| Coronavirus live updates: Trump promises economic relief plan Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:56 PM PDT  A global outbreak of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 110,000 people, mostly in China. At least 3,825 people have died so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering. South Korea, Italy and Iran have the highest national totals of confirmed cases behind China, respectively.
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| Trump’s Coronavirus Claims Often Contradicted by His Own Experts Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:16 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- With financial markets in freefall Monday morning, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the Trump administration is aggressively responding to "a very serious public health threat" posed by the coronavirus.Azar told Fox News: "Nobody is trying to minimize this."Six minutes later, the president did just that. In a tweet sent as he arrived in Orlando, Florida, for a re-election fundraiser, Trump said seasonal flu deaths in the U.S. had so far outpaced those who perished from coronavirus. "Think about that!" he said.The spread of the deadly virus is thrusting Trump's science and health experts into the uncomfortable role of carefully -- but clearly -- contradicting him by offering warnings, grounded in science, about the risks from the disease and recommending some Americans alter their daily routines.In the past, aides who have dared to diverge from the president too much or express concern about his bluster and bravado -- which Trump sees as leverage in high-stakes negotiations -- often are ejected from the administration.But with the nation facing an unprecedented health scare, members of Trump's coronavirus task force have taken on the burden of contradicting the president's don't-worry approach to the crisis.Within the past week, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said the virus may not just disappear when the weather gets warmer, as Trump predicted. Fauci in an NBC interview over the weekend also had much stronger advice to older and vulnerable Americans, telling them "no large crowds, no long trips and, above all, don't get on a cruise ship."Even Vice President Mike Pence, one of the president's most loyal defenders, tried to clarify Trump's claim that the mortality was lower than 1%, saying the data was still coming in.Market Sell-OffTrump took to the lectern Monday evening to address concerns -- less about the health risks posed by the virus than the economic impact it's having. Making a brief appearance at a daily coronavirus task force briefing, Trump said he's pursuing a payroll tax cut with Congress to deliver "very substantial relief" to industries hit by the outbreak.Trump said he plans to hold another press conference on Tuesday to announce "major" economic measures.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the president's remarks, saying "what was glaringly missing from President Trump's press conference was how he is actually going to combat the spread of the coronavirus and keep the American people safe. It seems President Trump is more focused on the stock market than addressing this pandemic."On Monday, the S&P 500 sank more than 7% -- the most since the May 2010 flash crash. The index, now down 18% from its Feb. 19 all-time high, is threatening to end the record-long bull market that began 11 years ago to the day.The tension between Trump and his public health officials has been evident from the early days of the crisis. On Feb. 25, the president told reporters traveling with him in India that the virus was "very well under control in our country" and that the U.S. was "in very good shape.""Let's just say we're fortunate so far," Trump said. "And we think it's going to remain that way.But hours later, federal health officials warned that the spread of the virus was inevitable and advised businesses to arrange for employees to work from home and consider scrapping meetings and conferences.'This Could Be Bad'"It's not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen," Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters. "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare, in the expectation that this could be bad."That grim prognosis rattled markets, and Trump spent the nearly day-long flight back from India stewing over a crisis that could pose an existential threat to his presidency. When he returned, he again sought to downplay the threat posed by the virus, saying he didn't believe spread was "inevitable.""We have it so well under control," Trump said. "We really have done a very good job."Thus began weeks of the president reassuring Americans that there was little to fear, even as his top health officials sounded the alarm.Warm WeatherDuring a meeting on March 2 with pharmaceutical executives, the president sought to buttress his frequent contention that the virus might disappear as temperatures warm."It seems to be very seasonal, right?" Trump asked.Senators pressed Fauci on that point a day later, and got a more circumspect answer."This is a brand new virus, with which we have no experience," Fauci said. "So, even though the concept that when warm weather comes many respiratory viruses diminish, we have no guarantee at all that this is going to happen with this virus."Like Fauci, officials in the Trump administration have learned to push back gently on the more extreme falsehoods from the president, whether it's diminishing the threat of Russian interference in U.S. elections or the danger posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program.Vaccine TimetableSometimes administration officials attempt to rein in the president on the fly -- like when he asked health officials last Monday about the possibility of a vaccine "over the next few months.""You won't have a vaccine," Azar said. "You'll have a vaccine to go into testing.""So you're talking within a year?" Trump added."A year to a year and a half," Fauci responded.President's HunchA day later, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he "personally" believed the mortality rate was "way under one percent."It fell to coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and Pence to give the president's hunch more context two days later as they visited Seattle, where a nursing home outbreak led to more than a dozen deaths. Birx indicated Trump may have been basing his remarks on data from South Korea, which showed lower mortality rates than other countries."I think the president's point was that the world is still discovering the scope of the coronavirus because many people that contract the coronavirus have no symptoms," Pence said.Pence offered a similarly subtle correction on Friday, after the president claimed during a tour of the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta that "anyone who wants a test can get a test."In fact, testing capacity remained limited."I have every confidence that your physician would contact state health officials and have access to the state lab," Pence said of someone who wanted a test. "We've made those tests available to the state labs."Trump has sought to portray himself as a medical expert. During the CDC visit, he suggested that his know-how emanated from a "great super-genius uncle" who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?"' Trump said. "Maybe I have a natural ability."Political OppositionThe president's political opponents have picked up on the mixed messages, with Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden saying Monday that he wished Trump would "be quiet" and "just let the experts speak.""There's no confidence in the president, in anything he says or does," the former vice president said in an interview with MSNBC. "He turns everything into what he thinks is a political benefit for himself, when he's actually imploding in the process. But there's a lot of innocent bystanders that are being badly hurt."Still, divergent messages continued to emanate from the White House.During the same Fox News interview on Monday, Azar was asked about reports that the administration was seeking to limit visits by foreign dignitaries. Azar said he hadn't seen such an announcement, but that the White House was "going to take steps just like private industry to ensure protection of our people and mitigate the spread of disease."Within an hour, press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement that said the reports were "completely false.""We are conducting business as usual," she said.(Updates with Trump comments in ninth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;Mario Parker in Washington at mparker22@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, John HarneyFor 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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| Italy expands lockdown, Israel tightens entry to halt virus Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:40 PM PDT  The battle to halt the coronavirus brought sweeping new restrictions Monday, with Italy expanding a travel ban to the entire country, Israel ordering all visitors quarantined just weeks before Passover and Easter, and Spain closing all schools in and around its capital. "Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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| US judge: Iran liable in disappearance of retired FBI agent Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:25 PM PDT  A federal judge on Monday held Iran responsible for the kidnapping of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, entering a default judgement against the regime on the 13th anniversary of his disappearance. The decision from U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly was a milestone moment in the family's lawsuit against Tehran, which featured wrenching testimony in Washington's federal court from each of Levinson's seven children. In his 25-page ruling, Kelly found that Iran "in no uncertain terms" was responsible for Levinson's "hostage taking and torture" and entered a default judgment after the country declined to respond to the lawsuit.
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| Evidence in security report claims Russia used British politicians to advance interests in U.K. Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:30 PM PDT  The United States isn't the only country keeping an eye on potential Russian election interference.The Guardian on Monday published evidence provided by British financier and political activist Bill Browder to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee that claims Moscow utilized British nationals — including politicians from both the Conservative and Labour Parties — to advance Russia's interests in the United Kingdom. The evidence also points to former intelligence officers, diplomats, and leading public relation formats.Some of these people, Browder said, worked "unwittingly for Russian state interests," while others "had reason to know exactly what they were doing and for whom," though there is no suggestion anyone actually broke any laws either way.Still, Browder alleges Moscow used British intermediaries in some capacity to to obscure its "entangled" state and criminal interests like money-laundering, "enhance Russian propaganda and disinformation," and "go after" some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's more outspoken enemies. Browder said the British government seems to be aware of Russian security service members working with diplomatic cover in the U.K., but they don't have as tight a grasp on the country's "informal espionage experts."The ISC's report stemming from a two-year investigation is mired in a long process before it can be released. Downing Street has downplayed its contents, but others who have read it reportedly disagree. Read more at The Guardian.More stories from theweek.com Trump retweets White House photo of him fiddling, says he doesn't know 'what this means' Washington nursing home with coronavirus outbreak reported shocking escalation from 'no symptoms to death' S&P 500 has 7th worst decline since World War II
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| Iran's Khamenei cancels Persian new year speech due to virus: office Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:23 PM PDT  Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has cancelled an annual speech marking the start of the Persian new year, his office announced Monday, as the country's death toll from novel coronavirus mounts. "The ceremony of the speech of the supreme leader, which takes place every year at the sacred mausoleum of Imam Reza... will not take place this year" and Khamenei will not travel to the city of Mashhad, the statement said. With a death toll of 237 as of Monday, Iran is one of the worst hit countries, after China and Italy.
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| Trump wants payroll tax relief to calm virus-spooked markets Posted: 09 Mar 2020 12:00 PM PDT  President Donald Trump said Monday his administration will ask Congress to pass payroll tax relief and other quick measures as a public health and economic maelstrom brought on by the coronavirus drew closer to him personally. Intending to calm the fears of financial markets over the impact of the epidemic, Trump told reporters he is seeking "very substantial relief" to the payroll tax. Trump also said he was seeking help for hourly-wage workers to ensure they're "not going to miss a paycheck" and "don't get penalized for something that's not their fault."
