Author: Worldnews

The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to change the way the FBI and National Security Agency use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct electronic surveillance of foreign nationals and agents in the United States. But President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that he might veto the bipartisan bill, saying he and his allies wanted more information about how the FBI’s investigation of alleged ties between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia was launched. 

“Many Republican Senators want me to Veto the FISA Bill until we find out what led to, and happened with, the illegal attempted ‘coup’ of the duly elected President of the United States, and others!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The FBI investigation, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, has long been a lightning rod for criticism by Trump. The president frequently attacks it as an attempt to forestall his 2016 election and, later, to undo his presidency.

Last year, Attorney General William Barr ordered an internal Justice Department probe into the origins of the Russia election investigation, saying intelligence agencies had conducted “spying” on the Trump campaign.  That investigation, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham, is ongoing.

House members voted 278-138 on Wednesday to reauthorize three key intelligence-gathering provisions in the law while strengthening surveillance standards and enhancing privacy protections.

Proponents say the bill, known as the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act, introduces major reforms.  Among the backers are Barr and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  But opponents such as Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee say the reforms don’t go far enough to prevent abuse.  Privacy advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union have also come out against the legislation.

Here is what you need to know about FISA and the changes in the law.

What is FISA?

Enacted in 1978, FISA governs all electronic surveillance of foreign agents and nationals in the United States.   The law set up a secret 11-member court to approve or deny foreign surveillance applications.  To obtain an order, the NSA and FBI present the court with probable cause that a target is “a foreign power” or “an agent of a foreign power” inside the United States, and that the planned surveillance is for the purpose of gathering “foreign intelligence information.” More than 99% of applications are approved. 

What led to the changes?

The reforms follow controversy over the FBI’s surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 and 2017.   A damning December 2019 report by the Justice Department inspector general revealed 17 “significant errors or omissions” in the FBI’s four separate applications to surveil Page during its investigation of Russian election meddling.   FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered more than 40 “corrective steps” in response. 

The FISA court later barred FBI agents involved in the Page surveillance applications from appearing in front of the court.  The revelations led to calls by Republicans as well as privacy advocates to overhaul FISA.

What is in the new legislation?

In addition to extending three intelligence-gathering authorities, the new legislation ends the NSA’s authority under a now-defunct program to collect phone records of Americans. Among key reforms:

— It requires officials overseeing FISA applications to certify their accuracy prior to submitting them to the FISA court.  Making a false declaration to the FISA court may result in a prison sentence of eight years, up from five years.    The enhanced penalty also applies to unauthorized disclosures of FISA applications.

— It prohibits the NSA from collecting cell site and GPS data.

— It requires the attorney general to approve in writing an investigation if a target is an elected official or a candidate in a federal election.

— It expands the authority of judges on the FISA court to appoint an amicus curiae, or an impartial friend of the court, in cases that raise “exceptional concerns” about the First Amendment rights of a U.S. national under investigation.  

What reforms weren’t approved?

The legislation does not enact other key reforms urged by civil libertarians and privacy advocates. Among them:

— A requirement that individuals receive notice and access to their FISA applications if they’re prosecuted on the basis of information gathered through electronic surveillance.

— A requirement that FISA court advisers be allowed to “raise any issue with the court anytime” and have access to all secret court documents and records.

— An explicit ban on collecting Americans’ web browsing history without a warrant.

— A limit on the types of information the government can obtain under a provision of the law known as Section 215. The provision allows the government to collect “any tangible thing,” and  privacy advocates say it could include tax returns, gun records, book sales and library records.

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The European Union has criticized President Trump’s decision to ban most European travellers from entering the United States for 30 days. From midnight Friday Washington time, all foreign nationals who have entered the EU’s border-free Schengen zone in the last 14 days will be barred from entry, in an effort to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the move sent panic through financial markets as fears grow over the economic impact of the pandemic.

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New York City, the economic heart of the United States, declared a State of Emergency on Thursday help combat the coronavirus.

“We are going into a long battle. This will not be over soon,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference. “It’s going to be a long battle; it’s going to be a tough battle.” He said that people would inevitably die.

The city of more than 8 million people has 95 confirmed cases, up from 42 on Wednesday. There are 29 people in mandatory quarantine and more than 1,700 others in voluntary quarantine.

The mayor said he expects the city to be at 1,000 confirmed cases by next week. His administration says it is ready to assist residents at its 11 hospitals. The city is equipped with some 5,000 ventilators. Health officials said they expect only 5% of those who contract the virus to require them.

“I want to be very clear,” de Blasio told reporters. “There are three things we want to preserve at all costs: our schools, our mass transit and most importantly, our health care system.”

In an effort to contain the spread of the virus, de Blasio announced drastic and sweeping measures.

Starting Friday, the city of more than 8 million people will prohibit gatherings of over 500 people. Broadway theaters will go dark and major sporting arenas will close. The mayor said he expects the closures to last until September.

Bars and restaurants will be allowed to continue operating, but must cut the number of patrons they serve to 50% below their legal occupancy so people can spread out.

“We are getting into a situation where the only analogy is war,” de Blasio said of the city government’s effort to cope with the rapidly evolving situation.

The mayor said he would also authorize more than 100,000 city workers — about a third of the municipal workforce — to either work from home or stagger their office hours, to lessen congestion on the transit system which often sees commuters tightly packed into train cars and buses during peak hours.

The city’s public schools, which educate more than 1 million students, will remain open. “We want them to remain open, we intend for them to remain open,” de Blasio said.

The mayor was very somber in discussing the unprecedented territory the city has suddenly found itself in. He expressed concern for the many residents who could face job and income loss due to the closing of many venues. He said the city would roll out a social services program to help those who could not afford food and would assist those who faced rent issues or eviction.

“We will unquestionably overcome this,” de Blasio said. “The city will prevail in the end.” But he admitted that he expects this to be a “long, painful episode.”

The city is home to Wall Street, the economic heart of the nation, and it was left reeling Thursday as U.S. stocks had their worst day since the 1987 crash, plunging a staggering 10% on coronavirus fears.

United Nations

At United Nations headquarters in mid-town Manhattan, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres intensified measures to protect staff and diplomats.

More than 6,000 people normally work at the organization’s New York complex. That number has been cut by nearly half in the past week, as many staff have been told to work remotely.

The U.N. chief also sent a letter to member states Thursday, informing them of his decision to cancel all U.N. meetings that are not mandatory starting Monday through the end of April.

Hospital grade cleaning solutions are being used throughout the building. So far there have been no reported coronavirus cases among headquarter’s staff.

“Since the beginning of the outbreak, the Secretary-General said that we have been balancing the safety and security of staff and representatives of member states with the need to ensure that the work of the organization continues, here and around the world,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.
 

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WASHINGTON / HERAT, AFGHANISTAN — Iran’s worsening coronavirus outbreak is driving some of the country’s millions of Afghan migrants and refugees to return to Afghanistan at dramatically increased rates, according to a U.N. migration body.

