Author: Worldnews

Pressure appears to be building on the White House and U.S. intelligence agencies to declassify some information and brief the public on possible Russian attempts to meddle in the upcoming presidential election.

Much of the push is coming from former U.S. intelligence and security officials upset at a series of leaks that led to reports Russia was trying to bolster the campaigns of both President Donald Trump and one of his Democratic challengers, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.  

But some of the pressure is also coming from lawmakers who want see the American public get what they describe as an untainted assessment of what Russia is and is not doing, rather than see the allegations used for domestic political gain.

Congressional officials say, so far, lawmakers have not made any official requests to the intelligence agencies for any sort of public briefing or official statement on possible Russian meddling, due to concerns about protecting intelligence sources and methods.

Still, the officials note some sort of public disclosure is in line with the recommendations of a bipartisan report issued earlier this month by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which warned against keeping voters in the dark. 

“The public should be informed as soon as possible, with a clear and succinct statement of the threat, even if the information is incomplete,” the report stated. “Delaying the release of information allows inaccurate narratives to spread, which makes the task of informing the public significantly harder.”

Both the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment when asked by VOA if a plan to share some of the latest intelligence with the public was under consideration.

In India Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed anger over the intelligence leaks, calling the reports of Russia meddling to boost his reelection campaign or the campaign of Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders “highly exaggerated.” 

“Intelligence never told me,” he told reporters. “And we have a couple of people here that would know very well.”

Other Trump administration officials have also forcefully denied the reports of Russian meddling to boost the president.

US National Security Adviser: Russian Election Meddling a ‘Non-story’

But Robert O’Brien acknowledges he has not sought out intelligence reports claiming Moscow interference

But on Friday, Sanders confirmed U.S. intelligence had, in fact, warned him about the Russian meddling. He later warned Moscow to stay out of U.S. politics.

Sanders Condemns Any Russian Influence in Election 

Washington Post says US officials told Vermont senator that Russia was trying to help his campaign

It is those contradicting narratives that have former intelligence and security officials calling for some sort of public disclosure. 

“I would certainly encourage it…no matter what it says,” former acting CIA Director John McLaughlin told VOA. “We don’t know the whole story yet.”

Other longtime intelligence officials agree. 

“Indications and warnings of threats to our democratic process are not like fine wine, getting better with age,” Daniel Hoffman, a former CIA chief of station, said. “We learned from 2016, we need a coordinated assessment based on the facts rather than innuendo and poor analysis tinged with confirmation bias.”

At least one White House official has indicated an openness to sharing some of the existing intelligence with the public. 

“I’d have no problem with that,” U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “If there’s intelligence that we can declassify, that we can get out there — all the better — because, again, we weren’t in office in 2016 when the last election meddling took place and the administration did very little about it.”

However, some of those who were in office in 2016 accuse the Trump administration of doing even less. 

“It is vital that the Trump administration declassify what we know so it can be described by our intelligence community publicly, so the voters are armed with this information,” Jeh Johnson, who served as Homeland Security secretary under former President Barack Obama, said during a forum in Detroit Monday.  

“That’s what we did in the prior administration,” he added, referring to a statement he and other top officials issued in October 2016 blaming Russia for hacking and then leaking emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Some Democratic lawmakers have also seized upon the president’s handling of the latest allegations of Russian meddling. 

“What does the president do in response to that information? He fires the head of the intelligence community,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said on the floor of the Senate late Tuesday, arguing for the passage of election security legislation.  

“He fires them because he doesn’t want them to tell Congress what the Russians are doing,” he said.

Trump administration officials have consistently pushed back, arguing the president has made it clear that interference by Russia or anyone else will not be tolerated.  

“Meddling in our elections is unacceptable,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters Tuesday. “Should Russia or any foreign actor take steps to undermine our democratic processes, we will take action in response.”

Some former intelligence officials caution that President Trump’s long-contentious relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies, dating back to their 2017 assessment that Russia did seek to help Trump win the election, is hurting the administration’s credibility. 

“One doesn’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and former senior director of the White House Situation Room, who has been critical of Trump in the past. “The congressional intelligence committees should demand open hearings in order to assure the American people, and closed hearings in order to conduct appropriate oversight of the activities to assess that threat.”

Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.

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A U.S. soldier has tested positive for the coronavirus, U.S. military officials in South Korea said Wednesday – the first confirmed infection of a U.S. service member.

The patient, a 23-year-old male, has been placed in self-quarantine at his off-base residence, U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement.

The soldier was stationed at Camp Carroll, a U.S. Army base in the southeastern part of the country, but also visited Camp Walker.

“Health professionals are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether any others may have been exposed,” the USFK statement said.

Both military bases are near the epicenter of the South Korea coronavirus outbreak, which has put the country on edge over the past week.

South Korean officials reported 169 new virus cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 1,146. Just last week, that number was only 30.

Twelve coronavirus patients in South Korea have died.

Most of the South Korean infections are in and around Daegu, the country’s fourth-largest city. The U.S. military has thousands of service members in the region.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said upcoming annual joint military exercises with South Korea could be scaled back because of virus concerns.

Dangerous new component

The spread of the virus within military ranks would represent a dangerous new component of the outbreak, since many service members live within close quarters and share common meals.

At some bases nearest the outbreak, U.S. soldiers have been prevented from non-essential off-base travel. Many visitors are also prevented from visiting some bases. Some on-base restaurants and entertainment venues have been closed. Department of Defense schools in Korea have also been shuttered.

Earlier this week, the U.S. military in South Korea raised its risk level to “high” after reporting that a 61-year-old woman with the coronavirus visited a store at Camp Walker. The woman was the widow of a retired soldier.

At least 18 members of the South Korean military have also been infected the virus. Over 9,000 South Korean service members have been quarantined at their bases, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Highly contagious

The coronavirus causes a respiratory illness known as Covid-19. The disease currently has a mortality rate of around 2 percent. But it is highly contagious, in part because those with Covid-19 can spread the disease before showing symptoms.

Over 80,000 people worldwide have contracted the virus. Almost 2,800 people have died. Most the cases have been in China, where the virus originated.

But over the past week, countries including Iran, Italy, and South Korea have reported a surge in confirmed cases. World health officials are now worried the outbreak could turn into a global pandemic.

…

U.S. Democratic presidential contenders targeted front-runner Bernie Sanders in a raucous debate late Tuesday, contending that the self-declared democratic socialist would lose to Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election if he is the party’s nominee.

“Bernie will lose to Donald Trump, and the House and Senate will turn [Republican],” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the 10th Democratic presidential debate on a stage in Charleston, South Carolina, four days ahead of Saturday’s key presidential primary in the mid-Atlantic state.

Sanders retorted that national surveys show that in the last 50 hypothetical matches against Trump, he had beaten him 47 times.

But Bloomberg responded, looking directly at Sanders, “Can you imagine a moderate Republican voting for him?”

Another candidate, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime ally of Sanders, contended that, “I would make a better president than Bernie,” saying that she could advance the progressive policy goals they share and that he would not be able to.

Sanders’ opponents lobbed one attack after another at the 78-year-old lawmaker, chiding him for favoring a government-run health insurance program that could cost $60 trillion over a decade and end private insurance plans that 160 million Americans use to help pay their health care bills. They also assailed Sanders for opposing bills in Congress that would have held gun manufacturers liable for gun violence in the U.S.

