| As mayor, Bernie Sanders condemned American interventionism but also defended undemocratic governments abroad Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Archives of Bernie Sanders's mayoral papers shed light on the foreign policy views he held at the start of his political career.
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| Hospitals prepare for the worst on coronavirus, and it's not a pretty picture Posted: 13 Mar 2020 06:16 PM PDT  Medical facilities are taking precautions to protect their staff while preparing for a spike in patients that has overwhelmed the health care systems of other countries.
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| When will there be a coronavirus vaccine — and who will get it first? Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:59 AM PDT  One of the central questions for resolving the COVID-19 crisis is how long it will take to develop a vaccine.
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| Will coronavirus go away in the spring? Maybe — but it also might come back in fall. Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:07 AM PDT  Flu viruses generally subside in warm weather, for reasons that aren't totally clear. Coronavirus may follow that pattern — or not.
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| Coronavirus travel: President Trump considering domestic restrictions, adds U.K. to ban Posted: 15 Mar 2020 12:18 PM PDT  In addition to potential domestic restrictions, Trump added the UK and Ireland to the existing international ban.
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| American Airlines cutting international flights by 75% amid demand collapse Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:21 PM PDT  WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - American Airlines Inc said Saturday it plans to cut 75% of its international flights through May 6 and ground nearly all its widebody fleet, as airlines respond to the global collapse in travel demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. The dramatic announcement by the largest U.S. airline came hours after the White House said the United States would widen new travel restrictions on Europeans to include travelers in the United Kingdom and Ireland, starting Monday night. The Trump administration also signaled Saturday it wanted Congress to quickly back financial support for troubled U.S. airlines.
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| Christchurch marks anniversary of mosque shootings Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:02 PM PDT  People in the New Zealand city of Christchurch honored the 51 worshipers who were killed in a mass shooting a year ago in small but poignant ways Sunday, after a planned national memorial event was canceled due to fears it might spread the new coronavirus. Outside the Al Noor mosque, dozens of leather-clad bikers from the Tu Tangata club performed a traditional Maori haka. One of those who survived the shooting at the Linwood mosque was Mazharuddin Syed Ahmed, who said that marking anniversaries was not typically a Muslim tradition but they were doing it so the wider community could grieve and remember.
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| New York City teachers threaten mass ‘sickout’ as schools stay open amid coronavirus Posted: 15 Mar 2020 08:35 AM PDT  School districts in more than a dozen states have shut down as New York keeps them open, prompting backlash from teachers unionsA growing revolt by teachers raised the prospect of a mass "sickout" in New York City classrooms on Monday, even as Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to defend his controversial decision to keep schools open.Entire school districts in more than a dozen states have shut down operations for more than 15 million students until the coronavirus crisis has passed. Just over the Hudson river from New York the city of Hoboken, in New Jersey, has gone so far as to enforce an overnight curfew.But New York remains an anomaly, prompting a backlash from teachers unions who have attacked the decision as "irresponsible".De Blasio, however, remains determined to keep classes in session for the school district's million students."My blunt fear is if the schools shut down they will be done for the year, done for the school year, maybe even for the calendar year," he said on CNN's State of the Union."So I'm very reticent to shut down schools for a variety of reasons, not just that it's where a lot of kids get their only good meals, but they get adult supervision, especially teenagers who otherwise would be out on the streets. There's health and safety ramifications to that."Those first responders, those healthcare workers who depend on the schools, they can get to work and we need those workers desperately."De Blasio said he believed the crisis could last at least six months, and the situation was escalating daily."Because of community spread [coronavirus] is clearly widespread already in New York City and will continue to grow," he said."We had 25 confirmed cases on Monday, we have 269 this morning and that'll grow today, we'll clearly have a thousand cases probably not too far into next week. That doesn't mean people should be overwhelmed. It means people have to be smart about listening to guidance from healthcare professionals."The mayor did concede, however, that schools could close quickly if he felt the situation warranted it."It is literally a day-to-day reality. If we can keep our schools open we will, if at any point we feel it doesn't make sense we will make a move," he said, adding that preparations were in hand to care for the children of essential workers."A variety of contingencies are being set up. They are far from perfect, let's be clear, the distance and difference between a functioning school system program for a million kids versus creating alternative centers feeding kids of healthcare workers, that kind of thing."De Blasio's stance has angered teachers in the nation's largest school district, who have watched a steady stream of classroom closures in other sizeable districts, including Los Angeles, Boston and entire states including Florida.Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents about 150,000 educators in New York city schools, said De Blasio's failure to fall in line risked students' health."Because of his irresponsible decision to keep the public schools open, Mayor Bill de Blasio can no longer assure the health and safety of our students and school communities," Mulgrew said in an email to parents."We have a small window of time to contain the coronavirus before it penetrates into our communities and overwhelms our healthcare system's capacity to safely care for all the New Yorkers who may become gravely ill."The Movement of Rank and File Educators, a faction of the UFT, has urged its members to call in sick on Monday as a protest."Transmission is clearly already happening in the schools and the sooner it stops the fewer people will die," the group said in a statement. The faction has sent out several tweets with the hashtag "sickout", one stating that: "If de Blasio won't closenycpublicschools to protect students and their families, teachers will."Some parents have taken the decision to keep their children home. "It would be a hardship if they closed the schools, but I think it's a necessary one we need to take in the space of this emergency," said Anna Gold, who pulled her third-grader and kindergartner out of public schools in Brooklyn.In contrast to New York's relative freedoms, meanwhile, neighboring Hoboken has imposed a 10pm to 5am curfew on residents to try to keep coronavirus at bay.Mayor Ravi S Bhalla announced on Saturday night that exceptions would be made for emergencies and people required to work, adding that restaurants can only offer takeout and delivery services. * Material from the Associated Press was included in this report
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| Chile quarantines 1,300 aboard two cruise ships Posted: 14 Mar 2020 07:19 PM PDT  Chile has quarantined more than 1,300 people aboard two cruise ships after an elderly Briton aboard one of them tested positive for the coronavirus, the health ministry announced Saturday. Both ships are cruising the Chilean fjords in Patagonia. The 85-year-old man showed symptoms of the virus after getting off the Silver Explorer ship in the far southern port of Caleta Tortel, 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) from Santiago.
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| Sanders bets on Biden debate implosion Posted: 15 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT  His rivals have been waiting for more than a year for Biden to wilt under pressure. Sunday's debate looks like Sanders' last hope.
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| Life under lockdown in Italy: A look at what might be coming to the U.S. Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:46 AM PDT  An American living in Italy reports on what it is like during the country's stringent quarantine regulations.
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| Customs officers seized 6 bags full of fake coronavirus testing kits at LAX Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:18 PM PDT  The bags were filled with small vials labeled "Corona Virus 2019nconv (COVID-19)" and "Virus1 Test Kit."
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| 'Go to Your Local Pub': While Experts Call for Social Distancing, Rep. Devin Nunes Advises People to Leave Their Homes Posted: 15 Mar 2020 11:22 AM PDT  He was concerned that the pandemic could harm the economy
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| Trump, reversing position, says he got tested for coronavirus after all Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:48 AM PDT  President Trump had more contact than previously known with people who have tested positive for coronavirus, but the White House said he won't be tested.
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| Fauci: U.S. is 'entering into a new phase in the testing space' Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:23 PM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said on Sunday that the United States is "entering into a new phase in the (coronavirus) testing space."
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| 'A new phase': US health officials pledge to ramp up nationwide coronavirus testing beginning this week Posted: 15 Mar 2020 04:55 PM PDT  Health officials said Sunday they are planning to ramp up coronavirus testing by tens of thousands of additional people a week beginning this week.
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| First Russian-Turkish patrol on Syrian highway cut short by protests Posted: 15 Mar 2020 04:02 AM PDT  IDLIB,SYRIA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Turkey cut short their first joint patrol in Syria's Idlib on Sunday after rebels and civilians opposed to a ceasefire agreement cut off a main roadway to block its path, according to witnesses and Russian news agencies. The patrol on the M4 highway in Idlib province was the result of a March 5 ceasefire accord between Moscow and Ankara, which back opposing sides in Syria's nine-year war. Under the deal, which halted hostilities after an escalation of violence that displaced nearly a million people, Turkish and Russian forces are to establish a security corridor on either side of the M4, as well as carry out joint patrols along it.
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| Iraq officials: Rocket attack hits base housing US troops Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:13 AM PDT  A barrage of rockets hit a base housing U.S. and other coalition troops north of Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi security officials said, just days after a similar attack killed three servicemen, including two Americans. The U.S.-led coalition said at least 25 107mm rockets struck Camp Taji just before 11 a.m. Some struck the area where coalition forces are based, while others fell on air defense units, the Iraqi military statement said. Jonathan Hoffman, chief Pentagon spokesman, said later that three U.S. service members were wounded in the Camp Taji attack.
