| A defiant Maduro threatens 'cowboy' Trump after drug charge Posted: 26 Mar 2020 09:06 PM PDT  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stood defiant in the face of a $15 million bounty by the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, calling Donald Trump a "racist cowboy" and warning that he is ready to fight by whatever means necessary should the U.S. and neighboring Colombia dare to invade. Maduro's bellicose remarks Thursday night came hours after the U.S. announced sweeping indictments against the socialist leader and several members of his inner circle for allegedly converting Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups.
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| A New York doctor's story: 'Too many people are dying alone' Posted: 26 Mar 2020 08:14 PM PDT  As an emergency medicine physician in New York City, Dr. Kamini Doobay has always known that death is part of the territory when trying to care for the city's sickest. "So often a patient will be on their deathbed, dying alone, and it's been incredibly painful to see the suffering of family members who I call from the ICU, hearing the tears, crying with them on the phone," said Doobay, 31. A third-year resident, Doobay, who works at New York University Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital, said being among the doctors and other health care workers trying desperately to deal with the wave of sick and dying patients coming into city hospitals is "unlike anything I've ever experienced, it's very chaotic, it's overwhelming."
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| Even China’s Big Oil Is Cutting Back Posted: 26 Mar 2020 07:21 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Under the watchful eye of Beijing's energy hawks, China's oil and gas majors have splurged for more than a decade, first on deals abroad and then drilling at home. Yet with crude prices at less than half where they were at the start of the year and demand battered by a coronavirus epidemic, they're preparing to cut back.Cnooc Ltd. signaled Wednesday it might reduce its 2020 capital expenditure budget, which was set at as much as $13 billion, the highest since 2014. PetroChina Ltd., the country's largest oil producer with a market value of $117 billion, suggested Thursday that it would do the same. Given the delicate politics involved, it's a welcome hint of rational frugality.Energy security has always been a top concern for China's leadership. Overseas deals peaked at $28 billion in 2012, the year Cnooc bid for Canada's Nexen. Local production growth has been less exuberant, and China has been importing ever more. As trade tensions with Washington rose in 2018, President Xi Jinping urged the country's state-owned titans to drill. That set off a frenzy from deepwater fields in the South China Sea to shale gas in Sichuan, where China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, has led. Performing national service is fine when oil is at $60 a barrel, even if the improvements are unimpressive compared to the capital spent. It's a different matter when West Texas Intermediate is just coming off an 18-year low of less than $20. That's a price at which no one can make money — not even Cnooc, with an all-in production cost of less than $30 per barrel of oil equivalent. Cnooc's adventures in U.S. onshore and Canadian oil sands look terrible; its buccaneering domestic ventures are little better.Overseas, oil majors from Chevron Corp. to Saudi Aramco are cutting spending to preserve capital. Dividends are precarious. Logic dictates that China's producers, even with healthier balance sheets, will follow the same pattern. The question is whether they can put financial logic ahead of political necessity. So far, the message is cautious: Cnooc executives pointed out that 2020 spending targets were drawn up when oil was at $65, so adjustments would be made. It gave no specifics. PetroChina, meanwhile, didn't disclose precise targets for the year. That's no accident, given a volatile market. After a string of personnel changes, there are new bosses across the industry. Political priorities haven't been set in stone, given the delay in the annual National People's Congress meeting. Still, the official message has been clear: Life is returning to normal after a devastating shutdown. Announcing a drastic spending cut, or anything that might hint at job losses or a weak economy, simply isn't on the cards. PetroChina employed 476,000 at the end of 2018.That doesn't mean that there won't be mild cuts followed by steeper ones later in the year, a pattern seen before.How steep? Unlike during the last price crunch, in 2014 and 2015, the forward curve suggests prices will remain low, with little prospect for a quick solution to the Russia-Saudi spat that has worsened a global supply glut. Demand, meanwhile, is in the doldrums. China's economy, and therefore its own appetite for oil and gas, is recovering only slowly, and the rest of the world is ailing as more lockdowns, factory closures and travel restrictions are imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Analysts at UBS Group AG forecast Cnooc's capex could come down 25% over the next two years, a cut that could be far deeper if oil averages closer to $30 this year. Overall, they project Chinese state-owned oil producers could cut spending by over a third, dragging production down 8% to 9%. Exploration budgets may be trimmed, though domestic production — where job preservation remains key — will mostly be spared. That leaves refining and other downstream activities, plus projects abroad, to bear the brunt. Low energy prices aren't all bad for China, which imports more than 70% of the crude it consumes. Even liberalization of the domestic gas market becomes easier when prices are low enough for consumers to cope with change, Michal Meidan of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies points out. Cheaper oil could eventually stimulate demand. For now, a little less drilling all round. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.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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| Even China’s Big Oil Is Cutting Back Posted: 26 Mar 2020 07:21 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Under the watchful eye of Beijing's energy hawks, China's oil and gas majors have splurged for more than a decade, first on deals abroad and then drilling at home. Yet with crude prices at less than half where they were at the start of the year and demand battered by a coronavirus epidemic, they're preparing to cut back.Cnooc Ltd. signaled Wednesday it might reduce its 2020 capital expenditure budget, which was set at as much as $13 billion, the highest since 2014. PetroChina Ltd., the country's largest oil producer with a market value of $117 billion, suggested Thursday that it would do the same. Given the delicate politics involved, it's a welcome hint of rational frugality.Energy security has always been a top concern for China's leadership. Overseas deals peaked at $28 billion in 2012, the year Cnooc bid for Canada's Nexen. Local production growth has been less exuberant, and China has been importing ever more. As trade tensions with Washington rose in 2018, President Xi Jinping urged the country's state-owned titans to drill. That set off a frenzy from deepwater fields in the South China Sea to shale gas in Sichuan, where China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, has led. Performing national service is fine when oil is at $60 a barrel, even if the improvements are unimpressive compared to the capital spent. It's a different matter when West Texas Intermediate is just coming off an 18-year low of less than $20. That's a price at which no one can make money — not even Cnooc, with an all-in production cost of less than $30 per barrel of oil equivalent. Cnooc's adventures in U.S. onshore and Canadian oil sands look terrible; its buccaneering domestic ventures are little better.Overseas, oil majors from Chevron Corp. to Saudi Aramco are cutting spending to preserve capital. Dividends are precarious. Logic dictates that China's producers, even with healthier balance sheets, will follow the same pattern. The question is whether they can put financial logic ahead of political necessity. So far, the message is cautious: Cnooc executives pointed out that 2020 spending targets were drawn up when oil was at $65, so adjustments would be made. It gave no specifics. PetroChina, meanwhile, didn't disclose precise targets for the year. That's no accident, given a volatile market. After a string of personnel changes, there are new bosses across the industry. Political priorities haven't been set in stone, given the delay in the annual National People's Congress meeting. Still, the official message has been clear: Life is returning to normal after a devastating shutdown. Announcing a drastic spending cut, or anything that might hint at job losses or a weak economy, simply isn't on the cards. PetroChina employed 476,000 at the end of 2018.That doesn't mean that there won't be mild cuts followed by steeper ones later in the year, a pattern seen before.How steep? Unlike during the last price crunch, in 2014 and 2015, the forward curve suggests prices will remain low, with little prospect for a quick solution to the Russia-Saudi spat that has worsened a global supply glut. Demand, meanwhile, is in the doldrums. China's economy, and therefore its own appetite for oil and gas, is recovering only slowly, and the rest of the world is ailing as more lockdowns, factory closures and travel restrictions are imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Analysts at UBS Group AG forecast Cnooc's capex could come down 25% over the next two years, a cut that could be far deeper if oil averages closer to $30 this year. Overall, they project Chinese state-owned oil producers could cut spending by over a third, dragging production down 8% to 9%. Exploration budgets may be trimmed, though domestic production — where job preservation remains key — will mostly be spared. That leaves refining and other downstream activities, plus projects abroad, to bear the brunt. Low energy prices aren't all bad for China, which imports more than 70% of the crude it consumes. Even liberalization of the domestic gas market becomes easier when prices are low enough for consumers to cope with change, Michal Meidan of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies points out. Cheaper oil could eventually stimulate demand. For now, a little less drilling all round. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia.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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| Coronavirus: South Africa begins three-week lockdown Posted: 26 Mar 2020 05:48 PM PDT  Police and the army patrol the streets as all but essential movement is banned across the country.