Sanders defended his signature “Medicare for All” health plan, saying it would cut health care costs for millions of Americans. He conceded his vote on the gun legislation “was a bad vote.”

Sanders, a longtime senator from Vermont in the northeastern U.S., has surged to the top of national polls of Democratic voters, but his opponents for the Democratic nomination said he is out of step with many American voters.

They claimed that Sanders’ plans to sharply increase social welfare spending for health and education would be too costly. In interviews this week, Sanders’ opponents have also attacked his decades-old favorable assessments of leftist strongmen — the late Fidel Castro in Cuba and Nicaragua’s revolutionary president, Daniel Ortega — saying it would prove to be indefensible and a political disaster for U.S. Democrats in 2020.

In an interview last weekend, Sanders praised Castro’s literacy program in Cuba, despite long-standing U.S. condemnation of Castro’s years of human rights abuses. Old videos of Sanders, when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and visiting Cuba and Nicaragua, are resurfacing, showing him praising advances in socialist countries, haunting his second bid for the U.S. presidency.

Late in the debate, Sanders said he has “opposed authoritarians all over the world,” but contended that “when dictatorships do something good, you acknowledge, but you don’t exchange love letters.”

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said such a Sanders sentiment would not help him run against Trump.

“I am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump, with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s, and Bernie Sanders, with nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s,” Buttigieg said. “This is not about what was happening in the 1970s or ’80s, this is about the future. This is about 2020.”

Moreover, on the eve of the Nevada caucuses last week, The Washington Post revealed that U.S. intelligence officials had informed Sanders that Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to help Sanders win the nomination, in hopes that he would be an easier opponent for President Trump.

At the top of the debate, Bloomberg took a pot shot at Sanders, saying, “Vladimir Putin thinks that Donald Trump is, should be president of the United States, and that’s why Russia is helping you get [nominated] so you’ll lose to him.”

An agitated Sanders responded: “Hey, Mr. Putin, trust me, if I’m president, you’re not going to interfere in any more American elections.”

The face-to-face confrontation among seven candidates also came just a week before voters head to the polls in 14 states next Tuesday, when more than a third of the delegates to the Democrats’ national nominating convention in July will be picked in a one-day marathon of voting from coast to coast.

Sanders won the popular vote in the first three nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, making it imperative for at least one of Sanders’ opponents to mount a serious challenge in the next week of voting or face the prospect that Sanders could soon amass an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates to the national convention.

Democrats apportion their pledged delegates to the national conclave based on the proportional outcome of the candidates’ vote totals throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories, not on a winner-take-all basis as is the case within the Republican Party. That gives Sanders a chance to add to his first-place standing in the count of pledged delegates as each state votes, even if he loses an individual state.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is narrowly ahead of Sanders in recent polling in South Carolina, with its 54 national delegates in play. But analysts have not discounted the possibility that Sanders could also win the state three days ahead of the March 3 voting, a day dubbed as Super Tuesday. when a massive haul of 1,357 delegates is at stake.

Biden, who once led national polls in the race to take on Trump, finished a distant second in last Saturday’s Nevada voting, and even further back in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The South Carolina polling shows wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer, who has spent large sums on an advertising campaign in the state, could finish third in the balloting, which could lend modest momentum to his long shot candidacy. The surveys in the state show him ahead of former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Warren and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

For the second debate in a row, Warren attacked Bloomberg’s sexist and misogynistic comments toward female workers at his eponymous business information company that he founded, an enterprise that made him the 12th-richest person in the world.

In a heated exchange, Warren accused Bloomberg of suggesting to a woman who worked for him and had just announced her pregnancy to “kill it,” and have an abortion.

“I never said that,” he heatedly answered, later adding emphatically, “I categorically never said it.”

Bloomberg, by his choice, is not on the South Carolina ballot, and instead has focused on next Tuesday’s voting, when he is on all 14 of the Super Tuesday ballots.

He appeared on the debate stage with his opponents for the first time last week, but the billionaire came under withering attack, with his challengers accusing him of trying to buy the election with his vast wealth.

Bloomberg’s opponents also assailed the stop-and-frisk, anti-crime policing effort he employed as New York mayor from 2002 to 2013, a program he now says he is embarrassed by because of the effect it had in targeting young black and Latino men.

After Warren assailed his refusal at last week’s debate to release women from secrecy agreements about the financial settlements they reached with Bloomberg’s company, he agreed that three women who had specifically accused him of demeaning remarks could speak publicly if they wanted to, but no one has as yet. It is not clear how many financial settlements Bloomberg reached with women who worked for his company.

Warren said Tuesday Bloomberg should release women from all the settlements, not just the three he has agreed to do.

“The trouble with this senator, enough is never enough,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg has made no apologies for his fortune, saying he has donated vast sums to charitable ventures, as well as arts, environmental, public health, anti-smoking and gun control organizations.

Now, he said, he is spending hundreds of millions of his own money trying to unseat fellow New Yorker Trump, a man he has occasionally praised over the years as a prominent real estate mogul but now assails as an unfit president.

As the debate neared the end, the seven candidates were asked what they thought the public’s biggest misconception was about them.

Steyer, a multibillionaire investor and philanthropist, said “I am defined” by my business success. Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator, said, “The biggest misconception is that I’m boring, because I’m not.” Sanders said the biggest misconception was that “the ideas I’m talking about are radical, because they’re not [and] in one form or another they exist in countries around the world.” Warren’s response was “that I don’t eat very much. I eat all the time.”

Biden drew laughter when he said the biggest misconception is “I have more hair than I think I do.” Buttigieg lamented that “I think the biggest misconception is that I’m not passionate. … Some say I’m unflappable. I don’t think you would want a flappable president.”

Finally, the 5-foot-8-inch Bloomberg joked, “The biggest misconception is that I’m 6 feet tall.”

“I have been training for this job for a long time, and when I get it, I will do something, and not just talk about it,” Bloomberg added.

…

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization says a small group of desert locusts has entered Congo, marking the first time the voracious insects have been seen in the Central African country since 1944.

The agency says the mature locusts, carried in part by the wind, arrived on the western shore of Lake Albert on Friday near the town of Bunia.

The worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years also recently reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war.

Kenya, Somalia and Uganda also have been battling the locust swarms, which can reach the size of major cities.

The insects can destroy crops and devastate pasture for animals, and experts have warned that the outbreak is affecting millions of already vulnerable people across the region.

Uganda’s government said Tuesday it was trying to contain a large swarm and will need more resources to control the infestation that has spread to over 20 districts in the north. Soldiers have been battling swarms using hand-held spray pumps, while experts have said aerial spraying is the only effective control.

The U.N. recently raised its aid appeal from $76 million to $138 million, saying the need for more help is urgent. Experts have warned that the number of locusts if unchecked could grow 500 times by June, when drier weather is expected in the region.

A changing climate has contributed to this outbreak as a warming Indian Ocean means more powerful tropical cyclones hitting the region. A cyclone late last year in Somalia brought heavy rains that fed fresh vegetation to fuel the locusts that were carried in by the wind from the Arabian Peninsula.