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| NYC teachers 'furious' over policy to keep schools open despite coronavirus outbreak Posted: 15 Mar 2020 12:02 PM PDT  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio started rebuffing any effort to close schools last week saying, "we are going to do our damnedest to keep the schools open."
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| I flew on a JetBlue flight a day after one of its passengers tested positive for coronavirus — and I never felt safer on a plane Posted: 14 Mar 2020 04:51 AM PDT  Despite the coronavirus outbreak, the flight was stress-free, thanks to the overly cautious passengers and relaxed flight crew.
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| Philippines closes off capital to fight virus Posted: 15 Mar 2020 01:15 AM PDT  Police began closing off access to the Philippines' sprawling and densely populated capital Manila on Sunday, imposing a quarantine that officials hope will curb the nation's rising number of coronavirus cases. Officers in military fatigues and armed with rifles blocked off main roads into the city of some 12 million as domestic flights to and from Manila were halted early Sunday for a month-long isolation of the capital. Mass gatherings and school at all levels have also been called off, but delays and exceptions have led public health experts to question how effective President Rodrigo Duterte's measures will be.
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| What's included in the coronavirus response package? Posted: 13 Mar 2020 10:37 PM PDT  The House passed a sweeping coronavirus relief bill that includes free testing and paid sick leave.
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| Biden wins endorsement from NEA, country's largest union Posted: 15 Mar 2020 07:14 AM PDT  The country's largest labor union is supporting Joe Biden's presidential campaign, with the National Education Association on Saturday endorsing the former vice president for the Democratic nomination over his main rival, Bernie Sanders.
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| Rate cuts: US goes to almost zero and launches huge stimulus programme Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:54 PM PDT  The move to combat the impact of coronavirus is a co-ordinated action with Europe, Japan and Canada.
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| Saudi Arabia restricts movement, other Gulf states limit entry as coronavirus spreads Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:43 AM PDT  RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia closed public spaces on Sunday and announced a pause in most government operations while Qatar and Oman imposed entry restrictions as Gulf Arab states broadened efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus and support their economies. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar reported new cases, raising the total number in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to 963, with no deaths reported.
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| No to ‘FISA Reform’ Posted: 14 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Thanks to Senators Rand Paul (R., Ken.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), as well as an amen chorus of Trump loyalists in the House, the president seems poised to fulfill one of the fondest dreams of Clinton and Obama Democrats: Government policy that regards international terrorism as a mere crime, a law-enforcement issue to be managed by federal judges rather than a national-security threat from which the officials Americans elect must safeguard our country.I doubt the president realizes these ramifications of declining to reauthorize three PATRIOT Act security measures that are set to expire. Successfully camouflaging themselves as "FISA reformers," Senators Paul and Lee have steered the president toward exploiting the imminent expiration as a way of holding the FBI accountable for FISA abuse.In truth, the senators' agenda predates the Trump era, and it would do nothing to fix what's actually wrong with FISA. Their aim is to dismantle the post-9/11 intelligence-based approach to counterterrorism, a strategy prudently adopted by President Bush, who recognized that when our most immediate threat is jihadist mass-murder attacks, prevention should take precedence over prosecution. "FISA reform" is a shrewd way for them to accomplish this objective because it appeals to the president's vanity — his most destructive blind spot.See, the libertarian senators have always opposed intelligence-based counterterrorism on philosophical grounds that they root in the Constitution. They are wrong, though their sincerity is not to be doubted. As I've related over the years (see, e.g., here and here), the distortion of the Fourth Amendment Paul has long championed (and to which Lee seems adherent) bears little resemblance to the Fourth Amendment as written and originally understood. If adopted, it would be a boon to both foreign terrorists and domestic criminals.Washington's reluctance to court this potentially catastrophic outcome has long frustrated libertarians, as have the facts that jurisprudence and the terrorist threat have lined up against them. But in recent years, things have started swinging in their favor.For one thing, Paul, Lee, and their ilk have forged an alliance with progressives, who regard jihadism (er, I mean, "violent extremism") as a global law-enforcement issue, fit for management by internationally coordinated judicial processes, and who favor an extension of American constitutional protections to foreign operatives — including anti-American terrorists. In the Obama years, these strange bedfellows found an administration equally disposed against the Bush-era