| Coronavirus: The fear of being sentenced to a Kenyan quarantine centre Posted: 19 Apr 2020 04:08 PM PDT  Kenyans worry about being put into coronavirus quarantine where conditions are said to be like prison.
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| China Flexes Muscles on Hong Kong, Prompting Outcry From U.S. Posted: 19 Apr 2020 04:01 PM PDT |
| Germany to Order 45 Fighter Jets From Boeing, Report Says Posted: 19 Apr 2020 02:46 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Germany will order 45 fighter aircraft from Boeing Co. to replace the Luftwaffe's aging Tornado jets, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday.Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer emailed her U.S. counterpart Mark Esper on Thursday to inform him of the decision, the magazine said, without identifying the source of its information. Germany will order 30 F/A-18 Super Hornets and 15 EA-18G Growlers, the report added.The German ministry couldn't immediately be reached outside regular business hours. The Pentagon in Washington declined to comment."While we continue to await an official announcement, we remain committed to working in support of both the German and U.S. governments on this important procurement," a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing wrote in an email. A combination of Hornets and Growlers "is ideally suited to meet Germany's strike fighter and electronic warfare aircraft requirements."Kramp-Karrenbauer's actions may upset the Social Democrats, the junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, as she didn't inform them before making her decision, Der Spiegel said.Kramp-Karrenbauer's predecessor, Ursula von der Leyen, had offered a compromise to the SPD under which Germany would buy a combination of U.S. fighters and the Eurofighter Typhoon manufactured by Airbus SE, according to Der Spiegel.(Updates with Boeing comment in fourth 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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| N.Y. on the ‘Descent,’ Casino CEO Pushes to Reopen: Virus Update Posted: 19 Apr 2020 01:19 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- New York may have begun "a descent" as coronavirus cases and deaths slow in the state in the epicenter of the outbreak. The death tally in the U.S. topped 40,000. A deal on new U.S. aid for small businesses could be days away.The first sign of easing emerged in Europe as hard-hit Italy, Spain and France reported the smallest increases in fatalities in weeks.The top executive of casino operator Wynn Resorts is pushing for an early reopening of Nevada. Germany is letting smaller stores, car dealerships, bike shops and bookstores reopen Monday.Key DevelopmentsVirus Tracker: Cases top 2.3 million; deaths exceed 164,000America's beleaguered health system remains afloatIndigenous people are at risk in the AmazonBig companies tap small-business fundU.S. president fuels a culture war amid virus backlashRussians hoarded cash ahead of lockdownSubscribe 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.Total U.S. Deaths Double From Week Earlier (4 p.m. NY) New U.S. cases increased 5.6% from Saturday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. That's higher than the average daily increase of 4.8% over the past week.New York had the largest number of confirmed cases after a 3% increase from the same time the previous day. North Dakota experienced a 20% increase. Eight states had fewer than 1,000 cases.Total U.S. deaths rose 12% to 41,379, which is more than double the total a week ago, according to the data.New deaths rose 21% in Minnesota, 20% in Pennsylvania and more than 10% in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Rhode Island, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Maine, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.WHO Says Epidemic Won't End as Steps Ease (3 p.m. NY)Social restrictions imposed to curb the virus must be eased in phases and don't spell the end of the epidemic, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said."It's just the beginning of the next phase," he said at a virtual meeting of G-20 health ministers. WHO will publish its second response plan with an estimate of resources required for the next phase.New Deaths, Cases Decline in N.Y. (2:30 p.m.)Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York appeared to be "on the other side" of the outbreak. The state reported 507 new deaths, the lowest daily toll since April 6. Total new cases and hospitalizations also dropped."If this trend holds we are past the high point," Cuomo said. "Right now we are on a descent." But he cautioned "we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do."The governor also said that New York will begin an aggressive program to test for antibodies.Read the full story.Wynn Pushes for Nevada Opening (2:20 p.m. NY)Wynn Resorts Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Matt Maddox is calling for parts of Nevada's economy to start reopening in early May, followed by the Las Vegas Strip in the middle or later part of the month.Maddox, in an opinion piece published by the Nevada Independent, outlined safeguards such as reduced hotel occupancy, physical distancing measures, temperature checks and no large gatherings. He also proposed keeping hospitalizations and deaths relative to the population below the U.S. average.The casino operator was the first in the state to shut down operations and is paying staff for 60 days through May 15.France Sets Plan to Lift Limits (1 p.m. NY)France within two weeks will unveil a plan to begin lifting restrictions on travel and business that aimed to curb the coronavirus, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said without giving specifics.After May 11, when the lockdown starts to lift, "our lives won't be exactly the same as before," Philippe warned in a televised press conference. "Not right away, and probably not before long."The lockdown, in place since March 17, could lead Europe's third-biggest economy to contract by about 10% this year, Philippe said.French Deaths Rise at Slower Pace (12:15 p.m. NY)Deaths in France rose by 395 to 19,718, Director General for Health Jerome Salomon said, the slowest pace of increase since March 29. The number of people hospitalized due to the coronavirus fell for a