| Briefing or rally? Trump shifts to campaign mode as he rails against the media Posted: 18 Apr 2020 05:44 PM PDT  At his latest coronavirus press conference, the president attacked Joe Biden and suggested he might have saved the planetHe bashed "Sleepy Joe" Biden. He railed against the Russia investigation and "fake people" in the media. He predicted that had he not been elected, the world might have ended.And somewhere along the way, he talked about the coronavirus.The past few weeks have seen a battle between Donald Trump, the president, and Donald Trump, the candidate. He has always been more comfortable in campaign mode and, slowly but surely, Trump the candidate is winning the struggle. Saturday was one of those days."It's called the James S Brady briefing room, not the James S Brady rally room, but today it was hard to tell the difference," Robert Gibbs, a former White House press secretary, told the MSNBC network.I was among an unlucky 13 reporters sitting in that room on Saturday, along with one standing at the back from Trump's beloved One America News Network which, having flouted reporters' agreed physical distancing guidelines, is there at the invitation of the White House.Laptops on knees, with several seats between us to maintain physical distancing, we were hardly a typical Make America Great Again crowd. But tellingly, while there was no sign of Dr Anthony Fauci's reassuring presence, the seats to Trump's right included Mark Meadows, a vocal ally in Congress recently appointed White House chief of staff, and Kayleigh McEnany, the Trump 2020 campaign national spokesperson turned White House press secretary.Both gazed up at their boss reverently and smiled at his jokes. Meanwhile Dr Deborah Birx, response coordinator on the coronavirus taskforce, stood on the podium and spent long periods staring expressionless into the middle distance as Trump reeled off some golden oldies."We had the best economy in the history of the world, better than China, better than any country in the world, better than any country's ever had," he said, waving his hand at what was ostensibly a coronavirus taskforce briefing. "We had the highest stock market in history by far, and I'm honoured by the fact it's started to go up very substantially."Wearing a blue suit, white shirt and red tie, Trump added: "We have a big election coming up but I think we have tremendous momentum. First we get rid of the plague."Across the country, the Trump movement is stirring again. Protests against the "tyranny" of lockdown measures have featured Trump campaign regalia, Confederate flags, guns and placards such as "Social distancing = communism". The Trump adviser Stephen Moore has compared the protesters to Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a crowded bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.What did Trump think of that? "Well, there is a lot of injustice. When you look at Virginia, where they want to take your guns away, they want to violate your second amendment ... I just think some of the governors have gotten carried away … It's a strong statement but I can see where he's coming from."As at a rally, he hymned the praise of his vice-president, Mike Pence, then went after Democratic senators who were on a call to Pence on Friday as "rude and nasty", adding: "All you have to do is look at the big V for victory, or V for ventilator. Take a look at it. Everybody said they had us on that. They thought they had us but we got 'em done in numbers that nobody would believe."The comment suggested Trump viewed the race for ventilators as a political trap that he had managed to avoid, not a humanitarian emergency. But Democrats are also concerned about Trump's you're-on-your-own message to states when it comes to testing. He complained: "You hear so much about testing. What we've done has been incredible on testing." And in a swipe at Barack Obama: "I inherited broken junk."No Trump rally is complete without him playing the victim – one sure to prevail heroically in the final act – and goading the media, usually a cue for his supporters to turn and and jeer the press pen. This time the president took aim at a reporter who was not in the room: Maggie Haberman of the New York Times."She's a third-rate reporter," he lamented, going on a long riff to make the baseless allegation that a Haberman story, which said Meadows had cried during meetings with White House staff, was motivated by "retribution". Trump insisted: "He's not a cryer."Extraordinarily, the president of the United States spent more time on this personal grievance against a journalist with whom he has a long history than on the unimaginable scale of death and grief across the nation. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, it was quite a contrast from the days when Bill Clinton was hailed the "consoler-in-chief".When Birx finally got her turn, she praised "the amazing work of the American people", particularly in cities such as Detroit, to observe social distancing. But when she pointed to a graphic of international comparisons on screens behind the podium, Trump could not resist butting in and pointing to China's claim of 0.33 deaths per 100,000 people (America's is 11.24, the UK's is 21.97). "Excuse me, does anybody really believe this number?" he demanded, later asking the same about Iran.It was another cudgel with which to beat the media. "Why didn't you people figure that out, though?" he demanded. Unfortunately for Trump, the Biden campaign had just released a video stating: "When Trump rolled over for the Chinese, he took their word for it. Trump praised the Chinese 15 times in January and February as the coronavirus spread across the world."The president ended the briefing-cum-rally as he began, talking about anything but the coronavirus. He attacked the Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as having a "very strong anti-Israel bent". He said of North Korea: "Look, if I wasn't elected, you would right now – maybe the world – would be over."He added falsely, for good measure: "When I first came in, we didn't have ammunition, not a good way to fight a war. President Obama left us no ammunition." He declared that no one had been tougher on Russia's Vladimir Putin than he has been and recycled old gripes about the Iran nuclear deal and Chinese tariffs."Maybe Sleepy Joe Biden's gonna win," he said. "And if Sleepy Joe Biden wins you'll own the United States. And China will own the United States."With mendacity and menace, the 2020 election campaign was back under way. The president is eager to become a candidate again and move on. With nearly 40,000 Americans dead from the virus, perhaps no one should be surprised.
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| Hudeidi: The Somali 'king of oud' who was felled by coronavirus Posted: 18 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  Somali musician Ahmed Ismail Hussein Hudeidi died in London from coronavirus at the age of 91.
