North Korea accused several European nations of “illogical thinking” Saturday after they called a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting to condemn missile launches by the reclusive state earlier this week.Britain, Germany, France, Estonia and Belgium raised North Korea’s latest missile firings at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, calling them a provocative action that violated U.N. resolutions.North Korea fired two short-range missiles off the east coast into the sea on Monday after a three-month halt. The launches, which officials have said were routine military drills, were personally overseen by its leader Kim Jong Un.”The illogical thinking and sophism of these countries are just gradually bearing a close resemblance to the United States, which is hostile to us,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement to the state-run KCNA news agency.The spokesperson, who was not named, described the European action as “reckless behavior … instigated by the United States.”Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader and a senior government official, defended Monday’s launches as military drills, saying they were not meant to threaten anyone.
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Month: March 2020
UN: Nearly 1 Million DRC Refugees in Urgent Need of Support
The U.N. refugee agency Friday launched an appeal for $621 million to assist nearly 1 million refugees who have fled violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo seeking safety in neighboring countries. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva. The situation in the DRC remains one of Africa’s most complex and long-standing humanitarian crises. Hopes that violence would lessen following the peaceful transition of presidential power after December 2018 elections have not materialized.The situation in the eastern part of the country is particularly serious. The U.N. refugee agency says the humanitarian and security situation there continues to deteriorate. UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch says tens of thousands of new refugees are fleeing for their lives across borders to escape ongoing armed conflict and intercommunal violence.”Since the beginning of 2019, we have seen around 100,000 refugees seeking refuge in the neighboring countries. Some 40,000 of those in the last three months starting from the first of December,” Baloch said.Most have gone to Uganda, which is now sheltering nearly 400,000 of the refugees. Hundreds of thousands of others have fled to Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola and the Republic of Congo.Baloch told VOA the appeal also aims to assist the host countries, which he said struggle to support themselves as well as the thousands of refugees.”We have a situation where camps are overstretched in terms of their capacity. We need to do more in terms of providing refugees with shelter. But food, health and also many of these refugees are youngsters in terms of being able to attend school. Education suffers as well,” Baloch said.The UNHCR says it is hoping for a better response to this year’s appeal than to that of 2019, when only 22% of its $720 million appeal was funded.
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China Rejects Report It Fired Laser at US Navy Plane
China’s Defense Ministry says a report one of its navy ships fired a laser last month at a U.S. Navy surveillance plane circling overhead does not “accord with reality.”
The report last month was the latest accusation that Chinese forces have used lasers to harass and potentially damage U.S. and other nations’ military aircraft and personnel.
However, ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang was quoted as saying Friday that the ministry “refuted” the report and said a Chinese squadron was conducting routine exercises in international waters on Feb. 17 when the incident allegedly happened.
In China’s first public comments on the alleged incident, Ren accused an American P-8A Poseidon of carrying out “long-period circling reconnaissance at low-altitude despite repeated warnings from the Chinese side.”
“The American aircraft’s behavior was unfriendly in intention and unprofessional by operation, which severely threatened the safety of the vessels, aircraft and crew of both sides,” he said.
The U.S. Navy waited more than a week before accusing the Chinese ship of firing a laser at a U.S. surveillance aircraft flying over the Philippine Sea west of Guam, an act the U.S. deemed unsafe and a violation of international codes and agreements. The statement from U.S. Pacific Fleet said the laser was detected by sensors on the aircraft, but was not visible to the naked eye.
The Philippine Sea lies far to the north and west of the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety despite countering claims by others.
The U.S. has sought to avoid such incidents with the signing of agreements with China on handling unexpected incidents at sea and in the air, but Beijing has apparently not followed those protocols consistently.
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South Korea, Japan Butt Heads Over Coronavirus Prevention
After months of cooling tensions, Japan and South Korea may be on the verge of another row, this time, over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.South Korea sent out a foreboding omen Friday after Japan said it would quarantine travelers from South Korea or China. South Korea’s National Security Council called the decision “unreasonable, excessive and extremely regrettable,” adding it would consider reciprocal measures.South Korea now has the second-largest outbreak in the world, with at least 6,767 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 45 deaths as of mid-afternoon Saturday. Meanwhile, Japan has more than 1,000 cases between its mainland and the Princess Diamond cruise ship. The nations, however, have taken different approaches in handling their outbreaks — South Korea has tested its citizens for COVID-19 aggressively compared to Japan, using thousands of kits more per day.In Japan, chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga called the travel curbs decision “result of a comprehensive review of the information available about the situation in other countries and the effects of other measures.”Although several other nations have banned the entry of South Korean travelers, Japan’s move likely hit a nerve with Seoul because of already-existing, unresolved conflicts between the two countries.An empty departures are is pictured at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, March 4, 2020.A dispute broke out between the two countries last year after Tokyo restricted exports of three products used in South Korean electronics on national security grounds. Many in South Korea saw the export restrictions as retaliation for a South Korean Supreme Court order that a Japanese company compensate living Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s World War II occupation of the Korean peninsula, and boycotted Japanese products.”I think we have to see this in context of very poor bilateral relations between the two countries,” said Peter Ward, a researcher on the North Korean economy. “The imposition of trade sanctions, the boycott in South Korea, the forced labor disputes … It has to be seen in that context.”Although the boycotts have died down, Japan’s decision to quarantine South Korean travelers may be provoking old strife.”Put it this way: If another country that was not Japan had outlined such measures, I’m not sure that South Korea would have been so quick to respond the way they have,” Ward said.”It is regrettable that a public health threat that knows no borders is complicated by nationalist politics,” said Leif Eric-Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.Ultimately, he said, “the need and opportunities for cooperation regarding COVID-19 should outweigh the points of friction.”
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China’s Exports Slump as Anti-virus Controls Close Factories
China’s exports fell by double digits in January and February as anti-virus controls closed factories, while imports sank by a smaller margin.Exports tumbled 17.2% from a year earlier to $292.4 billion, a sharp reverse from December’s 7.8% rise, customs data showed Saturday. Imports declined 4% to $299.5 billion, down from the previous month’s 16.3% gain.Trade was poised for a boost after Beijing and Washington removed punitive tariffs on some of each other’s goods in a trade truce signed in January. But that was offset by Chinese anti-virus controls that shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy in late January.Exports to the United States plunged 27.7% in January and February to $43 billion, worsening from December’s 12.5% decline. Imports of American goods crept up 2.5% to $17.6 billion, but China still recorded a $25.4 billion trade surplus with the United States.China’s global trade balance fell to a $7.1 billion deficit for the first two months of the year.Factories reopen slowlyManufacturers that make the world’s smartphones, toys and other consumer goods are reopening but say the pace will be dictated by how quickly supply chains start functioning again. Forecasters say industries are unlikely to be back to normal production before at least April.Until the virus outbreak, Chinese trade had been unexpectedly resilient despite Beijing’s tariff war with President Donald Trump over its technology ambitions and trade surplus. Last year’s exports rose 0.5% over 2018.Beijing told exporters to pursue other markets in Asia, Europe and Africa after Trump slapped punitive duties on their goods starting in 2018. China retaliated by raising tariffs on American soybeans and other goods.Some of those penalties were rolled back after the two sides signed a “Phase 1” agreement in January. Washington canceled additional planned tariff hikes and Beijing promised to buy more American farm exports.Economists warn the truce fails to address contentious U.S.-Chinese disputes that might take years to resolve.