fifth day, while patients in intensive care dropped for an 11th day.Italy Has Fewest Deaths in Week (12:10 p.m. NY)Italy reported 3,047 new cases of the disease, the lowest in four days, according to the civil protection agency. Hospitalized patients rose for the first time in six days.Italy registered 433 deaths compared with 482 the day before. That brings the total number of fatalities to 23,660, the most in Europe.Turkey Has More Cases Than China (12:05 p.m. NY)Turkey reported 127 new coronavirus fatalities, bringing the death toll to more than 2,000, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.The number of confirmed cases rose 4.8% to 86,306, more than China has.Senators Float State Aid Plan (12 p.m. NY)Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are proposing a $500 billion fund for state and local governments to be in the next rescue package. The money would be divided into three tranches and distributed according to formulas that reflect population, infection rates and revenue loss to help states hardest hit by the outbreak.Congress and the White House agree a phase four comprehensive economic rescue package would be needed, following the $2 trillion package approved late last month.Birx Says Community Data Key (11:50 a.m. NY)Community-level data will be key to showing Americans the progress made to reopen, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House task force, said on CBS's "Face the Nation." Birx touted the Florida Department of Health website, which shows data by Zip code."We have to really get them information in a much more granular way than a national way or even a state way," she said. "It needs to be down to the communities so the communities can see what happens in their communities and make decisions with the local and health officials and the state officials."Zimbabwe Extends Lockdown (11 a.m. NY)Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa extended a national lockdown by 14 days, to May 3, citing the risk of infections rising from the current 25 confirmed cases. Still, the mining sector will be allowed to scale up operations and manufacturing can partially re-start during the extension.U.S. Small Business Deal Close: Mnuchin (9:51 a.m. NY)House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were optimistic about reaching a deal to top up funds in a loan program aimed at helping small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic. Discussions are focused on adding an additional $300 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, designed to help small businesses keep workers on their payrolls as much of the country remains under stay-at-home orders, Mnuchin said on CNN's "State of the Union."Americans Don't Want Restrictions Lifted Too Soon: Poll (9:30 a.m. NY)A majority of Americans in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll are concerned the U.S. will lift restrictions too quickly. Almost 60% want to wait longer, with about 30% saying the economic impact outweighed health concerns. The survey of 900 registered voters also revealed more anxiety over the virus, the WSJ reported.U.K. Deaths Show Daily Decline (9:18 a.m. NY)A further 596 deaths linked to the coronavirus were recorded in U.K. hospitals, the lowest daily number since April 6. Total fatalities climbed to 16,060.Sweden Says Strategy Working (8:37 a.m. NY)Sweden's unusual approach to fighting the pandemic is starting to yield results, according to the country's top epidemiologist. Anders Tegnell, the architect behind Sweden's relatively relaxed response to Covid-19, told local media the latest figures on infection rates and fatalities indicate the situation is starting to stabilize.Iran Pushes for IMF Virus Loan (7:28 a.m. NY)Iran's central bank governor urged the International Monetary Fund to resist U.S. pressure and approve its application for financing to help bridge a 10 billion-euro ($10.9 billion) deficit. The Islamic Republic asked the IMF on March 6 for $5 billion in loans to help finance its efforts to combat the disease and support an economy severely weakened by U.S. sanctions.Iran added a further 87 deaths and 1,343 new cases to its virus tally in the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 5,118 from over 82,000 known cases.Netherlands Deaths, Hospital Admissions Slow (7:15 a.m. NY)The Netherlands reported 83 deaths, marking the lowest daily increase since March 26. 110 patients were admitted to hospitals, the smallest increase since the daily reporting of the statistic started at the end of last month. Overall confirmed cases grew by 3% to 32,655, in line with recent trends.Spain Reports Fewest Deaths in Almost a Month (5:32 p.m. HK)Spain reported the smallest increase in the number of deaths in four weeks on Sunday, while new infections slowed compared with previous days. Coronavirus deaths rose by 410 to 20,453 on Sunday, the smallest one-day increase since March 22, when 394 people died, according to the Spanish Health Ministry's daily report.In total 195,944 people have been infected in Spain, with 4,218 new cases detected in the past 24 hours. That's a decline after four consecutive days with new cases above 5,000.Belgian Discharges Outstrip Admissions (5:22 p.m. HK)Belgium reported 230 deaths from coronavirus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 5,683. Fatalities fell for a fourth day in a row and are down 45% from Thursday. Total confirmed cases as reported Saturday rose by 1,313 to 38,496. While 265 patients infected with the virus were admitted to hospitals, 409 were discharged.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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| Official: Police kill gunman who hijacked Dallas-area bus Posted: 19 Apr 2020 12:49 PM PDT |
| Iraq lifts Reuters news agency suspension over virus report Posted: 19 Apr 2020 12:47 PM PDT |
| Israelis accuse Netanyahu of endangering democracy Posted: 19 Apr 2020 11:45 AM PDT |
| What you need to know today about the virus pandemic Posted: 19 Apr 2020 10:31 AM PDT  The global lockdown put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus is hurting the illegal drug trade. Pressure continues to grow on governments to loosen restrictions ease the economic pain of lockdowns. In the U.S., the coronavirus is accelerating the decline in the coal industry.