counterterrorism approach.Then, there was the post-9/11 record of intelligence-agency envelope-pushing and deceit that eroded public trust — e.g., the Bush administration's controversial warrantless-wiretap and forcible-interrogation programs; the Obama CIA's hacking into the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers (and falsely denying it had done so); Obama's director of national intelligence's lying to Congress about the massive collection of Americans' telephone metadata; and the blatant politicization of intelligence after the Benghazi massacre.Finally, there was the Supreme Court's 2018 Carpenter ruling, which pivoted away from seemingly settled jurisprudence that a person does not have a constitutionally cognizable privacy interest in business records that are the property of a third-party service provider. The Court's 5–4 decision in Carpenter (written by Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by the four-justice liberal bloc) held that the government needs a probable-cause judicial warrant to obtain "cell-site location information" — phone-company records that reveal a person's physical movements over a given period of time.This concatenation has already yielded results for Paul and Lee. For example, the government's telephone-metadata program, the need for which was never compellingly justified, has been mothballed. Further, many foreign-intelligence operations in which the judiciary should have no involvement have nonetheless been brought under the FISA court's supervision.Now, "FISA reform" has offered Lee and Paul the chance to accelerate their agenda's implementation. What it lacks as a means of keeping America safe, it makes up for in legerdemain.See, the president and his most ardent supporters do not actually want to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which created the FISA court. What they want is accountability for the FISA abuses committed by American intelligence agencies in connection with the 2016 presidential election. For President Trump, all politics is personal, and this matter is the most personal of all: the FBI's exploitation of FISA powers to spy on his campaign, hamstring his administration, and fuel the Mueller investigation, all of which led to his impeachment.To describe President Trump as angry that no official involved in those 2016 hijinks has been prosecuted understates the matter. He is apoplectic, as are his most ardent supporters. Grasping this, his allies in Congress and on the airwaves grouse that "no one has been held accountable." In truth, the officials who ran the Carter Page FISA surveillance — and who deployed informants in a futile effort to ensnare Trump operatives — have been both purged and subjected to duly humiliating inspector-general reports. Yet that is not enough for the Trump camp, which wants criminal prosecutions just like the ones to which Trump-campaign officials were subjected. The president is dismayed that none have been forthcoming, despite the fact that his Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation for about a year.Senators Paul and Lee may be wrong about counterterrorism, but they're not dumb. They realized that if they could persuade the president that "FISA reform" was really about holding the FBI accountable for the Trump–Russia collusion shenanigans, they could achieve a major roll-back of post-9/11 counterterrorism policy — the project they were working on long before Donald Trump sought the presidency. So that's what they've done, and they've swept the president's supporters along for the ride. In their rhetoric, which has seeped into the press reporting on the matter, "FISA reform" has become a rally cry for holding the rogue FBI accountable.But here's the thing: The FBI and its intelligence-bureaucracy collaborators executed their plan by misleading the FISA court in violation of the existing FISA rules. There is no "reform" of the statutory scheme that can prevent such a thing. There is no "reform" of the statutory scheme that can hold a rogue accountable. If your objection is that being fired is not enough, and that prosecution is necessary for accountability, only an indictment can accomplish that, not a change in the law.That becomes very clear if we focus on the actual targets of what is absurdly being called "FISA reform." Notice that the "reformers" avoid talking about the three provisions that are scheduled to expire if not reauthorized by Monday (March 15). That's because they are utterly unrelated to the abuse of FISA surveillance authority that occurred in the Trump–Russia scenario — viz., the incumbent government's misrepresentations to the FISA court, which duped the judges into authorizing electronic surveillance of the opposition party's political campaign despite the lack of probable cause to believe that campaign surrogates were clandestine agents of Russia.It is important to grasp this: Real FISA reform is not on the table. Over the last several days, as negotiations in Congress have broken down, one has heard Trump supporters say, "Let FISA die," because they've been fooled into thinking that if the president signs what's inaccurately called "an extension of FISA," there will never be accountability for FBI officials who abused their authority.It is not true. Not even close.FISA surveillance (the kind to which the Trump campaign was subjected) will not die if the three provisions lapse. A failure to reauthorize them will not prevent Americans, such as Carter Page, from being falsely framed as foreign agents. The only things that will die are investigative tools that help our government monitor actual clandestine operatives, such as alien jihadists plotting against our country.As I have previously detailed, the three tools at issue are: (a) roving wiretaps, which allow agents to