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Trump Campaign Takes Third News Organization to Court
The Trump campaign filed a libel lawsuit against CNN on Friday for a column about the president and election help from Russia, the third such action against a news organization taken in the past two weeks.The campaign said a piece by Larry Noble posted last June on the CNN website falsely says that the campaign considered seeking Russia’s help in the 2020 campaign and decided to leave that option on the table.'' It made the complaint in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, where CNN is based.The lawsuit said the article doesn't back up Noble's statement with evidence, and that CNN and Noble had both shown a pattern of bias against Trump.The network had no comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman said.Earlier this week, the campaign sued The Washington Post for similar opinion pieces that discussed the Trump campaign welcoming Russian help in 2016. A week earlier, The New York Times was the target, for a Max Frankel op-ed suggesting Trump and Russia had an understanding to exchange campaign help for more favorable policies toward the country.The Trump campaign is trying to send a message, both to the press and the public, that you criticize the president at your peril,” said Brian Hauss, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.FILE – An editorial titled “A Free Press Needs You” is published in The New York Times, Aug. 16, 2018, in New York. U.S. newspapers were pushing back against President Donald Trump’s attacks on “fake news.”After the lawsuit against the Times, First Amendment lawyer Theodore Boutrous wrote in the Post that the action had little chance of success in court.Trump's lawsuit may be frivolous,'' Boutrous wrote.His intentions are serious and dangerous to us all.”The Times, Post and CNN have all been frequent targets of Trump’s Twitter attacks against the press. During Trump’s presidency through this week, he’s tweeted about CNN 191 times, with 106 of those tweets containing the word fake.''Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign, said the publications had recklessly published false statements and intentionally misled their readers.False statements are not protected under the U.S. Constitution,” Ellis said. Therefore, these suits will have no chilling effect on freedom of the press. If journalists are more accurate in their statements and their reporting, that would be a positive development, but not why these suits were filed.''The lawsuits make no differentiation between news reporting and editorial pieces. Noble is a CNN contributor and a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.CNN Opinion” banner and includes a note that Noble’s opinions
His article was published under theare solely those of the author.''The lawsuit claims the article caused damage to the campaign in themillions of dollars.”
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Report: US Intelligence Says Taliban Plan to Break Peace Deal
A U.S. media outlet reported Friday that the U.S. government had intelligence that the Taliban did not plan to abide by promises they made in the recent peace agreement with the United States.NBC News cited three U.S. intelligence officials, who remained anonymous in the report, saying the U.S. intelligence indicated the Taliban viewed the peace process as a way to secure the withdrawal of U.S. troops. After the troops leave Afghanistan, the Taliban plan to attack the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan, according to the report.The U.S.-Taliban agreement signed last Saturday calls for the Taliban to stop harboring terrorists and to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government in exchange for a U.S. pledge to withdraw troops.The deal sets the stage for Washington to close America’s longest war and bring home in the next 14 months roughly 13,000 troops from Afghanistan.The agreement also requires both sides not to attack each other’s forces and binds the insurgent group not to carry out suicide and other bombings in Afghan urban centers.British soldiers with the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 6, 2020.More violenceDespite the deal, there has been a surge in battlefield violence during this week. However, U.S. military commanders have played it down and vowed to uphold their part of the deal.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday, “We still have confidence the Taliban leadership is working to deliver on its commitments,” despite the ongoing violence. However, he acknowledged the “road ahead will be difficult.”The Taliban insurgency swiftly denied its involvement in an attack Friday in which a gunman opened fire on a gathering in Kabul, killing at least 32 people and injuring about 60 others. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack.The U.S.-Taliban deal also calls for up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners being held in Afghan jails and 1,000 members of Afghan forces in insurgent custody to be freed in the run-up to intra-Afghan talks set for Tuesday.However, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said after the deal was signed that he had not given any commitment to Washington to free Taliban prisoners.
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Tangled Web of Russia’s Cyber Underground Further Exposed in US Hacker Trial
In March 2012, a 25-year-old Russian computer whiz named Yevgeny Nikulin sat with several others in a conference room in a hotel in eastern Moscow. A video taken by a Ukrainian named Oleksandr Ieremenko showed them discussing plans for an Internet cafe business and other matters.In an earlier part of the video, Ieremenko, 19, drives to the hotel to meet the group, which he calls a “summit of bad [expletives].”That same month, according to U.S. prosecutors, Nikulin broke into a social media company engineer’s computer a half a world away, in California — and allegedly stole the usernames and passwords used by tens of millions of people to access their LinkedIn accounts. Some of that data was put up for sale on a notorious Russian hacker forum that June.These details and other evidence were contained in pretrial motions prosecutors filed this week ahead of the opening of Nikulin’s trial in U.S. federal court in San Francisco. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.The case against Nikulin, who was arrested in 2016 in Prague and extradited to the United States in 2018, is the latest example of a Russian citizen facing prosecution in the United States for cybercrimes. It’s a trend that has infuriated the Russian Foreign Ministry, which complains that the United States is “hunting” Russians around the globe.But the pretrial motions add yet more evidence of the web of relationships among Russia’s cyber underworld, allegedly tying Nikulin, now 32, to people who have been charged with even bigger, more serious hacks. That includes a hacker who allegedly worked for Russian intelligence to steal hundreds of millions of Yahoo user credentials — possibly used in the 2016 hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee, according to cyberexperts.Nikulin, who was examined by court-ordered psychologists last year amid concerns about his mental health, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.Arkady Bukh, one of Nikulin’s lawyers, said prosecution lawyers appeared to be trying to pressure Nikulin to plead guilty ahead of the trial — particularly, he said, since the conviction rate for such cybercases is high.Nikulin, however, has refused his lawyer’s counsel to change his plea to guilty.’Zhenya’ from MoscowAccording to prosecutors’ evidence, the video showing Nikulin, Ieremenko and others was from a hard drive seized by Ukrainian authorities who raided Ieremenko’s home in Kyiv, and the homes of several other alleged Ukrainian hackers, in November 2012.An FBI affidavit said photographs found on the hard drive included photos that said “Zhenya from Moscow” — a diminutive form of the name Yevgeny.The U.S. Secret Service obtained the hard drive as part of an investigation into hacks of several business newswires, a scheme that involved selling unreleased corporate information to stock traders who then made trades based on the nonpublic information.Ieremenko, now 27, was implicated in that scheme, but he gained wider notoriety in 2019 when U.S. authorities indicted him and another Ukrainian in connection with a similar scam that traded on corporate earnings reports stolen from a database of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ieremenko is believed to be in Russia.According to the trial motions, Nikulin worked closely with Ieremenko in 2012, sharing hacked passwords and coding tips, using Skype accounts. A Skype address they tied to Nikulin — dex.007 — was used to send Ieremenko a link containing the password to one of Nikulin’s accounts on a domain hosting site, along with stolen LinkedIn credentials.’Reporting on the spot’The video, one of eight copied from Ieremenko’s hard drive, was shot on March 18 or 19, 2012. In it, the person making the video narrates it, saying: “In short, we are reporting on the spot. Now, here at this Vega Izmailovo Hotel, there will be a f****** summit of bad motherf*****s,” according to the U.S. transcript submitted in the court record.Nikulin also worked closely with another Russian, Nikita Kislitsin, who was indicted in the United States in 2014 on conspiracy charges related to the hack of another, lesser-known social media company called Formspring. Kislitsin’s indictment, which was under seal since being filed, was unsealed earlier this week.U.S. prosecutors say that, three months after the Moscow meeting, Nikulin himself stole 30 million user credentials from Formspring and utilized some of those credentials when he hacked into the LinkedIn engineer’s computer.According to the court documents, the FBI used “court-ordered electronic interceptions” — phone and email taps — to track Nikulin in 