| China arrested former Huawei staff for talking about Iran deal online Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:41 PM PDT  China arrested former Huawei staff for chatting about its Iran deal, showing just how zealously the country defends its tech giant.
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| Egypt asks IMF for 1-year loan amid virus fallout Posted: 26 Apr 2020 12:50 PM PDT |
| Kim Jong Un Speculation Ramps Up With Senator Lindsey Graham Comments On North Korean Leader Posted: 26 Apr 2020 09:49 AM PDT |
| Netanyahu 'confident' US will support West Bank annexation Posted: 26 Apr 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he was "confident" he will be able to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank this summer, with support from the U.S. Speaking to an online gathering of evangelical Christian supporters of Israel, Netanyahu said President Donald Trump's Mideast plan envisions turning over Israel's dozens of settlements, as well as the strategic Jordan Valley, to Israeli control. "A couple of months from now, I'm confident that that pledge will be honored, that we will be able to celebrate another historic moment in the history of Zionism," Netanyahu said.
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| Fighting Coronavirus Means I Haven't Seen My Kids for a Month Posted: 26 Apr 2020 09:27 AM PDT  It's been four weeks since I've seen my kids, and I'm starting to miss them.On March 14, my mother-in-law, a retired United Nations worker who had participated in pandemic drills, saw the writing on the wall and announced that we should send the boys to her in Connecticut."I'm not sure," I said. "They haven't closed the schools.""They will definitely close the schools," she said over the phone. "And you need to be at the hospital."I was still in denial about the impact the coronavirus would have on everyone's life, even though as a hospital-based doctor, I was already taking care of the first few patients with COVID-19 at the midtown Manhattan hospital where I work.My husband and I reluctantly agreed to send our two sons away, and the next evening, after the boys were already at their grandmother's house, on the Ides of March, the New York City public schools were closed."We're lucky," I told my husband. We didn't have to scramble for child care. The intensity at both of our jobs was ratcheting up -- while my work was at the hospital, my husband's law practice was seeing a tsunami of new legal work related to the pandemic."When do you think we'll see them again?" he asked."Maybe in two weeks?"The weekend the kids left was a blur -- I spent most of it at the hospital. COVID-19 had arrived, but tests were scarce. The New York City Department of Health had a small number of test kits that were meted out to hospitals around the city with stringent guidelines about who should be tested -- only people who had been in China or had contacts with those who had tested positive. Patients who were already hospitalized with pneumonias and fevers were not eligible for testing.Over the weekend, a patient who had recently been discharged after treatment for non-coronavirus-related symptoms returned within 24 hours, febrile and coughing. The ER sent one of the few COVID-19 swabs we still had. When the test returned positive, I felt my stomach lurch. I couldn't help but think of the classic horror movie trope: "The call is coming from inside the house."The patient had probably had COVID-19 for most of his prior hospitalization. This was when I realized that the kids wouldn't be back anytime soon."You must miss your kids," people at work would say.I didn't miss them for the first couple of weeks. I channeled my blackest, stoniest heart -- the one I had developed when I sleep trained them as babies and when I dropped them off at day care as tiny weeks-old bundles after returning to work from maternity leave. The same cold heart that threw away their pacifiers the way the pediatrician recommended, and more recently, the one that frequently declines to chaperone school field trips.I told my colleagues that the kids were having a great time in Connecticut. They were riding bikes and chasing chickens. They weren't cooped up in a New York City apartment. And I wasn't cooped up with them in a New York City apartment.At work, though, it was hard to nurture a heart of stone. Staff would burst into tears at nursing stations. Co-workers were getting sick. Family members of colleagues were hospitalized. New Yorkers were beginning to panic. My usually phlegmatic colleagues broke down."Both my husband and I are health care workers," one said. "I'm scared."The patients with COVID-19 were hermetically sealed in their isolation rooms, forbidden to have visitors. I'd gear up with my personal protective equipment, and make my way into their rooms, listen to their lungs, check their oxygen levels and give a pep talk."This is a waiting game," I'd say through my N95 mask."But do you think I'm going to die?" they asked.At the end of a 12-hour shift, I'd go home and spend 15 minutes FaceTiming with my sons. Most of the time the phone would show the ceiling at their grandmother's house, or the wallpaper to the left of where one of my sons' faces might be, just out of the frame."I can't see you," I'd say. "I can only see the wall.""Show me the Magna-Tiles," my 5-year-old would say.Some days were exhilarating. I'd taken care of thousands of pneumonias, but COVID-19 didn't seem to have a playbook. The disease course was still uncertain and we saw patterns emerge in real time. We tried treatments I had never used before, like a strategy called "awake proning" where patients lie on their stomachs to improve the flow of oxygen to their lungs. I texted with medical friends around the country. Are you seeing liver abnormalities? Are you prescribing steroids? Some patients with COVID-19 would worsen suddenly, and I had the luxury of staying late to take care of them. My kids were in Connecticut building fairy houses out of sticks and leaves."Logistically, this is better for everyone," I'd tell co-workers. I hoped it was better for everyone.Other days were harder. A patient, and then a colleague, died of COVID-19. I had just seen both of them, and abruptly they were gone. Health care administrators started to use military language to describe the pandemic response: Staff were deployed. We were fighting an invisible enemy. Thanks to everyone in the trenches. My kids would appear fuzzy on FaceTime, hair wet from their bath, belly buttons peeking out from their pajamas. My 8-year-old son was hard to read. He would leave the call quickly."How many more days?" the 5-year-old asked. "How many more days 'til we come back to 'York?"I didn't have an answer for him, and I still don't know. Sometimes I think my kids' sense of time is limited to five-minute warnings and 30-minute TV shows. Over the last few weeks I've hoped that it is. Still, I realize, like the rest of the world, my boys want to know when they can return to their regular life of bunk beds, circle time, playgrounds and scooters.I'm eager to know when I can scoop them up, sniff the tops of their heads and prepare snack plates that they won't eat."Soon," I say. "Soon."