| Trump loyalist set to become national intelligence director on second attempt Posted: 05 May 2020 04:56 PM PDT  John Ratcliffe was forced to withdraw his nomination for the same post nine months ago for exaggerating his security experienceA Trump loyalist nominated as director of national intelligence (DNI) looked set to sail through Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday, only nine months after being forced to withdraw for having exaggerated his security experience.John Ratcliffe, a Republican congressman who fiercely defended the president in last year's impeachment hearings, told the Senate intelligence committee that he would speak truth to power if confirmed as DNI.Ratcliffe was reminded by Democratic senators that his two predecessors had been forced from their posts because the findings of the intelligence community irritated Donald Trump, and that the spy agencies were currently under pressure to provide evidence for Trump's claim that the coronavirus outbreak started in a Chinese laboratory."Regardless of what anyone wants our intelligence to reflect, the intelligence I will provide, if confirmed, will not be impacted or altered as a result of outside influence," Ratcliffe said in his opening remarks at his confirmation hearing, held under social distancing rules, with most of the senators and staff wearing masks. "Above all, my fidelity and loyalty will always be to the constitution and rule of law, and my actions as DNI will reflect that commitment."However Ratcliffe, a fiercely partisan congressman, dodged questions on which Trump has broken with his own intelligence briefers, such as whether there has been any progress towards North Korean disarmament (there has not) and whether Iran was in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal when Trump pulled the US out of the agreement (it was).Ratcliffe said that if confirmed, he would focus on the impact of coronavirus, questions about its origins in China and US competition with Beijing."I view China as the greatest threat actor right now," he said. "Look with respect to Covid-19 and the role China plays; the race to 5G; cybersecurity issues: all roads lead to China," he told the panel.Ratcliffe withdrew his first nomination five days after Trump first named him as a candidate – to widespread surprise – last July, after it was found he had grossly overstated his national security experience.He had falsely claimed on his website to have "arrested over 300 illegal immigrants in a single day" and had "put terrorists in prison" although he had not tried a terrorism case in his time as a US attorney."I don't see what has changed since last summer … when the president decided not to proceed with your nomination over concerns about your inexperience, partisanship and past statements that seemed to embellish your record," the ranking Democrat on committee, Senator Mark Warner, said on Tuesday.However the committee chair, Senator Richard Burr, and the other Republicans on the panel, indicated they would back Ratcliffe's nomination and quickly put it to a vote in the full Senate, despite a legal requirement that the DNI "shall have extensive national security expertise"."The Democrats in the committee and the Senate seem strongly opposed, but Ratcliffe seems likely to secure confirmation, probably on a party-line vote," said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor.Tobias suggested that Ratcliffe's promises to be objective may have assuaged doubters on the committee, or that Burr's standing and independence may have been weakened after he was found to have sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks in mid-February, a few days after publishing a commentary for Fox News claiming that the US was "better prepared than ever before" to confront the virus.Katrina Mulligan, a former official who worked for more than 10 years in the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), suggested another factor that has changed since last summer could be that the Senate is eager to replace the current acting DNI, Richard Grenell, another partisan with even less experience than Ratcliffe and who is not answerable to Congress because he is not confirmed in the role.Mulligan added that US intelligence officials may be resigned to Ratcliffe getting the top job for similar reasons."The morale at ODNI is so low right now and people are so fearful, that I think that there is a real sense that it could be worse," she said. "There's this sense that at least he can form coherent sentences, and at least he has a modicum of experience which the current acting DNI really did not."
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| Judge restores NY Democratic presidential primary on June 23 Posted: 05 May 2020 04:30 PM PDT |
| Q&A: Why some planes are crowded even with air travel down Posted: 05 May 2020 01:56 PM PDT  Every once in a while, social media lights up with photos or video from flights that are nearly full, with passengers clearly violating advice from public health officials about social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. In some cases, airlines are creating the crowds by canceling other flights and packing passengers on the few remaining planes. Carriers say, however, that they are taking action to ease passengers' fears about coronavirus contagion.
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| An influential Chinese think tank warned China its global image is the worst it's been in 31 years and that a worst-case scenario could mean armed conflict with the US Posted: 05 May 2020 01:28 PM PDT  China's Ministry of State Security told President Xi Jinping that anti-China sentiment was at its highest since the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
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| Prosecutor says ICC is working on new Libya arrest warrants Posted: 05 May 2020 12:56 PM PDT |
| High-rise tower catches fire in United Arab Emirates Posted: 05 May 2020 12:48 PM PDT  A high-rise tower caught fire late Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates in a city-state neighboring Dubai, a blaze that saw flames rapidly shoot up the sides of the building like other recent incidents that involved flammable cladding. The blaze at the 48-story Abbco Tower in Sharjah saw flaming debris shower neighboring dusty parking lots and left metal siding littering surrounding streets. The 190-meter (623-foot) tower is among the tallest buildings in Sharjah, one of the seven sheikhdoms that makes up the UAE.
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| 29 soldiers receive Purple Hearts following Iran missile attack Posted: 05 May 2020 12:35 PM PDT  Twenty-nine U.S. Army soldiers will be awarded the Purple Heart for their injuries in Iran's ballistic missile attack on Al Asad airbase in western Iraq in early January. There were 110 U.S. service members suffering from concussion-like injuries following the attack, but U.S. Central Command said a traumatic brain injury (TBI) diagnosis did not automatically qualify a service member to receive the award that is given to those wounded in combat. "The first six Purple Hearts approved for injuries sustained during a Jan. 8, 2020 Iranian ballistic missile attack on Al Assad Air Base in Iraq were awarded to U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait on May 3 and 4, respectively," Cmdr. Zachary Harrell, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, wrote in an email.
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| Trump denies ties to Venezuelan attack with 2 US men jailed Posted: 05 May 2020 11:45 AM PDT  President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States had nothing to do with an alleged incursion into Venezuela that landed two U.S. citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken South American nation. Trump said he had just learned of the detention of the pair, accused by Venezuela of being mercenaries. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said they were part of an operation to kill him that was backed by neighboring Colombia and the United States.
