| UN alarmed by migrants caught in no-man's land at borders Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:48 PM PDT |
| Kim Jong Un Has Put North Korea in Position to Outlast His Reign Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:20 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Whatever the state of Kim Jong Un's health, he has already put North Korea in its strongest position to resist U.S. pressure in decades.Eight years after Kim filled the power vacuum left by the death of his reclusive father, Kim Jong Il, North Korea is more secure and less isolated. The 36-year-old supreme leader has achieved two key marks of legitimacy long sought by his predecessors: a nuclear arsenal that can credibly deter an American attack and a personal relationship with the U.S. president, including three face-to-face meetings with Donald Trump.While North Korea is still among the world's most impoverished nations, living standards are rising for the ruling elite in Pyongyang. Kim has shown he can endure crushing economic sanctions, illustrated by a United Nations report published Tuesday accusing the regime of widespread evasion. Moreover, the Kim dynasty holds a renewed pledge of strategic support from its ultimate guarantor, China."The country has pole-vaulted in their nuclear-destruction potential and missile-delivery capabilities compared to capabilities under grandfather or father Kim," said Soo Kim, a Rand Corp. policy analyst who specializes in Korean peninsula issues. "The specter of a North Korean nuclear attack breeds enough unease in the international community to lean more towards accommodation than confrontation."That's why many longtime observers of North Korea say the current uncertainty surrounding Kim Jong Un is less consequential than past succession scares. Speculation has been swirling about Kim's health since he dropped out of state media last week, failing for the first time to attend events to celebrate the April 15 birthday of his late grandfather, Kim Il Sung.U.S. officials said they were told Kim was in critical condition after cardiovascular surgery, while South Korea said he was conducting "normal activities" in a rural part of the country. Trump told reporters that he thought that a separate CNN report earlier this week, which said that Kim was in grave condition, was "incorrect," adding: "I'm hearing they used old documents."No matter what, North Korea leaders have strong incentives to preserve the regime and Kim's strategy of seeking sanctions relief from the U.S. by building a more dangerous nuclear arsenal. Indeed, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who has traveled to Pyongyang four times, indicated that the dispute between the two countries would persist if a successor such as Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, took power."The challenge remains the same, the goal remains unchanged," Pompeo said Wednesday on Fox News. "Whoever is leading North Korea, we want them to give up their nuclear program."The U.S. retains control over trade restrictions that held North Korea's economic growth to 1.8% last year, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, following its biggest slump in decades in 2018. Although the regime has found ways around the restrictions, including cyber-heists and high-seas oil transfers, North Korea can't tolerate the embargo forever.Trump Handshake"People that say Kim doesn't have to worry about sanctions are likely viewing the situation too optimistically, because North Korea is now under sanctions like never before," said Kim Keun-sik, a Far Eastern studies professor at Kyungnam University who has advised South Korea's foreign ministry. "The more it cries self-reliance or rehabilitation, the more trouble you know they're in."Still, North Korea has given up little since Kim's unprecedented handshake with Trump almost two years ago in Singapore. Besides halting launches of missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland and demolishing some testing facilities, Kim has signed only a vaguely worded pledge to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."At the same time, the summits have raised North Korea's profile to a level once unimaginable for a country sometimes called the Hermit Kingdom. After staying in North Korea for his first six years in power, Kim went on nine overseas trips between March 2018 and July 2019, events that saw him speaking live on foreign television and interacting with Western reporters.The trips have helped legitimize North Korea's government, despite continued complaints about human rights abuses and sanctions violations. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had put off a meeting with Kim for five years, quickly invited the North Korean leader to Beijing ahead of the Singapore summit. Russia's Vladimir Putin similarly feted Kim last year after his talks with the U.S. president broke down.'Strategic Apathy'China and Russia -- both veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council -- now regularly advocate for easing sanctions on North Korea amid their own disputes with the U.S. Trump himself continues to offer some of Washington's most generous support for Kim, offering aid to help the country fight the coronavirus outbreak in a letter to the North Korean leader last month.Meanwhile, the U.S. president has shrugged off a record-breaking string of ballistic missile launches by Kim that have demonstrated increasing capabilities to strike all of South Korea, including U.S. bases there. Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists's Defense Posture Project, has described Trump's policy as "strategic apathy," a play on the Obama administration approach sometimes called "strategic patience.""When Kim arrived at the helm, North Korea had demonstrated the beginnings of viability as a nuclear power. By 2018, Kim claimed to have 'completed' a deterrent," Panda said. "Now, that cause continues, but with qualitative refinement and quantitative expansion."(Updates with Trump comments in sixth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Trump Casts Doubt on Reports of Poor Health of North Korea’s Kim Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:15 PM PDT |
| Trump thinks report on Kim Jong Un illness was incorrect Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:14 PM PDT |
| Africa's week in pictures: 17 - 23 April 2020 Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:09 PM PDT  A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.
