| Trump considers travel restrictions to California and Washington in attempt to stop coronavirus spread Posted: 12 Mar 2020 01:46 PM PDT  President Trump said Thursday that travel restrictions to California and Washington, two states hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, were possible "if an area gets too hot."
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| Biden reveals coronavirus plan, calls Trump's handling a 'colossal' failure Posted: 12 Mar 2020 12:13 PM PDT  Former Vice President Joe Biden announced his campaign's plan to combat the coronavirus while slamming the Trump administration's handling of the spread of the outbreak during a speech Thursday afternoon.
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| The former director of the CDC is calling for an investigation into coronavirus testing failures: 'Something went wrong' Posted: 13 Mar 2020 04:19 PM PDT  "I don't know what went wrong," former CDC director Tom Frieden said. "Absolutely, it delayed our ability to recognize that this virus was spreading."
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| Body found is missing toddler Evelyn Boswell, Tennessee authorities confirm Posted: 12 Mar 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Evelyn's body, dressed in the "exact clothing" she was described as wearing when reported missing, was discovered on the Boswell family's property.
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| Police: Gov. candidate in room where crystal meth was found Posted: 13 Mar 2020 10:10 AM PDT  Former Florida Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum is named in a police report Friday saying he was "inebriated" and initially unresponsive in a hotel room where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine. The Miami Beach police report says Gillum was allowed to leave the hotel for home after he was checked out medically. Gillum, 40, said in a statement that he was in Miami Beach for a wedding and did not use illegal drugs.
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| Coronavirus: British Airways boss tells staff jobs will go Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:25 PM PDT  Airline boss spells out the crisis caused by coronavirus in a memo to staff titled "The Survival of BA".
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| How will the coronavirus travel ban work? Yahoo News Explains Posted: 12 Mar 2020 01:45 PM PDT  In an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from Europe to the U.S. beginning Friday, March 13, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. There was immediately a lot of confusion, and questions about what exactly the travel ban entails. Yahoo News Reporter Rebecca Corey explains what you need to know about the coronavirus travel ban.
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| Mexico frets about U.S. coronavirus spread, could restrict border Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:04 AM PDT  Mexico could consider measures at its northern border to slow the spread of the coronavirus into its relatively unaffected territory, health officials said on Friday, with an eye to containing a U.S. outbreak that has infected more than 1,800 people. Mexico so far has confirmed 16 cases of the coronavirus, with no deaths. In the United States, 41 people have died.
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| On coronavirus, White House can't get its stories straight Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:59 AM PDT  President Trump and his administration have had to issue a number of corrections and amendments to official declarations regarding COVID-19.
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| Chinese official suggests U.S. Army to blame for outbreak Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:50 AM PDT  "It might be U.S. army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan," tweeted Zhao Lijian. "Be transparent! Make public your data! U.S. owe us an explanation!"
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| There’s Plenty of Toilet Paper in the U.S. So Why Are People Hoarding It? Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:31 PM PDT  The other day I went into Costco to buy some toilet paper. It came as a small shock when I couldn't find a single roll.The new coronavirus is inspiring panic buying of a variety of household products such as toilet paper in cities across the U.S. and world. While it makes sense to me that masks and hand sanitizer would be in short supply because of the outbreak, I wondered why people would be hoarding toilet paper – a product that is widely produced and doesn't help protect from a respiratory virus like COVID-19. Toilet paper is becoming so valuable there's even been at least one armed robbery.As an economist, I am fascinated by why people hoard products that are not having supply problems. Toilet paper hoarding in particular has a curious history and economy.* * *Past panics* * *This wouldn't be the first panic over toilet paper. In 1973, U.S. consumers cleared store shelves of the rolls for a month based on little more than rumors, fears and a joke.At the time, Americans were already worrying about limited supplies of products like gasoline, electricity and onions. A government press release warning of a potential shortage in toilet paper led to a lot of press coverage but no outright panic buying until Johnny Carson, a famous late night television host, joked about it during his opening monologue. Instead of laughing, people took it seriously and began to hoard toilet paper.Americans aren't alone in panic buying to ensure they have plenty of squares to spare. Venezuelans hoarded the commodity in 2013 as a result of a drop in production, leading the government to seize a toilet paper factory in an effort to ensure more supply. It failed to do the trick.