With the State Department soon to release its report assessing Hong Kong’s autonomy, the United States has expressed concern about what it sees as China’s heavy hand in Hong Kong.“We continue to monitor with growing concern Beijing’s increasing efforts to interfere with Hong Kong’s governance. The erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms is inconsistent with the promises that the Chinese Communist Party itself made under ‘one country, two systems,’ ” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a news briefing Wednesday.”Any effort to impose draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong would be inconsistent with Beijing’s promises and would impact American interests there,” he told reporters.Pompeo’s remarks came as the State Department was due to submit a report to Congress on the U.S. assessment of Hong Kong’s autonomous status. A U.S. law requires the State Department to certify that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to justify the favorable U.S. trading terms that have helped it maintain its position as a world financial center.Political tensions have escalated in Hong Kong after Beijing’s top representative office in the city said it was not bound by a law that restricts interference by other mainland Chinese agencies in the former British colony.Two systemsHong Kong returned to Beijing in 1997 under the “one country, two systems” framework that granted the city broad freedoms not seen in mainland China.In recent weeks, Hong Kong’s law enforcement authorities arrested 15 pro-democracy activists, including Martin Lee, 81, a move the U.S. condemned.FILE – Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai is arrested by police at his home in Hong Kong, April 18, 2020. Fourteen other activists were arrested along with him.China has rejected the criticism, saying the U.S. is interfering in China’s internal affairs.“Hong Kong’s affair is purely China’s domestic affair,” said Geng Shuang, a spokesperson at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Tuesday, a group of Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers said the U.S. “must take a leadership role in addressing Beijing’s threats to Hong Kong’s autonomy.”“Failing to address Beijing’s efforts to erode Hong Kong’s autonomy will undermine the freedom and human rights of its people, its valuable role as a partner to the United States, and its unique role in the international economy,” the bipartisan group said in a letter addressed to Pompeo.Pandemic issuesThe United States and China have also been trading sharp accusations over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.“We still haven’t gained access. The world hasn’t gained access to the WIV, Wuhan Institute of Virology,” said Pompeo, adding that other nations should understand how the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China, while questioning the safety of other Chinese labs over risks.“There are multiple labs that are continuing to conduct work, we think, on contagious pathogens inside China today,” the U.S. secretary of state said. “We don’t know if they are operating at a level of security to prevent this from happening again.”Relations between the U.S. and China have deteriorated since the COVID-19 outbreak, which as of Wednesday afternoon EDT had killed more than 226,000 people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
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Month: April 2020
Fighting Raises Tension Between Government, Rebel Force in South Sudan
New fighting in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state this week is putting a strain on the country’s fragile peace agreements.A spokesman for the rebel National Salvation Front (NAS) said a joint force composed of soldiers from the army and the former rebel SPLM-IO attacked NAS positions in Central Equatoria state beginning on Sunday.”They went and attacked our bases in Senema, that is around Ombaci, and also in Mediba around Morobo, and in Kajo-Keji Kala 2. They also attacked our forces, and we responded,” NAS spokesman Samuel Suba told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.Two NAS soldiers were killed and three others wounded during the fighting, according to Suba. The casualty figure could not be verified by other sources.SPLM-IO deputy military spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, who is also the press secretary for South Sudan’s defense minister, said the NAS forces were the aggressors who killed one government soldier and injured three others.”We were attacked in Kiju (Kajo-Keji) by the forces of Thomas Cirilo. They killed two SPLM-IO soldiers and injured one. Then, our forces withdrew from Kiju and moved to Kala. On the 26th, they attacked us again in Kala coming from Kiju. By then, our forces were ready, so we were able to repulse them,” Gabriel told South Sudan in Focus.Gabriel denied that a joint operation was carried out against the NAS. He accused the rebel group instead of trying to disrupt the training and unification of forces.”They came and attacked us in our own bases,” he told VOA. “And up to now — I cannot lie to you — they overran our base in Kiju. And up to now, they are still there.”Peace dealsThe government of President Salva Kiir and the SPLM-IO signed a peace deal in 2018 that recently led to the formation of a transitional unity government. The NAS signed a separate peace deal with the government in 2019.The agreements have led to a reduction in fighting and some progress toward merging the various armed forces into a national army.However, Suba said government forces adopted “a scorched-earth policy” by attacking civilians and looting their property in Lainya County’s Mukaya Payam.”They did it by burning houses, beating civilians and looting, and these led to this forced displacement of over 3,000 people,” Samuel said.Witness accountResident Alemin Joseph said the fighting forced him to flee to Yei from his village in Mukaya. He said he saw government forces beating civilians.”Government forces went and failed to get the rebels, so they stormed our village in (the) area of Mukaya interrogating civilians, beating and knifing them, saying we should tell them where Thomas Cirilo’s (rebel leader of NAS) forces are,” Joseph told South Sudan in Focus.Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang, spokesman for the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, said he has not received any information about clashes in Lainya County from government military commanders on the ground.
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Russia Threatens Massive Response if US Deploys Low-Yield Nukes on Subs
Russia is warning that any U.S. attempt to use a low-yield nuclear weapon against a Russian target would set off a massive nuclear response.The Russian foreign ministry was reacting to a State Department paper released last week that says placing low-yield nuclear weapons on ballistic missiles launched from submarines would counter what it sees as possible new threats from both Russia and China.Experts describe a low-yield weapon as the kind the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.The State Department asserts that the low-yield weapons “reduce the risk of nuclear war by reinforcing extended deterrence and assurance.”It alleges Russia is considering using such nonstrategic nuclear arms in a limited war. Russia denies it is a threat to the U.S. and accuses Washington of “lowering the nuclear threshold.”“Any attack involving a U.S. submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), regardless of its weapon specifications, would be perceived as a nuclear aggression,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday. “Those who like to theorize about the flexibility of American nuclear potential must understand that in line with the Russian military doctrine such actions are seen as warranting retaliatory use of nuclear weapons by Russia.”Russia says it wants to extend the 2010 New START treaty limiting the number of deployed nuclear missiles, warheads, and bombers along with strict inspection regimes. The pact is set to expire next year.The Trump administration says it wants a new arms control agreement that also includes China — which Russia calls impractical.