A new generation of the locusts has been growing up in the Somalia desert in recent weeks, preparing to take flight as the next wave headed toward Kenya, Ethiopia and beyond.

…

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed her skepticism about Bernie Sanders but says she will support the Democratic nominee regardless of who it is.

Clinton, who beat Sanders for the Democratic nomination only to lose the 2016 election to President Donald Trump, made waves with comments about Sanders in the new documentary “Hillary” saying “nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him.”

But in comments at the Berlinale film festival Tuesday where she was promoting the four-hour documentary that will debut on Hulu in March, Clinton said her top priority was unseating Trump.

“I’m going to wait and see who we nominate,” she said. “I will support the nominee, and it won’t surprise you to hear me say that I think that it’s imperative that we retire the incumbent.”

…

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the man long seen as the symbol of stability in the Middle East but who was ousted in a popular uprising, is dead. The former leader was 91 and died Tuesday. VOA’s Elizabeth Arrott looks back at the man called by some a modern pharaoh.

…

The death toll in Italy from the coronavirus outbreak stands at seven with more than 200 cases confirmed. At least 10 towns in the north are in lockdown mode and the army is ensuring no one enters of leaves them during a quarantine period.

Italian authorities are working around the clock putting in place unprecedented measures in an effort to curb the surge in coronavirus cases. In at least six regions in Italy’s industrial north, schools and universities are closed. People have been told to stay away from their offices and remain indoors as much as possible.

Theaters and museums have also been closed as have bars and discos. Venice carnival events have been cut short for the first time ever.

Authorities have banned all demonstrations and public gatherings, including sporting events and church services as Italy deals with the biggest outbreak in Europe. The head of Italy’s civil defense department, Andrea Borrelli, said authorities were surprised by how fast the virus has spread. He said a plan is in place to house people who have contracted the virus and for those in quarantine.

Borrelli says thousands of beds are available throughout the national territory and that army barracks and hotels have been made available. He also says extra food and medical supplies will be taken to the towns in lockdown in northern Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says residents in affected towns could face weeks in lockdown.

In Milan over the weekend, many residents raided supermarkets, leaving empty shelves, fearing they would not be able to go to the shops. The Lombardy region is Italy’s hardest hit region and streets are deserted. Many people have been told to stay home and work from there. Those who venture out have been wearing surgical masks. One vendor outside a Milan railway station said he was selling the masks for $11 each.

University students in affected areas were unable to sit for their exams.

This student says she had three exams this week and all of them have been canceled. The student says she does not know when she will be able to take them.

According to the student, the Milan mayor said for the moment, colleges will be closed for a week but that this closure could be extended to a fortnight or more.

Italians have been told to avoid traveling to affected areas. At the airports, passengers are being checked for symptoms of the virus with heat sensors. Some regional train lines have canceled service, but fast trains between the major cities are still operating normally.

…

Iran’s health ministry says 60 people have been infected by the coronavirus and that 12 people have died, so far, with the holy city of Qom being the hardest hit part of the country. Panic over the virus appears to be spreading to Iran’s neighbors, as well, with cases being reported in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon.

Iran’s health ministry spokesman told journalists Monday that authorities are taking strict measures to control the spread of the coronavirus. He also defended a decision not to place the Shi’ite holy city of Qom under quarantine, saying that doing so would have scared people and caused many to flee to other parts of the country, further spreading the virus.

The spokesman went on to say that 60 people have been infected by the coronavirus across Iran, with 12 people succumbing to it. He said claims on social media of higher casualty figures were false.

Amateur video on social media showed workers spraying subway cars in the Tehran metro to prevent the spread of the virus. Other video showed workers spraying Iranian passenger jets and city buses as well. State television reported that President Hassan Rouhani would preside over a crisis committee to oversee handling of the virus.

In neighboring Iraq, some panic was reported after an Iranian student in the holy city of Najaf came down with the virus. Iraqi officials told Arab media that a handful of suspected caseswere taken to Baghdad’s Euphrates Hospital.

Iraqi media showed protesters trying to block the Mahran border crossing from Iran. Several protesters criticized the country’s interior minister for allegedly refusing to stop Iranians from entering the country. VOA could not independently confirm the claim.

Amateur video broadcast by Arab media showed visitors from Iran being held in quarantine at a hotel in the city of Kut, near the Mahran border crossing. One man could be heard saying that armed men were posted outside the hotel.

Arab media say three coronavirus cases have been reported in Kuwait, which is refusing to allow ships from either Iraq or Iran to dock. Another case was reported in nearby Bahrain. Both Qatar and Bahrain say they are monitoring arriving passengers from countries hardest hit by the virus.

Here in Egypt, state media report that one patient who came down with the virus in the coastal town of Marsa Matrouah “has now recovered.” In Lebanon, a passenger arriving from Iran came down with the virus several days ago. Meanwhile, officials at Beirut Airport reportedly forced passengers on a plane arriving from Tehran Monday to disembark far away from the terminal.

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Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty Monday to restored charges that accuse him of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself last year in Chicago and then falsely reporting to that the phony attack was real.   

A somber looking Smollett, 37, entered a Cook County courthouse wearing sunglasses and sporting a beard, flanked by his legal teams and surrounded by reporters.
    
His lawyer, Tina Glandian, entered the not guilty pleas on his behalf to six counts of felony disorderly conduct. She also told Judge James B. Linn that she has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to halt the case.    

Smollett pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of the charge in the same courthouse last year, just weeks before the Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office abruptly announced it was dismissing the case, angering police and City Hall.
    
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed to examine the state’s attorney’s office’s handling of the case, represented the state. Foxx’s office is not involved in the new case against Smollett.
    
Smollett has repeatedly denied police allegations that he staged the attack to get attention and further his career.
    
Defendants typically enter not guilty pleas during initial hearings before the trial judge, who sets bond amounts that defendants must post to secure their release. Attorneys often arrange for defendants to post bond at the clerk’s office rather than be taken into custody.
    
Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that two masked men attacked him as he was walking home in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2019. He said they made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing, and that at least one of his attackers was a white man who told him he was in “MAGA country,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
    
Weeks later,  police alleged  that Smollett had paid two black friends to help stage the attack.
    
Among those in court to observed Monday’s proceedings were the brothers who say they were hired by Smollett to participate in the staged attack, Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo. If Smollett’s case makes it to trial, they would be the state’s star witnesses.
    
Smollett has maintained his innocence, telling reporters after the charges were dropped last year that, “I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I was accused of.”
    
His attorney, Glandian, questioned the integrity of special prosecutor’s investigation after the new charges were announced this month, pointing out that Webb’s probe relied on the same detectives who were part of the original investigation despite pending civil claims that Smollett is pursuing against the city and police for malicious prosecution.
    
Foxx’s handling of the case, meanwhile, has become a key issue in her bid for re-election, with her opponents accusing her of having acted haphazardly and indecisively.
  

…

Barbara “B.” Smith, one of the nation’s top black models who went on to open restaurants, launch a successful home products line and write cookbooks, has died at her Long Island home at age 70 after battling early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Smith’s family announced on social media that she died Saturday evening.

“Heaven is shining even brighter now that it is graced with B.’s dazzling and unforgettable smile,” Smith’s husband Dan Gasby said on Facebook.

