| Trump warns Iran of 'heavy price' in case of attack on US troops Posted: 01 Apr 2020 05:00 PM PDT  President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday of a "heavy price" if it or its allies in Iraq attack US troops stationed there. "We don't want hostility, but if they are hostile to us, they're going to regret it like they've never regretted anything before," he said of Iran at a White House press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. "If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" Trump tweeted earlier in the day.
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| Coronavirus: Fighting al-Shabab propaganda in Somalia Posted: 01 Apr 2020 04:36 PM PDT  Muslim clerics in Somalia are moving to the front-line of the battle against coronavirus.
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| Trump warns Iran against attacking US troops in Iraq Posted: 01 Apr 2020 04:02 PM PDT  President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Tehran should expect a bold U.S. response if Iran or Iranian-backed groups attack American forces or assets in Iraq. U.S.-Iran tensions soared following the Jan. 3 Washington-directed strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani outside Baghdad airport. Trump said at an evening White House briefing that his administration has received intelligence that Iran is planning a strike, but did not provide additional details.
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| Trump casts doubt on Chinese coronavirus figures Posted: 01 Apr 2020 04:00 PM PDT  President Donald Trump cast doubt Wednesday on the accuracy of official Chinese figures on its coronavirus outbreak after US lawmakers, citing an intelligence report, accused Beijing of a cover up. "How do we know" if they are accurate, Trump asked at a press conference. Trump insisted that "the relationship with China's a good one" and that he remained close to President Xi Jinping.
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| Feds: Man intentionally derailed LA train near hospital ship Posted: 01 Apr 2020 03:56 PM PDT  A train engineer intentionally drove a speeding locomotive off a track at the Port of Los Angeles because he was suspicious about the presence of a Navy hospital ship docked there amid the coronovirus crisis, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The locomotive crashed through a series of barriers and fences before coming to rest more than 250 yards (230 meters) from the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Mercy on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release. Eduardo Moreno, 44, was charged with one count of train wrecking, prosecutors said.
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| China is bracing for a second wave of coronavirus Posted: 01 Apr 2020 01:59 PM PDT  A Chinese county that was largely unscathed by the novel COVID-19 coronavirus went into lockdown Wednesday, signaling fears of a possible second wave in the country where the virus originated, The South China Morning Post reports.The county of Jia in Henan province, home to 600,000 people, is now in lockdown after infections reportedly spread at a local hospital. There were previously only 12 confirmed cases in Henan, despite it being situated just north of Hubei province, where China's epicenter, Wuhan, is located. However, U.S. intelligence reportedly believes China under-reported the actual number of cases.Either way, the new lockdown, which shuts down all non-essential business and requires people to carry special permits to leave their homes, and wear face masks and have their temperature taken when out and about, comes at a time when the country clearly wants to get its economy up and running again. It's unclear if such measures will be limited to the county or if it's a sign of things to come for the rest of the world's most populous country, but President Xi Jinping has warned that China must return to normal gradually in the hopes of preventing a full-scale COVID-19 return. Read more at The South China Morning Post.More stories from theweek.com Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is what real coronavirus leadership looks like Netanyahu reportedly mistook a Hallmark series clip for proof of an Iranian coronavirus coverup How the coronavirus fight might end up at the Supreme Court
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| Editorial Roundup: US Posted: 01 Apr 2020 01:55 PM PDT |
| UN climate summit postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19 Posted: 01 Apr 2020 01:43 PM PDT  The decision was made by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Britain and Italy, which had been due to host some preparatory events. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that it was a "disappointing decision, but absolutely the right one as we all focus on the fight against #coronavirus." Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made tackling climate change a priority, but Britain's tenure at the helm of the conference got off to a bumpy start even before the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Climate summit in Glasgow postponed to 2021 due to coronavirus -Finland Posted: 01 Apr 2020 12:41 PM PDT |
| Nearly 3,000 sailors to leave carrier amid virus outbreak Posted: 01 Apr 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Nearly 3,000 sailors aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier where the coronavirus has spread will be taken off the ship by Friday, Navy officials said Wednesday as they struggle to quarantine crew members in the face of an outbreak. Navy leaders are talking with government officials in the U.S. territory to identify rooms for the crew members. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, however, made it clear that while several thousand will leave the ship, other sailors will remain on board in order to continue to protect the ship and run critical systems.
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| Italy Joins Germany in Prolonging Lockdown to Quell Outbreak Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:58 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Italy and Germany on Wednesday prolonged rigid lockdown measures until after Easter as Spain reported its deadliest day yet in a grim reminder of the ongoing struggle to bring the coronavirus under control.Even though infection rates in some countries are showing signs of receding, governments on the continent worry that easing restrictions too soon could backfire. There were 864 new fatalities in Spain on Wednesday, and the number of confirmed cases increased to more than 102,000. Spain, which has been in almost-complete lockdown since March 14, and Italy are the epicenters of the outbreak in Europe.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said late Wednesday that a nationwide lockdown will last until April 13. Restaurants, bars and all public venues are closed, all non essential economic activity has stopped and movement within the country is restricted. Earlier in the day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who has been self-quarantined at her home since last week -- extended a nationwide shutdown until April 19. Merkel said the increase in the infection rate had eased slightly, but cautioned it's too early to relax strict rules on public interaction."We're seeing some effect from the measures, but we're far away from being able to say that we can change the contact restrictions," Merkel told reporters on an audio conference. She urged Germans to avoid visiting relatives during the Easter vacation. "I know that it's hard, but it save lives," she said.Both Germany and Italy have also expanded backstops to protect their economies. In Portugal, the government is extending a state of emergency initially declared on March 18 for another two weeks."If we make a big effort in these next few weeks, we'll start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel sooner," Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in Lisbon.Merkel reiterated a plea for patience to give the measures time to show a lasting impact. Germany has