In a Tuesday report, the International Organization for Migration said the number of Afghans returning to Afghanistan from Iran via the two official border crossings of neighboring countries doubled in the first week of March compared with the previous week.

The agency said 19,562 undocumented Afghans passed through the Islam Qala and Milak border crossings into the Afghan provinces of Herat and Nimroz from March 1 to March 7. The figure was up 106% from the previous week’s tally of 9,478 Afghans who made the crossings.

The IOM report attributed the data to the Afghan government’s Border Monitoring Team of the Directorate of Refugees and Repatriation.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that Iran is home to more than 3 million Afghans, of whom around 900,000 are refugees and the rest are migrants, including passport holders and undocumented Afghans.

The IOM report said spontaneous returns of Afghans from Iran have “increased dramatically due to the closures of work sites in Iran and the annual spring harvest in Afghanistan.”

“The vast majority of Afghans in Iran are there for economic reasons, and most of them work in the Iranian construction industry or seasonal agriculture,” said Kabul-based IOM emergency response officer Nicholas Bishop in a phone interview with VOA Persian. “The widespread prevalence of the virus in Iran is part of the reason why its labor camps for Afghans are closing.”

The coronavirus has further weakened an Iranian economy that has been in recession since 2018 under the strain of toughening U.S. sanctions and government mismanagement.

Bishop said the Afghan migrants are concentrated primarily in the Iranian cities of Tehran, Mashhad and Qom. He said more than 80% of them do not have official Iranian work permits.

Medical services

Several Afghans who left Iran via the Islam Qala crossing this week told VOA’s Afghan Service that a lack of access to Iranian medical services amid the virus outbreak also drove them to return to Afghanistan.

“We returned of our own free will because we were scared of this virus,” said a woman named Shah Bibi. “There was not any help or services for Afghans over there.”

Abdul Razaq Jamshidi, another returnee, said he wanted the Afghan government to test him and other returnees for the virus to see if they had been infected.

“In Iran, Afghans do not dare go to health facilities because they [Iranian authorities] do not care about Afghans … they do not even care about their own people,” he said.

The UNHCR has credited Iran in recent years for introducing policies “conducive to … the attainment of rights for the Afghan population.” It has said those policies include “enhancing access to education, health, and livelihood services to refugees with minimal financial aid from the international community.”

The accounts of the Afghan returnees who spoke to VOA indicated that Iran’s health care system remains inaccessible to some Afghans despite the enhancements cited by the UNHCR.

Open borders

The passage of thousands of Afghans from Iran to Afghanistan in recent days also has highlighted the Afghan government’s decision to keep official border crossings open, despite several of Iran’s other neighbors shutting their own border crossings.

Iran, which reported its first coronavirus cases and deaths February 19, has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks.

Afghan authorities initially shut the border crossings with Iran February 23 but re-opened them two days later.  

د كرونا وايروس د كاري كمېټې له فیصلې سره سم به د ایران سره د مسافرت لړۍ د روغتیا د نړیوال سازمان د صحي لارښوونو په نظر کي نیولو، د روغتیا وزارت د کنټرولي اقداماتو په تطبیق او د بهرنیو چارو وزرات سره په تفاهم مخته ولاړه سي.
اوس د پولي دواړو غاړو کي مسافرین تګ راتګ کولای سي.

— Javid Faisal (@Javidfaisal) February 25, 2020

Afghan National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal tweeted that two-way traffic through the border crossings would resume based on World Health Organization guidelines and Afghan government health control measures.

The IOM’s Bishop said WHO has cautioned governments against closing border crossings as a way to contain a disease outbreak.

“The Iran-Afghanistan border is incredibly porous and there are a lot of informal crossings,” he said. “When you close official border crossings, it doesn’t mean the flow of people will stop, it means they will go through informal crossings where there are no health screening teams. It’s better for migrants to go through international crossings where you have Afghan health personnel doing symptom screenings with support from IOM.”

Some provincial officials in Herat told VOA’s Afghan Service, though, that keeping the border crossings open has its own risks.

“People who come back from the infected areas [in Iran] could carry the virus,” said Asef Kabir, a public health official in Herat.

Seven confirmed cases

Afghanistan had seven confirmed coronavirus cases as of Wednesday, after confirming its first case on February 24.

“Before [the outbreak], we normally would have about 300 to 500 returnees from Iran per day,” said Jawed Nadem, head of Herat’s refugee repatriation department. “Last week, we started with 1,200 returnees per day and then it went up to 2,200 per day. Yesterday, we had an overwhelming number of returnees — more than 4,800. It is very concerning.”

Herat Governor Abdul Qayum Rahimi told reporters Wednesday that local authorities were planning to bar people from crossing into Iran starting Thursday. “We cannot restrict those returning from Iran, as Kabul should decide on that matter,” he added.  

Bishop credited Rahimi with imposing restrictions on public activity in Herat to prevent the spread of the virus.

“I’m sure local governments in the region will take measures to protect their populations,” he said.

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service, in collaboration with VOA’s Afghan Service.

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Stock markets continue to be rattled by the coronavirus outbreak and its economic fallout, with Asian markets falling sharply in Thursday trading.

Japan’s Nikkei Index closed down 4.4%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 3.7% in afternoon trading and China’s Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.9%. Australian markets dove more than 7% Thursday.

Those losses followed an ugly day Wednesday on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 6%, while the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 both fell 5%.

U.S. futures pointed to another harsh day when trading opens Thursday.

European markets also indicated losses ahead of their openings.

Less demand for travel because of the virus is also helping drive down world oil prices. Airline stocks and cruise ship lines have also been taking a beating.

The Dow is now officially in what financial experts call a bear market — when the price of stocks drop at least 20% from a 52-week high. This ends the record-long bull market, which started in March 2009.

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U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday night announced a 30-day ban on travel from Europe and other measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus in an address to the nation. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
 

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The death toll in Iran from the new coronavirus climbed for another consecutive day, killing 62 more people in the past 24 hours as the government on Wednesday raised the nationwide death toll to 354.

Iran’s Health Ministry said the deaths are among some 9,000 confirmed cases in Iran, where the virus has spread to all of the country’s provinces.

Across the Mideast, the vast majority of the 9,700 people who have contracted the coronavirus and the COVID-19 illness it causes are in hard-hit Iran or had recently returned from there. The Islamic Republic has one of the world’s worst death tolls outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak. Outside of Iran, only Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon have recorded deaths from the virus in the Middle East.

In the Gulf Arab island nation of Bahrain, authorities say their number of confirmed cases on Wednesday spiked by nearly 70% to 189 confirmed cases. The 77 new cases were all on a returning flight of Bahraini evacuees from Iran.