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| UN envoy: Israeli annexation can destroy Mideast peace hopes Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:37 PM PDT  The U.N. Mideast envoy warned Thursday that Israeli moves to annex parts of the West Bank and accelerate settlement expansion, combined with the coronavirus pandemic's devastating impact, could ignite Israeli-Palestinian conflict and "destroy any hope of peace." Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that annexation would also "constitute a serious violation of international law, deal a devastating blow to the two-state solution, close the door to a renewal of negotiations, and threaten efforts to advance regional peace." Mladenov, who is the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, expressed hope that opportunities for cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians as a result of the COVID-19 crisis "will not be undermined or destroyed if the political context between Israel and the Palestinian Authority deteriorates."
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| Boris Johnson plans to return to work Monday: report Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:32 PM PDT  With Brexit behind him, Boris Johnson is preparing for a reentrance. The British prime minister plans to get back behind the wheel of government Monday after recovering from his severe case of coronavirus, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday. The frumpled 55-year-old relocated to Chequers, the prime minister's country estate, to convalesce after he was released from a London hospital on April 12.
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| Your Evening Briefing Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:31 PM PDT |
| Doctors struggle to stay true to science but not cross Trump Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:18 PM PDT  It's becoming a kind of daily ritual: President Donald Trump and a phalanx of doctors file into the White House briefing room each evening to discuss the coronavirus, producing a display of rhetorical contortions as the medical officials try to stay true to the science without crossing the president. On Tuesday, for example, Dr. Deborah Birx aligned herself with Trump's positive comments about plans to reopen businesses in Georgia and suggested that beauty salons and tattoo parlors there might be able to safely operate by using "creative" forms of social distancing. On Wednesday, Trump opened his daily briefing by inviting Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to "say a couple words just to straighten" out the doctor's earlier comments that the virus's return in the fall could be even more difficult than the current outbreak.
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| ‘The Real Virus Is Bolsonaro’: Pandemic Helps Fuel Amazon Deforestation Surge In Brazil Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:33 PM PDT  Indigenous tribes are appealing to the U.N. to help stop deforestation and raids on tribal lands, which have both increased under President Jair Bolsonaro.
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| Democrats should praise Trump for doing the right thing as he confronts Iran | Opinion Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:24 PM PDT  President Trump this week tweeted a warning that the United States. would "shoot down and destroy" Iranian vessels after U.S. Navy ships were aggressively confronted in the Persian Gulf. In response, the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed to "destroy" American warships, illustrating the escalating danger to America posed by Iran.
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| US delays oil pipeline approvals after environmental ruling Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:43 PM PDT  The directive from Army Corps headquarters, detailed in emails obtained by The Associated Press, comes after a federal court last week threw out a blanket permit that companies and public utilities have used for decades to build projects across streams and wetlands. For now, officials have put on hold about 360 pending notifications to entities approving their use of the permit, Army Corps spokesman Doug Garman said Thursday. Pipeline and electric utility industry representatives said the effects could be widespread if the suspension lasts, affecting both construction and maintenance on potentially thousands of projects.