Smith’s eponymous Manhattan restaurant opened in 1986 and attracted a following among affluent black New Yorkers, The New York Times recalled. Essence magazine described it as the place “where the who’s who of black Manhattan meet, greet and eat regularly.”

Smith wrote three cookbooks, founded three successful restaurants and launched a nationally syndicated television show and a magazine. Her successful home products line was the first from a black woman to be sold at a nationwide retailer when it debuted in 2001 at Bed Bath & Beyond.

In 1976, she became the second black model to be on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine, after Joli Jones in 1969.

“You epitomized class, true beauty and dignity. Rest well Queen,” actress Viola Davis wrote on Twitter.

Smith was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2013. She and Gasby raised awareness of the disease, and particularly its impacts on the African-American community, following her diagnosis.

Some described Smith as a “black Martha Stewart,” a comparison she said she didn’t mind though she believed the two lifestyle mavens were quite different.

“Martha Stewart has presented herself doing the things domestics and African Americans have done for years,” she said in a 1997 interview with New York magazine. “We were always expected to redo the chairs and use everything in the garden. This is the legacy that I was left. Martha just got there first.”

In the same interview, Gasby said, “Martha is perfection and Barbara is passion.”

Smith began suffering from memory problems years before her diagnosis. She once froze for several seconds while being interviewed on the “Today Show,” prompting a doctor’s visit that led to her diagnosis. A few months later, she was missing in New York City for a day.

In 2018, Gasby revealed that he was in a relationship with another woman while caring for his ailing wife, leading to harsh criticism from some of her fans. He fired back at critics with a Facebook post about the pain of living with Alzheimer’s in the family. “I love my wife but I can’t let her take away my life,” he wrote.

The couple co-authored a book, “Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help, and Acceptance in Our fight Against Alzheimer’s,” and have partnered with the Brain Health Registry.

Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, began her career as a fashion model in Pittsburgh and went on to serve as a spokeswoman for Verizon, Colgate, Palmolive Oxy and McCormick’s Lawry seasonings. She hosted the nationally syndicated television show “B. Smith with Style” for nearly a decade, which aired on NBC stations.

Smith is survived by Gasby, whom she married in 1992, and her stepdaughter Dana Gasby.

…

One of every three people in Venezuela is struggling to put enough food on the table to meet minimum nutrition requirements as the nation’s severe economic contraction and political upheaval persists, according to a study published Sunday by the U.N. World Food Program.

A nationwide survey based on data from 8,375 questionnaires reveals a startling picture of the large number of Venezuelans surviving off a diet consisting largely of tubers and beans as hyperinflation renders many salaries worthless.

A total of 9.3 million people – roughly one-third of the population – are moderately or severely food insecure, said the World Food Program’s study, which was conducted at the invitation of the Venezuelan government. Food insecurity is defined as an individual being unable to meet basic dietary needs.

The study describes food insecurity as a nationwide concern, though certain states like Delta Amacuro, Amazonas and Falcon had especially high levels. Even in more prosperous regions, one in five people are estimated to be food insecure.

“The reality of this report shows the gravity of the social, economic and political crisis in our country,” said Miguel Pizarro, a Venezuelan opposition leader.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been largely reluctant in recent years to invite international organizations to provide assessments of the nation’s humanitarian ordeal, though the World Food Program said it was granted “full independence” and collected data throughout the country “without any impediment or obstruction.”

“WFP looks forward to a continuation of its dialogue with the Venezuelan government and discussions that will focus on the way forward to provide assistance for those who are food insecure,” the agency said in a statement.

There was no immediate response to the findings by Maduro’s government.

The survey found that 74% of families have adopted “food-related coping strategies,” such as reducing the variety and quality of food they eat. Sixty percent of households reported cutting portion sizes in meals, 33% said they had accepted food as payment for work and 20% reported selling family assets to cover basic needs.

The issue appears to be one that is less about the availability of food and more about the difficulty in obtaining it. Seven in 10 reported that food could always be found but said it is difficult to purchase because of high prices. Thirty-seven percent reported they had lost their job or business as a result of Venezuela’s severe economic contraction.

Venezuela has been in the throes of a political and humanitarian crisis that has led over 4.5 million people to flee in recent years. Maduro has managed to keep his grip on power despite a push by opposition leader Juan Guaidó to remove him from office and mounting U.S. sanctions.

Maduro frequently blames the Trump administration for his nation’s woes, and his government has urged the International Criminal Court to open an investigation, alleging that the financial sanctions are causing suffering and even death. The nation’s struggles to feed citizens and provide adequate medical care predate U.S. sanctions on the Venezuelan government.

In addition to food, the survey also looked at interruptions in access to electricity and water, finding that four in 10 households experience daily power cuts. Four in 10 also reported recurrent interruptions in water service, further complicating daily life.

Noting that the survey was done in July through September, Carolina Fernández, a Venezuelan rights advocate who works with vulnerable women, said she believes the situation has deteriorated even more. While it was once possible for many families to survive off remittances sent by relatives abroad, she said, that has become more difficult as much of the economy is dollarized and prices rise.

“Now it’s not enough to have one person living abroad,” she said.

Fernández said food insecurity is likely to have an enduring impact on a generation of young Venezuelans going hungry during formative years.

“We’re talking about children who are going to have long-term problems because they’re not eating adequately,” she said.

Those who are going hungry include people like Yonni Gutiérrez, 56, who was standing outside a restaurant that sells roasted chickens in Caracas on Sunday.

The unemployed man approached the restaurant’s front door whenever a customer left with a bag of food, hoping they might share something. He said he previously had been able to scrape by helping unload trucks at a market, but the business that employed him closed.

“Sometimes, with a little luck, I get something good,” he said of his restaurant stakeout.

…

Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe has won re-election with 72% of the vote, according to preliminary results from the electoral commission on Monday, extending his 15-year rule and a family dynasty that began when his father took power in a 1967 coup.

Despite widespread disaffection and protests calling for him to step down, a fractured opposition has struggled to launch a converted campaign to unseat Gnassingbe in the small West African country of 8 million people.

…

A few years ago, the newly elected Kosovo prime minister overturned Serbian trucks. But Albin Kurti now says he is ready to revoke tariffs introduced by his predecessor on Serbian goods.

Kurti, who took office in early February, is backed by most of 1.8 million inhabitants of the former Serbian province for such a move but is nonetheless walking on eggshells.

Under intense international pressure to abolish tariffs and resume stalled talks with Serbia, Kurti also faces a fierce backlash from veterans who fought for independence and dominated politics for decades.

The former student leader wrote recently on his Facebook account that he was ready to “abolish the 100 percent tariffs” on Serbian goods.

Principle of reciprocity

They were introduced in late 2018 by Ramush Haradinaj as retaliation for a Serbian blockade of Kosovo’s Interpol membership. Belgrade still refuses to recognize the independence declared by the breakaway territory in 2008.

The tariffs “will be replaced by the principle of reciprocity between the two states” in political, economic and commercial affairs, Kurti said.

The concept, commonly in use in international relations, could mean for example a ban for Serbian license plates in Kosovo, as Kosovar plates are prohibited in Serbia.

U.S. envoy for Belgrade-Pristina talks Richard Grenell urged Pristina to abolish tariffs as “it hurts Kosovo and chases businesses away from creating jobs.”