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| Trial of Programmer Accused in CIA Leak Ends in Hung Jury Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:46 AM PDT  An office of the CIA outside Washington turned into a crime scene March 7, 2017.WikiLeaks had just published a trove of confidential CIA documents that revealed secret methods the spy agency used to penetrate the computer networks of foreign governments and terrorists.Investigators scrambled to find the culprit, seizing more than 1,000 devices from the CIA as top-secret operations and computer networks shut down. Eventually, they arrested Joshua Schulte, 31, who worked as a computer engineer for the agency.But Monday, in a muddled outcome for the government, a federal jury in Manhattan could not agree on whether to convict Schulte of the biggest theft of classified documents in CIA history.After hearing four weeks of testimony, the jurors deadlocked on eight counts, including illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information. They did convict Schulte on two other counts -- contempt of court and making false statements to the FBI.The motivation for the alleged theft, prosecutors said, was Schulte's belief that CIA management did not take his workplace complaints seriously. His feuding with co-workers led to his resignation in November 2016 to join Bloomberg LP as a software engineer.The partial verdict came after six days of chaotic deliberations. One juror was dismissed in the middle of the discussions because she violated the judge's orders by researching the case and then shared that information with the jury. The judge declined to replace her with an alternate, leaving a panel of 11 people.The jury also complained in a note about a separate juror who was not participating in the group discussion, raising concerns about "her attitude."After the verdict, one juror said the deliberations were a "horrible experience," her eyes welling with tears as she walked away from reporters.Schulte's legal troubles are not over. The government could retry the case. In addition, during the investigation, federal agents found more than 10,000 images and videos of child pornography on electronic devices in Schulte's home. He faces a separate federal trial on those charges.The verdict showed that the jury had doubts about the government's most important evidence, which came from a CIA server. Trial witnesses guided jurors through a complicated maze of forensic analysis that, according to prosecutors, showed Schulte's work machine accessing an old backup file one evening in April 2016.He did so, prosecutors said, by reinstating his administrator-level access that the CIA had removed after his workplace disputes. The file matched the documents posted by WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization, nearly a year later, according to the government.The defense argued that the CIA's computer network had weak passwords and widely known security vulnerabilities, and that it was possible other CIA employees or foreign adversaries had breached the system.Schulte's lawyers pointed to an internal CIA report commissioned after the WikiLeaks debacle that found the agency did not know the files had been stolen until a year later.In particular, the defense zeroed in on a CIA employee identified only as Michael. On the night of the alleged theft, Michael and Schulte, who were close friends, left the office together, according to a government court filing.The CIA placed Michael on administrative leave in August because he was not cooperating with the criminal investigation into the data theft and had declined to take a polygraph test.But the government did not notify the defense about Michael's employment status until six months later, the night before he took the stand at trial as a government witness.Schulte's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, asked in her closing argument why prosecutors had "kept this information about Michael to themselves.""It shows their doubt about the case against Schulte," she told jurors.During deliberations, some of the notes sent by the jury signaled it was exploring alternate culprits who might have committed the theft.The government had no direct proof that Schulte sent the files to WikiLeaks. Instead, prosecutors relied on circumstantial evidence. For instance, Schulte downloaded the same program onto his home computer that WikiLeaks recommends as a safe way to submit documents to the organization.Prosecutors said that after stealing the documents and sending them to WikiLeaks, Schulte "nuked" his hard drive at home to erase any trace of his submission.The trial provided a rare glimpse inside the top-secret cyberoperations of the CIA. Schulte was a coder in the agency's Engineering Development Group, which builds tools that allow CIA officers to extract files from foreign computers without detection.On the witness stand, CIA employees -- who testified under pseudonyms or only first names -- publicly acknowledged for the first time some of the hacking tools that had been developed by the agency."Foreign governments do not want us on their networks and would complain, to put it lightly, if they caught us doing this," testified a CIA employee, who used the pseudonym Jeremy Weber.Prosecutors were careful to avoid details about specific operations. During cross-examination, Shroff asked one CIA witness: "Do you recall a time when the CIA covertly tried to read Angela Merkel's emails?" referring to the German chancellor.The government objected, and the judge stopped the witness from answering.The testimony revealed the scramble inside CIA headquarters when the files leaked. Sean Roche, a top CIA official at the time, said he got a call from another CIA director who was out of breath. "It was the equivalent of a digital Pearl Harbor," he testified.Schulte immediately became a suspect. His personnel file indicated a willingness to violate CIA policy, and his resignation letter accused the agency of "deep injustices and illegal behavior," witnesses testified.Much of the trial felt like a rehash of a workplace complaint gone horribly wrong. Schulte's primary grievance was with another co-worker, identified only as Amol. Their group at the CIA, predominantly male coders, was known for shooting Nerf guns and playing pranks.Days after the first WikiLeaks disclosure, Schulte was scheduled to fly to Mexico.Federal agents approached Schulte as he was leaving work at Bloomberg and took him to a cafe near Grand Central Terminal in New York. Schulte gave them advice about finding the leaker. His hands trembled during the conversation, an FBI agent testified.That night, Schulte stayed in a hotel room as FBI agents, who had a search warrant, seized large volumes of data from his apartment.The defense argued that investigators were quick to scapegoat Schulte because he was an easy target; after all, he had antagonized virtually all of his co-workers at the CIAProsecutors showed jurors detailed notebooks that Schulte kept in jail while awaiting trial. His bail was revoked after he used the internet without the judge's permission, in violation of court orders.While in jail, Schulte obtained a contraband cellphone from another inmate and set up a Twitter account called @freejasonbourne, referring to the fictional CIA operative played by actor Matt Damon. He emailed reporters sensitive information about his case from an encrypted account, resulting in his conviction for contempt of court.In one notebook, prosecutors showed Schulte wrote a to-do list for himself, including "delete suspicious emails."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Key UN body reaffirms 1995 plan to achieve gender equality Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:39 AM PDT  The main U.N. body promoting women's rights reaffirmed the 1995 road map to achieve gender equality on Monday and pledged to step up implementation amid warnings of rising gender inequality and conservative push-back against its far-reaching agenda. The Commission on the Status of Women adopted a political declaration backing the 150-page platform for action adopted by 189 countries at the 1995 Beijing women's conference. The commission, known as CSW, had been expecting up to 12,000 people from the U.N.'s 193 member nations to come to New York for its annual meeting.
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| Germany Moves to Slow Virus With Empty Stadiums, Furlough Pay Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:24 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Germany stepped up efforts to protect companies and workers after the coronavirus hit home on Monday with the first two reported deaths.Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration will make it easier for businesses to apply for aid to offset wages during furloughs, reviving measures that helped prevent large-scale layoffs during the 2008 financial crisis.Keeping workers off factory floors could help stem the spread of the disease, which has shut off whole regions in China and Italy -- key trading partners for Germany. Alongside the safety net for companies affected by supply and demand disruptions, the government urged events with more than 1,000 people to be called off.Pressure on Germany to act has intensified. The first deaths in the country -- an 89-year-old woman in Essen and a 78-year-old man in the town of Heinsberg with a history of health problems -- added to the sense of urgency.The government's response, aimed at striking a balance between reassuring business and avoiding public panic, buys time for authorities to assess the scope of the economic damage and for health-care facilities to better cope."The most effective resource against the virus is the time factor," Merkel said in Berlin on Monday, hours after hosting a late-night coalition meeting to map out the government's response. "We'll be well prepared for the situation that we have and that is coming."Read more: $54 Billion and Counting: U.S., Europe, Asia Respond to VirusThe heightened level of caution isn't affecting just concerts and sporting events, but also corporate gatherings. Volkswagen AG indefinitely postponed a staff meeting -- often attended by thousands of workers -- that was planned for March 19 at its Wolfsburg headquarters.In addition to looser rules for short-time work compensation, Germany's coalition parties agreed other measures to cushion the impact from the virus. The efforts include extending the scope of write-offs for investment in "digital goods" and more favorable tax treatment for smaller firms. The government will also make proposals on how to provide liquidity to companies particularly affected by the impact of the virus and will hold talks soon with leading industry groups."The package is a good step in the right direction, but it will only tackle the impact from a short-lived economic shock," said Carsten Brzeski, chief euro-region economist at ING Groep NV. "If Covid-19 spreads further and the economic impact worsens, last night's move will not have been the final word."Germany also sent a signal that it's prepared to spend, as the Europe's largest economy struggles to fend off a recession. Merkel's Christian Democratic-led bloc and the Social Democrats agreed to invest an additional 12.4 billion euros ($14.1 billion) between 2021 and 2024.The clearest sign that the virus was hitting the German economy came on Friday, when Deutsche Lufthansa AG slashed capacity by as much as 50%."The impact on our booking situation is immense," Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said in an internal memo to employees seen by Bloomberg. "We must assume that it may take months before we will see first signs of stability," he said in the Friday message.Read more: German Industry Raised Output Before Virus Stalled RecoveryHealth Minister Jens Spahn urged people to reconsider where they go as the number of cases rise to more than 1,100."It's certainly easier to give up a concert, a club visit, a soccer game than the daily way to work," he said Monday in Berlin. "Therefore we propose measures that permit slowing the dynamic of the epidemic. That is the highest goal."Germany's professional soccer league is sticking with its schedule for the coming weekend, but said it will work with authorities on holding matches, raising the prospect of playing in empty stadiums.'Everything Needed'Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Monday it's unclear whether the virus will have long-term repercussions, but pledged that Germany is prepared "to do everything needed to stabilize the economy and secure jobs."Should Germany enter a serious crisis, its response would dwarf a proposed cut in the so-called solidarity tax by 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) this year, Scholz told RND newspaper consortium.Merkel's coalition didn't agree on an accelerated phaseout of the tax -- which is due to be scrapped for 90% of taxpayers in 2021 -- or earmark a set amount of funds for state-backed loans and guarantees to ease a cash crunch.Read more: Even Virus Risk Can't Sway Merkel's Party to Loosen Up SpendingWhile Germany has Europe's biggest budget surplus, Merkel's government has long resisted pressure from the European Central Bank and other institutions to unleash its fiscal power with spending that might benefit the region's wider economy.Merkel's CDU had previously ruled out a more sweeping stimulus package to stem the damage wrought by the virus outbreak, arguing that a surge in public spending won't address worries among consumers and investors. The approach instead is to seek to contain the virus and evaluate the fallout."We need to track the economic effects very closely," Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Monday in Berlin. "We can't allow this virus, which is so dangerous for people, to also infect the global economy and make it sick."