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| Trump Suggests China May Be ‘Knowingly Responsible’ for Virus Posted: 18 Apr 2020 04:10 PM PDT |
| Trump Hijacks Dr. Deborah Birx’s Coronavirus Presentation Posted: 18 Apr 2020 04:01 PM PDT  During her presentation at the White House COVID-19 briefing on Saturday, Dr. Deborah Birx was cruising along until she waded into one of President Donald Trump and the GOP's sorest spots: the Chinese government's apparent undercounting of coronavirus casualties. As Birx, the White House's coronavirus coordinator, explained a slide showing COVID-19 deaths per capita for various countries, China's was marked with an asterisk at the very bottom.Trump, standing on the sidelines, couldn't help but interject. "Excuse me, does anybody really believe this number?" he said, interrupting an apparently startled Birx—who then wheeled around, smiled, and coolly explained she put China's number on the chart to demonstrate "how unrealistic this could be."Though Birx tried to move on, Trump still couldn't keep quiet. He soon interrupted her again, to make a similar point, this time on the numbers shown for Iran. "Does anyone really believe that number?" Trump asked again. "You see what's going on over there." He then asked to return to the previous slide and walked over to the screen, hovering and pointing incredulously to China and Iran's numbers.The moment was a fitting one for Saturday's roughly 70-minute briefing, which was absent familiar figures like Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Anthony Fauci.Trump did the lion's share of the talking, veering between lambasting Democratic politicians and the media—in particular New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman—and embracing comfortable topics. He repeatedly mentioned a phone call with unnamed world leaders who, he said, had offered effusive praise for his handling of the outbreak.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Fewer Deaths in N.Y., Italy; New U.S. Cases Slow: Virus Update Posted: 18 Apr 2020 02:05 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- New York reported the fewest new coronavirus deaths in almost two weeks. Italy announced the least in almost a week. France had the smallest increase in five days.Spain will extend a lockdown for two weeks after joining the U.S. and Italy with more than 20,000 deaths. U.S. cases rose 3.4%, slower than the average over the last week. As the U.S. and Canada agreed to extend border limits to May 20, Israel planned to ease some limits.Key DevelopmentsVirus Tracker: Cases top 2.3 million; deaths exceed 158,000States don't share Trump's confidence in a quick reopeningWhat a return to work will look like in officesMilan's virus trend threatens plan to restart ItalyOne restaurant's story shows how recession spreadsA wild ride for global supply chains captured in seven chartsSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg's Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus.California Not Close to Reopening: Governor (4:20 p.m. NY)California reported 87 deaths, one of the highest daily counts so far, as Governor Gavin Newsom said the state may not be close to loosening measures imposed to curb the spread.Total deaths rose to 1,072, Newsom said in his daily briefing. The number of cases climbed 5.3%, while patients in intensive care fell by a "modest" 0.1%, he said."For those that think we're out of the woods, those who think we've turned the page, those who think we can go back to the way things used to be, I caution you on the basis of that 87 number," Newsom said.South Africa Has Biggest Rise in Cases (4:15 p.m. NY)South Africa reported 251 new infections on Saturday, its biggest daily increase, bringing the total to 3,034. That's as community screening is rolled out, increasing the number of tests. About 7,194 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours.Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told reporters one person is testing positive for every 38 checked. Deaths climbed by two to 52.U.S. Cases Climb at Slower Pace (4 p.m. NY)U.S. confirmed cases rose 3.4% from Friday, below the average daily increase of the past week, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. The national daily increase has been 4.9% in the past week.New York's cases jumped 5.2% from the previous day, data showed. Delaware had a 12% increase in cases. Fatalities almost doubled to 37,079 from 18,769 a week ago, according to the data.Deaths rose by more than 20% in West Virginia and Montana, and by more than 10% in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware and New Mexico, according to data as of 9:30 a.m. Saturday.Brazil Cases, Deaths Rise (3:36 p.m. NY)Brazil reported 2,917 new cases and 211 deaths in 24 hours, according to the nation's Health Ministry. Total deaths rose to 2,352 from 2,141 on Friday. Sao Paulo state, epicenter of the nation's outbreak, had 13,894 cases and 991 deaths, the government said.Spain to Extend Lockdown 2 Weeks (3:05 p.m. NY)Spain plans to extend a nationwide lockdown through May 9. The government will submit the proposal to Congress before the current state of emergency expires April 25, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said. While the government will not relax confinement, it will seek to allow children to leave their homes under strict rules, he said.Israel Eases Restrictions (2:30 p.m. NY)Israel will ease the lockdown imposed on the economy as the virus outbreak showed signs of slowing. Starting Sunday, offices can double the number of workers they use to 30% of staff, and stores selling goods likes home furnishings and electronics can reopen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address Saturday night. Malls will remain closed.Israel has 13,265 confirmed cases and 164 people have died.N.J. Hospital Data Improves (2:15 p.m. NY)New Jersey reported signs the coronavirus curve is flattening, with hospital discharges outpacing admissions and a slower rate of growth in cases and deaths. Governor Phil Murphy said new cases increased by less than 10% for a 12th straight day -- 3,026 for a total of 81,420. The 231 additional fatalities follow four straight days of more than 300 deaths. Deaths have passed 4,000.Turkey Extends Quarantine Steps (2:10 p.m. NY)Turkey extended quarantine measures in major cities for another 15 days as the spread of the coronavirus shows signs of slowing. The rules announced earlier this month apply to Istanbul, which has the bulk of reported cases, and 30 other cities.New cases increased by 4.8% on Saturday, compared with a 12% increase 10 days earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Health Ministry data. Another 121 deaths were reported Saturday, raising the total to 1,890.French Death Rate Slows (1:50 p.m. NY)Deaths in France rose by 642 to 19,323 fatalities, the Health Ministry said in an emailed statement, the smallest increase in five days. The number of infections rose by 5,715 to 173,956. Only the U.S., Spain and Italy have more fatalities.The number of people hospitalized fell for a fourth day to 30,639, the biggest decline yet. Patients in ICU beds, an indicator of the outbreak's intensity and its impact on the hospital system, fell for a 10th day to 5,833, the lowest since March 31, according to health ministry data.South Africa to Speed Reforms (1:40 p.m. NY)South Africa will gradually ease regulations in various sectors to restart activity after the five-week national lockdown ends, and will work on fast-tracking some structural reforms to help the recovery.A group led by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday "agreed on the need for a risk-adjusted approach" to the resumption of economic activity. The nation is on day 23 of the shutdown. While