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Kim Jong Un's Absence and North Korea's Silence Keep Rumor Mill Churning Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:57 AM PDT  SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is still sending letters and gifts to foreign leaders and domestic workers in the name of its leader, Kim Jong Un. Its news media brims, as usual, with panegyrical propaganda extolling Kim's leadership. South Korea reiterates that it has detected "nothing unusual" in the North. President Donald Trump has called "incorrect" and "fake" a report that Kim was "in grave danger" after surgery.All this has done little to stop the rumor mill churning about Kim's health and the fate of the nuclear state -- for the simple reason that North Korea has not reported a public appearance by its leader for two weeks. Nor has it responded to lurid claims about his health.The lack of real information from the hermetic country is giving rise to rampant rumor mongering, leaving North Korean experts, foreign officials and intelligence agencies to parse through it all for signs of the truth.Depending on the news outlet or social media post, Kim, believed to be 36, is recuperating after a minor health issue like a sprained ankle, or he is "in grave danger" after a heart surgery. Or he has become "brain dead" or is in a "vegetative state" after a heart-valve surgery gone wrong at the hands of a nervous North Korean surgeon or one of the doctors China dispatched to treat him. Or Kim is grounded with COVID-19. Where did he get it? From one of those Chinese doctors.One rumor circulating in South Korean messaging apps claims that after French doctors could not wake Kim from his "coma," Kim Pyong Il, a half brother of Kim's late father, seized power with the help of pro-Chinese elites in Pyongyang, the North's capital. It goes on to say that Kim's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, has been detained while Beijing is secretly bargaining with Washington over the future of North Korea and its nuclear weapons.Seoul has questioned the accuracy of the unconfirmed reports, while the South Korean news media appears to dismiss most of them as rumors spreading through Chinese social media and beyond. But they cannot be completely ignored, since North Korea is so secretive that the world's most powerful intelligence agencies have been unable to penetrate Kim's inner circles.Kim last appeared publicly April 11, when he presided over a Politburo meeting. Speculations about his health began swirling after Kim missed state celebrations for his country's biggest holiday, the April 15 birthday of his grandfather and founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung.Rumors went into overdrive after Daily NK, a Seoul-based website relying on anonymous sources inside the North, reported last Monday that Kim was recovering from heart surgery performed April 12. The next day, CNN added to the frenzy, reporting that Washington was monitoring intelligence that Kim was "in grave danger." On Saturday, TMZ, a celebrity-news website in the United States, blared: "N. Korea dictator Kim Jong-un reportedly dead after botched heart surgery."More than once, Trump has wished Kim well if he indeed were ill."North Korea's secrecy and our lack of reliable information create a breeding ground for rumors," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. "But his continued absence would be destabilizing as more people in and outside the country wonder if he is incapacitated or dead."In recent days, the South Koreans and their allies in Washington have scoured North Korea with the help of spy satellites and other resources for signs of Kim and preparations for missile launches.Their efforts led them to Wonsan, an east coast town where Kim's family has a seaside compound complete with yachts, Jet Skis, a horse track and a private train station.A train "probably belonging to" Kim has been parked there since at least Tuesday, 38 North, a Washington-based website specializing in North Korea, reported Saturday, citing commercial satellite imagery.Wonsan is one of Kim's favorite sites for missile tests. A South Korean news report said Saturday that the United States had detected preparations for a missile test in Sondeok, farther up the east coast, where North Korea launched missiles in August last year and again in March in Kim's presence.South Korean officials privately say that Kim's presence at a missile test could be a strategic way to quiet the speculation. But North Korea has also used such preparations to keep its external foes guessing.There is a deep geopolitical fascination with North Korea, the world's most isolated police state.The country has detonated six nuclear bombs in underground tests and claims to have built missiles powerful enough to deliver them to the continental United States. It is also run by a man who was dismissed as a figurehead when he took power in 2011 in his 20s.Kim has since established firm control, proving brutal enough to execute his own uncle, a potential threat to his power, and once calling Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard."Kim's sudden demise could create a power vacuum with far-reaching implications.Over the decades, U.S. and South Korean officials have discussed top-secret contingency plans, including how to prevent the North's nuclear weapons from falling into wrong hands and what to do if Beijing sends troops into the North to stabilize its neighbor, which has long served as a buffer between China and U.S. forces based in South Korea.In this secretive society, any likely successor to Kim amounts to a guessing game, even for outside analysts who have spent their academic careers parsing the North.Will it be his only sister, Kim Yo Jong, who has recently expanded her role in his government? What about Kim Pyong Il, who returned home last year after serving for decades as North Korea's low-key ambassador to Eastern European countries?Some predict a collective leadership to be led by Choe Ryong Hae, the No. 2 in the government hierarchy. What if a yet-unknown but ambitious general engineered a putsch? How would North Koreans who have been trained to worship the Kim family respond?"While North Korea's neighbors are mired in domestic politics during a global pandemic, U.S.