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| Whistleblower: US failed to prepare, sought quick virus fix Posted: 05 May 2020 11:34 AM PDT  The Trump administration failed to prepare for the onslaught of the coronavirus, then sought a quick fix by trying to rush an unproven drug to patients, a senior government scientist alleged in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday. Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, alleges he was reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by President Donald Trump.
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| Trump pick to oversee virus spending pledges impartiality Posted: 05 May 2020 10:59 AM PDT  Brian Miller, a lawyer in the White House counsel's office, told the Senate Banking Committee during his confirmation hearing that "independence is vital" for the special inspector general for pandemic recovery. In a testy exchange with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Miller said his goal is to make all information about the $500 billion fund public. Warren, who helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the 2008 recession, was unimpressed, saying Miller's time in the White House counsel's office should have disqualified him from the inspector general's role.
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| Woman arraigned in killing of security guard over virus mask Posted: 05 May 2020 10:50 AM PDT  A Michigan woman was formally charged Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a store security guard who refused to allow her daughter inside because she wasn't wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus. Sharmel Teague, 45, was arraigned via video Tuesday in district court, according to the Genesee County prosecutor's office. Teague, her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and her son, Ramonyea Bishop, 23, face first-degree premeditated murder charges in Friday's killing of Calvin Munerlyn, 43, at a Family Dollar near downtown Flint.
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| Israel's AG advises court against annulling coalition deal Posted: 05 May 2020 10:48 AM PDT  Israel's attorney general advised the country's top court Tuesday that he sees no grounds for striking down a power-sharing deal struck by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz. The opinion gave a powerful voice of support to Netanyahu and Gantz as the Supreme Court debates a series of legal challenges to their agreement. The court this week looked at two questions: whether Netanyahu can form a new government while facing criminal indictments on corruption charges, and whether his coalition deal with Gantz — which will require changes in existing law — is illegal.
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| Vladimir Putin awards commemorative WWII medal to still-MIA North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Posted: 05 May 2020 10:30 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin has honored North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un with a commemorative World War II medal, just days before the 75th anniversary of the war's conclusion and victory over the Nazis, according to reports. The Russian President honored Kim, believed to be 36, for the latter's role in memorializing Soviet solders who died on North Korean during Korea's 1945 liberation by the U.S. and Soviet Union, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang said in a statement Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Kim — who was rumored last month to have either died or to be on the verge of death following surgery — did not attend Tuesday's ceremony at the Mansudae Place of Congress in Pyongyang, where Alexander Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, presented the medal to North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon.
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| Trump tours, touts mask factory — but no mask for him Posted: 05 May 2020 10:30 AM PDT  Making himself Exhibit A for reopening the country, President Donald Trump visited an Arizona face mask factory Tuesday, using the trip to demonstrate his determination to see an easing of stay-at-home orders even as the coronavirus remains a dire threat. Trump did not wear a mask despite guidelines saying they should be worn inside the factory at all times. In Arizona, Trump acknowledged the human cost of returning to normalcy.
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| Children at risk as pandemic pushes them online, warns U.N. agency Posted: 05 May 2020 10:15 AM PDT |
| Another 1,700 virus deaths reported in NY nursing homes Posted: 05 May 2020 10:03 AM PDT  New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities in a tally that included for the first time people believed to have been killed by the coronavirus before their diagnoses could be confirmed. The tally, released late Monday, emerged as state officials faced scrutiny over how they have protected vulnerable residents from the coronavirus. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1, according to the new totals.
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| Watchdog concerned over Census Bureau's vetting of workers Posted: 05 May 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Almost 300 people working for the U.S. Census Bureau last year had "major" issues with their background checks and a lack of vetting oversight could pose risk to the public and the agency as it hires and deploys hundreds of thousands of census takers for the 2020 census, according to a watchdog report released last week. About 70 of the workers deemed to have "major" issues were in the field last fall, verifying addresses ahead of the once-a-decade head count of the U.S. More than a dozen other workers with some kind of derogatory information in their background checks had access to Census Bureau facilities and information systems, and they included employees working in positions deemed "critical" and "high risk," according to the report from the Office of Inspector General.
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| Pelosi pushes new virus package as McConnell hits 'pause' Posted: 05 May 2020 09:23 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressed ahead Tuesday with the next coronavirus aid, a sweeping package that is expected to be unveiled soon even as the House stays closed while the Senate reopens in the pandemic. "We still don't have a national testing strategy that is adequate," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday it's time to push "pause" on more aid.
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| Iran news agency: Gunmen kill 3 Revolutionary Guard members Posted: 05 May 2020 09:19 AM PDT |
| Yemen rebels report first coronavirus death in capital Posted: 05 May 2020 08:57 AM PDT  Yemen's Huthi rebels Tuesday announced the first coronavirus death in the capital Sanaa, which they control, stoking new fears of a major outbreak in the war-torn country. Yemen's healthcare system has been blighted by years of conflict that has driven millions from their homes and plunged the country into what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Huthis' health minister, Taha al-Mutawakel, told a news conference the case involved a man from Somalia who was found dead in a hotel on Sunday and posthumously tested positive for the virus.
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| Vote-by-mail debate raises fears of election disinformation Posted: 05 May 2020 08:34 AM PDT  A bitterly partisan debate unfolding on whether more Americans should cast their votes through the mail during a pandemic is provoking online disinformation and conspiracy theories that could undermine trust in the results, even if there are no major problems. With social distancing guidelines possibly curtailing in-person voting at the polls in November, states are drawing up plans to rely more heavily on a mail-in system that has until now seen only limited use. Historically, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting.