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COVID-19 Diaries: After Pandemic, What Kind of World Will Emerge?
British people love to talk about the weather. Never more so than when they’re locked in their houses, it seems. With perfect irony, the sun hasn’t stopped shining since the coronavirus lockdown began on March 23 – and everyone’s talking about it. It’s been unseasonably warm, with temperatures in London topping 25 degrees Celsius. For those with gardens or with easy access to the countryside, the fine weather has been a perfect antidote to the mind-spinning news headlines; nature, at its finest in spring, has been a tonic for many. For those living in cities, particularly in high-rise apartments, the sunshine has only underlined the claustrophobia of confinement. Staff work at a the COVID-19 testing facility at Ikea near the Wembley stadium in London, April 29, 2020.Across Britain, the skies have never been clearer. I live not far from Gatwick, London’s second biggest airport, and normally the sky is crossed with vapor trails. But there are just a few high cirrus clouds amid the deep blue. There are far fewer cars on the roads too. Instead, families cheerfully cycle past, enjoying their daily hour of exercise. The air smells cleaner. You can hear more birdsong. There are countless stories of wildlife slowly re-colonizing towns and cities as humans enter their own hibernation.All these might seem like trivial observations in the face of a devastating global pandemic. But it’s inevitable that people will look for positives after such disruption to their lives. And it has a lot of people talking about what kind of country we all want to emerge from this crisis.Millions of people are working from home. Can commuting be cut down to save carbon emissions and allow workers to spend more time with families? Are those international business meetings really necessary when it’s all being done by video link? With scientists warning repeatedly that climate change is an even bigger imminent threat to humanity, can we afford to go back to life as it was before? There are other changes to life on a more personal level. Out of concern, I’ve been in touch with family and friends whom I haven’t spoken to for many years. We’ve set up a weekly video chat with close family. Everyone is talking about the parties and reunions we’ll have when this is all over. After years of relationships being conducted through social media, the world is craving human company. Maybe we’ll value those close bonds even more in the post-coronavirus world. And in Britain, which has been torn apart by Brexit in recent years, many people crave some kind of healing. There are clouds on the horizon. Another Brexit deadline looms at the end of the year as the transition period ends, with the threat of even more economic disruption. And it’s quite possible, perhaps justifiable, that the world will rush back to its old ways after the lockdown to recover the vast economic losses. But in my neighborhood, and in communities across Britain and beyond, the same question is being raised: what sort of world do we want to emerge when this is all over?
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Singapore’s Fake News and Contempt Laws a Threat to Media, Journalists Say
A pair of Singaporean laws designed to block false news and criticism of the courts are being used to silence and harass independent news outlets, rights groups and journalists say.The latest government injunction, handed down April 19, targeted an independently owned news outlet for reporting the salary of Ho Ching, chief executive of state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings and the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.FILE – Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, left, and his wife Ho Ching attend a wreath laying at the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, March 23, 2017.Passed in October, FILE – The Online Citizen general election iPhone app is seen on a phone in Singapore, April 26, 2011.In a sovereign city-state where ownership of mainstream media has been largely consolidated and publishing content requires a permit from the state Communications Ministry, the space for independent journalism is narrowing.”Audiences are still by and large tuned into the state media,” said Terry Xu, editor-in-chief of TOC, one of Singapore’s oldest independent news websites, and one of the only to cover government malfeasance.”Independent media like TOC does not have the resources to upscale its operation to be a viable competitor on coverage,” Xu said.Singapore’s POFMA office did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment. The Ministry of Law’s corporate communications division said it would look into VOA’s queries but did not respond to a follow-up email.Expanded contempt-of-court restrictionsXu and TOC reporter Danisha Hakeem were both charged under Singapore’s 2016 contempt-of-court law in March, after reporting on the trial of businessman Mohan Rajangam, who claims Singapore police unlawfully detained and extradited him to Malaysia without due process.In a March 13 statement to TODAY Singapore, police said TOC’s decision to quote affidavits violated the law, and “suggested a concerted effort by one or more person to publicly advocate for Mr. Mohan’s cause, ahead of the hearing of the criminal revision.”Designed to beef up longstanding restrictions on criticizing Singapore’s judicial system, the expanded contempt-of-court law, Human Rights Watch warned prior to its September 2016 adoption, would likely “become the next handy tool for the government to suppress critical speech in Singapore.” On the day the contempt of court charge was issued, police raided Xu’s house and confiscated his computers.”The contempt of court is undeniably a tool for the authorities to curb reportage and opinions on issues that warrant public awareness,” said Xu, adding that once a person has been arrested under the act, they are effectively seen as guilty.The only defense available is to prove “fair criticism,” where the judiciary agrees there was no ulterior motive.Beyond the contempt-of-court and fake news charges, Xu is also fighting a criminal defamation case from 2018.Fake news lawSingapore’s fake news law, however, contains some built-in recourse for those facing charges.A parliamentary Selection Committee of Deliberate Online Falsehoods was formed in 2018 to calibrate the law and take into account the context of each violation and recommend strategies to the ministries and lawmaking bodies empowered to enforce the law.Journalists, however, have criticized the committee for comprising only those empowered to enforce the law, while neglecting to acknowledge opposing views during open hearings.”A select committee is supposed to be a committee of backbenchers who study evidence and make recommendations to the cabinet,” Thum Ping Tjin, managing director of New Naratif, told VOA.That ministers held seats on the legislative committee, he said, suggested officials weren’t “really there to gather evidence but to justify a decision already taken.””The only real limitation on the law is the benevolence or conscience of government ministers,” he added. “Essentially, a government minister can be an arbiter of truth.” Increased directivesFor independent news outlets with limited financial resources, multiple directives can mean bankruptcy.Enacted October 2, POFMA was invoked five times in 2019, and 17 times since January 1, leading some to suspect the government may be keeping a closer eye on media ahead of elections.”I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” said Amnesty’s Bencosme.”I think the government is particularly sensitive about criticism of setting the election date,” he said.The prime minister has decided to press forward with June 1 elections despite the lockdown.”From our perspective, the timing doesn’t matter,” Bencosme said. “At no point should [the government] be allowed to harass media outlets, activists or lawyers.”Although the legislation makes life harder for independent journalists, Xu of TOC believes the risk is worth it.”There does not seem to be any room to maneuver legally,” said Xu. “So one will have to bear the risk of personal indictment in order to create that space.”Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 158 out of 180 countries in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, in which 1 is considered the most free.