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| Swing-state Republicans pin virus fallout on Democrats Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  With legions out of work, Republicans across the critical battleground states are trying to lay blame for the economic wreckage of the coronavirus outbreak on Democratic governors, ramping up a political strategy that is likely to shape the debate in the run-up to the presidential election. In Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — all three swing states with Democrats in charge — state Republican lawmakers, after an initial detente, have grown fiercely critical of the stay-at-home orders or business shutdowns imposed by governors to limit the spread of the coronavirus, casting them as the work of overzealous, nanny-state Democrats. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, GOP legislators have gone so far as to try to strip the Democratic governors of the power to enforce the restrictions on businesses.
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| Iran Says It Will Target Any U.S. Vessels That Threaten Its Ships Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  One of Iran's top military leaders warned the U.S. on Thursday that Iran will target any U.S. vessels that threaten Iran's military or non-military ships. Major General Hossein Salami said on state TV Thursday that Iranian counteraction will be decisive and quick. The warning came a day after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to "shoot down and destroy" Iranian gunboats if they harass American ships.
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| Iran Says It'll Target U.S. Vessels That Threaten Its Ships Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT One of Iran's top military leaders warned the U.S. on Thursday that Iran will target any U.S. vessels that threaten Iran's military or non-military ships. Major General Hossein Salami said on state TV Thursday that Iranian counteraction will be decisive and quick. The warning came a day after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to "shoot down and destroy" Iranian gunboats if they harass American ships.
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| Sources: Guaido allies take slice of first Venezuela budget Posted: 23 Apr 2020 12:11 PM PDT  Opposition lawmakers in Venezuela quietly agreed to pay themselves $5,000 a month when they approved special $100 bonuses for doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus — a large payout for a nation where most workers are scraping by on couple of dollars a month, according to people involved in the process. The payout, which has not been previously reported, was contained in legislation passed last week by the National Assembly setting up an $80 million "Liberation Fund" made up of Venezuelan assets seized by the Trump administration as part of its sanctions campaign to remove socialist leader Nicolás Maduro. The legislation was touted as a hallmark achievement for Juan Guaidó, the 36-year-old congressional leader recognized as Venezuela's rightful president by the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations, but who has struggled to exert real power.
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| Merkel’s Stimulus Vow Edges EU Closer to Deal on Rebuilding Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:42 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's pledge to back a huge stimulus package for the European Union wasn't enough to force through a deal as leaders inched ahead with their reconstruction plans during a videoconference on Thursday.Merkel's commitment to expanding the EU's seven-year budget came after European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told heads of government that the euro-area economy could shrink by as much as 15% this year as a result of the pandemic and they risk doing too little, too late, according to three people familiar with the remarks."We'll have to expect higher contributions to the next budget," the chancellor told reporters afterward in Berlin. "Substantial investments will be necessary."The group endorsed a short-term 540 billion-euro ($580 billion) plan to support businesses and economies from the immediate fallout from the coronavirus, EU Council President Charles Michel said afterward in a press conference. But leaders still failed to make much progress on the longer term rebuilding program with member states split on how to spread the financial strains.Read More: EU Eyes $2.2 Trillion Plan as ECB Accepts Some Junk-Rated BondsFrance and Spain are leading a group demanding the recovery is funded via grants from a supercharged EU budget while the Netherlands and Austria are among those insisting the additional funds should take the form of loans. European markets rose after the chancellor's comments were reported, with the Stoxx 600 share index gaining 0.94%, the euro reversed losses against the dollar to trade as high at $1.0847; Italy's 10-year yield fell to 1.986%.With more than 100,000 fatalities in the region, Europe has been hard hit by Covid-19 and the fallout from the crisis has exposed longstanding divisions over who pays for what. Strict lockdowns have shuttered factories and halted travel, pitching the bloc into the worst recession in living memory while leaders have been arguing over how to spread the financial burden of the rebuilding effort.