the restrictions halted all activity except essential services, the government this week said mines can resume work at 50% capacity.The group's recommendations will be considered by the Cabinet on April 20, the presidency said.Read the full story.Italy Has Fewest Deaths Since April 12 (12:20 p.m. NY)Italy reported the fewest deaths in six days as new cases remained stable. The country registered 482 fatalities down from 525 a day earlier, the lowest since April 12. Total deaths are 23,227. There were 3,491 new cases compared with 3,493 a day earlier, with the total now 175,925. Patients in intensive care fell for a 15th day.Pennsylvania Reports Most Daily Deaths (12:17 p.m. NY)Pennsylvania reported 80 new deaths, the most on a single day, taking statewide fatalities to 836. A day earlier, the state had 49 deaths. The health department had 1,628 new cases, bringing the state's total to 31,069.Denmark Extends Aid Programs (12:15 p.m. NY)Denmark extended aid programs to businesses and workers by a month, to July 8, and added new measures to increase spending by about 100 billion kroner ($15 billion), according to a statement.The government said companies that pay dividends, buy back shares or are registered in tax havens won't be eligible for the programs, which now amount to 400 billion kroner with loans and guarantees.N.Y. Deaths Lowest in Almost Two Weeks (11:45 a.m. NY)New York reported 540 deaths in the past 24 hours, down from 630 the previous day, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. The state's death toll is now 13,362. It's the first time the daily toll dropped below 600 in 12 days. The state reached a peak of 799 deaths on April 9.Cuomo said new hospitalizations fell slightly, but for a third straight day the daily admissions remained higher than 1,900.Canada-U.S. Extend Border Restrictions (11:30 a.m. NY)Canada and the U.S. will extend the closure of their shared border to non-essential travel for another 30 days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.Both countries agreed to close the border to most travelers in March. Trudeau said the extension has the same terms as before and allows essential goods and services to move between the countries.U.K. Deaths Over 800 for Third Day (9:06 a.m. NY)The U.K. reported more than 800 deaths for the third day in a row. Fatalities rose by 888 to 15,464. The number of cases reached more than 114,000, the health ministry said on Saturday.Netherlands Hospital Admissions Slow (8:07 a.m. NY)The Netherlands reported 129 new hospital admissions, up just 1%, marking a record low since the daily statistic has been reported since late March. Total confirmed cases grew 4% to 31,589, in line with recent trends. Fatalities rose to 3,601, also in line.General practitioners in the country will also be able to fill out short questionnaires about patients suspected of having the virus. The gathering of this information is intended to better map the spread of the virus in the country.Portugal also reported a bigger number of new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 663 new cases in a day, taking the total to 19,685, the government said on Saturday.Amazon Uses Thermal Cameras for Fever Scans: Reuters (7:47 a.m. NY)Amazon.com is using thermal cameras at its warehouses, Reuters reported, citing staff. The aim is to speed up temperature checks to find workers who might be infected with the coronavirus. The move comes after employees in more than 50 Amazon warehouses were reported to be infected with the virus, and unions called on Amazon to close buildings down.Spanish Deaths Pass 20,000 (7:55 a.m. NY)New coronavirus cases in Spain rose by 4,499 in the last 24 hours, pushing the total to 191,726 as the government reviews the way it reports its figures.Authorities reported a total of 20,043 deaths from the illness since the outbreak started, with 565 people dying in the last 24 hours. That's roughly in line with this week's data, although the ministry hasn't clarified discrepancies in the number of deaths reported yesterday. Spain is now the third country after Italy and the U.S. to suffer more than 20,000 deaths.13 Nations Flag WHO's 'Critical Role' (7 a.m. NY)Germany, Canada, France, the U.K., South Korea and eight other nations issued a joint statement noting the "critical role" of the World Health Organization in tackling the virus outbreak.The so-called Ministerial Coordination Group on COVID-19 said a "strong and coordinated global health response" is needed. The U.S. is not a member of the group. President Donald Trump has criticized the WHO and ordered a halt to contributions to the organization.The 13 nations also agreed that emergency measures to tackle the virus "must be targeted, proportionate, transparent and temporary." They must not "create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption to global supply chains" and must comply with WTO rules.Iran Deaths Pass 5,000 (5:37 p.m. HK)Fatalities in Iran rose to 5,031 as the country's daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest in over a month with 73 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total known cases reached 80,868 with 1,374 new infections since Friday.Iran is seeking $50 million from the World Bank to help it fight the pandemic, marking the first time since 2005 that the country has applied for such a loan from the Washington-based institution, a deputy health minister said on state TV. Iran has also requested a loan of 130 million euros ($141 million) from the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, of which it is the largest stakeholder after Saudi Arabia and Libya.Nigerian Chief of Staff Dies (4:56 p.m. HK)Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's chief of staff died on Friday after contracting the coronavirus in Germany. Abba Kyari, whose age wasn't disclosed, was regarded as one of the most powerful politicians in the West African country and a strong supporter of state intervention in the economy.Russia Reports Biggest Case Increase (4:35 p.m. HK)Russia recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus infections, with new cases rising by almost 5,000 in a single day.New infections jumped by 4,785 to 36,793, the official Russian coronavirus information center reported on its website. Forty people died in the past day, including 21 in Moscow, bringing the number of fatalities to 313. The pace of new cases increased 17.6% after slowing to less than 15% in the previous two days.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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| Landmark Lebanese hotel folds amid virus, economic crisis Posted: 18 Apr 2020 12:32 PM PDT  One of Lebanon's landmark hotels that survived the country's bloody 15-year civil war and various other bouts of fighting is shutting down amid the country's economic crisis and coronavirus pandemic, a hotel executive said Saturday. The prestigious, nearly 70-year-old Le Bristol was closed temporarily as part of national measures to combat the spread of the virus. It is owned by the Doumet family, one of Lebanon's richest.
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| The week that was: Stories from the coronavirus saga Posted: 18 Apr 2020 11:48 AM PDT  The pressure is on to reopen America for business — even as the hardest hit areas in the United States and around the world are still struggling mightily to contain the coronavirus. The debate over easing lockdowns has taken on partisan tones in the United States, with Republican President Donald Trump urging supporters to "liberate" three states led by Democratic governors. In Africa, lockdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus may be having an unintended effect — choking the continent's already vulnerable food supply.
