| Pro-Trump protesters push back on stay-at-home orders Posted: 16 Apr 2020 06:40 PM PDT  While many Americans are filled with fear, Melissa Ackison says the coronavirus pandemic has filled her with anger. The stay-at home orders are government overreach, the conservative Ohio state Senate candidate says, and the labeling of some workers as "essential" arbitrary. The Ohio protest was among a growing number staged outside governors' mansions and state Capitols across the country.
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| Africans in China: We face coronavirus discrimination Posted: 16 Apr 2020 05:36 PM PDT  The Guangzhou authorities deny their actions have been racist, but admit that all African nationals have been tested.
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| Africa's week in pictures: 10-16 April 2020 Posted: 16 Apr 2020 05:31 PM PDT  A selection of the best photos from across the continent this week.
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| The first Earth Day was a shot heard around the world Posted: 16 Apr 2020 03:23 PM PDT  The first Earth Day protests, which took place on April 22, 1970 brought 20 million Americans – 10% of the U.S. population at the time – into the streets. Recognizing the power of this growing movement, President Richard Nixon and Congress responded by creating the Environmental Protection Agency and enacting a wave of laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. But Earth Day's impact extended far beyond the United States. A cadre of professionals in the U.S. State Department understood that environmental problems didn't stop at national borders, and set up mechanisms for addressing them jointly with other countries.For scholars like me who study global governance, the challenge of getting nations to act together is a central issue. In my view, without the first Earth Day, global action against problems like trade in endangered species, stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change would have taken much longer – or might never have happened at all. Alarms across the worldIn 1970 governments around the world were contending with transborder pollution challenges. For example, sulfur and nitrogen oxides emitted from coal-fired power plants in the United Kingdom traveled hundreds of miles on northerly winds, then returned to earth in northern Europe as acid rain, fog and snow. This process was killing lakes and forests in Germany and Sweden. Realizing that solutions would only be effective through common effort, countries convened the first global conference on the environment in Stockholm from June 5-16, 1972. Representatives of 113 governments attended and adopted the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, which asserts that humans have a fundamental right to an environment that permits a life of dignity and well-being. They also passed a resolution to create a new international environmental institution. Contrary to its posture today, the United States was an ardent proponent of the conference. The U.S. delegation advanced a series of actions, including a moratorium on commercial whaling, a convention to regulate ocean dumping and the creation of a World Heritage Trust to preserve wilderness areas and scenic natural landmarks. President Nixon issued a statement when the conference concluded, observing that "for the first time in history, the nations of the world sat down together to seek better understanding of each other's environmental problems and to explore opportunities for positive action, individually and collectively."Other nations were far more skeptical. France and the United Kingdom, for example, were wary of potential regulations that might hamper the British-French fleet of supersonic Concorde jet airliners, which had just entered operation in 1969. Developing countries too were suspicious, viewing environmental initiatives as part of an agenda advanced by wealthy nations that would prevent them from industrializing. "I do not believe we are prepared to become new Robinson Crusoes," Brazilian delegate Bernardo de Azevedo Brito stated in response to calls from industrialized countries to curb pollution. A UN agency for the environmentLargely because of U.S. leadership, industrialized nations agreed to establish and provide initial funding for what is arguably the world's premier global environmental institution: the United Nations Environment Programme. UNEP catalyzed negotiation of the 1985 Vienna Convention and its follow-on, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a treaty to restrict production and use of substances that deplete Earth's protective ozone layer. Today the agency continues to drive international efforts on issues including pollution control, biodiversity conservation and climate change. John W. McDonald, who was director of economic and social affairs at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs, had been circulating the idea of a new U.N. agency for the environment, and had garnered support from the Nixon administration. But creating a new international environmental institution could only happen with financial support from industrialized countries. In an address to Congress on Feb. 8, 1972, Nixon proposed creating a US$100 million Environment Fund – close to $600 million in today's dollars – to support effective international cooperation on environmental problems and create a central coordination point for U.N. activities. Recognizing that the United States was the world's major polluter, the Nixon administration provided 30% of this sum over the first five years. Over the next two decades the United States was the largest single contributor to the fund, which supports UNEP's work worldwide. By the early 1990s, it was providing $21 million annually – equivalent to about $38 million in today's dollars. As I discuss in my forthcoming book on UNEP, however, after Republicans won control of both houses of Congress in 1994, the U.S. contribution dropped to $5.5 million in 1997. It has stayed at about $6 million per year since, a decrease of 84%. Today the U.S. contribution is 30% less than that of the Netherlands, whose economy is 20 times smaller. Ceding leadershipRegrettably in my view, the United States has relinquished its longtime role as a leader on global environmental issues. President Trump has pursued what he calls an "America First" foreign policy that includes withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and halting funding for the World Health Organization. International problems demand global cooperation and leadership by example. Developing countries are more reticent to commit to multilateral agreements if the rich and powerful ones withdraw or defy the rules. As political scientist and U.N. expert Edward Luck has written, the United States has swung for decades between embracing international organizations and rejecting them. When U.S. support ebbs, Luck observes, the U.N. is "in limbo, neither strengthened nor abandoned," and the global community is less able to resolve fundamental problems.The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare nations' inability to inspire, organize and finance a coordinated global response. No other government has yet been able to fill the void left by the United States. I see the 50th anniversary of Earth Day as a fitting time to rethink American engagement in global governance. As President Nixon said in his speech outlining support for UNEP in 1972: > "What has dawned dramatically upon us in recent years … is a new recognition that to a significant extent man commands as well the very destiny of this planet where he lives, and the destiny of all life upon it. We have even begun to see that these destinies are not many and separate at all – that in fact they are indivisibly one."[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * What Earth Day means when humans possess planet-shaping powers * George H.W. Bush: America's last foreign policy presidentMaria Ivanova receives funding from UNEP for research on the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements. She is the author of a forthcoming book on UNEP from MIT Press.
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| Amid talk of restarting economy, virus keeps killing in NYC Posted: 16 Apr 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Hopeful talk about getting people out of their homes and back to work in some parts of the country seems a far cry from the harsh reality in New York and its suburbs: Thousands of people infected with the coronavirus are still streaming into hospitals every day. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement Thursday as he announced another 606 deaths in the state and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15. New York hospitals are still jammed with nearly 18,000 coronavirus patients, fewer than the crushing numbers authorities once feared but still at crisis levels that have barely budged for more than a week.
