp ridicule to the minimum. Their exchanges revealed the hope that Western sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea and other Putin abuses of international law would soon be lifted, with the coronavirus pandemic overshadowing all prior concerns. Dmitry Kiselyov argued during this Sunday's episode of Vesti Nedeli that multiple Western governments will be undergoing deep changes and the sanctions against Russia will soon become obsolete. As for the short-term propaganda goals, the Kremlin still anticipates the arrival later this spring of U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien for Moscow's big 75th anniversary celebration of victory over the Nazis. President Donald J. Trump reportedly "wanted to go but faced pressure from advisers not to embark on such a journey." The parade is scheduled for May 9—the very month the coronavirus epidemic is expected to have reached a peak in Russia.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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| Libya sees 1st virus case as more curfews called in Mideast Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:49 AM PDT  Libya recorded its first confirmed case of the coronavirus on Tuesday, the U.N.-backed government announced, stoking concern that an outbreak could overwhelm the war-torn country's already weakened health care system. As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the Middle East, countries have sought to slow the increase of cases by limiting the movements of hundreds of millions of people. The Arab world's most populous country, Egypt, as well as Syria, a country ravaged by nine years of war, became the latest countries to impose nightly curfews starting this week.
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| US shames Afghan leaders' obstinance as pandemic looms Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:35 AM PDT  Washington's unprecedented threat to cut $1 billion in Afghanistan funding — a response to the refusal of rivals in Kabul to work together to advance peace — comes at a time when the impoverished nation risks being overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday both President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, former Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, blamed one another for failing to resolve the feuding, which prompted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to threaten the massive funding cut. Pompeo called out the two leaders as he ended a rushed visit to Afghanistan on Monday, defying a near-global travel ban because of the virus.
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| Solidarity: Foreign hospitals help French virus hotspot cope Posted: 24 Mar 2020 12:30 AM PDT  The eastern French border city of Mulhouse was fought over by France and Germany across two centuries, but the horrors of the new coronavirus cluster tearing through this community of 110,000 is inspiring unusual solidarity. While many countries have shut their borders to stem the march of the pandemic — even some nations within the borderless European Union are instituting ID checks — three German states have opened their hospitals to patients from eastern France. Hospitals in bordering Switzerland have done the same.
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| Hand-washing: a luxury millions of Yemenis can't afford Posted: 23 Mar 2020 11:38 PM PDT  Hand-washing to combat the spread of coronavirus is the order of the day, but it's an unaffordable luxury for millions in war-ravaged Yemen where clean water is dangerously scarce. Yemen's broken healthcare system has yet to register any cases of the disease, but if the pandemic does hit, the impact will be unimaginable in a country where the long conflict has created what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Five years after a Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen to support the government against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, some 80 percent of the population of 30 million is in need of aid.
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| Trump agencies steadily push rollbacks as pandemic rages Posted: 23 Mar 2020 09:17 PM PDT  The Trump administration is rejecting appeals to slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the coronavirus, pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks closer to enactment in recent days despite the pandemic. As Americans stockpiled food and medicine and retreated indoors and businesses shuttered in hopes of riding out COVID-19, federal agencies in recent days moved forward on rollbacks that included a widely opposed deregulatory action by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says the rule, first introduced in 2018, is designed to increase transparency.
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| Coronavirus suddenly upends campaign themes for both parties Posted: 23 Mar 2020 09:14 PM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic and the country's collapsing economy are forcing Democrats and Republicans to rethink the messaging they thought would help them win November's elections for White House and congressional control. Shattered, certainly for now, is President Donald Trump's ability to tout a brawny economy and record stock market prices as the predicate for his reelection. Democrats say they're the party that will protect people's health care, but it's unclear that would be heard by people focused mostly on when life will return to normal.
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| Charities face growing need in pandemic without volunteers Posted: 23 Mar 2020 09:06 PM PDT  For more than a week, Elaine Peoples, who cooked for a now-shuttered day care center, has been out of work. For decades, American nonprofits have relied on a cadre of volunteers who — quite suddenly — aren't able to show up. "This is a time when we do need everybody pulling together to help us out," said Leslie Bacho, CEO of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, one of the nation's largest food banks.
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