2012 and 2013.U.S. investigators discovered overlap with another Russian, Aleksei Belan, under investigation in connection with a separate hack: the theft of user credentials from the Internet giant Yahoo, beginning in 2013.FILE – A cyclist rides past a Yahoo sign at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., July 19, 2016. The Yahoo hack announced in December 2016 exposed personal details from all of the company’ user accounts.Yahoo eventually revealed all 3 billion of its users had had their credentials compromised in what is today considered one of the largest data breaches in the history of the internet.Prosecutors said the FBI, which had obtained a court-authorized warrant to search Belan’s e-mail and tap his phones, found that Belan, along with Kislitsin, purchased the Formspring passwords in July 2012.That same year, Belan was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for cyberthieves. The following year, he was arrested in Greece at the request of U.S. authorities. But he avoided being extradited and escaped back into Russia, according to U.S. and European authorities.In 2014, according to previous U.S. documents, Belan was recruited by Russia’s main intelligence and security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and its cyberunit, known as the Center for Information Security.Belan, according to the 2016 Yahoo hack indictment, was ordered by the FSB cyberunit to conduct the breach of Yahoo accounts.In all, U.S. officials charged four people with the Yahoo breach, including two FSB officers. Those officers themselves were later arrested by the FSB itself and charged with state treason, allegedly for passing classified intelligence to U.S. agencies.One, Sergei Mikhailov, pleaded not guilty to the Russian charges and was sentenced last year to 22 years in prison. The other, Dmitry Dokuchaev, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators. He was handed a six-year sentence.In December 2016, in response to the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had tried to meddle in the presidential election won by Donald Trump that year, the administration of outgoing President Barack Obama announced sweeping sanctions against Belan and another Russian, who also allegedly had ties to Russian intelligence, Yevgeny Bogachev.The interference, according to U.S. intelligence, included the hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the theft of emails that were later leaked publicly during the election campaign. U.S. officials, and cyberanalysts, have said the FSB was among those responsible for the hack, and that the stolen Yahoo credentials may been used to trick victims into letting hackers steal their emails.Kislitsin connectionsA further illustration of the web of ties among Russia’s cyber underground comes in the case of Kislitsin, who attended the March 2012 meeting in Moscow with Nikulin and Ieremenko.Kislitsin, according the U.S. prosecutors, allegedly partnered with Belan to get the Formspring data from Nikulin in July 2012.The following year, in 2013, Kislitsin met with an official from the U.S. Justice Department to discuss “research into the [cyber]underground,” according to Group IB, a prominent Russian cybersecurity and research firm.Kislitsin was joined in the meeting with the Justice Department official by representatives from Group IB, according to a Group IB statement provided to RFE/RL.Group IB later hired Kislitsin, and he is currently listed as the “head of network security” for the company.Asked for comment about the newly unsealed charges, which include conspiracy and trafficking in stolen user names and passwords, against Kislitsin, Group IB said that they predated his employment.”The information that has become public contains only allegations, and no findings have been made that Nikita Kislitsin has engaged in any wrongdoing,” the company said in the statement to RFE/RL.The company also said that after the 2013 meeting with the Justice Department official, “neither Group-IB nor Nikita Kislitsin has been officially approached with any additional questions.”And there’s one other connection involving Kislitsin. He previously worked as editor in chief for a well-known Russian cybermagazine called Hacker, where the ex-FSB officer Dokuchaev worked for him, writing under his nickname, Forb.’I want to hack the prison’Nikulin was arrested in Prague in October 2016 after his entrance into the country a few days earlier triggered a notification among Czech law enforcement.He and his lawyers strenuously fought the U.S. request for his extradition. Ultimately, he was sent to the United States in March 2018, prompting an angry statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which called it “a conscious, politically motivated step by the Czech side aimed at undermining the constructive basis of bilateral cooperation.”While in U.S. custody, Nikulin was reported by prison authorities as behaving strangely, prompting a judge to order a psychological examination. He was later deemed competent to stand trial.”He is refusing to accept a guilty plea, and this is another example of his mental condition,” Bukh told RFE/RL.The evidence that will be introduced in the trial also included other less significant but revealing comments, including a transcript of a phone conversation Nikulin had with a woman named Anya in November 2018.In the conversation, Nikulin complained that he had not received food, books or magazines, as he requested. He also joked with Anya.”I want to hack the prison,” he is quoted as saying. “The rules here are stupid.”This story was first published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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Thai Health Official: No Mandatory Coronavirus Quarantine for High-Risk Country Arrivals
An official at Thailand’s Health Ministry on Friday denied news reports that the government had ordered the compulsory quarantine of all arrivals from the four countries hardest hit by the novel coronavirus whether or not they were infected or showing symptoms, after days of mixed messages.The government labeled China, Iran, Italy and South Korea — along with Hong Kong and Macau — “dangerous communicable disease areas” on Thursday. The same day, Reuters news agency reported that all arrivals from those areas would have to quarantine themselves for 14 days, either at home or in their hotels, citing Health Ministry spokesman Rungrueng Kitphati.Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul had announced the compulsory quarantine for arrivals from the countries and territories on Facebook on Tuesday — along with France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan — but deleted his post soon after and closed the account the next day. He told local media that the list needed revising.On Friday afternoon, Tanarak Pipat, deputy director-general of the Health Ministry’s disease control department, told VOA that there was no mandatory quarantine order for arrivals from any country for the time being.”No, not yet,” he said. “We did not quarantine the travelers.”Asked whether the government might yet impose a compulsory quarantine on arrivals from any country, Tanarak replied, “maybe, just maybe.”The AFP news agency reported that the government was “recommending” that arrivals from the four countries self-quarantine, however, and insisted that they report to authorities on their health status daily.People line up to buy face masks amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, outside a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, March 5, 2020.Thailand has also been moving ahead tentatively with “social distancing” efforts to cut down on large crowds through which the virus might spread. Authorities have postponed one of the country’s largest sporting events, the MotoGP 2020, scheduled for later this month over outbreak fears and suspended the full-moon parties on Koh Phangan, which draw thousands of revelers a month, until further notice.Thailand was the first country outside of China to report an infection of Covid-19, as the new virus is officially known. But the country has since kept new cases in check. It reported its 48th confirmed case on Friday, a British man who arrived via Hong Kong. Of the 48 patients, 31 have recovered and one has died.The concern the World Health Organization (WHO) has with any possible blanket policy of compulsory quarantine is its risk or looking like and in effect acting as an international travel ban, which it advises against.”Our formal line on this is that it’s not really recommended,” Dr. Rick Brown, health and emergency program manager for the WHO in Thailand, told VOA.”Until now there’s really been insufficient evidence to really inform a very, very considered scientific debate about it. But on the basis of the evidence that’s available so far, it seems like travel restrictions don’t necessarily work. And they do also have these collateral disadvantages.”He said travel restrictions imposed during the Ebola virus outbreak that hit parts of Africa some years ago hurt efforts to fight the disease by making it harder for health professionals and medical supplies to reach the affected area.”So I think it’s a combination of: Is there very good evidence that the measures that are actually going to be effective in slowing the spread of the disease balanced against all the kind of collateral, negative impacts that a restriction on travel will have?” he said.Brown said he was impressed with the Thai government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis to date, praising its laboratories, coordination between agencies, emergency operations centers and case follow-up.Despite those efforts, the crisis has taken a heavy toll on Thailand’s already flagging economy, which draws heavily on tourist dollars. The tourism authority says the outbreak could cost the country 15% of the roughly 40 million foreign arrivals the country sees each year. Forecasters expect GDP growth in 2020 to dip below 2% owing partly to the virus.