‘National pride’

But opposition parties that emerged from the guerilla movement that fought Serb forces during the 1998-1999 war that claimed 13,000 lives, are against commercial concessions.

To mobilize the public, the opposition is trying to collect a third of the votes in Kosovo’s 120-seat parliament to call an extraordinary session on the issue.

Haradinaj urged the new prime minister to refrain from removing tariffs “for some temporary political points you might gain from the international community.

“We have to stand united in opposing Serbia until mutual recognition,” he said. His AAK party threatened to hold street protests against the move.

The tariffs are a “response to Serbia’s constant attacks against Kosovo,” said Kadri Veseli, leader of the largest opposition party PDK.

For Shpetim Gashi, analyst at the American think-thank Council for Inclusive Governance, the issue goes beyond tariffs and is now a question of “national pride.”

“Kurti will be walking on a tightrope when replacing it with reciprocity,” Gashi told AFP.

The European Union, like Washington, made normalization of ties between Serbia and Kosovo a priority for the sake of economic development and future integration into the EU.

‘Not forever’

A recent survey by the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies showed that about 60% of those questioned backed the move while 35% were against it.

“I supported my government’s decision to retaliate with the tariffs, but it cannot last forever,” Ekrem Hoxha, a 40-year-old technician told AFP.

Muhamet Sejdiu, a 32-year-old grocery store owner, echoed his words.

“I understand what brought the tariffs. Serbia really has gone too far,” he said. But “I think it is time to return to normalcy. On the shelves I have goods from Bulgaria, (North) Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Europe. … I don’t mind having among them goods from Serbia.”

Serbia’s exports to Kosovo amount to around 400 million euros ($433 million) annually and economists like Safet Gerxhaliu call for normalization between the two neighbors.

“It is time to think about opening up a dialogue on eliminating barriers and doing business, not just between Kosovo and Serbia, but also in the whole region,” he said.

In exchange, Brussels and Washington are asking Belgrade to end its campaign to persuade other countries to withdraw their recognitions of Kosovo’s independence.

According to Pristina, Kosovo is recognized by more than 115 states, although Belgrade claims the number is less than a 100.

Kurti said he was ready to resume a dialogue “focused on mutual recognition.”

The former rebel seems to have turned the page on his tumultuous past when he was prisoner of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime and rioted against Serbia’s rule and later the Kosovo establishment by spraying the parliament with tear gas.

“It is clear that Kurti is evolving,” said Agron Bajrami, editor in chief of prominent Koha Ditore daily.

“The time for overturning Serbian trucks has passed.”
 

…

Sen. Bernie Sanders cruised to victory in the Nevada caucuses, heartening his supporters and stoking alarm among moderates who fear he is too liberal and would lose to President Donald Trump.

Here are some takeaways from the Nevada caucuses:

Sanders’ presidential bid gets rocket fuel

Sanders’ convincing win means there is no longer an asterisk next to his status as the front-runner in the race. He proved his strength with a broad coalition that included Latino voters, union members and African Americans.

Now Sanders claims three victories in a row heading into South Carolina next Saturday, and more important, Super Tuesday on March 3 when about one-third of the delegates needed for the nomination are at stake. The biggest prizes that day, California and Texas, look a lot like Nevada demographically.

Another advantage: His opponents remain splintered and, with the exception of billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, underfunded to compete across such a vast terrain.

But now there will be extraordinary pressure to try to consolidate moderate support in an effort to stop Sanders’ rise. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren will have a decision to make on how much she tries to draw separation from Sanders since they are both competing for the progressive vote.

There is at least one strong note of caution about Sanders’ success. In Iowa and New Hampshire he didn’t seem to grow the electorate substantially. Data is still out in Nevada.

Buttigieg issues warning about Sanders

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg ran well behind Sanders, but he tried to cast himself as the strongest alternative to Sanders.

In language uncharacteristically blunt, Buttigieg issued a warning to Democrats about the perils of nominating Sanders, whom he characterized as inflexible and whose ideas are not in the American mainstream.

“Sen. Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans,” Buttigieg told supporters. He held himself out as the only viable alternative. “We can prioritize either ideological purity or inclusive victory,” Buttigieg said.

He added: “Sen. Sanders sees capitalism as the root of all evil. He’d go beyond reform and reorder the economy in ways most Democrats — let alone most Americans — don’t support.”

Despite his forceful argument, there’s a serious risk to Buttigieg in the upcoming calendar. He will have to win over black voters in South Carolina, then pivot to a multistate primary with comparatively limited resources. Buttigieg put out a plea for $13 million from donors before Super Tuesday.

The former mayor of a city of 100,000 has repeatedly defied the odds in the presidential nominating contests, but the odds are getting longer.

Biden has his back against a firewall

Former Vice President Joe Biden was hoping Nevada would turn things around for him after a disastrous showing in Iowa and then New Hampshire. He argued that he’d do better in a more diverse state.

But Biden again lost badly even as he told supporters at a union hall, “We’re alive and coming back and we’re gonna win.”

His last and best hope may be to win in South Carolina next Saturday. He’s counting on his support among the state’s black voters — they could make up two-thirds of the voters — to serve as his firewall.

If Biden doesn’t win South Carolina, the rationale for his candidacy will much harder to maintain.

In Las Vegas, he tried out a new rallying cry: “I ain’t a socialist. I ain’t a plutocrat. I’m a Democrat. And I’m proud of it.” Party loyalty may be all Biden has left.

Maybe Culinary isn’t all-powerful after all

The 60,000-member Culinary Workers Local 226 represents workers in the casinos on the Las Vegas strip, and it’s routinely described, correctly, as the most powerful force in the state’s Democratic politics. But it’s not omnipotent.

Culinary didn’t want Sanders to win. It has strongly opposed his “Medicare for All” plan, warning its members that it would eliminate their own generous health plan. Some observers thought the union might end up backing Biden. But after the former vice president’s embarrassing performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, Culinary instead stayed neutral.

The calls from leadership went unheeded by many. Sanders had strong showings in some caucuses in casinos where crowds of Culinary members chanted the Vermont senator’s name and powered him to wins in most casinos. Culinary is driven by its members, many of whom are Sanders supporters, and there was no consensus among the rest about what they should do.

Leadership decided to refrain from a divisive fight, helping pave the way for Sanders’ win. It’s a reminder that even in places like Nevada with strong political institutions, those institutions ultimately derive their power from voters.

No bounce for Klobuchar

Sen. Amy Klobuchar produced one of the few surprises of the race when she surged to a third-place finish in New Hampshire, announced that she had raised more than $12 million, and vowed to prove her doubters wrong.

Her momentum proved short-lived. She finished well behind the leading candidates, and in the process, prompted questions about her viability.

But in a speech to supporters in her home state of Minnesota, she was defiant and said she would continue. She even tried to make a virtue of the fact that Trump mentioned her name at a rally. 

“By the way, for the first time ever, he mentioned me at a rally,” she said. “You know I’ve arrived now. You know they must be worried.”

Probably not. Time is running out for candidates who haven’t finished higher than third in any contest. That also applies to Warren, also desperately needs a win. Her strong debate performance came after much of the state had already cast early votes.

Not a great return on investment

Tom Steyer, the billionaire who made his fortune running a hedge fund, bet heavily in Nevada, more than $12 million on advertising, and lost big, finishing sixth. Steyer has made strong appeals to minority voters, but in Nevada, failed decisively.