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| Yemen rebels arrest former minister in capital, family says Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:51 AM PDT |
| Piers Morgan Blasts ‘Friend’ Trump’s Virus Response: ‘Failing the American People’ Posted: 19 Apr 2020 09:33 AM PDT  British talk host Piers Morgan, a longtime close friend of President Donald Trump's, railed against the president's response to the COVID-19 pandemic on Sunday, claiming Trump is "failing the American people" and turning his coronavirus press briefings into "self-serving rallies."Morgan, a former Celebrity Apprentice winner who has largely praised Trump throughout his presidency, appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources to discuss his recent criticism of how both Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have handled this public-health crisis. The appearance comes days after Morgan wrote a column slamming "King Trump's" performance during the pandemic, likening the president to the "emperor with no clothes."Noting that Johnson and Trump's responses have been "very similar," Morgan went on to say that the "tricks" both leaders used to become popular and win elections are failing them now. "It's not about partisan politics anymore, it's about plain war crisis leadership," Morgan, a former CNN host himself, said. "It's a very different thing. What I've noticed with Boris Johnson and with Donald Trump is an apparent inability to segue into being war leaders. They're still playing the old games of party politics."Pointing out that he considers Trump a "friend," the Daily Mail editor-at-large said that he's watched the daily White House briefings with "mounting horror" because this isn't what a president should be doing."And all that is required from the president in those moments, and any world leader, frankly, they have to be calm, show authority, they have to be honest, they have to be accurate, entirely factual with what they're telling the people and they have to have an ability to show empathy," he exclaimed."On almost every level of that, Donald Trump at the moment is failing the American people," Morgan continued. "He's turning these briefings into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan—almost like a rally to him."Host Brian Stelter asked his former colleague if he had any personal insight into what was causing this reaction from the president, considering their close relationship.Praising how other world leaders such as France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel have handled the crisis, Morgan suggested that Trump doesn't understand the enormity of the situation, claiming Trump thinks of it as "just another thing to deal with.""Donald Trump's ratings are falling and the reason for that is—he needs to understand this—they're falling because people don't trust him," he added. "He's turning these briefings into self-serving rallies. I don't understand why he can't do the basics of crisis leadership, which is to make the public come with you, and to believe you, and to feel that you're on their side and showing them the empathy that they need when so many people are dying."Asked whether he's worried that he's risking his friendship with Trump over his harsh criticism, Morgan said he's "always tried to be candid" with the president but he really doesn't care "about the niceties of whether Donald Trump is going to be offended.""He has to put the country before himself," Morgan continued. "He has to put Americans before electioneering. He has to remind himself every day what can I do today to prevent more lives being killed? Not how can I score more petty points."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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| 10 African Countries Have No Ventilators. That's Only Part of the Problem. Posted: 19 Apr 2020 08:54 AM PDT  DAKAR, Senegal -- South Sudan, a nation of 11 million, has more vice presidents (five) than ventilators (four). The Central African Republic has three ventilators for its 5 million people. In Liberia, which is similar in size, there are six working machines -- and one of them sits behind the gates of the U.S. Embassy.In all, fewer than 2,000 working ventilators have to serve hundreds of millions of people in public hospitals across 41 African countries, the World Health Organization says, compared with more than 170,000 in the United States.Ten countries in Africa have none at all.Glaring disparities like these are just part of the reason people across Africa are steeling themselves for the coronavirus, fearful of outbreaks that could be catastrophic in countries with struggling health systems.The gaps are so entrenched that many experts are worried about chronic shortages of much more basic supplies needed to slow the spread of the disease and treat the sick on the continent -- things like masks, oxygen and, even more fundamentally, soap and water.Clean running water and soap are in such short supply that only 15% of sub-Saharan Africans had access to basic hand-washing facilities in 2015, according to the United Nations. In Liberia, it is even worse -- 97% of homes did not have clean water and soap in 2017, the U.N. says."The things that people need are simple things," said Kalipso Chalkidou, the director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development, a research group. "Not high-tech things."Although limited testing means it is impossible to know the true scale of infections on the continent, several African countries report growing outbreaks. A snapshot of the situation Friday showed that Guinea's cases were doubling every six days; Ghana's, every nine. South Africa had more than 2,600 cases; Cameroon, nearly 1,000.Of course, there are big disparities among Africa's 55 countries, too. Ventilators are much more plentiful in South Africa, which has a big economy and a relatively strong health infrastructure, than in Burkina Faso, one of the earliest West African countries to be hit by the coronavirus. At last count, it had 11 ventilators for 20 million people.And not all African countries want it known how few ventilators they have. For some, this information could have "a lot of political implications," including criticism of their management of health systems, according to Benjamin Djoudalbaye, head of health diplomacy and communication for the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.The Africa CDC has been trying to amass data on how many ventilators and intensive care units each country has, so it can model what needs will arise if there is an explosion of cases. But even collecting the data is not easily "attainable and extremely expensive," Djoudalbaye said.The World Health Organization said last week that there were fewer than 5,000 intensive care beds across 43 of Africa's 55 countries -- amounting to about 5 beds per 1 million people, compared with about 4,000 beds per 1 million in Europe. But the numbers in Africa are so unclear -- the data is a scattershot representation of the continent -- that there is no way of knowing for sure, Djoudalbaye says.Across Africa, there have been efforts to get ventilators. Ecowas, the union of West African countries, is trying to get hold of them to distribute to its member states. On April 1, Nigeria's finance ministry appealed to Elon Musk on Twitter -- before deleting its message -- admitting that Africa's most populous nation needed support and asking for at least 100. Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire, says he is donating 500 to the continent.Liberia has ordered another 20, according to Eugene Nagbe, the minister of information. But global demand is so high, he said, that vendors are the ones calling the shots, and it is difficult to compete with more powerful nations."We keep fighting with our neighbors and the big countries. Even having a contract is not a guarantee we're going to get a supply," Nagbe said.One vendor, after entering a contract, turned around and hiked the price from the agreed-upon $15,000 per ventilator to $24,000, he added.Getting more ventilators to African countries is not enough, though. Trained medical personnel are also needed to run the machines, as well as a reliable electricity supply and piped oxygen. These are things taken for granted in most European and U.S. hospitals, but are frequently absent in health facilities across the African continent."Only around 3% of patients will require ventilators," said Kibrom Gebreselasie, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at a hospital in Mekele, Ethiopia. "But 20% of patients are severely ill. That means around 20% of patients will require oxygen. Oxygen is the most important thing."The hospital where Kibrom works, the Ayder Comprehensive Hospital, has two oxygen plants. One is broken.Help has come from an unexpected quarter: Velocity Apparelz, a nearby denim factory. Under normal circumstances, garment manufacturers produce oxygen to use in the bleaching process, so the local health authority asked them to step in. Hospitals and health authorities across the continent are having to think of solutions like this.The prospect of a devastating pandemic has led many African governments to take serious measures. Some imposed curfews and travel restrictions when only a few dozen cases in their countries had been confirmed.And before officials knew of any confirmed cases, airports in Niger and Mali were taking passengers' temperatures and contact information in case they needed to be traced. Every morning in Senegal, the health minister gives a live update on Facebook.The crisis has shown that Africa needs to be self-reliant, said Amy Niang, a lecturer in international relations at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand."The brutal withdrawal of the U.S. of its contributions to the WHO, and the management of the crisis more globally, is a stark reminder that Africa's faith in multilateralism has become untenable," she said.One positive legacy of the West African Ebola outbreak of the past decade was the founding of the Africa CDC, which together with the World Health Organization's Africa branch has been widely praised for a coordinated approach to tackling the pandemic.But leadership can go only so far."The main thing is how can we scale up capacity -- at least for some of the basic treatment -- and how can we detect earlier?" said Michel Yao, emergency operations program manager in the WHO's regional office for Africa.In recent years, Nigeria has struggled to cope with outbreaks of Lassa fever, measles and polio. The Democratic Republic of Congo has failed to bring its current Ebola outbreak to an end. Malaria, a disease that is relatively simple to treat, kills hundreds of thousands across the continent every year.And the state of public health systems in many African countries is bad enough that many people will not go to a hospital at all, feeling that it is a place of last resort."Everyone doesn't feel like the health system is made for them to get better in," said Adia Benton, an anthropologist at Northwestern University whose focuses include global health.Often in Sierra Leone, where she has worked extensively, people go to a hospital to die, Benton said -- and this will not change with the coronavirus outbreak."There are a lot of people who are going to just be sick and in bed," she said. "And so what will you be doing for those folks? What kinds of palliation will be provided? Will communities be able to come together to offer painkillers, fever reducers, expectorants, decongestants -- things like that?"It wasn't supposed to be this way. At a U.N. conference on primary health care in 1978, the Health for All initiative was launched. One of its goals was to tackle the gross inequality in global health, particularly between developed and developing nations.Enthusiastically welcomed by African governments, it never took off. The rise of free-market capitalism in the 1980s, several experts say, changed the notion that states should be responsible for providing health care to every citizen.This past week, in an impassioned letter to African leaders calling for health workers' status to be enhanced and hospital infrastructure upgraded, 88 intellectuals from across the continent returned to the idea of universal health care."Health has to be conceived as an essential public good," they said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Fast decisions in Bay Area helped slow virus spread Posted: 19 Apr 2020 08:38 AM PDT  On the morning of March 15, as Italy became the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, a half dozen high-ranking California health officials held an emergency conference call to discuss efforts to contain the spread of the virus in the San Francisco Bay Area. The tight-knit group of Bay Area doctors organized the call to discuss a consistent policy on public gatherings for the region's 7 million people, which then had fewer than 280 cases and just three deaths. "It was obviously spreading like wildfire under our noses and literally every minute we did not take aggressive action was going to mean more and more death," said Dr. Scott Morrow, health director for San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco and home to Facebook.