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EU Announces Syria Donors Conference for June
The European Union said Friday that it would host an international donors conference in June for refugees from Syria and surrounding countries, even as the bloc criticized Turkey for using asylum-seekers as political pawns.Announcement of the June 29-30 donors conference came during an EU foreign ministers meeting in Zagreb that addressed two related refugee crises. The first involved the roughly 1 million Syrians hoping to cross Turkey’s now-closed borders to safety, following an uptick in fighting in Idlib. It remains unclear whether their situation might ease under a new cease-fire in the region, agreed upon by Ankara and Moscow. Europe’s second migrant concern relates to the thousands now clamoring to cross Turkey’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria, which now are also closed. Their massive arrival over the past few days came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country needed more EU support to handle its Syrian refugee burden. Under a 2016 deal, the Europeans earmarked nearly $6.8 billion in assistance for Turkey to care for the refugees within its borders and block them from moving on to Europe. But Ankara says the EU has been slow to pay up, and the money goes to aid agencies rather than directly to the government. European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a news conference after an EU foreign affairs council in Zagreb, Croatia, March 6, 2020.The Europeans say they will not be blackmailed with the migrant surge. That also was the message sent by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.“Encouraging refugees and migrants to attempt illegal crossing into the European Union is not an acceptable way for Turkey to push for further support of the European Union,” he said.The migrants put the EU in a difficult spot. Those now clamoring at the frontier have helped to sharpen tensions between Turkey and EU member Greece. At the same time, it needs Turkey to prevent another major migrant influx, as happened a few years ago. And, like Greece, Turkey is a NATO ally. ‘Big pressure’So, along with criticizing Ankara, the Europeans are expressing sympathy for Turkey’s migrant dilemma.“We understand the big pressure that Turkey is suffering,” Borrell said. “Four million people. Four million refugees. It’s the biggest number of refugees that any country in the world is facing.”The EU is considering increasing assistance to Turkey. But diplomats say Ankara first must fully honor its migrant deal with Europe.
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At UN, Call to Action for Women’s Day
The U.N. secretary-general said Friday that 25 years after action was demanded at a landmark conference in Beijing, progress on women’s rights has stalled and even been reversed.“Some countries have rolled back laws that protect women from violence; others are reducing civic space; still others are pursuing economic and immigration policies that indirectly discriminate against women,” Antonio Guterres warned at a commemoration ahead of International Women’s Day, which is Sunday.Guterres told a General Assembly hall full of diplomats, activists, women and girls that bias against gender equality is growing in some countries.“We must push back against the pushback,” he said. “We cannot give way; we refuse to lose the ground we have won.”In a new report, the U.N. said men still overwhelmingly hold elected positions, make more money, and have access to better jobs and education.Societal obstaclesIn addition, women in many parts of the world are still trying to overcome societal obstacles, including child marriage, illiteracy, domestic violence and lack of access to family planning. Rural and indigenous women face even more hurdles, in addition to discrimination and deeper poverty.The secretary-general was joined by several trailblazing women, including the world’s youngest female prime minister, Sanna Marin of Finland. She is 34 and heads a coalition government in which women lead all five parties. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson listens to British politician Liz Truss during a panel event and reception to mark International Women’s Day at Downing Street in Westminster, London, March 5, 2020.Finland has been at the forefront pursuing gender equality for decades, including being the first state to grant women full political rights – both to vote and to run for office.“Change does not happen overnight,” Marin said. “We had to harness the resources of the whole society because we simply could not disregard half of the population.”She said family-friendly policies such as paid parental leave, publicly funded child care and even free school lunches played a significant role in advancing gender equality. She noted that many of these policies were introduced by female legislators. “I argue that the best way to get gender transformative policies is to have more women in high-level decision-making positions,” she said.’We have touched a nerve’Veteran activist and author Charlotte Bunch said there was a clear reason for the backlash against gains women have made. “Because we have touched a nerve; we have touched the possibility of profound social change,” she said. Many feminists are focused on the pushback against women’s reproductive and sexual rights, especially in some Western countries, including the United States. “It is a backlash that understands controlling our bodies is fundamental to taking our own power to be a part of those changes,” she said.Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee of Liberia urged governments to move beyond the rhetoric of women’s rights and take real action that will lead to change. “Our rights should not just be important during election season; they should be important at all times,” Gbowee said.
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Cameroon Calls for Increased Hygiene Measures After First Coronavirus Case
Cameroon confirmed the central African state’s first case of COVID-19 on its territory Friday. Officials say it was discovered in a French citizen who arrived in Cameroon on Feb. 24. Cameroon Health Minister Manaouda Malachie says the 58-year-old man was immediately placed in solitary confinement in a special hospital in. Malachie credited surveillance measures put in place by Cameroon after COVID-19 appeared in China with detecting the case and called on Cameroon’s population to be calm.He said shortly after it was suspected the man was a carrier of the virus, he was immediately confined to avoid contact with others. Malachie said health officials started tracing the people the infected man contacted from the airport of departure through the plane’s arrival in Cameroon, as well as taxis or cars he used. They also disinfected places he visited. Malachie said this wasn’t the first case in which COVID-19 was suspected, but previous cases were found to be negative after thorough investigations.Malachie called on citizens to be calm and vigilant, saying that medical staff in the country has been advised on how to handle coronavirus cases. But news of the first coronavirus in Cameroon has scared people. Some rushed to hospitals and pharmacies to ask for advice or buy medical facemasks. Forty-three-year-old Isaac Dufe, who bought three masks for his wife and two-year-old baby, said he doesn’t have confidence that the Cameroon government will be able to control the virus’s spread should many more people be found with it. “Cases of diseases have been recorded in this country, for instance, a case like cholera,” he said. “When there is an outbreak of cholera, in many situations in claims a lot of lives. But now we are talking about a very complicated disease like Coronavirus, so I am so scared that if adequate health measures are not taken, then the situation might be very difficult in Cameroon.”Phanuel Habimana, a World Health Organization representative for Cameroon, said it is following up on the case. He says Cameroonians should not panic, but must make sure they respect basic hygiene norms.”Cameroonians should remain calm,” Habimana said. “Cameroonians should not rush to pharmacies to try to get masks. Cameroonians should abide to the measures that the minister [of health] has been repeatedly mentioning. Personal hygiene, washing hands several times a day, when someone is coughing, cover the mouth and nose with handkerchiefs and also make sure that people do not get in contact closely with people who are suspected to be sick.”Last January, Cameroon health officials announced they had improved checkpoints around airports as they feared the virus could be brought into the country by travelers from China and other countries.Health Minister Malachie said as part of epidemiological surveillance, measures had been put in place to prevent any possible importation of the deadly virus, which he said was an epidemic that causes diseases in mammals and birds and that in humans, the virus causes respiratory infections, which are typically mild but, in rare cases, can be lethal. Symptoms include running nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and the feeling of being unwell. B There is no vaccine for this virus and the only way to protect oneself is through prevention, health officials in Cameroon say.
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EU Ministers Meet to Tackle Coronavirus Outbreak
European Union health ministers held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the latest developments regarding the coronavirus outbreak. The continental bloc is trying to improve its collective response to the coronavirus outbreak, aside from some members’ decision to ban the export of protective equipment such as masks.
The last time EU health ministers met, on Feb. 13, no deaths had yet been reported in Europe. Now there have been more than 110 coronavius fatalities on the continent, according to the latest figures from the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC).
With confirmed cases being reported daily in Italy and France, some member states are moving unilaterally to protect against the outbreak, but officials say a coordinated approach is most effective.EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides says each state’s readiness is important but so is acting in coordination.
“We need to remain calm, we need to remain focused but the greatest strength that we all have, as an EU is our solidarity. And we need to work together and work closely because it is on this strength that we would be able to overcome these difficulties,” Kyriakides said.
Some EU member-states publicly criticized countries that blocked the export of some medical supplies to protect against the coronavirus. Germany has banned the export of face masks and gloves and France has requisitioned all its own supplies.
The European commissioner for risk management, Janet Lenarcic, called on countries to consider the interests of all member states in addition to their own.”Restrictions are possible under the treaty, they can be introduced under certain conditions. However, the commission believes that such measures should be taken in a such way that they would ensure that they would be protective equipment available to all citizens across the European Union on equal footing. We would not favor measures that would favor one member state at the expense of others,” Lenarcic said.