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| In China, Demands for More Free Speech Outlast Virus Lockdowns Posted: 16 Apr 2020 02:00 PM PDT |
| Trump, aides float outlier theory on origins of coronavirus Posted: 16 Apr 2020 01:52 PM PDT  President Donald Trump and some of his officials are flirting with an outlier theory that the new coronavirus was set loose on the world by a Chinese lab that let it escape. Without the weight of evidence, they're trying to blame China for sickness and death from COVID-19 in the United States. "More and more, we're hearing the story," Trump says.
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| AP PHOTOS: Hauling supplies 2,800 miles to virus-beset East Posted: 16 Apr 2020 01:46 PM PDT  Sammy Lloyd does not know exactly what's in the trailer he's pulling. Lloyd is an independent trucker, with 20 years and more than 2 million miles of road behind him. Lloyd, 41, could have chosen a different load off the board, a marketplace for owner operators.
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| Combating the Coronavirus, Bahrain Offers Health & Economic Success Story Posted: 16 Apr 2020 01:25 PM PDT  24, the island state of Bahrain recorded is first COVID-19 case, when a school bus driver who had recently traveled home from pilgrimage in Iran by way of Dubai tested positive. Alarm bells immediately went off.
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| You can take the GMAT at home starting April 20, and top business schools including Harvard and MIT Sloan have already pledged to accept online test scores Posted: 16 Apr 2020 01:22 PM PDT  A third of prospective students won't be able to take the online GMAT due to restrictions in countries including China, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, and others.
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| WHO, Now Trump's Scapegoat, Warned About Coronavirus Early and Often Posted: 16 Apr 2020 11:59 AM PDT  On Jan. 22, two days after Chinese officials first publicized the serious threat posed by the new virus ravaging the city of Wuhan, the chief of the World Health Organization held the first of what would be months of almost daily media briefings, sounding the alarm, telling the world to take the outbreak seriously.But with its officials divided, the WHO, still seeing no evidence of sustained spread of the virus outside of China, declined the next day to declare a global public health emergency. A week later, the organization reversed course and made the declaration.Those early days of the epidemic illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of the WHO, an arm of the United Nations that is now under fire by President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday ordered a cutoff of American funding to the organization.With limited, constantly shifting information to go on, the WHO showed an early, consistent determination to treat the new contagion like the threat it would become, and to persuade others to do the same. At the same time, the organization repeatedly praised China, acting and speaking with a political caution born of being an arm of the United Nations, with few resources of its own, unable to do its work without international cooperation.Trump, deflecting criticism that his own handling of the crisis left the United States unprepared, accused the WHO of mismanaging it, called the organization "very China-centric" and said it had "pushed China's misinformation."But a close look at the record shows that the WHO acted with greater foresight and speed than many national governments, and more than it had shown in previous epidemics. And while it made mistakes, there is little evidence that the WHO is responsible for the disasters that have unfolded in Europe and then the United States.The WHO needs the support of its international members to accomplish anything -- it has no authority over any territory, it cannot go anywhere uninvited, and it relies on member countries for its funding. All it can offer is expertise and coordination -- and even most of that is borrowed from charities and member nations.The WHO has drawn criticism as being too close to Beijing -- a charge that grew louder as the agency repeatedly praised China for cooperation and transparency that others said were lacking. China's harsh approach to containing the virus drew some early criticism from human rights activists, but it proved effective and has since been adopted by many other countries.A crucial turning point in the pandemic came Jan. 20, after China's central government sent the country's most famous epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, to Wuhan to investigate the new coronavirus racing through that city of 11 million people. Zhong delivered a startling message on national television: local officials had covered up the seriousness of the outbreak, the contagion spread quickly between people, doctors were dying and everyone should avoid the city.Zhong, an eccentric 83-year-old who led the fight against the SARS outbreak of 2002 and 2003, was one of few people in China with enough standing to effectively call Wuhan's mayor, Zhou Xianwang, a rising official in the Communist Party, a liar.Zhou, eager to see no disruption in his plans for a local party congress from Jan. 11-17 and a potluck dinner for 40,000 families on Jan. 18, appears to have had his police and local health officials close the seafood market, threaten doctors and assure the public that there was little or no transmission.Less than three days after Zhong's warning was broadcast, China locked down the city, preventing anyone from entering or leaving and imposing strict rules on movement within it -- conditions it would later extend far behind Wuhan, encompassing tens of millions of people.The national government reacted in force, punishing local officials, declaring that anyone who hid the epidemic would be "forever nailed to history's pillar of shame," and deploying tens of thousands of soldiers, medical workers and contact tracers.It was the day of the lockdown that the WHO at first declined to declare a global emergency, its officials split and expressing concern about identifying a particular country as a threat, and about the effect of such a declaration on people in China. Such caution is a standard -- if often frustrating -- fact of life for U.N. agencies, which operate by consensus and have usually avoided even a hint of criticizing nations directly.Despite Zhong's warning about human-to-human transmission, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director-general, said there was not yet any evidence of sustained transmission outside China."That doesn't mean it won't happen," Tedros said."Make no mistake," he added. "This is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one."The WHO was still trying to persuade China to allow a team of its experts to visit and investigate, which did not occur until more than three weeks later. And the threat to the rest of the world on Jan. 23 was not yet clear -- only about 800 cases and 25 deaths had been reported, with only a handful of infections and no deaths reported outside China."In retrospect, we all wonder if something else could have been done to prevent the spread we saw internationally early on, and if WHO could have been more aggressive sooner as an impartial judge of the China effort," said Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, co-director of the MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness and Global Health Security at University of Washington."Clearly a decision was taken by Dr. Tedros and the organization to bite their tongues, and to coax China out of its shell, which was partially successful," said Amir Attaran, a public health and law professor at the University of Ottawa."That in no way supports Trump's accusation," he added. "The president is scapegoating, dishonestly."Indeed, significant shortcomings in the administration's response arose from a failure to follow WHO advice.