* * *100 rolls a year* * *The average person in the U.S. uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper each year. If most of it came from China, this could be a huge problem because supply chains from that country have been severely disrupted as a result of COVID-19. The U.S., however, imports very little toilet paper – less than 10% in 2017. And most of that comes from Canada and Mexico. The U.S. has been mass producing toilet paper since the late 1800s. And while other industries like shoe manufacturing have fled the country, toilet paper manufacturing has not. Today there are almost 150 U.S. companies making this product. * * *Why people hoard* * *So then why would people hoard a product that is abundant? Australia has also suffered from panic buying of toilet paper despite plentiful domestic supply. A risk expert in the country explained it this way: "Stocking up on toilet paper is … a relatively cheap action, and people like to think that they are 'doing something' when they feel at risk."This is an example of "zero risk bias," in which people prefer to try to eliminate one type of possibly superficial risk entirely rather than do something that would reduce their total risk by a greater amount. Hoarding also makes people feel secure. This is especially relevant when the world is faced with a novel disease over which all of us have little or no control. However, we can control things like having enough toilet paper in case we are quarantined.It's also possible we are biologically programmed to hoard. Birds, squirrels and other animals tend to hoard stuff.* * *How to handle shortages* * *There are a number of ways to handle shortages, including those caused by hoarding. The best way is to convince people to stop doing it, especially with plentiful products like toilet paper. However, logic often fails when dealing with emotional issues.Another way is by rationing. Formal rationing is when governments allocate goods by specifying exactly how much each family gets. The U.S. used rationing during World War II to allocate gasoline, sugar and even meat. China rationed a lot of goods including food, fuel and bicycles until the 1990s.Sometimes businesses enforce informal rationing. Stores prevent customers from buying all they want. The Costco I went to for toilet paper had a sign limiting shoppers to five packages per customer. Modern economies run on trust and confidence. COVID-19 is breaking down that trust. People are losing confidence that they will be able to go outside and get what they need when they need it. This leads to hoarding items like toilet paper.While the government advises preparing for a pandemic by storing a two-week supply of food and water, there's no need to hoard stuff, particularly products that are unlikely to suffer from a shortage. As for my local Costco, I stopped by a few days later, and the toilet paper aisle was fully stocked.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Taiwan has only 50 coronavirus cases. Its response to the crisis shows that swift action and widespread healthcare can prevent an outbreak. Posted: 13 Mar 2020 04:48 PM PDT  The government acted swiftly, taking advantage of infrastructure and data analytics, affordable healthcare, and extensive educational outreach.
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| Project Python: More than 600 suspected Mexican drug cartel members arrested in US Posted: 12 Mar 2020 10:32 AM PDT  The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have made more than 600 arrests as part of 'Project Python', an interagency operation targeting Mexican drug cartel activity.The DEA-led initiative focused on members of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), one of the most dangerous drug cartels in the world, who were monitored by federal law enforcement officials over a six month period.
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| In Albania, Iranian dissidents plot a revolution Posted: 12 Mar 2020 07:20 PM PDT  In a gleaming compound built from scratch on an Albanian hillside, thousands of Iranians dedicate their waking hours to toppling the regime in Tehran 3,000 kilometres away. "I think this year will be very decisive," says Zohreh Akhiani, the 56-year-old mayor of "Ashraf 3", a mini-city of some 2,800 exiled Iranians from the opposition movement the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). The dissidents hope an onslaught of crises in their homeland will aid their cause, from increasingly harsh US sanctions to recent anti-government protests and the new coronavirus, which has infected top officials.
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| Andrew Gillum linked to meth overdose incident in Miami hotel, police reports state Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Andrew Gillum, Tallahassee's former mayor and 2018's Democratic nominee for Florida governor, was involved in a meth overdose incident Friday morning.
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| 22 Beautifully Designed Tea Shops From Around the World Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:00 PM PDT |
| Trump met Brazilian official with coronavirus, but says 'not concerned' Posted: 12 Mar 2020 09:36 AM PDT  WASHINGTON/BRASILIA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was not concerned about the possibility of being exposed to the coronavirus after dining last week with a Brazilian government official who has since tested positive for the disease. The day after announcing curbs on travel to the United States by European Union residents, Trump brushed off concerns about his possible exposure to the virus, which has sickened more than 126,000 people in a worldwide pandemic. "Let's put it this way: I'm not concerned," Trump told reporters while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office.
