| Trump turns to Pence to calm fears over coronavirus, but leaves many questions unanswered Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:50 PM PST  President Trump announced that he was putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. response to coronavirus.
|
| As coronavirus cases surge, the U.S. military prepares for possible pandemic Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:42 AM PST  As the novel coronavirus continues to spread beyond China, the U.S. military announced its first confirmed case and commanders across the globe braced for the worst.
|
| Man gets life for kidnapping stepdaughter, holding her captive for 19 years Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:36 AM PST  Henri Michelle Piette kidnapped his victim in 1997 when she was 12 and subjected her to nearly 20 years of physical and sexual abuse before she escaped.
|
| Mexico president ties shootout dead to drug consumption Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:42 PM PST  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested Wednesday without offering evidence that most of those who die in Mexico's cartel- and gang-fueled firefights are high on drugs or intoxicated, prompting criticism and questions about whether the claim was accurate. Speaking to journalists in his morning news conference, López Obrador said rising drug consumption rates must be reversed if the country is to guarantee peace and security after years of rising, record-setting homicide statistics. "Just so you have the number, 60% of those who lose their life each day, 60% of those killed in clashes, it is shown that they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but primarily drugs," the president continued.
|
| Who won the Democratic debate? Our panelists' verdict Posted: 25 Feb 2020 09:52 PM PST  The South Carolina debate was the final one before Super Tuesday. So who emerged as the victor? 'Warren dominated the mic and Sanders held his ground'Oh yeah, man. Let's get into it. Let's dive into the issues that other debate moderators have not yet dared to approach so far. Let's ask questions such as: "Would you, as president, support a ban on trans fats and large sodas?"Did everyone else get this push notification from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning that there was going to be a "disruption to everyday life" with the looming coronavirus pandemic? I don't know if that was just Russia meddling in the election or whatever, but I am wondering why it took 90 minutes for the moderators to bring the virus up, and why their question was framed around whether the United States should completely freak out and shut down all the borders. Not, should we do something about the fact that the uninsured will often avoid doctors when they are ill because they are afraid of unpredictable medical bills, or how our rural hospitals are shutting down, or how we have sanctions on medical supplies against Iran, where a coronavirus outbreak is worsening. Look, I know Mercury is retrograde, but there is absolutely no excuse for this shameful performance.As for the candidates, for someone who doesn't support the use of filibuster, Elizabeth Warren sure did dominate the microphone on Tuesday night. Pete Buttigieg tried to make everything about him by talking over everyone, Michael Bloomberg was absolutely adorable trying to explain the history of hostilities in the Middle East, and Tom Steyer somehow felt emboldened to talk about economic justice despite building part of his wealth on private prisons and mines. Amy Klobuchar was also there.The mood was chaotic, the audience paid a lot of money to behave like they were attending a Jerry Springer show, most of the candidates' hair was weirdly terrible, and the only person to hold their ground was Bernie Sanders. He stayed on message, he refused to take easy bait, and he didn't do what I would have done, which is when asked about his "controversial" remarks about thinking it was good that Cuba taught people how to read he did not yell "would all of you people grow up" and storm off the stage. This is the last time we'll see probably about half of these candidates, after Super Tuesday annihilates their campaigns. Too bad. Sure gonna miss Pete and Amy fighting over who is the most midwestern candidate. * Jessa Crispin is the host of the Public Intellectual podcast. She is a Guardian US columnist 'Donald Trump was the winner yet again'On Tuesday night, the Democrats held a prime-time steel cage match. Seven presidential aspirants repeatedly traded verbal blows. After two-plus hours, Donald Trump emerged victorious – and he wasn't even in the ring.Even worse, many of the combatants appeared removed from reality. Coronavirus, a reeling stock market, and low unemployment now shape our landscape. Yet the potential pandemic drew no mention until Michael Bloomberg, New York City's former mayor, raised the threat the virus poses.Medicare-for-All continued to receive outsized attention despite the fact that most Americans take a dim view of government being the be-all and end-all of individual healthcare. By the numbers, US adults reject socialism by better than two-to-one. Jeremy Corbyn's fate is a cautionary tale.As the 2018 midterms remind us, control of the US House of Representatives and US Senate hinges on wooing and winning persuadable voters. Yet, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren posture as if they can impose their will upon a blank slate.As for the rest of the field, Pete Buttigieg delivered a crisp performance. Meanwhile, Joe Biden looked and sounded engaged. His sense of humor may yet get him to the finish line