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| Snubbing Merkel pleas, German states further ease virus curbs Posted: 05 May 2020 08:34 AM PDT  Germany is accelerating its return to normality from a crippling lockdown, with regional leaders pushing back against Chancellor Angela Merkel's pleas for prudence in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. On the eve of a key meeting between Merkel and premiers of Germany's 16 states to debate a new round of easing of stay-at-home measures, the country's biggest state pre-empted talks by saying it would reopen its restaurants and hotels this month. Under the plan to progressively restart the gastronomy and hospitality sectors, Bavaria said restaurants would first be allowed to offer outdoor dining from May 18, before extending the opening to indoor dining a week later.
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| Sudan appoints its first ambassador to the US in 25 years Posted: 05 May 2020 08:16 AM PDT |
| Giant cinnamon rolls raise money, feed 'bellies and souls' Posted: 05 May 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Scared for friends who had contracted the new coronavirus and worried about her daughter's schooling and husband's work, Whitney Rutz cried and screamed into her pillow. What began as an effort to cheer herself up ended up lifting the spirits of many others, raising money for thousands of meals and nourishing "the bellies and souls" of heath care workers — one giant cinnamon roll at a time. Rutz's rolls have raised more than $35,000 for the Oregon Food Bank, enough for more than 105,000 meals.
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| Mother's Day this year means getting creative from afar Posted: 05 May 2020 07:19 AM PDT  Mother's Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups. In suburban St. Louis, Steve Turner and his family hope to FaceTime with his 96-year-old mother, Beverly, but they plan something more, too. Anna Francese Gass in New Canaan, Connecticut, is hunkered down with her husband and three children and will enjoy her usual Mother's Day breakfast in bed of rubbery eggs, slightly burnt toast and VERY milky coffee.
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| Rescued from boats, Bangladesh sends desperate Rohingya to 'prison' island in Bay of Bengal Posted: 05 May 2020 07:16 AM PDT  At first, Rohingya refugee Mohammed Shobbir Ahmed was relieved when he received a 4am call on Saturday that his teenage daughters had arrived safely back on Bangladeshi shores after spending weeks in peril adrift at sea. But his anguish returned when he learned their attempted flight from the squalid refugee camp near Cox's Bazar to a better life in Malaysia had resulted in them being banished to Bhasan Char, a remote cyclone-prone silt island in the Bay of Bengal that aid agencies have not yet cleared for habitation. "I received a phone call from an unknown number the day the boat landed in Cox's Bazar. My daughter said that while trying to reach land, they had been arrested and were being sent somewhere," the 48-year-old father told The Telegraph. "She said 'we are on the boat. We heard that they are sending us to Bhasan Char,'" he said. He now fears he will never be reunited with his children Imtiaz Begum, 19, and Shawkat Ara Begum, 17. The Bangladeshi authorities have since confirmed that a group of up to 29 refugees, among them reportedly women and children, have been transferred to the controversial island in the Bay of Bengal. They are believed to be part of a larger group of up to 350 refugees still stranded at sea after trying to flee desperate conditions in the world's largest refugee camp, Kutupalong, which houses more than one million Rohingya who fled a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar army. The United Nations has warned that those still afloat face another "human tragedy of terrible proportions" as countries chase them from their coastlines. In April, some 70 people tragically starved to death as they drifted aimlessly across open waters.
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| Coronavirus: Somalia probes Kenyan aid plane crash Posted: 05 May 2020 07:03 AM PDT  The African Express aircraft crashed in flames before it was due to land, killing all six on board.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 05 May 2020 06:38 AM PDT  Britain on Tuesday became the first country in Europe to confirm more than 30,000 coronavirus deaths, and infections rose sharply again in Russia, even as other nations made great strides in containing the scourge. In the U.S., an Associated Press analysis found that if the New York metropolitan area's progress against the coronavirus is removed from the equation, the rest of the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump traveled to Arizona to visit a mask factory — where he did not wear a mask — and pushed for an easing of stay-at-home orders.
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| Coronavirus: Do not use untested remedies, WHO Africa warns Posted: 05 May 2020 06:09 AM PDT  The statement comes as Madagascar is promoting a product that has not gone through clinical trials.
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| FBI warns of secret Russian interference in 2020 elections Posted: 05 May 2020 05:46 AM PDT  The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have warned states that Russia could try to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections by secretly advising campaigns and candidates, an Associated Press report said on Monday. In a memo sent on Feb. 3, U.S. officials outlined eight potential tactics that Russia could use in the coming months, including what they call the "high" threat of a repeat of 2016, when Russian military hackers leaked emails stolen from the Clinton campaign. The memo says that while this tactic hasn't happened before in the U.S., the strategy has been employed in Africa by political operatives associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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| Consider human costs in economic reopenings, Cuomo urges Posted: 05 May 2020 05:35 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo argued that officials who are reopening economies need to be upfront about the human costs. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is adding staff to the city's deluged 311 helpline, and police prepared for nightly subway closures. "How much is a human life worth?" Cuomo asked at his daily news briefing.
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| AP Courtside: Supreme Court finishes Day 2 of phone argument Posted: 05 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT  The Supreme Court is hearing a second day of arguments by telephone with the audio available live to audiences around the world. Monday was the justices' first foray into the setup they settled on because of the coronavirus pandemic. After hearing Tuesday's case, the justices will have four scheduled days of argument and eight cases remaining.
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| U.K. to Start Post-Brexit Trade Talks With the U.S. Posted: 05 May 2020 04:53 AM PDT  The first round of post-Brexit trade talks between the U.K. and the U.S. are scheduled to start Tuesday. The U.K. officially left the European Union on Jan. 31 of this year — allowing British officials to strike trade deals with other countries. Pharmaceuticals and food safety regulations are expected to be two potential hot-button issues during its negotiations with the U.S.
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| U.K. To Start Post-Brexit Trade Talks With The U.S. Posted: 05 May 2020 04:53 AM PDT The first round of post-Brexit trade talks between the U.K. and the U.S. are scheduled to start Tuesday. The U.K. officially left the European Union on Jan. 31 of this year — allowing British officials to strike trade deals with other countries. Pharmaceuticals and food safety regulations are expected to be two potential hot-button issues during its negotiations with the U.S.