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bungled the rollout of diagnostic tests in the United States, even as the WHO was urging every nation to implement widespread testing. And the White House was slow to endorse stay-home restrictions and other forms of social distancing, even after the WHO advised these measures were working in China.It is impossible to know whether the nations of the world would have acted sooner if the WHO had called the epidemic a global emergency, a declaration with great public relations weight, a week earlier than it did.But day after day, Tedros, in his rambling style, was delivering less formal warnings, telling countries to contain the virus while it was still possible, to do testing and contact tracing, and isolate those who might be infected. "We have a window of opportunity to stop this virus," he often said, "but that window is rapidly closing."In fact, the organization had already taken steps to address the coronavirus, even before Zhong's awful revelation, drawing attention to the mysterious outbreak.On Jan. 12, Chinese scientists published the genome of the virus, and the WHO asked a team in Berlin to use that information to develop a diagnostic test. Just four days later, they produced a test and the WHO posted online a blueprint that any laboratory around the world could use to duplicate it.On Jan. 21, China shared materials for its test with the WHO, providing another template for others to use.Some countries and research institutions followed the German blueprint, while others, like the CDC, insisted on producing their own tests. But a flaw in the initial CDC test, and the agency's slowness in approving testing by labs other than its own, contributed to weeks of delay in widespread testing in the United States.In late January, Trump praised China's efforts. Now, officials in his administration accuse China of concealing the extent of the epidemic, even after the crackdown on Wuhan, and the WHO of being complicit in the deception. They say that lulled the West into taking the virus less seriously than it should have.Larry Gostin, director of the WHO's Center on Global Health Law, said the organization relied too heavily on the initial assertions out of Wuhan that there was little or no human transmission of the virus."The charitable way to look at this is that WHO simply had no means to verify what was happening on the ground," he said. "The less charitable way to view it is that the WHO didn't do enough to independently verify what China was saying, and took China at face value."The WHO was initially wary of China's internal travel restrictions, but endorsed the strategy after it showed signs of working."Right now, the strategic and tactical approach in China is the correct one," Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHO's chief of emergency response, said on Feb. 18. "You can argue whether these measures are excessive or restrictive on people, but there is an awful lot at stake here in terms of public health -- not only the public health of China but of all people in the world."A WHO team -- including two Americans, from the CDC and the National Institutes of Health -- did visit China in mid-February for more than a week, and its leaders said they were given wide latitude to travel, visit facilities and talk with people.Whether or not China's central government intentionally misstated the scale of the crisis, incomplete reporting has been seen in every other hard-hit country. France, Italy and Britain have all acknowledged seriously undercounting cases and deaths among people who were never hospitalized, particularly people in nursing and retirement homes.New York City this week reported 3,700 deaths it had not previously counted, in people who were never tested. The United States generally leaves it to local coroners whether to test bodies for the virus, and many lack the capacity to do so.In the early going, China was operating in a fog, unsure of what it was dealing with, while its resources in and around Wuhan were overwhelmed. People died or recovered at home without ever being treated or tested. Official figures excluded, then included, then excluded again people who had symptoms but had never been tested.On Jan. 31 -- a day after the WHO's emergency declaration -- Trump moved to restrict travel from China, and he has since boasted that he took action before other heads of state, which was crucial in protecting the United States. In fact, airlines had already canceled the great majority of flights from China, and other countries cut off travel from China at around the same time Trump did.The first known case in the United States was confirmed Jan. 20, after a man who was infected but not yet sick traveled five days earlier from Wuhan to the Seattle area, where the first serious American outbreak would occur.The WHO said repeatedly that it did not endorse international travel bans, which it said are ineffectual and can do serious economic harm, but it did not specifically criticize the United States, China or other countries that took that step.Experts say it was China's internal travel restrictions, more severe than those in the West, that had the greatest effect, delaying the epidemic's spread by weeks and allowing China's government to get ahead of the outbreak.The WHO later conceded that China had done the right thing. Brutal as they were, China's tactics apparently worked. Some cities were allowed to reopen in March, and Wuhan did on April 8.The Trump administration has not been alone in criticizing the WHO. Some public health experts and officials of other countries, including Japan's finance minister, have also said the organization was too deferential to China.The WHO has altered some of its guidance over time -- a predictable complication in dealing with a new pathogen, but one that has spurred criticism. But at times, the agency also gave what appeared to be conflicting messages, leading to confusion.In late February, before the situation in Italy had turned from worrisome to catastrophic, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and other government officials, citing WHO recommendations, said the regional governments of Lombardy and Veneto were doing excessive testing."We have more people infected because we made more swabs," Conte said.In fact, the WHO had not said to limit testing, though it had said some testing was a higher priority. It was -- and still is -- calling for more testing in the context of tracing and checking people who had been in contact with infected patients, but few Western countries have done extensive contact tracing.But the organization took pains not to criticize individual countries -- including those that did insufficient testing.On March 16, Tedros wrote on Twitter, "We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test." Three days later, a WHO spokeswoman said that there was "no 'one size fits all' with testing," and that "each country should consider its strategy based on the evolution of the outbreak."The organization was criticized for not initially calling the contagion a pandemic, meaning an epidemic spanning the globe. The term has no official significance within the WHO, and officials insisted that using it would not change anything, but Tedros began to do so March 11, explaining that he made the change to draw attention because too many countries were not taking the group's warnings seriously enough.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Coronavirus’s Relentless March in Europe Clouds Reopening Plans Posted: 16 Apr 2020 11:57 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- New coronavirus infections climbed in Spain, Italy, France and Germany, while the U.K. said it's extending its lockdown by a further three weeks to fight the spreading pandemic.For European leaders, the increasing numbers on Thursday signaled no letup in the need to balance the severe economic damage caused by the tight restrictions to fight the pandemic with the increasing death toll and the danger that prematurely easing lockdowns could spark a second wave of infections."Relaxing any of the measures in place would damage both public health and the economy," said U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in for Boris Johnson while the prime minister recovers from an infection with the virus. "The worst thing we could do right now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of the virus."Spain, which has the second-most cases behind the U.S. and Europe's second-highest death toll behind Italy, reported the biggest daily increase in infections in a week. New fatalities rose compared with the previous day.Italy, where Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is considering plans to ease restrictions, reported the most new cases in four days as tests rose to a daily record of 60,999. The number of deaths, hospitalized patients and intensive care patients all declined from the day before.President Emmanuel Macron in France, which reported the most new cases in a single day on Thursday, has extended his lockdown and said the country was underprepared.In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has started the slow process of easing restrictions, though some limits are set to remain for months.WHO ClashOn a conference call of Group of Seven leaders, Merkel