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| Fear meets fortitude in Peru hospital hard hit by COVID-19 Posted: 18 Apr 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Seated in a wheelchair at one of Peru's oldest hospitals, 84-year-old Emma Salvador struggled for each breath, aided by an oxygen mask pinching her face. "Seeing her in such pain is what overwhelms me," said José Gonzalez, 57, who confessed fearing that the worst outcome awaited his mother, while encouraging her to drink some water. This scene Friday at the Dos de Mayo Hospital in Lima depicts just one of the 13,489 new coronavirus cases in the South American country, which faces a growing number of patients desperate for emergency attention.
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| Israel accuses Hezbollah of 'provocativ' activity Posted: 18 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT |
| In nod to normalcy, Pence celebrates Air Force Academy grads Posted: 18 Apr 2020 10:25 AM PDT  In a symbolic nod to normalcy, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy's graduating class on Saturday, telling the cadets that by setting off on their mission to defend the nation they "inspire confidence that we will prevail against the invisible enemy in our time as well." "I know we gather at a time of great challenge in the life of our nation," Pence said as he began his remarks.
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| Chinese President Xi Jinping Advocates Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind Posted: 18 Apr 2020 08:58 AM PDT |
| Tehran cautiously reopens as economic hardship trumps virus risks Posted: 18 Apr 2020 08:19 AM PDT  Iran allowed some shuttered Tehran businesses to reopen Saturday despite the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak, as many faced a bitter choice between risking infection and economic ruin. Top officials argue that Iran's sanctions-hit economy cannot afford to remain on lockdown, and approved similar measures in other provinces last week. There was a "significant" uptick in highway use on Saturday, according to Tehran's traffic police chief, who told state TV that some anti-congestion measures had been lifted to discourage use of public transportation.
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| With no school, calls drop but child abuse hasn't amid virus Posted: 18 Apr 2020 08:16 AM PDT  With schools closed and teachers unable to report suspected cases of abuse and neglect, child welfare agencies have lost some of their best eyes and ears during a stressful time for families who have lost jobs and are locked down together during the coronavirus pandemic. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and across the country, states are reporting fewer calls to child abuse hotlines, not because officials believe there are fewer cases but because they're going unreported. "When there are large-scale job losses in communities, child maltreatment rates go up," said Anna Gassman-Pines, a Duke University public policy professor whose expertise includes the effect of unemployment on children.
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| U.K. Paid $20 Million for New Coronavirus Tests. They Didn't Work. Posted: 18 Apr 2020 07:25 AM PDT  LONDON -- The two Chinese companies were offering a risky proposition: 2 million home test kits said to detect antibodies for the coronavirus for at least $20 million, take it or leave it.The asking price was high, the technology was unproven, and the money had to be paid upfront. And the buyer would be required to pick up the crate loads of test kits from a facility in China.Yet British officials took the deal, according to a senior civil servant involved, then confidently promised tests would be available at pharmacies in as little as two weeks."As simple as a pregnancy test," gushed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "It has the potential to be a total game changer."There was one problem, however. The tests did not work.Found to be insufficiently accurate by a laboratory at Oxford University, half a million of the tests are now gathering dust in storage. Another 1.5 million bought at a similar price from other sources have also gone unused. The fiasco has left embarrassed British officials scrambling to get back at least some of the money."They might perhaps have slightly jumped the gun," said professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London, a member of the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group. "There is a huge pressure on politicians to come out and say things that are positive."A spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care said the government ordered the smallest number of tests allowed by the sellers and that it would try to recover the money, without specifying how.The ill-starred purchases are in some ways a parable of the risks in the escalating scrum among competing governments racing for an edge in the fight against the pandemic.The still-emerging tests for antibodies formed in response to the virus are the next stage in the battle. By enabling public health officials to assess where the disease has spread and who might have some immunity, widespread use of the tests is seen as a critical step in determining how and when to lift the lockdowns currently paralyzing societies and economies in much of the world."You can't lift the lockdown as long as you are not testing massively," said Nicolas Locker, a professor of virology at the University of Surrey. "As long as the government is not testing in the community, we are going to be on lockdown."The gamble on the Chinese antibody tests, though, is also a barometer of the desperation British officials felt as public pressure has mounted over their slow response to the virus. One prominent expert, Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, a British nonprofit that is a major funder of medical research, recently warned that "the U.K. is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst affected, country in Europe."Long before the development of an antibody test, Germany, for example, the continent's leader in containing the virus, began conducting as many as 50,000 diagnostic tests a day to help trace and isolate cases. That rate is now nearly 120,000 a day.As of Wednesday, Britain was still conducting less than 20,000 diagnostic tests a day. Having missed a previous target of 25,000 diagnostic tests a day by the middle of April, officials are now promising to reach 100,000 a day by the end of the month and as many as 250,000 a day soon after that.British officials have said that they started out behind because they lack major private testing companies of the sort found in Germany and the United States, which are capable of manufacturing and performing tens of thousands of diagnostic tests.But by the time Britain began pushing in earnest to expand its capacity, it was also trailing behind most of Europe in the competition to buy up the limited supply of compounds, tubes and even swabs needed for diagnostic tests to determine a current infection with the virus.So when the Chinese offers of antibody tests arrived, the officials knew that almost every government in the world was hunting for them, too. Nationalists like President Donald Trump were pressuring domestic suppliers not to sell outside their borders. Oil-rich Persian Gulf princes were bidding up prices.Medical companies in China, where the virus first emerged, seemed to hold all the cards, typically demanding yes-or-no decisions from buyers with full payment upfront in as little as 24 hours.The two Chinese companies offering the antibody tests, AllTest Biotech and Wondfo Biotech, both said their products met the health, safety and environmental standards set by the European Union. Public health officials reviewed the specifications on paper while the British Foreign Ministry hurriedly dispatched diplomats in China to ensure the companies existed and to examine their products.Representatives of both AllTest and Wondfo declined to discuss prices.Within days of the deal, enthusiastic health officials back in London were promising that the new tests would vault Britain into the vanguard of international efforts to combat the virus.Appearing March 25 before a parliamentary committee, Sharon Peacock, a professor of public health and microbiology at Cambridge University who is