first in South Carolina's upcoming Saturday primary. * Lloyd Green was opposition research counsel to George HW Bush's 1988 campaign and served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 'The well-heeled audience booed Sanders and Warren and loved Bloomberg'Judging purely by the reaction of the crowd watching the Democratic primary debate live in South Carolina, you would think Bloomberg had a magnificent comeback – almost as if he had miraculously developed a personality that Americans could connect with.Elizabeth Warren quickly found herself on the receiving end of an angry crowd as she excoriated Bloomberg for his and his company's past that is littered with sexual harassment accusations. It's extraordinary that Warren's attempt to champion the women who have been silenced by his non-disclosure agreements was met with furious booing.Bernie Sanders found himself on the receiving end of raucous booing, too, when he challenged Mayor Bloomberg throughout the night, including when he was criticizing Bloomberg's relationship with China.It didn't take long before rumors about Bloomberg purchasing the audience started spreading around. So much so that one of Bloomberg's top staffers had to inform Josh Lederman of NBC news that the Bloomberg campaign "did not pay people to attend the debate and cheer for Bloomberg".Perhaps not. Still, a few Google searches later we quickly discovered that the price of tickets to the South Carolina debate ranged between $1,750 and $3,200. And while this does not mean these individuals were paid by Bloomberg to cheer for him, it does mean that the audience members were most likely in a financial position to oppose candidates like Warren and Sanders, who would likely raise their taxes.So it may be the case that Bloomberg had no need to purchase support in the South Carolina debate when the system established by the Democratic party created the conditions under which only the wealthiest people in South Carolina could attend and, subsequently, cheer on the oligarch who would ensure their taxes would not go up. * Benjamin Dixon is the host of the Benjamin Dixon Show 'Attempts to woo black voters sounded like virtue signalling'It's hard to identify anything but losers of this debate. As expected, Bernie Sanders – who has won the popular vote in each of the primaries and caucuses thus far – was attacked at the onset with red scare-level fear mongering about basic social policies from both the moderators and most of the candidates.Virtually all the other candidates, except perhaps Elizabeth Warren, who exuded an air of calm, acted as if their chances would be blasted into oblivion unless they threw the kitchen sink at every answer.Ahead of the first primary that tests the candidates' appeal to a significant black electorate in South Carolina, this came across as virtue signaling instead of meaningful engagement with the issues at hand. Candidates used Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk policy, for instance, to discuss virtually every racial inequality under the sun and plug various race-centric plans they are running on. Will black voters buy it? We'll soon find out. * Malaika Jabali is a public policy attorney, writer and activist 'Sanders won an awful debate'What a wretched debate, two hours of shouting and interrupting and pandering from which it was hard to discern much sense. All that noise worked for Bernie Sanders. He remains the frontrunner because nobody else made a point. The others had their chance to bash him as a Fidel Castro sympathizer, but didn't manage to pull it off.None took him down over healthcare, since it appears to be the issue that has driven him to the front. Elizabeth Warren would have ground Michael Bloomberg into dust over sexism (and failure to release his tax returns) if the moderators had allowed her. But the moderators had no control over candidates desperate to make a mark just before South Carolina and Super Tuesday. So none of them really made a mark.Biden did himself no harm but did not deliver the sort of performance that could propel him into Super Tuesday and stunt Sanders's rise. Bloomberg looked bad enough that it should give African Americans serious doubts about whether to abandon Biden for him. Sanders won by not making any big mistakes and by offering a reasonable defense of his comments about Latin America, and Biden held his own on friendly ground in South Carolina. * Art Cullen is editor of The Storm Lake Times in northwest Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. He is a Guardian US columnist and author of the book Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America's Heartland, just out in paperback
|
| Iran Can’t Hide Its Coronavirus Explosion, But It’s Trying Hard—and Putting the World in Danger Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:26 AM PST  Iran's deputy health minister was drenched in sweat at the press conference on Monday where he vehemently denied Tehran was covering up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak. He kept wiping his brow with his handkerchief and was in visible distress as he said quarantines were a "Stone Age" way to address the problem, and Iran doesn't need them. Then, sure enough, that night he tested positive for the virus himself and put himself in quarantine. The irony of Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi's case would be funny almost, were Iran's conspicuous bungling of the coronavirus threat not a menace to the whole region and, indeed, to the world. As The Daily Beast's partner publication, IranWire, revealed in an exclusive report Thursday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has tried to address the epidemic by telling doctors to shut up about it, much as Chinese authorities in Wuhan did, disastrously, when the disease was just starting to spread last December.The "official figures" from Iran give the game away. At last count, 16 people have died from COVID-19, but only 95 cases had been confirmed. As Wired UK points out, that would be a death rate of about 17 percent, when the data available from China, where there are huge numbers to work with, suggests the death rate is closer to 2 percent. The statistics don't add up. Canadian researchers cited by Wired suggest the Iran outbreak probably involves more than 18,000 people, and counting.