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| A Key GOP Strategy: Blame China. But Trump Goes Off Message. Posted: 19 Apr 2020 08:34 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- The strategy could not be clearer: From the Republican lawmakers blanketing Fox News to new ads from President Donald Trump's super PAC to the biting criticism on Donald Trump Jr.'s Twitter feed, the GOP is attempting to divert attention from the administration's heavily criticized response to the coronavirus by pinning the blame on China.With the death toll from the pandemic already surpassing 34,000 Americans and unemployment soaring to levels not seen since the Great Depression, Republicans increasingly believe that elevating China as an archenemy culpable for the spread of the virus, and harnessing America's growing animosity toward Beijing, may be the best way to salvage a difficult election.Republican senators locked in difficult races are preparing commercials condemning China. Conservatives with future presidential ambitions of their own, like Sens. Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley, are competing to see who can talk tougher toward the country where the virus first emerged. Party officials are publicly and privately brandishing polling data in hopes Trump will confront Beijing.Trump's own campaign aides have endorsed the strategy, releasing an attack ad last week depicting Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, as soft on China. The ad relied heavily on images of people of Asian descent, including former Gov. Gary Locke of Washington, who is Chinese American, and it was widely viewed as fanning the flames of xenophobia."Trump has always been successful when he's had a boogeyman and China is the perfect boogeyman," said Chris LaCivita, a longtime Republican strategist.But there is a potential impediment to the GOP plan -- the leader of the party himself.Eager to continue trade talks, uneasy about further rattling the markets and hungry to protect his relationship with President Xi Jinping at a moment when the United States is relying on China's manufacturers for lifesaving medical supplies, Trump has repeatedly muddied Republican efforts to fault China.Even as the president tries to rebut criticism of his slow response to the outbreak by highlighting his January travel restrictions on China, he has repeatedly called Xi a friend and said "we are dealing in good faith" with the repressive government. He also dropped his periodic references to the disease as "the China virus" after a telephone call with Xi.Yet in private, he has vented about the country. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said he informed Trump in a Thursday telephone conversation that the meat processing plant in South Dakota suffering a virus outbreak is owned by a Chinese conglomerate. The president responded, "I'm getting tired of China," according to Cramer.It remains to be seen whether Trump's conflicted messaging on China will hurt him with voters, who have repeatedly seen the president argue both sides of issues without suffering the harm that another politician would. And while Trump's team knows that his own words will be used against him, they believe they can contrast his history favorably with that of Biden.On Tuesday, at his daily briefing, Trump was candid about the transactional rationale behind his stance toward China. Pressed on how he could criticize the World Health Organization for what he called pushing "China's misinformation," after he had also lavished praise on Beijing's purported transparency, he responded, "Well, I did a trade deal with China, where China is supposed to be spending $250 billion in our country.""I'd love to have a good relationship with China," he added.On Friday, however, he posited that China must have the most deaths from the coronavirus -- the United States does -- and later said, "I'm not happy with China." He repeated the assertion Saturday, saying that China had many more deaths than it had reported, and that the virus "could have been stopped in China. Before it started." But he continued to show deference to Xi, saying "I don't want to embarrass countries that I like and leaders that I like, but you have to see some of these numbers."Despite the president's diverging public statements, a central pillar of his campaign's approach is to deflect anger over the human casualties and economic pain of the coronavirus onto an adversary that many Americans already view warily.The strategy includes efforts to leverage the U.S.-China relationship against Biden, who Republicans believe is vulnerable because of his comments last year playing down the geopolitical challenge posed by China and the high-paying work that his son, Hunter, has done there.Biden, for his part, has criticized Trump's warm words for China. On Friday, his campaign released a video assailing the president for not pressing Xi to let the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into his country and for being "more worried about protecting his trade deal with China than he was about the virus."On a conference call with reporters, Antony Blinken, a senior Biden adviser, noted that in January and February "the president praised China and President Xi more than 15 times." He attributed the flattery to the administration's not wanting to "risk that China pull back on implementing" the initial trade agreement the two countries signed in January.Candidates of both parties have targeted China in past campaigns. But with the United States entering a presidential election season as the Wuhan-borne contagion spreads across the country, the rhetoric this time is far more pointed -- with concern growing that it will fan xenophobia and discrimination against Asian Americans.It is especially striking to see a primarily internationalist Democratic Party and the traditionally business-friendly GOP attempt to portray the other as captive to Beijing -- yet that only illustrates the electoral incentives