the third-largest outbreak in Europe with 71,808 infections. The disease has caused 775 deaths in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.Romania's death toll continued to rise much faster than in any other country in central and eastern Europe, reaching 85 fatalities on Wednesday. A growing number of doctors and medical workers are getting infected with the new virus, raising concerns about hospital outbreaks that could endanger entire cities, including the capital Bucharest.Alongside protecting public health, concerns about the economic fallout of shutting down large parts of the economy weighed on European leaders. Spanish bankers and lawyers are bracing for a steep surge in insolvencies, as some business leaders say aspects of the government's 117 billion-euro ($128 billion) crisis response risk making things worse.Germany plugged a gap in its 750 billion-euro rescue package by pledging to help startups with short-term financial assistance worth around 2 billion euros. "For these young, innovative companies, classic credit instruments are often not suitable," Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said.In Austria -- where unemployment jumped to the highest level since the end of World War II in March -- the government plans to impose a three-month repayment moratorium on about 162 billion euros of consumer loans to ease the impact of lockdown measures. Still under discussion is how many corporate loans the moratorium would cover.Conte is working on a decree to guarantee liquidity to businesses hit by the nationwide lockdown. Urgent measures to provide cash to companies will be followed by a decree later in April to help families, according to a government official.Italian health authorities reported 727 new fatalities in the last 24 hours -- the lowest number in six days. New cases rose by 4,782 to a total in the country of 110,574."It would be an unforgivable mistake to see this first result as a definitive defeat of the virus," Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said. "The battle is still very long."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Why the Global Recession Could Last a Long Time Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:57 AM PDT  LONDON -- The world is almost certainly ensnared in a devastating recession delivered by the coronavirus pandemic.Now, fears are growing that the downturn could be far more punishing and long lasting than initially feared -- potentially enduring into next year, and even beyond -- as governments intensify restrictions on business to halt the spread of the pandemic, and as fear of the virus reconfigures the very concept of public space, impeding consumer-led economic growth.The pandemic is above all a public health emergency. So long as human interaction remains dangerous, business cannot responsibly return to normal. And what was normal before may not be anymore. People may be less inclined to jam into crowded restaurants and concert halls even after the virus is contained.The abrupt halt of commercial activity threatens to impose economic pain so profound and enduring in every region of the world at once that recovery could take years. The losses to companies, many already saturated with debt, risk triggering a financial crisis of cataclysmic proportions."I feel like the 2008 financial crisis was just a dry run for this," said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist and co-author of a history of financial crises, "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.""This is already shaping up as the deepest dive on record for the global economy for over 100 years," he said. "Everything depends on how long it lasts, but if this goes on for a long time, it's certainly going to be the mother of all financial crises."The situation looks uniquely dire in developing countries, which have seen investment rush for the exits this year, sending currencies plummeting, forcing people to pay more for imported food and fuel, and threatening governments with insolvency -- all of this while the pandemic itself threatens to overwhelm inadequate medical systems.Among investors, a hopeful scenario holds currency: The recession will be painful but short-lived, giving way to a robust recovery this year. The global economy is in a temporary deep freeze, the logic goes. Once the virus is contained, enabling people to return to offices and shopping malls, life will snap back to normal. Jets will fill with families going on merely deferred vacations. Factories will resume, fulfilling saved up orders.But even after the virus is tamed -- and no one really knows when that will be -- the world that emerges is likely to be choked with trouble, challenging the recovery. Mass joblessness exacts societal costs. Widespread bankruptcy could leave industry in a weakened state, depleted of investment and innovation.Households may remain agitated and risk averse, making them prone to thrift. Some social distancing measures could remain indefinitely. Consumer spending amounts to roughly two-thirds of economic activity worldwide. If anxiety endures and people are reluctant to spend, expansion will be limited -- especially as continued vigilance against the coronavirus may be required for years."The psychology won't just bounce back," said Charles Dumas, chief economist at TS Lombard, an investment research firm in London. "People have had a real shock. The recovery will be slow, and certain behavior patterns are going to change, if not forever at least for a long while."Rising stock prices in the United States have in recent years propelled spending. Millions of people are now filing claims for unemployment benefits, while wealthier households are absorbing the reality of substantially diminished retirement savings.Americans boosted their rates of savings significantly in the years after the Great Depression. Fear and tarnished credit limited reliance on borrowing. That could happen again."The loss of income on the labor front is tremendous," Dumas said. "The loss of value in the wealth effect is also very strong."The sense of alarm is enhanced by the fact that every inhabited part of the globe is now in trouble.The United States, the world's largest economy, is almost certainly in a recession. So is Europe. So probably are significant economies like Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. China, the world's second-largest economy, is expected to grow by only 2% this year, according to TS Lombard, the research firm.For years, a segment of the economic orthodoxy advanced the notion that globalization came with a built-in insurance policy against collective disaster. So long as some part of the world economy was growing, that supposedly moderated the effect of a downturn in any one country.The global recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008 beggared that thesis. The current downturn presents an even more extreme event -- a worldwide emergency that has left no safe haven.When the pandemic emerged, initially in central China, it was viewed as a substantial threat to that economy. Even as China closed itself off, conventional wisdom held that, at worst, large international companies like Apple and General Motors would suffer lost sales to Chinese consumers, while manufacturers elsewhere would struggle to secure parts made in Chinese factories.But then the pandemic spread to Italy and eventually across Europe, threatening factories on the continent. Then came government policies that essentially locked down modern life, business included, while the virus spread to the United States."Now, anywhere you look in the global economy we are seeing a hit to domestic demand on top of those supply chain impacts," said Innes McFee, managing director of macro and investor services at Oxford Economics in London. "It's incredibly worrying."Oxford Economics estimates that the global economy will contract marginally this year, before improving by June. But this view is likely to be revised down sharply, McFee said.Trillions of dollars in credit and loan guarantees dispensed by central banks and governments in the United States and Europe have perhaps