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| 'This is unacceptable': New York City mayor denounces coronavirus discrimination Posted: 12 Mar 2020 01:01 PM PDT  "Right now, we've seen particularly troubling instances of discrimination directed at Asian communities, particularly in Chinese community," de Blasio said.
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| Germany has offered companies 'unlimited' loans to stop them from collapsing because of the coronavirus pandemic Posted: 13 Mar 2020 06:46 AM PDT  "There is no upper limit on the amount of loans that [we] can issue," German finance minister Olaf Scholz said.
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| Some Rome churches reopen after angry pope steps in Posted: 13 Mar 2020 04:42 PM PDT  Some of Rome's Catholic churches reopened Friday after Pope Francis voiced displeasure with the Italian authorities' push to shut them because of the coronavirus pandemic. The rare standoff between the 83-year-old pontiff and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government came as Italy's death toll reached 1,266. Conte has responded by shuttering most shops and all restaurants and other public places in the hope of stemming contagion and easing the burden on overstretched hospitals.
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| WHO: Don't expect travel bans, 'Mother Nature' to beat virus Posted: 12 Mar 2020 02:03 PM PDT  Countries may gain time in the short-term as they limit travel to fight the new coronavirus pandemic, but the World Health Organization thinks overall that "it doesn't help to restrict movement," a top adviser to the U.N. health agency's chief said Thursday. Dr. Bruce Aylward, who led a WHO team in China during the raging COVID-19 outbreak there last month, said in an interview that travel bans "generally aren't part of the armamentarium you bring to bear on something like this." "What we found, as a general principle - not a general principle, a pretty robust principle - is that it doesn't help to to restrict movement," Aylward, a former WHO emergencies chief, said outside a room at agency headquarters devoted to the outbreak.
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| Is it worth it to go on a cruise right now? If you decide not to, how late can you cancel? Posted: 12 Mar 2020 12:30 PM PDT  I was on a cruise when the CDC issued its advisory not to sail. Here's how coronavirus affected my cruise, and your options if you have one booked.
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| Revolutionary Guards to enforce coronavirus controls in Iran Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:30 AM PDT  Streets, shops and public spaces to be cleared in next 24 hours after virus kills hundreds * Coronavirus latest – live updatesIran's Revolutionary Guards are to clear streets, shops and public places in the country within the next 24 hours, in a dramatic escalation of efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus.The near-curfew follows growing exasperation among MPs that calls for Iranian citizens to stay at home had been widely ignored, as people continued to travel before the Nowruz new year holidays. Shops and offices have largely remained open.Controversy over the health ministry's authority within government and the haphazard way in which Iran's provinces were implementing its advice has led to the change in tactics, and a clearer role for the army. The failure to impose a quarantine around the spiritual city of Qom, seen as the centre of the outbreak, has caused anger on social media.There have also been complaints that the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has not been taking a sufficiently hands-on role in the crisis.Official figures, disputed by foreign media and opponents of the regime, show the numbers of dead in Iran have climbed to 514 and the numbers infected to 11,634. Hospitals in some provinces have been overwhelmed by the demand for treatment.Satellite images released this week showed what appeared to be mass graves in Qom, suggesting Iran's coronavirus epidemic is more serious than authorities are admitting.The pictures show the excavation of a new section in a cemetery on the northern fringe of the city in late February, and two long trenches dug by the end of the month.The new steps, reflecting a transfer of power from political to military rulers, and ordered by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was announced by the armed forces commander-in-chief, Mohammad Baqeri. He said the intervention would start in the next 24 hours and last as long as a week. The volunteer Basij force will be involved in the programme, which will include phone calls, internet contact and house-to-house visits.Baqeri said the army would be working alongside the health ministry, and not supplanting it, but pictures show the army meeting at a separate headquarters to discuss the new action plan. He urged people "to follow the recommendations and requests of the ministry of health and so help break this chain of transmission", adding: "If the chain continues, disease control [measures] will be prolonged."As many as 1,000 fixed and mobile detection clinics were being set up as part of the plan. He said the army would step in alongside nurses to set up a corps of staff, including volunteers that could work alongside exhausted medical workers. Army factories were producing face masks and gloves, and 6,000 army hospital beds were being made available, he said. The health ministry said it was setting up a national coronavirus mobilisation programme to increase early detection and had already piloted implementation of it in five provinces.A spokesman claimed the pilot scheme had already reduced the scale of infections in Qom and Guilan provinces so that the total number of new cases for the first time was exceeded by the numbers recovering.The aim was to identify patients at the first stage of the disease and prevent them from circulating in the community, as well as those associated with them, so cutting the transmission