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the call that not even in World War II there was such deep contraction in output as the one expected this year and only in the Great Depression would they see anything of similar magnitude, according to two officials. The commission was asked to come up with a compromise proposal by May 6, she said."There will certainly be a sound balance between grants and loans and this is a matter of negotiation within the group," she said.According to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, four nations were staunchly opposed to including any kind of grants in the recovery plan, though Germany was not among them. "It was a country that had an open and constructive posture in this negotiation," he said.French President Emmanuel Macron and Spain's Pedro Sanchez insisted that any aid would need to be grants, not loans, which would just contribute to member states' debt load, officials said. Sanchez said that grants would avoid overburdening the public finances of countries worst hit by the virus and would bolster European solidarity, one of the officials said."Real budget transfers will be needed, not just loans," Macron told reporters. "If we let down a whole part of Europe, it's Europe as a whole that will fall."History LessonsOn the 10th anniversary of Greece's first request for a bailout from the EU, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged leaders to take their cue from Lagarde and avoid the mistakes of the past, according to officials. He said authorities responded too slowly back then and it had proved to be an error to pile more debt onto the Greek state.One sign that the countries are nevertheless inching toward a compromise came from Italy's Giuseppe Conte. Conte's country has been the hardest hit so far by the coronavirus and its public finances were already in the most perilous state before the infections began.But in a divergence from his allies in Paris and Madrid, Conte signaled he'd be prepared to accept at least some of the aid provided as loans.Economic data earlier on Thursday illustrated the challenge leaders face. Measures of private-sector business activity plunged more than expected to an all-time low and signaled record job cuts. Corporate and consumer confidence slumped in the bloc's biggest economies."We cannot continue like we did before," Merkel said. (Updates with comments from leaders throughout)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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| US More Concerned About Iranian Rocket Than New Satellite, General Says Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:30 AM PDT  The U.S. has long suspected that Iran's efforts to put satellites into orbit are a cover for development of an ICBM.
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| Bugged: Earth's insect population shrinks 27% in 30 years Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:25 AM PDT  The world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years, according to researchers whose big picture study of global bug decline paints a disturbing but more nuanced problem than earlier research. From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world's food supply to butterflies that beautify places, the bugs are disappearing at a rate of just under 1% a year, with lots of variation from place to place, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science. "The decline across insect orders on land is jaw dropping," said Michigan State University butterfly expert Nick Haddad, who wasn't part of the study.
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| AP-NORC poll: Few Americans trust Trump's info on pandemic Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:01 AM PDT  President Donald Trump has made himself the daily spokesman for the nation's coronavirus response. Just 28% of Americans say they're regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the public. Confidence in Trump is higher among his supporters, though only about half of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in Trump's information on the pandemic — and 22% say they have little or no trust in what he says about the COVID-19 outbreak.
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| Saudi Arabia announces start of Ramadan after sighting moon Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia and some other Muslim-majority nations, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, declared that the holy month of Ramadan — when the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast — would begin on Friday, based on a moon-sighting methodology. The Saudi statement came on the kingdom's state-run Saudi Press Agency while the Emiratis made the announcement through their state-run WAM news agency. Oman said the fasting month will begin on Saturday as the sultanate's religious authority did not sight the crescent moon on Thursday evening.
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| New House panel poised to track aid dollars, virus response Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:00 AM PDT  The House is voting Thursday to create a new subcommittee that will track more than $2 trillion in coronavirus aid, adding another layer of oversight as President Donald Trump's administration carries out the largest economic rescue in U.S. history. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the new House Oversight and Reform subcommittee is necessary to root out fraud and abuse and to examine the government's overall response. It will supplement the work of other watchdogs tasked with tracking the dollars, including a committee of inspectors general, a congressional panel of experts and a special Treasury Department official.
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| Spain probes how ex-rapper IS fighter slipped into Europe Posted: 23 Apr 2020 10:25 AM PDT  Spanish police who this week arrested a former London rapper allegedly turned Islamic State fighter in Syria say they have no evidence he was planning an attack in Europe, but his illegal, undocumented entry into Spain raises suspicions about his motivation. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, whose father was convicted in the U.S. of involvement in al-Qaida bombings, was one of Europe's most wanted foreign IS fighters and "extremely dangerous" according to Spanish police. A National Police anti-terrorism expert involved in the arrests told The Associated Press that if Abdel Bary had repented he would have sought a legitimate way of returning to Europe.