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Coronavirus Treatment Breakthrough Announced
An experimental drug has proven effective in treating COVID-19 patients, the head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, announced Wednesday.“Remdesivir has a clear-cut significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recover,” Fauci told reporters in the White House Oval Office. “A drug can block this virus.”An international randomized placebo control trial at his institute started on Feb. 21 with hundreds of hospitalized coronavirus patients, said Fauci. Recovery time was 11 days for those given the drug compared to 15 days for patients given a placebo, according to the NIAID.“Whenever you have clear-cut evidence that a drug works, you have an ethical obligation to immediately let the people who are in the placebo group know so that they can have access and all of the other trials that are taking place now have a new standard of care,” Fauci told reporters.Remdesivir, manufactured by Gilead Sciences, is given intravenously and designed to interfere with an enzyme that reproduces viral genetic material. In animal tests against SARS and MERS, diseases caused by similar coronaviruses, it has helped prevent infection and reduced severity of symptoms. But it is not yet approved anywhere in the world for any use.Lab technicians load vials of investigational coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment drug Remdesivir at a Gilead Sciences facility in La Verne, California, March 18, 2020. (Gilead Sciences Inc/Handout)The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was expected Wednesday to grant emergency use authorization for treatment of COVID-19 patients. Another study of Remdesivir had not reached a positive conclusion, something reporters asked Fauci about in the Oval Office.“It’s an under-powered study,” said Fauci of a study out of China published in The Lancet that found Remdesivir was not effective in treating COVID-19 patients. “That’s not an adequate study.”COVID-19 has killed more than 224,000 people worldwide, including nearly 60,000 in the United States.Total U.S. confirmed infections exceed one million – the most reported by any country in the world.Patients are brought into Wyckoff Heights Medical Center by staff wearing personal protective gear due to COVID-19 concerns, April 7, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.“That’s a tremendous amount,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday, calling it an “indication that our testing is so superior.”To think that the United States has more cases than China, “does anybody really believe that?” added Trump.He again blamed China, where the coronavirus was first reported, and the World Health Organization, for the pandemic.“They misled us,” said Trump of the WHO, calling it “literally a pipe organ for China.”“They’re not to be congratulated for what took place and WHO is essentially congratulating them,” Trump told reporters. “And when they start doing that we’ve got problems.”The president earlier this month halted U.S. funding to the organization, which annually totals $400 million to $500 million. The WHO has said it is working with its partners to fill the financial gap from the Trump administration’s decision to withhold the money.The United States is WHO’s largest donor.“We can give it to groups that are very worthy and get much more bang for your buck. We’re going to make a decision in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said.
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WHO Chief Warns of Malaria Spike in Africa
The World Health Organization (WHO) chief warned Wednesday that border closures and trade disruptions due to COVID-19 precautions could cause malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa to double. At his regular briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters a new modeling analysis published last week estimates potential COVID-19 related disruptions to deliveries of malaria services such as vaccines and other treatments in 41 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In the worst-case scenario, he said, the number of malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa could double.Tedros said 21 countries worldwide are reporting shortages of vaccines for other diseases as well, including measles, polio, cholera, yellow fever and meningitis. He said approximately 13 million people have been affected globally by delays in regular immunizations. Tedros also re-emphasized that the WHO is concerned about trends of increasing infections in Africa, as well as Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries.
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Company Says Drug Proved Effective Against Coronavirus in US Study
A biotech company says its experimental drug has proved effective against the new coronavirus in a major U.S. government study that put it to a strict test.Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir would be the first treatment to pass such a test against the virus, which has killed more than 218,000 people since it emerged late last year. Having a treatment could have a profound effect on the global pandemic, especially because health officials say any vaccine is likely a year or more away.The study, run by the National Institutes of Health, tested remdesivir versus usual care in about 800 hospitalized coronavirus patients around the world. The main result is how long it takes patients to recover. Gilead gave no details on results Wednesday, but said an announcement is expected soon. NIH officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment.Remdesivir is given through an IV and is designed to interfere with an enzyme that reproduces viral genetic material. In animal tests against SARS and MERS, diseases caused by similar coronaviruses, the drug helped prevent infection and reduced the severity of symptoms when given early enough in the course of illness. But it is not yet approved anywhere in the world for any use.
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Polish Leader Insists on May Vote, Even if Delayed Slightly
Poland’s prime minister said Wednesday that the presidential election must be held in May despite the coronavirus pandemic to meet the requirements of the constitution. Mateusz Morawiecki said, however, that the May 10 election date may be pushed back by a week or two. “Constitutional experts say that the election is also possible on successive dates: May 17 or May 23,” Morawiecki said. “We will be taking the decision in the nearest future,” he said. The ruling conservative Law and Justice party is pushing for the May vote by postal ballot only, driven by the fact that its candidate, President Andrzej Duda, is leading in opinion polls. It argues voting by mail is safe. But it has also empowered the parliamentary speaker to alter the May 10 date. The opposition wants the vote pushed back by a year or two, for social health reasons. All its candidates are trailing in opinion polls behind Duda. With less than two weeks to the vote, the bill formally regulating procedures for the vote still hasn’t been adopted in parliament, raising questions about whether the election can be held as planned.