cushioned the most developed economies. That may prevent large numbers of businesses from failing, say economists, while ensuring that workers who lose jobs will be able to stay current on their bills."I am attached to the notion that this is a temporary crisis," said Marie Owens Thomsen, global chief economist at Indosuez Wealth Management in Geneva. "You hit the pause button, and then you hit the start button, and the machine starts running again."But that depends on the rescue packages proving effective -- no sure thing. In the typical economic shock, government spends money to try to encourage people to go out and spend. In this crisis, the authorities are demanding that people stay inside to limit the virus."The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that there will be destruction of productive capacity," Owens Thomsen said. "Then, the nature of the crisis morphs from temporary to something a bit more lasting."Worldwide, foreign direct investment is on track to decline by 40% this year, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. This threatens "lasting damage to global production networks and supply chains," said the body's director of investment and enterprise, James Zhan."It will likely take two to three years for most economies to return to their pre-pandemic levels of output," IHS Markit said in a recent research note.In developing countries, the consequences are already severe. Not only is capital fleeing, but a plunge in commodity prices -- especially oil -- is assailing many countries, among them Mexico, Chile and Nigeria. China's slowdown is rippling out to countries that supply Chinese factories with components, from Indonesia to South Korea.Between now and the end of next year, developing countries are on the hook to repay some $2.7 trillion in debt, according to a report released Monday by the U.N. trade body. In normal times, they could afford to roll most of that debt into new loans. But the abrupt exodus of money has prompted investors to charge higher rates of interest for new loans.The U.N. body called for a $2.5 trillion rescue for developing countries -- $1 trillion in loans from the International Monetary Fund, another $1 trillion in debt forgiveness from a broad range of creditors and $500 billion for health recovery."The great fear we have for developing countries is that the economic shocks have actually hit most of them before the health shocks have really begin to hit," said Richard Kozul-Wright, director of the division on globalization and development strategies at the U.N. trade body in Geneva.In the most optimistic view, the fix is already underway. China has effectively contained the virus and is beginning to get back to work, though gradually. If Chinese factories spring back to life, that will ripple out across the globe, generating demand for computer chips made in Taiwan, copper mined in Zambia and soybeans grown in Argentina.But China's industry is not immune to global reality. Chinese consumers are an increasingly powerful force, yet cannot spur a full recovery. If Americans are still contending with the pandemic, if South Africa cannot borrow on world markets and if Europe is in recession, that will limit the appetite for Chinese wares."If Chinese manufacturing comes back, who exactly are they selling to?" asked Rogoff, the economist. "How can global growth not take a long-term hit?"This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Trump: US to deploy anti-drug Navy ships near Venezuela Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:55 AM PDT  President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Navy ships are being moved toward Venezuela as his administration beefs up counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean following a U.S. drug indictment against Nicolás Maduro. "The Venezuelan people continue to suffer tremendously due to Maduro and his criminal control over the country, and drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said after the president's announcement. The deployment is one of the largest U.S. military operations in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama to remove Gen. Manuel Noriega from power and bring him to the U.S. to face drug charges.
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| Who Are the Voters Behind Trump's Higher Approval Rating? Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:41 AM PDT  Justin Penn, a Pittsburgh voter who calls himself politically independent, favored Joe Biden in a matchup with President Donald Trump until recently. But the president's performance during the coronavirus outbreak has Penn reconsidering."I think he's handled it pretty well," he said of the president, whose daily White House appearances Penn catches on Facebook after returning from his job as a bank security guard. "I think he's tried to keep people calm," he said. "I know some people don't think he's taking it seriously, but I think he's doing the best with the information he had."Although Penn, 40, said he did not vote for Trump, his opinion of the president has improved recently and he very well might back him for a second term.Across the country, the coronavirus has sickened more than 150,000 people, cost millions their jobs and tanked the stock market. Yet the president's approval ratings are as high as they have ever been, despite what most agree to be his slow performance dealing with the crisis, as well as his record of falsehoods about the virus, his propensity to push ideas and treatments that contradict expert advice, and his habit of lashing out at governors on the front lines.While public perceptions are fluid in a crisis, a notable twist in polling at this point is that independents are driving Trump's bump in approval, and some increased Democratic support is a factor as well. Gallup called that "highly unusual for Trump" in reporting its latest survey, which was released last week and showed Trump's approval rating at 49%, equal to the best of his presidency.While Republicans' views of Trump were flat -- a sign they had already topped out -- approval by independents rose by 8 percentage points from early March, while Democratic approval was up by 6 percentage points.Polling experts said that it was normal for the country to rally around a president during a national crisis, and that Trump's dominance of the airwaves alone was enough to sway a slice of voters who don't normally tune in to politics."There are people who haven't even heard Trump that much, while the rest of us have been obsessed," said Matt Grossmann, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University. "Those people are paying attention and seeing Trump a lot."Every modern president has seen their approval surge after significant national crises, although those bumps have diminished in size in recent administrations, as the country's politics became more polarized. President Barack Obama gained just 7 points after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The rally-round-the-flag effect is also often fleeting. President Jimmy Carter's approval nearly doubled in 1979 when Iran seized American hostages, but as the crisis dragged on for more than a year, Carter's approval plummeted and he lost reelection.Interviews with about two dozen independent and Democratic voters, most of whom said they "somewhat disapproved" of Trump in a poll last year by The New York Times and Siena College, showed that some now expressed more positive views of him. Their numbers were small, consistent with what pollsters say is by historical standards a modest bump in approval for a commander-in-chief during an emergency.Kathleen Mathien, an independent in Maricopa County, Arizona, said that she did not vote for Trump, but that her opinion of him had risen during his White House appearances to talk about the virus."He's not one to be bullied," she said, adding that she also saw flashes of empathy, a trait many critics find lacking in Trump.Mathien, 64, a designer of cabinetry, explained that she doesn't closely follow politics and finds it difficult to get a true understanding of candidates beyond the "smoke and mirrors" they