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| Orban Blinks After Decade Fighting Foreign Sway Over Economy Posted: 23 Apr 2020 09:42 AM PDT |
| Iran Guards chief vows 'decisive response' after Trump threat Posted: 23 Apr 2020 09:21 AM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief on Thursday warned the US of a "decisive response" after President Donald Trump said he ordered the US Navy to destroy Iranian boats that harass American ships in the Gulf. Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice in the past year. Decades-old acrimony between the two sides worsened in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from a deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
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| Explaining Iran’s coronavirus cataclysm Posted: 23 Apr 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Why has Iran so terribly botched its response to the outbreak of the coronavirus? The regime has had no consistent policy, at first denying the scale of the outbreak and then dealing with it in a haphazard way. The Islamic Republic's handling of the epidemic should not surprise those familiar with revolutionary governments.
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| Coronavirus propaganda from Russia, China, and Iran are beginning to mimic each other, State Department report says Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:53 AM PDT |
| U.S. Democrats back 'scapegoat' WHO, as Trump administration keeps up attacks Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:45 AM PDT |
| EU warns incoming Israeli gov't against West Bank annexation Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:33 AM PDT  The European Union on Thursday issued a warning against the incoming Israeli government's intention to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, saying that such a move "would constitute a serious violation of international law." The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the 27-member bloc does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Palestinian territory and that it will "continue to closely monitor the situation and its broader implications, and will act accordingly." Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival Benny Gantz signed a coalition agreement that includes a clause to advance plans to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements, starting on July 1.
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| Elizabeth Warren's oldest brother dies of coronavirus Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:25 AM PDT  The oldest brother of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Donald Reed Herring, has died from the coronavirus, the Massachusetts senator said Thursday. The former Democratic presidential candidate said her brother died Tuesday evening. The Boston Globe reported that Reed, 86, died in Norman, Oklahoma, about three weeks after testing positive for the virus.
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| UN urges for immediate release of Baha'i prisoners in Yemen Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:24 AM PDT |
| Governor: Antibody survey shows wide exposure to virus in NY Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:22 AM PDT  More evidence is emerging that far more New Yorkers have had the coronavirus than the number confirmed by lab tests, officials said Thursday, offering insight that could help authorities decide how and how quickly to let people stop isolating from friends and return to work. Blood samples collected from about 3,000 people indicated that nearly 14% had developed antibodies to fight a coronavirus infection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., 21% of the people tested had antibodies.
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| DC's high school 'makers' fire up 3D printers to create PPE Posted: 23 Apr 2020 08:16 AM PDT  It started in late March with a self-professed high school "news junkie" and a lone 3D printer. Georgetown Day School senior Jonah Docter-Loeb was transfixed by television footage of the "suffering on such a large scale" caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In less than a month, that idea has mushroomed into Print to Protect, a network of around 100 3D printers, most in individual homes, producing face shields for distribution to Washington area hospitals.
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| Merkel Tells EU Leaders Virus Response Must Be Huge Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:40 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to back a huge stimulus package for Europe, after ECB President Christine Lagarde warned the region's leaders that economic output may shrink by up to 15% this year.Merkel made the remarks during a teleconference summit between the EU's 27 leaders, who are discussing ways to mitigate the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.Stocks extended gains and the euro strengthened after the comment. Euro-area periphery bonds gained relative to German securities.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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| 11,000 deaths: Ravaged nursing homes plead for more testing Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:38 AM PDT  After two months and more than 11,000 deaths that have made the nation's nursing homes some of the most terrifying places to be during the coronavirus crisis, most of them still don't have access to enough tests to help control outbreaks among their frail, elderly residents. Neither the federal government nor the leader in nursing home deaths, New York, has mandated testing for all residents and staff. An industry group says only about a third of the 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. have ready access to tests that can help isolate the sick and stop the spread.
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| As Germany begins to ease restrictions, Merkel warns pandemic ‘still at the beginning’ Posted: 23 Apr 2020 07:12 AM PDT  As German authorities begin to slowly relax lockdown restrictions across the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday criticized some states for moving too quickly and warned that the coronavirus pandemic is just beginning. In an address to the nation's Parliament, Merkel said "we're still walking on thin ice, one could also say the thinnest ice." Several German states will now allow small shops to re-open as long as they continue observing social distancing rules.