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UN Official Requests New Probes into Claims of War Crimes in Myanmar
A departing United Nations official has requested new investigations into claims of continuing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar, while calling on the global community to help avoid other atrocities.Yanghee Lee, the U.N.’s top human rights envoy to the Southeast Asian country, accused Myanmar’s military Wednesday of “inflicting immense suffering” on ethnic minorities in Rakhine and Chin states.The Myanmar government is battling the Arakan Army, a guerrilla group representing the Buddhist Rakhine minority that is vying for greater autonomy.”While the world is occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Myanmar military continues to escalate its assault in Rakhine state, targeting the civilian population,” Lee said in a statement.A nurse attends to a boy injured by a blast in Buthidaung township, in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Jan. 7, 2020. (Photo provided to VOA by source who requested not to be identified)Lee accused the Myanmar military of defying “the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and human rights.” She said the military’s treatment of civilians “may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Lee is stepping down this month after six years in her post.The Myanmar military launched a “clearance campaign” in August 2017 in northern Rakhine state following attacks by Rohingya insurgent forces, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar security forces were accused of committing mass killings and rapes and torching thousands of homes.The U.N.’s highest court instructed the Myanmar government to prevent genocidal acts against the Rohingya and to provide the global body with progress reports. The International Court of Justice said last year it would rule on charges of genocide against Myanmar, which maintains it acted justifiably.Lee said government artillery and air strikes in recent weeks have killed and injured scores of adults and children and displaced more than 157,000 people.She also criticized the Arakan Army for committing hostile acts “in a manner that has had negative impacts on civilians, including kidnapping local officials and parliamentarians.”But Lee noted the Arakan Army had declared a unilateral cease-fire, citing the need to contain the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.Lee said the violence in Rakhine and Chin states is linked to the government’s failure to hold senior officers accountable, instead meting out nominal punishments to a handful of low-ranking security personnel.
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At Least 36 Killed in South Korea Fire
Officials in South Korea say a fire at a construction site has killed at least 36 people and injured 10 others.Fire Chief Seo Seung-hyeon told the Associated Press news agency that about 78 workers were believed to be in the four-story warehouse under construction in Icheon, about 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul.The chief said emergency workers found 36 bodies and were still looking for at least one other person believed to be inside the building. He said eight of the 10 injured were in serious condition.Seo said that investigators suspect the fire was caused by an explosion in an underground level, where some workers used urethane, a combustible chemical used for insulation work.Dozens of fire engines were sent to control the flames. President Moon Jae-in urged his government to dedicate every available resource to the operation.
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UN: New Polio Outbreak in Niger After Vaccination Suspended
The World Health Organization says Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.N. health agency reported that two children were infected by the highly infectious, water-borne disease and that one was paralyzed. The outbreak was sparked by a mutated virus that originated in the vaccine and was not connected to a previous polio epidemic Niger stopped last year, WHO said, in a statement last week.
“The poliovirus will inevitably continue to circulate and may paralyze more children as no high-quality immunization campaigns can be conducted in a timely manner,” said Pascal Mkanda, WHO’s coordinator of polio eradication in Africa.
In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can evolve into a form capable of igniting new outbreaks among non-immunized children; stopping the epidemic requires more targeted vaccination.
Earlier this month, WHO and partners announced they were forced to halt all polio vaccination activities until at least June 1, acknowledging the decision would inevitably result in more children being paralyzed.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been 33,500 cases and 1,469 deaths as of Tuesday, but experts suspect the real numbers are far higher due to lack of testing and poor surveillance.
Eradicating polio requires more than 90% of children being immunized, typically in mass campaigns involving millions of health workers that would break social distancing guidelines needed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Across Africa, 14 other countries are struggling to contain their polio epidemics, which have also been caused by a rare mutation of the virus in the oral vaccine. Health officials had initially aimed to wipe out polio by 2000, but that deadline has been pushed back and missed repeatedly.
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Somalia’s al-Shabab Publicly Executes 3 for Spying
Somali militant group al-Shabab has executed three of its own members for alleged spying on behalf of Western intelligence agencies, local residents and regional officials said. El Bur district commissioner Colonel Nur Hassan Gutale says the three men were executed by a firing squad late Tuesday in the center of the town as dozens of people watched. “According to our sources, the men are not from the town. The militants brought them there to execute and they executed them in public late Tuesday,” Gutale told VOA over the phone. According to local residents speaking on condition of anonymity, an al-Shabab judge at the scene of the execution said the men had admitted to working for Western intelligence agencies and collaborating with the federal government of Somalia. Al-Shabab has been trying to overthrow Somalia’s government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state. El Bur was once the commercial hub of Central Somalia and now is one of the main strongholds of al-Shabab in the Galgudud region. They lost the control of the town late 2014 to Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces but retook it in April 2017 when the Ethiopians withdrew from the town, forcing its administrators including Colonel Gutale to flee to nearby towns. Gutale says the militants have been forcibly recruiting children, killed some of its intellectuals and made it a prison for its own residents. Abdiwahid Mo’alim Isaq contributed to this report.