Some EU members — notably Italy, where at least 148 people have died as of Thursday — have been hit harder than others and some ministers, like Italy’s Roberto Speranza, called for shared resources.
“We don’t have problems at this moment. What we think is that the European level we need a coordination. Not every country, not every region will need masks at the same moment. If we have a European coordination, everyone could give a better solution to the problem with have,” Speranza said.
The European Union also increased its research funding by an additional $42 million, which together with the $11 million announced in January, will finance 17 projects involving 136 research teams from across the EU.
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Coronavirus Time Bomb: America’s Uninsured and Brutal Work Culture
Like many Americans, bartender Danjale Williams is worried about the growing threat of the novel coronavirus. What makes the 22-year-old in Washington even more frightened: The thought of medical bills she just can’t afford, as one of almost 27.5 million people in the United States who don’t have health insurance.”I definitely would second guess before going to the doctor, because the doctor’s bill is crazy,” she said. “If it did come down to that, I don’t have enough savings to keep me healthy.”As the virus began spreading in the west of the country, where the nation’s first death was reported on February 29, public health experts warned the US has several characteristics unique among wealthy nations that make it vulnerable.These include a large and growing population without medical insurance, the 11 million or so undocumented migrants afraid to come into contact with authorities, and a culture of “powering through” when sick for fear of losing one’s job.”These are all things that can perpetuate the spread of a virus,” said Brandon Brown, an epidemiologist at UC Riverside.The number of Americans without health insurance began falling from a high of 46.7 million in 2010 following the passage of Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), but has risen again over the past two years.The current figure of 27.5 million is about 8.5 percent of the population.Getting through the doorPublic health experts often worry about the destructive potential of a pandemic in poorer parts of the world like sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.These poverty-plagued regions have hospitals that are ill-equipped to stop the spread of infectious diseases, or to adequately care for patients needing breathing assistance, which the most severe cases of COVID-19 require.By contrast, the US has some of the world’s best hospitals and medical staff, but those not lucky enough to have good insurance through their employer, and not poor enough to qualify for state insurance, often opt out of the system entirely.A routine doctor’s visit can run into hundreds of dollars for those without coverage.”I think that it’s possible if this has the sustained spread, that might highlight some of those health care disparities that we already know about and are trying to work on, but haven’t figured out a way to solve,” said Brian Garibaldi, the medical director of Johns Hopkins Hospital’s biocontainment unit.That’s not to say uninsured people have no recourse if they fall seriously ill.US law requires that people who have a medical emergency can get the care they need, regardless of ability to pay.Abigail Hansmeyer, a Minnesota resident who along with her husband is uninsured, said that if she did fall ill, “we may seek out the emergency room for treatment.”But being treated doesn’t mean the visit was free and the uninsured can be lumped with huge bills after.”So we have to very carefully consider costs in every situation,” the 29-year-old said.Presentee-ismOne of the key messages the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put out about the coronavirus is to stay home if you have mild respiratory symptoms, except to go to the doctor once you have called in and if they think you need to.”But a lot of people, depending on their jobs, their position and their privilege, are not able to do that,” said Brown.The United States is alone among advanced countries in not offering any federally mandated paid sick leave.Though private companies offer an average of eight days per year, only 30 percent of the lowest paid workers are able to earn sick days, according to the Economic Policy Institute.For many of these people, missing even a day’s work can make a painful financial dent.An October 2019 nationwide survey of 2,800 workers by the accounting firm Robert Half found that 57 percent sometimes go to work while sick and 33 percent always go when sick.Vaccine cost fearsAs the global death toll from the virus approaches 3,400 and the US braces for a wider outbreak, the race is on to develop vaccines and treatments.Current timeline estimates for the leading vaccine candidate are 12-18 months, but will it be affordable for all? That question was put to Health Secretary Alex Azar in Congress.His response: “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest.”Ed Silverman, a columnist for industry news site Pharmalot, panned the comment as “outrageous.””No one said profits are verboten,” he wrote. “But should we let some Americans who may contract the coronavirus die because the price is out of reach?”
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Security Concerns in Kenya Follow Unrest on Somalia Border
Kenyan authorities say one person is dead and 11 others injured after clashes in Somalia this week spilled across the border into Kenya. Now local leaders from Kenyan border areas are demanding action.Leaders from the region say tensions on the Kenya-Somalia border have been simmering for a while and that Kenya’s national government has failed to pay attention. They voiced their concerns Friday during a press conference in Nairobi. Among them, Ali Roba, governor of the Kenyan border town of Mandera. He spoke of the trouble in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Jubaland, where the Somali military has been involved in clashes with fighters linked to Ahmed Madobe, president of the Jubaland region.”Over the last one month, there has been a major fallout between the regional government of Jubaland and the federal government of Somalia,” Roba said. “On Monday, the 2nd of March, the two forces attacked each other with unknown casualties on both sides but left 12 people injured in Mandera town due to stray bullets, where one succumbed to the injuries.”
Officials in Mandera also say a number of people fearing for their safety fled to safer areas because of the violence. Also this week, Somali media reported that Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo spoke by phone with Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta regarding security and that they agreed to work together on their common interests. Kenya’s president had accused Somalia of a “flagrant breach” of Kenya’s territorial integrity.Kenya shares a 682-kilometer border with Somalia and has in the past attempted to secure parts of it by building a fence. There have been concerns that terrorists may take advantage of the porous border.
Roba says the situation along the border has Kenyans questioning whether their government can adequately protect them. He says the government needs to expel people whom he calls “foreigners” from Mandera.
“The situation taking shape in Mandera County is that of eroded public trust in their own government as a result of neglect, misplaced priorities, putting the interest of the external region over and above that of its own citizens,” he said. “We refuse to accept that the interests of other external entities supersedes that of our population. We therefore demand that our government expel these foreign forces from Mandera with immediate effect.”
Regional leaders also asked the national government for humanitarian help for the hundreds of internally displaced persons.
Meanwhile, Kenya is considering pulling out of the African Union mission in Somalia after eight years of fighting the Somali militant group al-Shabab. The al-Qaida-linked group has attacked Kenya for its involvement in supporting the AU mission in Somalia. Kenya has also hosted thousands of Somali refugees who fled civil war in their country.