(Updates with details on first two fatalities from virus in fourth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Naomi Kresge and Iain Rogers.To contact the reporters on this story: Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net;Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Raymond ColittFor 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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| Coronavirus is revealing the depths of Trump's incompetence Posted: 09 Mar 2020 11:16 AM PDT  It is clear the United States is going to suffer a full-blown epidemic of novel coronavirus, and quite possibly a financial crisis and recession as a result. The disease is spreading fast in multiple states, and the government's response has fallen far short of the efforts even in much smaller countries like the U.K. or South Korea.It would have been quite difficult to stop this from happening — but not impossible. President Trump is responsible for the agencies in charge of disease control in this country, and he has utterly botched it.To contain a viral outbreak, speed and precision are very important. When any new disease appears, there are of course only a few cases. Identifying, isolating, and treating infected people can halt the disease before it gets out into the wild and starts spreading on its own — but on the other hand, even a single infected person out in public can cause dozens of new cases, so authorities must also be ready to identify anyone who gets through the quarantine net and track anyone they contacted, as fast as possible.Vietnam managed to contain its coronavirus outbreaks with exactly these tactics, despite bordering China, where the virus originated. As soon as the first handful of cases were reported, the Vietnamese authorities declared an epidemic emergency. They quarantined all the infected cases, rigorously tracked anyone who had come in contact with them, and started mass testing travelers and citizens. In affected areas, schools were shut down, and whole cities were placed on temporary lockdown. Planes and classrooms were regularly disinfected. The government even produced a snappy pop song about avoiding contamination.It worked — by late February Vietnam had kept its cases to just 16, and no further spread was noted. Of course, they are not remotely out of the woods yet, given how the disease is spreading elsewhere. One single person who was traveling in Europe and didn't tell border officials apparently re-introduced the virus to Vietnam recently, and clampdown measures are back in effect.At any rate, by December at the latest it was clear that there was a major danger that novel coronavirus was going to get out of China. Sensible countries by this point started mass-producing testing kits, instructing border officials to take hygiene precautions and prepare to test travelers coming from affected countries, educating the public about ways to avoid infecting themselves and others, securing stockpiles of key medical supplies, readying the medical system to quarantine infected people, and setting up contact-tracking systems.In the United States, the president is the only person who could have set this process in motion. But Trump did nothing. He had spent the previous several years hacking away at the government's pandemic response capacity, including firing "the government's entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure," but he did not reverse those cuts. Nor did he provide any pre-emptive funding to cash-strapped public health departments across the country who would be the first line of defense. Nor did he instruct the Centers for Disease Control or border officials to start gearing up in a serious way. Nor did he try to arrange health coverage for anyone caught in quarantine, which he could do via executive order.Instead, he mostly did the only things Trump knows how to do: angrily blame Democrats and the media, lie about what was happening, and live-tweet Fox News. The fragments of the CDC that still exist were caught flat-footed and did not have even close to enough testing capacity — which explains why there have been so few confirmed cases but so many deaths. A nurse under quarantine reported Kafkaesque dysfunction at the agency last week. Federal health workers were sent to deal with infected patients without proper equipment or training, possibly spreading the virus, according to a whistleblower.About the only thing the administration did do was belatedly close off travel from China and other countries — but by then it was far too late, with the virus already spreading in Washington and elsewhere. There was even reportedly a live case at the recent CPAC conference, which Trump attended.Overall, the U.S. response looks much more like Iran's than it does Vietnam. It has fallen to states and city governments to carry out responses of their own in piecemeal fashion. Washington state has reportedly finally brought a big bunch of new testing capacity online — which will surely cause diagnosed case numbers to skyrocket. New York is following in its footsteps.To be sure, the United States has severe defects that make it unusually vulnerable to a pandemic. Our lousy health-care system leaves tens of millions uninsured — meaning a trip to the doctor risks bankruptcy for them. We also have no national sick leave, so many will probably go to work sick and infect others because they simply cannot afford to take time off.On the other hand, novel coronavirus is far from the most contagious virus in history. Unlike measles, it cannot spread simply through the air — it requires droplets. The U.S. should have been able to stop the disease before it got out, in which case the crumbling health care system and lack of paid leave would have been irrelevant.Furthermore, the U.S. has greater ability to coordinate an international response than any other country. Vietnam could not round up all the major countries of the world and pressure them to adopt best practices, much less drop billions of dollars helping those that might struggle to do so — but America could. Indeed, President Obama did exactly this with the response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014, with great success. Nobody else has stepped into that leadership role, either; Trump's fecklessness may be part of the reason the outbreak has gotten so bad in poorer-governed European countries like Italy.Donald Trump is the most incompetent president in history. For three years America dodged any major catastrophes because of it by pure luck (except for Puerto Rico). But today our number is up.More stories from theweek.com Trump retweets White House photo of him fiddling, says he doesn't know 'what this means' Washington nursing home with coronavirus outbreak reported shocking escalation from 'no symptoms to death' S&P 500 has 7th worst decline since World War II
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| Schools wrestle with fairness of closures during outbreak Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:59 AM PDT  When the new coronavirus surfaced at Saint Raphael Academy after a school group returned from a trip to Italy, officials decided to close the Rhode Island Catholic high school for two weeks. Instead of cancelling classes, the school in Pawtucket instituted "virtual days" where students are expected to work from home, check for assignments through an online portal and occasionally chat with teachers. As more schools across the United States close their doors because of the coronavirus, they are confronted with a dilemma in weighing whether to shut down and move classes online, which could leave behind the many students who don't have computers, home internet access or parents with flexible work schedules.
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| Yemeni army says sites near Saudi border wrested from rebels Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:46 AM PDT |
| Stakes rise for Sanders heading into Michigan primary Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:40 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders proved his 2016 presidential bid was serious with an upset victory in Michigan powered by his opposition to free trade and appeal among working-class voters. Former Vice President Joe Biden is looking to quash Sanders' hopes and cement his own front-runner status just a week after resurrecting his beleaguered White House bid with a delegate victory on Super Tuesday. Sanders is in an urgent fight to turn things around as the primary calendar quickly shifts to other states that could favor Biden and narrow his path to the nomination.
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| Plan outlined for donations in Pittsburgh synagogue attack Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:40 AM PDT  About $5.5 million that poured in from donors after the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue attack that killed 11 worshippers is being distributed according to a plan outlined Monday by Jewish groups. Donations are also being distributed to people who were in the Tree of Life building during the attack, in honor of first responders and to the congregations. The group's report issued in February said donors probably expected their gifts to help Tree of Life, which owns the building, as well as the two tenant congregations, Dor Hadash and New Light.
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| The preventable death of an asylum seeker in a solitary cell Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:31 AM PDT  An Associated Press investigation into Hernandez's death last October found neglect and apparent violations of government policies by jailers under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at a time when detention of migrants has reached record levels and new questions have arisen about the U.S. government's treatment of people seeking refuge. ICE requires migrants detained in solitary confinement to be visually observed every 30 minutes. Surveillance video shows a jail guard walking past Hernandez's cell twice in the hour before he was found, writing in a binder stored on the wall next to his cell door.
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| Spotlight returns to Iran's nuclear programme Posted: 09 Mar 2020 10:04 AM PDT  Tehran's nuclear programme is back under the spotlight after the UN's nuclear watchdog revealed the extent of Iran's uranium enrichment drive and reprimanded it for denying access to two locations. The revelations may lead to heated exchanges at the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) latest quarterly board of governors meeting which started on Monday in Vienna. - Which limits is Iran breaking?
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| Iran announces 43 new coronavirus deaths, raising toll to 237 Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:54 AM PDT  Iran on Monday announced 43 new deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 237 dead, one of the world's highest. "Our colleagues have confirmed 595 new cases across the country," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference. "This brings the overall number of confirmed cases to 7,161 as of today noon," he said.
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| Egyptian engineer gets 15 years over deadly locomotive crash Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:19 AM PDT |
| Pakistan, northern India face renewed threat of flooding from rounds of showers, thunderstorms Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:14 AM PDT  After flooding and landslides caused numerous deaths in Pakistan late last week, parts of the country are bracing for the arrival of another potent storm system.The storm will track from southern Iran into Pakistan through Tuesday before arriving in northern Pakistan on Wednesday.Showers and thunderstorms will spread from eastern Afghanistan into far northern India, including the states of Himachal, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh by Wednesday. Steadier and heavier rain is forecast for far eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and into far northern India as the storm forces moisture into the meeting point of the Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountains.By Friday, the storm will begin to move east. Rain and storms will begin to gradually taper off across Pakistan, but they will spread east along the Himalayas into northeastern India and Bhutan.Through the second half of the week, isolated showers and thunderstorms are also expected to develop in parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal of eastern India.A couple of storms can drift into northwestern Bangladesh.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPRainfall totals up to 13-25 mm (0.5-1 inch) will be common across the region from this system, but totals can accumulate up to 25-50 mm (1-2 inches) in areas of heavier rain. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 150 mm (6 inches) is possible in the mountains of Pakistan and far northern India.Localized flooding will be possible in areas of poor drainage and in any downpours that develop through the second half of the week. Northern Pakistan will face the greatest risk after torrential rain caused flooding late last week and into this past weekend.Flooding and landslides in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan were to blame for at least 17 deaths and officials in the province declared a weather emergency to help relocate residents displaced by the disaster, reported The Express Tribune.Colder air arriving with the storm will cause precipitation to fall as snow in higher elevations, but it could also pose a risk to those displaced in the mountainous areas of Pakistan.Flooding and chilly conditions will not be the only concerns as storms return to the area. Frequent lighting strikes will be dangerous for anyone caught outside during the unsettled period.Residents are reminded to head inside at the first rumble of thunder.Some of the wet weather may prove beneficial. Lengthy periods of rain could improve air quality across northern India where air pollution reaches dangerous levels during the drier season.Occasional showers and thunderstorms are forecast to continue into the weekend near the mountains of northern India and Nepal.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Germany Reports First Two Deaths From Coronavirus Outbreak Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:11 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Two Germans died of the coronavirus, the first fatalities to hit Europe's largest economy.Both deaths occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia, the state with the country's highest population and the most cases of the virus. One male person died in the district of Heinsberg, while an elderly female succumbed in the city of Essen, according to the state's health ministry.The first German fatalities underscore the risks posed by the disease, which started in China and has since spread across the world. The number of cases in Germany more than doubled to over 1,100 in the last few days, putting pressure on the government to act.Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration early on Monday announced measures to cushion the economic blow.Read more: Germany Boosts Investment to Protect Economy From Virus HitGermany's export-oriented economy is particularly exposed to disruptions caused by the virus. China is Germany's largest trading partner, and its auto industry has close ties to parts suppliers in northern Italy, the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe.Like other countries, Germany has canceled big events such as the ITB tourism trade show and the Leipzig book fair as it tries to contain the spread. The government hasn't ruled out sealing off entire regions or cities if the situation further deteriorates.(Adds second fatality, number of cases in Germany)To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Schaefer in Frankfurt at dschaefer36@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Raymond ColittFor 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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| UN adopts declaration on women's rights decrying slow progress Posted: 09 Mar 2020 09:07 AM PDT  The United Nations on Monday adopted a stripped-down political declaration on women's rights that seeks to preserve gains under threat but does not advocate new ways to ensure progress toward equality. The declaration was adopted during the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which has been drastically reduced from a two-week affair to a single hours-long meeting because of the global coronavirus outbreak. "Centuries of discrimination, deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny have created a yawning gender power gap in our economies, our political systems and our corporations," said Guterres as the meeting began.