* * *SILENCING THE DOCTORS* * *Following is the full IranWire article written by Aida Ghajar:IranWire can exclusively report that Iran's Revolutionary Guards have threatened Iranian medical specialists with reprisals if any of them were to disclose information regarding the spread of coronavirus in Iran.A group of specialist doctors met with Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi on Feb. 22, during which they reported on the latest findings regarding the spread of coronavirus in Tehran and other Iranian cities. But soon after the meeting, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) approached the doctors through the health ministry's security office and warned the doctors not to leak any information from their discussions. The doctors were told that, if any details did leak, they would be held responsible and would suffer the consequences.Despite these threats, the information received by IranWire shows the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, especially in Tehran. The doctors who were present at the meeting offered Harirchi their assessment of the official news and figures and told him that the figures published by the government do not match the reality of the situation.As one of these doctors—whose name is withheld because of the threats from the Revolutionary Guards—told IranWire: "The statistics published by the government have nothing to do with reality of the situation and the number of infections is much higher than what the media reports. If things go on like this and if the Islamic Republic does not cooperate with the World Health Organization, we must expect a great disaster in the coming months and, only in Tehran, tens of thousands will be infected by coronavirus. This scientific estimate does not even include other epicenters like Qom. If we cannot come up with a framework to cooperate with the World Health Organization, our situation will become many times worse than in China."This doctor pointed out that, right now, a number of clinics in Tehran have been quarantined and the government's attempts to keep the reality of the situation a secret is a "crime" in the legal sense of the word."Refusing to divulge real information to Iranians and to the international community is officially a crime because it endangers the lives of people not only in Iran but in other countries as well."Donald Trump Takes Coronavirus So Seriously He Just Put Mike Pence in ChargeIn many countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Canada, Iraq, Turkey, and Lebanon, the first cases of coronavirus infections were brought in by Iranian citizens or by travelers who had visited Iran. This has led many countries to close their borders with Iran, in the air and on the ground.According to this doctor, the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran occurred just after the outbreak in China. "But the problem started when we did not recognize that this virus is the same as China's coronavirus," the doctor said. "We made a mistake when we identified it as a variant of influenza viruses.… But, after it became known that it had been a mistake, [officials] continued as before and did not disclose the facts."* * *THE GOVERNMENT IS CLUELESS* * *The doctor said Iran's government has no plans for containing the crisis. Officials have "no other choice except secrecy," he added. "This will disgrace the Islamic Republic, if it becomes known that its government is clueless. But this can lead to a humanitarian disaster."According to this doctor, after the meeting with the health minister was over, the Revolutionary Guards contacted each doctor who had been at the meeting. "They told us that we will be held responsible for even the smallest leak. But I could not keep silent anymore," he said.On Monday, two days after the meeting and after the doctors were threatened, Gen. Hossein Salami, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guards, called Health Minister Saeed Namaki and announced that the Guards were ready to provide any and all assistance in fighting coronavirus and preventing its spread.On Feb. 25, in a televised speech, President Hassan Rouhani asked people to trust only statements by the health ministry for information about coronavirus.The Iranian Cyber Police have meanwhile reported that they have arrested a number of "rumor-mongers" about coronavirus since Feb. 21. Gen. Hossein Rahimi, commander of Tehran's Cyber Police, announced the arrests."Persons who want to create trouble for the people by spreading rumors and lying in cyberspace must know that the police surveils their behavior and will act against them decisively," he said.Earlier on Feb. 21, Gholamreza Jalali, commander of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, accused foreign media of "creating panic" by publishing inaccurate or misleading figures about coronavirus infections. He emphasized that coronavirus must not be turned into a "political crisis."Jalali is the same official