But Steyer’s impact on the race could come next week in South Carolina, where he has spent even more money. Polls show that he has made significant inroads among African American voters. That would not be good news for Biden, who is counting on those votes to resuscitate his campaign.

…

A person was struck by a float and fatally injured Saturday evening during one of the iconic parades of the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, authorities said. It was the second death in days to mar this year’s Carnival festivities.

A city agency tasked with emergency preparedness tweeted that the death occurred Saturday night as the popular parade of the Krewe of Endymion was rolling. The agency, NOLA Ready, said it had no immediate details about how the death occurred or the identity of the person.

NOLA Ready tweeted that the remainder of Endymion’s parade was being canceled Saturday evening. Reports said 13 floats had already passed the area where the accident occurred and that the remaining floats and marching groups diverted elsewhere. Police said the accident occurred along Canal Street, a major downtown thoroughfare in this Mississippi River port city.

Second death

The fatality comes as New Orleans had already been mourning the death of a 58-year-old woman who witnesses said was run over by a parade float Wednesday night in the runup to Mardi Gras.

That death occurred during the parade of the Mystic Krewe of Nyx, an all-female Carnival group. Witnesses said the woman, later identified by authorities as New Orleans native Geraldine Carmouche, had apparently tried to cross between two parts of a tandem float and tripped over a hitch connecting the sections.

It wasn’t immediately clear if a tandem float was involved in Saturday night’s fatality, but the city agency NOLA Ready tweeted that tandem floats would not be allowed for the remainder of the 2020 season. Tandem floats are multiple floats connected together and pulled by one tractor.

Mardi Gras concludes with the Fat Tuesday celebration that marks the raucous climax of a week or more of parades and parties each year.

2019 attack

The 2020 Carnival season deaths come just a year after a car sped into a bicycle lane near a parade route, hitting nine people and killing two bicyclists not far from where the Krewe of Endymion formation had just passed. A man identified as the driver was subsequently charged with two counts of vehicular homicide.

Before this year, the most recent Carnival float-related fatality happened in 2009, when a 23-year-old rider fell from a float and in front of its wheels in Carencro, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) west of New Orleans.

In 2008, a rider getting off a three-part float after the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans was killed when the float lurched forward and the third section ran over him, police said.
 

…

The head of the World Health Organization says he fears the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in Iran could be a signal of worse things to come.  Iran has reported 18 cases, including at least five deaths in the past two days.

The number of cases and deaths reported in Iran still pales in comparison to that recorded in China.  

But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the number of cases in countries outside of China that have no clear epidemiological link, such as travel to China.

“There is a case which is linked to Iran now in Lebanon.  This is a 45-year old woman.  And, those [cases] are actually very concerning.  Take them as trends. So, what I believe is the window of opportunity [for containment] is still there. But … our window of opportunity is narrowing.”  

Tedros urged countries to act now to contain the coronavirus, before the window of opportunity closes. Currently, some 30 countries report cases of the virus, and at least 18 people outside China have died.  South Korea has the largest cluster of confirmed cases outside China.

WHO: Time Is Running Out to Stop Spread of Coronavirus

Virus spreads in Middle East, South Korea, Italy 

Tedros said this is no time for pessimism, but for action.  He said the WHO is coordinating a global response that can defeat this disease.

“The measures China and other countries have taken have given us a fighting chance of containing the spread of the virus… We must not look back and regret that we failed to take advantage of the window of opportunity that we have now,” Tedros said.

The WHO chief spoke in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attending an emergency meeting on COVID-19.  It is organized by the African Union and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

The WHO is working to try to prevent COVID-19 from gaining a foothold in the developing world. It is focusing efforts on strengthening fragile health systems on the African continent and other vulnerable regions.

Egypt is the only African country with a confirmed case of coronavirus. The WHO reports suspected cases of COVID-19 in several other African countries have been tested and proved to be negative.

…

Voters in Togo are going to the polls Saturday to cast their ballots in a presidential election.

Political observers say incumbent president Faure Gnassingbe will likely be the winner. His family has ruled the West African nation for more than 50 years.

Gnassingbe took over Togo’s top position in 2005, following the death of his father, Eyadema, who had ruled for nearly 40 years.

Gnassingbe was instrumental in enacting constitutional changes last year that would limit presidents in the deeply impoverished country to two five-year terms.

The constitutional changes are not, however, retroactive and Gnassingbe could be in office until 2030.

In the lead up to the vote, the president promised to improve the country’s health, education and agricultural sectors.

Six challengers are facing off against Gnassingbe, including Jean-Pierre Fabre who came in second in elections in 2010 and 2015.

The opposition has not backed any of the candidates, in an attempt to force a second round of voting.

Togo faced major protests from the opposition in 2017 and 2018 that were effectively squashed by the government.
 

…

The coronavirus continued to spread rapidly in South Korea on Saturday, with the country reporting its largest single-day spike in confirmed infections since the outbreak began.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 229 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of South Korean infections to 433.

That is a drastic increase from four days ago, when there were only 31 confirmed infections. South Korea now has the highest number of cases outside of China and a cruise ship off the coast of Japan.

Authorities are vowing more effective containment efforts, even as protesters in Seoul on Saturday defied a local government ban on large rallies.

Wearing masks and chanting anti-government slogans, hundreds of mostly older conservative protesters packed tightly into a square in Seoul’s central Gwanghwamun district, where feisty protests are held nearly every weekend.

Confusing messages

Police warned protesters they could be fined up to $2500 for violating the ban, but made no attempts to disperse the crowd. At one point, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon pleaded with protesters to go home, saying they posed a risk to public safety.

“It can not only hurt you, but also impact the safety and health of your neighbors,” Park said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

But some of the protesters told VOA they believed the virus could not spread among crowds, as long as they were gathered outside — an incorrect notion that may have stemmed from comments by a protest leader, as reported by CNN.

Against the city government’s order, the Christian opposition group is going ahead with their weekend rally. The leader told the congregation, “I spoke to a doctor. His case study shows that you can’t catch virus outside.” pic.twitter.com/EJkkuO2s26

— Jake Kwon (@JakeKwon88) February 22, 2020

Lee Gun, a 61-year-old, said he believes large groups are safe as long as they are in an open space. “I came to worship and pray for my country,” said Lee, proudly displaying a Bible. The weekly gatherings often have religious themes.

“It is not risky as long as it is in an open area,” said Gang Bo-mun, a 65-year-old from Gyeongnam province. He said he was not worried about the threat of a fine, which he believed was intended to shut down political participation.

Seoul officials have defended the ban on large urban rallies, noting that weekend protests in Gwanghwamun are usually composed of older protesters, who are much more susceptible to the coronavirus.

According to a report this week by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the overall coronavirus fatality rate is 2.3 percent. But that figure spiked to almost 15 percent in infections of people over age 80.

China still epicenter

The highly contagious virus, which causes a pneumonia-like respiratory illness known as COVID-19, has killed more than 2,300 people and infected more than 75,000 worldwide. Nearly all of the infections have been in China, where the virus originated.

So far, only two coronavirus patients have died in South Korea. But with the number of virus cases having nearly doubled for four consecutive days, many fear the worst is yet to come.