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| Sudan Premier Escapes Unscathed After Assassination Attempt Posted: 09 Mar 2020 08:57 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he escaped an assassination attempt which his government branded an attack on the revolution that unseated the North African nation's veteran dictator last year.Hamdok and his entourage were traveling to his offices in the capital, Khartoum, when they were targeted in a "terrorist bombing and shooting," Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Salih said Monday in a televised address.No one was seriously injured and investigations are underway into the incident, according to Salih."The people are capable of defending the fruits of the revolution," he said. "All terrorist and sabotage attempts will be dealt with decisively."At the scene of the attack in the city's Bahri district, police guarded four passenger cars, only one of which showed significant damage. It wasn't clear what had been the source of the blast."Rest assured that what happened today will not stand in the way of our transition -- instead it is an additional push to the wheel of change in Sudan," Hamdok said on Twitter in the aftermath. He added that he was "in good shape."Government officials held an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon, while al-Hadath, an Arab TV channel, reported two arrests in connection with the attack, citing its own correspondent.Dangers HighlightedThe events underlined the dangers Sudan still faces as it attempts a transition to democracy following President Omar al-Bashir's downfall last April after months of protests. Questions remain over the army's commitment to surrendering power as well as the threat posed by disgruntled remnants of Bashir's three-decade rule.In January, mutinies erupted at three buildings used by the security services in Khartoum, in what authorities described as unrest sparked by agents who didn't want to be integrated into Sudan's army or its biggest militia. At least five people were killed.The Forces for Freedom and Change, a coalition of protesters and rebels that helped drive the 2019 demonstrations, condemned what it called a "terror attack" by unidentified perpetrators that sought "to abort our revolution." It urged people to take to the streets.Hamdok, a former United Nations economist in his early 60s, was appointed premier in August after intense negotiations between the protest movement's leaders and the army. The transitional administration, made up of civilian and military officials, is supposed to lead Africa's third-largest country into democratic elections in 2022.Bashir and his now-dissolved National Congress Party espoused a firebrand Islamist form of governance after taking power in a 1989 military coup, making alliances with Washington's enemies. The U.S. listed Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993, later imposing sanctions that lasted until 2017.In recent weeks, the new government has made a series of proposals -- including putting Bashir in front of the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and establishing Sudan's first-ever official ties with Israel -- in a bid to restore its global standing. Authorities say the removal of Sudan's terrorism designation is key to rebuilding the economy, shattered by decades of mismanagement.The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum said it was "shocked and saddened" by the attack on Hamdok's convoy.(Updates with emergency meeting in seventh paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Salma El Wardany in Cairo at selwardany@bloomberg.net;Mohammed Alamin in Khartoum at malamin1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Paul RichardsonFor 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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| UN watchdog: Iran providing access to active nuclear sites Posted: 09 Mar 2020 08:20 AM PDT  Iran continues to provide international inspectors access to its active nuclear facilities, even after its announcement it was no longer bound by "any restrictions" of the landmark 2015 deal with world powers designed to prevent the country from producing a nuclear weapon, the head of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency said Monday. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also told board members in Vienna that since Tehran's Jan. 5 announcement it appears that Iran hasn't escalated its violations of the nuclear pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "The agency has not observed any changes to Iran's implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA in connection with this announcement, or in the level of cooperation by Iran in relation to agency verification and monitoring activities under the JCPOA," Grossi said in prepared remarks.
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| From silencing medics to banning 'rumors': Here's why Iran is struggling to contain its coronavirus outbreak Posted: 09 Mar 2020 08:13 AM PDT  Iran's government is accused of downplaying the outbreak's severity and withholding key information. Many top politicians have also caught the virus.
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| Germany Faces Backlash From Neighbors Over Mask Export Ban Posted: 09 Mar 2020 07:25 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A diplomatic spat has erupted between Germany and neighbors Switzerland and Austria over a decision last week by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to ban most exports of protective medical equipment.Switzerland has called in the German ambassador to complain about the decision to block a shipment of 240,000 face masks, while Austria's economy minister demanded her German counterpart order the release of supplies destined for her country.The appeals for Germany to be more generous in sharing vital supplies with its neighbors come after it declared an export ban of medical protection gear last week unless for use in aid operations. They also highlight growing tensions among European countries amid a rapidly increasing count of coronavirus cases across the continent."It can't be that Germany is holding back products for Austria just because they happen to be stored in a German location," Austrian Economy Minister Margarete Schramboeck told reporters in Vienna. "These products are for the Austrian market, and unilateral moves by Germany are just causing problems in other countries."Switzerland -- a country of 8.5 million which depends on imports of low-value goods such as protective medical gear -- wants Germany to release a shipment of face masks held up at the border, Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in a statement Monday.The government has sought high-level talks with ministries in Berlin after summoning Germany's ambassador on Friday.The Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper reported that a Swiss truck carrying 240,000 face masks had been stopped at the border as the country faces a rapidly declining stock of masks. It also said hospital doctors had been advised to use their masks for eight hours instead of replacing them after two.Germany's health minister signaled that Berlin could ease restrictions going forward, particularly to its European partners."I take this issue of European solidarity very seriously and am therefore certain there will be authorizations soon to export masks to certain countries," Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference in Berlin on Monday. "We're not categorically against exports but want to understand what happens, because previously it was so that masks went not where they were most needed but where most was paid."Austria's Schramboeck also proposed relocating production of some critical drugs to Europe, with a goal of building up a reserve of 12 months for the most important ones.The European Commission has set up new regulations under which production for strategically important products such as semiconductors, batteries or drugs can be subsidized to guarantee supply in Europe, she said.(Updates to add German health minister in eighth paragraph)\--With assistance from Raymond Colitt.To contact the reporters on this story: Jan Dahinten in Zurich at jdahinten@bloomberg.net;Matthias Wabl in Vienna at mwabl@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers, Boris GroendahlFor 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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| Netanyahu rivals to cooperate on forming new government Posted: 09 Mar 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief rival said Monday that he has agreed with a smaller party to work together to form a new government following national elections last week. The announcement by Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, dealt a new setback to Netanyahu as he struggles to hold on to power ahead of his upcoming trial on corruption charges. In a statement, Gantz said that he had a good meeting with Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the small Yisrael Beitenu party.
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| Militant Hamas criticizes Saudi trials of members, backers Posted: 09 Mar 2020 06:39 AM PDT |
| US: 2 service members killed by 'enemy forces' in Iraq Posted: 09 Mar 2020 06:05 AM PDT |
| Vivakor Successfully Remediates Contaminated Oil Sludge in Kuwait Posted: 09 Mar 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| Prison riots hit Italy amid virus; 6 die in overdose Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:47 AM PDT  Tensions in Italy's overcrowded prisons erupted Monday over new coronavirus containment measures, with riots in at least two dozen lock-ups and the deaths of six inmates who broke into an infirmary and overdosed on methadone. Italy's national prisoner rights advocate urged wardens to take immediate measures to calm the situation and mitigate the new regulations, which include a suspension or limitation of family visits as a way to prevent transmission of the virus. "The difficulty of accepting extreme measures is accentuated in places where people don't have any freedom," the advocate said in a statement, urging wardens to provide inmates with greater access to information and phone calls to family members.
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| Speeches, both scripted and off the cuff, turn Biden's campaign around Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:21 AM PDT  In late February, Joe Biden got emotional about the deaths of family members, in a strikingly moving conversation with Rev. Anthony Thompson, whose wife Myra was killed by a white supremacist.Three days later, Biden delivered a well-written speech declaring his victory in the South Carolina primary election.Those public performances – one speaking off the cuff, and the other delivering material written by a speechwriter – are two reasons Biden was able to turn his campaign around. As a scholar of political rhetoric, the literature in my field suggests political candidates need to master both improvisation and authentic presentation of prepared remarks. Biden's abilities will help determine the course of his campaign, as President Donald Trump's skills at public speaking will influence his reelection bid. Two kinds of public speakingTwo thousand years ago, Quintilian, the ancient Roman orator, first established the ideal that a good speaker needed to be able to write and deliver an effective speech as well as to improvise.Both forms of public speaking hold advantages and dangers.Improvisation requires a speaker to be his or her own speechwriter, which can reveal their internal thoughts and emotional constitution. But improvisation can also lead to incoherence.Similarly, there are moments in public speaking that require the precision and discipline of the written text. But the demands of the written text delivered orally can, for some speakers, destroy the connection between the speaker and the audience. Biden's weaknessesBefore the South Carolina primary, Biden had been ineffective, both when speaking off the cuff and when delivering speeches written for him. In a campaign stop in New Hampshire, for example, he ignored his teleprompter and meandered from his main points. But he turned that around in late February. In his response to Thompson, Biden spoke from the heart about the loss of his first wife, daughter and, more recently, his son. In doing so, he displayed a deep sense of empathy. By all accounts, his audience found him to be authentic.Then, in his victory speech, he coherently delivered the words written by his speechwriters, with the pacing, tone, volume and eloquence he had lacked in earlier speeches. It remains to be seen whether he can sustain that performance, or whether he returns to his normal lackluster performance in moments requiring improvisation and when reading written texts. Trump is an improviserResearch I have done with speech scholar William Keith shows that Donald Trump is most effective when he improvises. His teleprompter-based scripted speeches are stilted and flat. For example, his Jan. 8, 2020, address on Iran was delivered in a monotone, with slurred words.Trump often resists the discipline of a script with riffs that do not complement his main message, even targeting the teleprompter as a source of inauthentic speech. When speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2019, Trump declared: "You know, I'm totally off script now … And this is how I got elected, by being off script. And if we don't go off script, our country is in big trouble." He's right: Speechwriters Corey Lewandowski and George Gigicos spent two days writing Trump's June 16, 2015, presidential announcement speech. As Lewandwoski and David Bossie relate in their 2017 book "Let Trump Be Trump," "Trump gave a quick look at the sheet of paper Corey handed him, folded it up, and put it in his breast pocket, never to look at it again. Then he delivered what is arguably the most memorable announcement speech of any candidate for office in history. It was a forty-five-minute freestyle soliloquy." Connecting with the peopleTrump has honed his ability to engage in "freestyle soliloquy" in the more than 430 rallies he has held since his first one in Manchester, New Hampshire, on June 17, 2015. "It's nice to just hear somebody say exactly what they think," Cheryl Caza-Tobey, a Hooksett, New Hampshire, resident who attended that Manchester rally told a RealClearPolitics reporter. "I thought, 'Well, he's just saying it like it is.' A lot of us are thinking the same exact thing. I hate to say it, but every four years somebody comes up and they say the same things over and over again, and nothing changes." Caza-Tobey was representative of Republican voters who found Trump authentic. Unlike other candidates, Trump was transparent, making public his internal thinking and ideas, even if they were socially taboo. Those who dislike Trump and haven't witnessed or listened to a full rally of his dismiss his improvisations and digressions as incoherent and his message as cheap entertainment.Those judgments miss the power of his persuasive energies. How well the candidates present themselves, both in scripted and offhand ways, can turn campaigns' fortunes for good, or for ill.