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US to Begin Collecting DNA Samples of Immigrants in Custody
U.S. federal agents will begin collecting DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who enter the United States illegally and are held in custody, launching a sharp expansion of a genetic marker collection program created by Congress more than a decade ago, officials announced late Thursday.The Department of Homeland Security had long exempted immigrants from a 2005 law that requires the collection of DNA samples from “individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted or from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States.” But the Justice Department last August proposed a rule change to eliminate one of four Obama-era exemptions given to immigrants whose DNA samples could not be collected because of a lack of resources. The new rule, which goes into effect on Monday, will allow agents to collect DNA from immigrants who cross the border illegally and are held at immigration detention facilities around the country. In fiscal year 2019, Customs and Border Patrol reported nearly 860,000 illegal border crossings. Documented immigrants and immigrants held at sea or at ports of entry will not be affected. The DNA records collected from detained immigrants will be relayed to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for entry into its Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, which is used by local and federal law enforcement agents to link violent crimes. Civil liberties groups sharply criticized the new rule, saying it targets a segment of the U.S. population that already feels vulnerable amid a broader crackdown on illegal immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union called it a “xenophobic program.””Collecting the genetic blueprints of people in immigration detention doesn’t make us safer — it makes it easier for the government to attack immigrant communities, and brings us one step closer to the government knocking on all of our doors demanding our DNA under the same flawed justification that we may one day commit a crime,” Naureen Shah, senior advocacy and policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. Collecting the genetic blueprints of people in immigration detention doesn’t make us safer — it makes it easier for the government to attack immigrant communities and, eventually, to demand ALL of our DNA. https://t.co/VcWslAyPcq— ACLU (@ACLU) March 6, 2020Seeking to allay concerns raised by the move, a DOJ official said in a press call with reporters late Thursday that the DNA would not be used by immigration officials.”The collection of this DNA is only for the purpose of the FBI’s CODIS database, it’s not for any other purpose,” the official said speaking on condition of anonymity. Other Justice Department officials said the will help law enforcement agents identify criminals.”Today’s rule assists federal agencies in implementing longstanding aspects of our immigration laws as passed by bipartisan majorities of Congress,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said in a statement. “Its implementation will help to enforce federal law with the use of science.”Congress passed the DNA Fingerprint Act in 2005. The Justice Department’s latest action came after an anonymous whistleblower complained to a government watchdog last year that customs and border patrol agents had long evaded the law as a result of the exemption. The watchdog, Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner, found that “CBP’s noncompliance with the law has allowed criminal detainees to walk free.””Given the significant public safety and law enforcement implications at issue, I urge CBP to immediately reconsider its position and initiate DNA collection from criminal detainees,” Kerner wrote in a letter to the White House. The new DNA collections will vastly expand the FBI lab’s database. The Justice Department says the lab has the capacity to handle the additional records from DHS and to scale up to meet additional demand. A DHS officials said the agency has been collecting DNA samples from immigrants under a pilot program launched in January. Under a separate three-month pilot program rolled out last year, immigration agents collected DNA samples from immigrants at the U.S. Mexico border. The- acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan later claimed that the agency had uncovered dozens of cases of false parental claims using DNA testing.
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Pope Lets French Cardinal Embroiled in Abuse Cover-Up Resign
Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of a French cardinal who was convicted and then acquitted of covering up for a pedophile priest in a case that fueled a reckoning over clergy sexual abuse in France.
Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 69, had offered to resign when the Lyon court in March 2019 first convicted him and gave him a six-month suspended sentence for failing to report the predator priest to police.
Francis declined to accept it then, saying he wanted to wait for the outcome of the appeal. He allowed Barbarin to step aside and turn the day-to-day running of the archdiocese over to his deputy.
In January, after an appeals court acquitted Barbarin, the cardinal said he would again ask Francis to accept his resignation. He said he hoped his departure would allow for the church in Lyon to open a new chapter with new leadership.
In a tweet sent Friday from an account that now labels him emeritus archbishop, Barbarin thanked members of his flock and offered them a final prayer: Follow Jesus closely.
Francis didn’t name a replacement archbishop on Friday. A brief Vatican statement merely said he had accepted the resignation. At 69, Barbarin is six years shy of the normal retirement age for bishops.
The French bishops’ conference said Monsignor Michel Dubost would continue serving as temporary administrator until a new archbishop is announced. The bishops said in a statement that they prayed the Lyon church would follow the work of truth and reconciliation that it has begun and renew its missionary zeal with a pure heart.
Barbarin had been accused of failing to report the Rev. Bernard Preynat to civil authorities when he learned of his abuse. Preynat has confessed to abusing Boy Scouts in the 1970s and 1980s. His victims accuse Barbarin and other church authorities of covering up for him for years.
Barbarin told the appeal hearing that he followed Vatican instructions in his handling of the case.
Preynat’s is on trial in Lyon. During days of testimony earlier this year, he said he couldn’t recall exactly how many boys he abused but gave an estimate of at least 75.
He testified that his bishops knew of his attraction to young boys but that none of them acted to stop or report him. Preynat was defrocked in July, about 40 years after parents first wrote to the Lyon diocese to raise alarms about the priest.
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Million COVID-19 Test Kits Expected at US Labs Soon, HHS Chief Says
The U.S. Health and Human Services secretary said Thursday a million test kits for the COVID-19 are expected to arrive this weekend at U.S. labs. Alex Azar said the coronavirus tests are shipping from a private manufacturer.The Trump administration has received criticism about the short supply of test kits.Vice President Mike Pence said in Washington state Thursday, “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward,” but added that “real progress” had been made “in the last several days.”Vice President Mike Pence, right, looks on as Gov. Jay Inslee speaks during a news conference, March 5, 2020, at Camp Murray in Washington state. Pence was in the state to discuss its efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus.Pence met Thursday with Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Washington is the site of 11 of the 12 U.S. deaths from the virus. Most of the deaths in Washington took place in a nursing home near Seattle.’Not a successful strategy’National Nurses United said its members have not been given the resources, supplies, protection and training they need to do their jobs properly. “It is not a successful strategy to leave nurses and other health care workers unprotected,” Executive Director Bonnie Castillo said. Castillo, who is a registered nurse, said when nurses are quarantined, “We are not only prevented from caring for COVID-19 patients, but we are taken away from caring for cancer patients, cardiac patients and premature babies.”Four U.S. states — Maryland, California, Florida and Hawaii — have declared states of emergency because of the virus.FILE – This undated file photo provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows CDC’s laboratory test kit for the new coronavirus.Maryland joined the roster Thursday after three Montgomery County residents, a husband and wife in their 70s and a woman in her 50s, were diagnosed with the coronavirus. All three were reported to have contracted the virus while on an overseas cruise. Montgomery County is a Maryland suburb next to Washington, D.C.State of emergency in PalestineIn the Middle East, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency Thursday, shutting down schools for 30 days and closing the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem after seven coronavirus cases were confirmed in the city. These are the first cases in the Palestinian territories.Closing the church in the town that worshipers say was Jesus’ birthplace will devastate Bethlehem’s vital tourism industry and comes just weeks before Easter.The threat appears to be waning in China, where the outbreak erupted in December. The WHO said Thursday there are about 17 times as many new cases outside China now than inside China.On Friday, however, China reported that the number of new cases had risen from 139 Thursday to 143.A medical worker in a protective gear offers consultation to people at the first stage screening post for checking for COVID-19 at Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, South Korea, March 6, 2020.South Korea travelHundreds of patients are being released from Chinese hospitals and shuttered factories are starting to reopen. But Chinese President Xi Jinping has called off a scheduled state visit to Japan, where Tokyo has declared that all visitors from China and South Korea will be placed under quarantine. South Korea has the largest number of coronavirus cases outside China.Australia joined China and Iran in banning travel from South Korea.Indonesia is also restricting travel from parts of South Korea as well as two other hard-hit nations: Iran and Italy. Both of those nations have shut down schools.The United Nations said the virus has disrupted classes for nearly 300 million students worldwide from preschool through 12th grade. That number does not include colleges that have also been shuttered.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyFunds to fight outbreakIn the United States, with more than 150 confirmed cases of the virus and 12 deaths, the Senate Thursday followed the House in approving $8.3 billion in emergency spending to combat the outbreak, including money for developing a vaccine. The measure now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.Trump took some heat Thursday from health experts after he told Fox News that the World Health Organization is sending out false information, and he suggested infected patients are safe going to their jobs in offices and stores.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the coronavirus is highly transmissible and that people who are sick must stay home.Global markets took another beating Thursday with investors nervous about the coronavirus outbreak and uncertain about exactly which way the situation is going.Experts say the roller coaster ride in the markets is likely to continue as long COVID-19 spreads to more countries, with investors acting out of fear over where the next state of emergency, quarantine or business shutdown will be declared.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />Copy’Time to act’At his daily virus briefing Thursday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus again stressed the seriousness of the virus about which scientists still know little.“This is not a drill. This is not the time for giving up, this is not a time for excuses,” Tedros said. “Countries have been planning for scenarios like this for decades, Now is the time to act on those plans.”As of late Thursday, there were more than 98,000 COVID-19 cases worldwide and at least 3,300 deaths.