the senior public health official overseeing infectious diseases, testified that the tests would require only a pinprick in the privacy of one's home and would soon be available at minimal cost from either local pharmacies or Amazon."Testing the test is a small matter," Peacock assured lawmakers. "I anticipate that it would be done by the end of this week."After quietly admitting last week that the testing had in fact proven unsuccessful, health officials are now defending the purchase as prudent planning and valuable experience.It was to be expected, professor Chris Whitty, Britain's chief medical officer, said in a news conference. "It would be very surprising if first out of the gate we got to the best outcome that we could for this kind of test," he said. "It made a lot of sense to get started early."But Greg Clark, chairman of a parliamentary committee examining the coronavirus response, said the government's promises appeared unrealistic."There is no country in the world that is able to operate in massive scale antibody tests yet," he said in an interview."I think it's now clear," he added, "that we should have moved earlier and more expansively to make use of all of the testing facilities that we could have."After British complaints about the test kits surfaced, both Chinese companies blamed British officials and politicians for misunderstanding or exaggerating the utility of the tests. Wondfo told Global Times, a Chinese newspaper, that its product was intended only as a supplement for patients who had already tested positive for the virus.AllTest said in a statement on its website that the tests were "only used by professionals," not by patients at home.Doctors say the government's descriptions of the antibody tests could also be misleading.By comparing the antibody tests to pregnancy tests, officials seemed to be suggesting the antibody tests would determine whether a patient was currently infected. But a discernible level of antibodies may not appear in the blood until as long as 20 days after infection -- meaning a person with the virus would test negative until then.The British military laboratory at Porton Down is also working on an antibody test, but primarily to help public health officials assess the course of the pandemic by surveying samples of the population, not to inform individual patients. The government is hoping to repurpose some of the stored Chinese-made kits for this sort of population-level testing.Do-it-yourself pinprick tests like the ones the British government ordered from China are far more complicated and much further off than such laboratory tests, researchers say. It is not yet certain what degree of immunity recovery from a past infection may confer, either.Rapid antibody tests "have limited utility" for patients, the World Health Organization warned in an April 8 statement, telling doctors that such tests remained unfit for clinical purposes until they were proved to be accurate and effective.British officials, though, were eager for a breakthrough.Even in late March, as the pandemic overwhelmed hospitals in Italy and Iran, British officials brushed off the advice of the WHO to expand diagnostic testing as quickly as possible.By the time Britain began pushing in earnest to expand its testing, every country in the world was competing for the same materials.To make up the shortfall, academic research laboratories have sought to convert themselves into small-scale clinical testing facilities, typically focusing on the needs of local hospitals."If it comes around from the government, all well and good," said Ravindra Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at Cambridge University's department of medicine, "but we have to prepare for nothing to come. It would be crazy to wait."Cancer Research UK, a nonprofit organization, is converting its research laboratories to conduct as many as 2,000 tests a day. But its capacity has been limited to a few hundred because of difficulty and delays in obtaining scarce materials, said professor Charles Swanton, its chief clinical officer.Even the swabs used to obtain samples had turned out to be scarce, he said, and his laboratory ultimately agreed to pay a Chinese supplier as much as $6 a swab -- about 100 times the typical cost. "It took about 10 days to get them," Swanton added.The British division of drug giant AstraZeneca began setting up a testing facility last month for its own essential workers, said Mene Pangalos, the executive overseeing the effort. But at the request of the British government, AstraZeneca and its rival drug company GlaxoSmithKline have teamed up to repurpose a laboratory at Cambridge University to carry out as many as 30,000 diagnostic tests a day by the beginning of May.AstraZeneca hopes to develop a laboratory test for antibodies, too, Pangalos said. But that will take until at least the middle of next month, and a home-based test, such as the British government tried to order, would take much longer, he added."Everyone is overpromising at the moment," he said. "I don't want to overpromise."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| German New Virus Infections Rise by the Most in Seven Days Posted: 18 Apr 2020 07:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased at a quicker rate for a third day and by the most in seven days as the nation prepares for a relaxation of some restrictions on public life.There were 3,699 new infections in the 24 hours through Saturday, taking the total to 141,397, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The pace of increase in new cases had declined steadily for six days until Thursday from a peak of 5,633 on April 9.The number of German fatalities rose by 300 to 4,352, while 83,114 people have recovered from the disease, more than in any other country, including China where the outbreak originated.Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday announced tentative steps to begin returning Europe's biggest economy to normal, while leaving most of the restrictive measures brought in last month in place for the time being. Some smaller shops will be allowed to start serving customers again next week, and schools will gradually reopen in early May.Germany has the fourth-highest number of cases in Europe behind Spain, Italy and France. Around 60,000 people have died from the virus in those three nations combined.Merkel has singled out the reproduction factor -- known by epidemiologists as R-naught -- as an important means of gauging how successful countries have been at keeping the virus in check.Germany's latest R0 edged up to 0.8 on Saturday, from 0.7 the previous day, according to a daily situation report from the country's public health authority. This means that each person with the virus infects an average of 0.8 other people.(Updates with latest reproduction number in final 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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| Thomas Thabane: Lesotho's PM sends army into streets Posted: 18 Apr 2020 06:17 AM PDT  Thomas Thabane, accused of killing his wife in 2017, says he is deploying soldiers to restore order.
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| Rockets strike near Chinese oil site in Iraq, no casualties Posted: 18 Apr 2020 06:11 AM PDT |
| Trump team targets Democratic advantage with people of color Posted: 18 Apr 2020 05:58 AM PDT  For the majority of people of color who believe Donald Trump is a racist unworthy of reelection, the Republican president can point to Alice Marie Johnson. The 64-year-old African American great-grandmother spent 21 years in prison for a nonviolent drug offense before Trump commuted her sentence in 2018. As the next phase of the 2020 presidential campaign begins, Trump's team is betting that his actions, more than his words, on issues such as criminal justice, education and abortion will allow him to chip away at the Democrats' overwhelming advantage with African Americans, Latinos and women.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump isn't a king but claims expansive power Posted: 18 Apr 2020 05:51 AM PDT  Over the past week, President Donald Trump was pretender to a throne that doesn't exist as he claimed king-like powers over the coronavirus pandemic response and Congress. THE FACTS: It's the reverse, more than 4,600 recorded deaths in China compared with more than 36,000 in the United States.