at play.Locke, who also served as ambassador to China, said in an interview that there was plainly a "growing anti-China mood in Washington." He said there would need to be a "post-mortem" on how Beijing handled the coronavirus, but for now argued that Trump's own muted concerns about China had helped shield the Chinese government from criticism about its own actions in the early months of the outbreak.Trump's clashing comments on China illustrate not only his unreliability as a political messenger but also his long-standing ambivalence over how to approach the world's second-largest economy. He ran for president four years ago vowing to get tough with China, but his ambition was not to isolate the Chinese but to work with them -- and especially for the United States to make more money from the relationship.This goal has prompted him to often lavish flattery on Xi, most memorably when Trump rhapsodized about the way they bonded over "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you've ever seen" at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2017.The president's hopes for securing a major trade agreement with China have been reinforced by a coterie of his advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who have often prevailed in internal battles over White House hard-liners.But with the coronavirus death toll growing and the economy at a standstill, polls show that Americans have never viewed China more negatively.In a recent 17-state survey conducted by Trump's campaign, 77% of voters agreed that China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, and 79% of voters indicated they did not think China had been truthful about the extent of infections and deaths, according to a Republican briefed on the poll.Yet those polling numbers also come as 65% of Americans say they believe that Trump was too late responding to the outbreak, according to a Pew Research Center survey this past week.More ominous for the president are some private Republican surveys that show him losing ground in key states like Michigan, where one recent poll has him losing by double digits, according to a Republican strategist who has seen it.So as Biden unites the Democratic Party, Trump's poll numbers are flagging and GOP senators up for reelection find themselves significantly outraised by their Democratic rivals. That has led to a growing urgency in Republican ranks that the president should shelve his hopes for a lucrative rapprochement with China."At this moment in time a trade deal is not the right topic of discussion," said Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who said the pandemic had highlighted the country's reliance on China in the same painful fashion that the oil crisis of the 1970s revealed how it was at the mercy of the Middle East. "This has exposed our dependency on China for PPE and for critical drugs."Hawley, a first-term Missouri senator has also denounced China, calling for a United States-led international commission to determine the origin of the virus and demanding that American victims be allowed to sue the Chinese government."This is the 9/11 of this generation," said Hawley, adding that he hopes Trump "keeps the pressure high."He said Republicans should make the issue central this fall and demonstrate "how are we going to come out of this stronger by actually standing up to the Chinese."Few Republicans have been more outspoken than Cotton, an Arkansan who was warning about the virus at the start of the year when few lawmakers were paying attention, and has been urging Senate candidates to make China a centerpiece of their campaigns."China unleashed this pandemic on the world and they should pay the price," Cotton said. "Congress and the president should work together to hold China accountable."Fortified by private polling his campaign conducted last year for his own reelection showing bipartisan disdain for China, Cotton's top aides approached aides to Trump's campaign last month and told them they planned to air an ad in Ohio, a few days before its scheduled primary, attacking Biden over China. But, according to Republicans familiar with the conversation, Trump's campaign expressed little interest in coordinating with them.Now, though, Trump's campaign is effectively repurposing Cotton's ad and lashing Biden in a commercial targeting the former vice president and his son.The super PAC supporting Trump, America First, is airing ads on the same theme in swing states, showing video of Biden in 2011 saying that "a rising China is a positive development."And the president's eldest son, Donald Jr., posted the spot on Twitter and sought to stamp a new nickname on the former vice president: "BeijingBiden."Brian Walsh, the president of America First Action, said the strategy builds on years of voter concerns about China."The China piece of this was part of the overall thinking far before coronavirus, because we knew its potency and its relevance," Walsh said. "This just made it more potent and more relevant."In response to GOP attacks, an outside Democratic group, American Bridge, on Friday unveiled a $15 million ad campaign hammering Trump for sending medical supplies to China and for initially praising the Chinese response to the virus.Cramer, of North Dakota, said Democrats were courting political risk if they were seen as defending China. But he conceded that Trump's "rhetoric about Xi gets confusing.""I'd have a hard time being that nice to a communist leader," Cramer said, "but the president knows he's got to appeal to an audience of one there."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| North Korea denies that Kim sent Trump 'a nice note' Posted: 19 Apr 2020 08:07 AM PDT  North Korea on Sunday dismissed as "ungrounded" President Donald Trump's comment that he recently received "a nice note" from the North's leader, Kim Jong Un. Trump also defended now-stalled nuclear diplomacy with Kim, saying the U.S. would have been at war with North Korea if he had not been elected.