There are concerns that the number of infections across Iran is much higher than the confirmed cases reported by the government, which is struggling to contain or manage its spread. The rising casualty figures each day in Iran suggest the fight against the new coronavirus is far from over.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

Among the dead are five of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard members and an unspecified number of the Guard’s volunteer Basij force.

Iran’s supreme leader had said Tuesday that the Islamic Republic will recognize doctors and nurses who die combating the new coronavirus as “martyrs.”

The decision by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes amid a propaganda campaign already trying to link the fight against the virus to Iran’s long, bloody 1980s war with Iraq. Its forces, which include virologists, faced chemical weapons during Iran’s eight-year war against Iraq.

That the Guard is involved in the relief effort of a major catastrophe is not surprising in Iran. The Guard, whose forces include an estimated 125,000-plus troops and 600,000 mission-ready volunteers, routinely respond to the earthquakes that shake the country. Recent floods saw its troops mobilize as well.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has barred travel to and from 14 countries affected by the new virus. Early on, as the virus spread in Asia, the kingdom stopped pilgrimages to Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, and cut travel links with China and later, Iran. It has also barred entry and exit for residents of Qatif, an eastern Saudi province where most of the country’s 21 cases of the virus are confirmed after travel back to Iran.

Elsewhere, Israel ordered two weeks of home quarantine for anyone arriving from overseas. The outbreak in Israel has been largely contained, but it has begun to gain pace in recent days, with a total of 58 cases diagnosed as of Tuesday. There are 26 confirmed cases in the Palestinian Territories.

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The United Arab Emirates joined Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in promising to raise oil output to a record high in April, as the two Gulf Arab oil producers in OPEC took a united stand in a standoff with Russia that has hammered global crude prices.

The extra oil the two Gulf allies plan to add is equivalent to 3.6% of global supplies and will pour into a market at a time when global fuel demand in 2020 is forecast to contract for the first time in almost a decade due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Oil prices have almost halved since the start of the year on fears OPEC states would flood the market in its battle with Russia after Moscow refused to agree last week to deep production cuts in a pact that has propped up prices since 2016.

Saudi Arabia, which has already announced it would hike supplies to a record 12.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, said on Wednesday it would boost production capacity for the first time in more than a decade.

UAE national oil company ADNOC said in its announcement that it would raise crude supply to more than 4 million bpd in April and would accelerate plans to boost its capacity to 5 million bpd, a target it previously planned to achieve by 2030.

By raising supplies, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi will add a combined 3.6 million bpd of extra oil in April to a market already awash with crude, compared to their existing output that is limited by the pact with Russia that expires in March.

Adding to that, Moscow has said Russian oil companies might boost output by up to 300,000 bpd and could increase it by as much as 500,000 bpd.

State-run Saudi Aramco plans to raise capacity to 13 million bpd from 12 million bpd, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said, adding that the move was ordered by the Energy Ministry.

“The company is exerting its maximum efforts to implement this directive as soon as possible,” Nasser said.

No timeframe was given for the plans, which will require billions of dollars of investment.

SCRAPPING LIMITS

Saudi Arabia had said OPEC, Russia and other producers, members of an informal alliance known as OPEC+, needed to cut supplies from the market to cope with the impact of coronavirus. When Moscow refused, they said all limits would be scrapped.

Moscow had said it was too soon to cut more deeply and that producers should wait to see the full impact of the virus, which has prompted lockdowns in major economies such as China and Italy, disrupting businesses and sending shares into tailspin.

Moscow said supporting prices simply helped boost costlier production in the United States, whose output has surged above that of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Russia indicated on Tuesday it was ready for more talks, but Saudi Arabia said there was little point if fresh discussions simply confirmed their inability to reach a deal.

Brent was trading at about $36 on Tuesday, off this week’s low of about $31 but 45% lower than at the start of year.

Much of Saudi Arabia’s international influence has derived from its role in the oil market that is akin to a central bank. It holds nearly all the world’s spare capacity and can turn the taps on and off to deal with shortfalls or surpluses.

The clash between Saudi Arabia and Russia has triggered panic selling of shares on Wall Street and other stock markets that were already pummeled by the virus outbreak.

Saudi Arabia last embarked on a $100 billion push to raise its capacity more than a decade ago amid a price boom fueled by China’s growth. Since then, Saudi officials have brushed aside questions of new upstream investment to boost capacity.

In 2009, when the kingdom completed its program to add nearly 4 million bpd to capacity, Saudi officials and oil company executives have talked on and off about the possibility of targeting another boost to 15 million bpd by 2020, but those plans were shelved several years ago as demand growth cooled.

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Slovenia will close some border crossings with Italy and perform health checks at those remaining open in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Health Minister Ales Sabeder said Wednesday.

The number of confirmed cases of the virus in Slovenia rose to 47, the minister told a news conference. The total reported on Tuesday was 34.

He said citizens would only be able to cross the border in six places. “All other roads (that cross the border) will be closed,” the minister said. Normally more than 20 crossings are open.

The government said earlier Wednesday that border controls would focus on non-Slovenians, adding authorities would be empowered to prohibit foreign citizens from entering the country who did not carry a certificate showing they had tested negative for coronavirus during the previous three days.

It said there would be no controls for cargo traffic.

Sabeder was unable to say when the controls would come into effect but that a decree implementing them had to be enforced within five days.
 

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New York’s governor announced Tuesday he is sending the National Guard into a New York City suburb to help fight what is believed to be the nation’s biggest cluster of coronavirus cases — one of the most dramatic actions yet to control the outbreak in the U.S.

The move came as health authorities contended with alarming bunches of infections on both sides of the country and scattered cases in between.

Schools, houses of worship and large gathering places will be closed for two weeks in a “containment area” centered in New Rochelle, and the troops will scrub surfaces and deliver food to the zone, which extends a mile in all directions from a point near a synagogue connected to some of the cases, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

“It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster of cases in the country,” he said. “The numbers are going up unabated, and we do need a special public health strategy.”

New Rochelle and surrounding Westchester County account for at least 108 cases out of 173 statewide. New York City, with 100 times the population of New Rochelle, has 36 known infections.

In Oakland, California, meanwhile, thousands of increasingly bored and restless passengers aboard a cruise ship struck by the coronavirus waited their turn to get off the vessel and go to U.S. military bases or back to their home countries for two weeks of quarantine. In Washington state, where at least 19 deaths have been connected to a Seattle-area nursing home, Gov. Jay Inslee announced new rules for screening health care workers and limiting visitors.

“If we assume there are 1,000 or more people who have the virus today … the number of people who are infected will double in five to eight days,” he warned.

On Wall Street, stocks climbed higher during the day, recouping some of their staggering losses from the day before. The United Nations closed its headquarters in New York to the public and suspended all guided tours.

The virus has infected over 700 people in the U.S. and killed at least 27, with one state after another recording its first infections in quick succession. New Jersey reported ts first coronavirus death Tuesday. Worldwide, nearly 120,000 have been infected and over 4,200 have died.