chain.Despite Iran's reputation as an authoritarian state in which human rights are ignored, the opening fortnight of its fight against coronavirus has been marked by citizens demanding the state take more draconian and consistent steps to bring the disease under control. An earlier proposal for a house-to-house detection system was criticised on the grounds that it might lead to the spread rather than the containment of the disease.The crackdown came as the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, sparred with Khamenei on Twitter over claims the US had launched a biological war on Iran. Pompeo tweeted: "As Khamenei knows, the best biological defense is to tell the truth to the Iranian people about how the virus came from Wuhan, China. He [Khamenei] allowed Mahan Air's flights to and from China, the centre of the epidemic, to continue, and imprisoned those who talked about it."Khamenei had tweeted the day before: "Evidence suggests this could be a biological attack. So the fight against the coronavirus can be left to the armed forces, and it can also be a biological defense combat exercise and increase our national authority and capability."Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, joined in the row, saying: "Instead of hypocritical compassion and disgusting boasting, stop economic and medical terrorism so that medicine and medical equipment reach the medical staff and people of Iran.""By the way, pay attention to the American people too!" the spokesman advised US officials.Iran has asked the International Monetary Fund for $5bn in aid to help combat the crisis but may well find the request is blocked by the US. Any hopes the crisis would lead to a temporary truce between Tehran and Washington appear to have been dashed by an Iraqi militia attack on a US army base in Iraq.
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| 'The virus is already here': Trump accused of xenophobia and shifting blame in historic coronavirus address Posted: 11 Mar 2020 08:19 PM PDT  Donald Trump has drawn fire for his reference to the coronavirus as a "foreign virus" and for focusing on a ban on European travel despite repeated warnings from health officials that the Covid-19 outbreak's inevitable surge throughout the US is coming through community spread that's already in the country.In his address to the nation on Wednesday, the president asserted that "the virus will not have a chance against us" as he blamed Europe for failing to contain the outbreak and said the administration's ban on China travel was effective in limiting its spread.
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| Ethiopia will not be pressured on Nile River dam, foreign minister says Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:22 AM PDT  Ethiopia will not be pressured by the United States to sign any deal with the Sudan or Egypt over a dam on the Nile River, says Ethiopia's foreign minister.
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| Trump reportedly rejected aggressive coronavirus testing in hopes it would help his re-election Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:18 AM PDT  The U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has been "much, much worse than almost any other country that's been affected," Ashish Jha, who runs the Harvard Global Health Institute, told NPR on Thursday. "I still don't understand why we don't have extensive testing. Vietnam! Vietnam has tested more people than America has." Without testing, he added, "you have no idea how extensive the infection is," and "we have to shut schools, events, and everything down, because that's the only tool available to us until we get testing back up. It's been stunning to me how bad the federal response has been."There are a lot of reasons why the U.S. lags other countries in testing for the new coronavirus -- defective early tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the decision not to adopt an effective German test adopted by the World Health Organization -- but Politico's Dan Diamond told Fresh Air's Terry Gross on Thursday that politics also seems to have played a role, along with mismanagement and infighting between, for example, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Seema Verma, the Medicare chief.In January, Azar "did push past resistance from the president's political aides to warn the president the new coronavirus could be a major problem," Diamond said, but he "has not always given the president the worst-case scenario of what could happen. My understanding is [Trump] did not push to do aggressive additional testing in recent weeks, and that's partly because more testing might have led to more cases being discovered of coronavirus outbreak, and the president had made clear -- the lower the numbers on coronavirus, the better for the president, the better for his potential re-election this fall."CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta discussed America's "sad" testing failure, the "provincial" decision not to use the WHO test, and other missteps and positive moves with Stephen Colbert on Thursday's Late Show. You can watch that below. More stories from theweek.com Trump just gave the worst speech of his presidency Why Trump fears Biden Trump says he doesn't 'take responsibility at all' for lack of coronavirus testing
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| China, US spar over origin of coronavirus Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:52 AM PDT  A Chinese government campaign to cast doubt on the origin of the coronavirus pandemic is fuelling a row with the United States, with a Beijing official promoting conspiracy theories and Washington calling it the "Wuhan virus". The spat comes as China tries to deflect blame for the contagion and reframe itself as a country that took decisive steps to buy the world time by placing huge swathes of its population under quarantine. With cases falling in China and soaring abroad, Beijing is now rejecting the widely held assessment that the city of Wuhan is the birthplace of the outbreak.