[Insight, in your inbox each day. You can get it with The Conversation's email newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Biden's resurrection was unprecedented – and well-timed * Super Tuesday results show how Latino voters, moderate Democrats and Trump supporters are shaping the electionDavid A. Frank 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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| For Trump, Coronavirus Proves to Be an Enemy He Can't Tweet Away Posted: 09 Mar 2020 05:11 AM PDT  PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Defending against criticism of his handling of the coronavirus, President Donald Trump suggested the other day that he could hardly have been expected to be ready for such an unexpected crisis."Who would have thought?" he asked during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nerve center for the government's response to the outbreak. "Who would have thought we would even be having the subject?"Actually, quite a few people would have thought, and did -- including the officials in his own White House who were in charge of preparing for just such a pandemic only to have their office shut down in a reorganization in 2018. "The threat of pandemic flu is the No. 1 health security concern," one of the officials said the day before that happened two years ago. "Are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no."For a president who lives in the moment, rarely planning too far ahead, the coronavirus has proved to be a leadership challenge he was not prepared for either. The outbreak that has rattled the nation does not respond to Trump's favorite instruments of power: It cannot be cowed by Twitter posts, it cannot be shot down by drones, it cannot be overcome by party solidarity, it cannot be overpowered by campaign rally chants.Trump, who is at his strongest politically when he has a human enemy to attack, has seemed less certain of how to take on an invisible killer. The role of calming natural leader is not one that has come easily as he struggles to find the balance between public reassurance and Panglossian dismissiveness. He has predicted that the virus will "miraculously" disappear on its own with warmer weather, suggested a vaccine will be available soon and insisted anyone who wants to be tested can be -- all overstated or inaccurate.He has expressed an astonishing lack of knowledge while at the same time claiming to be a medical savant. He has treated the crisis as a partisan battle, wearing his red Keep America Great campaign cap to the CDC and calling the governor presiding over the state with the highest death toll a "snake." He even admitted that he wanted to leave passengers stranded on a cruise ship rather than see statistics for the number of cases on American soil go up because it would look bad."If we really want to talk about what is going to potentially create panic in this country, it's an administration that's just not being straight with the American public about the extent of this epidemic and the real-life consequences that could be put upon Americans," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Sunday on "Face the Nation" on CBS.Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a prominent cardiologist who treated former Vice President Dick Cheney and wrote a book with him, said he was convinced that the Trump administration failed to move more quickly to test for the virus after it emerged in China because the White House did not want to admit the scope of the threat."When the story is finally written," he said Sunday, "we'll come to understand that tens of thousands of lives were placed at risk because of a political decision made by the president."Trump, who was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, rejected the criticism Sunday, pointing to the travel restrictions he imposed early on China, later adding limits or warnings to other affected places like Iran and parts of South Korea and Italy."We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus," he wrote on Twitter moments after arriving at his golf club in West Palm Beach, where he played with several members of the World Series champion Washington Nationals. "We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!"After initially brushing off warnings by his health secretary as "alarmist," Trump in the last two weeks has taken a more assertive public role on the coronavirus, assigning Vice President Mike Pence to lead the government efforts and making multiple appearances to signal that he takes the threat seriously.But he has also taken a business-as-usual approach to the rest of his schedule, refusing to cancel campaign rallies, fundraisers or social events even as other large gatherings of Americans are scrubbed. Asked by a reporter Saturday night if he was worried that infections were getting closer to the White House, Trump said, "No, I'm not concerned at all."The president then went inside Mar-a-Lago to host a lavish birthday party for former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating Donald Trump Jr. and turns 51 on Monday, a preview perhaps of the celebration that may be held next month when Melania Trump turns 50. Among those spotted at the revelry were boldface names from Trump's circle, including Pence, Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, Tucker Carlson and Matt Gaetz.Trump happily introduced his visitor, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, to Carlson and other guests in a video shared on social media, boasting that he "gave him a good gift" by not imposing tariffs on Brazil and "that made him much more popular." Bolsonaro laughed and agreed. A smiling Pence turned to the camera and playfully said, "Si."The first lady did not make the trip to Florida, but she faced a fiddling-while-Rome-burns blowback of her own over the weekend after posting online photographs of herself in a hard hat overseeing the privately financed construction of a new tennis pavilion at the White House."I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the @WhiteHouse to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities," she wrote on Twitter on Saturday, adding her anti-bullying slogan, "BeBest."By the president's own account, the coronavirus has been an education for him. He has acknowledged that "I didn't know people died from the flu" -- tens of thousands, in fact, each year in the United States -- even though, as The Washington Post pointed out, his own grandfather died of influenza during the 1918 epidemic.But he has credited himself with instinctive understanding of the science. "I like this stuff. I really get it," he said at the CDC on Friday. "People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."Trump rejected criticism of the slow distribution of test kits, framing it in terms evoking his battle against impeachment. "The tests are all perfect," he told reporters, "like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect, right?" -- a reference to the rough transcript of his telephone call with Ukraine's president that led to his own impeachment for abuse of power.The president's less-than-perfect pronouncements, however, left public health officials straining to reconcile them on the Sunday talk shows. Asked on CNN's "State of the Union" about a White House aide's assertion that the coronavirus had been "contained," Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, said: "Well, this is a novel virus. It's a new situation. And the messaging, quite frankly, is hard."Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also appeared to walk back the president's claim that "anyone who wants a test can get a test," saying on "Fox News Sunday" that it would actually be up to a doctor.Trump has become such a polarizing figure that even when he is not necessarily wrong, many do not trust him. On Sean Hannity's Fox News show last week, he called the World Health Organization's estimated fatality rate of 3.4% "a false number," saying "my hunch" was that it would be under 1%. It sounded as if he were substituting his uneducated "hunch" for the judgment of professionals.But in fact, he was reflecting what he had been told by health experts, including Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, who have concluded that once the full scope of unreported infections is known, the number of deaths will most likely represent a smaller share, possibly "considerably less than" 1%. The WHO has also said the rate may fall.Still, at his appearance at the CDC, Trump had no explanation for why his White House shut down the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense established at the National Security Council in 2016 by President Barack Obama after the 2014 Ebola outbreak, stammering to suggest the coronavirus had been a surprise."Well, I just don't think -- I just don't think that somebody is going to -- without seeing something, like we saw something happening in China," Trump said. "As soon as they saw that happening, they essentially -- not from the White House. I mean, you know, we don't need a lab in the White House. But they saw something happening."Elizabeth Cameron set up the global health security directorate at the White House for Obama before turning it over to Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer, who ran it for Trump until May 2018, when he was pushed out and the directorate folded into other parts of the National Security Council. Had it still been around, it would have been charged with preparing for exactly the situation now facing the country."I think it would have made a difference," Cameron said Sunday. "Monitoring and preparing for every eventuality and having a person and a directorate accountable for that is really important and could have been important in this case."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Denmark Told to Adopt Emergency Measures to Reach CO2 Goal Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:26 AM PDT |
| 10 things you need to know today: March 9, 2020 Posted: 09 Mar 2020 04:02 AM PDT |
| Tesla’s Fast-Track German Plant Charts Path Through Red Tape Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:38 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk's plan to turn a remote wooded lot in Germany into the home of a state-of-the-art car factory in less than two years sent an unequivocal message to local authorities: make it happen or lose it.Eager to host Tesla Inc.'s first European plant near Berlin -- a potential 4 billion-euro ($4.5 billion) development -- German officials assured the electric-car maker's chief executive officer fast-track navigation through the country's notorious bureaucracy. In recent years, onerous regulations have held up projects from a large train station in Stuttgart to Berlin's first new airport since the end of the Cold War.Administrative red tape can drag out the process of securing building permission to as long as four years. Even a permit for something as simple as a mobile-phone mast can take two years. Handling complex bureaucracy costs a typical small- or medium-sized hotel business about 2.5% of annual sales and can threaten their survival, according to the DIHK industry group.That makes Tesla's ambitious deadline a critical test case of Germany's ability to adapt just as the powerhouse economy sputters. And even the California carmaker's German rivals are cheering it on."Bureaucratic hurdles shouldn't decide the race between Tesla and Volkswagen, but the question who builds better cars," Herbert Diess, chief executive officer of the German auto giant, said in a post on LinkedIn. "That kind of healthy competition makes Germany better and more innovative."When complete, the factory will employ up to 12,000 people and churn out as many as 500,000 vehicles annually. Tesla is moving into Germany's heartland to vie with VW, BMW AG and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz as the country targets a massive increase in electric-car sales.Tesla got a taste of the risks when a court last month stopped work to clear the site in Gruenheide, a rural community east of Berlin. The hiccup, though short-lived, sent shock waves through the capital, where Tesla's factory has boosted confidence in Germany's ability to attract international investment.The near miss, which could have delayed the factory by months, prompted Economy Minister Peter Altmaier to pledge legislation to reduce red tape, and on Friday, he proposed setting up mobile planning task forces to expedite key projects. Important investments like Tesla's "only have a chance if we make decisions on time," Altmaier said.Amid mapping out strategy to combat fallout from the coronavirus, Germany's ruling coalition found time during a seven-hour meeting on Sunday night for reducing red tape. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government agreed to introduce new legislation by this summer to accelerate planning procedures to encourage investment.High StakesGerman business is watching Tesla's project closely, hoping the high profile will help remove hurdles holding up hundreds of projects, from 5G wireless equipment to rail tracks and upgrades to the aging power grid."Germany just can't and won't let this project snag on bureaucracy and litigation," said Hubertus Bardt, managing director of the IW Cologne economic institute. "Too much investment reputation is staked on it."Read more: Musk Invades Germany's Automotive Heartland With New FactoryWork resumed in late February on clearing pine trees on the 740-acre plot in the state of Brandenburg. Tesla is under pressure to finish the process before birds start nesting later this month. Missing the deadline could delay construction until the fall.The carmaker wants the plant to be ready by mid-2021, when electric-car demand is likely to be bolstered by tighter emissions regulations taking full effect. Meeting the deadline requires quick approval for a highway connection and power-grid access.In a sign of how Tesla's project is spurring change, Brandenburg is leaning on the investment to push the federal government to change energy regulations, according to the state's Ministry of Economy, Work and Energy. The former communist state -- desperate to secure attractive jobs -- wants to help local businesses access Brandenburg's affordable wind and solar power, which currently feeds the national grid."Tesla should be able to use local green power," the ministry said in a note to Bloomberg News.To ease local concerns about the environment, the manufacturer set aside a number of trees on the plot that house bats' winter quarters. The company has also volunteered to plant more trees than get cut down.If the next steps get cleared -- including a public hearing on March 18 -- Tesla would be on track to officially break ground this month, a ceremony that Musk has said he'll attend.For Germany, the project could unlock a path for other stalled developments, with project planners bogged down by hundreds of lawsuits, often tied to Germany's wildlife and environmental protection regulations. Onshore wind park construction has ground to a halt, citizen groups in Bavaria are thwarting rail links with Austria and locals are blocking construction of about 1,000 mobile-phone masts."If Tesla and government agencies get the project done on time, companies and infrastructure planners everywhere can take this as proof that projects can be implemented," said IW Cologne's Bardt.(Updates with coalition details in ninth paragraph)To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net;Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, ;Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Chris Reiter, Iain RogersFor 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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| Oil Rout Piles Problems on Global Leaders Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:07 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Another big challenge just landed on the plates of policy-makers and leaders around the globe.Already grappling with risks to their economies from the spreading coronavirus, cratering oil prices are infecting markets everywhere.Brent crude dropped by almost a third to $31 a barrel at one point today — the second-largest decline on record — after the breakdown in talks between OPEC and Russia on managing global supply saw Saudi Arabia kick off a price war.Some stock indexes entered bear markets. Treasury yields tumbled, with the entire curve trading below 1% for the first time in history. Markets are expecting the Federal Reserve to cut policy rates to 0% in the coming months.If oil stays low it'll eventually eat through national budgets from Venezuela to Nigeria and Iran. Russia's Vladimir Putin meanwhile has fired a shot across the bow of America's shale revolution, with President Donald Trump's repeated touting of U.S. energy self-sufficiency.Cheap oil is in theory good for governments that bear a fiscal burden from fuel subsidies. And for big countries like China and India that rely on imports to grease their economies. Though less so for China if it also sees demand falter for its refined products.The double punch from the virus and oil means policy coordination is ever more important, with a role for the global institutions that Trump has voraciously and frequently criticized. But so far leaders have struggled on that front. The arguing between big countries over crude supply could prove another constraint to keeping those lines of communication open.And in the end, global financial instability isn't good for any economy — nor potentially for the staying power of some leaders.Global HeadlinesShutting down | China found it hard enough to quarantine a significant slice of its population due to the coronavirus outbreak, and it's a one-party state with an iron-fisted grip on power. Italy's efforts to lock down its industrial northern heartland (a region with around 16 million people) have been shambolic, adding to doubts over Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's already-tenuous hold on power.Bracing for impact | The Trump administration is drafting measures — including a temporary expansion of paid sick leave and possible help for companies facing disruption — to blunt the economic fallout from the virus and help slow its spread, Saleha Mohsin and Jennifer Jacobs report.Two Republican members of Congress will self-quarantine after contact with a person who later tested positive for the virus.Climate of fear | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's dramatic actions — arresting close members of his own family and slashing crude prices in a bid to take on Russia — underscore the de-facto ruler's own concerns about his grip on power. His actions suggest he's not going to let anything get in his way, Sylvia Westall and Donna Abu-Nasr report.Cementing his advantage | Joe Biden is poised to amass an insurmountable delegate lead by mid-March, leaving Bernie Sanders with little power to stop him from becoming the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. As Gregory Korte writes, Biden's well-placed to extend his advantage in nominating contests tomorrow and in some or all of the four states that vote a week later.Coming up: Michigan, Missouri, Washington, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota vote tomorrow. Candidates debate March 15 in Arizona ahead of that state's March 17 primary.Johnson's curse | British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been trying to deliver his first budget since November, but it's been repeatedly derailed. As Tim Ross reports, first the Brexit turmoil and a snap election forced him to cancel it, then his finance minister quit and now the coronavirus is prompting yet another rewrite ahead of Wednesday's announcement.What to Watch This WeekTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets European Union leaders in Brussels today over the burgeoning refugee crisis, while Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Betsy Duke, who took control of Wells Fargo's board two years ago as part of the bank's efforts to clean up a flurry of scandals, stepped down today ahead of dramatic congressional hearings set for this week. Official results in Israel's third election in a year are due tomorrow, amid reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell short of a parliamentary majority. Putin's constitutional changes, including amendments that mention God and stipulate that marriage is a union of a man and woman, come before parliament this week. Three Russian nationals and one Ukrainian will stand trial in the Netherlands for their alleged role in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Guyana's opposition is seeking an injunction to declare this month's presidential election invalid, after more violence in the small South American country saw police shoot dead a protester.Thanks to all who responded to our pop quiz Friday and congratulations to reader Sonia Leonard, who was the first to name Burundi as the African country where a commission is exhuming mass graves from post-independence turmoil. Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally ... If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thought he could breathe easy when Trump's impeachment ended in an acquittal, he was wrong. First a cabinet revamp annoyed voters and spooked investors. Now Biden's comeback on Super Tuesday has put the Republican spotlight back on the former vice president's dealings with Kyiv. Silence has worked well for Zelenskiy in the past, but this time staying out of the fray may be harder. \--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter and Muneeza Naqvi.To contact the author of this story: Rosalind Mathieson in London at rmathieson3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.netFor 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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| EU, Turkey to review migrant deal as border tensions simmer Posted: 09 Mar 2020 03:01 AM PDT  The European Union and Turkey agreed to review a 4-year-old deal on managing migrants and refugees in an effort to settle a dispute that sent thousands of people to the Turkey-Greece border in hopes of reaching Europe, top EU officials said Monday. Under the 2016 agreement, the EU offered Turkey up to 6 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in aid for the Syrian refugees it hosts, fast-tracked EU membership and other incentives to stop Europe-bound migrants. The number arriving in Greece from Turkey dropped dramatically after the deal took effect.
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| 2020 Watch: Can Bernie get back on track in Michigan? Posted: 09 Mar 2020 02:22 AM PDT  The Democrats' 2020 primary has suddenly become a two-person race in which Joe Biden has a distinct advantage over Bernie Sanders. Last weekend there were five major candidates still in the primary fight, and Sanders was threatening to build an insurmountable delegate lead. The former vice president used the extraordinary rush of momentum to seize a delegate advantage on Super Tuesday.
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| Putin’s Power Is Built on Spying, but It’s Also His Prison Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:53 AM PDT  Over two decades in power, Vladimir Putin's overriding ambition has been to end what he sees as the humiliation of Russia after the end of the Cold War. To achieve that, he has told a story and built a regime with spying at its core. He has stoked up ever-intensifying cycles of spy fever—focusing on both the hunt for enemy spies and the lionizing of Russia's own intelligence officers. This has been used to legitimize his regime but, in turn, has trapped Russia's leader in a cage from which he cannot escape and made relations with the West almost impossible to improve.In December 1999, Vladimir Putin appeared at the Lubyanka, the imposing headquarters of Russian intelligence near Red Square. The former KGB officer had just been appointed prime minister and was soon to ascend to the presidency. He was there for the annual birthday celebration for Russia's spies. After turbulent years, change was in the air. Over champagne, Putin told his former colleagues that the team they had sent undercover had now completed the first part of their mission and taken over the government. Behind the joke lay a deeper belief—that only a KGB officer could restore the strength of the state, which in turn could protect the motherland.Putin famously described the end of the Cold War as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. This was not out of a fondness for communism but rather because of what the end had brought—misery for Russia. Putin's mission was to bring that humiliation to an end. One of the central ways he would do that was to focus on spies, using an obsession with them to solidify his hold on power.Putin breathed new life into his own decaying intelligence services, turbocharging them with more resources, a renewed sense of purpose and a license to take risks. Russia's spies would once again be made a source of pride at home as well as a means to exert power abroad. Spying has long been something Russians consider themselves particularly good at—especially when it comes to playing the long game. While other countries also mythologize their spies, James Bond and Jason Bourne are fictional and neither London nor Washington are (yet) run by former members of the CIA or MI6.Just as important, though, was a focus on villainous, subversive work of enemy spies within Russia and the traitors who worked with them. Many in the KGB believe they only lost the Cold War because Western intelligence subverted the Soviet Union by backing separatist forces and believed their opponents remained determined to prevent Russia returning to her rightful position.Spy fever was periodically stoked up but with the symptoms evolving each time. When Putin first came to power, the emphasis was on scientists and researchers who sold secrets for money. Unrelenting Western espionage in the '90s had contributed to a sense of Russia being on the back foot and there was an element of truth to fears in Moscow. Early in the decade, the CIA had literally been turning away KGB officers offering to sell secrets because there were too many. By the middle of the 2000s, the focus shifted. When Russian TV ran footage of an alleged British MI6 officer in a Moscow park using a high-tech rock to collect information deposited inside by an agent, it came as part of a campaign against Russian non-governmental organizations. In the wake of the "color revolutions" in neighboring countries, Putin and his allies became increasingly convinced that Western intelligence was working through such groups as part of a campaign to subvert his grip on power by encouraging opposition forces.In 2010, the twin aspects of spy fever collided in an event whose implications were poorly understood in the West at the time and which is the central focus of my new book. In June of that year, the FBI arrested 10 Russian deep-cover intelligence officers operating in the United States. Known as "illegals" because they lacked diplomatic cover, these spies were the pride of first the KGB and then its successor, the SVR, and the subject of extensive mythologizing at home (a wildly popular TV series about an illegal's World War II exploits was a particular inspiration for a young Putin). Some of this group had spent a quarter of a century building their cover to pass as U.S. or Canadian citizens in order to burrow deep into American society. The actual value of the intelligence they produced was in some ways secondary to the reassurance they provided Russian spymasters that they could still penetrate their "main enemy." But the group had been betrayed by an SVR officer who had been recruited by the FBI and then run jointly with the CIA.In the U.S., the arrests were seen as almost comic, an odd Cold War throw-back. But Putin, who had stepped aside from the presidency to be prime minister at the time, was "livid," throwing papers from his desk in the air when he found out. It cut to the heart of the identity he had created. Russia's spies had been humiliated, betrayed, and made to look foolish. Worse, he had to swap four Russians who had been convicted of passing secrets to the U.S. and U.K. in return for the return of his illegals. The arrest came as President Dmitry Medvedev flew out of North America, having just eaten burgers with President Barack Obama as part of an ill-fated attempt to "reset" relations. Putin believed his protégé had been played by Washington, a view confirmed by the Libya crisis the following year. And so Putin would announce his return to the presidency. But to his surprise, a