-China relations are tense, and international organizations are strained, the world isn't well prepared for the death of Kim Jong Un," Easley said.This is not the first time Kim has disappeared from public view for weeks at a stretch or faced speculation about his health. But the strange personality cult surrounding Kim -- his bombast, obesity and even hairdo -- ensure rumors can take hold.Officials are careful not to quash the rumors on Kim's health outright, in part because their past predictions on the North have sometimes proved wrong. Reporting on North Korea, too, has been strewn with blunders.Top officials reported to have been executed have often resurfaced. Some of the defectors, who feed information to the news media, have been accused of, or admitted to, embellishing their accounts.In 1986, a South Korean newspaper reported a "world scoop" claiming that Kim's grandfather, then-President Kim Il Sung, died in an armed attack. A smiling Kim Il Sung resurfaced two days later.In 2014, Kim Jong Un disappeared for more than a month, prompting rumors that he might have been deposed in a coup. North Korean media later showed him walking with a cane after what South Korean intelligence called an ankle surgery.In 2015, a North Korean defector claimed that Kim ordered his own aunt to be killed with poison. But the aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, re-emerged in Pyongyang in January.The rumors can also turn out to be true.In 2008, Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was absent from view for months. South Korean analysts and the news media speculated, correctly, that he had had a stroke. He died three years later.Some of the biggest skeptics of the latest rumors are North Korean defectors themselves.Thae Yong Ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea, said it was hard to believe that any reliable information about Kim's health was leaked from his most trusted aides. Thae said that no one in his office in the North Korean Foreign Ministry knew of Kim Jong Il's death in 2011 until they were gathered at an auditorium for an "important announcement" and saw a female announcer appearing on the TV screen, clad in funeral black.Joo Sung Ha, a North Korean defector-turned-journalist for the South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, said in a Facebook post that it was reasonable to believe that Kim had health problems. But he had zero trust in news reports detailing whether and why the North Korean leader faced a grave medical emergency.Such details about "the health of the Kim family is the secret among secrets," he said, calling the people who claim to know "novelists."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Mayor imposes curfew, then entertains fellow bored residents Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:13 AM PDT  When a curfew goes into effect each night for one county in Hawaii, the mayor gets bored -- and posts videos on social media. "Our Mayor is bettah than yours!!" one woman commented, responding to Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami's stiff but earnest version of the Renegade to the rap song "Lottery," one of the most popular dances on social media. In other videos, posted to his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, he creates a mask out of a T-shirt and makes ice cream.
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| Israel decries Egyptian TV show predicting its destruction Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:13 AM PDT |
| Saudi Arabia ends death penalty for minors and floggings Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:11 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors, according to a statement Sunday by a top official. The decision comes on the heels of another ordering judges to end the practice of flogging, replacing it with jail time, fines or community service and bringing one of the kingdom's most controversial forms of public punishment to a close. King Salman's son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is seen as the force behind the kingdom's loosening of restrictions and its pivot away from ultraconservative interpretations of Islamic law known as Wahhabism, which many in the country still closely adhere to.
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| Muted and vacant, Las Vegas struggles to survive shutdown Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:07 AM PDT  Slot machines are powered down, casinos boarded up and barricaded. The famous fountains of the Bellagio casino, where water choreographed to lights and music shoots hundreds of feet in the air, are still. On the always busy, always noisy, never sleeping Las Vegas strip, you can now hear birds chirping.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 26 Apr 2020 08:05 AM PDT  As Italy prepares to emerge from the West's first and most extensive coronavirus lockdown, it is increasingly clear that something went terribly wrong in Lombardy, the hardest-hit region in Europe's hardest-hit country. ___
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| Census delay could put off new voting districts, primaries Posted: 26 Apr 2020 07:57 AM PDT  The U.S. Census Bureau needs more time to wrap up the once-a-decade count because of the coronavirus, opening the possibility of delays in drawing new legislative districts that could help determine what political party is in power, what laws pass or fail and whether communities of color get a voice in their states. The number of people counted and their demographics guide how voting districts for the U.S. House and state legislatures are redrawn every 10 years. The monthslong delay in census data could make a divisive process more complicated, potentially forcing lawmakers into costly special sessions to complete the work or postponing some primary elections.