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Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Faces More Mass Bleaching
The Great Barrier Reef off Australia is facing one of its most widespread coral bleaching events on record, as water temperatures soar. Scientists are blaming climate change and say that coral begins to die after prolonged heat stress. The warning comes from Australian university experts and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The world’s largest reef system has only just begun to recover after being hit by two consecutive years of coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017.On Heron Island in Queensland, researchers say that the mass bleaching of coral has gotten worse in recent weeks. They are adamant that climate change is to blame for warmer ocean temperatures.The southern part of the Great Barrier Reef should be an array of pinks and purples but is instead a ghostly white.Coral responds to excessive heat by expelling the algae that give them their brilliant colors and most of their energy. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead, but it becomes far more stressed and fragile.Aaron Chai, a marine biologist at the University of Queensland, says action to counter global warming is urgently needed.”The mass bleaching has intensified over the last month. The reef that is normally colored in browns, pinks, blues and purples is stark white. Looking at what is happening on the reef currently, I am afraid that the future effects we simulate in our experiments could be occurring now as we speak. If we can stabilize the climate, we can allow the Great Barrier Reef time to recover and hopefully one day reach its former glory,” Chai said.Australian scientists fear the bleaching could be more widespread than in 2016 and 2017, but hopefully it will not be as damaging.The Great Barrier Reef is estimated to support more than 60,000 jobs and generates $6.4 billion for the Australian economy.The reef runs 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast and spans an area about the size of Japan.
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Bankrupt British Airline is Latest Victim of Coronavirus
Britain’s biggest domestic airline is the latest casualty of the coronavirus outbreak. Flybe was rescued from near collapse in January but finally went bankrupt Thursday, hit by low demand and customer cancellations in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. Britain had reported close to 100 infections as of Thursday.
Flybe served mainly British and European regional airports rather than major hubs. Its collapse is being seen as a setback for government efforts to improve connectivity and re-balance the British economy away from London.”We feel really sad, just really sad,” Flybe crew member Katherine Denscham said as she prepared to leave her workplace at Exeter airport in Britain’s southwest.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned Thursday that the entire global airline industry is suffering amid a huge downturn in bookings.
“We could see the effect on revenues exceed $100 billion, around about 19 percent of global passenger revenue. So this would be a revenue shock equivalent to what was seen in the global financial crisis,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce told a press conference in Singapore.
Cases of Covid-19 in Britain have risen sharply in recent days. The government said Thursday the focus is moving from containment to delaying its peak impact. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that planning is underway for the worst-case scenario: a breakdown in law and order.”There are long established plans by which the police will… obviously keep the public safe, but they will prioritize those things that they have to do. And the army is, of course, always ready to backfill as and when. But that is under the reasonable worst-case scenario,” Johnson said this week.An electronic flight departure board displays ‘cancelled’ statuses for all Flybe flights at Exeter Airport in Exeter, England, March 5, 2020, following news that the airline had collapsed into bankruptcy.Across Europe big gatherings are being canceled or postponed, from trade shows to sporting events as the economic impacts are starting to bite. Italy has closed all schools and universities. In Venice, normally packed with visitors year-round, the famous canals are all but empty. Tourism numbers are down across the world.
Car sales in China have plunged by 80 percent in a month. Supply chains are disrupted across the globe. The International Monetary Fund has slashed growth forecasts – and announced this week that it will offer up to $50 billion in loans for poorer countries that could struggle to deal with a Coronavirus outbreak.
“We do have up to $10 billion available for low income countries to tap in with zero interest rates,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters. “And obviously we would prioritize countries, especially countries in Africa, that have already been faced with difficulties.”
Many African countries would struggle to cope with a large outbreak according to a recent study published in the Lancet, which highlighted Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana, and Kenya as being among the most vulnerable.”Preventing the entry of the virus will become increasingly difficult, especially if the international spread continues,” report co-author Marius Gilbert of the Free University of Brussels told VOA. “And given those data that indicate that the quality of care really has a strong impact on how serious it can be and how fatal it can be, I think that moving toward funding better healthcare in general would be quite a useful strategy.”
The one bright spot is that new infections in China, the source of the virus, continue to fall. Whether other countries can replicate Beijing’s response remains to be seen.
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Why Vietnam Edging Closer, but not too Close, to the US
The United States sent its second aircraft carrier in as many years to Vietnam this week, shortly after toughening up its treatment of the Southeast Asian country’s economic prowess over concerns about the bilateral trade imbalance. Vietnam went along with both moves, yet didn’t play up either.Vietnam and the United States are growing closer, despite their bitter war 50 years ago, as both hope to check Beijing’s expansion in the South China Sea, analysts say. However, Vietnam’s communist political system and pursuit of a multicountry foreign policy rather than a purely pro-Western one are likely to stop Washington from getting too close. For their part, U.S. officials worry about Vietnam’s U.S. trade surplus.“Washington’s institutional bureaucracy surely sees Hanoi as a partner in pushing back against Beijing’s South China Sea claims and militarization,” said Sean King, vice president of the New York-based Park Strategies political consultancy, “but Vietnam’s not an ally, nor a democracy, hence there are limits to this partnership.”“My sense is Vietnam wants [the United States] as a regional counterweight to Beijing but doesn’t want to be part of any wider U.S.-mainland Chinese containment strategy,” King said.The USS Theodore Roosevelt is seen near Vietnamese fishing boats at a port in Da Nang, Vietnam, March 6, 2020.Aircraft carrier visitsOn Thursday the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier docked in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang, military news website Stars and Stripes reported. A guided-missile cruiser accompanied the carrier on the ceremonial visit. The USS Carl Vinson, the first American aircraft carrier to visit since the Vietnam War, made a port call two years ago.The visits show both sides intend to strengthen defense relations. Vietnam looks to outside support in keeping Chinese vessels away from South China Sea tracts it contests with China, which has a stronger military.Vietnamese officials “are building a strategic trust between the two countries and they want to engage the U.S. more in the South China Sea,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. “I think that in the future Vietnam will be more welcoming of U.S. naval ships,” he said.FILE – Ships and an oil rig, center, which China calls Haiyang Shiyou 981, and Vietnam refers to as Hai Duong 981, is seen in the South China Sea, off the shore of Vietnam, May 14, 2014.Vietnam and China got into a boat-ramming incident in 2014 over the placement of a Chinese oil rig. Last year the two sides entered a standoff near Vanguard Bank, a South China Sea feature where Vietnam was looking for energy.China cites historical records to back its claim to about 90% of the sea, which covers 3.5 million square kilometers rich in fossil fuel reserves and fisheries. It has alarmed Vietnam and five other Asian governments by sending ships and by landfilling islets for military use.Vietnam’s resistance against China caught the attention of former U.S. President Barack Obama, who in 2016 lifted a post-Vietnam War embargo on sales of lethal arms to Hanoi. Vietnam aside, the U.S. regularly sends warships into the South China Sea on “freedom of navigation operations” to warn China, which Washington sees as a rival superpower.Vietnam doesn’t want to get too close militarily, said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.Vietnamese media went low-key in covering the USS Theodore Roosevelt visit, Thayer said. Hanoi’s leaders are focused, he said, on a 7-year-old “comprehensive partnership” that covers cooperation beyond defense.Vietnam trades briskly with China and keeps macro relations stable despite the maritime spats as part of a multicountry foreign policy. The Southeast Asian government has comprehensive strategic partnerships too with India and its old ally Russia.Some conservatives in the Vietnamese government don’t want U.S. relations to grow “too fast,” Nguyen said.FILE – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, center, shakes hands with Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. Pham Quang Vinh as they wait for the welcoming ceremony of U.S. President Donald Trump at the presidential palace in Hanoi, Nov. 12, 2017.Tougher on tradeThe U.S. government’s Feb. 10 delisting of Vietnam as a “developing country” indicates a knottier bilateral trade relationship; the move gives Washington more clout to investigate whether Vietnamese export subsidies hurt U.S. industries.Vietnam must now follow rules-of-origin guidelines on steel and footwear, business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates says in a research note. U.S. officials, already nonplussed by a $47 billion bilateral trade deficit, worried last year about whether Chinese goods were being shipped through Vietnam to avoid U.S. tariffs.Possibly to ease resentment in Washington, Vietnam agreed this week to buy $3 billion in American farm goods.Vietnam’s lure of cheap labor has boosted export manufacturing over the past eight years. The country doesn’t need special treatment anymore, said Frederick Burke, partner with the law firm Baker McKenzie in Ho Chi Minh City.“The benefits of moving up the ladder is that you no longer depend on handouts,” he said. “You have real investors deeming Vietnam to be one step better in terms of investment grade, so people will come here out of their own private sector motives, and it’s more of a natural thing instead of having to be on life support like some least-developed countries.”However, Vietnam hopes never to become “vulnerable to U.S. pressure to open up politically,” King said.