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| 'I won't survive': Iranian scientist in US detention says Ice will let Covid-19 kill many Posted: 26 Mar 2020 05:45 PM PDT  Although he was exonerated, Dr Sirous Asgari remains locked up and tells the Guardian 'inhumane' jail is denying detainees masks and hand sanitizer * Coronavirus – live US updates * Live global updates * See all our coronavirus coverageAn Iranian scientist who was exonerated in a US sanctions trial but remains jailed by immigration authorities said the conditions in detention were filthy and overcrowded – and officials were doing little to prevent a deadly coronavirus outbreak.Dr Sirous Asgari, a materials science and engineering professor, was acquitted in November on federal charges of stealing trade secrets related to his academic work with a university in Ohio. Although the US government lost its case on all charges, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has kept him indefinitely detained since the trial. Now he's speaking out about the "inhumane" treatment that could cost him his life.Asgari, 59, told the Guardian that his Ice holding facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, had no basic cleaning practices in place and continued to bring in new detainees from across the country with no strategy to minimize the threat of Covid-19.In a phone call from the Alexandria Staging Facility (ASF), he said he believed the only safe option would be to shut down the facility due to the deplorable conditions. ASF is a 400-bed site where people are supposed to be detained for no more than 72 hours, typically a final stop before they are deported. But with Covid-19 travel restrictions and flight cancellations, Ice has been holding people for days on end in cramped bunkbeds alongside new arrivals who may have been exposed to the virus.Asgari arrived at ASF on 10 March and has been seeking to voluntarily "self deport" to Iran. Ice has refused to let him fly home or be temporarily released with his family in the US. He alleged: * Detainees have no hand sanitizer, and the facility is not regularly cleaning bathrooms or sleeping areas. Asgari and a few other detainees have devised a schedule to try to clean surfaces themselves with the minimal soap available. * Detainees lack access to masks. For two weeks, ASF also refused to let Asgari wear his own protective mask, which he brought with him to the facility, and it has refused to supply one, despite his history of serious respiratory problems. * Detainees struggle to stay clean, and the facility has an awful stench. Because the facility is supposed to be temporary, there is no laundry available and detainees are stuck with the clothes they were wearing upon arrival, sometimes after long journeys. * There are no physical distancing guidelines at the facility. It appears no procedures or practices have changed in response to Covid-19 since Asgari's arrival, even as Louisiana state and federal officials have urged people to isolate."The way Ice looks at these people is not like they are human beings, but are objects to get rid of," said Asgari, a professor at the Sharif University of Technology, a public university in Tehran. "The way that they have been treating us is absolutely terrifying. I don't think many people in the US know what is happening inside this black box."The situation is particularly worrying for Asgari, who is at risk of getting pneumonia if an infection like Covid-19 reaches his lungs. Given the conditions at ASF and treatment of detainees, if he were to get coronavirus there, "I don't think I would survive," he said.Advocates said Asgari's case was especially troubling given that there was no legal justification or logic to his continued detention. He arrived in the US in 2017 with his wife and with valid passports and visas but upon arrival discovered he was being prosecuted by the US government for alleged violations of sanctions law.Asgari, a father of three, has deep ties to the US. He completed his materials engineering PhD at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, and two of his children live in the US. But the FBI surveilled him and ultimately he was charged with fraud and trade secret theft relating to his work with a university in Ohio.During a long trial, Asgari won his case and was acquitted in November of 2019, with a judge ruling the government's evidence was insufficient. But because the US had revoked his original visa, he was then taken into Ice custody and has remained imprisoned since. He has asked Ice to let him buy his own ticket back to Iran, but he has not been able to go before an immigration judge and has not been granted bond to at least wait in the US with his daughter."It is so egregious. He didn't do anything wrong," said Mehrnoush Yazdanyar, an attorney and sanctions law expert who is helping Asgari's family and facilitated the Guardian's interview behind bars. "This is someone who is being unlawfully detained. Now if he gets corona, his chances of survival are slim to none."The stakes of his case escalated dramatically after he was taken to ASF on 10 March, just as the coronavirus was officially declared a global pandemic. The professor said the conditions at the facility were unbearable for long-term stays. New detainees are brought in at all hours, meaning it's impossible to get sleep in his pod, where there can be up to 100 people in bunk beds in a single room. He puts toilet paper in his ears but has struggled to get any rest and now has a sleep disorder.Asgari said there was not enough food. There is only one hot meal at 5pm and two smaller meals at breakfast and lunch, and no way to purchase any other food. There are six showers for his pod, and people have a hard time getting clean and can't access clean clothes.In other detention centers and jails, detainees often have official paid jobs and shifts cleaning the facilities. But at ASF, Asgari said, there was no system in place: "They say cleaning is everybody's responsibility … They do sanitization once in a while."He said he had been trying to encourage others to help him clean on a schedule, and that sometimes they have Clorox in the bathroom, but that other times they have had to just use the foam soap from the showers.One of his biggest concerns, however, is that so many people continue to be brought in and mixed with the detainees already there, violating the most basic standards of social distancing. "They are downplaying it in this facility, that it is safe … But the circulation of people under this coronavirus outbreak is absolutely nonsense … Coronavirus is a viral bomb waiting to blow up here."For reasons that are unclear, Ice transferred Asgari from ASF on Monday, took him out of state, then brought him back to the Louisiana facility two days later. When he returned, ASF finally let him use his own mask for the first time, Yazdanyar said.An Ice spokesman did not respond to specific questions about Asgari's case or allegations but said in an email that no one in custody in Louisiana had tested positive for Covid-19 and that detainees were "provided appropriate soap and cleaning supplies".He said Ice was conducting testing at Ice facilities and providing personal protective equipment in accordance with US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, and that all individuals were screened upon arrival.Asgari said he was doing his best to help fellow detainees when he could: "I'm trying to comfort others."If Ice officials were forced to spend a few nights trying to sleep at the facility, "they would understand what an inhumane situation they have created," he added.ASF must close to save lives, he said: "Instead of shutting down, they are doing business as usual … The process is overruling human rights "Asgari said he struggled to comprehend the fact that he remained incarcerated months after his trial ended. "I am deeply hurt by the way I have been treated after I have been exonerated. Ice does not care about justice. Ice does not care about the constitution."