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| I'm an epidemiologist. Here's what I told my friends about the coronavirus and COVID-19. Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Focus on slowing down the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus. Did I mention: Wash. Your. Hands. Then wash them again.
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| U.S. launches strikes in retaliation for attack that killed 3 coalition service members Posted: 13 Mar 2020 02:22 AM PDT  The strikes were aimed at five weapon storage facilities.
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| Trump Says U.S. to Waive Interest on Student Debt in Virus Plan Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:12 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government will waive interest on federal student loans as part of a broad response to the coronavirus emergency, President Donald Trump said Friday.Several days of turmoil on financial markets have pushed the White House to expand its response to the virus, which threatens to bring the U.S. and world economies to a halt. Trump also announced plans Friday to expand access to medical treatment and buy oil for strategic reserves.American students owe $1.6 trillion in student debt. The Treasury owns about three-quarters of those loans, and is the guarantor for most of the rest.In 2018, the government collected roughly $20 billion in interest charges as part of some $80 billion it received in overall repayments, according to a Moody's report last year.To contact the reporter on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| El Salvador president seeks emergency powers to fight coronavirus Posted: 13 Mar 2020 10:13 AM PDT  El Salvador's Congress will on Friday debate temporarily suspending a range of civil liberties including the right to freely enter and exit the country, as President Nayib Bukele resorts to tougher measures to curb coronavirus. Bukele earlier asked Congress president Mario Ponce to consider decreeing emergency powers which would override some constitutional guarantees. Ponce convened all 84 lawmakers for an afternoon session and said they would vote the same day.
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| Thousands in tent city limbo after Supreme Court keeps 'Remain in Mexico' in place Posted: 12 Mar 2020 02:04 AM PDT |
| Terrifying security camera footage shows Tennessee tornado's rampage through Nashville Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:17 AM PDT  A dramatic video captured by an MNPD camera shows a tornado ripping through a Germantown intersection in Nashville.
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| Japan unveils its hypersonic weapons plans Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:06 AM PDT  The government also provided more details regarding warhead payloads, with different warheads planned for both seaborne and land targets.
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| Lawyer: Man asleep when police fired on house, killing him Posted: 13 Mar 2020 12:49 PM PDT  The Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release Friday that Duncan Socrates Lemp "confronted" police and was shot by one of the officers early Thursday. Rene Sandler, an attorney for Lemp's relatives, said an eyewitness gave a "completely contrary" account of the shooting. The warrant that police obtained to search the Potomac home Lemp shared with his parents and 19-year-old brother doesn't mention any "imminent threat" to law enforcement or the public, Lemp's relatives said in a statement released Friday by their lawyers.
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| Four women at forefront of Israel's Arab political surge Posted: 12 Mar 2020 08:23 PM PDT  Newly elected Israeli MP Iman al-Khatib, greeting supporters in Nazareth, shook hands with women but tapped her heart with her right hand for men. The gestures signalled the Muslim identity of the woman who is about to become Israel's first hijab-wearing MP and part of a group of Arab women poised to expand their voice in Israel's male-dominated politics. All major parties in the Jewish state are led by men, with women making up only 25 percent of lawmakers in the Knesset, or parliament.