defended the work of the World Health Organization after U.S. President Donald Trump said it took China's claims about the coronavirus "at face value" and failed to share information about the pandemic as it spread. Washington has said it's cutting funding to the UN agency."The chancellor made it clear that the pandemic can only be defeated with a strong and coordinated international response," her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement. "In this context, she expressed full support for the WHO as well as a number of other partners."In contrast, the White House said in a statement that the G-7 leaders agreed the WHO needs "a thorough review and reform process.""Much of the conversation centered on the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the WHO," according to the statement.To deal with pandemic's battering of their economies, the heads of the European Union's main institutions said the bloc must increase its budget resources as they seek a way around the gridlock over joint bond issuance.EU leaders will have a "strategic discussion" about the spending plan during a conference call next week, European Council President Charles Michel said. An expanded budget should be "the mothership" of efforts to revive growth, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Brussels on Thursday.Macron, in an interview with the Financial Times, said the EU needs "financial transfers and solidarity" to "hold on" through the coronavirus crisis. Failure to support hardest-hit EU member states will help populists to victory in Italy, Spain and perhaps France and elsewhere, he said.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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| G7 backing for WHO leaves Trump isolated at virtual summit Posted: 16 Apr 2020 11:35 AM PDT  Leaders voice strong support for UN agency after US suspension of its funding * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump found himself isolated among western leaders at a virtual G7 summit, as they expressed strong support for the World Health Organization after the US's suspension of its funding.Health officials around the world have condemned the US president's decision to stop his country's funding for the UN agency, amid a crisis that has left more than 2 million people infected and almost 140,000 dead.On Thursday, G7 leaders voiced their backing for the WHO and urged international co-operation. Immediately after the hour-long conference call, a spokesman for Angela Merkel said that the German chancellor had argued that "the pandemic can only be overcome with a strong and co-ordinated international response". The spokesman said Merkel "expressed support for the WHO as well as a number of other partners". The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said: "There is a need for international coordination and the WHO is an important part of that collaboration and coordination. We recognise that there have been questions asked, but at the same time it is really important we stay coordinated as we move through this."The Gates Foundation also announced an extra $150m (£120m) donation, in a move the WHO welcomed.The White House insisted there was support for US criticism of the WHO in the G7 call, saying "much of the conversation centred on the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the WHO. The leaders called for a thorough review and reform process."The US is the largest donor to the WHO, providing about $400m annually, but it claims that the WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was unwilling to confront the Chinese at the start of the outbreak.Trump – in a battle to save his presidency this November, and under fire over the lack of US leadership during the crisis – is widely seen to be eager to turn the pandemic into a trial of strength and influence with China.Other G7 leaders harbour doubts about aspects of the WHO's role and China's response to the coronavirus, but argue that the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is the wrong moment to disrupt the organisation's leadership by blowing a surprise hole in its finances.With the US acting as the current chair of the G7, and facing criticism of America's global leadership, Trump had convened the special meeting of the G7 leaders, a grouping of mainly western leading economies that, unlike the larger G20, excludes both Russia and China.The UK was represented on the call by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, who is still standing in for Boris Johnson as the prime minister recovers from coronavirus.He said once the outbreak is controlled "we cannot have business as usual and must ask the hard questions about how it came about". He added: "There needs to be a very deep dive and review of the lessons including the outbreak of the virus."But he called for a balanced review stressing "this should be driven by the science".The UK this month increased its aid to the WHO, and its officials recognise that the WHO was involved in a delicate diplomatic effort to win Chinese permission to enter the country to investigate the outbreak.In a statement after the summit, the EU council president, Charles Michel, called on world leaders to contribute to an international online pledging conference on 4 May to "enhance general preparedness and ensure adequate funding to develop and deploy a vaccine against coronavirus".The EU conference could help fill the hole created by the US suspension of funding. The EU says it is trying to raise as much as $8bn, but it is not clear how the EU conference will work alongside UN calls for extra money for the WHO.The EU statement also sent a shot across Trump's bows by stressing "multilateralism should be at the core of the action". The EU also stressed that its pledging conference should be devoted to building African resilience, a theme that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, stressed at the G7 conference.In a separate video conference with international counterparts, Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, described the WHO as the "backbone of the fight against the pandemic"."It makes no sense now to question the ability of the WHO to function or its significance," he said.G7 finance ministers agreed limited debt relief for low-income countries, in a sign of concern that the epidemic could play havoc with the economies of developing countries. But the G7 aid was for a year and limited to interest, as opposed to the principal. The help is conditional on wider support for the measure from the G20. The G20 has been discussing a debt suspension plan covering about $18bn of payments.Trump has already had one falling-out with the other six G7 leaders when they refused to accept a previous US-drafted communique for a meeting on 16 March.The US wanted the 16 March G7 communique to describe coronavirus as the Wuhan virus in a bid to pin China with responsibility for the coming global economic recession. The other six countries – Japan, Italy, France, the UK, Italy and Canada – refused.
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| Study: Warming makes US West megadrought worst in modern age Posted: 16 Apr 2020 11:10 AM PDT  A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, a new study found. It's much like how clothes and plants dry faster in the warmth of indoors than they do outside, he said.
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| U.N. warns economic downturn could kill hundreds of thousands of children in 2020 Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:50 AM PDT |
| In Soweto, a South African who celebrated history is mourned Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT  Benedict Somi Vilakazi had been surrounded by history. The most famous street in Soweto shares his name, and two Nobel Peace Prize winners — Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu — lived along it. Vilakazi was proud of that past and put a mural about his grandfather in his coffee shop that was popular with tourists and locals alike.
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| UN envoy expects Yemen cease-fire agreement very soon Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:29 AM PDT  The U.N. special envoy for Yemen said Thursday that the threat of the new coronavirus has galvanized peace efforts and he expects the country's warring sides to agree on a lasting cease-fire and peace talks "in the immediate future." The envoy, Martin Griffiths, told the U.N. Security Council that talks with Yemen's internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iran-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis "are making very good progress."