For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Most people recover in a matter of weeks, as has happened with three-quarters of those infected in mainland China.

In California, passengers from the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess were allowed off the vessel and walked to the bottom of a ramp, where masked officials in yellow protective gear and blue plastic gloves took their temperature and led them to a tent for more screening before they lined up to board a bus.

Authorities said foreign passengers would be flown home, while Americans would be flown or bused to military bases in California, Texas and Georgia for testing and 14-day quarantines.

After days of being forced to idle off the Northern California coast, the ship docked Monday at Oakland with about 3,500 passengers and crew, including at least 21 who tested positive for the new virus.

The evacuation of the 951-foot (290-meter) ship began Monday with several hundred people let off the ship, including more than 200 Canadians who were flown to a military base in their country, authorities said. About 2,000 passengers, including hundreds of Californians, were still aboard Tuesday morning.

“I’m bored and frustrated,” said Carolyn Wright, 63, of Santa Fe, New Mexico. “All of a sudden a two-week vacation has turned into a five-week vacation.”

About 1,100 crew members, 19 of whom tested positive for the virus, will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship, which will dock elsewhere after passengers are unloaded, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. He and Oakland’s mayor sought to reassure people that no passengers would be exposed to the public before completing quarantine.

Another Princess ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus. Ultimately, about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected in what experts pronounced a public health failure.

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A European Union summit via computer. The EU parliament a virtual ghost village in a shortened session. The assembly’s president working from home, self-isolating because of coronavirus.

The disease that shutdown Italy hasn’t hit Brussels in a major way, but it has struck at the heart of politics in Europe.

In a rare event, the EU’s presidents and prime ministers were set to hold a video conference summit Tuesday to coordinate efforts to respond to the outbreak that has seen a national lockdown imposed in member state Italy.

During their virtual meeting, which will be also attended by European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the leaders will discuss how to coordinate their response to the virus and its economic consequences. They have also pledged to accelerate research into the disease.

“When the European Union is confronted with a threat of this size, the only option is to mobilize and to stand strong together,” European Council President Charles Michel, who will chair the multi-screen summit, told lawmakers in Brussels.

The European Commission says all 27 member states now have patients confirmed with the fast-spreading illness.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

The EU’s commissioner for health and food safety, Stella Kyriakides, urged EU countries to “focus on efforts to aggressively contain the virus, particularly where there are few cases. Slowing down the virus must be our greatest priority.”

According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control’s latest figures, there have been 14,890 confirmed cases of the virus across Europe, including 532 deaths. The EU medicines agency said it’s received no reports of medicine shortages so far, but can’t rule out such problems in the future.

The EU has cut down on events, calling meetings between ambassadors and experts only when necessary. The European Parliament was meant to meet until Thursday, but will end its session later Tuesday. A meeting of foreign ministers focused on trade meant to take place on Thursday has also been canceled.

For the EU, the impact of the virus means it’s business as unusual. The lead diplomat for Croatia’s EU presidency is in self-isolation, leading to the cancellation of some meetings, and the parliament’s Italian president is working remotely.

“I have decided after having been in Italy over the last weekend, as a precaution, to follow the indicated measures and to exercise my function as President from my home in Brussels in compliance with the 14 days indicated by the health protocol,” David Sassoli said in a statement.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, bickered over who is responsible in the almost empty house.

“Europe has been totally absent. Brussels did nothing to help the situation in Italy and in many other countries,” Italian parliamentarian Mara Bizzotto said. Rather than dealing with arrivals from China and other places, she said, Europe simply treated many northern Italians “as if they had the plague.”

Ljudmila Novak, a lawmaker from neighboring Slovenia, said: “I have heard colleagues from Italy blaming the EU for everything it’s failed to do. But has Italy perhaps not failed in its duties to combat the virus.”

The cases in Slovenia, Novak said, “came from Italy and Italian airports.”

Across town, the NATO military alliance said that a staffer had self-isolated after testing positive following the onset of fever-like symptoms. Colleagues in the same area were working from home.

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Hollywood continued to shuffle its upcoming releases due to the coronavirus, as Sony Pictures on Tuesday announced that it’s moving “Peter Rabbit 2” to August.

“Peter Rabbit 2” had been set to hit U.K. and European theaters on March 27, and open in the U.S. on April 3. Instead, Sony said the sequel to 2018’s “Peter Rabbit” will launch on Aug. 7.

Cinemas have been closed in China for several weeks. On Monday, Italy shuttered all of its theaters. In many countries, health experts are advocating social distancing to help prevent the spread of the virus.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered.

Last week, April’s biggest movie release, the James Bond film “No Time to Die,” postponed from early April to November. Much of the film’s early promotion had already begun, with Daniel Craig hosting “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday and the release of Billie Eilish’s theme song.

The previous “Peter Rabbit” was one of 2018’s top animated releases, grossing $351 million worldwide, including a hefty $236 million internationally.
 

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Argentina has recorded Latin America’s first COVID-19-related death — a 64-year-old man who had a range of underlying conditions and was diagnosed with the virus after a trip to Europe. Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica have also reported confirmed cases, and are closely monitoring travelers and reinforcing preventive and testing measures. VOA’s Cristina Smit reports.

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Immigrant advocates and health care providers on Monday urged America’s undocumented immigrants to seek medical attention if they suspect they have contracted the coronavirus, despite recent moves by the Trump administration to curb immigrant consumption of public resources.

A coalition of immigrant rights and health care advocates, led by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), said immigration status should not be a barrier to medical care and preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

“Even if (a restrictive immigration policy) impacts you, it should not be a reason to avoid care,” said Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, which represents nonprofit community clinics and health centers operating in the area. “We can find ways to get you service without jeopardizing your status and your ability to become a citizen.”

Limiting the spread of the coronavirus requires prompt diagnoses. For many immigrants, being diagnosed means coming out of the shadows.

Don’t fear asking for treatment

People who lack legal immigration status often avoid hospitals, a tendency that could be heightened after the Trump administration went forward with unprecedented enforcement of the “public charge rule,” which says low-income immigrants can be denied legal residency if they use or are deemed likely to rely on public assistance programs. 

“It is causing fear, and we want to make sure our communities know (they) should not be afraid to seek services,” McCarthy said. “If you are not feeling well, call your local community clinic, seek help.”

McCarthy said the clinics she represents are trained in prevention measures and can support those who suspect they have the virus.

More than 600 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States as of Monday.  

Advocates argued that in a public health crisis, legal status should take a back seat to effective epidemiological measures.

Message is preparedness in LA

Richard Seidman, chief medical officer at L.A. Care, said there are no cases of community transmission of coronavirus in Los Angeles County, but “that’s likely to change, and the message is preparedness, rather than panic.”

Seidman added, “I can assure you that the county and the community clinics that are represented today will see you, regardless of immigration status.

Four cases in Maryland

In Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., with a large immigrant community, local officials confirmed four cases of coronavirus.  