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| Police: At least 10 killed in shooting rampage in Canada Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:55 AM PDT  A 51-year-old man went on a shooting rampage across the northern part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Sunday, killing at least 10 people, including a policewoman. The man was identified as Gabriel Wortman and authorities said he disguised himself as a police officer in uniform at one point and mocked up a car to make it seem like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser. "In excess of 10 people have been killed," RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said.
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| Video tribute honors Oklahoma bombing victims amid outbreak Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:54 AM PDT  Survivors and loved ones of the 168 people who were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing were not able to gather Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of the attack, but that did not stop them from remembering. "They did just an extraordinary ceremony under extraordinary circumstances, it was just remarkable," Ashwood said of the video put together by the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
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| Churches mostly empty for Orthodox Easter due to virus rules Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:52 AM PDT  The holiest day of the year for Orthodox Christians was reserved and glum in many countries where churches were closed to worshipers for Easter services because of restrictions aimed at suppressing the spread of the coronavirus. From Moscow to Addis Ababa, believers were either banned from attending Sunday services or urged to stay home and watch them on national television broadcasts. In Georgia, where some churches remained open, some worshipers went through a long ordeal to attend services that began late Saturday night in order to conform with a nationwide curfew — arriving at churches before 9 p.m. and required to stay until 6 a.m.
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| Amid virus gloom, glimpses of human decency and good works Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:48 AM PDT  The gestures have been grand and small, some as simple as chalk-written messages on a sidewalk thanking healthcare workers at a New Orleans hospital for their efforts. The series has included stories about a Rio firefighter sharing his love of music from a hydraulic ladder 150 feet up as he played the trumpet for cooped-up apartment dwellers; a virtual rendition of "Bolero" from the National Orchestra of France, with each musician playing alone at home; the virtual Corona Community Choir with members around the world, performing on Sundays. There have been six stories that tell of benefactors feeding health care workers, the poor, the elderly shut ins, even volunteers feeding hungry animals at a revered Hindu temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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| Germany signals more help for struggling businesses, workers Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:29 AM PDT |
| Tradition-bound Washington adjusts to life in a pandemic Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:24 AM PDT  The cherry blossoms were the first to go. Not the pink flowers themselves; they arrived on schedule in mid-March along Washington's Tidal Basin. As it turns out, Washington is indeed still a city of traditions, even in the era of Donald Trump, whose presidency seemed to have turned the nation's capital upside down.
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| Iranian president says prisoner leave to be extended Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:21 AM PDT  Iran will extend leave for prisoners for one more month, President Hassan Rouhani announced Sunday, after the country temporarily released 100,000 detainees to combat the spread of coronavirus. "Prisoners' leave was supposed to continue until the end of Farvardin (April 19)... it will be extended until the end of Ordibehesht (May 20)," Rouhani said during a televised meeting of the government's coronavirus taskforce, referring to two Iranian months. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili did not directly confirm Rouhani's remarks but further leniency was anticipated.
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| North Korea Says Kim Jong Un Didn’t Send Letter to Trump Posted: 19 Apr 2020 06:13 AM PDT |
| Iran’s Guard acknowledges encounter with US during a drill Posted: 19 Apr 2020 05:28 AM PDT  Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged Sunday it had a tense encounter with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf last week, but alleged without offering evidence that American forces sparked the incident. The incident Wednesday saw the U.S. Navy release video of small Iranian fast boats coming close to American warships as they operated in the northern Persian Gulf near Kuwait, with U.S. Army Apache helicopters. In the Guard's telling, its forces were conducting a drill and faced "the unprofessional and provocative actions of the United States and their indifference to warnings."
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| Trump’s Coronavirus Failure Is a Gift to the NRA Posted: 19 Apr 2020 05:00 AM PDT |
| Boko Haram suspects 'die of poison' in Chad jail Posted: 19 Apr 2020 02:55 AM PDT  The 44 men were taken into custody around Lake Chad during an offensive against Islamist militants.
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| Eastern Christians mark Easter in shuttered Jerusalem church Posted: 19 Apr 2020 01:41 AM PDT  A handful of Eastern Orthodox priests held mass for the Christian holiday of Easter on Sunday in an empty Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem due to restrictions in place to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Eastern Christian rites mark Easter, the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected after his crucifixion, a week after the Catholic calendar. Ordinarily, the church would be filled with faithful and tourists, but travel restrictions imposed by Israel to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have prevented the arrival of pilgrims to Jerusalem for the springtime holiday and limited the gathering of worshipers at the church.