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| Coronavirus: Security forces kill more Nigerians than Covid-19 Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:28 AM PDT  Eighteen people have been killed during the lockdown, while 12 have been by the virus.
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| Pro-Trump Group Tries to Portray Biden as Soft on China Posted: 16 Apr 2020 10:11 AM PDT |
| Germany's Merkel backs WHO as calls for more coronavirus cooperation Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:47 AM PDT |
| Backup of bodies overwhelms nursing home amid outbreak Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:29 AM PDT  An extraordinary number of coronavirus-related deaths overwhelmed a nursing home in northern New Jersey where police found 18 bodies in what the governor called a "makeshift morgue" on two consecutive days earlier this week. Police got an anonymous tip Monday that a body was being stored outside the home, Andover Township Police Chief Eric Danielson said Thursday. Nineteen of the home's 35 residents who have died since March 30 had the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said.
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| Coronavirus kills 'brilliant' doctor in Nigeria Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:26 AM PDT  Emeka Chugbo contracted the virus while managing an infected patient at his private clinic.
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| Iraq says 2 women killed in Turkish strikes on Kurdish group Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:13 AM PDT |
| VIRUS DIARY: In pandemic, a forlorn dog finds new purpose Posted: 16 Apr 2020 09:11 AM PDT  BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — "This feels like a good time to get another dog to help us get over the loss of Surfer," the Professor announced in her FM radio-ready voice. Surfer was the Professor's dog, but he had become one of my best buddies during the two years since we met and quickly bonded, as kindred spirits do. The ensuing lockdown has kept the Professor, her two children, her surviving 13-year-old dog Phoebe and me cloistered in her home for the past four weeks.
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| Pandemic provokes spike in demand for food pantries in US Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:57 AM PDT  Brooklyn Dotson needed food. "I don't have any income coming in, I don't get any food stamps, so it's just hard to get any help right now," Dotson said while waiting in line at GraceWorks. Food pantries stay busy even in the best of economic times; the coronavirus pandemic has prompted a spike in demand as millions of people like Dotson find themselves furloughed, laid off or with businesses that have suffered huge financial blows.
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| Rights group asks Turkish Cypriots to release migrants Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:54 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: Lions nap on road during South African lockdown Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:42 AM PDT  A pride of lions take advantage of traffic-free roads in Kruger National Park for an afternoon rest.
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| US Navy accuses Iran of harassing its ships in the Gulf Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:35 AM PDT  The US Navy has accused Iran of repeatedly harassing six of its ships on a training exercise in international waters.US warships conducting drills with US Army Apache attack helicopters in the North Arabian Gulf were approached by 11 vessels belonging to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN).
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| Virus Forces Putin to Postpone WWII Victory Anniversary Parade Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:32 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin postponed all of Russia's public celebrations on May 9 of the World War II victory, including the Red Square military parade, conceding that the coronavirus pandemic had defeated his plans for a grand commemoration to mark the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany."We will force the threat we face today to retreat and then we will definitely hold all the events planned for May 9," Putin said via videoconference at a meeting of the Security Council on Thursday. The annual parade involving thousands of troops and displays of military hardware including tanks and nuclear-missile launchers as well as a fly-past by the air force, will be held later in the year along with other planned events, Putin said, without specifying a date.Putin had put particular emphasis on this year's landmark anniversary, issuing invitations to leaders of Western allies during the war to join him on Red Square even as they continue to sanction Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea. French President Emmanuel Macron accepted Putin's invitation. Large-scale rehearsals of the parade by Russia's military had already been taking place outside Moscow.Putin had also sought to capitalize on the anniversary by calling on leaders of the other four permanent members of United Nations Security Council -- China, the U.S., the U.K. and France - to join him in a summit meeting on threats to international stability.The global coronavirus pandemic and the spread of the pathogen in Russia forced Putin into a rethink. He warned earlier this week that the deadly infectious illness had yet to reach its peak in Russia, striking a more pessimistic tone than in the past."We have a lot of problems. There is nothing to boast about, and we must not let our guard down," Putin said. Russia on Thursday registered 3,448 new cases of the virus in the past 24 hours to a total of 27,938, with 232 deaths.The annual victory commemoration of the war, which claimed the lives of 27 million Soviet citizens and is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, is traditionally an occasion for the government to rouse the nation.The Red Square parade held later in the year will still be "grandiose and large-scale," according to Putin ally Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the upper house of parliament.The postponement from May is "a tough decision, but an unavoidable one," said Sergei Markov, a political consultant to the Kremlin. "It would have been a chance to consolidate society at a very difficult time."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Putin postpones World War II victory parade due to virus Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:26 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday postponed next month's Victory Day celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, citing the worsening coronavirus pandemic for putting off the lavish festivities that have dominated the Kremlin's political agenda. In televised remarks, a grim-faced Putin said the virus makes public gatherings such as the huge parade through Red Square on May 9 too dangerous. The postponement followed an earlier decision by Putin to put off a vote originally scheduled for April 22 on constitutional changes that would allow him to stay in office until 2036, if he desired.
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| Putin postpones Victory Day military parade over coronavirus Posted: 16 Apr 2020 08:20 AM PDT |
| Muslims grapple with Ramadan rituals in coronavirus era Posted: 16 Apr 2020 07:51 AM PDT  Seattle resident Maggie Mohamed was looking forward to spending the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in her native Egypt. Now, with the spread of the new coronavirus, flying is off the table. Ramadan, which starts later this month, unites Muslims the world over in fasting and worship.
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| Pledge brings Ohio neighborhood together -- at a distance Posted: 16 Apr 2020 07:39 AM PDT  The idea came about because Jennifer Stamper was trying to make her family's "new normal" feel a little bit more like their old one. Now, just before 9 a.m. on school days she and her children join others on their street who come to the end of their driveways -- no closer because of social-distancing guidelines -- and together, hands over hearts, recite the Pledge of Allegiance. "My kids, when this first started, they were having trouble sleeping at night," said Stamper, 49.