County Council Vice President Tom Hucker recently said he was especially worried about transmission of the virus within the county’s large immigrant population.

Hucker acknowledged the impact of the public charge rule.

“We have a very diverse population of undocumented residents who have understandable fears now of interacting with government agencies,” he said.

Hucker stressed that it is “very important that these folks know in Montgomery County they’re safe, and they should seek medical attention right away if they have symptoms.”

…

The pace of U.S. military strikes against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab in Somalia this year is nearly on par with the number of strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. has carried out 25 strikes against al-Shabab to date in 2020, including one Monday in the vicinity of Janaale, Somalia, that U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said killed four terrorists.

Data released to VOA by a U.S. defense official show the U.S. carried out 29 airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from January 1 to March 1, the latest date in which strike data was available. A full strike report from Operation Inherent Resolve is expected later this week.

Strikes in Iraq and Syria have significantly tapered off since the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State caliphate last March.

In 2019, there were more than 2,000 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, with at least 1,600 of those carried out in the first couple of months. U.S. Central Command has decreased troop numbers in Syria, where thousands of IS fighters are estimated to remain, but increased troop numbers elsewhere in the Middle East in an effort to counter the threat of Iran.

Meanwhile, AFRICOM conducted a record 63 strikes in Somalia last year. Most were against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab, which has an estimated 6,000 militants in Somalia, with a handful of strikes against Islamic State. There were 47 U.S. military strikes in Somalia in 2018.

“Airstrikes are preventative measures to ensure al-Shabab does not increase in size and strength,” AFRICOM spokesman Maj. Karl Weiss told VOA on Monday. “That said, airstrikes and kinetic operations are not the command’s primary effort in Somalia; our core activity is the training of Somali security forces.”

Despite the ramped up strike numbers in Somalia, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has appeared averse to adding more U.S. troops to Africa, where Islamic extremists have plagued the continent from Somalia to the Sahel.

The Pentagon is in the middle of a review of AFRICOM that could reduce the number of U.S. troops on the continent. The first troop change in Africa under Esper’s leadership withdrew conventional troops and replaced them with specialized military trainers.

Esper has said the move would leave “roughly the same number of troops on the continent,” while giving U.S. commanders the capability to bolster partner forces.

Members of Congress have pushed back against any potential troop cuts, saying a decrease could provide an opening for strategic competitors Russia and China. Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have even called for an increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed to Africa.

Esper is trying to follow a shift started by his predecessor, Jim Mattis, away from counterterrorism toward strategic competition with China and Russia. During Mattis’ time as defense secretary, the U.S. pulled 100 to 200 troops from West Africa and was preparing for further cuts.

Defense officials said extremist groups in West Africa did not appear to pose a threat to the U.S. homeland, but they have since continued to pummel U.S. allies, especially in countries like Burkina Faso. A top general in U.S. Africa Command admitted to VOA at the time of the troop pullout that the U.S. and its allies were “not winning” the counterterror war for the Sahel.

AFRICOM Commander Gen. Stephen Townsend has said al-Shabab is the “largest and most violent” of al-Qaida’s branches worldwide. Defense officials have stressed that while al-Shabab does not possess the capability to strike the U.S. homeland, the group has the intent to do so.

“It is important to impact their ability to threaten peace and security in East Africa and prevent their threats against the U.S. from being a reality,” Townsend said in a press release last month.

Townsend and CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie testify together in front of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
 

…

The number of COVID-19 infections is soaring in Italy while it seems to be abating in China where it has originated. Italian authorities have quarantined some 16,000 people in the northern provinces in an effort to contain the spread of the new strain of coronavirus that causes respiratory problems. A number of countries have reported their first cases in the past few days. But Chinese officials said Sunday the number of its new cases has decreased. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.

…

Garang Majouk left southern Sudan during the country’s second civil war, forded the Nile River during his escape, washed dishes in Lebanon, and came to Iowa 19 year ago as a refugee.

So “good governing” is important to him, he says, explaining why he organizes new immigrants from the South Sudanese community in Iowa to exercise their right to vote.

Majouk is one of several immigrant organizers who work to ensure newly naturalized voters participate in the American political process. He arranges cultural and language accommodations for those who might have been refugees or come from countries that did not offer the democratic right to vote.  

That was true for Majouk, whose country was embroiled in civil war.

“It is one of your privileges as an American to cast your vote, and see progress on an issue you are passionate about,” he said.

The moment they become citizens, immigrants are legally allowed to vote. But first, they must register. Registering new voters who are born in the U.S. — like those who turn 18 — is a challenge, according to youth-vote organizers. Even more difficult is registering new citizens who might find the U.S. election process confusing. 

“There is a particular need for voter registration campaigns targeted toward newly naturalized citizens,” said Diego Iñiguez-López, the policy and campaigns manager at the National Partnership of New Americans, an advocacy group that partners with 37 regional refugee- and immigrant-rights organizations in 31 states.

Immigrant voters — 23 million of them, according to the Pew Research Center — will make up 10% of the eligible voters in the 2020 election for U.S. president. Organizers from different immigrant groups across the United States are working diligently to bring their communities out to the polls.”

The rising number of new American voters represent voting blocks that can have the power to sway the outcome of the upcoming presidential election, midterm elections, and elections for governorships and state legislatures,” Iñiguez-López said. 

“These voting blocks will be especially critical in swing states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan, where some of the largest groups of newly naturalized citizens reside,” he said.

Despite the number of eligible immigrant voters, their voter turnout rates have lagged behind native-born voters. In 2016, 62% of native-born eligible voters turned out to the polls, compared with 54% of foreign-born voters, according to Pew.  

Bhim Magar, a member of Iowa’s Bhutanese community, attributed lower turnout to a lack of information. 

“Most people in our community got citizenship in the past few years, but they were uninformed of both their right to vote and of the process behind voting,” he said. “They found caucusing even more difficult.”

Many immigrants, despite living in the United States for years, had never been contacted by a presidential campaign prior to 2020, Harka Thapa, one of Magar’s fellow organizers, said. 

“In 2016, very few members of our community voted,” Thapa said. “For many this caucus was their first time.”

The Democratic Party has updated some of their primaries to make them more inclusive to eligible immigrant voters.

In Iowa, the state’s Democratic Party worked with the state’s different immigrant communities to establish 11 satellite caucus locations that provided language and cultural accommodations for voters whose English may have been limited.

At Hoover Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, most of the first-time voters caucused in at least nine languages.

In Nevada, caucus-goers had access to materials in three different languages, English, Spanish and Tagalog, the most commonly spoken language of the Philippines. Those who spoke other languages, however, had to seek their campaign information elsewhere.

The Bernie Sanders campaign has seized on this voter market.