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| Cameroon admission over massacre 'positive': UN, rights groups Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:53 AM PDT  Yaoundé (AFP) - Cameroon's admission that its troops were involved in a February massacre of civilians in a volatile region is a positive move, the UN and rights groups said, despite claims that the official version was a whitewash. According to the United Nations, the death toll in clashes on the night of February 13-14 left 23 civilians dead, including 15 children in the village of Ngarbuh. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called Cameroon's admission a "positive step" but said those responsible should be "held fully to account in a fair and transparent judicial process."
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| Schneider Electric launches specific actions in response to the Covid-19 crisis and stays the course of its 2020 ESG agenda with Schneider Sustainability Impact achieving 7.15 out of 10 Posted: 23 Apr 2020 06:36 AM PDT  For the sixth year, Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, announces its financial and non-financial results together for the first quarter of 2020. Each quarter, Schneider Electric publishes 21 indicators from the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI), measuring progress towards its ambitious sustainability commitments for 2018 to 2020, in line with its COP 21 commitments and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This quarter, Schneider Sustainability Impact reached a 7.15 out of 10 score, an expected slowdown due to the current crisis. The Group has deployed additional actions confirming its socio-economic and societal engagements worldwide.
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| Hajj cancellation wouldn't be the first – plague, war and politics disrupted pilgrimages long before coronavirus Posted: 23 Apr 2020 05:10 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia has urged Muslims to delay their plans for the hajj, amid speculation that the obligatory pilgrimage may be canceled this year due to the coronavirus.Earlier this year, Saudi authorities halted travel to holy sites as part of the umrah, the "lesser pilgrimage" that takes place throughout the year.Canceling the hajj, however, would mean a massive economic hit for the country and many businesses globally, such as the hajj travel industry. Millions of Muslims visit the Saudi kingdom each year, and the pilgrimage has not been canceled since the founding of the Saudi Kingdom in 1932. But as a scholar of global Islam, I have encountered many instances in the more than 1,400-year history of the pilgrimage when its planning had to be altered due to armed conflicts, disease or just plain politics. Here are just a few. Armed conflictsOne of the earliest significant interruptions of the hajj took place in A.D. 930, when a sect of Ismailis, a minority Shiite community, known as the Qarmatians raided Mecca because they believed the hajj to be a pagan ritual. The Qarmatians were said to have killed scores of pilgrims and absconded with the black stone of the Kaaba – which Muslims believed was sent down from heaven. They took the stone to their stronghold in modern-day Bahrain. Hajj was suspended until the Abbasids, a dynasty that ruled over a vast empire stretching across North Africa, the Middle East to modern-day India from A.D. 750-1258, paid a ransom for its return over 20 years later. Political disputesPolitical disagreements and conflict have often meant that pilgrims from certain places were kept from performing hajj because of lack of protection along overland routes into the Hijaz, the region in the west of Saudi Arabia where both Mecca and Medina are located.In A.D. 983, the rulers of Baghdad and Egypt were at war. The Fatimid rulers of Egypt claimed to be the true leaders of Islam and opposed the rule of the Abbasid dynasty in Iraq and Syria. Their political tug-of-war kept various pilgrims from Mecca and Medina for eight years, until A.D. 991. Then, during the fall of the Fatimids in A.D. 1168, Egyptians could not enter the Hijaz. It is also said that no one from Baghdad performed hajj for years after the city fell to Mongol invasion in A.D. 1258. Many years later, Napolean's military incursions aimed at checking British colonial influence in the region prevented many pilgrims from hajj between A.D. 1798 and 1801. Diseases and hajjMuch like the present, diseases and other natural calamities have also come in the way of the pilgrimage. There are reports that the first time an epidemic of any kind caused hajj