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| EXPLAINER-Who's WHO? The World Health Organization under scrutiny Posted: 16 Apr 2020 07:21 AM PDT |
| YDX Innovation Creates Exhibition about United Nation’s Humanitarian Sergio Vieira de Mello Posted: 16 Apr 2020 06:45 AM PDT |
| Reopening could require thousands more public health workers Posted: 16 Apr 2020 06:12 AM PDT  Before stay-at-home orders are lifted, the nation's public health agencies want to be ready to douse any new sparks of coronavirus infection — a task they say could require tens of thousands more investigators to call people who test positive, track down their contacts and get them into quarantine. Without the extra help, officials insist, states cannot possibly be ready to resume normal everyday activities, and some agencies are so desperate they are considering recruiting librarians and Peace Corps volunteers to join the effort. "We are trying to build these teams and processes in the midst of a crisis," said Sharon Bogan, a public health spokeswoman for Seattle and King County, which are seeking at least 20 more investigators.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 16 Apr 2020 06:05 AM PDT  U.S. states and regions with declining coronavirus infections and strong testing would be able to begin the gradual reopening of businesses and schools under new White House guidelines. The approach was outlined by President Donald Trump on a call with the nation's governors as the extent and depth of the financial pain from the global pandemic became clearer with the ranks of America's unemployed swelling toward Great Depression-era levels. Here are some of AP's top stories Thursday on the world's coronavirus pandemic.
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| Belgian bluebells are too beautiful to see during pandemic Posted: 16 Apr 2020 06:03 AM PDT  When nature is at its brightest this year, it needs to be hidden from sight. Parks and woods in Belgium, like in much of Europe, are a riot of color and scents in springtime, many so magnificent they would draw far too thick a crowd in the times of a pandemic. Many tourists are sent back and some are even fined if they won't take no for an answer.
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| Leading in pandemic becomes part of audition for Biden's VP Posted: 16 Apr 2020 06:00 AM PDT  California Sen. Kamala Harris is raising money for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden while speaking out about the disproportionate number of African Americans with COVID-19. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has been praising the former vice president on television and Twitter as she unveils a plan to fight the coronavirus in rural America. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer went on "The Daily Show" to plead for help addressing the pandemic while wearing a T-shirt with a jab at President Donald Trump.
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| Libyan official says 2 killed, 5 wounded in Tripoli shelling Posted: 16 Apr 2020 05:23 AM PDT |
| Why Boris Johnson won't have to pay any hospital bills Posted: 16 Apr 2020 05:19 AM PDT  While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovers from a life-threatening bout of COVID-19 that hospitalized him for a week, including three nights in an intensive care unit, he won't have to worry about medical bills. He will be able to resume leading his country through the greatest crisis it has faced since World War II without that worry for one simple reason, and it's not that he's a high-ranking, powerful government official. It's that he lives in the U.K. A publicly funded single-payer systemThe U.K.'s National Health Service, which provides all types of health care – including pharmacies and primary doctors, dental and mental health care, sexual health services, ambulances and hospitals – does not charge for most services. There are modest fees for dental and vision care, as well as prescriptions. But in general, nobody collects patients' insurance information or credit card details – because they don't need to. Nobody even has to argue with an accountant at an insurance company about whether a payment should be approved. More expensive treatments and medications are rationed to some degree, but not based on a patient's ability to pay for the treatment or an expensive insurance plan that will cover it. Instead, the National Institute for Clinical Health Excellence makes cost-effectiveness recommendations about treatments based on how many years of good health will result from a particular approach. Around 11% of Britons have some form of private health insurance to provide additional coverage outside the National Health Service. But the vast majority of British people don't deal with insurance companies at all. Instead, the NHS is largely funded by income taxes. It also gets some additional revenue from workers, who pay compulsory national insurance contributions, nominal charges for prescriptions, dental and eye care – and some extra fees like access to hospital parking lots. The NHS covers all those designated as "ordinarily resident" in the U.K. – which doesn't include tourists and undocumented immigrants, though they can still get emergency services and treatments for communicable diseases like tuberculosis or HIV and the coronavirus, in some cases for free. A popular programThe service itself is very popular, accessible and efficient: The Brexit movement Johnson led claimed that the country could invest in the National Health Service the millions of pounds it otherwise would send to the European Union. While some people are frustrated with how the NHS is run, that may be due to consistent underfunding over the past decade. Since 2010, the Conservative Party, which Johnson now leads, has attempted to reduce overall government spending in the U.K.Funding for health services rose by an average of just 1.4% a year between 2009 and 2019, reaching £140 billion in 2019-2020. This means that funding decreased in real terms: Inflation averaged 3.1% between 2009 and 2018. It's not yet clear what effect Johnson's hospital stay may have on his desire to uphold his earlier commitments to boost NHS funding. But the public nature of his illness and recovery provides Americans with a close look at an alternative model of paying for health care. A clear social missionCreated in 1948, the National Health Service built on a pre-existing patchwork system of social services.At the time, some local authorities like the London County Council offered public access to health care, but many others did not. By the mid-1930s, around half of workers – but not their families, who relied on charitable free clinics – could get government-run health insurance plans that provided physician services; employer-run or cooperative funds frequently met the cost of hospital treatment. In 1942, Sir William Beveridge, a pioneering activist for the Liberal Party, the forerunner of the U.K.'s present-day Liberal Democrats, laid out a plan for a different future. He released a report, "Social Services and Allied Insurance," that identified five "evils" hindering the proper development of British society: "want," "disease," "ignorance," "squalor" and "idleness."Beveridge urged the nation to fight those evils by developing a "cradle to grave" welfare state that provided health care, promised full employment and granted benefits to those in need. The Labour government elected in July 1945, and headed by Prime Minister Clement Attlee, expanded on Beveridge's ideas. Labour argued that a universal welfare state, particularly a National Health Service, could provide "for the most far-reaching extension of social citizenship" in British history, forging a new sense of national community through equal access to publicly funded social services. A cure for society's illsAttlee's government had three main goals: 1. Ensuring full employment for everyone who wanted to work 2. Developing a mixed economy that balanced nationalized industries like coal, steel and rail with export-driven private enterprise 3. Building a more equal society by providing universal health care, improving education, offering workers compensation, creating a comprehensive social safety net and creating a system of child benefits that were paid directly to mothers.At the center of this reimagined, fairer nation was the National Health Service. On July 5, 1948, this new system of government-run health boards took control of most of the country's 3,000 or so hospitals.From the start, the NHS was intended for everyone. Attlee's Health Minister Aneurin "Nye" Bevan wanted to "universalize the best" health care in Britain, making it free and available to all on the basis of need rather than wealth.Speaking in 1951, toward the end of his tenure as prime minister, Labour leader Attlee declared his pride in the "new Jerusalem," a society of equality and prosperity, that his government had built in the U.K. Few changes, with service for allThe private sector is more involved in health care now than it was then, largely in eye and dental care, and with private companies doing cleaning and food distribution in hospitals. But core NHS services like doctor's visits and hospital treatment remain free. Even the pro-market Thatcher governments dared not privatize health care. Nigel Lawson, a keen supporter of economic liberalization, who was chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989, complained that the NHS was "the closest thing the English people have to a religion."That religion, and Bevan's dream, remains strong today. When Boris Johnson fell ill with the coronavirus, he did not enter an exclusive private health care facility. Instead, he was admitted to St. Thomas', a major teaching hospital located in the center of London.The appeal of the NHS is its universality. Everyone, rich or poor, receives the same treatment. Although polling is sparse, a survey conducted by YouGov in 2017 found that 84% of people thought that the NHS should remain publicly funded. Another YouGov poll in 2018 found that just 4% of people supported a system similar to that found in the United States, where private insurance and wealth largely determines who can access medical care.Johnson may once have been skeptical about people who get sick – a former colleague describes him as viewing illness as "a form of moral weakness" – but he now has the chance to learn Attlee's lesson: Illness can strike anyone, and everyone deserves top-notch medical care.[You're smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation's authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Want to know how many people have the coronavirus? Test randomly * Why the Supreme Court made Wisconsin vote during the coronavirus crisisLuke Reader was a press officer in the U.K. civil service between 2000 and 2002. While a press officer, he dealt with matters relating to health care. He also has a family member who recently completed medical school and will soon begin work for the NHS.