continue monitoring, say, a terrorist who uses burner phones to try to defeat surveillance; (b) "lone wolf" authority, which allows agents to monitor a foreigner who appears to be involved in terrorism without evidence tying him to a known terrorist organization; and (c) the court-authorized collection of business records — a power long unremarkably exercised by criminal investigators (and which, if reauthorized, would no longer permit intelligence agents to engage in the controversial bulk-collection of telephone metadata).As should be obvious, these three tools have nothing to do with FBI accountability. They have nothing to do with the bureau's infamous "Crossfire Hurricane" probe. Indeed, they have very little to do with FISA — and nothing to do with the Russia-related malfeasance that comes to mind when Paul, Lee, and Trump supporters rail about "FISA reform." These are PATRIOT Act provisions. Though they are being threatened under the pretext of "fixing" FISA, they were enacted nearly a quarter-century after the FISA statute. They are labeled "FISA" only because Congress happened to insert them into the FISA sections of the United States Code.These three provisions were enacted with "sunset clauses," meaning they must be periodically reauthorized by Congress. Congress has reauthorized them, repeatedly, because they help protect us from terrorist attacks. Their value is so plain to see that they should not be subject to sunset clauses at all — the clauses should have been removed, with the proviso that Congress could always amend them (as lawmakers have done with the business records provision) or even repeal them if truly egregious abuses occurred.Nevertheless, they are subject to sunset clauses, and will lapse Monday if Congress fails to act. Consequently, the political left and the Paul–Lee libertarians opportunistically seized on that deadline as a chance to demand more "reform" that would further erode intelligence-based counterterrorism — increasing the extent to which foreign counterintelligence efforts are subject to court control and made to resemble judicial proceedings.President Trump came into office promising to be tough on terrorism in a way President Obama was not. Most of his supporters are instinctively against the Obama-era counterterrorism approach, which shied away from even the word terrorism, and which mulishly denied Islamist terrorism's ideological underpinnings. Most Trump supporters do not actually think of counterterrorism as a law-enforcement issue to be managed by the same judiciary that reverses Trump's border-security and immigration-enforcement measures at every turn.So why are they backing FISA "reform"? Because they've been hoodwinked into thinking it is a way to hold the FBI accountable for the Trump–Russia caper. But it is not. Again, the only thing "letting FISA die" on Monday would accomplish is the loss of counterterrorism tools that promote national security — exactly the kind of thing Trump supporters would have sworn their candidate would never permit if elected president.The FISA reform that Senators Paul and Lee want, and that their progressive allies support, is the opposite of real FISA reform. The fundamental problem with FISA is the FISA-court system. As I've recently noted in National Review's print edition, that system transfers control of national security against foreign threats to the judicial branch, which is insulated from political accountability; the Constitution, to the contrary, assigned this duty to the political branches, which answer to the American people whose lives are at stake.The "reformers" aim further to solidify judicial authority over intelligence collection. They tell you their goal is to protect Americans from being abused the way Carter Page was; but their reforms always end up extending protections to aliens, including those who are outside the United States and should thus be considered outside the FISA court's jurisdiction. What's more, if you're worried about FBI abuses, the FISA court makes them more likely. As we saw with Page, the FBI deceived the FISA court to get its warrants; when called on the carpet, it then told everyone its surveillance must have been proper because it was green-lighted by federal judges. The bureau used the veneer of court approval as license to claim that Page — and by extension, the Trump campaign — was part of a Russian influence operation.If we really wanted to reform FISA, we would be wise get the courts out of foreign-intelligence collection and find a better way of overseeing the activities of the intelligence agencies — beefed up congressional oversight, not a secret court. And while I maintain that no act of Congress can hold rogue officials accountable (see, e.g., the Constitution's prohibition against bills of attainder), I have proposed a reform that would actually address the FBI's FISA abuse: Congress could take the foreign-counterintelligence mission away from the FBI, have the bureau stick to crime-fighting, and create a new agency to handle domestic security against foreign threats — an agency that would be subject to Justice Department supervision and congressional oversight.If we tried it my way, the nation would continue to get the security benefit of counterintelligence measures. If we try Paul's and Lee's way, we will lose that benefit and exacerbate the basic problem of judicial involvement in counterintelligence operations, all for the promise of "accountability" that these self-proclaimed "reformers" can't actually deliver.
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| Accused baby killer says police illegally lifted her DNA from her trash Posted: 14 Mar 2020 02:34 AM PDT  Theresa Bentaas is fighting a murder charge by saying police should not have taken DNA from her garbage without a warrant.