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US Economy Plunged 4.8% in 1st Quarter
The U.S. economy plunged at an annual rate of 4.8% in the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic shut wide swaths of American industry and white-collar businesses in the country’s biggest downturn in more than a decade, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The impact was so pronounced that the decline for the January-to-March period occurred entirely in the last three weeks of March as the effect of the pandemic swept through the world’s biggest economy. It forced the closure of major factories with thousands of workers, office complexes and mom-and-pop retail stores in cities large and small. But the true economic impact of the pandemic won’t be known for three months, when second-quarter statistics are released, because the brunt of the worker layoffs have occurred in April. Already, 26 million workers have lost their jobs, with millions more being added to the ranks of the unemployed each week. Mohammad Ikram closes a large door to his business Hot Stop, fully stocked but closed during the coronavirus pandemic, on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., April 28, 2020.The first-quarter plunge was the country’s biggest since the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009. Economists are predicting the second-quarter drop could reach to as much as 30%. A handful of state governors have gingerly started to ease work closures, telling barber shops, nail salons, restaurants and some stores they can reopen if they want to. The ensuing question is then whether customers are willing to venture into public to patronize the businesses or are too worried about the spread of the coronavirus that has already killed more than 58,000 Americans. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this week that the economy should “really bounce back” this summer as states lift stay-home orders at the same time trillions of dollars in federal emergency spending flows through the U.S. economy. But most independent economists are much less optimistic. They are questioning whether the lost or diminished parts of the U.S. economy will recover and how soon. The Federal Reserve, which has already cut key interest rates to near zero, is meeting in Washington and could offer its assessment of the economy in an afternoon statement and announce then any further plans it has to boost the U.S. economy.
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Police File Reveals Suspicions of Blatter in FIFA TV Deal
Swiss investigators concluded Sepp Blatter knew that a World Cup broadcasting contract was breached illegally and that it would cost FIFA millions of dollars, according to a federal police file obtained by The Associated Press.
Investigation reports sent to prosecutors in December and January showed FIFA wrote off a $3.8 million debt from a Caribbean TV deal signed in 2005 by then-FIFA president Blatter and long-time vice president Jack Warner. The deal was later alleged to have been illegally mismanaged by Blatter.
“Blatter acted … more in the interests of Warner than in the interests of FIFA,” concluded one investigation file seen by the AP.
However, the office of Switzerland’s attorney general decided in March it would drop a criminal proceeding from 2015 against Blatter for the Caribbean deal. No reason was stated.
Swiss federal police believed Blatter knew in 2007 that Warner had breached — and would personally profit from — a Caribbean rights deal for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups that was sold to a Jamaica-based broadcaster.
Details of the original FIFA contract were revealed by Swiss media in September 2015, showing a $600,000 sale to the Warner-controlled Caribbean Football Union.
At the time, FIFA defended the contract by saying it required soccer’s governing body to get a 50% profit share of any future licensing arrangement. The re-sale was valued at about $15 million.
But FIFA did not try to collect money due in August 2010 within 30 days of the World Cup ending, according to the Swiss police file.
The investigation cited documents and staff emails showing FIFA was due half of any gross revenue from the Caribbean deal, into which Warner had inserted a company he owned.
“FIFA were very reluctant to implement any measures in connection with enforcing their rights against the CFU,” Swiss police said in its 491-page report.
FIFA calculated it was owed almost $3.8 million in 2011 after Warner resigned from soccer. He had been implicated in bribing Caribbean voters to oppose Blatter in that year’s FIFA presidential election.
Only then did FIFA management terminate the Caribbean rights and pursue the debt, though not directly with Warner. Instead, it asked the CFU, which had few assets after Warner left.
FIFA wrote off the debt weeks later, the police file showed. It included $3.625 million of estimated revenue from broadcasting sponsors and advertising, and $155,000 of unpaid rights fee instalments, the investigation file said.
A different police report detailed more than 15 years of FIFA’s working relations with Warner. It suggested FIFA granted favors and gifts in apparent exchange for election support to help Blatter retain the presidency.
Blatter, who is now 84 and banned from soccer until October 2021, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has long denied wrongdoing.
Blatter faces a second criminal proceeding over a $2 million payment he authorized in 2011 to former UEFA president Michel Platini. That payment was revealed by Swiss authorities in September 2015 and led to both men being suspended and then banned from soccer.
Swiss investigations of Blatter are handled by a second prosecutor who took over after the federal office’s head of financial crimes had his contract terminated in November 2018.
Attorney general Michael Lauber was recused from FIFA cases last year. He was disciplined in March after having secret meetings with current FIFA president Gianni Infantino and failing to tell the truth about them.
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Lawsuit: US Citizens with Immigrant Spouses Should Get Help
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has sued the federal government over its denial of coronavirus relief payments to U.S. citizens who are married to immigrants without social security numbers.
The lawsuit was filed in Maryland on Tuesday on behalf of six American citizens who were denied coronavirus relief checks because they filed and paid taxes with a spouse who has what’s known as an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a way for immigrants without legal status to still pay federal taxes, which millions do.
MALDEF says the Treasury Department is violating Americans’ First and Fifth Amendments by denying them payment simply because of who they are married to. Congress last month passed a $2.2 trillion package to help businesses, workers and a health care system staggered by the coronavirus. Many Americans had their share deposited into their accounts in the last couple of weeks.
It’s estimated that 2 million U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents are married to people without social security numbers, although it’s unclear how many of them file jointly with them.
“All of the families are very much like other families in the U.S. They have children at home, they are facing contraction of the economy and they still have to pay their rent, and buy groceries and buy gas,” said Nina Perales, MALDEF’s vice president of litigation.
Christina Segundo-Hernandez, who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of the plaintiffs in the case. Segundo-Hernandez is a U.S. citizen married to a Mexican immigrant who pays federal taxes through his ITIN. The couple, married eight years, file jointly each year. They’re both working fewer hours because of the coronavirus pandemic, and they’ve fallen behind on bills.
Getting a coronavirus relief check would have helped.
“I would have been able to fill up my refrigerator for my kids,” said Segundo-Hernandez, who has four children. “I think it needs to be known that there’s people out there that are doctors and things like that that are putting their lives at risk going through the same thing. They’re being betrayed by their government because of who they’re married to.”
David Hessell-Cercado, a fourth-grade teacher in Los Angeles, is an American citizen married to a Mexican immigrant who is close to getting his permanent resident status. Hessell-Cercado isn’t involved in the lawsuit, but will also not benefit from the coronavirus relief payments that went out to millions of Americans recently.
Hessell-Cercado said he feels lucky to still work, but thinks it’s unfair that Americans are being left out of the coronavirus relief package because of who they married.