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| US surpasses China for highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world Posted: 26 Mar 2020 05:26 PM PDT  During a press briefing today, Donald Trump said the dates for reopening sections of the country were under discussion * Coronavirus – live US updates * Live global updates * See all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump again struggled to reassure a fearful nation on Thursday as it emerged the US now has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world.News that America had surpassed virus hotspots China and Italy with 82,404 cases of infection, according to a tracker run by Johns Hopkins University, broke as the president was holding a press conference at the White House.His instinctive response was to question other countries' statistics. "It's a tribute to the amount of testing that we're doing," Trump told reporters. "We're doing tremendous testing, and I'm sure you're not able to tell what China is testing or not testing. I think that's a little hard."While the US has increased its testing capacity in recents days the process has been flawed and incoherent, and the country still lags behind leaders such as South Korea in terms of the number of tests administered per-capita.On a grim day, the death toll in America surpassed 1,000 and it was revealed that last week 3.3 million people filed for unemployment – the biggest single-week jump in history. The president has been widely condemned for failing to act fast enough, misjudging the public mood and seeking to blame others rather than taking personal responsibility."It's nobody's fault," Trump said of the jobless figure. "Certainly not in this country. Nobody's fault. We got very lucky when we made a decision not to allow people in from China on a very early date. I say that because some people don't want to accept it, but this was a great decision made by our country, or the numbers that you're talking about – we're a big country – they'd be far greater, far bigger."He added: "I heard it could be six million, could be seven million. It's 3.3 or 3.2, but it's a lot of jobs, but I think we'll come back very strong. The sooner we get back to work – you know, every day we stay out it gets harder to bring it back very quickly, and our people don't want to stay out ... I think you'll see a very fast turnaround once we have a victory over the hidden enemy."Trump told the briefing that dates for reopening sections of the country were under discussion but he notably did not refer to Easter – 12 April – as he has been pushing in recent days.Critics have long accused him of lacking compassion, pointing to examples such as when, in 2017, he lobbed paper towels at hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico. On Thursday he was asked about the thousands of restaurants going out of business, causing personal devastation to owners and staff."I understand the restaurant business," he claimed, describing it as "very delicate". He went on: "You can serve 30 great meals to a person and a family ... one bad meal, 31, and they never come back again. It's a very tough business."He added: "It may not be the same restaurant, it may not be the same ownership, but they'll all be back."Even as New York hospitals become overwhelmed, with doctors complaining of nightmarish conditions, and cases spike in cities such as New Orleans, Trump continued to talk down the threat from the virus. "Many people have it. I just spoke to two people that had it. They never went to a doctor, they didn't report it ... The people that actually die, that percentage is much lower than I actually thought."He added, "The mortality rate, in my opinion, is way down," even though experts have warned that this is likely to worsen in the coming weeks.In a tone that again seemed at odds with the gravity of the situation, Trump asked a reporter from Bloomberg News, "How's Michael doing, good?" – a reference to the failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg – and dismissed a state governor who took part in a conference call as a "wise guy".He also said he will speak by phone with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later on Thursday, claiming they have a "very good relationship". The president has repeatedly used the phrase "Chinese virus", angering some in that country."No, it came from China," he said, but he added, "if they feel so strongly about it, we'll see."Vice-president Mike Pence and Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, also sought to calm fears about a shortage of ventilators, despite media reports to the contrary.Birx said of New York: "To wake up this morning and look at people talking about creating DNR situations, Do-Not-Resuscitate situations for patients – there is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion."There was some silver lining for Trump on Thursday as stocks rallied on Wall Street for that day after a historic $2tn economic rescue package won passage in the Senate. The plan, which is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives on Friday, would distribute $1,200 per adult and $500 per child.Joe Biden, the front runner in the Democratic presidential race, said: "The president is not responsible for the coronavirus, but he bears full responsibility for the slow and uncoordinated response that has exacerbated both the public health and economic impact on our country. The harsh reality is that at least 3 million people now don't have jobs because our president didn't do his job when it mattered."
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| Africa's week in pictures: 20-26 March 2020 Posted: 26 Mar 2020 05:24 PM PDT  A selection of the best photos from across the continent this week.
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