Bernie 2020 has a volunteer language justice team. Many major graphics (such as victory graphics and core issues like ending endless wars) are translated to over a dozen languages. pic.twitter.com/isgL58wkZ1

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 17, 2020

According to his campaign, the 78-year-old Vermont senator has more than 250 translators across the country who translate tweets and graphics into multiple languages. During the debates, many of these translators live-tweeted Sanders’ responses in different languages, including Punjabi and Urdu.

برنی:میرا یہ خواب ہے کہ اقوامِ عالم، موسمیاتی تبدیلی کے بڑے خطرے سے نبٹنے
کے لیے اکھٹے ہوں اور قتل و غارت کے لیے ہتھیاروں پر کھربوں خرچنے کے
بجائے ہمارے مشترکہ دشمن (موسمیاتی تبدیلی) کا مل کر مقابلہ کریں۔#BernieLanguageJusticeTeam#Urdu#DemDebate

— Sibtay H. Haider سبط حسن حیدر (@Sibtayhhaider) February 8, 2020

ਬਰਨੀ: ਮੈਂ ਮਹੱਤਵਪੂਰਨ ਵਾਤਾਵਰਣ ਅਤੇ ਮਜਦੂਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਵਪਾਰਕ ਸੌਦੇ ਲਈ ਵੋਟ ਨਹੀਂ ਦੇਵਾਂਗਾ |#Punjabi#bernielanguagejusticeteam#DemDebates

— Supreet Kaur? (@oopsie__desi) February 8, 2020

Aung Win Maw works as an organizer of immigrants and refugees from Myanmar. After working the Iowa caucuses, he headed to Minnesota to help organize the Burmese Karen immigrant community around Super Tuesday.”

“For each immigrant group, we tried to set up a specific satellite caucus location based on geographic location, provided them with translation, and also with transportation to the location,” he said.

Most Burmese immigrants and refugees have never heard from a campaign before, he said.

“We tried to make the political process much easier for the Burmese community to access,” he said.

Magar and Thapa were stateless, and living in refugee camps in Nepal, when they moved to the U.S. in 2011. Magar gained citizenship in 2017, and Thapa in 2019. Both are adamant that with better outreach, their community will show up to vote enthusiastically.

“I think once they get citizenship for this beautiful country, everyone would want to vote. To use that right,” Thapa said.

…

Asian shares sank in a sea of  red on Monday as panicked investors fled to bonds to hedge the economic shock of the coronavirus, and oil plunged more than 20% after Saudi Arabia slashed its official selling price.

The world’s top oil exporter plans to raise its production significantly after the collapse of OPEC’s supply cut agreement with Russia, a grab for market share reminiscent of a drive in 2014 that slashed prices by about two thirds.

Brent crude futures slid $9.39 to $35.88 a barrel in chaotic trade, while U.S. crude shed $8.77 to $32.51.

The safe-haven yen surged against emerging market currencies with exposure to oil, including the Russian rouble and Mexican peso, as analysts saw danger ahead.

“Today’s price action puts at risk the fiscal health of the vast majority of sovereign producers and budget cuts and increased debt loads are now looming in the event of a prolonged period of low prices,” warned Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

“For the most politically and economically fragile producer states, the reckoning could be severe.”

There were also worries that U.S. oil producers that had issued a lot of debt would be made uneconomic by the price drop.

Energy stocks took a beating and E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 tumbled 4.6% having been limited down at one stage.

EUROSTOXXX 50 futures fell 4.4% and FTSE futures 4.8%.  Japan’s Nikkei fell 4.7% and Australia’s commodity-heavy market 5%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 3.0% to a five-month low, while Shanghai blue chips dropped 2.1%.

Not helping the mood was news North Korea had fired three projectiles off its eastern coast on Monday.

“The scale of the collapse shows that any hopes of a temporary respite were in vain,” said Sean Callow, a senior FX strategist at Westpac. “The notion that overweight equities is the only real option in a world of super-low rates now seems to be from ‘The Time Before.’

“U.S. officials have barely moved beyond platitudes about ‘strong fundamentals’ so there is surely plenty more room for markets to price in major damage to the U.S. economy.”

The number of people infected with the coronavirus topped 107,000 across the world as the outbreak reached more countries and caused more economic carnage.

Italy’s markets are sure to come under fire after the government ordered a lockdown of large parts of the north of the country, including the financial capital Milan.

“After a week when the stockpiling of bonds, credit protection and toilet paper became a thing, let’s hope we start to see some more clarity on the reaction,” said Martin Whetton, head of bond & rates strategy at CBA.

“Dollar bloc central banks cut policy rates by 125 basis points, not as a way to stop a viral pandemic, but to stem a fear pandemic,” he added, while noting many had little scope to ease further.

Bond bubble

Markets are fully priced for at least a half-point rate cut from the Federal Reserve at its scheduled policy meeting on March 18, following last week’s emergency easing, and a move toward zero not long after.

The European Central Bank meets on Thursday and will be under intense pressure to act, but rates there are already deeply negative.

“The onus is falling, perhaps inevitably on the actions of governments to abandon budget surpluses and reinvigorate the demand side of the economy,” said Whetton.

Urgent action was clearly needed with data suggesting the global economy toppled into recession this quarter. Figures out from China over the weekend showed exports fell 17.2% in January-February, from a year earlier.

Analysts at BofA Global Research estimated the latest sell-off had seen $9 trillion in global equity value vaporized in nine days, while the average 10-year yield in the developed world hit 16 basis points, the lowest in 120 years.

“The clearest outcome of the exogenous COVID-19 shock is a collapse in bond yields, which once panic fades can induce huge rotation to ‘growth stocks’ and ‘bond proxies’ in equities,” they wrote in a client note.

Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries plunged to a once-unthinkable 0.50%, having halved in just three sessions.

Yields on the 30-year long bond dived 35 basis points on Friday alone, the largest daily drop since the 1987 crash, and briefly traded under 1% on Monday.

The fall in yields and Fed rate expectations has pulled the rug out from under the dollar, sending it crashing to the largest weekly loss in four years.

The dollar extended its slide in early Asia to reach 103.55  en, depths not seen since late 2016, while the euro shot to the highest in over eight months at $1.1387.

Gold jumped 1.6% to clear $1,700 per ounce and reach a fresh seven-year peak.

…

A lifelong baseball fan, Sue Macy not only loves sports but also advocates for women athletes. Her book, “Breaking Through: How Female Athletes Shattered Stereotypes in the Roaring Twenties,” relates the struggles of women athletes in the U.S. and how they paved the way for success for modern women in sports. She discussed the issue with VOA’s  Sahar Majid. 

…

Despite several monumental pushes for women’s rights around the globe over recent decades, activists say progress has been very slow. According to the United Nations, women continue to be undervalued, underpaid, have fewer choices and continue to experience multiple forms of violence around the world. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.

…

One quarter of Italy’s population is in lockdown under a new emergency decree Sunday.

Italy has experienced more COVID-19 deaths than any other country outside China.