who, after floods had inundated many parts of Iran in early 2019, made strange statements about extreme weather, accusing Israel of "cloud stealing." He claimed that "joint committees of Turkey and Israel" had stolen moisture and snow from the clouds over Iran.With the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards turning the coronavirus outbreak into a security issue, by treating infection figures as state secrets, by arresting people for "rumor mongering" and, now by threatening doctors whose duty is to tell the truth about infectious diseases, it seems the experts may be proved right about the likelihood of a humanitarian disaster. If the Islamic Republic continues in this way, we must expect a much bigger disaster than what is happening in China—not only for Iranians but for the world.The Russian Models Instagramming From China's Coronavirus CapitalRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Strike Fast! Japan Develops a Mach-5 Aircraft Carrier-Killer Missile Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:33 AM PST  The Japanese military is considering developing a hypersonic anti-ship missile with a special warhead for penetrating the decks of Chinese aircraft carriers.
|
| Nigeria's Islamists targeting Christians to provoke religious war, says minister Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:20 AM PST  Islamist militant groups in Nigeria have begun targeting Christians in an attempt to provoke a religious war, the information minister said on Thursday. Islamist insurgents in Nigeria have killed around 35,000 people and displaced at least two million in the past decade, driven first by Boko Haram and more recently by its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). "They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos," he told reporters.
|
| 'Never before': Shock, fear as India's capital reels from deadly riots Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:58 AM PST  In front of him was a stick-wielding mob of up to 500 men, cheering loudly and throwing flaming tyres into his shop as deadly sectarian violence swept India's capital. The market in Gokulpuri was just one of many poor, congested neighbourhoods in northeast Delhi ransacked by rampaging mobs on Monday and Tuesday as battles broke out between Hindus and Muslims. The clashes followed renewed protests on Sunday against a contentious citizenship law brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist government that critics say is anti-Muslim.
|
| Pelosi responds to Pence leading coronavirus response Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:35 AM PST  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to President Trump's announcement that Vice President Mike Pence would lead the country's coronavirus response.
|
| DOJ Creates New Unit to Strip Citizenship from Terrorists, Criminals Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:42 AM PST  The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a new unit to handle the denaturalization of individuals who obtained citizenship illegally and other criminals.The new section dedicated to "investigating and litigating revocation of naturalization" of individuals who illegally secured naturalization or committed other serious crimes will be under the Civil Division's Office of Immigration Litigation."This move underscores the Department's commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization," DOJ said in a statement announcing the new unit."When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system—and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals," Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said.U.S. citizens can be stripped of citizenship for a variety of reasons, including becoming affiliated with a terrorist organization or a totalitarian party like the Communist Party, or if it is discovered that the person was not eligible for naturalization in the first place. The U.S. may also revoke citizenship for lying about their identity or "deliberate deceit on the part of the person" regarding other relevant information such as their employment.In 2018, former Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna said his agency was hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to probe cases of individuals who were slated for deportation but later used fake identities to obtain citizenship through naturalization. Those cases would be referred to the DOJ, Cissna said at the time."We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place," Cissna said. "What we're looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases."The U.S. started examining potentially fraudulent naturalization cases about a decade ago when a border official discovered 200 people who had been previously ordered deported but managed to obtain citizenship with false identities.The DOJ's move comes as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration, a priority for President Trump since the earliest days of his campaign.
|
| Daughter of Mexico drug lord 'El Mencho' busted trying to see brother 'El Menchito' in court Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:52 AM PST  Jessica Oseguera Gonzalez was arrested on the property of the federal courthouse in Washington on Wednesday, law enforcement officials told NBC News.
|
| A hospital in Italy may have botched one of its first coronavirus cases, spreading the virus further in the worst-hit country outside of Asia Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:24 AM PST  One of the first people to contract the virus had to wait 36 hours at a hospital before he could be tested, Italian media reported.