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| 'Holy Fire' ceremony held in empty Jerusalem church Posted: 18 Apr 2020 05:27 AM PDT  A small group of Christian clerics celebrated the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Saturday as the coronavirus pandemic prevented worshippers from taking part in the ancient ritual. The ceremony, along with other events in the Holy Week leading up to Easter, was scaled back in line with a ban on public gatherings. Israel has reported more than 13,000 coronavirus infections and 158 deaths.
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| Iran virus deaths top 5,000: ministry Posted: 18 Apr 2020 04:16 AM PDT  Iran on Saturday announced 73 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising the official toll to 5,031 as the government allowed small businesses to reopen in Tehran as they already have in the provinces. It was also the fifth straight day that the number of new deaths had stayed in double figures, ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference. "This (73) is a very low number compared to recent days," he said, hoping the downward trend would continue.
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| Trump’s Virus Plan Sets Him Up to Claim Credit and Pass Blame Posted: 18 Apr 2020 03:00 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: US wants to enter Wuhan virology lab, says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Posted: 18 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday called on China to grant the United States access to the Wuhan laboratory that has emerged as a flashpoint between the two nations in a clash over the origin and handling of the coronavirus."We are still asking the Chinese Communist Party to allow experts to get into that virology lab so that we can determine precisely where this virus began," said Pompeo on Fox News.This came as US President Donald Trump lashed out at China over Twitter saying "China has just announced a doubling in the number of their deaths from the Invisible Enemy. It is far higher than that and far higher than the US, not even close!"But the tweet was not accurate, as China only announced a revised increase in deaths out of Wuhan by 50 per cent. The number of cases in China " more than 83,700 " still trails that of the US, which has more than 679,000.Pompeo's statement on Friday highlights an outlier theory that the coronavirus did not come from a Wuhan wildlife market as originally postulated, but from a laboratory in that city.The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that US officials who had visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology sent diplomatic cables to Washington as early as January 2018 warning about safety and management weaknesses at the lab, and stated outright that the facility's work on bat coronaviruses created a pandemic risk.Experts have overwhelmingly said analysis of the coronavirus's genome rules out the possibility that it was engineered by humans, nor is it likely that it emerged from a negligent laboratory in Wuhan.In February, a Chinese study by researchers at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, determined that the coronavirus was introduced outside the wet market.China has consistently denied any connection between the laboratory and the virus and on Thursday reiterated their stance with Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian saying: "China believes the origin of the virus is a scientific issue that has to be seriously handled."The World Health Organisation said there is no evidence proving that it is made in a lab. And many renowned medical experts have also said that the claim that the virus leaked from a lab has no scientific basis."Tensions continue to rise between the two countries, in the wake of Trump's decision to halt funding from the World Health Organisation over what he said was its bias in favour of China.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Photo: AFP alt=Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Photo: AFPIn 2015, the Wuhan Institute of Virology became China's first laboratory designated as BSL-4, meaning it has the highest level of international bioresearch safety.On Wednesday, Trump announced that he was investigating the role of the laboratory in the outbreak, and had discussed the link between the Covid-19 pandemic and the virology lab on a phone call with China's President Xi Jinping.Pompeo said on Thursday he blames China for what he says is a lack of information."It's very clear now that the Chinese Communist Party and the World Health Organisation didn't put that information out into the international space as they're required to do in a timely fashion, and the result of that is that we now have this global pandemic," he said on Friday."The Chinese Communist Party needs to come clean about what took place there, so the whole world can see."Additional reporting by Associated PressSign up now and get a 10% discount (original price US$400) off the China AI Report 2020 by SCMP Research. Learn about the AI ambitions of Alibaba, Baidu & JD.com through our in-depth case studies, and explore new applications of AI across industries. The report also includes exclusive access to webinars to interact with C-level executives from leading China AI companies (via live Q&A; sessions). Offer valid until 31 May 2020.This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| Russia Reports New Record Daily Rise in Coronavirus Cases Posted: 18 Apr 2020 01:35 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Russia recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus infections, with the new cases rising by almost 5,000 in a single day.New infections jumped by 4,785 to 36,793, the official Russian coronavirus information center reported on its website. Forty people died in the past day, including 21 in Moscow, bringing the number of fatalities to 313. The pace of new cases increased 17.6% after slowing to less than 15% in the previous two days.Officials in Moscow have tightened restrictions on moving around the capital, introducing a new system of digital travel passes on Wednesday to try to curb the spread of the virus. President Vladimir Putin has ordered most Russians to stay at home until April 30, warning this week that the epidemic has yet to reach its peak in the country. On Thursday, he postponed all planned public celebrations of the May 9 World War II victory, including the Red Square military parade.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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| Medical workers far from struggling homelands yearn to help Posted: 18 Apr 2020 12:56 AM PDT  The medical supplies had been shipped. Then the coronavirus arrived, and Dr. Charmaine Emelife's heart sank. The annual trip to Nigeria to provide free medical care — the flagship project of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas — had been set to start Sunday but can't go on.
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| Iran lets some Tehran businesses reopen after virus lockdown Posted: 18 Apr 2020 12:41 AM PDT  Iran allowed some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown aimed at containing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East. Israel also announced an easing of its own lockdown measures. Iran was slow to respond to the pandemic and held off on imposing widespread restrictions even after other countries in the region with far fewer cases forced most businesses to close.
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| Hong Kong police arrest democracy activists, media tycoon Posted: 18 Apr 2020 12:31 AM PDT  Among those arrested were 81-year-old activist and former lawmaker Martin Lee and democracy advocates Albert Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan and Au Nok-hin. Police also arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who founded the local newspaper Apple Daily. Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum — a former lawmaker from the Democratic Party — were charged in February over their involvement in a mass anti-government demonstration on Aug. 31 last year.