project. "It's so hard sometimes to vote if you don't know who the real person is," she said. Undecided as of now, she said Trump has a chance to win her vote.Last week, a Monmouth University poll showed the president's overall approval at 46%, an improvement driven in part by higher Democratic support. Patrick Murray, director of the university's Polling Institute, called the shift by some Democrats "microscopic in polling terms.""Any other president and we would expect those job ratings to swing by more than 10 points because of the situation," Murray said.Trump's ratings lag far behind many of the nation's governors, who have seen a sharp increase in their approval ratings as they rush to contain the virus. Unlike Trump's, their approval ratings do not show the same level of partisan divide.More than 7 in 10 voters in states with a significant number of coronavirus cases gave their governor a positive review in the Monmouth survey. Even in states with the fewest reported cases, 61% of Americans said their governor was doing a good job.Still, small shifts in Trump's approval could make a difference in a close-fought general election. A Washington Post/ABC poll this past weekend showed Trump improving on a 7-point deficit against Biden a month ago to reach a near tie with the former vice president, 49% to 47%."President Trump has broken through the narrow range of 42 to 46% approval where he's been for the last two years and indeed for much of his presidency," said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. "It's an open question whether those people who are changing now would actually vote in a different way in November. Some of the independents may. I doubt that many of the Democrats will."Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, said, "I would be a little careful in whether it translates into something permanent," adding, "The challenge for Trump is that he's inconsistent."Robert Taylor, 31, a computer programmer in York County, Pennsylvania, wants Sen. Bernie Sanders to be the Democratic nominee and is unsure if he will vote for Biden in a contest against the president."I'm not one of those people who hate Trump and thinks everything he's done is wrong," he said. He could vote for Trump if the president successfully leads the country through the coronavirus crisis, Taylor said. "We'll see how he handles everything from here on out."Two months ago, Neil Ferguson of Earling, Iowa, stood in a corner for Sen. Amy Klobuchar at Iowa's Democratic caucuses. But he is displeased today by Democrats criticizing Trump's leadership and wants the country to rally around the president at a time of national emergency."At some point we've got to get behind this together," he said. "Every step of the way he's criticized," he said of the president. "I know a lot of voters out here that say yeah, had they given the guy a chance, maybe things would have been a lot better."Ferguson, 67, who is retired from the military, regularly watches the White House briefings, and though he sometimes winces over the president's rambling delivery, he is impressed with Vice President Mike Pence and with Trump's responses to reporters."When he gets to the question-and-answer period, he is pretty point-on," he said. Four years ago Ferguson voted for a third-party candidate, but this year he has decided to vote for the president.Among voters already supportive of Trump, recent polling shows their enthusiasm to support him in November is running well ahead of the enthusiasm of Biden backers. Janice Friedel, a professor in Des Moines, Iowa, and a Democrat, liked Trump before the virus hit, and now her support has grown stronger."I thought President Trump was doing OK, but this really has brought out his strong leadership, his ability to bring people together across the aisle," she said. "I am a Democrat, but I am going to vote for him. I don't see leadership on the Democratic side. But I certainly will vote for Trump."There are some Democrats and independents who were initially inclined to give the president the benefit of the doubt over the coronavirus, but have since concluded that he is failing."In the beginning, when he went on TV he sounded very presidential, sounded like he wanted to get in front of this," said Francis Newberg of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. "I told my wife, 'Listen to this guy, he sounds real.'"But Newberg's opinion swiftly went downhill as he watched the president attack Democratic governors and say that "everything is fine.""It's not fine," said Newberg, who lives with his wife outside Philadelphia in a community for residents over 62. Its three restaurants have closed and staff members now deliver three days of groceries at a time to residents."We had our first case of coronavirus diagnosed in our community," said Newberg, who retired from a phone company. "There's 1,800 of us. If it breaks out in here, there's going to be a lot of boxes outside."In Florida, Jason Berger, an independent voter, told the Times/Siena poll last year that he strongly approved of the president. But Berger, a pharmacy technician, had an about-face as he watched Trump's handling of the outbreak."The biggest pivot point for me was when he mentioned the cruise liner which held Americans, which he didn't want to dock in California because he didn't want the numbers to go up," Berger said, referring to the Grand Princess cruise ship, which was held offshore with 21 infected people aboard in early March. "I found that extremely insulting. Those were Americans and they were sick."Four years ago, Berger, 46, did not vote in the presidential election, deciding to leave the outcome to voters who were more tuned in than he was at the time. He now regrets that decision. "I take full responsibility," he said. He does not intend to sit out another race and will vote for the Democratic nominee in November."We need the government to take care of us in a crisis situation," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| AP-NORC poll: Less than half back Trump's pandemic response Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:35 AM PDT  Americans give high marks to state and local governments for their handling of the fast-moving coronavirus pandemic that has swiftly remade everyday life. The coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed more than 4,000 Americans and shut down much of the U.S. economy, is the most urgent and unpredictable crisis of Trump's presidency. The coming weeks will likely shape how Americans view the wisdom of giving him a second term in the November election, where he is likely to face off against former Vice President Joe Biden.
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| Palestinians: Man dies of wounds in clash with Israel forces Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:23 AM PDT |
| Virus lockdown changes how Hindus celebrate holy period Posted: 01 Apr 2020 11:21 AM PDT  Rukmani Sharma fears the virus that has turned the world upside down. COVID-19 restrictions mean that the 71-year-old woman won't be allowed to go to temple Thursday to celebrate the birthday of the Hindu god Ram, and she says she's "feeling guilty." Hindus around the world are in the midst of a nine-day period called Chaitra Navaratri that began with what for many is considered the Hindu New Year and will culminate with the festival of Ramanavami.
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| More evidence indicates healthy people can spread virus Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:41 AM PDT  Scientists offered more evidence Wednesday that the coronavirus is spread by seemingly healthy people who show no clear symptoms, and the federal government issued new guidance warning that anyone exposed to the disease can be considered a carrier. A study by researchers in Singapore became the latest to estimate that somewhere around 10% of new infections may be sparked by people who carry the virus but have not yet suffered its flu-like symptoms. In response to that study and others, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed how it defined the risk of infection for Americans.