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| Record numbers of people internally displaced in 2019, says UN Posted: 05 May 2020 04:17 AM PDT  The U.N. children's agency said Tuesday that an estimated 46 million people - 19 million of them children - fled violence and conflict last year but remained in their home country, and millions more were displaced by disasters. A UNICEF report said there has been a steep increase in the number of internally displaced people, or IDPs, from 25 million a decade ago to more than 40 million in the last five years. Last year, more than 40 per cent of the displaced were under the age of 18, it said. "Millions of displaced children around the world are already going without proper care and protection," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. "When new crises emerge, like the Covid-19 pandemic, these children are especially vulnerable." Almost 33 million newly displaced people were recorded in 2019 - around 25 million due to natural disasters and 8.5 million due to conflict and violence, according to the report.
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| Coronavirus: Tanzanian president promises to import Madagascar's 'cure' Posted: 05 May 2020 04:16 AM PDT  There is no scientific proof the Madagascan-made tonic is effective in treating the virus.
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| Iranian airline linked to Revolutionary Guards 'defied coronavirus ban on China flights' Posted: 05 May 2020 03:08 AM PDT  An Iranian airline with links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps may have contributed to the spread of coronavirus around the Middle East after it continued to fly to China despite a ban imposed by the Iranian government, an investigation has claimed. Mahan Air, a privately owned airline, flew between Iran and China 157 times between early February and March, an analysis of flight tracking data by BBC Arabic found. The Iranian government banned flights to and from China on January 31. Mahan said it was suspending flights and ticket sales to and from China on February 2, in accordance with instruction from the World Health Organisation and Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation. It has previously said it carried out several evacuation flights of Iranian citizens after that date, and published a message of thanks from Iranian aviation authorities for doing so on its website on February 7. The flights included an Airbus 310 that repatriated 70 Iranian students from Wuhan to Tehran on February 6, and then flew on to Baghdad the following day. Four more flights were operated between February 3 and February 6, carrying repatriated Chinese and Iranian citizens in either direction. But the BBC found that that airline continued to fly regularly to destinations including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen after that. It also claimed that Mahan had continued to fly to Iraq after the government of that country banned flights from Iran on April 20, and to the United Arab Emirates after it introduced a ban on February 25. Iraq and Lebanon reported their first cases of coronavirus in travellers from Iran in February. The BBC claimed both cases arrived on Mahan Air flights. Iran was one of the worst-affected countries at the beginning of the pandemic and has so far recorded almost 100,000 cases of the coronavirus. Allegations that Mahan was flouting the flight ban were first reported in the Shargh daily, a reformist newspaper in Iran. Mahan said in a statement at the time that since the ban on China routes it had only flown repatriation and aid flights at the request of the country's ministries of health and foreign affairs. It said it had also agreed to fly industrial materials from China for Iranian manufacturers. "Obviously, our company would be in such a situation that regardless of material interests and even accepting losses, it had to assist the esteemed government and the country's industries and carry over hundreds of tons of industrial items to Iran," it said. Mahan has faced US sanctions because of its suspected links to the Revolutionary Guards Corps. Germany, France and Italy banned Mahan flights in 2019, following requests from the United States. Germany cited "security" concerns and the airline's alleged role in flying personnel and material to conflict zones including Syria. The airline's last European Union route, a twice-weekly service between Tehran and Barcelona was cancelled in March after Spain revoked its landing license. Mahan did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
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| Column: The White House plays dumb on the pandemic's China connection Posted: 05 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Anger at Xi Jinping's government over the coronavirus crisis is warranted, but treating a nuclear and economic superpower as an existential enemy to satisfy domestic political needs isn't the smart way to go.
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| Report: Israeli airstrikes on eastern Syria kill 14 fighters Posted: 05 May 2020 02:40 AM PDT |
| Kenya questions deadly plane crash in Somalia that killed 6 Posted: 05 May 2020 02:37 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: countries move to shield companies from foreign acquisition, especially by China Posted: 05 May 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Countries around the world are erecting barriers to fend off expected efforts by foreign corporate acquirers, particularly China, to scoop up strategically important assets that have lost value during the coronavirus pandemic.From the United States to India to Australia, governments, warning about the need to keep key industries from falling into the hands of adversaries, have taken action against potential fire sales of prized companies whose share prices have been hard hit.The pandemic has unleashed an international economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression. The International Monetary Fund is predicting a global recession, and the United Nations estimates income losses of US$2 trillion worldwide.Trillions of dollars of company valuations have already been wiped out. In the US alone, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average, despite a recent recovery, is down 18 per cent since late February.Boeing and Airbus, the US and European aircraft giants, have each lost nearly 60 per cent in market value since mid-February; shares in the Italian oil titan ENI and Australia's largest mining company, BHP Group, are down 40 per cent or more since January.As asset value drops in aerospace and energy companies, governments worry that buying opportunities are being created for adversaries like China. In just the past weeks countries have put new protective measures in place " with governments strengthening foreign-investment reviews and even weighing whether to take stakes in some companies considered strategic.Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's competition commissioner, said last month that European countries should consider buying stakes in companies to stave off the threat of Chinese takeovers, the Financial Times reported. "We don't have any issues of states acting as market participants if need be " if they provide shares in a company, if they want to prevent a takeover of this kind," she said.Margrethe Vestagerm the European Commission's competition commissioner, said member nations could but stakes in companies "if they want to prevent a takeover". Photo: AFP alt=Margrethe Vestagerm the European Commission's competition commissioner, said member nations could but stakes in companies "if they want to prevent a takeover". Photo: AFPRod Hunter, a Washington-based lawyer at Baker McKenzie who advises on foreign investments, said, "Governments are saying we don't want other people to take advantage of the market upheaval."A lasting effect from the pandemic will be that it has exposed areas of vulnerabilities across the economy " whether it be dependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients or Europe for medical devices," Hunter, who previously worked at the National Security Council, added. "Awareness of these vulnerabilities will influence how governments look at foreign investment from all regions, but especially China."As Beijing becomes more vocal about its global ambitions in technology and military development under President Xi Jinping, Chinese investments in strategic sectors have grown as a sensitive issue in the West.The pandemic has reminded government leaders worldwide how heavily their nations rely on China for simple but fundamentally important products, from masks to medicines, and how entwined their economies are with China's for supply chains in