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| Urged on by Conservatives and His Own Advisers, Trump Targeted the WHO Posted: 16 Apr 2020 05:17 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- Fox News pundits and Republican lawmakers have raged for weeks at the World Health Organization for praising China's handling of the coronavirus crisis. On his podcast, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, urged his former boss to stop funding the WHO, citing its ties to the "Chinese Communist Party."And inside the West Wing, the president found little resistance among the China skeptics in his administration for lashing out at the WHO and essentially trying to shift the blame for his own failure to aggressively confront the spread of the virus by accusing the world's premier global health group of covering up for the country where it started.Trump's decision Tuesday to freeze nearly $500 million in public money for the WHO in the middle of a pandemic was the culmination of a concerted conservative campaign against the group. But the president's announcement on the WHO drew fierce condemnations from many quarters.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said cutting its funding was "not in U.S. interests." Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the decision "dangerous" and "illegal." Former President Jimmy Carter said he was "distressed," calling the WHO "the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus."Founded in 1948, the WHO works to promote primary health care around the world, improve access to essential medicine and help train health care workers. During emergencies, the organization, a United Nations agency, seeks to identify threats and mitigate the risks of dangerous outbreaks, especially in the developing world.In recent years, the United States has been the largest contributor to the WHO, giving about $500 million a year, though only about $115 million of that is considered mandatory as part of the dues that Congress agreed to pay as a member. The rest was a voluntary contribution to combat specific health challenges like malaria or AIDS.How Trump's order to freeze the group's funding while officials conduct a review of the WHO would be carried out was not clear. Congressional Democrats who oversee foreign aid said they did not believe Trump had the power to unilaterally stop paying the nation's dues to the WHO. Congressional aides cited a Government Accountability Office report in January that concluded that the administration could not simply ignore congressionally directed funding for Ukraine simply because Trump wanted to.A senior aide to House Democrats said they were reviewing their options in the hopes of keeping the money flowing. But Democrats conceded that Trump most likely has wide latitude to withdraw the voluntary contributions to specific health programs run by the WHO.White House officials say Trump was moved to act in part by his well-known anger about sending too much of the public's money to international organizations like NATO and the United Nations. And they said he agreed with the criticism that the WHO was too quick to accept China's explanations after the virus began spreading.They cited a Twitter post by the WHO on Jan. 14 saying that the Chinese government had "found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus" as evidence that the WHO was covering up for China. And they noted that in mid-February, a top official at the WHO praised the Chinese for restrictive measures they insisted had delayed the spread of the virus to other countries, saying, "Right now, the strategic and tactical approach in China is the correct one.""It is very China-centric," Trump said in announcing his decision Tuesday in the Rose Garden."I told that to President Xi," he said, referring to Xi Jinping of China. "I said, 'The World Health Organization is very China-centric.' Meaning, whatever it is, China was always right. You can't do that."Public health experts say the WHO has had a mixed record since the coronavirus emerged in late December.The health organization raised early alarms about the virus, and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the group's director-general, held almost daily news briefings beginning in mid-January, repeating the mantra, "We have a window of opportunity to stop this virus. But that window is rapidly closing."But global health officials and political leaders -- not just Trump -- have said the organization was too willing to accept information supplied by China, which still has not provided accurate numbers on how many people were infected and died during the initial outbreak in the country.On Wednesday, Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, called it "unfathomable" that the WHO had issued a statement supporting China's decision to allow the reopening of so-called wet markets, the wildlife markets where the virus is believed to have first spread to humans. And in Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, recently noted that some people have started referring to the WHO as the "Chinese Health Organization."But defending the WHO on Wednesday, Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of its emergencies programs, cited the early warning it sounded. "We alerted the world on January the 5th," Ryan told reporters.Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment with Trump's decision to freeze funding."WHO is not only fighting COVID-19," he said. "We're also working to address polio, measles, malaria, Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer, diabetes, mental health and many other diseases and conditions."Trump's decision to attack the WHO comes as he is under intense fire at home for a failure to respond aggressively to the virus, which as of Wednesday had claimed more than 28,000 lives and infected at least 600,000 people in the United States.The president publicly shrugged off the virus throughout January and much of February, repeatedly saying that it was under control. He said in mid-February that he hoped the virus would "miraculously" disappear when the weather turned warm.Trump barred some travel from China in late January, a move that health experts say helped delay widespread infection. But he also presided over a government that failed to make testing and medical supplies widely available and resisted calling for social distancing that allowed the virus to spread for several critical weeks.The president's decision to freeze the WHO funding was backed by many of his closest aides, including Peter Navarro, his trade adviser, and key members of the National Security Council, who have long been suspicious of China. Trump himself has often offered contradictory messages about the country -- repeatedly saying nice things about Xi even as he wages a fierce on-again, off-again trade war with China."China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus," Trump tweeted Jan. 24. "The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency."At a meeting of his coronavirus task force Friday, Trump polled all the doctors in the room about the WHO, according to an official who attended the meeting. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said that the WHO had a "China problem," and then others around the room -- including Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the U.S. response, and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- agreed with the statement, the official said.But the president's critics assailed the timing of the announcement, saying that any assessment of the WHO should wait until the threat was over.Among those questioning the president's decision to act now was Redfield, who heaped praise on the WHO during an appearance Wednesday on "CBS This Morning," saying that questions about what the group did during the pandemic should be left until "after we get through this." He said that the WHO remained "a long-standing partner for CDC," citing efforts to fight the Ebola virus in Africa and the cooperation to limit the spread of the coronavirus. And he added that the United States and the WHO have "worked together to fight health crises around the world -- we continue to do that."Pelosi said Trump was acting "at great risk to the lives and livelihoods of Americans and people around the world." And in its statement, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that it supported reform of the WHO but that "cutting the WHO's funding during the COVID-19 pandemic is not in U.S. interests given the organization's critical role assisting other countries -- particularly in the developing world -- in their response."In a tweet, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and later a global health foundation, said the decision to end funding "during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds."He added, "Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Iran says virus deaths rise 92 to 4,869 Posted: 16 Apr 2020 04:54 AM PDT  Iran on Thursday announced 92 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the third straight day that official fatalities remained in double digits in the Middle East's worst-hit country. Health ministry spokesman Kinaoush Jahanpour told a news conference the latest deaths brought the official total to 4,869. There has been speculation abroad that the number of deaths and infections is higher than officially announced.