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| Pope goes on Roman walkabout, prays for end to pandemic Posted: 15 Mar 2020 07:14 AM PDT  Pope Francis left the Vatican to make a surprise visit Sunday to two churches in Rome to pray for the end of the coronavirus pandemic — a move that came even as Italian health authorities insisted people stay home as much as possible to limit contagion in the heart of Europe's outbreak. Francis who recently had a cold, headed first to a Rome basilica, St. Mary Major, where he often stops to give thanks after returning from trips abroad. There he prayed before an icon of the Virgin Mary dedicated to the "salvation of the Roman people."
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| GOP lawmaker ignores health warnings around coronavirus and tells Americans 'it's a great time to go out' Posted: 15 Mar 2020 12:43 PM PDT  Other lawmakers, including Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, agreed that this was not a good time to go out.
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| Coronavirus gives Sanders a chance and an obligation to push Biden left on health care Posted: 15 Mar 2020 06:18 AM PDT  If the catastrophic implications of the coronavirus aren't the best possible argument for a Medicare for All single payer system, I don't know what is.
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| Coronavirus closed this school. The kids have special needs: 'You can't Netflix them all day.' Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:31 PM PDT  Special-needs students in Chicago are under quarantine after an aide contracted the virus. Their experience shows how hard school closings will be.
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| He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:21 AM PDT  On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin set out in a silver SUV to pick up some hand sanitizer. Driving around Chattanooga, Tennessee, they hit a Dollar Tree, then a Walmart, a Staples and a Home Depot. At each store, they cleaned out the shelves.Over the next three days, Noah Colvin took a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennessee and into Kentucky, filling a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes, mostly from "little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods," his brother said. "The major metro areas were cleaned out."Matt Colvin stayed home near Chattanooga, preparing for pallets of even more wipes and sanitizer he had ordered, and starting to list them on Amazon. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for. To him, "it was crazy money." To many others, it was profiteering from a pandemic.The next day, Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks. The company suspended some of the sellers behind the listings and warned many others that if they kept running up prices, they'd lose their accounts. EBay soon followed with even stricter measures, prohibiting any U.S. sales of masks or sanitizer.Now, while millions of people search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them."It's been a huge amount of whiplash," he said. "From being in a situation where what I've got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to 'What the heck am I going to do with all of this?'"Colvin is one of probably thousands of sellers who have amassed stockpiles of hand sanitizer and crucial respirator masks that many hospitals are now rationing, according to interviews with eight Amazon sellers and posts in private Facebook and Telegram groups from dozens more. Amazon said it had recently removed hundreds of thousands of listings and suspended thousands of sellers' accounts for price gouging related to the coronavirus.Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other online-commerce platforms are trying to stop their sellers from making excessive profits from a public health crisis. While the companies aimed to discourage people from hoarding such products and jacking up their prices, many sellers had already cleared out their local stores and started selling the goods online.Now both the physical and digital shelves are nearly empty.Mikeala Kozlowski, a nurse in Dudley, Massachusetts, has been searching for hand sanitizer since before she gave birth to her first child, Nora, on March 5. When she searched stores, which were sold out, she skipped getting gas to avoid handling the pump. And when she checked Amazon, she couldn't find it for less than $50."You're being selfish, hoarding resources for your own personal gain," she said of the sellers.Sites like Amazon and eBay have given rise to a growing industry of independent sellers who snatch up discounted or hard-to-find items in stores to post online and sell around the world.These sellers call it retail arbitrage, a 21st-century career that has adults buying up everything from limited-run cereals to Fingerling Monkeys, a once hot toy. The bargain hunters look for anything they can sell at a sharp markup. In recent weeks, they found perhaps their biggest opportunity: a pandemic.As they watched the list of Amazon's most popular searches crowd with terms like "Purell," "N95 mask" and "Clorox wipes," sellers said, they did what they had learned to do: Suck up supply and sell it for what the market would bear.Initially, the strategy worked. For several weeks, prices soared for some of the top results to searches for sanitizer, masks and wipes on Amazon, according to a New York Times analysis of historical prices from Jungle Scout, which tracks data for Amazon sellers. The data shows that both Amazon and third-party sellers like Colvin increased their prices, which then mostly dropped when Amazon took action against price gouging this month.At the high prices, people still bought the products en masse, and Amazon took a cut of roughly 15% and eBay roughly 10%, depending on the price and the seller.Then the companies, pressured by growing criticism from regulators and customers, cracked down. After the measures last week, Amazon went further Wednesday, restricting sales of any coronavirus-related products from certain sellers."Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal," Amazon said in a statement. "In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors."Colvin, 36, a former Air Force technical sergeant, said he started selling on Amazon in 2015, developing it into a six-figure career by selling Nike shoes and pet toys, and by following trends.In early February, as headlines announced the coronavirus' spread in China, Colvin spotted a chance to capitalize. A nearby liquidation firm was selling 2,000 "pandemic packs," leftovers from a defunct company. Each came with 50 face masks, four small bottles of hand sanitizer and a thermometer. The price was $5 a pack. Colvin haggled it to $3.50 and bought them all.He quickly sold all 2,000 of the 50-packs of masks on eBay, pricing them from $40 to $50 each, and sometimes higher. He declined to disclose his profit on the record but said it was substantial.The success stoked his appetite. When he saw the panicked public starting to pounce on sanitizer and wipes, he and his brother set out to stock up.Elsewhere, other Amazon sellers were doing the same.Chris Anderson, an Amazon seller in central Pennsylvania, said he and a friend had driven around Ohio, buying about 10,000 masks from stores. He used coupons to buy packs of 10 for around $15 each and resold them for $40 to $50. After Amazon's cut and other costs, he estimates, he made a $25,000 profit.Anderson is now holding 500 packs of antibacterial wipes after Amazon blocked him from selling them for $19 each, up from $16 weeks earlier. He bought the packs for $3 each.Eric, a truck driver from Ohio who spoke on condition that his surname not be published because he feared Amazon would retaliate, said he had also collected about 10,000 masks at stores. He bought each 10-pack for about $20 and sold most for roughly $80 each, although some he priced at $125."Even at $125 a box, they were selling almost instantly," he said. "It was mind-blowing as far as what you could charge."He estimates he made $35,000 to $40,000 in profit.Now he has 1,000 more masks on order, but he's not sure what to do with them. He said Amazon had been vague about what constituted price gouging, scaring away sellers who don't want to risk losing their ability to sell on its site.To regulators and many others, the sellers are sitting on a stockpile of medical supplies during a pandemic. The attorney general's offices in California, Washington and New York are all investigating price gouging related to the coronavirus. California's price-gouging law bars sellers from increasing prices by more than 10 percent after officials declare an emergency. New York's law prohibits sellers from charging an "unconscionably excessive price" during emergencies.An official at the Washington attorney general's office said the agency believed it could apply the state's consumer-protection law to sue platforms or sellers, even if they aren't in Washington, as long as they were trying to sell to Washington residents.Colvin does not believe he was price gouging. While he charged $20 on Amazon for two bottles of Purell that retail for $1 each, he said people forget that his price includes his labor, Amazon's fees and about $10 in shipping. (Alcohol-based sanitizer is pricey to ship because officials consider it a hazardous material.)Current price-gouging laws "are not built for today's day and age," Colvin said. "They're built for Billy Bob's gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane."He added, "Just because it cost me $2 in the store doesn't mean it's not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door."But what about the morality of hoarding products that can prevent the spread of the virus, just to turn a profit?Colvin said he was simply fixing "inefficiencies in the marketplace." Some areas of the country need these products more than others, and he's helping send the supply toward the demand."There's a crushing overwhelming demand in certain cities right now," he said. "The Dollar General in the middle of nowhere outside of Lexington, Kentucky, doesn't have that."He thought about it more."I honestly feel like it's a public service," he added. "I'm being paid for my public service."As for his stockpile, Colvin said he would now probably try to sell it locally."If I can make a slight profit, that's fine," he said. "But I'm not looking to be in a situation where I make the front page of the news for being that guy who hoarded 20,000 bottles of sanitizer that I'm selling for 20 times what they cost me."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Greece bans all transport links with Albania, North Macedonia, Spain flights Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:21 AM PDT  Greece said it would ban road and sea routes, as well as flights, to Albania and North Macedonia on Sunday, as well as banning flights to and from Spain to stem the spread of coronavirus. Only cargo and citizens who live in Greece will be allowed to travel to and from Albania and North Macedonia, authorities said. Athens also extended travel restrictions to Italy, saying it was banning passenger ship routes to and from the neighboring country, while no cruise ships will be allowed to dock at Greek ports.
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| Coronavirus: PM urges industry to help make NHS ventilators Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Boris Johnson is to ask engineering firms to shift production lines to build the life-saving equipment.