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| Trump Threatens ‘Heavy Price’ If Iran Attacks U.S. Troops Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump warned Iran against what he said was a possible "sneak attack" the Islamic Republic was planning against U.S. troops in Iraq.Trump indicated in a tweet that the U.S. had "information" about a possible attack but didn't elaborate. He said Iran would pay a "very heavy price" if there's an attack.Tensions have soared this year between Washington and Tehran after a top Iranian general was killed by American forces at the start of the year, prompting a missile barrage on an Iraqi base used by American forces. There have since been strikes in Iraq by Iranian proxy groups, and the U.S. has seized shipments of allegedly Iranian weapons bound for Yemen.More recently, Iran and some other countries have called on the U.S. to ease sanctions to allow for faster importation of humanitarian goods needed to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, which has hit Iran particularly hard. The U.S. argues that its sanctions already allow for the importation of critical goods.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:21 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it's suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report to the White House, according to three U.S. officials.The officials asked not to be identified because the report is secret, and they declined to detail its contents. But the thrust, they said, is that China's public reporting on cases and deaths is intentionally incomplete. Two of the officials said the report concludes that China's numbers are fake.The report was received by the White House last week, one of the officials said.The outbreak began in China's Hubei province in late 2019, but the country has publicly reported only about 82,000 cases and 3,300 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That compares to more than 189,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths in the U.S., which has the largest publicly reported outbreak in the world.Communications staff at the White House and the Chinese embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to requests for comment."The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming," Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday on CNN. "What appears evident now is that long before the world learned in December that China was dealing with this, and maybe as much as a month earlier than that, that the outbreak was real in China.While China eventually imposed a strict lockdown beyond those of less autocratic nations, there has been considerable skepticism toward China's reported numbers, both outside and within the country. The Chinese government has repeatedly revised its methodology for counting cases, for weeks excluding people without symptoms entirely, and only on Tuesday added more than 1,500 asymptomatic cases to its total.Stacks of thousands of urns outside funeral homes in Hubei province have driven public doubt in Beijing's reporting.Republican lawmakers in the U.S. have been particularly harsh about China's role in the outbreak. Enhancing Beijing's role in the pandemic could be politically helpful to President Donald Trump, who has sought to shift blame for the U.S. outbreak away from his administration's delays in achieving widespread testing for the virus and mobilizing greater production of supplies such as face masks and hospital ventilators."The claim that the United States has more coronavirus deaths than China is false," Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, said in a statement after Bloomberg News published its report. "Without commenting on any classified information, this much is painfully obvious: The Chinese Communist Party has lied, is lying, and will continue to lie about coronavirus to protect the regime."Deborah Birx, the State Department immunologist advising the White House on its response to the outbreak, said Tuesday that China's public reporting influenced assumptions elsewhere in the world about the nature of the virus."The medical community made -- interpreted the Chinese data as: This was serious, but smaller than anyone expected," she said at a news conference on Tuesday. "Because I think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data, now that what we see happened to Italy and see what happened to Spain."China isn't the only country with suspect public reporting. Western officials have pointed to Iran, Russia, Indonesia and especially North Korea, which has not reported a single case of the disease, as probable under-counts. Others including Saudi Arabia and Egypt may also be playing down their numbers.U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has publicly urged China and other nations to be transparent about their outbreaks. He has repeatedly accused China of covering up the extent of the problem and being slow to share information, especially in the weeks after the virus first emerged, and blocking offers of help from American experts."This data set matters," he said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday. The development of medical therapies and public-health measures to combat the virus "so that we can save lives depends on the ability to have confidence and information about what has actually transpired," he said."I would urge every nation: Do your best to collect the data. Do your best to share that information," he said. "We're doing that."(Updates with Pence's comment in sixth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Iowa governor got 2nd chance; she thinks felons should, too Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:20 AM PDT  Iowa's Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, will never forget the summer night 20 years ago when a state trooper stopped her minivan on Interstate 35 and found a nearly empty bottle of Black Velvet whisky on the seat behind her. What followed was a sometimes humiliating series of hearings and counseling sessions as Reynolds pleaded guilty to her second drunken driving offense in less than a year and committed herself to treatment. After her treatment for alcoholism, Reynolds went on to build a career that saw her become Iowa's first female governor.
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| Trump says Iran is planning 'sneak attack' on US interests in Iraq Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:16 AM PDT  Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that Iran is planning a "sneak attack" against US forces in Iraq, without providing any evidence or sourcing for the assertion."Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq. If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" he wrote on Twitter.
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| Trump says Iran is planning 'sneak attack' on US interests in Iraq Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:16 AM PDT Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that Iran is planning a "sneak attack" against US forces in Iraq, without providing any evidence or sourcing for the assertion."Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq. If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" he wrote on Twitter.
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| NASA call for astronauts draws 12,000 spaceflight hopefuls Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:15 AM PDT  NASA said Wednesday that Americans from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories applied to be part of the space agency's next astronaut class. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said this next class of astronauts will help explore the moon and pave the way to Mars. NASA's previous call for astronauts, in 2017, attracted a record 18,300 applicants.
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| Virus outbreak creates new challenges for addiction recovery Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:04 AM PDT  Charlie Campbell, nearly 13 years sober, is feeling tested today more than ever to stay that way. Last week, Campbell, 61, tried his first online Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. "I'm a face-to-face kind of person," Campbell said.
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| Why health experts aren't warning about coronavirus in food Posted: 01 Apr 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Chicken with salmonella can make you sick. Respiratory viruses like the new coronavirus generally attach to cells in places like the lungs. Germs like norovirus and salmonella can survive the acid in stomachs, then multiply after attaching to cells inside people's guts.
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| Taliban ready to begin cease-fires in virus-hit Afghan areas Posted: 01 Apr 2020 09:47 AM PDT  The Taliban said Wednesday the group was ready to declare a cease-fire in areas of Afghanistan under its control if they are hit by a coronavirus outbreak. The announcement follows a U.N. Security Council statement Tuesday urging Afghanistan's warring parties to heed the U.N. secretary-general's call for an immediate cease-fire to respond to the pandemic and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout the country. "If, God forbid, the outbreak happens in an area where we control the situation then we will stop fighting in that area," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Muajhed told The Associated Press.
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| #HopefromHome, the World's First Multi-platform Livestream Fundraising Event, Set to Bring Together Biggest Influencers to Help Fight COVID-19 Posted: 01 Apr 2020 09:47 AM PDT  HopefromHome, the World's First Multi-platform Livestream Fundraising Event, Set to Bring Together Biggest Influencers to Help Fight COVID-19PR NewswireALEXANDRIA, Va., April 1, 2020United Way Worldwide, United Nations Foundation and Red Nose Day to receive money raised during digital fundraiser on World Health Day, April 7, to support pandemic relief effortsALEXANDRIA, Va.
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| States largely have authority over when to shut down, reopen Posted: 01 Apr 2020 09:42 AM PDT  President Donald Trump has the biggest megaphone, but it's governors and local officials who will decide what type of restrictions to impose on their citizens to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Constitution largely gives states the authority to regulate their own affairs. Trump has left guidelines limiting social interaction in place until the end of this month, after initially pushing April 12, Easter, as as the date to begin reopening the U.S. economy.