a vast range of categories.And governments instituting new restrictions are walking a tightrope: protecting national security without jeopardising the lifeline provided by foreign investment at a time when businesses need cash to survive.China is not specifically named in any new measures, but in discussing the need for them, officials have spoken of fears about overreliance on Chinese manufacturing. Senior European policymakers have recently argued that the supply chain breakdowns during the crisis have underscored the importance of having domestic manufacturing capacity to produce key materials.On March 25, the European Commission issued new foreign-investment guidelines for its member nations to safeguard assets, notably in health, medical research, biotechnology and infrastructures.The new rules required member states like Greece and Belgium that lack investment reviews to set up screening mechanisms."The risks to the EU's broader strategic capacities may be exacerbated by the volatility or undervaluation of European stock markets," the commission said in its new guidelines. "Strategic assets are crucial to Europe's security, and are part of the backbone of its economy and, as a result, of its capability for a fast recovery."Additionally, member states were asked to consider the impact on the European Union as a whole."Remember, the acquisition of a company in your country may have a security effect in other member states or it may negatively affect a project of union interest. Today more than ever, the EU's openness to foreign investment needs to be balanced by appropriate screening tools," said European Commissioner Phil Hogan.Government officials elsewhere are wrestling with the same concerns.For example, Australia " though its economy is heavily reliant on trade with China " followed suit a few days later by requiring all proposed foreign acquisitions to undergo review, eliminating a dollar-value threshold. It also extended the review process " previously 30 days " to up to six months.Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg expressed concern about distressed assets ending up in the hands of opportunistic foreign interests.Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has raised concerns about foreign acquisitions of distressed assets. Photo: AAP Image alt=Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has raised concerns about foreign acquisitions of distressed assets. Photo: AAP Image"There is likely to be a rise in debt-restructuring transactions for Australian businesses, along with opportunities to invest in distressed assets. Without these changes, it is possible many normally viable Australian businesses would be sold to foreign interests without any government oversight, presenting risks to the national interest," the government said in a statement.Also, India on April 17 revised its foreign investment rules to include any country that shares a land border with it " "a move clearly directed against China," the Brookings Institution research group reported."Beijing's approach has fuelled Delhi's existing strategic and economic concerns," according to the report. "These include overdependence on China for industrial inputs. Because of this crisis, the desire to boost domestic production or diversify India's options is likely to intensify."A spokesperson for China's embassy in New Delhi pushed back on the rules two days later, saying that the move was against free and fair trade and violated World Trade Organisation principles of non-discrimination."The impact of the policy on Chinese investors is clear," the spokesperson said in a statement.First hit by coronavirus in December in Wuhan, China was forced to close factories and businesses en masse. And the nation's GDP shrank 6.8 per cent in the first quarter, the first contraction since 1976 in an economy known for its consistent growth.Even so, some analysts argue that Beijing's severe measures to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak may have put the country on a faster track to financial recovery than Western nations " giving it an upper hand in pursuing strategic acquisitions.The European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The commission has issued new safeguards for its members to follow concerning acquisitions by foreign investors. Photo: Reuters alt=The European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The commission has issued new safeguards for its members to follow concerning acquisitions by foreign investors. Photo: Reuters"We could argue China is the first to recover. Arguably, they are on the back end of the crisis. Their financial situation is stabilising," John Lash, a business consultant on foreign acquisitions at the Control Risks consulting firm in Washington, said."On the other hand, if you are an investor in the US right now, it's less likely you would deploy the capital when there is so much uncertainty."Though China's outbound direct investment decreased to US$117 billion from its 2016 peak of US$196 billion, tech and media telecommunications continued to dominate its investors' overseas acquisitions, with 22 per cent of deals completed in these sectors last year, according to an Ernst & Young report.China's ambitions for tech-sector dominance, for example, haven't changed: just this week, Reuters reported that Beijing is preparing a new plan this year called China Standards 2035, intending to set global standards for the production distribution and use of next-generation technologies like telecoms and artificial intelligence.In March, Ellen Lord, the US Undersecretary of Defence in charge of monitoring foreign investments, warned that it was "critically important that we understand that during this crisis, the [defence-industrial base] is vulnerable to adversarial capital".Ellen Lord, an Undersecretary of Defence, said that "during this crisis" military suppliers are "vulnerable to adversarial capital". Photo: Reuters alt=Ellen Lord, an Undersecretary of Defence, said that "during this crisis" military suppliers are "vulnerable to adversarial capital". Photo: ReutersLord said that US small businesses "may be more likely to enter problematic arrangements with foreign investors owing to uncertainty surrounding the renewal of their defence contracts".Lash said he had started to see an uptick in foreign interest in distressed US assets.The tech sector is particularly active with overseas investors, many from China, offering financing " from convertible loans to straight-up takeovers, he said. Lash didn't disclose specific deals due to the confidential nature of the transactions.Such transactions, he noted, would eventually come to the attention of the Committee of Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS). The inter-agency federal body that reviews most foreign deals for national security implications, it has been given more power in recent years by the Trump administration."It's very difficult to balance. But we ought to understand there will be adversaries that take advantage of the situation."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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| UK launches historic trade talks with the US by video conference Posted: 05 May 2020 02:02 AM PDT  Britain and America have officially launched negotiations for a historic trade agreement over video conference, with both sides pledging to seek an "ambitious" deal. Each represented by about 100 officials, the two sides said a transatlantic partnership would contribute to the long-term health of both countries amid a battle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. As the largest and fifth-largest economies in the world, both nations emphasised the potential economic benefits of a deal as the UK lifts its horizons beyond the European Union. However, estimates provided in the Department for International Trade's own negotiating objectives suggest an agreement may boost GDP by just 0.07pc to 0.16pc - not enough to make up for lost growth of between 2pc to 8pc which a 2018 Whitehall study predicted would disappear due to Brexit. Harry Broadman, a trade negotiator in the Bush and Clinton administrations and managing director of the California-based Berkeley Research Group, warned that a comprehensive agreement was unlikely. He said: "The UK is underestimating the vociferousness of what the US will demand," he said. "If I were in Boris Johnson's shoes, I'd spend my limited resources on trade negotiators on dealing with the EU. "Mr Trump's number one metric is to lower the US trade deficit. "A free trade agreement (FTA) is a tall order but deals on one or two sectors - where the UK buys more US goods and vice versa - could well be where we end up. It wouldn't be economically meaningful and it's a far cry from an FTA."