“What hurt more was just the sheer meanness of it,” he said. “Anyone who marries someone and goes through an immigration process already has to deal with years and years and years of just delays and obstacles and hurdles to get over. It just seems like something else that they put out there just to sort of be mean to us.”
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UK Leader Boris Johnson, Fiancee Announce Birth of Baby Boy
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds announced the birth of a son on Wednesday, just two days after Johnson returned to work following hospitalization for the coronavirus.
Johnson’s office said Symonds gave birth to a “healthy baby boy at a London hospital” on Wednesday morning, and both mother and infant were doing well.
Johnson, 55, and Symonds, 32, announced in February that they were engaged and expecting a child together. At the time they said the baby was due in early summer. No wedding date has been announced.
Johnson only returned to work Monday after suffering from a bout of coronavirus that left him dangerously ill. He spent a week in London’s St. Thomas’ hospital, including three nights in intensive care, before recovering for two weeks away from London.
Symonds, an environmental campaigner and former Conservative Party staffer, also said she was sick for a week with COVID-19 symptoms, though she wasn’t tested for the virus. The newborn boy is her first child.
Johnson has four children with his second wife Marina Wheeler, from whom he is divorced, and has fathered at least one other child outside his marriages.
The baby is the third born to a sitting British prime minister this century. The wives of leaders Tony Blair and David Cameron also had babies while their husbands were in office.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Johnson planned to take paternity leave.
The birth comes as the British government faces big decisions about how and when to ease the nationwide lockdown imposed March 23 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The measures are due to be in place at least until May 7.
Britain is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. As of Tuesday, 21,678 people with COVID-19 had died in U.K. hospitals, and several thousand more in nursing homes and other settings.
Johnson’s government faces growing criticism over its slowness in getting enough protective equipment to medics and nursing home staff and its struggle to increase the number of tests being performed for the virus.
Johnson had been due to return to Parliament on Wednesday to take part in the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will stand in for him.
Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, who had been due to face off against Johnson in the Commons, tweeted that the birth was “wonderful news.”
House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle congratulated the couple.
“Such happy news amid so much uncertainty – 2020 is certainly a year they will never forget,” he said.
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For Myanmar’s Refugees, Hunger is Bigger Concern Than COVID-19
In Myanmar, an estimated 350,000 internally displaced persons living in crowded and sometimes unsanitary conditions face the danger of a widespread outbreak of COVID-19. Access to food, aid and information has become increasingly difficult as travel restrictions and lockdowns increase. In Kachin state, camps formed since 2011, when fighting resumed between the Myanmar forces and the Kachin Independence Army after a 17-year cease-fire was broken, are feeling the impact. In the Myanmar government-controlled capital of Myitkyina, long-time residents who depend on casual labor earnings say they have more to worry about than the virus itself. ”We aren’t afraid to get the virus COVID-19 because the most important and dangerous thing for us is having the money needed for our family’s food supply,” says Naw Ja Pee, a Jaw Masat IDP camp resident. “If we are shut out of food, we will all die,” she adds. The camps surrounding the Kachin capital have been locked down since April 8. Those who return to the camp from China and elsewhere are quarantined for 14 days and their vehicles are sprayed with disinfectants. “The people who come back are classified as a risky group, so we have to find space to quarantine them and take care of them,” explains camp nurse Saw Kyi Na. Food is in short supply and so is information about COVID-19. To help understand the highly contagious virus, a local media group produced a video with a special message for IDPs. Myitkyina News Journal’s Brang Mai and his team chose children from Jaw Masat IDP camp, with the intent of finding out their knowledge about the virus before producing an education video. The final one-minute clip presents seven children from the camp reciting prevention guidelines including wearing a mask, covering a cough and washing hands often. “The first benefit is we can check the IDP people. Do they have enough information on COVID-19 or not? And the second thing is, people will be more aware,” explains Brang Mai. Social distancing, health care accessSocial distancing is difficult in camps with wall to wall huts. “The camps are really crowded, and all of their rooms are small and so in a small room there are eight to 10 people. They have to sleep in one small room together, so it is difficult for them to follow the social distancing,” Brang Mai adds. Access to healthcare is also a big challenge and camp residents often struggle to get clean water and other essential services. “Many people in Myanmar are completely outside the health system as it exists and that certainly includes the people in these IDP camps in Kachin state, which is why it is so critical why there should be an effective prevention,” said Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson. Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid to Kachin Independence Organization-controlled territory in Northern Myanmar has been blocked for the last four years but some aid is coming in, through China. “I think that the U.N. team in Myanmar must get really forceful with the government of Myanmar and say ‘look this is life and death, it’s time to end these restrictions and let the people get the assistance in there that needs to be reaching these people,’” says Robertson. Camp backstory
The IDP camps were formed when civilians fled fighting between government forces and ethnic armed groups — a conflict that continues in Arakan, Shan and Karen states. Quite often, the government soldiers control transportation routes and supplies to the camps. The Myanmar government unveiled a stimulus package in March including a US$70 million loan fund, mainly for Myanmar businesses in government-controlled areas affected by the pandemic. As the country braces for a possible outbreak of the deadly virus, civil society groups are calling for more aid for those in the ethnic areas since they are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19.