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| Virus patients at one Israeli hospital are not dying alone Posted: 18 Apr 2020 12:09 AM PDT  Elisheva Stern wasn't ready to say goodbye to her ailing father, who was succumbing to the coronavirus in an Israeli hospital. Stern's father, Simha Benshai, 75, died at Tel Aviv's Sourasky Medical Center, which offers the next of kin of dying coronavirus patients the rare opportunity to say goodbye in person. Recognizing this peculiar tragedy wrought by the virus, Sourasky Medical Center officials opted to spare much-needed protective gear, take careful measures to ward off infection and offer grieving families a chance to say goodbye.
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| AP PHOTOS: For Milan nurse, virus patients enter the soul Posted: 17 Apr 2020 11:59 PM PDT  The coronavirus brings with it forced isolation: Family members can't visit hospitalized patients. Cristina Settembrese spends her days caring for COVID-19 patients in a hospital ward, and when she goes home, her personal isolation begins by her own choice. Two months ago, the infectious disease ward where she works at San Paolo Hospital in Milan started treating only COVID-19 patients.
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| US governors feel heat to reopen from protesters, president Posted: 17 Apr 2020 11:15 PM PDT  Stores in Texas can soon begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the spread of the coronavirus, even as new hot spots emerge and experts warn that moving too fast could prove disastrous. Adding to the pressure are protests against stay-at-home orders organized by small-government groups and Trump supporters.
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| Russia tries again to win UN approval for virus resolution Posted: 17 Apr 2020 10:52 PM PDT  Russia is trying again to win U.N. General Assembly approval for a resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, dropping a call to end unilateral sanctions without U.N. Security Council approval but still calling for an end to protectionist practices. The 193-member world body has until noon EDT on Wednesday to consider the revised Russian draft resolution, which is called a "Declaration of solidarity of the United Nations in the face of the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease." The General Assembly instituted new voting rules because it isn't holding meetings as a result of the pandemic.
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| Caught in a superpower struggle: the inside story of the WHO's response to coronavirus Posted: 17 Apr 2020 10:01 PM PDT  Caught between the US and China, the world health body has been unable to enforce compliance or information sharing * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageWhen a pandemic strikes, the world's leading experts convene – physically or virtually – in a hi-tech chamber in the basement of the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization.It is called the "strategic health operations centre", or SHOC, an appropriately urgent acronym for a place where life and death decisions are taken, and it is where critical choices were made in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak."We're mostly like a 1950s, never-been-upgraded place, except for the SHOC room, which was built with all the screens everywhere and the desks with computers that rise up. The whole thing does look like something that Hollywood set up, imagining a pandemic," a WHO official said."You sit there and you hear these experts from all over the world and they're really leading people. The best expertise available to get the best advice possible, it's a very impressive sense that hey, this is really how it is supposed to work."On 22 January, it was in this setting that the WHO emergency committee convened to make a pivotal decision on whether to advise the organisation to declare a "public health emergency of international concern" (PHEIC) – a formal red alert for the world.The WHO had been sharing information with member states constantly since the first cluster of pneumonia cases was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of December, but declaring a PHEIC still had huge symbolic importance.The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, sat in the SHOC with his top advisers watching as a succession of speakers gave their views on the screens in front of them.First there were reports from China, and then Japan and Thailand where cases had been recently confirmed. Then it was the turn of the 15 members and six advisers on the emergency committee, drawn from around the world.The debate was highly technical but it had one critical issue at its heart. It was known by then that the virus had spread from person to person, but the question was how easily?If human-to-human transmission was only happening in close quarters, in families, or between patients and health workers, then perhaps it could be largely contained without a worldwide alert, and all the global economic disruption that entailed. If the virus was spreading freely among communities, there was not a moment to lose.The emergency committee was split down the middle on the question. So Tedros told it to convene again the next day, in the hope new data might create a consensus."Tedros's only obligation under the law is to convene a committee but not to follow it. But he feels that politically he needs to get a unanimous decision before he acts or at least an overwhelming majority," Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health law at Georgetown University, said.The second day's meeting however, changed no one's mind, and the impasse remained. Tedros had the committee adjourn pending further study and put it on notice to reconvene at short notice. A international health emergency was declared a week later, on 30 January, after clear evidence of community spread of Covid-19 had emerged. WHO under fireThe events of January were always destined for scrutiny. The WHO conducts an after-action report in wake of every pandemic. But by seeking to make the global body the scapegoat for the debacle of the US response, Donald Trump has ensured each detail will become exhibits in a highly-politicised show-trial, likely to last as long as the election campaign.Furthermore, the president has used claims of WHO's dysfunction to justify cutting off US funding to it, worth over $400m a year, and hindering the organisation's ability to help counter the spread of the pandemic in fragile and poor countries around the world.In a hail of accusations hurled at the WHO in recent days, Trump has accused it of withholding critical information about the danger of Covid-19, and being under the control of China.None of the accusations are supported by the facts.> They're making it seem like he's (Tedros) a crony of China, but he's caught in the middle of a super power struggle competition> > Lawrence GostinChina argued against declaring an emergency on 22 January, but could not have carried the argument alone. The other emergency members and advisers were experts from the US, Thailand, Russia, France, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Senegal, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and New Zealand.Their advice is confidential, but for the vote to have been split, several western, or western-aligned, representatives must have voted with Beijing.While the emergency committee took a week to decide to declare a PHEIC, Trump spent more than a month after that playing down the threat to the US, during which the country fell weeks behind the rest of the world in diagnostic testing and stockpiling essential equipment.There is no evidence to support Trump's claim that the WHO hid information at China's behest. The US is well represented in the top ranks of the organisation. There were more than a dozen officials from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) embedded in the WHO in January and February.US health leaders were part of regular conference calls, weekly or twice weekly, beginning on 7 January. From 10 January those calls included warnings about the risk of human-to-human transmission. Trump's Taiwan angleTrump's most recent line of attack has been that the WHO ignored vital warnings from Taiwan."Why did the WHO Ignore an email from Taiwanese health officials in late