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| Satellite images shed new light on Kim Jong Un's possible whereabouts Posted: 26 Apr 2020 07:45 AM PDT  No one can say for sure what the real situation in North Korea is, but the latest development bolsters evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is alive.Satellite imagery has shown a train believed to belong to Kim parked at his compound in the coastal resort of Wonson, suggesting that he is currently staying outside of the capital, Pyongyang.Rumors began swirling after Kim missed the April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, which is unusual, and Reuters reported Saturday that China dispatched a medical team to "advise on" Kim. But veteran North Korea analysts have downplayed the idea that his health is critical, noting that it's not the first time the leader has vanished from the public eye. South Korean intelligence has maintained the belief that Kim is alive, and U.S. officials are similarly skeptical. The images seem to back that up, but they also don't confirm anything about the state of his health.The Washington Post notes that some experts have pointed out that Kim could have left Pyongyang in light of the coronavirus pandemic — North Korea has insisted it has no cases, a claim doubted by many outside observers.Regardless, North Korea is one of the world's most secretive and isolated nations, making it difficult to gather accurate reports, and it could be some time before there's any clarity on Kim. Read more at The Associated Press and The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com 7 funny cartoons about the oil price crash The president is unwell Missing your stimulus check?
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| Coronavirus sweeps through Iowa firefighter's family Posted: 26 Apr 2020 07:15 AM PDT  His mother first fell sick a month ago with an illness she believes she caught at the Iowa egg factory where she works. Then the coronavirus came for his father, Jose Gabriel Martinez, 58, who died Tuesday in the same hospital where he lived his final days near his unknowing daughter. After a month of caring for his virus-stricken family, firefighter Omar Martinez is now planning a funeral for his father, who was a factory worker known for giving his all to provide for his family.
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| Activists: Turkish troops shoot dead 2 protesters in Syria Posted: 26 Apr 2020 07:07 AM PDT |
| Iran says virus cases pass 90,000 Posted: 26 Apr 2020 06:33 AM PDT  The number of novel coronavirus cases in Iran has passed 90,000, according to official figures released Sunday, as Tehran announced its lowest number of new deaths in weeks. Health authorities have registered 1,153 new cases of the COVID-19 illness since midday Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 90,481, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a daily news briefing. Iran announced its first novel coronavirus cases in February, and is the worst-hit country in the Middle East.
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| Israeli court takes step to halt phone tracking amid virus Posted: 26 Apr 2020 06:24 AM PDT  Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday ordered the Shin Bet security agency to halt its use of phone-surveillance technology in the battle against the coronavirus, unless parliament begins legislating guidelines for the controversial practice. The ruling came hours after Israel's embattled health minister said he would step down following a public uproar over his handling of the crisis and his own COVID-19 infection. Elsewhere in the region, Saudi Arabia signed a $264 million deal with China to provide the ability to conduct 9 million coronavirus tests.
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| Dutch students complete Atlantic crossing forced by virus Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:58 AM PDT  Greeted by relieved parents, pet dogs, flares and a cloud of orange smoke, a group of 25 Dutch high school students with very little sailing experience ended a trans-Atlantic voyage Sunday that was forced on them by coronavirus restrictions. The children, ages 14 to 17, watched over by 12 experienced crew members and three teachers, were on an educational cruise of the Caribbean when the pandemic forced them to radically change their plans for returning home in March. Instead of flying back from Cuba as originally planned, the crew and students stocked up on supplies and warm clothes and set sail for the northern Dutch port of Harlingen, a five-week voyage of nearly 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles), on board the 60-meter (200-foot) top sail schooner Wylde Swan.
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| In Detroit, grief runs deep as city grapples with COVID-19 Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:54 AM PDT  Jamon Jordan could not mourn his mother in the traditional way. At Jacquelynne Jordan's memorial in early April, there were just seven people. No traditional dinner where family members could gather to honor the 66-year-old matriarch's memory.
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| 'You are a miracle': Home care is new front in virus fight Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Ruth Caballero paused outside an unfamiliar apartment door, preparing to meet her new patient. After about three weeks in a hospital, the man was home in his New York apartment but still so weak that sitting up in bed took some persuading. "You made it out of the hospital, so you are a miracle," Caballero told him.
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| Coronavirus: Cuban doctors go to South Africa Posted: 26 Apr 2020 05:28 AM PDT  The medics are among 1,200 sent to countries that requested help from the communist state.