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| Trump resists national shutdown, leaving it up to states Posted: 01 Apr 2020 09:04 AM PDT  President Donald Trump is resisting calls to issue a national stay-at-home order to stem the spread of the new coronavirus despite his administration's projections that tens of thousands of Americans are likely to be killed by the disease. Trump said Wednesday he wants to give governors' "flexibility" on whether a stay-at-home policy is the best option for their constituents, but acknowledged that he's looking at limiting air and rail travel between hot spots within the United States. The president remains hesitant to press a unified policy even after the White House released "sobering" new projections on Tuesday that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans will likely succumb to the coronavirus even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.
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| Virus data: What's known and not known about China's numbers Posted: 01 Apr 2020 08:58 AM PDT  First Italy and Spain surpassed China in reported deaths. Skepticism about China's numbers has swirled throughout the crisis, fueled by official efforts to quash bad news in the early days and a general distrust of the government. There is no smoking gun pointing to a cover-up by China's ruling Communist Party.
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| Coronavirus having little impact on climate: UN agency Posted: 01 Apr 2020 08:50 AM PDT  Though factories have shut, planes have been grounded and cars left in the garage, the coronavirus pandemic is having very little impact on climate change, the World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday. Any reductions in pollution and carbon dioxide emissions are likely to be temporary, said Lars Peter Riishojgaard, from the infrastructure department of the WMO, a United Nations agency based in Geneva. Riishojgaard said there was a lot of media speculation about what impact the global pandemic might have on the climate, greenhouse gas emissions and longer-term global warming.
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| Coronavirus and the case for one-world government Posted: 01 Apr 2020 08:43 AM PDT  My headline should be enough to give away the game. I am conscious of the fact that in arguing for one-world government in the face of a global health crisis I am going to be accused of two things. The first will be that I am cheapening the suffering of those affected by what the Chinese first called "Wuhan pneumonia" (a name I prefer to the abbreviation common in English-language media for reasons I will discuss below). The second will be that I am carrying water for Mssrs. Bezos, Gates, Brin, and Buffet, for the UN and the IMF and the WHO and all the other dreaded acronyms. To the first I respond guilty as charged, at least if one assumes (not implausibly) that at present engaging in any activity save for prayer or relief efforts is inherently cheapening. It is the second objection to my thesis that I think should be met head on.By advocating one-world government, am I in fact serving as a toady for billionaires and the organizations that exist to recycle their PowerPoints as humanitarian and cosmopolitan? I say no because I believe that such a system of government is the only real solution to them and their rule, which I will call, in the interest of saving space, the Rule of None. What is the Rule of None? It is not anarchy per se. There is still, under such conditions, a visible state. But the interests of the state (any state) are ultimately subordinate to that of capital itself, which knows no boundaries, respects no customs or arrangements, yields nothing before traditions or bonds or idiosyncrasies. Rule by None means that the only supranational authority is the principle of arithmetical increase for its own sake, which has no master. Men and women control capital, but it would be truer to say that capital controls men and women, perhaps especially the world's wealthiest. Hence the Rule of None.Who flourishes under this Rule? A short answer would be no one. But this is not entirely true. The wealthy become wealthier, as a matter of course, in every country, while the middle class and the poor become immiserated in ways both expected and unexpected. This does not exhaust the list of asymmetries that result from it. In practice countries that profess allegiance to the Rule of None but refuse to abide by it — mouthing along with free trade and economic decentralization as slogans while relentlessly working to enrich their own citizens — enjoy an advantage over those who remain faithful both in word and deed. This is, simply put, the economic history of the United States and, to a lesser extent, Western Europe since the end of the Cold War.The sophists, economists, and calculators who say that freedom of trade and movement are, theoretically speaking, life-enhancing policies are correct. They are also naive. They have forgotten one of the fundamental lessons of their discipline — the so-called prisoners' dilemma. This is why they are wrong and nationalist thinkers are right when they argue that antagonisms between nations will never disappear and that we must replace the global sovereignty of capital with some other, more tangible authority. They only err in locating this new authority in the nation rather than in something higher.This is why I propose replacing the Rule of None with the Rule of One. The One I have in mind is a sovereignty that would be truly global, in the sense that it would be capable, by the principle of subsidiarity, of delegating an infinite number of decisions to the rulers of countries and regions and counties and cities and towns while still reserving for itself the power to decree and, more to the point, to coordinate activity between leaders at all of the aforementioned levels. The Rule of One would look nothing like the United Nations, which betrayed the hopes of Otto von Habsburg and Cardinal Ottaviani by becoming a bloated international charity whose chief beneficiaries are its own officers. Nor would it very much resemble the European Union, which has failed precisely because it is economic rather than political, which is to say, because it decrees that all men must use the same money rather than that all men must obey the same ruler. The Rule of One is not an argument for the elimination of national or local customs. It is, in fact, probably the strongest argument in favor of them that one could make. The Rule of One would be, as Plutarch wrote of Alexander the Great's Camp, "a festival goblet, mixing lives, manners, customs, wedlock, all together," a world in which it is "ordained that every one should take the whole habitable world for his country."There was once a name for the Rule of One: Empire. While many of us would shy away from the idea for aesthetic reasons, I believe there is even an argument to be made that if we were ever to return to the Rule One we should call the person in whom authority is vested "emperor" rather than "president" or, heaven help us, "secretary-general." I think it is equally obvious that he or she would be elected, as were the Holy Roman Emperors of old, rather than the mere inheritors of office.Back to Wuhan pneumonia. So far from being a racist pejorative I say that it is a better name than "COVID-19," a cold abbreviation that obscures the enormous human experience of the disease. Human beings need tangible words for tangible things and events, which is why in the past new illnesses were named after the places in which they appear to have originated (e.g., near the Ebola, the headstream of the Mongala, which is itself a mere tributary of the great Congo River). The event through which we are now living began some months ago in a place called Wuhan. The authorities in that place did their best to conceal the seriousness of the disease from their own citizens and from the rest of the world. They persuaded others whose authority comes to them from the Rule of None — the World Health Organization, the