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| Mass virus test in nursing home seeks to combat loneliness Posted: 19 Apr 2020 12:56 AM PDT  Some were born in this warren of small rooms in what used to be a hospital, dating to the 17th century. The residents at the Weiss nursing home in eastern France want to chat face to face, to play board games, to share meals.
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| 'It made a world of difference:' UK doctor hails ex-students Posted: 19 Apr 2020 12:15 AM PDT  At his darkest moment with the coronavirus, Dr. Poorna Gunasekera glimpsed three rays of light. Following a severe deterioration in his COVID-19 symptoms, Gunasekera was rushed to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, southwest England, in the early hours of March 30, and three former students came to treat him.
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| German Virus Cases Rise by Least in Four Days Before Curbs Eased Posted: 18 Apr 2020 11:08 PM PDT |
| What It Looks Like When the World Stands Still Posted: 18 Apr 2020 11:00 PM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Easter weekend? What Easter weekend? I spent the entire time following the twists and turns of the extraordinary attempt by oil producers to cobble together the biggest output cut in history, only to see the price fall when commodity markets opened on Monday. Lockdown? I was glued to my computer all weekend and wouldn't have noticed if all restrictions had been removed. Of course, they weren't, and that got me thinking about just how our lives have come to a screeching halt.Enjoy the stillness. I live under a flight path into one of London's major airports, so the grounding of planes does have its upside. As do the quieter roads when I take my bike out for my morning "commute" — halfway to the office and back each morning.Cities have become noticeably quieter with far fewer cars out on the roads. Restrictions came later to London than many other European towns, and traffic flows only started to wane in the second half of March. The impact on congestion shows, but it's been significantly less than in Milan in northern Italy, for instance. Last year drivers in London, like their counterparts in Italy, could expect a peak-time journey to take about 75% longer than the same trip on empty roads — an additional 45 minutes on a one-hour trip. Now that same "one-hour drive" in London takes around one hour and 10 minutes.In northern Italy, where restrictions were introduced during the second half of February, peak-hour delays have been reduced to around 5 minutes from as much as 45 minutes on a one-hour journey.To examine how driving has slumped and how, in a few places, it's picking up again, I used figures from the TomTom Traffic Index to make these charts. The data show how much longer journeys in selected cities take during each hour of the week than they would on uncongested roads. The original numbers are in the form of a percentage increase over all journeys. I have standardized them to show how many more minutes drivers could expect to spend in their cars for a journey that would take an hour on empty streets.Congestion patterns in the Middle East show a similar picture to those in Europe. It's a region that has received much less coverage of the virus's impact, except for Iran where the outbreak appears particularly severe. But here, too, streets have gone quiet. Kuwait City has seen traffic congestion fall to almost zero, with stringent restrictions in place for nearly two months and showing no sign of being lifted.In the U.S., urban traffic congestion also tumbled during the first half of March, as Americans joined the Great Silence. Here, the additional time spent in the car during peak hours has fallen by around 90% compared with the same day of the week last year. As the West stays home, Chinese cities are coming out of lockdown. But a careful look at traffic congestion data shows that things are far from back to normal, even in cities where restrictions were eased weeks ago. The experiences there are illustrative of what the rest of us may face when our own governments start to ease the strictest confinement measures.Beijing and other Chinese cities provide the clearest data on how a place recovers from lockdown imposed to fight the Covid-19 virus. The chart below shows that journey times have risen slowly over recent weeks, as more and more traffic returns to the city's roads. By last week, it looks as though gridlock had returned to Beijing, with journeys taking just as long as they did on average last year.But that picture is deceptive and we need to look a little closer to see why.Pulling out the data for the most recent week, it becomes clear that normalcy isn't fully back in every corner of life in Beijing. While congestion has indeed returned during the morning and evening rush hours, the volume of traffic on the roads at other times of the weekday and weekends remains at extremely low levels. People may be traveling as normal to get to and from work, but driving for social purposes — to get to the mall, or cinema complex, or museum, or to visit family or nearby parks — remains at a very low level. Journeys outside of rush hour are still taken on almost empty roads.Of course, I couldn't finish without saying a few words about oil. The impact of the enforced stay-at-home policies on U.S. gasoline use has been dramatic, to put it mildly. The Energy Information Administration reported four-week average demand in the period to April 10 at just 6.4 million barrels a day — its lowest level in data going back to 1991. The figure is down by nearly a third, or 3 million barrels a day, in the past month.Judging by the picture emerging from Beijing, even if some U.S. cities and states begin to ease shelter-in-place orders and other travel restrictions, demand may not rebound quickly if citizens remain wary of travelling too far and gathering in crowded public spaces. Commuters will be the first to feel the tedium of increasing traffic as restrictions are eased. Those driving for pleasure — at least, those who venture forth — may experience empty roads for a while longer.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Julian Lee is an oil strategist for Bloomberg. Previously he worked as a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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