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| Pentagon focusing on most vital personnel for virus testing Posted: 26 Apr 2020 04:58 AM PDT  With limited supplies of coronavirus tests available, the Pentagon is focusing first on testing those performing duties deemed most vital to national security. Atop the list are the men and women who operate the nation's nuclear forces, some counterterrorism forces, and the crew of a soon-to-deploy aircraft carrier. Defense leaders hope to increase testing from the current rate of about 7,000 a day to 60,000 by June.
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| Israel's once-mighty Labor party weighs unity with Netanyahu Posted: 26 Apr 2020 04:18 AM PDT  Israel's Labor party voted on Sunday to join the incoming government headed by arch-rival Benjamin Netanyahu, despite repeated campaign promises to never sit with a prime minister facing criminal indictments. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud is the largest faction, with 36. Around 3,800 members of Labor's central committee were eligible to vote electronically on party leader Amir Peretz's proposal to join the unity government headed by Netanyahu and his main political adversary, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party.
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| Column: The pandemic makes the world more dangerous Posted: 26 Apr 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Trump is pulling back U.S. forces and bombers overseas as Russia, China, Iran and other adversaries expand operations during the coronavirus crisis.
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| Yemen provinces reject separatists' claim to self-rule Posted: 26 Apr 2020 03:04 AM PDT |
| Iran says coronavirus death toll rises by 60 to 5,710 Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:56 AM PDT |
| Will a Woman Run North Korea? Kim’s Sister Outshines Male Rivals Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT |
| Problems vs. ‘Snoblems’: Why Nothing in this COVID-19 Pandemic Separates Us From Them Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:13 AM PDT  ROME—There are problems, and then there are "snoblems," as social media likes to call certain first-world personal issues during the pandemic. And almost anyone with a pen and a platform—myself included— has written about the latter, with harrowing tales of everything from long grocery lines during the lockdown to bad hair and awkward Zoom dates. But just as the privileged slide down the backside of the global coronavirus pandemic, it is those peope in the margins, almost always ignored by society, that we need to be most worried about. The curve has been flattening in most of the hardest hit areas of the global coronavirus crisis, from New York City to northern Italy, where fewer than 500 deaths in a single day now feels oddly victorious. Wuhan is opening for business and Italy will slowly come out of its own coronavirus hibernation in early May. But as Singapore has learned of late, premature celebrations of containment can easily backfire if it is only measured by success among those being counted. The rigorously managed city-state has suffered a recent spike in new cases simply because it wasn't watching those who are easiest to ignore. Migrant workers forced into lockdown in tight dorms are now emerging to help kickstart the Singapore economy, but during the height of the crisis, they were largely untested, and the virus ran wild among them. They now account for a huge increase in cases taxing the health care system and causing leaders to enforce a partial lockdown for the first time in the pandemic. The same is likely to happen across Europe, where migrant workers and seasonal laborers are desperately needed to harvest winter crops. Special dispensation to cross closed borders is now being considered for Romanian harvest workers to come to Italy, where they will move into barrack-style lodgings and work side by side. In the U.K., after calls for furloughed workers from non-ag sectors to step up and work in the farm industry were largely ignored, the government chartered flights to bring Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers in, despite travel bans.Romania has had just over 10,000 positive cases, but has only carried out around 115,000 tests, meaning a large part of the population probably is infected without knowing. Italy does not have the capacity to test seasonal farm workers, who could introduce the virus in the southern regions of the country where winter agriculture is based, and which have largely escaped the brunt of the pandemic. The more than 70 million people displaced by war and conflict worldwide, as tallied by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, have also been locked down without the sorts of testing carried out on other populations. Human Right Watch warns that as nations lift restrictions, many of the migrants will start moving again without any proper care during the critical early stages of the pandemic. On Greek islands where thousands of refugees from the Middle East live in horrific conditions awaiting rulings on their asylum requests, testing is virtually nonexistent. A spokesperson for Doctors Without Borders told The Daily Beast that at the notorious Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, where 19,000 migrants and refugees live in a space meant for just 3,000, there is just one water tap for every 1,300 people and no soap at all. "Families of five or six have to sleep in spaces of no more than three square meters [about 32 square feet]," Dr. Hilde Vochten, MSF's Medical Coordinator in Greece, said recently. "This means that recommended measures such as frequent hand-washing and social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus are just impossible."As the world has learned from watching COVID-19 tear through cruise ships, aircraft carriers and New York City, tight living arrangements are the perfect breeding ground for the virus. In so many parts of the marginalized world—from refugee camps to labor farms—social distancing cannot be enforced effectively and blanket testing for the virus is just not a priority. These also are the environments where other health issues are rampant, from malnutrition to a lack of hygiene, which will complicate even mild cases of COVID-19, and where asymptomatic carriers could easily spread the disease to thousands of people before a single case is confirmed.Moria, like other camps, is serviced by staff who live on the island and come and go from the camps, making it easy for them to spread the disease, and holes in the fences make it easy for many of the population to move freely and return. Writing in The Nation, author and human rights advocate Sasha Abramsky warns of a storm on the horizon. "So preoccupied are