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Report: Explosion Near US Embassy in Tunisia Wounds 5 Police
Tunisian media are reporting that a suicide bomber on a motorcycle has set off a blast near the U.S. Embassy in the Tunisian capital, Tunis.The private Radio Mosaique said that five police officers were wounded in the explosion Friday. That report could not be immediately confirmed.Police taped off the area around the blast site, which was littered with debris. The flag of the United States could be seen fluttering in the background.Islamic extremists have targeted Tunisia in recent years, killing scores of people.
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Trump Signs $8 Billion COVID-19 Legislation
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed legislation Friday releasing $8.3 billion in emergency spending to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, including money for developing a vaccine. The legislation passed through the Senate and the House almost unanimously.Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said, “In situations like this, I believe no expense should be spared to protect the American people and in crafting this package none was.”
The U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary said Thursday a million test kits for the COVID-19 are expected to arrive this weekend at U.S. labs. Alex Azar said the coronavirus tests are shipping from a private manufacturer.The Trump administration has received criticism about the short supply of test kits. Vice President Mike Pence said in Washington state Thursday, “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward,” but added that “real progress” had been made “in the last several days.”Pence met Thursday with Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Washington is the site of 11 of the 12 U.S. deaths from the virus. Most of the deaths in Washington took place in a nursing home near Seattle.
National Nurses United said its members have not been given the resources, supplies, protections and trainings they need to do their jobs properly. Executive Director Bonnie Castillo said, “It is not a successful strategy to leave nurses and other health care workers unprotected.” Castillo, who is a registered nurse, said when nurses are quarantined, “We are not only prevented from caring for COVID-19 patients, but we are taken away from caring for cancer patients, cardiac patients and premature babies.”US states affected
Five U.S. states – Maryland, California, Florida, Washington and Hawaii – have declared states of emergency because of the virus.Maryland joined the roster Thursday after three Montgomery County residents – a husband and wife in their 70s and a woman in her 50s – were diagnosed with the coronavirus. All three were reported to have contracted the virus while on an overseas cruise. Montgomery County is a Maryland suburb located next to Washington, DC.Colorado has announced its first two cases – a man and a woman – of of the coronavirus. Both had traveled internationally, but officials say the cases are not related.U.S. Forces Korea said Friday that one of its workers in South Korea has tested positive for the virus. She is the seventh USFK employee to test positive for the coronavirus. Authorities say she is in quarantine at her off-base residence in Cheonan.A man wearing a mask walks in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 6, 2020.Vatican, Cameroon
The Vatican reported its first coronavirus case Friday. Spokesman Matteo Bruni said its health clinic has been closed for a deep cleaning, but its emergency room remains open.Cameroon also has its first coronavirus case. The minister of health said in a statement Friday the victim is a 58-year-old French male who arrived in Yaounde on February 24. “The active surveillance put in place by the country since the occurrence of the Covid-19 outbreak has made it possible to detect this case,” the statement said. The French citizen has been placed in “solitary confinement.”Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency Thursday, shutting down schools for 30 days and closing the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem after seven coronavirus cases were confirmed in the city. These are the first cases in the Palestinian territories.Closing the church in the town that worshipers say was Jesus’s birthplace will devastate Bethlehem’s vital tourism industry and comes just weeks before Easter.China
The threat appears to be waning in China, where the outbreak erupted in December. The WHO said Thursday there are about 17 times as many new cases outside China now than inside China itself.On Friday, however, China reported that the number of new cases had risen from 139 on Thursday to 143. Hundreds of patients are being released from Chinese hospitals and shuttered factories are starting to reopen. But Chinese President Xi Jinping has called off a scheduled state visit to Japan, where Tokyo has declared that all visitors from China and South Korea will be placed under quarantine. South Korea has the largest number of coronavirus cases outside China.Passengers wear protective masks walk in their way to their plane as workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak, at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, in Beirut.Travel bans
Australia joined China and Iran in banning travel from South Korea.Indonesia is also restricting travel from parts of South Korea as well as two other hard-hit nations — Iran and Italy. Both of those nations have shut down schools.The United Nations said the virus has disrupted classes for nearly 300 million students worldwide from preschool through 12th grade. That number does not include colleges that have also been shuttered.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called on governments to find a holistic approach in their efforts to stop the spread of the virus. Michelle Bachelet, who is also a medical doctor, said in a statement Friday that “efforts to combat this virus won’t work unless we approach it holistically, which means taking great care to protect the most vulnerable and neglected people in society, both medically and economically.”She said the measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus will likely “disproportionately affect women” and that people “who are already barely surviving economically may all too easily be pushed over the edge by measures being adopted to contain the virus.” The High Commissioner added, “Being open and transparent is key to empowering and encouraging people to participate in measures designed to protect their own health and that of the wider population, especially when trust in the authorities has been eroded. It also helps to counter false or misleading information that can do so much harm by fueling fear and prejudice.”
Fake news
President Trump took some heat Thursday from health experts after he told Fox News that the World Health Organization is sending out false information, and he suggested infected patients are safe going to their jobs in offices and stores.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the coronavirus is highly transmissible and that people who are sick must stay home.Asian markets tumbled again Friday over apprehensions about the virus.Thursday, global markets took another beating with investors nervous about the coronavirus outbreak and uncertain about exactly which way the situation is going.Experts say the roller coaster ride in the markets is likely to continue as long COVID-19 spreads to more countries, with investors acting out of fear over where the next state of emergency, quarantine or business shutdown will be declared.At his daily virus briefing Thursday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus again stressed the seriousness of the virus about which scientists still know little.”This is not a drill. This is not the time for giving up, this is not a time for excuses,” Tedros said. “Countries have been planning for scenarios like this for decades, Now is the time to act on those plans.”As of late Thursday, there were more than 98,000 COVID-19 cases worldwide and at least 3,300 deaths.
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Clashes Between Refugees, Police Erupt Again on Greek-Turkey Border
Greek authorities used tear gas and a water cannon Friday morning to prevent migrants from crossing the border into their country from Turkey.On the other side of the border, Turkish authorities fired volleys of tear gas into the Greek territory.Thousands of refugees have reached Turkey’s eastern border from land and sea, and have been camping out since last week in hopes of making their way to Greece and eventually to other Western European countries.Greece has declared its border closed, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country would no longer serve as the gatekeeper for Europe after airstrikes by Russian-backed government forces in Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers last week.Erdogan’s decision has alarmed governments in Europe and the EU is insisting that Turkey is obliged to keep the refugees and other migrants since Brussels is disbursing billions of euros as part of a deal reached with Turkey in 2015.More than 3.5 million Syrians have taken refuge in Turkey to escape the civil war in Syria.Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Thursday to a cease-fire in northwestern Syria, following talks on easing tensions in the region.
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