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| The Hedge Fund Man Behind Pro-Trump Media’s New War on China Posted: 05 May 2020 01:50 AM PDT  This article was co-published with Responsible Statecraft.A fortune made at a secretive hedge fund led by Robert Mercer — one of Donald Trump's biggest donors — appears to be fueling a push for a confrontation with China across a number of connected media properties.A tax document not intended for public disclosure reveals that a branch of the Epoch Media Group — a conservative media empire controlled by Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement with a stated goal of destroying the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — received over $900,000 from and was formerly led by one of Mercer's longtime employees, Huayi Zhang, at the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.Most of Epoch Media Group's work has been devoted to portraying China in the most dangerous and sinister ways possible and the emergence of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan played directly into their narrative. Since 2005, the outlet has branded infectious disease outbreaks in China as "CCP Virus." But Epoch has expanded outside of its hawkish anti-Beijing editorial line, emerging as one of the most prolific pro-Trump media outlets. Its newspaper, Epoch Times, has become a reliable Trumpist mouthpiece. In August 2019, Facebook banned future ad buys from the Epoch Media Group after it spent over $9 million on ads, including approximately 11,000 pro-Trump Facebook advertisements, more than any other organization other than the Trump campaign. Facebook said that Epoch evaded the company's transparency rules for political advertising and "repeatedly violated a number of our policies, including our policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior, spam and misrepresentation, to name just a few." China Hijacked This American Mom's Tweets for Coronavirus PropagandaNBC News, which reported extensively on Epoch's pro-Trump Facebook ad-buys and the subsequent ban, spoke with former Falun Gong members who told the network "that believers think the world is headed toward a judgment day, where those labeled 'communists' will be sent to a kind of hell, and those sympathetic to the spiritual community will be spared. Trump is viewed as a key ally in the anti-communist fight."Trump, for his part, doesn't seem like a natural ally for Falun Gong or Epoch Media. He swings between praising Chinese President Xi Jinping at one moment and playing to a xenophobic audience by amplifying the labels "China Virus" or "Wuhan Virus" in the next. Nevertheless, Falun Gong's media empire dramatically shifted its focus to promoting Donald Trump, both through paid advertising and its own reported and editorial output — a massive change in focus and resource allocation for the little-known news outlet.An IRS filing showing the largest contributors to Universal Communications Network — a nonprofit that operates as "New Tang Dynasty Television," the digital media and TV producer for the Epoch Media Group — sheds light on the group's funding and its tangential ties to one of Trump's deep-pocketed funders.The document reveals that a couple, Huayi and Siuling Zhang, contributed $909,500 to New Tang Dynasty between 2012 and 2016. Zhang also served as chair of the organization's board in 2004, 2005 and 2007 to 2010. He was listed as a director in 2006.Scarce information is available about Huayi and Siuling Zhang, but a now deleted biography for Huayi that was published on New Tang Dynasty Television's website in 2010 and accessed via Archive.org says that Huayi worked at Mercer's hedge fund and is associated with Falun Gong. "Dr. Huayi Zhang is a principal of Renaissance Technologies," says the biography. "Dr. Zhang joined Kepler Financial Management, the predecessor of Renaissance's equity arm, in 1989 and became a principal researcher in devising the company's mathematical trading system. Dr. Zhang is a Trustee of the Dongfang College. He is also on the Board of the Asia Vision Foundation."Both Dongfang College and Asia Vision Foundation are Falun Gong related entities.Zhang leans to the right in his political giving, contributing $5,000 to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2012, $500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2018, and $500 to Rep. Lee Zeldin's (R-NY) reelection campaign in 2018. Zhang's wife, Siuling, contributed $10,000 to Romney's 2012 election efforts.Huayi Zhang also listed Renaissance Technologies as his employer in campaign contributions, suggesting he was still an employee at the fund until at least 2018.Renaissance Technologies is a highly secretive hedge fund specializing in quantitative models to guide systematic trading and has over $100 billion under management. It gained notoriety as the source of wealth for Trump mega-donor, Robert Mercer, who served as co-CEO of Renaissance from 2009 to 2017. Mercer stepped down from his co-CEO role following backlash against the firm over Mercer's extensive political activism on the far-right.Those activities included investing at least $10 million in Breitbart News in 2011, which at the time was led by Steve Bannon. Breitbart — a virulently anti-immigrant and conspiracy theory promoting outlet — offered highly favorable coverage to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, funded "Clinton Cash," an error riddled book and documentary making bold claims about Bill and Hillary Clinton's finances, and contributed $2 million to Secure America Now (SAN), a group that ran mock travel ads propagating an Islamophobic conspiracy theory that Muslims are seeking to overrun western countries like France, Germany, and the United States.There is no evidence that Zhang and Mercer, through their shared affiliation with Renaissance Technologies and their respective affiliations with right-wing media outlets Epoch Media and Breitbart, coordinated their efforts to drive a hawkishly anti-Beijing agenda and develop two of the most proflific pro-Trump megaphones on the Internet. But the largely parallel stories of two men with backgrounds in mathematics, fortunes made with the secretive quantitative trading systems at Renaissance Technologies, and an ideological tilt toward right-wing politics, appears to have produced eerily similar outcomes in the pro-Trump mediasphere.When contacted about Zhang's roles as a major donor, chairman and a board member of Universal Communications Network, Jenny Chang, New Tang Dynasty's Vice President of Broadcast Programming, said, "Huayi Zhang does not hold any leadership role at Universal Communications Network or any other Epoch Media Group-related entities. He has not been involved with Epoch Media Group for at least seven years.""We are also not aware of any donations from any other employees of Renaissance Technologies," she added. "No one from Renaissance Technologies has any involvement in any Epoch Media Group-related entities."Zhang did not respond to a request for comment. But Mercer and Zhang's media funding overlap in their respective promotion of Bannon, who served in Trump's White House as chief strategist. Bannon, despite suffering a reported falling out with Mercer, continues to receive generous promotion by