we by our own fears and by the U.S. pandemic calamity that we risk forgetting the misfortunes piled on misfortune of the 70 million people around the world currently displaced by war and social collapse," he writes, warning that in the United States, Donald Trump's policies on immigration have caused a bottleneck in facilities where those who may be carrying COVID-19 are neither treated nor released. In the United States, where an estimated 11 million people Trump likes to call "illegal aliens" work in the sectors that solve the snoblems for the rest of us, a lack of access to health care could be deadly, not just for "them" but for "us," too. Out of fear of deportation, these vulnerable undocumented workers are likely to avoid hospitals, and instead stay on the job, working in those businesses that are opening up in some states, like restaurants, massage parlors and bowling alleys. The stark degrees of suffering and vulnerability to COVID-19 have largely focused on the elderly and unwell in the developed world, the strain on normally well-developed health systems that should have been far better prepared, and the shocking lack of preparedness in the world's richest economies. But, writing in The Economist, Bill Gates warns that as the pandemic slows in developed nations, it will accelerate in developing ones. "Their experience, however, will be worse," says Gates. "In poorer countries, where fewer jobs can be done remotely, distancing measures won't work as well." He notes that, "COVID-19 overwhelmed cities like New York, but the data suggest that even a single Manhattan hospital has more intensive-care beds than most African countries. Millions could die."Gates goes on to say he hopes wealthy nations include poorer ones as they move to a post-pandemic world. "Even the most self-interested person—or isolationist government—should agree with this by now," he says. "This pandemic has shown us that viruses don't obey border laws and that we are all connected biologically by a network of microscopic germs, whether we like it or not."But if nothing is done to integrate the needs of those vulnerable populations on the margins—whether at home in the "first world" or abroad in less affluent societies—experts warn they may contribute massively to the second wave of COVID-19. And they won't be as easy to ignore the next time around. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Is Kim Jong Un Dead, Injured, Comatose, Convalescing, Down with COVID-19, or Just F**king With Us? Posted: 26 Apr 2020 02:03 AM PDT  SEOUL—The mystery of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's absence from view for more than two weeks has deepened amid signs he may not be showing up any time soon. Officially, North Korea's state media have not had a word to say about the missing 36-year-old whose obesity, eating, smoking, drinking and working habits make him a prime candidate for heart disease, diabetes, and probably a few other ailments, including a severe case of COVID-19. If Kim Jong Un Dies, His Younger Sister Is Primed to Take OverUnofficially, however, several reports indicate something has happened to him since his last appearance at a session of the political bureau of the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang on April 11. It was right there that he made his last public address, as reported by the state media, exhorting his top aides to work harder to eradicate the novel coronavirus, even though North Korea has never acknowledged a single infection.Might he have caught the bug himself—speaking out knowing that urgent medical treatment was needed the next day, April 12, when he would miss the Supreme People's Assembly? If he wants to keep the world guessing, he certainly has succeeded.Most recently, 38 North, the Washington think tank that closely monitors North Korea, showed satellite imagery of a train standing at a station "reserved for use by the Kim family" in the east coast port city of Wonsan where Kim has ordered construction of a modern tourist complex. Might Kim have been staying near Wonsan at one of his many villas, perhaps under watch by a team of doctors? And might the train have arrived to carry him, dead or alive, back to Pyongyang? Or could it have been intended as a diversion for the eyes in the sky the North Koreans know are up there? Or was there a chance that he was having prolonged medical attention for a reason that was not all that serious? In September and October of 2014, Kim was out of sight for 40 days amid similar speculation. He finally emerged, smiling and carrying a cane, while state media reported he had had a cyst removed from an ankle.Ominously, however, Reuters reported on Saturday that a group of doctors had left China for Pyongyang. Was their mission to keep Kim alive with the latest miracles of modern medicine? The team, led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party's international liaison department, according to Reuters, arrived "amid conflicting reports" about Kim's health but there was no telling if it was responding to a medical emergency. That report jibed with another report that the senior official was the liaison department's director, Song Tao, and that the group of doctors was a "high-level delegation" whose mission was more than medical. The arrival of Song Tao "is a significant datapoint," said Evans Revere, a veteran U.S. diplomat specialized in Korean affairs. Embellishing on this report came word that the Chinese were closing all cross-border rail traffic, most of which had been halted in the first place when the coronavirus was first reported in North Korea. "I was under the impression that such traffic had been stopped long ago because of the pandemic, but they say otherwise," said Revere. What makes the total closure particularly important, Revere was told, is that after the death of Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, in December 2011, cross-border rail traffic was also temporarily suspended.There were, moreover, plenty of other reports, rumors and innuendos, none of which could be confirmed. To give some idea of the type of speculation going around, Bruce Bennett, Korea expert at the Rand Corporation, offered two quite different stories. A former South Korean official "wrote that he had heard from Chinese sources that Kim Jong Un is in a coma, unlikely to recover," said Bennett. "Another report suggests that he was attending a military exercise, that an accident occurred in which he was injured but that he is recovering well." Then there was even "one report that Kim may have angered one of his guards who shot him," said Bennett. Reports of an accident of some sort were not without explanation, if not much foundation. A Korean source with extensive knowledge of affairs in the North says that Kim might have been injured while witnessing