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| South Korea is Beating the Coronavirus. Mass Testing is Key. But There’s More. Posted: 13 Mar 2020 12:29 PM PDT  Americans would do well to look to South Korea for an example of how to contain and possibly defeat the fast-spreading coronavirus.After days of indecision in which President Moon Jae-in and his aides could not believe how quickly the disease was spreading from China, they woke up to the danger and instituted one of the most effective systems anywhere.South Korea's Creepy Coronavirus Cellphone Alerts are Useful, But They May Be TMIIn one remarkable innovation, drive-by centers test those with symptoms without asking them to leave their vehicles. A quick temperature check, a rub inside the mouth and maybe the nose with a cotton swab, and it's all over until the results are known a few hours later.Dr. Ogan Gurel, who got his medical degree from Columbia in New York and moved to Seoul 10 years ago, cites drive-by testing as one of "a panoply of measures" designed to stop the virus from overwhelming this country of 51 million people."There is no silver bullet," says Gurel, who teaches medicine and provides scientific advice. "Individually, people might suffer, but in aggregate they end up with qualitative stabilization." That is to say, for the overall population the disease is brought under control.The proof is in the numbers showing new cases in South Korea decreasing steadily–just 110 on Thursday, the lowest in more than two weeks, while 177 were declared cured and sent home. All told, the number of cases totals 7,979, but the general feeling sense is the worst is over."Korea is setting a good example for the U.S.," said Jang Sung-eun, who still rides the subways to work every day while many of her colleagues try to work from home. "They say we Koreans are rather effective in dealing with the problem."Such guarded optimism reflects a discernible shift in national mood from the near-panic that engulfed the country after the virus was discovered to be emanating from a church in the city of Daegu, 170 miles southeast of Seoul. The church was one of dozens run by the secretive Shincheonji sect, whose leader, Lee Man-hee, has proclaimed himself the embodiment of Jesus Christ."There was some resistance among them to testing," says Gurel, but by now almost all the sect's 230,000 members have been checked. Most of those suffering from the disease were members of the church or caught the virus from members who may have passed it on through two or three others, who in turn transmitted it to still more contacts.Korean self-discipline and community cohesiveness explain much of the success in coming to terms with an illness that remains almost out of control elsewhere."The rate of new cases is tapering much more than in Italy, Iran or the U.S.," says Gurel. "They've been taking measures that are quite constructive. They've been isolating cluster areas but not in a totalitarian way."Quite aside from the availability of quick, no-cost testing, Dr. Gurel cites the discipline of Koreans in heeding advice of all sorts. "There is a constant message about social hygiene," he says. Avoidance of public spaces, frequent hand-washing, all that "eventually improved the situation."Kim Ganglip, vice health minister, outlined the philosophy behind the campaign to halt the spread of the disease."We consider two core values to be important," he told journalists in Seoul. "First is that public participation must be secured through openness and transparency. Second is to respect creative thinking and use cutting-edge technology to develop the most effective means of response." On that basis, he said, "the government is working on various ways to ensure that the information that citizens need to stay safe includes detailed explanations."Once a patient is confirmed to have the disease, the words "emergency alert" on mobile phones show his or her "travel history," said Kim. "The more transparently and quickly accurate information is provided, the more the people will trust the government." If that approach seemed like an intrusion on privacy, Kim adopts that same argument in debunking what he called "the traditional response to an outbreak of contagious disease" that involved "locking down afflicted areas and isolating infected victims." That approach, he said, has had only "modest effectiveness" while appearing "close-minded, coercive, and inflexible." In fact, he said, "We have experienced harmful consequences with democracy being undermined and active public participation in the process being reduced." As a democratic country and a pluralistic society, said Kim, "we must transcend the limitations of the conventional approach to fighting infectious diseases." But how can South Korea manage to pull off the trick of sticking to democratic principles while trying to tell people what to do and how to behave? The answer, some believe, lies in Korea's military history. "Having the large military and needing to remain in constant readiness for an outbreak of war is probably helpful," says Steve Tharp, a retired U.S. army officer who's lived on the peninsula for decades. "The government was also able to quickly pull assets from the military, such as nurses and others, to assist in the effort. We see pictures of soldiers walking around in hazmat suits spraying different locations." Then too, Tharp notes, geography helps. "South Korea is essentially an island with the water on three sides"–and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea "blocking the hostile nation to the north." Finally, he adds in an email, "The small geographical size of Korea and the great rail and road networks also mean that assets/resources needed to fight the virus can be redistributed quickly nationwide–in just a matter of hours." Korea's history of having battled, and defeated, previous epidemiological threats undoubtedly helped.While President Donald Trump's people seemed oblivious to the danger of a pandemic, observes Tom Coyner, a long-time business consultant in Seoul, in South Korea "the national health program is relatively immune to political pressures." Thus "precautionary measures, such as those pertaining to a possible pandemic, such as SARS, MERS, and now COVID-19, were being treated seriously and unlikely to face budgetary cutbacks. "Hank Morris, also a consultant in Seoul, agrees. "The Koreans must have developed viral infection testing capacities from the time of SARS and MERS, and also for swine flu, all of which were within the past 20 years," he says. "They began developing large-scale testing years ago and have allocated some resources to testing capability every year."Amazingly, even Korean conservatives, bitterly opposed to the liberal policies of President Moon, cannot deny that Korea's approach to coronavirus actually appears to be working."We're very advanced," says Maeng Joo-seok, a regular participant in right-wing protests before the government banned them. "We are very developed and reliable"–enough to imbue Koreans with confidence in their ability to defeat the odds as they have done so often since the country's rise from the rubble of war.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| McConnell delays Senate recess amid coronavirus crisis and FISA deadline Posted: 12 Mar 2020 11:18 AM PDT  McConnell will give the chamber more time to address the widespread pandemic.