series of street protests erupted in December 2011 calling for free elections. The response was to blame this on the familiar enemy of the hidden hand of the CIA. The Kremlin had convinced itself of its own story that it was the one under attack.Spy fever intensified in the coming years. The illegals who were swapped out were turned into heroes, some of them appearing regularly on TV shows. The percentage of Russians approving of their own spies rose from 35 percent in 2001 to 66 percent in 2018. But more important were the enemies. In 2013 an alleged CIA officer operating in Moscow was arrested and paraded on TV, but by 2016, another was physically beaten up by as he tried to return to his embassy. And Russian spies were unleashed abroad. From the Crimea and Ukraine crisis of 2014, Moscow saw itself as engaged in a conflict with the West—something the other side was too slow to appreciate. New illegals were trained to operate undercover in the West. But these were "cyber illegals"—fast and cheap fake personas who would be set to work on social media to amplify divisions in American politics and repay what the Kremlin saw as the West's interference in its politics.Meanwhile, Russian military intelligence—the GRU—was unleashed, encouraged to carry out ever more brazen and aggressive acts. This included extending the hunt for traitors beyond Russia's borders. Most strikingly, this involved seeking revenge for that humiliation in 2010 and using a chemical weapon to try and kill one of the four men who had been swapped, Sergei Skripal, in the quiet English town of Salisbury. Along with the interference in American politics, this act would spiral relations with the West further downwards.Using spy fever to maintain your grip on power requires intensifying its message to avoid its effects wearing off. It leaves little room for de-escalation. Or for Putin to feel able to step back from power, as witnessed by his recent plans to restructure Russia's leadership. Putin's posture, based on the idea of Russia being a "besieged fortress," has created a self-fulfilling narrative—an iron cage that sits around the man at its center. He is a prisoner of his own ideology and the system he has created, unable to relinquish his grip or the focus on his enemies for fear of there being nothing else left. And for that reason, the West should prepare for little to change in the years ahead.Gordon Corera is the author of Russians Among Us—Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories and the Hunt for Putin's Spies.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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| Is Ukraine About to Re-Open the Biden Investigation? Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:48 AM PDT  MOSCOW—Americans can be forgiven if they are sick of hearing about Ukraine and corruption in connection with Donald Trump and Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The long road to President Trump's impeachment in the House of Representatives and the quick business of acquittal in the Senate left people in the United States drained and desperate to turn the page.Trump's Post-Impeachment Staff Purge Has Folks in Ukraine NervousBut now it looks like Ukraine is about to open that book again. In the foreground, a lot of broken promises by the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the background, Russian President Vladimir Putin. How much of a role Trump operatives are playing in the picture is unclear.Last week, Zelensky shook up his cabinet. He fired several ministers pursuing anti-corruption reforms and axed the prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, who had managed to win the respect of clean-government activists in Kyiv. Ryaboshapka was seen to be doing his level best to avoid pressure from Trump and his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani to investigate Hunter Biden's relationship with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, where he held a lucrative position on the board. Zelensky and his aides had also seemed reluctant to pursue such an agenda, which has a great deal more to do with partisan American politics than it does with rooting out Ukrainian corruption. But Zelensky said the fired ministers were underperforming. Long-time Ukraine watchers saw something more ominous: a pivot away from attempts at sustainable reform, and one toward the presidential elections in the United States. In the infamous phone call between Trump and Zelensky last July, you'll recall, Trump asked Zelensky for "a favor": to investigate Burisma and the Bidens. This at a time when Trump was withholding vital military aid from Ukraine.Zelensky told Trump in July he would soon appoint a prosecutor who would look into the Bidens and who would be "100 percent my person, my candidate." Zelensky assured Trump that this loyal prosecutor "will take care of that, will work on the investigation of the case." And just as Zelensky promised, Ryaboshapka did look at the facts, but he always chose his words carefully: Instead of "investigating" Burisma, he said he intended to "audit" the case. Apparently that wasn't enough. In a farewell speech to Ukraine's parliament, the Rada, Ryaboshapka warned of the return of pro-Russian politicians to Ukrainian politics, some of the very same who were pushed out of the country by a pro-European revolution six years ago, ending decades of corrupt dominance of its economic and political life."They want to return and live the same way they had lived for 28 years," said Ryaboshapka, "that is why I am standing here." The decision to fire him was based on "bald-face lies," he said. He had refused to bow to the wishes of Zelensky or members of his "Servant of the People" party that he pursue politicized cases, he said. "I have never been anybody's servant. I have been—I remain—independent. Nobody can influence an independent prosecutor. He can only be fired.""Zelensky and his team are in the process of eliminating everyone who is independent in the cabinet and in the supervisory boards," says Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. "Prosecutor Ryaboshapka was too independent and too committed to playing by the rules," she told The Daily Beast. "It's entirely possible that they need someone in the general prosecutor's seat who will comply with a bogus investigation of Burisma." Currently there are many politicians in Kyiv pushing for Ukraine to fulfill Trump's "favor." Oleg Voloshin is a member of the For Life party. Its chairman is Victor Medvechuk, a close Putin friend and associate. On Thursday, he condemned Ryaboshapka and all his supporters while pushing the Kremlin line that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the U.S. presidential elections of 2016. Voloshin told the Rada that the outgoing prosecutor and others are "are very much terrified of the investigation of Ukraine's interference in 2016 American presidential elections and of the objective investigation against Burisma." Ukraine's leading corruption fighters and political analysts believe that the changes underway may drag the country right back into the arms of pro-Russian figures, and that the shift will also hasten Zelensky's lean toward Trump on the issue of investigations. Daria Kaleniuk, director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, is convinced that Moscow is using the moment to strengthen its powers in Ukraine at a moment when the U.S. is focused on coronavirus and election news, and Europe is overwhelmed with the epidemic as well as a new refugee crisis."The reshuffle of our government is a direct threat to American-Ukrainian relations: Putin's friend, MP Viktor Medvechuk and his party For Life, sing in unison with President Zelensky's party, the Servant of the People, calling to investigate the Bidens," Kaleniuk said. "It would be a catastrophe for our future relations with the United States if we stop being bipartisan and take just one position: pro-Republican." Foreign investors, too, had a negative reaction to the new personalities coming to top positions in Ukraine's government and their vague attitude toward International Monetary Fund requirements for reform and transparency. Some new ministers have résumés that suggest not the slightest intention to reform. The new prime minister, 44-year-old Denis Shmygal, previously worked for the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov in 2017-2019 as director of his Burshtyn power plant. A report by Morgan Stanley released last week recommended investors sell Ukrainian government bonds, before the uncertainty in Kyiv expanded the budget deficit. "We recommend selling Ukraine-2030 Eurobonds and buying Egypt-2031 bonds," said the report, noting that prominent reformers had lost out, including former Economy Minister Timofey Milovanov and former Finance Minister Oksana Markarova."Ukraine has hundreds of top managers, I don't see many on Zelensky's team," said the Atlantic Council's Melinda Haring. "Also, the purge is not over, they will go after the leadership of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, NABU, and the National Bank of Ukraine next, unless the West makes a ton of noise." A Ukrainian Oligarch Bought the Most Infamous Mansion on the Med. He Should've Known Better.Zelensky came to power last year thanks to the massive support of his fans, TV viewers of the satirical television series called Servant of the People. Zelensky's on-screen character, an ordinary schoolteacher, gets elected Ukraine's president and the first thing he does is to bring down the most powerful oligarchs, fictional men akin to the country's richest billionaires—Renat Akhmetov, Ihor Kolomoisky, and Dmytro Firtash. In real life, at least two, Kolomoisky and Akhmetov, seem to grow more influential in Ukrainian politics by the day. (Firtash is in Vienna awaiting extradition to the United States.)Zelensky continues to compare his presidency to his television role while recognizing there are greater challenges in real life. "It's true there are more problems. They are catastrophic," Zelensky told The Guardian in an interview published last week. "They appear, I'm sorry to say, like pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You don't know where they will pop up, or when."But zits rarely do as much damage as a cabinet shuffle weighted in favor of corruption. This is a "turning point" for Zelensky and Ukraine, says Vitaly Sych, editor in chief of the well-respected magazine Novoye Vremia. Too many clean, professional ministers aiming to change Ukraine for the better had to leave the cabinet, said Sych. "This is nothing left but populism."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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| Trump Tells Colombia: Spray Coca Fields With Alleged Carcinogen—or Else Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:43 AM PDT  CALI, Colombia—During a meeting with Colombian President Iván Duque at the White House early last week, Donald Trump more or less ordered Colombia to wipe out coca plants—the main ingredient in cocaine—by spraying the controversial herbicide glyphosate from the air.No, it's not the infamous chemical Agent Orange used in Vietnam, but it's bad enough, and likely to poison the people and the land beneath the toxic clouds.The Last Battle of the Vietnam War: Agent Orange and Its 'Presumed Diseases'"You're going to have to spray," Trump said in front of reporters. "If you don't spray you're not going to get rid of [the coca plants]. So you have to spray with regard to the drugs in Colombia."Duque, long under pressure from the Trump administration, has now agreed to an ambitious "bilateral" plan to eradicate half of Colombia's 212,000 hectares (523,863 acres) of coca by 2023. But Colombia remains the world's leading exporter of processed cocaine, with about 90 percent of the finished product flowing north to the United State. That doesn't sit well with Trump, who has vacillated passive-aggressively between insulting Duque and threatening ominous repercussions for Colombia if cocaine production isn't curbed. In 2017, Trump threatened to decertify Colombia as a good-faith partner in the U.S. "drug war"—a move that would lead to a cutoff of most foreign assistance to the nation. At the time, other leaders in Washington rushed to assure Duque that his country remained one of Washington's most valued allies in the region. But Trump doubled down on his coercive threat again in 2018, and this time he made it personal:"He [Duque] said how he was going to stop drugs. More drugs are coming out of Colombia right now than before he was president—so he has done nothing for us," Trump said.This cocaine quid pro quo—eradication at all costs or risk losing humanitarian and military aid—has led directly to Bogotá's decision to resume aerial spraying with glyphosate. Colombia had curtailed the practice back in 2015 due to health risks, including cancer. "The president's attempts at bullying Colombia go way beyond the context of the larger drug war," said Robert Bunker, an international security analyst at the University of Southern California.But other critics point out that Colombian politicians—who have a long history of cozying up to Washington at the expense of their constituents—are also to blame.A memo issued by the State Department after Trump's meeting with Duque stated that "U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Colombia is one of our most effective investments. [Eradication] efforts have already demonstrated results as coca cultivation and cocaine production levels finally stabilized in 2018 and 2019 for the first time since 2012." Which begs the question: If new coca plantings had already been reduced and production "stabilized" without the use of glyphosate, why return to it now? Apparently because Trump wants it, and Duque can't or won't stand up to him. "Our government is a puppet that has sold us out," said Leyder Valencia, the spokesman for Colombia's National Coordination for Cultivators of Coca, Poppies, and Marijuana [COCCAM], in an interview with The Daily Beast. "Our leaders care nothing for what happens to us," Valencia said. "They have put U.S. interests ahead of their own people." 