to be canceled was an outbreak of plague in A.D. 967. And drought and famine caused the Fatimid ruler to cancel overland Hajj routes in A.D. 1048.Cholera outbreaks in multiple years throughout the 19th century claimed thousands of pilgrims' lives during the hajj. One cholera outbreak in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1858 forced thousands of Egyptians to flee to Egypt's Red Sea border, where they were quarantined before being allowed back in. Indeed, for much of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, cholera remained a "perennial threat" and caused frequent disruption to the annual hajj. So did the plague. An outbreak of bubonic plague in India in 1831 claimed thousands of pilgrims' lives on their way to perform hajj. In fact, with so many outbreaks in such quick succession, the hajj was frequently interrupted throughout the mid-19th century. Recent yearsIn more recent years, too, the pilgrimage has been disrupted for many similar reasons.In 2012 and 2013 Saudi authorities encouraged the ill and the elderly not to undertake the pilgrimage amid concerns over Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. Contemporary geopolitics and human rights issues have also played a role in who was able to perform the pilgrimage.In 2017, the 1.8 million Muslim citizens of Qatar were not able to perform the hajj following the decision by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations to sever diplomatic ties with the country over differences of opinion on various geopolitical issues. The same year, some Shiite governments such as Iran leveled charges alleging that Shiites were not allowed to perform the pilgrimage by Sunni Saudi authorities.In other cases, faithful Muslims have called for boycotts, citing Saudi Arabia's human rights record. While a decision to cancel the hajj will surely disappoint Muslims looking to perform the pilgrimage, many among them have been sharing online a relevant hadith – a tradition reporting the sayings and practice of the prophet Muhammad – that provides guidance about traveling during a time of an epidemic: "If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place."[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help. Read The Conversation's newsletter.]
Este artículo se vuelve a publicar de The Conversation, un medio digital sin fines de lucro dedicado a la diseminación de la experticia académica. Lee mas:
Ken Chitwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Virus-hit Iran demands US be held to account for 'cruel' sanctions Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:57 AM PDT  Iran called Thursday for the US to be held accountable for "cruel" sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives. It accuses its arch enemy the United States of making the crisis worse through sanctions imposed unilaterally since Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The latest fatalities given by the health ministry for the past 24 hours took the overall death toll in Iran from the coronavirus to 5,481.
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| Coronavirus: Kenya quarantine escapees arrested while drinking at bar Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:52 AM PDT  The pair were found drinking in a bar which had defied orders to close to halt the spread of Covid-19.
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| US church faces neglect allegations after Haiti child deaths Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:48 AM PDT  For a limestone mantel from the Waldorf Astoria, the church that owns the Olde Good Things antique stores asks for $8,500. The wealth of the Church of Bible Understanding in the United States has long stood in contrast with the shoddiness of its two children's homes in Haiti, which have faced years of infractions and failed two state inspections.
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| Iran Guard commander threatens US Navy after Trump tweet Posted: 23 Apr 2020 04:33 AM PDT  The leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned on Thursday that he has ordered his forces to potentially target the U.S. Navy after President Donald Trump's tweet the previous day threatening to sink Iranian vessels. Iran also summoned the Swiss ambassador, who looks out for America's interests in the country, to complain about Trump's threat coming amid months of escalating tensions between the two countries. While the coronavirus pandemic temporarily paused those tensions, Iran has since begun pushing back against the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy both militarily and diplomatically.