Breitbart (Robert Mercer's share is now owned by his daughters) and SAN.That promotion of Bannon is closely mirrored by Epoch Media's positive coverage of him. Bannon embraced hyper-nationalistic and anti-Beijing messages long before the COVID-19 pandemic, and he has continued since. "The devastation, not just human lives which has been horrible, but the devastation economically, the devastation on capital markets will literally take us 10 years," he said on a recent SAN podcast in March. "It will take us a decade to go through the carnage that the Chinese Communist Party visited on the rest of the free world." In October, Bannon's new feature film, "Claws of the Red Dragon," premiered on the pro-Trump One America News Network, offering his unique spin on the legal battle following the arrest in Canada of a Huawei executive. The film tells a story of how Huaxin, a fictional company clearly based on Huawei, works toward "the realization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government's global cyberspace dominance," according to a synopsis on the film's website, and concludes with Canada on the brink of a clash with China.New Tang Dynasty Television, the group Zhang funded and chaired for several years, funded Claws of the Red Dragon, The Daily Beast previously reported.And Falun Gong's Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television have emerged as significant platforms for Trump allies seeking friendly interviews and uncritical coverage of the administration's policies, striking a similar tone to the anti-Beijing and hyper-nationalist messages emerging from Mercer-linked groups like Breitbart and SAN.Trump Stops Saying 'Wuhan Virus' After Xi Strokes His EgoBannon and current and former Trump confidantes including Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, former Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, White House Innovation Chief Brooke Rollins, former White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, Fred Fleitz, former Chief of Staff to National Security Adviser John Bolton, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson have all sat down for extended one-on-one interviews for Epoch's "American Thought Leaders" online interview series.At the end of March, Bannon, who has appeared on multiple Epoch Media outlets for interviews, sat down for a half hour interview about COVID-19 with New Tang Dynasty and appeared to be speaking directly to Falun Gong members, who want to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party. "This is the most important thing in the twenty-first century," said Bannon. "We now have to assist the Chinese people in their freedom from the Chinese Communist Party. If we do that, if we assist the Chinese people in their freedom and their quest for freedom, the rest of the century is gonna take care of itself." Bannon concluded, echoing Epoch Media's language, "[The Chinese Communist Party] has proven they are an illegitimate government by what they allowed to happen in this pandemic and the CCP and the spread of the CPP virus."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| GOP Senator Abruptly Goes from China Cheerleader to Anti-Beijing Hawk Posted: 05 May 2020 01:49 AM PDT  In mid-April, national Republicans urged their Senate candidates to focus their coronavirus messaging on Chinese misdeeds. The day before, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) had already started buying television ads doing just that.Daines' campaign moved on April 16 to reserve TV ad time for a 30-second spot that alleged, in the words of campaign filings with the Federal Communications Commission: "China is responsible for the coronavirus and needs to be held accountable." The TV buy followed weeks of digital advertising by the campaign hitting the same message, and efforts by Daines in his official capacity to investigate and punish Beijing for what U.S. officials believe was an effort to downplay the virus publicly while China secured resources to combat it internally.The Daines ad campaign is standard fare for Trump-allied Republicans these days. But unlike many of his Senate colleagues, Daines is criticizing China after years of feting high-ranking officials in its government, most recently as a senator whom the country's top diplomat in the U.S. praised as a steadfast ally. Years earlier, Daines worked in China for a Fortune 100 company that worked closely with local Communist Party officials to market and distribute its products.Daines' office did not respond to requests for comment on this story.Democrats Fear Trump's New 2020 Strategy Is WorkingThe contrast between Daines' tone since last month and his work in the years prior shows the challenges that some lawmakers will face as they attempt to lean into anti-China messaging in the absence of a more coherent, positive list of coronavirus-related accomplishments that they can sell to voters in an election year.That's a challenge faced to a certain degree by President Trump himself, who, along with his campaign and the Republican National Committee, has teed off on China in recent weeks over its role in the virus' early spread. Though a frequent China critic even prior to his foray into politics, Trump has lavished praise on his "friend," Chinese president Xi Jinping. And in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, Trump repeatedly praised Xi's government's response to the pandemic.Daines too had some kind words for the early Chinese response to the coronavirus. "The Chinese government aggressively worked to contain it," he said during a February 25 interview on the Fox Business Network. "I think the challenge we face right now though," he added, "is we're not always getting perhaps transparency and accuracy from what is actually happening in China, so that's one of the challenges we face is are the numbers even accurate? Are they understating what's really happening in China?"Daines' position now is that not only was Chinese data inaccurate, but that the Communist Party deliberately covered up the true nature of the virus, and must now be punished for it."China lied about the Coronavirus, putting the jobs and health of Montanans at risk," he alleged in the campaign ad that began airing last month. "Now America is dangerously dependent on China for life saving drugs. Senator Steve Daines is holding China accountable."The Facebook ads run by Daines campaign since early April made similar allegations. "The Chinese Communist Party suppressed information, downplayed the virus, arrested doctors who tried to warn the public, and even tried to blame American soldiers for creating the China virus. Their actions are reprehensible. Help me EXPOSE China's deadly cover-up of the China virus," one such ad said. That language closely mirrored talking points circulated to Republican Senate campaigns by the National Republican Senatorial Committee in a memo dated April 17. "The Chinese Communist Party caused this pandemic. They arrested doctors who tried to warn us. They covered up the number of deaths. They lied and pretended the disease could not be transmitted. China bought up the world's supply of face masks and medical supplies, and then stopped exports out of the country when we needed them," the memo, which was first reported by