American opinion-making classes — that the virus could not even be transmitted from person to person.These were lies. They were lies that have had consequences not only for the people of Wuhan and of China but for the rest of the world. They were lies that were made possibly only because of a greater and much older lie: that because these people live here in such a place rather than in the place we inhabit ourselves we owe them nothing and will do nothing to aid them, indeed we will quietly abet their misery so long as we are marginally better off. This is the lie that says that men who live far away from us are not our brothers but strangers who must be turned away, isolated behind lines agreed upon by those on either side.The problem is not the name but the lines. The lines must disappear. They will have to disappear even as the names and tongues and customs remain. Wuhan pneumonia reminds us that, despite the wickedness and perfidy of their leaders and ours, the people of Wuhan (and those of Italy and Spain and France and the Congo) are men and women like us, who share our longings and aspirations and worries and fears because all of these things are universal.It is not for me to say when the Rule of None will be displaced. I suspect that even when we are confronted with its obvious shortcomings, as we are whenever a new pandemic emerges, we will refuse to acknowledge them. For the time being those of us who see past the "international wrong" must cling to hope and to symbols. Which symbols? For me the best candidate for a new international peace is not Donald Trump or even Angela Merkel (the wisest of our living politicians) but King Arthur, who, in T.H. White's wonderful novel cycle, dreams before his death of the Rule of One:> He began to think again, but now it was as clearly as it had ever been. He remembered the aged necromancer who had educated him—who had educated him with animals. There were, he remembered, something like half a million different species of animal, of which mankind was only one. Of course man was an animal—he was not a vegetable or a mineral, was he? And Merlyn had taught him about animals so that the single species might learn by looking at the problems of the thousands. He remembered the belligerent ants, who claimed their boundaries, and the pacific geese, who did not. He remembered his lesson from the badger. He remembered Lyo-lyok and the island which they had seen on their migration, where all those puffins, razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes had lived together peacefully, preserving their own kinds of civilization without war—because they claimed no boundaries. He saw the problem before him as plain as a map. The fantastic thing about war was that it was fought about nothing—literally nothing. Frontiers were imaginary lines. There was no visible line between Scotland and England, although Flodden and Bannockburn had been fought about it. It was geography which was the cause—political geography. It was nothing else. Nations did not need to have the same kind of civilization, nor the same kind of leader, any more than the puffins and the guillemots did. They could keep their own civilizations, like Esquimaux and Hottentots, if they would give each other freedom of trade and free passage and access to the world. Countries would have to become counties—but counties which could keep their own culture and local laws. The imaginary lines on the earth's surface only needed to be unimagined. The airborne birds skipped them by nature. How mad the frontiers had seemed to Lyo-lyok, and would to Man if he could learn to fly.> > The old King felt refreshed, clear-headed, almost ready to begin again.> > There would be a day—there must be a day—when he would come back to Gramarye with a new Round Table which had no corners, just as the world had none—a table without boundaries between the nations who would sit to feast there.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is what real coronavirus leadership looks like China is bracing for a second wave of coronavirus Netanyahu reportedly mistook a Hallmark series clip for proof of an Iranian coronavirus coverup
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| Health official says Russian stay at home should be extended - Ifax Posted: 01 Apr 2020 08:24 AM PDT |
| Iran general visits Baghdad, tries to forge political unity Posted: 01 Apr 2020 08:17 AM PDT  A top Iranian general arrived in Baghdad this week to try and unify Iraq's fractured political leaders, Iraqi officials said Wednesday, as stiff opposition by one major bloc thwarts chances the country's latest prime minister-designate can form a government. Meanwhile, revenues from oil exports were slashed by nearly half due to plummeting oil prices in March, according to figures released Wednesday by the Oil Ministry, pushing Iraq into deeper economic uncertainty amid political dysfunction and the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Coronavirus: Top South African HIV scientist Gita Ramjee dies Posted: 01 Apr 2020 08:02 AM PDT  Tributes are being paid to Gita Ramjee for her world-renowned research into HIV prevention.
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| Merkel: Will recommend tracking apps if tests successful Posted: 01 Apr 2020 07:59 AM PDT |
| Hezbollah shifts attention from Syria fight to battle virus Posted: 01 Apr 2020 07:41 AM PDT  In the streets of Beirut's southern suburbs, Hezbollah paramedics and volunteers on trucks and on foot sprayed disinfectants on shops and buildings. Hezbollah says it is turning the organizational might it once deployed to fight Israel or in the civil war in neighboring Syria to battle the spread of the virus pandemic in Lebanon. It wants to send a clear message to its supporters in Lebanon's Shiite community that it is a force to rely on in a crisis.
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| Turkmenistan bans the word 'coronavirus': report Posted: 01 Apr 2020 07:07 AM PDT  The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news agenda across the globe since the start of this year, but in one secretive Central Asian country you won't even hear the word 'coronavirus' mentioned -- and its putting its citizens in danger, according to a new report. In Turkmenistan, which was ranked at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index in 2019 -- one place lower than North Korea -- the word 'coronavirus' has been removed from the national vocabulary, according to the independent NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The government, led by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who is known in Turkmenistan as the "Father Protector" of the nation, was one of the fastest moving countries in combatting the pandemic by closing its borders in early February.
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| Turkmenistan bans the word 'coronavirus': report Posted: 01 Apr 2020 07:07 AM PDT  The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news agenda across the globe since the start of this year, but in one secretive Central Asian country you won't even hear the word 'coronavirus' mentioned -- and its putting its citizens in danger, according to a new report. In Turkmenistan, which was ranked at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index in 2019 -- one place lower than North Korea -- the word 'coronavirus' has been removed from the national vocabulary, according to the independent NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The government, led by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who is known in Turkmenistan as the "Father Protector" of the nation, was one of the fastest moving countries in combatting the pandemic by closing its borders in early February.
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| Russia sends plane with medical supplies to U.S. for coronavirus response Posted: 01 Apr 2020 06:51 AM PDT  The plane will arrive today, after President Donald Trump accepted an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to send personal protective equipment and other gear.