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| 10 things you need to know today: April 23, 2020 Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:53 AM PDT |
| New Crisis of Intransigence Grips EU Posted: 23 Apr 2020 03:32 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- European Union leaders are inching toward an agreement on how to rebuild their economy when the coronavirus subsides.But the lowest common denominator approach they are likely to stick with on today's videoconference is as significant for what it doesn't address as what it does.France, Italy and Spain, where both the pandemic and government borrowing in Europe has been most intense, are struggling to persuade the rest of the bloc to share the financial strain that their public spending will create.Rookie European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's efforts to take on the traditional role of power broker aren't helping either. Von der Leyen hadn't even read her officials' latest compromise proposal on the eve of the talks.Italian officials are projecting that the country's government debt will be more than 150% of gross domestic product by the end of this year, way beyond the level Greece was at when it triggered the sovereign debt crisis in 2009. Spain's central bank sees public borrowing reaching 120% of GDP and France forecasts 115%.The EU has so far offered only a series of stop gaps to address that fundamental challenge – an emergency bond-buying program from the European Central Bank and a range of low-interest borrowing options.Band aids tend to come unstuck in the end. Perhaps that's why the EU so often seems to be in crisis.Global HeadlinesToo soon | U.S. President Donald Trump said he disagreed with the Georgia governor's decision to begin relaxing social-distancing measures this week, a marked shift from his repeated calls for states to reopen their economies.Click here for more on how states are accelerating policy measures in two very different directions as Americans chafe under coronavirus lockdowns. And here to read about how mask-clad lawmakers plan to grant final passage today to a $484 billion economic rescue plan.Biden and China | If presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is able to defeat Trump in November, U.S.-China relations — already at their worst in more than three decades — probably won't improve. In fact, they could easily get worse. Peter Martin and Daniel Ten Kate explain why.Click here for more on how the virus pandemic has increased the percentage of voters undecided about both Trump and Biden.Heavy toll | More people are dying in Europe. While discrepancies in how nations report Covid-19 fatalities are obscuring the overall impact of the pandemic, total deaths have surged on the continent. Spain recorded almost 49,000 last month, the most for March since 1975, while the U.K. reported its biggest weekly tally in 20 years. Germany is the only large European country with no spike in deaths so far.The economic cost of the coronavirus on Europe's 25 million small and medium businesses is clear in countless stories of owners fighting to keep their firms afloat.Protectionist peril | Rice traders in Vietnam are being hit by a government measure to restrict shipments on concerns that global demand will spike as the coronavirus upends supply chains. While the world's third-biggest exporter of the grain has since reopened some trade, hundreds of thousands of tons spoiling at the country's ports show the dangers of curbing exports.Progress in Africa | Four African countries that imposed the most stringent restrictions on the continent to fight the pandemic are showing early signs of progress. Lockdowns in South Africa, Uganda and Mauritius are mitigating the spread of the virus, while Ghana, the first in sub-Saharan Africa to ban travelers from high-risk countries, has already been able to ease its measures.What to WatchThe U.K. government will survey 20,000 households in a bid to track the spread of the virus, five weeks after it abandoned a strategy of community testing for the disease. Consumers in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, have been "panic buying" food staples this week, causing some store shelves to empty, ahead of stricter coronavirus measures, according to NK News, a non-state agency located outside the country.Tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.And finally...Shanti Devi isn't on India's list of 800 million people eligible for free food grains from the government during the pandemic, nor are her four children. "I have nothing to sell or mortgage — not even jewelry or an animal," she said after losing work as a farm laborer. Rural unemployment in India has shot up above 20%, Vrishti Beniwal reports, and about 400 million workers are at risk of falling deeper into poverty, as cases of suicide and starvation mount. 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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| Merkel calls for international cooperation against virus Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:47 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Thursday for international cooperation on the development of a vaccine for the new coronavirus, saying that the pandemic transcends borders and can only be countered jointly. Speaking to parliament in a session where lawmakers sat at a careful distance from one another in line with the country's social-distancing regulations, Merkel said German scientists were busily researching the virus at home, but that "international cooperation against the virus is extremely important." U.S. President Donald Trump has announced he is halting funding for the World Health Organization to review how it has handled the outbreak, but Merkel lauded the agency's work in the fight against the coronavirus.
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| Trump Spent Years Undermining Global Charities Now Crucial To Fighting Coronavirus Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:45 AM PDT  The president stopped funding United Nations health care for women and Palestinian refugees and cut aid to medical organizations over abortion.
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| Guards chief: U.S. warships will be destroyed if threaten Iran's interests in Gulf Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:43 AM PDT |
| Iran, like wider Mideast, relies on deliveries amid pandemic Posted: 23 Apr 2020 02:34 AM PDT  For some $15 a day, deliverymen don masks and gloves in Iran's capital to zip across its pandemic-subdued streets to drop off groceries and food for those sheltering at home from the virus. Like the wider Mideast, from skyscraper-studded Dubai to the narrow alleyways of Cairo, Iranians in cities rely on delivery for many of their daily supplies amid one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks. Iran, the Middle Eastern country hardest hit by the pandemic, on Thursday put its death toll from the virus at 5,481 out of more than 87,000 confirmed cases.
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