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| Coronavirus task force immunologist: Testing 'is a failing. Let's admit it.' Posted: 12 Mar 2020 01:34 PM PDT  The Trump administration is facing heavy criticism over the United States' inability to adequately test sick patients for COVID-19. On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a coronavirus task force immunologist, did not mince his words either: "The system is not really geared to what we need right now," said Fauci, who has advised six presidents on domestic and global health issues. "That is a failing. Let's admit it."The harsh words were delivered at a House hearing about coronavirus test kits, NBC reports, and came within hours of President Trump declaring that the tests were "going very smooth." On Thursday, Yahoo News reported that the CDC had only run 77 coronavirus tests between Sunday and Wednesday of this week.Other countries, including South Korea, can test thousands of patients a day. "The idea of anybody [in America] getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that," Fauci explained. "Do I think we should be? Yes. But we're not."More stories from theweek.com Trump just gave the worst speech of his presidency Why Trump fears Biden Trump says he doesn't 'take responsibility at all' for lack of coronavirus testing
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| Pregnant 19-year-old, child die trying to climb U.S. border wall Posted: 12 Mar 2020 12:48 PM PDT  A 19-year-old pregnant woman from Guatemala died this week from injuries suffered when she fell trying to climb the U.S. border wall near El Paso, Texas, U.S. and Guatemalan authorities said Thursday.
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| Delta, American, United in White House talks to receive government support Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:30 AM PDT  WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines , American Air Lines and United Airlines , the three largest U.S. airlines, are in talks with the U.S. government about potential assistance amid a dramatic drop-off in air travel demand due to the coronavirus outbreak, the carriers said on Friday. United CEO Oscar Munoz has spent two days in Washington this week meeting with lawmakers and senior officials in the Trump administration, while United President Scott Kirby has been in close touch with bank executives to assess the deepening impact of the crisis on the broader economy, the two told employees in a memo on Thursday. "We will be helping the airline industry if we have to," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday.
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| 'How much?': Venezuela opposition received bribe offers to give up congress Posted: 13 Mar 2020 07:22 AM PDT  Undisclosed recordings, dozens of interviews and leaked text messages suggest that Venezuela's Socialist party attempted to dismantle the opposition through bribes and threats.
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| Zimbabwe Gives Land Back to White Farmers After Wrecking Economy Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:05 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Two decades after President Robert Mugabe wrecked Zimbabwe's economy by urging black subsistence farmers to violently force white commercial farmers and their workers off their land, his successor has thrown in the towel.Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has proposed settling all outstanding claims against it by farmers by offering them land."The object of the regulations is to provide for the disposal of land to persons entitled to compensation," Land Minister Perence Shiri said in regulations published in the Government Gazette Friday.The seizures that began in 2000 were ratified by the government, which said they were needed to redress colonial imbalances. A vibrant agricultural industry that exported tobacco and roses and grew most of the food the nation needed collapsed. Periodic food shortages ensued, inflation became the world's highest and the manufacturing industry was decimated. What was one of Africa's richest countries became one of its poorest.Almost 4,500 white-owned properties and others protected under government-to-government agreements were affected by the program.The southern African nation this year budgeted about Z$380 million ($21 million) for compensation. Several farms that were protected under so-called Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements belonged to nations including the U.K., South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands and Denmark.To contact the reporters on this story: Godfrey Marawanyika in Harare at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net;Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Karl MaierFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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