Most of the South Korean infections have been in the southeastern city of Daegu and the nearby county of Cheongdo.

In Seoul, which has seen a smaller surge of new infections, virtually all commuters on public buses and trains wore masks and exchanged nervous glances if someone sneezed or coughed.

“It looks like a scene from a disaster movie,” said Choi In-woo, a 20-year-old freshman university student in the Gwanghwamun neighborhood of the Jongno district, which reported the most new cases in the capital this week.

“I’m really scared if it lasts longer,” said Choi, whose university has canceled orientation for the spring semester.

Many conservative forces have called on the government to further tighten restrictions on the entry people from China. An editorial this week in the conservative Chosun Ilbo compared the government’s efforts to trying to “catch flies with the windows wide open.”

There are concerns that fears of the virus are becoming entangled with anti-China sentiment. Some restaurant owners in Seoul placed “no Chinese” or “no foreigners” signs outside their businesses. A delivery drivers’ union requested its members not be required to take food to neighborhoods with large Chinese populations. And a petition with over 700,000 signatures is calling for the government to ban entry to Chinese nationals.

But authorities say the virus has now begun spreading locally among people with no links to China.

Religious group

More than half of the infections are linked to a fringe religious congregation in the southeastern city of Daegu, where a 61-year-old woman who tested positive for the virus had worshiped.

The Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony was founded in 1984 by Lee Man-hee, who is revered by his followers as a messiah. The group claims to have approximately 200,000 followers in South Korea.

The Yonhap news agency reported that the virus may have spread more easily at the religious gatherings, since its adherents sit close together on the floor and often place their hands on one another.

Lee, the leader of the group, has said the virus is the “work of the devil.” He has also temporarily closed all his churches, saying members should instead watch services on YouTube.

Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
 

…

The U.N. refugee agency says more than 700,000 people in Africa’s Sahel region have fled attacks by militants and armed groups in the last 12 months, a 10-fold increase compared to January 2019.

Violence and mass displacement have become a way of life for millions of people in four of the Sahel’s most seriously affected countries — Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.  The number of displaced people within the region keeps growing as attacks by Islamist militants and other armed groups increase.

Burkina Faso is the epicenter of the violence.  The U.N. refugee agency says recent attacks by militants on civilians and local authorities in the sprawling country are forcing more than 4,000 people on average to flee their homes every day in search of safety.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says an estimated 150,000 people have fled in the last three weeks.

“People fleeing violence report attacks on their villages by militant groups, killing, raping and pillaging.  Terrified of these attacks, residents have left everything behind to find safety… We and our partners are facing severe challenges in accessing and responding to the needs of the internally displaced people and refugees scattered throughout the Sahel region, as attacks against civilians grow in number and frequency,” Mahecic said.  

The UNHCR says more than 4,400 refugees from Niger have arrived in Mali, fleeing a recent string of attacks.  It says a similar wave of violence has prompted an estimated 11,000 people to flee unsafe border areas.  

The same phenomenon is occurring in Mali and Mauritania. Militant attacks are internally displacing civilians there or forcing them to flee to other countries in a region that essentially knows no borders.  

Mahecic said survivors of attacks throughout the region need safety, shelter, food, water and other essentials, as well as psycho-social support for those who have fled or witnessed atrocities.

He said his agency is planning to ramp up its humanitarian response to deliver on these needs. He added the UNHCR will launch an appeal to international donors for support in the coming weeks.
 

…

Italian officials ordered schools, public buildings, restaurants and coffee shops closed in a tiny town in northern Italy Friday after six people tested positive for the new virus, including some who had not been to China or the source of the global health emergency.
    
The new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and tripled the country’s total to nine. The first to fall ill met with someone in early February who had returned from China on Jan. 21 without presenting any symptoms of the new virus, health authorities said.
    
Authorities think that person passed the virus onto the 38-year-old Italian, who went to a hospital in the town of Codogno with flu-like symptoms on Feb. 18 but was sent home. He returned to the hospital after his conditions worsened and is now in intensive care, Lombardy region public welfare director Giulio Gallera said.
    
The man’s wife and a friend who did sports with him have also tested positive for the virus. The Italian Health Ministry ordered anyone who came into direct contact with the three to be quarantined for 14 days. About 150 people, including medical personnel, were in isolation undergoing tests.
    
Another three people in the Lombardy region also tested positive Friday, the health ministry said later.

…

U.N. agencies report around three million civilians are trapped in Idlib, unable to escape to other countries because borders with Syria have been closed. As a consequence, they say most of the displaced are moving into increasingly crowded areas toward the border between Idlib and Turkey.

Spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jens Laerke says about one-third or 330,000 of the displaced have fled to nearby areas in northern Aleppo, which also are under fire.

“The frontlines and relentless violence continue to move closer to these areas, which are packed with displaced people, with bombardments increasingly affecting displacement sites and their vicinity.  We call for an immediate cease-fire to prevent further suffering and what we fear may end in a bloodbath,” Laerke said.

As safe space in Idlib continues to shrink, Laerke said the newly displaced are finding it increasingly difficult to find shelter. This, he said, is forcing tens of thousands of people to live in the open or in just partially covered buildings.

“More than 280,000 are staying in camps, which are already stretched beyond capacity, or in makeshift camps where they set up individual tents but where there are no basic services such as latrines. In the freezing winter, many people have resorted to burning their spare clothes, pieces of furniture or other materials that let out toxic fumes,” Laerke said.

Aid agencies report seven children, including a seven-month-old baby, have frozen to death in the sub-zero temperatures.

The United Nations says it plans to scale up humanitarian operations in northwest Syria to provide emergency aid for 1.1 million people over the next six months.  For that, it says it will need $500 million.
 

…

Intelligence officials say Russia is interfering with the 2020 election to try to help President Donald Trump get re-elected, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The Times said intelligence officials told lawmakers about the interference in a Feb. 13 closed-door briefing to the House Intelligence Committee. It said the disclosure angered Trump, who complained the Democrats would use the information against him. He berated the outgoing director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, the next day.

The Times attributed the report to five unidentified people familiar with the matter. The Associated Press could not immediately confirm the account.

U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia interfered in the 2016 election through social media campaigns and stealing and distributing emails from Democratic accounts. They say Russia was trying to boost Trump’s campaign and add chaos to the American political process. Special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russian interference was “sweeping and systematic,” but he did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. Trump has doubted the findings of Russian interference.

In the House briefing, Trump’s allies challenged the DNI’s chief election official, Shelby Pierson, who delivered the conclusions, saying Trump has been tough on Russia, the Times reported. But Trump has also spoken warmly of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and withdrawn troops from areas, like Syria, where Moscow could fill the vacuum. He delayed military aid last year to Ukraine, a Russian adversary — a decision that was at the core of his impeachment proceedings.

The Times said Trump was angry that the House briefing was made before the panel’s chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment proceedings.

Trump on Thursday formally appointed Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and a loyal supporter, to replace Maguire as the new acting director of national intelligence. Maguire was required to step down soon under federal law governing acting appointments. The Times cited two administration officials as saying the timing, after the intelligence briefing, was coincidental.

…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says even if a Democrat is elected president in November, Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan will still go forward.

But Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post the only thing that can stop the plan is if he loses his own election on March 2.