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| 3 human traffickers sentenced to 125 years in death of Syrian boy Posted: 14 Mar 2020 02:36 AM PDT  The lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan on a beach in Turkey was captured in a photograph that symbolized the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis.
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| Fed may take boldest steps in a decade to ease virus impact Posted: 15 Mar 2020 10:45 AM PDT  The Federal Reserve is all but sure to take its most drastic steps Wednesday since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis to try to counter the coronavirus' growing damage to the U.S. economy and the financial markets. With the virus' spread causing a broad shutdown of economic activity in the United States, the Fed faces a daunting task. Some economists say the policymakers, led by Chair Jerome Powell, could cut their already low benchmark interest rate by up to a full percentage point.
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| Putin signs Russia's constitutional reform law Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed the package of constitutional reforms he had proposed, including a clause giving him an option to run for two more terms. The Kremlin has published the 68-page law spelling out the constitutional reforms on the official website. Putin's signature triggers a special procedure for the package, which differs from the way laws usually go into effect.
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| Throngs of travelers arriving back in the US are jam-packed in airports after Trump's coronavirus travel ban Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:01 PM PDT  Trump's coronavirus travel ban just created "a perfect storm for creating massive case clusters," one expert said.
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| Courting progressives, Biden shifts policy stances on free college, bankruptcy Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:06 PM PDT  The Democratic front-runner is extending an olive branch to Sanders, Warren and their supporters.
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| 'We're not being quarantined. We're being detained.' Americans stuck in Cambodia amid pandemic Posted: 15 Mar 2020 02:53 PM PDT  When Ryan Knapp and his wife booked a cruise along the Mekong Delta, they thought it would be a dream trip. But it has turned into a nightmare.
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| Venezuela to Cancel More Flights, Announce Quarantine on Sunday Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:15 PM PDT |
| South Korea designates regions hit hardest by coronavirus as disaster zones Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:18 PM PDT  South Korea on Sunday reported 76 new coronavirus cases and three deaths, marking the first time in over three weeks that new cases have dropped to double-digits, as President Moon Jae-in declared the hardest hit provinces "special disaster zones". It is the first time South Korea has declared a region a disaster zone from an infectious disease and under the status the government can subsidize up to 50% of restoration expenses and exempt residents from taxes and utility payments. South Korea, which has the highest number of cases in Asia after China, now has a total to 8,162 confirmed infections and 75 deaths, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said (KCDC).
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| Medical workers in Wuhan reveal smiles behind their masks after the city closes its last temporary hospital that was panic-built to accommodate overflow coronavirus patients Posted: 13 Mar 2020 10:37 PM PDT  The viral video, which has been viewed more than three million times, showed workers with smiles after the worst of the disease had seemingly passed.
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| ISPs Raise Speeds and Suspend Data Caps in Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:19 PM PDT  As more people across the country work from home to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, some internet service providers (ISPs) are pledging to raise broadband speeds, suspend data caps...
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| Islamist militants sentenced to death for Bangladesh priest murder Posted: 15 Mar 2020 07:24 AM PDT  Four Islamist extremists were sentenced to death in Bangladesh Sunday for the 2016 decapitation of a senior Hindu priest during a spate of attacks targeting religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation. The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the attack in the northern district of Panchagarh, but authorities blamed militants from Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
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| White House will extend Europe travel ban to Ireland, U.K., considering domestic restrictions Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:13 AM PDT  President Trump on Saturday said during a press briefing that he's considering barring travel from certain places within the United States.The president didn't go into much detail about what places might be affected, but he said the White House is "working with states" to determine the best path forward. Regardless, he advised Americans not to travel if they "don't have to" because "we want this thing to end."> JUST IN: Pres. Trump says he is considering domestic travel restrictions "specifically from certain areas," after Pentagon restricted service members' domestic travel.> > "If you don't have to travel I wouldn't do it... we want this thing to end." https://t.co/zyG4ankfGn pic.twitter.com/dYT5QCPAvn> > — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 14, 2020Vice President Mike Pence added that the current travel ban from Europe will be extended to Ireland and the United Kingdom, effective midnight Monday. As is the case elsewhere in Europe, U.S. citizens and legal residents from those countries will still be able to return to the United States. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Coronavirus and the end of the conservative temperament 7 scathingly funny cartoons about the Democratic presidential race Mnuchin says coronavirus economic downturn 'isn't like the financial crisis,' predicts 'big rebound'
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