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| Germany set to extend social distancing until at least end of Easter holidays - report Posted: 01 Apr 2020 06:43 AM PDT |
| Saudis Boost Oil Output, Defying Trump’s Plea To End Price War Posted: 01 Apr 2020 06:39 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia showed no sign of bowing to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to dial back its oil-price war with Russia. Instead, the kingdom pushed crude supply to record levels.Trump said Tuesday night that he'd spoken to both President Vladimir Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an effort to broker a truce between the world's two largest oil exporters. While Russia made some conciliatory noises, Saudi Arabia showed nothing but defiance.The kingdom started the month by boosting supply to more than 12 million barrels a day, the most ever, according to an industry official familiar with the kingdom's operations. In an apparent show of force, Aramco was loading a record 15 tankers with 18.8 million barrels of oil on a single day earlier this week, according to another official and a tweet from the company.That social media post, boasting how the kingdom will "rise to supply energy," appeared to be a riposte to U.S. Secretary State Michael Pompeo, who last week urged the Saudis to "rise to the occasion" by dialing back their plan to flood the market.So far, Riyadh has insisted that it will only back away from a decision to flood the global market if all the world's leading producers -- including the U.S. -- agree to cut output. Russia has struck a more conciliatory tone, saying it would hold back from a major production increase, but hasn't offered any concrete proposals to end hostilities with its former OPEC+ ally.Trump's decision to wade into oil diplomacy is driven by the catastrophic impact of the price crash on the American shale industry, largely based in Texas and other Republican-leaning states. But his mission to rein in global supply is overshadowed by the unprecedented loss of demand -- possibly as much as 30% -- caused by the fight against the coronavirus."Signs of policy discussions are multiplying and we believe such an outcome should no longer be dismissed," analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a note. Even so, after such a huge drop in consumption it's questionable "whether policy coordination by OPEC+, the U.S., and oil producers more broadly can save this market."Read: Trump and Putin Are All Talk on Oil Price Plunge: Julian LeeA senior Russian official said that while they hadn't spoken to Saudi Arabia yet, Moscow had no plans to increase production given the current market situation. He gave no indication that Russia was willing to consider output cuts, however. It was Russia's refusal to join Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in deeper reductions that kicked off the price war in early March."The Russian side traditionally welcomes mutual dialog and cooperation in order to stabilize energy markets," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on conference call on Tuesday. Putin has no immediate plans to speak with the Saudi king or crown prince, but such contacts can be easily arranged, he said.Demand HitWorld oil demand, normally around 100 million barrels a day, will likely be down by 30 millions barrels a day in April and has yet to bottom out as lockdowns due to the virus continue, Chris Bake, an executive committee member at trader Vitol said on Tuesday.The Russian official said it made no sense for producers to boost output in the current situation. Energy Minister Alexander Novak said last month that the country can raise production by 200,000 to 300,000 barrels a day in the short term, and by as much as 500,000 barrels a day in the near future. That's a fraction of the additional 2 million barrels a day that Saudi Arabia has pledged to pump."The sharp drop of oil prices has made the bulk of new Russian oil drilling uneconomic, the industry will need to look for ways to optimize" output, said Darya Kozlova, head of oil and gas regulation services at Moscow-based Vygon Consulting.However, even if production is flat, Russia may hike its oil exports to offset falling domestic demand for crude as its own economy goes into shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Kozlova said.Trump MediationOn Tuesday evening in Washington, Trump said the U.S. would meet with Saudi Arabia and Russia with the goal of staunching the historic plunge in oil prices, and has raised the issue directly with the countries' rulers."They're going to get together and we're all going to get together and we're going to see what we can do," he said. "The two countries are discussing it. And I am joining at the appropriate time, if need be."U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette had a "productive discussion" with Novak on Tuesday and agreed to "continue dialog among major energy producers and consumers, including through the G20," the Department of Energy said in a statement. The two men agreed that an oil oversupply hurts the global economy, the Russian Energy Ministry said separately.Neither side detailed any steps they are considering to stem the downturn.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| New York state's virus deaths jump to more than 1,900 Posted: 01 Apr 2020 05:50 AM PDT  Coronavirus deaths soared. New York City playgrounds were targeted for shutdown to help slow an outbreak projected to grow worse for another month. Overtaxed hospitals began transferring patients north of the city.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 01 Apr 2020 05:42 AM PDT  As hot spots flared around the United States in places like New Orleans, Detroit and Southern California, New York was the hardest hit of them all, with bodies loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks by gurney and forklift outside overwhelmed hospitals. Experts warned that there could be 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. even if social distancing guidelines are maintained. Here are some of AP's top stories Wednesday on the world's coronavirus pandemic.
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| Syrian ex-VP, foreign minister dies of heart attack in Paris Posted: 01 Apr 2020 05:38 AM PDT  Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president and foreign minister who was one of the most influential figures in the country before defecting in 2005 to France, has died of a heart attack in Paris, his son said Wednesday. Jihad Khaddam told The Associated Press his father had been in good health, and that the heart attack happened after he fell on his back three days ago. Khaddam played a pivotal role during the civil war in Lebanon and Syria's three-decade domination of its smaller neighbor.
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| Rural areas fear spread of virus as more hospitals close Posted: 01 Apr 2020 04:49 AM PDT  As the coronavirus spread across the United States, workers at the lone hospital in one Alabama county turned off beeping monitors for good and padlocked the doors, making it one of the latest in a string of nearly 200 rural hospitals to close nationwide. Now Joe Cunningham is more worried than ever about getting care for his wife, Polly, a dialysis patient whose health is fragile. Cunningham is trusting God, but he's also worried the virus will worsen in his community, endangering his wife without a hospital nearby.
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| UN calls for global response to coronavirus pandemic Posted: 01 Apr 2020 04:39 AM PDT |
| Iran hits out at US as virus death toll passes 3,000 Posted: 01 Apr 2020 04:29 AM PDT  Iran's death toll from the coronavirus has passed 3,000, the health ministry said on Wednesday, as President Hassan Rouhani accused Washington of missing a "historic opportunity" to lift sanctions. Tensions between the arch-foes have soared since President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear agreement in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions. Tehran has repeatedly called on Washington to reverse its policy, which has been opposed by US allies, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
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