“Once the Trump plan is put forward, the goal posts will have been moved, and it will be very difficult for any administration to move them back,” he said. “Any administration, Democratic or Republican, will have to work with the new realities. … I’m sure the next administration, whatever it will be, will have to consider the fact that there’s a new plan.”

But he said he is worried what would happen to Israel if opposition leader Benny Gantz and his centrist Blue and White Party wins the election and forms a new government, even if Gantz approved of Trump’s plan when he met with the president at the White House last month

Trump’s Middle East peace plan foresees an eventual Palestinian state, but would leave much of the West Bank, where the Palestinians want independence, in Israeli hands. There would also be Israeli enclaves within the new Palestinian state, and only a small and relatively impoverished part of east Jerusalem would be set aside for a Palestinian capital.

The plan does not include a major Palestinian demand — the “right of return” to lands taken from them when Israel was formed in 1948.

Israel and the U.S. cobbled the plan together without the Palestinians. They refused to participate, believing the U.S. would be pro-Israel.

Reaction from presidential candidates

Middle East peace has yet to emerge as a major issue in the Democratic presidential race. But all six major candidates have said the Trump plan is worthless without participation from both Israelis and Palestinians.

Senator Elizabeth Warren said diplomacy without the Palestinians is a sham, while former Vice President Joe Biden called the Trump plan a “stunt.”

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg accused Trump of making a complex situation worse, while Senator Amy Klobuchar said unilateral implementation will eliminate any chance of a two-state solution.

The two Jewish Democratic candidates — businessman Mike Bloomberg and Senator Bernie Sanders — predict Trump’s peace deal would only undermine the security of Israel, the Palestinians and the United States.

…

European leaders argued into the early hours of Friday about how to spend and share some 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) over the next seven years. Their first summit since Britain quit the EU last month has been bruising, long — and so far inconclusive.

Gaps and resentments between wealthy and poorer members quickly surfaced as presidents and prime ministers from the European Union’s 27 countries gathered Thursday in Brussels. The unity they showed during four years of Brexit talks was nowhere to be seen as they wrangled over the EU’s future priorities and who should pay for its ambitions.

From farm subsidies to beefed-up border security or unprecedented climate investment, every EU leader wants the continent-wide budget to fund their own national priorities. Outside the summit center, farmers rolled tractors down the street to push their demands for sufficient funds.

“I don’t plan to put my signature to this,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said of the latest compromise budget proposal. All came in for the long haul, and Rutte was prepared, carrying a biography of Polish composer Frederic Chopin to get him through the long hours of negotiations.

Each leader laid out priorities at a collective round-table meeting, and then EU Council President Charles Michel met with each leader one by one to discuss their grievances and demands, officials said.

The summit stretched past midnight with no breakthrough in sight.

The Greek leader wants a bigger budget. The Finnish leader wants it smaller. France wants more money for joint defense. Lithuania wants more money for farmers.

Meanwhile, concerns are growing about potential conflicts of interest that could see hundreds of millions of euros in funds granted to companies linked to some of the very people deciding how the money should be spent.

Diplomats and number-crunchers have worked on the budget for years but the issues are so divisive that the leaders’ summit might last into Saturday and still end without a result.

“There are lot of concerns, priorities, and interests,” Michel said. “I’m well aware that the final steps that must be taken to find a compromise are always the most difficult.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said she hoped “we get at least a good deal further,” but was forthright in defending the wealthy nations that put more into the shared EU budget than they get out of it. 

“For net contributors the balance is not right yet.”

The EU nations need to regroup after Britain’s departure three weeks ago, and a show of unity on their common budget could help in that regard.

“With Great Britain leaving, it is a clear signal we have to give to our citizens that Europe is alive and well and we can continue functioning,” said Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins.

Prospects of that don’t look good.

Britain’s exit means the loss of up to 75 billions euros ($81 billion) in net contributions to the budget, and how to make up for that is causing friction. Leaders of rich nations don’t want to have to pay more into that common EU pot, and those from poorer member states are angry at the prospect of receiving less money from the EU.

Even if a trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) sounds like a lot, it actually amounts to about 1% of the gross national income of the 27 nations combined. The debate is over some 0.3 percentage points.

Michel came into the summit with a draft budget at 1.074% of EU gross national income. The parliament wants 1.3%, while the EU’s powerful executive arm, the European Commission, prefers 1.11%.

It’s not just about convincing reluctant member countries to stump up funds. The European Parliament must also ratify any final budget agreement and the EU lawmakers are not happy.

“At the moment, we remain 230 billion euros ($248 billion) apart,” European Parliament President David Sassoli said this week.

Ahead of the negotiations, the 27 member nations are roughly divided into two main camps. The so-called “Frugal Four” of Austria, Denmark, Rutte’s the Netherlands and Sweden versus the “Friends of Cohesion,” a group of mainly central and eastern European nations who want to see the continued flow of “cohesion funds,” money earmarked to help develop poorer regions.

The frugal four would like the budget to drop to as low as 1% of gross national income and say that with the loss of Britain the EU has to cut its coat according to its cloth.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to go the other way.

“’It would be unacceptable to have a Europe that compensates the departure of the British by reducing spending.”

Complicating things further is the level of global uncertainty beyond the continent. While climate change was largely a technical matter during the last budget negotiations seven years ago, this time the EU is planning to spend a quarter of its budget on green issues, hoping to set an example for governments around the world.

…

Scientists in China who studied the nose and throat swabs from 18 patients infected with the new coronavirus say it behaves much more like influenza than other closely related viruses, suggesting it may spread even more easily than previously believed.

In at least in one case, the virus was present even though the patient had no symptoms, confirming concerns that asymptomatic patients could also spread the disease.

Although preliminary, the findings published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer new evidence that this novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in China, is not like its closely related coronavirus cousins.

“If confirmed, this is very important,” said Dr. Gregory Poland, a virologist and vaccine researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved with the study.

Easily spread

Unlike severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which causes infections deep in the lower respiratory tract that can result in pneumonia, COVID-19 appears to inhabit both the upper and lower respiratory tracts. That would make it not only capable of causing severe pneumonia, but of spreading easily like flu or the common cold.

Researchers in Guangdong province monitored the amount of coronavirus in the 18 patients. One of them, who had moderate levels of the virus in their nose and throat, never had any disease symptoms.

Among the 17 symptomatic patients, the team found levels of the virus increased soon after symptoms first appeared, with higher amounts of virus present in the nose than in the throats, a pattern more similar to influenza than SARS.

The level of virus in the asymptomatic patient was similar to what was present in patients with symptoms, such as fever.

“What this says is clearly this virus can be shed out of the upper respiratory tract and that people are shedding it asymptomatically,” Poland said.

Related to SARS, not behaving like SARS

The findings add to evidence that this new virus, though genetically similar, is not behaving like SARS, said Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla who uses gene sequencing tools to track disease outbreaks.

“This virus is clearly much more capable of spreading between humans than any other novel coronavirus we’ve ever seen.

“This is more akin to the spread of flu,” said Andersen, who was not involved with the study.

The researchers said their findings add to reports that the virus can be transmitted early in the course of the infection and suggest that controlling the virus will require an approach different from what worked with SARS, which primarily involved controlling its spread in a hospital setting.

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