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Play by Play: How a Taiwan Sports League Opened its 2020 Season Despite COVID-19
When the coronavirus began raising concerns in China this past January, Taiwan’s professional baseball league set up a task force to help determine whether the outbreak would spread into nearby Taiwan and scuttle a scheduled 2020 season start in March. After China sealed off its disease outbreak center Wuhan and hundreds of Taiwanese began fleeing back from Lunar New Year holidays in China around the start of February, the Taipei-based Chinese Professional Baseball League brought on a legal expert too. “We figured conditions were extremely serious,” commissioner Wu Chih-yang said in an interview. A veteran sports watcher anywhere in the world would assume at this point that the league delayed play until May, June or whenever. Pro baseball and basketball have put off play in the United States. Baseball has been halted for now in Japan and South Korea. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will take place in 2021. But the Taiwan baseball league opened play just three weeks late, on April 11. Its five teams intend to finish all 240 normal season games before December even though at the present time the teams are playing the games without their usual crowds of thousands. Here’s how the league beat the odds. As the disease spread in China in February and March, Taiwan’s league was trying to plan its normal season as well as two other series including one in preparation for the 2020 summer Olympics, which hadn’t yet been postponed. At the same time, the Taiwan government’s Central Epidemic Command Center was laying out ideas on how to manage large events such as ball games, but they were just suggestions, Wu recalled. In view of the advice, the government’s suggestions and confusion after two brief season delays in March and Taiwan’s light coronavirus caseload, the league decided to start play with empty stadiums but enough atmosphere that viewers at home could imagine the real thing. Taiwan’s outbreak of the coronavirus-caused respiratory disease COVID-19 has reached 429 cases over a total 23 million population, one of the developed world’s lowest infection rates. It’s low enough to protect gatherings of athletes and other personnel, the league found. But crowds of spectators, who had averaged 6,000 per game in previous seasons, could spread the virus, Wu said.This Friday, April 24, 2020, photo, shows Chinatrust Brothers players during a game against Fubon Guardians with no audience at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City, Taiwan.Cheerleaders can get into the venues now because they’re known to the teams rather than strangers. They do enough dancing that TV and internet viewers can exercise in sync with their moves while watching from home, Wu said. Cheerleading, rah-rah music tracks blasted through the stadium speakers and empty seats in some stadiums decked with spectator-like mannequins add a sense authenticity despite lack of fans. One team has brought in six robots as drummers. “I think we’d all like more fans to come in and cheer us on, but there’s truly no way for that, due to the outbreak,” said Wang Wei-chen, an infielder with the Chinatrust Brothers team. “We’re lucky we can play games and let people see them.” Online viewing that hit 650,000 people during one game April 15 attracts brands to display ads in stadiums and promotes the sale of team-specific uniforms worn by cheerleaders, the commissioner said. “If they were losing money, no one would do this,” he said of the teams. Wu believes Taiwan’s professional baseball league is the only major one that’s playing in the world now. “We won’t of course call it glory,” Wu said. “We want players all over the world to stay healthy and then get through the disease outbreaks and be able to start their seasons smoothly, because actually to be the only one is quite lonely.” At the request of some teams, the league decided last week to add English-language play-by-play narration and commentary at each stadium, Wu said. That perk allows people in the United States and other countries without baseball to follow Taiwan’s games. “Taiwan baseball has gone down very well in America,” said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy. “The relatively small number of Taiwanese teams enables viewers to get know the entire league after only a few games. The fact that Taiwan baseball’s even on shows the world what a great job Taiwan’s done against COVID-19.” That Taiwan’s league can play this month isn’t a diplomatic tool for the island that’s always keen to expand international recognition in the face of its more powerful rival China, however. It reflects “our success in public health policy advanced planning and implementation,” foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said. “It is just sport, never meant to be a tool of diplomacy,” Ou said. “It just happened to be the only one in the world to carry it out.”
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Asian Markets Making Gains in Midweek Trading
Asian markets are trading higher Wednesday as many countries continued with efforts to ease restrictions imposed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Sydney all enjoyed significant gains by late Wednesday afternoon, while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index is closed due to a national holiday. Oil prices are also back on the upswing, with U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude trading at $13.53 per barrel, up 9.6%, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $21.16, an increase of 3.4%. Oil markets have been struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, with government imposed quarantines choking off demand and causing a massive glut of supplies. U.S. crude prices plunged last week below $0 per barrel last week for the first time in history. The latest selloff in U.S. crude came Tuesday after the United States Oil Fund, a popular exchange-traded fund, announced it would sell all of its contracts for June.
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Indian Government Rejects US Commission Report
India has rejected the findings of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s annual report, calling the commission’s findings “biased and tendentious.” In its annual report released Tuesday, the USCIRF proposed designating India as a “country of particular concern,” saying that religious freedom conditions in India experienced a drastic turn downward in 2019. It recommended that India should be placed on a blacklist of countries with uniquely poor records on protecting freedom of worship. In a sharp statement, the foreign ministry said the commission’s comments are not new. But it added the recent assessment, which it characterized as a “misrepresentation,” has “reached new levels.” “We regard the USCIRF as an organization of particular concern and will treat it accordingly,” the foreign ministry said. In an apparent reference to dissent expressed by two of the nine members of the USCIRF over the proposal, the Indian statement noted the Commission has not been able to “carry its own commissioners in its endeavors.” The U.S congress created USCIRF in 1998 to make policy recommendations about global religious freedom. India’s rejection of the Commission’s views is not new – for more than a decade, it has denied visas to members of the USCIRF.
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China Continues Slow Recovery from Pandemic as Ceremonial Congress Reschedules Meeting
China’s parliament will hold its annual session in late May, two months later than scheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The official Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday that the National People’s Congress will convene in Beijing on May 22. The 3,000-member ceremonial legislature was originally scheduled to meet on March 5, but the session was postponed after the COVID-19 outbreak that originated in the central city of Wuhan spread throughout the mainland. The gathering indicates that Chinese leaders are growing increasingly confident that the country has overcome the pandemic, which has infected nearly 83,000 people in China and killed more than 4,600. China’s official number of infections have dwindled dramatically over the last month, with no new deaths reported for two consecutive weeks.