'A CURSE UPON THE LAND'Glyphosate was developed by the chemical giant Monsanto, a former U.S. company acquired in 2018 by Bayer—which acquired massive legal liabilities as part of the deal. The chemical is widely used in products like the weed killer Roundup. One recent meta study determined that exposure to the herbicide increases the risk of cancer—specifically non-Hodgkin's lymphoma—by a factor of 41 percent. The World Health Organization also has stuck by its decision to label it a carcinogen, despite pressure from U.S. officials to change that ruling.Over the last two years, a landmark series of court cases in California also have found glyphosate to be highly carcinogenic, with juries awarding a total of about $2.16 billion in damages to the plaintiffs. More than 13,000 claims have been leveled against Monsanto/Bayer. But the Trump administration likes glyphosate. Its Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr said in December that a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court ruling that Bayer was liable in the case of a man in California who claimed his cancer was caused by Roundup.Colombia's Drug-Funded Rebels Are Back in Action Big-TimeBayer insists that its product is safe "when used as directed," and isn't likely to cause cancer if its residue is on the food you eat. But in Colombia, remember, we are not talking about focused use of the chemical at ground level, we are talking about spraying anything and anyone caught in the toxic fog released by an airplane or helicopter.The United Nations has criticized the use of aerial spraying in Colombia due to the chemical's toxicity, as have ranking members of the Catholic Church in impacted areas."It is like a curse upon the land, destroying everything it touches" said COCCAM spokesman Valencia. "I have seen it with my own eyes. It kills all the farmer's crops, not just coca, so that they have nothing to eat. It gets into the water and even kills their livestock."Valencia also insisted lymphoma isn't the only disease caused by high levels of exposure."It also causes cancer of the skin," he says. "The mothers miscarry, or their babies are born with terrible deformities. Our public officials know this, but they don't care."Clinical proof for such claims is lacking, but their political and social impact is considerable. USC's Bunker called aerial spraying an "indefensible ethical position… We are essentially strong-arming a U.S. ally to engage in its own environmental degradation."According to Valencia, most farmers would choose not to grow coca at all if there were other viable crops that would allow them to support their families. Armed groups often compete over coca plots for the sake of producing cocaine, meaning that coca growers "always live in a war zone." And at any time Colombian government soldiers can come along and wipe out the crops, leaving growers with nothing to harvest, he said."We've been begging for crop substitution programs since the 1980s. The government makes promises to help us, but nothing ever comes of it." 'PEOPLE NEED BASIC SECURITY'Deadly mutative properties aside, there's another good reason not to return to aerial eradication with glyphosate. Namely that in the long run it doesn't work, according to Adam Isacson, defense director for the Washington Office on Latin America."Fumigation can bring a short-term reduction in coca cultivation, but coca recovers pretty quickly in areas that are totally ungoverned," Isacson told The Daily Beast. "In Colombia we saw that after a few years of spraying, heavily sprayed regions had modestly less coca and a population seething with anger toward their government."Coca farmers respond to aerial eradication by moving their plots, disguising the coca plants among other vegetation, and quickly cutting the plant after it's been sprayed to avoid poisoning of the roots. Isacson, who recently authored a paper on the logistics of spraying coca, said that lack of state presence and economic infrastructure are the prime factors that force farmers to grow illicit crops because they "have no other option." "A government that sprays people from overhead is a government that doesn't intend to be physically present on the ground," he said. "Some of these areas are so ungoverned that people can't even get their hands on the local currency easily; it's easier to buy things by weighing coca paste on store-counter scales."Another new report by Brookings also calls forced eradication efforts in Colombia "ineffective" and labels results "short-lived and ephemeral." Vanda Falbab-Brown, the author of "Detoxifying Colombia's Drug Policy," argues for "rural development centering on alternative livelihoods for coca growers and supported by well-designed interdiction efforts" as the best means for cutting back drug production. Citing successful efforts in Thailand, she argues that "eradication should be delayed until these alternative livelihoods are generating sustainable income."But Trump, even as he demands a return to aerial spraying, has authorized a $36 million cut in aid to Colombia as part of his 2021 budget—denying funds that would have gone toward the kind of rural assistance programs Falbab-Brown advocates.The 2016 peace treaty between Bogotá and the country's largest guerrilla faction, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), also called for a development-first approach to eventual eradication. The armistice was engineered by former Colombian president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, but the far-right Duque regime has walked back on his predecessor's promises to provide support for rural regions."The accords include a step by step process [for eradication] that also comes with social investments," said Valencia, of COCCAM. "That treaty was signed almost four years ago. How much longer will we have to wait?"If Trump has his way, the wait is over, and so are the accords. Let the sprays begin. 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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| Cryptocurrencies Lose $26B In A Day Following Stock, Oil Dip As Gold Rises Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:36 AM PDT  The cryptocurrency market saw $26 billion erased from its market capitalization over 24 hours at press time on Monday as overall macroeconomic conditions remained unfavorable.What's Affecting The MarketThe number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases increased over the weekend globally, with at least 110,041 cases and 3,825 deaths confirmed according to data from Johns Hopkins University.The cases skyrocketed in Italy at 7,375, forcing the government to lock down some of its central areas, including financial capital Milan.554 cases have been confirmed in the U.S., with 21 reported deaths, affecting some of the biggest financial hubs, including Washington State, New York, and California.Several tech companies, including Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), shut down their offices in affected areas and asked employees to work from home.The market conditions worsened as oil tanked following Saudi Arabia starting a price war with Russia.Russia reportedly denied accepting the supply cuts proposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as a reaction to reduced demand from coronavirus outbreak. Instead of supply cuts, Saudi Arabia went the other way, discounting oil prices.Cryptocurrency, A Safe Haven?There has been a long-standing debate in the cryptocurrency community over whether the digital currencies act as safe havens in the time of global financial crises.The cryptocurrencies have at times surged or dropped in tandem with traditional safe havens like gold and the Japanese yen, during the heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran late last year, for example, even as stocks dropped lower globally.Nevertheless, the decentralized currencies have acted out too frequently to establish a connection. As cryptocurrencies dropped on Monday, gold and Japanese yen surged.Both spot gold and April gold futures briefly crossed $1,700 late Sunday, the highest in seven years. Yen gained 2.56 points against the U.S. dollar at 102.73.Cryptocurrency Price ActionBitcoin (BTC) traded 10% lower at $7,875.57 at press time on Monday, per CoinMarketCap data.Ethereum (ETH) was down 13.19% at $200.72. Stablecoin Tether traded at its intended price of $1. All other top 10 currencies, too, saw double-digit losses in the 24-hours to press time.No cryptocurrency, other than stablecoins, bucked the trend.See more from Benzinga * Twitter Marks Trump Campaign Video As 'Manipulated Media' In One Of The First Enforcements Of Updated Policy * 'The Black Swan' Author To Elon Musk: 'Saying The Coronavirus Panic Is Dumb Is Dumb'(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| Sudan PM says he survived 'terror attack' in capital Posted: 09 Mar 2020 01:27 AM PDT  Sudan's prime minister said Monday he survived a "terror attack" after an explosion and gunfire targeted his motorcade in the capital Khartoum. Abdalla Hamdok, a longtime economist, tweeted he was "safe and in good shape" following the explosion. Sudanese state TV said Hamdok had been heading to his office when the attack took place.
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| Saudi Arabia, Israel tighten restrictions to counter virus Posted: 09 Mar 2020 12:09 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia closed off air and sea travel to 14 countries affected by the new virus Monday, while Israel ordered two weeks of home quarantine for anyone arriving from overseas. The state oil giant Saudi Aramco led the financial losses, dropping by 10% on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange and forcing a halt to Aramco's trading. In the Mideast, there have been over 7,600 confirmed cases, with the vast majority in hard-hit Iran.
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| Sudan's youth protesters await justice amid frail transition Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:13 PM PDT  When Youssef al-Sewahly took to the streets in Sudan late in 2018, he and the other protesters had one goal: to remove the autocratic regime of Omar al-Bashir and replace it with a civilian-led government. Now, he and other young protesters find themselves with their futures on hold, suspended with the uncertainty of the post-uprising transition. Inflation stands at a staggering 60% and the unemployment rate was 22.1% in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund.
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| Gold, Bitcoin No Longer Frenemies in Coronavirus Era Posted: 08 Mar 2020 10:32 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- There was a time when Bitcoin earned its stripes as a safe asset in times of crisis or uncertainty. Now, it seems that a global disease outbreak has proven too much for the premier cryptocurrency, with prices plunging over the past month.Bloomberg Opinion first stumbled across the notion that Bitcoin was a sanctuary four years ago during Brexit fever, when it moved almost in lockstep with gold. We noted at the time that it would take a few more bouts of global fear to confirm that the cryptocurrency could be considered a good hedging option.One such occasion occurred last year, when the gold-Bitcoin two-step started up again in connection with a drop in the yuan and heightened risk over U.S.-China trade. The correlation between Bitcoin and gold over the prior year was 0.496, and had shot up to 0.827, which is about as high as you could expect. A correlation coefficient of 1 indicates that assets move in perfect lockstep.Over the past two years this asset pair has charted a correlation of 0.616.(1) Then the Covid-19 virus struck. For a brief moment, it looked like Bitcoin was again a winner, climbing 43% from the start of the year to as high as $10,471 on Feb. 13. That was in line with, albeit much sharper than, a rise in traditional havens gold and 10-year U.S. Treasuries. Then it plunged. By 10 a.m. Monday in Taipei, where I am based, Bitcoin was down 23% from that high, including a 12% drop in the past day. But even without the most recent plunge, the cryptocurrency had fallen out of favor. It bobbed around $10,000 for a week or so, even as Treasuries kept climbing, and then fell under $9,500 and stayed there. Right now, it's hovering around $8,000. Gold faced a similar sell-off, but that weakness lasted only two days before it shot up again. The precious metal is now trading at the highest level in more than seven years. As a result, the correlation between gold and Bitcoin has flipped to -0.22 over the past month.This tells me that at least a subset of investors — those that trade cryptocurrencies — are feeling far more jittery than they did in the past. Maybe it's because previous shocks seemed so esoteric — after all, Britain exiting the European Union and a superpower trade war were events of little direct or daily impact.This time, though, the spread of Covid-19 has people quarantined in their homes and panic-purchasing basic necessities. That's made the current crisis more real, more threatening, and more scary, sending investors chasing after an asset that's more tangible than 256-bits of code and belief in a utopian digital future. (2)I wouldn't be so bold as to suggest that Bitcoin won't rise again. But just one month of data is warning enough that maybe investors can't rely on it to always be their haven in desperate times.(1) Based on weekly data to filter out noise.(2) A bitcoin private key, the "password" which allows an owner to transfer the asset, is 256 bits in length.To contact the author of this story: Tim Culpan at tculpan1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick McDowell at pmcdowell10@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News.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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| China turns to propaganda to right image in virus 'war' Posted: 08 Mar 2020 10:19 PM PDT  As the rest of the world grapples with a burgeoning virus outbreak, China's ruling Communist Party has deployed its propaganda playbook to portray its leader as firmly in charge, leading an army of health workers in a "people's war" against the disease. The main evening news on state TV regularly shows President Xi Jinping and his underlings giving instructions on the outbreak or touring related facilities. For the Communist Party, the epidemic is both a risk and an opportunity.
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| Infected cruise ship unloads passengers in California Posted: 08 Mar 2020 10:17 PM PDT  The cruise ship forced to idle for days off the California coast because of a cluster of coronavirus cases aboard arrived in port Monday, and dozen of passengers began to leave for military bases where they would be quarantined or to return to their home countries. The Grand Princess pulled into the Port of Oakland with more than 3,500 people aboard — 21 confirmed to be infected with the new virus. Passengers lining the balconies waved and some left the cabins where they had been in isolation to go on deck.
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