After more than 230 deaths, the government has decided to lockdown the northern part of the country, including the Lombardy region and the financial capital, Milan.  

In addition, Italy will shutter 14 other provinces, including Veneto, home of Venice.

Travel into and out the areas will be highly restricted until early next month, as the country seeks to slow the tide of fatalities from the virus. Museums, theaters, cinemas and other entertainment venues have also been ordered to close.

Italy Locks Down a Quarter of its Population

Italy has never experienced anything like the emergency restrictions approved overnight and which are effective from Sunday

Italy has also asked retired doctors to return to service to help halt the spread of the disease.

In a break with centuries of tradition, the pope delivered the annual Angelus prayer live Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square and he did not appear on the papal balcony to great the faithful.   The Vatican which has already reported one coronavirus case is hoping to keep crowd size down in the tiny city-state in its attempt to stop the virus.

Pope Francis delivered the prayer “via livestream by Vatican News and on screens in Saint Peter’s Square,” the Vatican said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the world

Iran said Sunday the coronavirus has killed 49 more people in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 194.  The Middle Eastern country has 6,566 confirmed cases.

In China, a hotel used to quarantine people with the virus collapsed Sunday.  At least six people were killed in the incident.

The virus first erupted in China late last year.

Reuters reports that at least two federal health screeners at Los Angeles International Airport have tested positive for the coronavirus and have been ordered to self-quarantine until March 17.  The news agency said screeners, many of them federal workers, had already “asked their supervisors . . .  to change official protocols and require stronger masks.”

The Grand Princess cruise ship, hit by a coronavirus outbreak, is scheduled to dock in Oakland, California, Monday.  The ship has been held at sea without a dock since last, week when San Francisco refused to allow the ship to return there because  of the outbreak.  The Grand Princess is carrying more than 3,500 passengers and crew.

Worldwide, there were more than 106,000 infections Sunday, while the death toll has surpassed 3,500.

Bahrain has announced it will hold its Formula 1 Grand Prix later this month, but without any spectators.  

“Given the continued spread of COVID -19 globally, convening a major sporting event, which is open to the public and allows thousands of international travellers and local fans to interact in close proximity would not be the right thing to do at the present time,” the Bahrain International Circuit said Sunday.

…

Philippine troops have killed at least 14 Muslim militants aligned with the Islamic State group in a weeklong offensive in a southern province that also left four soldiers dead, a regional military commander said Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said an unspecified number of militants, including gunmen belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, were wounded in clashes in the towns of Ampatuan and Datu Hoffer Ampatuan in Maguindanao province.

The bodies of five of the slain militants were recovered by government forces, he said, adding that 10 soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

The Islamic State group claimed that militants killed 43 soldiers using explosives while repulsing the recent military assaults in two Maguindanao villages, but Sobejana said the claim was “untrue.”

Government forces launched airstrikes and artillery fire on an encampment of the militants in Salman village in Ampatuan on Monday after receiving intelligence that the gunmen were plotting attacks, the military said.

Troops later assaulted the encampment and another group of armed militants in Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, seizing firearms, ammunition and homemade bombs, the military said.

The largest Muslim rebel group in the southern region, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed an autonomy deal with the government in 2014, ending decades of separatist insurrection.

Its leader and many of its commanders have been appointed to govern a five-province autonomous region under a transitional setup, but smaller hardline armed groups, including some that have been linked to the Islamic State group, have continued to fight the government.

…

About 30 people remained trapped early Sunday after a five-story hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou, state media said.

About four hours after the collapse, the Quanzhou municipality said 38 of the 70 or so people who had been in the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had been rescued.

A video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over rubble and twisted steelwork carrying people towards ambulances.

The hotel collapsed at about 7:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Saturday evening.

“I was at a gas station and heard a loud noise. I looked up and the whole building collapsed. Dust was everywhere, and glass fragments were flying around,” a witness said in a video posted on the Miaopai streaming app.

“I was so terrified that my hands and legs were shivering.”

A woman named only by her surname, Chen, told the Beijing News website that relatives including her sister had been under quarantine at the hotel as prescribed by local regulations after returning from Hubei province, where the coronavirus emerged.

She said they had been scheduled to leave soon after completing their 14 days of isolation.

“I can’t contact them, they’re not answering their phones, she said.

“I’m under quarantine too (at another hotel) and I’m very worried, I don’t know what to do. They were healthy, they took their temperatures every day, and the tests showed that everything was normal.”

The municipality said 36 emergency rescue vehicles such as cranes and excavators, 67 firefighting vehicles, 15 ambulances, and more than 700 firefighters, medical and other rescue workers were at the scene as the operation stretched into the night.

Quanzhou is a port city on the Taiwan Strait in the province of Fujian with a population of more than 8 million.

The official People’s Daily said the hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms.

Beijing News’ video stream was viewed by more than 2 million Weibo users on Saturday evening, and the hotel’s collapse was the top trending topic on the Weibo site, China’s close equivalent to Twitter.

Some users demanded a investigation into how the hotel could have collapsed.

Anger has been building up against the authorities in China over their early handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 3,300 people globally, most of them in China.

The Fujian provincial government said that as of Friday, the province had 296 cases of coronavirus and 10,819 people had been placed under observation after being classified as suspected close contacts.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the committee responsible for working safety under the State Council, China’s cabinet, had sent an emergency working team to the site.

…

Some remote Aboriginal settlements in Australia are banning outsiders in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Visitors who’ve been in China, Iran, South Korea, Japan or Italy will not be allowed in for the next three months.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt believes such peoples are vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus because of the prevalence of pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes and renal failure, as well as high rates of smoking, overcrowded housing and poor general hygiene.

Wyatt said some settlements want to keep outsiders away.

“What they want to do is restrict access of entry, which is showing that they are forward-thinking, they are understanding what the implications are and they are making a decision because the community are doing it with their medical staff and with their community-controlled health services,” Wyatt said.

Indigenous leaders believe any outbreak of the coronavirus would be devastating for communities that already have complex health problems. The government says Aboriginal Australians are one of the groups most at risk from the disease. So far, there are no confirmed infections among Indigenous people in Australia.

During a 2009 swine flu outbreak, Aboriginal Australians made up a fifth of all hospitalizations and 13% of deaths. They comprise about 3% of the national population, and suffer disproportionately high rates of poverty, ill health and imprisonment.

Authorities in the Northern Territory, which has a large Aboriginal community, are to release a remote area health pandemic plan Monday.

Australia has at least 65 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Two people have died.

…

A third Turkish journalist has been arrested for reporting on the funeral of a Turkish intelligence officer purportedly killed in Libya, according to local news media reports.

OdaTV editor Barış Pehlivan was arrested Friday as part of a state-led probe of OdaTV’s coverage of the officer’s quiet March 2 burial ceremony in the Manisa province of western Turkey.