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Three Charged with COVID-Related Price Gouging in New York
Two men have been charged in federal court with price gouging for allegedly looking to resell 1 million face masks that protect against the coronavirus for at least twice what they are worth. Suspects Kent Bulloch and William Young, Sr. were indicted Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn charged with conspiring to violate the Defense Protection Act. President Donald Trump issued an executive order March 18 invoking the act, making it illegal to acquire what has been designated as scarce medical supplies and hoard or resell them at hugely inflated prices. “As alleged, the defendants conspired to turn a huge profit from the urgent need for surgical masks in New York during the pandemic,” stated U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said Tuesday. “When the attorney general said that those engaged in price gouging should expect a knock on the door, he meant it – and when we knock with one hand, we usually have a warrant in the other.” According the indictment, Bulloch and Young looked for investors in a scheme to buy respirator masks intended for medical workers and sell them for double or triple the price. They allegedly tried to hide their huge price markup by drawing up an agreement pledging that the selling price would not exceed 10%. One of the would-be investors was an undercover FBI agent. “It’s hard to believe anyone could take advantage of a situation like this, but this case clearly proves that theory wrong,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney said. “The FBI is proud to work with all of our partners as we confront the threats posed by those who are looking to game the system in this current environment.” Another New Yorker is also facing federal charges of violating the Defense Production Act. Amardeep Singh of Long Island has been accused of hoarding tons of masks, surgical gowns, and hand sanitizer in a warehouse so he can sell them in his store at highly inflated prices. The complaint alleges Singh sold face masks for $1 apiece that he’d bought for 7 cents each. He also allegedly charged customers $25 for bottles of hand sanitizer, nearly 200% more than what he paid for them. One of Singh’s lawyers calls the charges “mostly fiction” and says his client would be guilty at most of a misdemeanor.
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EU Leaders Remain at Loggerheads Over Economic Solidarity
The coronavirus crisis risks becoming an existential crisis for the European Union, say diplomats and analysts, as the EU struggles to coordinate a financial response to the pandemic.
Last week, the EU’s national leaders struck an interim agreement on a recovery deal with an emergency fund of about $581 million (a half-billion euros), which the hardest hit member states can tap into for immediate assistance.
But the wrangling over how to cope with the economic impact of the pandemic is far from over, and the overall $2 trillion-plus economic package mooted last week by the national leaders includes the budget costs of the EU itself for the next seven years.
In fact, no final numbers, aside from the emergency fund, have yet been agreed upon, according to analysts. Members states already were at loggerheads over money before the coronavirus appeared, with sharp arguments between them about how to make up for the loss of Britain’s financial contribution to the EU.
The emergency relief package came after an ill-natured squabble and warnings by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that the EU project itself was in jeopardy unless the wealthier northern states help bail out their poorer southern neighbors. It also has left unresolved whether aid from the emergency fund to countries like Italy and Spain will be in the form of loans, which must be paid back, or grants, which won’t.Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte delivers his message to the Lower House of Chambers of the Italian Parliament, in Rome, April 21, 2020.Another key issue is whether the eurozone countries will eventually have to mutualize their debt by issuing jointly so-called “coronabonds” to meet health-care costs and mitigate the impact of a deep economic slump, one that could rival the Great Depression almost a century ago.
As the behind-scenes quarreling continues over money, euro-skepticism, which before the pandemic appeared to be ebbing, is rising once again. It’s being fueled by southern Europeans smarting over what they see as an absence of solidarity by the more affluent nations, reminiscent, they say, of the debt crisis following the 2008 financial crash that nearly tore the EU apart. The pandemic is opening up the wounds of that crisis, which also saw a sharp split between the north and south.
“The coronavirus pandemic could well be the ultimate acid test of its resilience as a community based on solidarity and common values,” according to Stefan Lehne of Carnegie Europe, a think tank based in Brussels. In a posted commentary, he wrote: “The mindset of everybody for itself, which is so tempting under the acute stress of the crisis, must be countered by stepping up cooperation and mutual assistance among the member states. Otherwise, the EU will be in great danger.”
A poll published last found 40 percent of Italians would now support exiting the EU and scrapping the euro as its official currency. A further 6.1 percent would support just quitting the EU, while 7.3 percent support remaining in the bloc but replacing the euro with the lira. Just 41.7 percent agreed the status quo should be maintained.
Last month another poll found 88 percent of Italians felt let down by their European neighbors in terms of health-care support for the country’s overwhelmed hospitals. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen apologized to Italians earlier this month for the lack of solidarity shown to Italy, offering “a heartfelt apology” during a speech to the European Parliament. “Too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning,” she said.A man walks along Naples promenade, Italy, Monday, April 27, 2020. Italian factories, construction sites and wholesale supply businesses can resume activity as soon as they put safety measures into place aimed at containing contagion with COVID-19.On Tuesday, Italy became the first country to apply for financial aid from an emergency fund of $581 million. Others will be making their applications shortly, including Spain. But the emergency funds on offer are likely to fall short of what is needed, admits Klaus Regling, director-general of the European Stability Mechanism, an EU agency that provides financial assistance, in the form of loans, to eurozone countries.
He told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera: “I would say that for the second phase we need at least another €500 billion [$ half-trillion] from the European institutions, but it could be more.” He has warned that economic recovery from the virus will be “long and costly.” Italy—along with France and Spain—are demanding another $1 trillion be earmarked for emergency aid.
So far, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands are resisting the idea of joint debt issuance, which would combine securities from different European countries. But Conte and other south European leaders have been doubling down on the demand for pooling debt, mainly underwritten by the EU’s northern states.
A former adviser to France’s Emmanuel Macron, economist Shahin Vallée says greater financial and political integration will be the only way out of the impasse, which could include pooling taxes. Otherwise, only the countries with strong balance sheets able to subsidize their industries and households will recover quickly, further adding to the north-south divide.
Vallée acknowledges, though, there is little political will to go down this route. The economic recovery plan so far “is incomplete and unbalanced, and it is planting the seed of profound divergence between member states,” he has warned.
Others worry that further mutualizing eurozone debt and integrating more will allow Brussels to demand even more power over the fiscal and political affairs of member states, its due as the loan broker. That, in turn, could fuel the ire of the continent’s populist nationalists, who want nation states less hedged in by the EU.
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