December alerting them to the possibility that coronvirus could be transmitted between humans?" the president asked in a tweet on Friday, echoing a claim made by Taipei.However, the Taiwanese email appears to have made no such warning. It was sent from Taiwan's CDC to its WHO liaison officer on 31 December, hours after the first official report of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan were published online.According to the text provided to the Guardian, the email said: "News resources today indicate that at least seven, atypical pneumonia cases were reported in China."It restates the details of Chinese report, adding "I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us."The email did not contain new information, and certainly nothing about human-to-human transmission. The WHO had picked up the same report on the night of 30 December and was urgently seeking more information. On 1 January it activated its incident management support team, putting the organisation on an emergency footing.The Taiwanese government has claimed that it did not receive a reply to its inquiry and was generally shut out from WHO deliberations. Since the UN voted to recognise the People's Republic as the sole representative of China in 1971 and the World Health Assembly followed suit in 1972, Taiwan has not had full member status in the WHO, but it is involved in the organisation's work.It is one of 15 non-state entities that have access to expert deliberations through an information network established by the International Health Regulations (IHR), a pact on collective action against infectious disease with roots stretching back to the nineteenth century. The latest version was agreed in 2005 by 196 countries, and it provides the legal framework for the work of the WHO.However, Taiwan says its participation is fragmentary and selective, largely because Chinese obstruction. A Taipei government statement pointed out that it reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on 21 January through the IHR system, but was not invited to participate in the three emergency committee meetings held in January, where its voice may have made a difference.Taiwanese experts were among the first to visit Wuhan, in the first half of January, and its containment measures later proved effective. Singapore, meanwhile, had two representatives on the committee."The Covid-19 outbreak is a reminder to all the world once again, that politics has barred Taiwan from contact and communication with WHO and global public health experts, and this can only gravely damage global cooperation in epidemic prevention and control," the statement said.Tedros has also drawn criticism for his tireless praise of China and Xi Jinping's leadership, hailing Beijing's transparency despite the critical early weeks left when the authorities tried to cover up the extent of the problem in Wuhan. The director general's defenders say such diplomatic flattery is the price of ensuring Chinese cooperation with information and WHO site visits. Tedros also complimented Trump in a March 23 tweet, claiming he was doing "a great job in the fight against Covid-19", and Trump was also effusive in praising Xi in the first weeks of the pandemic."They're making it seem like he's a crony of China, but he's caught in the middle of a super power struggle competition," Gostin said.The WHO also provided ammunition to its detractors when, on 14 January, it put out a tweet citing preliminary Chinese studies finding "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission".It was issued on the same day the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove (a US immunologist) gave a press briefing in Geneva warning of precisely the opposite – the potential for rapid spread. Concerned that her briefing conflicted with the initial Chinese findings, a middle-ranking official told the social media team to put out a tweet to balance the Van Kerkhove briefing. In so doing, the WHO exposed itself to the charge of contributing to an air of complacency. But the tweet was factually true and does not appear to have been part of a deliberate strategy.Again and again, the events of January reflected the difficulties Tedros and his organisation faced in negotiating a path between two hostile superpowers, and the egos of their leaders, without any independent powers to enforce compliance and information sharing.However, what mistakes that may have been made in charting that course have little to do with the lethal fiasco that unfolded in the US in the two months after the WHO raised an international alarm.
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| Experts worry politics will guide voters' virus precautions Posted: 17 Apr 2020 10:01 PM PDT  Laura Herd says she sleeps better because her state's governor, Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, imposed one of the nation's strictest stay-at-home orders to combat the coronavirus pandemic. President Donald Trump's actions are another story. "His goal is to get the economy back up so he stands a chance in November," said Herd, 36, of Traverse City, Michigan, who works for an environmental news service.
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| Reinstate? Reassign? Navy to decide fate of fired captain Posted: 17 Apr 2020 09:48 PM PDT  The Navy's top admiral will soon decide the fate of the ship captain who was fired after pleading for commanders to move faster to safeguard his coronavirus-infected crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. In the glare of a public spotlight, Adm. Mike Gilday will decide whether Navy Capt. Brett Crozier stepped out of line when he went around his chain of command and sent an email pushing for action to stem the outbreak. Gilday's review won't be limited to Crozier.
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| Racial toll of virus grows even starker as more data emerges Posted: 17 Apr 2020 09:20 PM PDT  As a clearer picture emerges of COVID-19's decidedly deadly toll on black Americans, leaders are demanding a reckoning of the systemic policies they say have made many African Americans far more vulnerable to the virus, including inequity in access to health care and economic opportunity. A growing chorus of medical professionals, activists and political figures is pressuring the federal government to not just release comprehensive racial demographic data of the country's coronavirus victims, but also to outline clear strategies to blunt the devastation on African Americans and other communities of color. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its first breakdown of COVID-19 case data by race, showing that 30% of patients whose race was known were black.
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| North Korea is advancing its nuclear program, U.N. report says Posted: 17 Apr 2020 08:54 PM PDT  The 267-page U.N. report that provides surveillance photos and new evidence.
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| New wave of infections threatens to collapse Japan hospitals Posted: 17 Apr 2020 07:12 PM PDT  Hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses. In one recent case, an ambulance carrying a man with a fever and difficulty breathing was rejected by 80 hospitals and forced to search for hours for a hospital in downtown Tokyo that would treat him. Another feverish man finally reached a hospital after paramedics unsuccessfully contacted 40 clinics.
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| Trump consults faith leaders on phased-in reopening Posted: 17 Apr 2020 04:54 PM PDT  President Donald Trump held a call with faith leaders on Friday that included discussion about a phased-in return to broader in-person worship after weeks of religious services largely shifting online in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump's call with faith leaders came one day after the White House included houses of worship among "large venues" that could be able to reopen while observing "strict physical distancing protocols" in the first stage of a three-part plan to reopen a U.S. economy that's been frozen by the toll of the highly contagious virus. The call included representatives of multiple Christian denominations as well as Jewish and Islamic leaders, according to a statement distributed by the White House.
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