a critical exercise on April 14 in which warplanes fired projectiles into the sea near Wonsan in tandem with the test-firing of missiles from a site up the coast. True, on April 12, the day after his politburo appearance, at which his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was named as an alternate member, he had skipped a session of the Supreme People's Assembly, but that could be explained away as not really a biggie. The SPA, after all, is a rubber stamp body of less than huge importance. The missile test on April 14, the day before the 108th anniversary of the birth of Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea after the Japanese surrender in 1945, was a much greater occasion.Kim was there, said the source, and there was definitely an accident at the same scene where a similar accident had occurred in an exercise six years earlier. The source maintained that Kim was not in critical condition—and that sister Yo Jong, widely regarded as the country's second most powerful leader, was at his bedside along with his wife, Ri Sol Ju. All of which would conveniently explain, if true, why Kim wasn't photographed as usual witnessing the test and why he wasn't present the next day, April 15, at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, lined up with a coterie of toadies bowing before the embalmed body of Kim Il Sung, the revered "great leader" under glass. As time goes by, however, that kind of cover story about an accident appears more than a little doubtful. The latest sign that all was not well came on Saturday, April 25, when Kim missed the 88th anniversary of the founding by his grandfather of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army. Sure, the North's state media extolled the armed forces, repeating Kim's earlier calls for building up the country's military strength, but why not even a message from the missing Kim?"KJU was AWOL at 4/25 military holiday. He missed 4/15 (which is a bigger deal)," tweeted Victor Cha, who runs Korean issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There are now more than one source on his incapacitation compared with 24 hrs ago. Still, can't assume anything yet but watch this space…"David Maxwell, who served multiple tours in South Korea as an officer in the army's special forces, offers three possible scenarios: "Poor health led to heart surgery that went bad, He left Pyongyang because senior members of the regime had been exposed to the coronavirus. He is conducting deliberate deception to cause a reaction in the international community because he is being ignored."The report of the train parked near Wonson "supports all three scenarios," said Maxwell. "He could have been in Wonsan where his surgery took place. He could have been there to escape the coronavirus in Pyongyang, and he could be there to conduct another missile and rocket launch."Or, yes, the train "could be there to return his body to Pyongyang," said Maxwell. "The bottom line: we just do not know. "As evidence of just how easy it is to jump to the wrong conclusions, Maxwell cites an article by the Tokyo bureau chief of The New York Times on November 17, 1986, under the headline, in all capital letters, "KIM IL SUNG, AT 74, IS REPORTED DEAD." That Kim died nearly eight years later. 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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| Kim Jong-un's train spotted at North Korea coastal resort amid conflicting rumours over health Posted: 26 Apr 2020 01:54 AM PDT  A special train believed to belong to Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was spotted this week at a coastal resort, boosting speculation that he may be staying there while being treated for reported health problems. Satellite images reviewed by the Washington-based North Korea monitoring project 38 North, appeared to show that a train similar to Kim's was parked in the so-called "leadership station" – reserved for the use of the Kim family - in Wonsan, on the east coast, on April 21 and 23. The report comes amid wildly varying rumours that Kim, said to be 36, recently had cardiovascular surgery and was either recovering or possibly in "grave danger." Worst case scenarios have been played down this week by the South Korean government – who noted no unusual activity in North Korea - and Donald Trump, the US president. China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on Kim, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters. "The train's presence does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health but it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country's eastern coast," 38 North said on Saturday. The group revealed that the luxury Wonsan complex includes nine large guesthouses, a protected port, shooting range, recreation building and a covered dock that is believed to be used for Kim's mega yacht. A nearby small runway had been converted into a horse-riding track to match Kim's latest hobby. If confirmed, the ability of Kim to travel around the country on his train might suggest that he is recuperating from illness rather than in a life-threatening condition. Dong-a-Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, cited a US official in Washington saying the leader had been seen walking around in Wonsan. "There is a lot we don't know about Kim Jong-un, but the one thing we do know is that he is dangerously overweight and unhealthy," said Richard McGregor, senior fellow with Australian think tank the Lowy Institute. "The Chinese would have been keen to send in a medical team, if for no other reason than to gather intelligence. "The North Koreans are very suspicious of China and they are often as much in the dark on elite leadership developments as anyone else." Kim's location and health condition has been the subject of heated speculation since he failed to show up at events to celebrate the anniversary of the birthday of North Korean founding father, and his grandfather - Kim Il-sung on April 15. Since he came to power in 2011, Kim has not missed the celebration of the Day of the Sun, one of the most important national holidays of the year. Rumours he had missed the event for health reasons were kicked off by The Daily NK, a new site founded by South Korean human rights and democracy activists, which cited an anonymous source as saying that Kim had undergone a "cardiovascular surgical procedure" on April 12 and was mostly recovered. This was followed by a more alarming claim by an unnamed US official who told CNN that the US was "monitoring intelligence" that the North Korean leader was in "grave danger" following a surgery. President Trump later accused CNN of making the report up, but Robert O'Brien, the US national security adviser, confirmed that Washington is "keeping a close eye" on reports regarding Kim's health.