Politico, said.That memo also advised Senate candidates to pledge to "move our manufacturing out of China and back home" so as to "create jobs in the United States" and benefit national security. "We need to get all of our pharmaceutical production out of China because we can't trust them," it added. That language tracked with Daines ads on Facebook that hailed his efforts at "Breaking our dependence on China. Bringing drug manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Speeding up the development of Coronavirus vaccines.""Finally," the NRSC memo advised candidates to say, "we need to investigate how China was able to keep this pandemic hidden. China should pay a price for arresting doctors who tried to warn about the pandemic." That's precisely what Daines has done in his official capacity. In early April, he officially requested a State Department investigation into China's "culpability" in the coronavirus pandemic.U.S. Eyes Second Coronavirus Outbreak in ChinaDaines is just one of a number of U.S. lawmakers who've pressed for that sort of inquiry. But he has a lengthier track record than most of not just working with the Chinese government but actively courting senior Communist Party officials. "Some people tend to see China as a binary choice, between a friend or a foe, but in reality you can't put China into some kind of well-defined box," said Daines, then the co-chair of the the Senate US-China Working Group, during a 2017 keynote address at an annual gala for the US-China Business Council.Much of that work took place as Daines sought to open up Chinese markets to U.S. exporters—in particular Montana's beef industry. In 2017, Daines succeeded in winning a $200 million deal for the sale of Montana livestock in the country. In August of last year, he announced his fifth trip to China as a U.S. Senator.During one of those delegations, Daines sought to reassure Chinese government officials concerned about Trump administration efforts to boost U.S. relations with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province of China. "We only have one embassy in China, here in Beijing, and one ambassador who is sitting right next to me," Daines assured his hosts in his June 2018 trip, according to a Financial Times report on the meeting.Daines has also welcomed high-ranking Chinese government officials to the U.S. in his official capacity. In December 2017, shortly after winning that Chinese beef export deal, Daines hosted a delegation of party officials who oversee the disputed territory of Tibet. The event was timed to undermine a simultaneous visit to Washington by the leader of Tibet's government-in-exile.Daines also opposed a Senate resolution earlier that year to rename the street outside of the Chinese embassy in Washington after an imprisoned Chinese dissident. A spokesperson told the Washington Post at the time that Daines was "focus[ed] is on making change with tact and wisdom, not flashy headlines."A former senior U.S. official who was deeply involved in policy towards China told The Daily Beast that Daines' accommodations of Chinese officials and priorities, even in the context of his efforts to open up markets to Montana exporters, went beyond the normal give-and-take generally required to win concessions from that government."If you want to choose to engage you have to do so in a balanced way so your constituents don't feel that you're capitulating to every whim in order to get access," the official said. "What you see in Sen. Daines is an imbalance at a minimum and overtures that are beyond what you see from any other member.""You're allowed to want bilateral trade," the official added. "You just aren't allowed to bend over backwards to do it and then claim you've been tough on China."Daines' work with the Chinese government even earned him plaudits from senior Party officials. Cui TianKai, China's ambassador to the U.S., lavished praise on Daines during an event in Montana in 2017 promoting the state's livestock industry, according to a Bozeman Daily Chronicle report. "TianKi hailed Daines, and called him China's ambassador in Congress," the paper reported. "Daines said the friendship with China is greatly appreciated."The senator's work in China goes back to the 1990s, when he worked for consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. Daines lived for years in Hong Kong and mainland China, where he helped expand the company's business in the country and ran one of its manufacturing plants. At the time, P&G was pioneering the use of Communist Party "neighborhood committees" as local sales and distribution networks to try to elbow its way into Chinese markets.Daines' time in China for P&G featured prominently in his early commentary on the coronavirus. He mentioned his years there during his Fox Business interview in late February, and in a local talk radio interview a couple weeks earlier.That résumé item went unmentioned in the early April radio segment in which he announced his efforts to investigate China's coronavirus conduct.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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| Putin awards commemorative WWII medal to Kim Jong Un Posted: 05 May 2020 01:34 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded Kim Jong Un a commemorative war medal marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang said Tuesday. The medal was awarded to the North Korean leader for his role in preserving the memory of Soviet soldiers who died on North Korean territory, the statement said. Russia's ambassador in North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, presented the award to the country's Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon on Tuesday.
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| Yemen's south in turmoil after separatists' self-rule bid Posted: 04 May 2020 11:29 PM PDT  A bid by separatists funded by the United Arab Emirates to assert control over southern Yemen has reopened a dangerous new front in Yemen's civil war and pushed it closer to fragmentation at a time when the coronavirus pandemic poses a growing threat. A separatist leader made the declaration from the UAE — a clear sign of its backing for the move.
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| Carrier prepares to go back to sea after virus outbreak Posted: 04 May 2020 10:58 PM PDT  On board the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt, the crew is getting the aircraft carrier ready to head back out to sea. For the ship's commander, Capt. Carlos Sardiello, the road to recovery has been a challenge. For the crew sidelined in Guam for more than a month, it's been an emotional roller coaster.
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| UN: 19 million children among 46 million displaced in 2019 Posted: 04 May 2020 09:56 PM PDT |
| Virus-afflicted 2020 looks like 1918 despite science's march Posted: 04 May 2020 09:25 PM PDT  In the years between two lethal pandemics, one the misnamed Spanish flu, the other COVID-19, the world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. In 1918, no one had a vaccine, treatment or cure for the great flu pandemic as it ravaged the world and killed more than 50 million people.
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