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| France says Trump has agreed to a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic and Putin will sign up as well Posted: 16 Apr 2020 04:45 AM PDT |
| Takeaways from internal documents on China's virus response Posted: 16 Apr 2020 04:23 AM PDT  On Jan. 14, China's top health agency told provincial officials that they were facing a likely pandemic from a new coronavirus — but didn't alert the public for six key days. President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. Internal documents obtained by The Associated Press show the National Health Commission ordered secret pandemic preparations, even as it downplayed the outbreak on national television.
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| Saudi Arabia executes man who attacked Spanish performers Posted: 16 Apr 2020 04:07 AM PDT |
| 10 things you need to know today: April 16, 2020 Posted: 16 Apr 2020 03:47 AM PDT |
| EU Targets Super-Charged Crisis Budget With Coronabonds Blocked Posted: 16 Apr 2020 03:31 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The heads of the European Union's main institutions said the bloc must increase its budget firepower to repair its devastated economy as they seek a way around the gridlock over joint bond issuance.An expanded budget should be "the mothership" of efforts to revive growth after the coronavirus pandemic, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Brussels on Thursday. The bloc's leaders will have a "strategic discussion" about the spending plan during a conference call next week, said European Council President, Charles Michel, who leads their meetings.The budget is a cornerstone of EU policy which allows farmers to compete against cheap imports from the developing world, helps poorer states catch up with the rich ones and underpins projects that bind the union together, from infrastructure to academic research. It's normally set at around 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) spread across 27 countries over seven years, but that's a fraction of the funding that will be required to rebuild the economy after Covid-19.Officials in Brussels are looking to increase the budget, frontload spending and supplement contributions with borrowing after more radical proposal for joint debt issuance ran into resistance from countries like the Netherlands and Germany.EU members contribute to the budget on the basis of their size and economic strength making it the only significant form of direct fiscal transfer from richer countries to poorer ones. It is the only instrument "that is trusted by all member states, which is already in place and can deliver quickly," von der Leyen said Thursday. "It is transparent and it is time tested as an instrument for cohesion, convergence and investment."Using the bloc's common budget may be more palatable for the rich north, but it's unclear whether it would satisfy Italy and the other southern countries that have been hardest hit by the virus.Footing the BillThe debate over how to finance the economic recovery comes as governments are starting to sketch out how much longer the social distancing measures to prevent infections will remain in force. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that no large events such as soccer matches, concerts and festivals will be allowed before the end of August at the earliest, while the commission warned that any easing of confinement rules will "unavoidably" lead to a spike in new cases, and restrictions may have to be re-imposed until a vaccine is found.European governments have already committed 3 trillion euros to cushion the blow from the pandemic, and "a lot more" will be needed, von der Leyen said Thursday. With highly indebted economies like Italy's set to nosedive this year, investors have raised doubts about their ability to foot the bill without backing from their richer peers.Despite massive European Central Bank purchases, Italian 10-year notes were trading at 1.73% on Thursday, double the yield demanded by investors in mid-February. While borrowing costs remain far below the levels seen during the sovereign debt crisis eight years ago, sentiment could change quickly if EU leaders are seen to be failing to come up with a convincing response.The bloc's finance ministers will discuss a package of proposals including a 100 billion-euro employment insurance fund and credit lines of up to 240 billion euro's from the euro-area bailout fund later on Thursday. The contentious subject of joint debt issuance could also come up in the video conference, but officials have said they expect to see no more fighting over the issue at least until leaders meet virtually on April 23.Polls showing a steep rise in euroskepticism have put pressure on Italian premier Giuseppe Conte to extract concessions from northern European countries next week. But even an agreement on upgrading the budget will be a tall order -- governments spent much of February fighting over a spending increase worth less than 0.1% of their collective GDP.Two EU officials in Brussels said the bloc's institutions will be waiting for guidance from leaders before unveiling an updated budget proposal in the following weeks. The size of the proposal will depend on the magnitude of the economic slump, one of the officials said.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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| Africa to roll out more than 1 million coronavirus tests Posted: 16 Apr 2020 03:19 AM PDT  More than 1 million coronavirus tests will be rolled out starting next week in Africa to address the "big gap" in assessing the true number of cases on the continent, the head of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, while one projection estimates more than 10 million severe cases of the virus in the next six months. "Maybe 15 million tests" will be required in Africa over the next three months, John Nkengasong said. Experts have said Africa is weeks behind Europe and the U.S. but the rise in cases has looked alarmingly similar.
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