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| German New Coronavirus Cases Hold Below 2,000; 154 Deaths Posted: 26 Apr 2020 01:53 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The number of new confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany held below 2,000 for a second day as government officials warned against a premature easing of restrictions in Europe's biggest economy. New fatalities were at the second-lowest level in six days.Deaths rose by 154 to 5,877 in the 24 hours through Sunday morning, a slight pick up from Saturday's daily increase of 148, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There were 1,968 new cases, bringing the total to 156,513, the fourth-highest in Europe.As confinement measures are taking their toll on the economy, almost a fifth of German companies are worried about insolvency spurred by the coronavirus fallout. Family run businesses are increasingly frustrated with Chancellor Angela Merkel's step-by-step response to the pandemic, according to a report in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.Still, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder warned on Saturday against high expectations that the chancellor and leaders from Germany's 16 states might take more decisive steps at a meeting next week."It's good to exchange views as often as possible, but I wouldn't expect too much this time," Soeder said in an interview with Focus magazine. "It would make sense if we did an update next Thursday, but not rush into additional rash actions."Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has meanwhile dampened expectations of an early re-opening of European travel destinations. "A European race to see who will allow tourist travel first will lead to unacceptable risks," Maas said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper, recalling infections in the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl. "We have already experienced what an infection cluster in a popular holiday resort can do in the home countries of tourists. This must not be repeated."A wave of bankruptcies may hit the tourism industry, according to the DRV association of travel companies. About 60% of travel agencies and tour operators see themselves threatened by insolvency and one in five was forced to lay off employees, Bild am Sonntag reported, citing a DRV survey among its members. Some 80% of the companies have applied for state aid."If we don't receive specific support from the federal government soon, the travel industry as we know it -- dominated by small- and medium-sized enterprises, with many small tour operators and travel agencies -- will very soon no longer exist," Norbert Fiebig, the lobby's president, told the newspaper.(Updates with travel industry survey from seventh 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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| Spain lets children play as US states move at various speeds Posted: 25 Apr 2020 10:33 PM PDT  Spain let children go outside and play Sunday for the first time in six weeks as European countries methodically worked to ease their lockdowns and reopen their economies, while governors in the United States moved at differing speeds, some more aggressive, others more cautious. While governors in states like hard-hit New York and Michigan are keeping stay-at-home restrictions in place until at least mid-May, their counterparts in places such as Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska are allowing certain businesses to reopen. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said each state is different.
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| Yemen separatists declare self-governance of south Posted: 25 Apr 2020 09:36 PM PDT  Yemen separatists on Sunday declared self-governance of the country's south, as a peace deal with the government crumbled, complicating its long conflict with the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who control much of the north. The Southern Transitional Council accused the government of failing to perform its duties and of "conspiring" against the southern cause, and said self-governance had begun at midnight. Yemen's southern separatists -- who have long agitated for independence -- signed a power-sharing deal in Riyadh last November that quelled a battle for the south which had seen them seize control of the second city of Aden.
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| Satellite imagery finds likely Kim train amid health rumors Posted: 25 Apr 2020 08:27 PM PDT  A train likely belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been parked at his compound on the country's east coast since last week, satellite imagery showed, amid speculation about his health that has been caused, in part, by a long period out of the public eye. The satellite photos released by 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, don't say anything about Kim's potential health problems, and they echo South Korean government intelligence that Kim is staying outside of the capital, Pyongyang. Seoul has also repeatedly indicated that there have been no unusual signs that could indicate health problems for Kim.
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| Satellite images show a train possibly belonging to Kim Jong Un at a North Korean resort town, amid rumors about his health Posted: 25 Apr 2020 08:23 PM PDT |
| Satellite images show a train possibly belonging to Kim Jong Un at a North Korean resort town, amid rumors about his health Posted: 25 Apr 2020 08:23 PM PDT  A Washington-based North Korea monitoring project has reviewed satellite images showing what may be Kim Jong Un's train in a resort town.
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| Yemen's southern separatists claim sole control of Aden Posted: 25 Apr 2020 06:00 PM PDT |