State prosecutors say Pehlivan, along with OdaTV news director Baris Terkoglu and reporter Hulya Kilinc — both of whom were detained March 4 — disclosed the agent’s identity in violation of national law.

Facing up to nine years in prison, Terkoglu and Kilinc Thursday rejected the charges in statements before the court.

Agent already identified

Kilinc said she published the officer’s first name and the initial of his last name only after an opposition lawmaker had already publicly identified the deceased agent.

“Since I learned that citizens and government officials also attended the funeral, I did not see any harm in conveying it to the press,” Kilinc said, adding that images included in her news report were already publicly accessible on social media.

OdaTV news director Terkoglu told the court that he respected the wishes of family members who did not want to comment on their loss, but that he saw no crime in publishing footage of the ceremony.

“I don’t think me being a suspect here is related to this news [story] at all,” he said. “This news is an excuse made up to make me a defendant in these trials.”

Terkoglu served 19 months in jail in 2011-12 on accusations of taking part in an alleged plot to topple the government. He was later released along with many others at the time and the case later fell apart.

Pehlivan, who spoke with VOA’s Turkish Service Thursday, was defiant.

“The identity of the official had already been revealed by opposition IYI Party Istanbul deputy Umit Ozdag at a press conference in parliament that was broadcast online,” Pehlivan told VOA. “Our curiosity and passion for journalism cannot be prevented by prisons, deaths and threats.”

Pehlivan also said he had received text and phone messages of support from some government and ruling AKP officials shortly after his colleagues had been detained.

It is not clear whether Pehlivan’s sudden arrest on Friday was a result of the comments he made to VOA.

Site blocked

Turkish Communications officials blocked OdaTV’s website Wednesday, leaving only a government disclaimer to greet readers: “After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the law nr.5651, administrative measures have been taken for this website according to decision nr. 490.05.01.2020-935064 dated 05/03/2020 of the Information and Communication Technologies.”

The site was accessible for international visitors as of Friday. 

Asked whether Ankara’s response was too heavy-handed, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu criticized OdaTV in an interview with CNN Turk.

“There is such a thing as state secrets, national security secrets,” he said.

The Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC), however, issued a statement countering that notion.

“We find unacceptable that the public information channels are blocked by bans and notions such as ‘state secrets,’” they wrote. “TGC also called for the immediate release of all imprisoned journalists.”

“The detentions of OdaTV journalists Barış Terkoglu and Hulya Kilinc are absurd, and they should be released immediately and all charges should be dropped,” said Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “Reporting on matters of public interest should not land journalists in jail, especially if that information is already in the public domain.”

Turkey has sent dozens of military personnel for training purposes to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli as it heads off an assault by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, but denies they are engaged in active fighting.

RSF ranks Turkey 157 out of 180 countries for press freedom, and the CPJ said at least 47 journalists were in Turkish jails as of December 2019.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service. Translation by Mehtap Yilmaz. Pete Cobus contributed reporting from Washington.

…

A dizzying, brutal week of trading dropped one last round of harrowing swings on investors Friday.

After skidding sharply through the day as fear pounded markets, steep drops for stocks and bond yields suddenly eased up in the last hour. By the end of trading, the S&P 500 had more than halved its loss for the day to 1.7% and even locked in a gain for the week.

It was the latest lurch in a wild ride that has sent stocks flipping between huge gains and losses — mostly losses the last two weeks. Investors are trying to guess how much economic damage the coronavirus will ultimately inflict, and they’re shifting by the minute as the number of new infections piles up on one hand and central banks and governments offer stimulus on the other.

All the uncertainty has left markets churning.

“It’s anyone’s guess at this point why it rallied into the close,” Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank, said of the last hour of Friday’s trading.

Treasury yields down again

Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 had been down 4%. Even more alarming was another breathtaking drop in Treasury yields to record lows.

The 10-year Treasury yield falls when investors are worried about a weaker economy and inflation, and it sank below 0.70% at one point. Earlier this week, it had never in history been below 1%. It was at 1.90% at the start of the year, before the virus fears took hold.

Even a better-than-expected report on U.S. jobs wasn’t enough to pull markets from the undertow. It’s usually the most anticipated piece of economic data each month, but investors looked past February’s solid hiring numbers because they came from before the new coronavirus was spreading quickly across the country.

“The bond market says the monster under the bed is much bigger and scarier than anyone expects right now,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial.

At the heart of the drops is the fear of the unknown. The virus usually causes only mild to moderate symptoms. But because it’s new, experts aren’t sure how far it will spread and how much damage it will ultimately do, both to health and to the economy.

The number of infections has topped 100,000 worldwide and businesses are reporting hits to their earnings. Danger for companies is coming from two sides. On the supply side, for example, Apple has said slowdowns in manufacturing iPhones in China will hurt its sales totals. On the demand side, an airline industry group says the outbreak could lose as much as $113 billion in revenue as people cancel trips.

Turbulent week

Friday’s drop for the S&P 500 was the latest swing in a remarkably turbulent week. It started off with a 4.6% jump on Monday, then fell 2.8%, rose 4.2% and fell 3.4%.

“At this point no one can really explain why the markets behave the way they do, and what may be next,“ said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. “The only thing we can say is this high volatility is bad.“

It was only two weeks ago that the S&P 500 set a record high, on February 19. It’s lost 12.2% since then.

The bond market sounded the alarm on the effects of the virus long before the stock market, and yields fell further Friday.

The Fed surprised the market earlier this week by cutting interest rates half a percentage point. Investors expect other central banks around the world to follow suit in hopes of supporting markets.

Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, said Friday that the Fed could start using new tools to combat a downturn, such as buying a broader range of financial assets.

At the same time, doubts are high about how much effect lower rates can have. Cheaper loans may encourage people and business to make big purchases, but they can’t get workers back into factories if they’re out on quarantine.

Federal bill to fight virus

A boost for stocks came earlier this week after Congress agreed on an $8.3 billion bill to combat the coronavirus, which President Donald Trump signed Friday. But investors say a slowdown in the economy seems inevitable, and many analysts expect the market’s sharp swings to continue as long as the number of new cases accelerates.

“As the market tries to find its bottom, it’s going to go up and down, up and down, until it has a reason to steadily change in one direction or the other,” said Taback of Wells Fargo Private Bank.

The S&P 500 fell 51.57, or 1.7%, to 2,972.37. It rose 0.6% for the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 256.50, or 1%, to 25,864.78. The Nasdaq fell 162.98, or 1.9%, to 8,575.62.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 0.77% from 0.92% late Thursday. It rallied from as low as 0.66% earlier in the day, according to Tradweb.

Benchmark U.S. crude tumbled $4.62, or 10.1%, to settle at $41.28 per barrel. It was the worst day for oil in more than five years. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped $4.72, or 9.4%, to $45.27.

In Europe, the French CAC 40 dropped 4.1%, and the German DAX lost 3.4%. The FTSE 100 in London fell 3.6%.

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