|
| DNC superdelegates warn they will block Bernie Sanders at convention and spark civil war within party Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:41 AM PST  Senator Bernie Sanders' issues with the Democratic establishment may continue past the nominating races and into the Democratic National Convention, according to a new report.If Mr Sanders arrives at the convention with any less than a majority of delegates pledged to him, he may find himself with a wave of superdelegates voting against his nomination.
|
| Bloomberg once said Social Security is a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff's Posted: 26 Feb 2020 01:22 PM PST  Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg twice compared Social Security to a Ponzi scheme when he was in office, CNN reports, which is a far cry from his current stance as a Democratic presidential candidate.Nowadays, Bloomberg has vowed to to strengthen entitlement programs, but he used to see them as a major hurdle in the effort to shrink the United States' deficit. During appearances on his old radio program "Live from City Hall," which were reviewed by CNN's KFile, Bloomberg made the Ponzi scheme comparison once in 2006 and again in 2009. The latter instance was in relation to Bernie Madoff, who was arrested in December 2008 and later pleaded guilty to a massive Ponzi scheme."I don't know if Bernie Madoff got his idea from there, but if there's ever a Ponzi Scheme, people say Madoff was the biggest? Wrong," Bloomberg said. "Social Security is, far and away."Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Bloomberg, attempted to explain Bloomberg's comments to CNN. "The Social Security Administration itself gives out detailed actuarial tables on when and how payments will exceed income, and the issue needs attention because we're running the cushion between them down," he said. "Mike believes that between now and that time, we will need to boost receipts by raising contributions from those who can best afford it, which is what he'll do as president." Read more at CNN.More stories from theweek.com Lori Loughlin's attorney claims new evidence proves her innocence Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears
|
| Amid virus, Saudis close Islam's holiest sites to foreigners Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:18 PM PST  Saudi Arabia on Thursday closed off the holiest sites in Islam to foreign pilgrims over the coronavirus, disrupting travel for thousands of Muslims already headed to the kingdom and potentially affecting plans later this year for millions more ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan and the annual hajj pilgrimage. The unprecedented move, which wasn't taken even during the 1918 flu epidemic that killed tens of millions worldwide, showed the growing worry about the virus across the Middle East, which has more than 360 confirmed cases. The region's hardest-hit nation is Iran, which is Saudi Arabia's biggest nearby rival, with the death toll reaching at least 26, the largest behind only China, where the epidemic began.
|
| Putin reveals plan to use body double Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:28 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday revealed there was a secret plan to use a double to make public appearances for him, while insisting he vetoed it -- and that he is the real Putin. Putin's comments showed that a conspiracy theory widespread on the internet that the Russian strongman has been impersonated over the years or even replaced by a lookalike is not entirely without basis. TASS state news agency showed Putin a list of popular Russian-language Internet searches including "Putin double proof".
|
| Limbaugh and Trump fuel coronavirus conspiracy theories Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:28 PM PST  Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is telling his listeners that the coronavirus is a plot to bring down President Trump and attacked the CDC official who warned on Tuesday that the virus will spread in the U.S.
|
| Hammer-weilding trans woman escapes prison after judge hears there was no way to confirm her gender Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:48 AM PST  A trans woman who threatened shop staff with a claw hammer escaped prison after a court heard there was no way to confirm her gender. Leila Le Fey, 40, admitted entering a Budgens store in Brighton last year in a bid to steal alcohol, and brandished the "terrifying" weapon at Enoch Adetayo, the shop's manager, before assaulting him. However, she was spared a prison after a judge reversed a custodial sentence which would have sent her to a men's prison. Lewes Crown Court heard that Le Fey had completed gender-reassignment but had not yet obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to that effect. As a result, despite living and identifying as a woman, Le Fey would have had to serve her sentence at a male-only jail because the Home Office and Prisons Service would not recognise her as a woman without a GRC. This would not only have created intractable accommodation problems but also caused substantial and unintended trauma for Le Fey. However in an eleventh-hour U-turn, Judge Stephen Mooney called Le Fey back to Lewes Crown Court just an hour after jailing her for six months. He reversed his decision to send her to prison after hearing that the only way Le Fey could prove her new gender would be an "undignified examination", one which court staff were not prepared to do, her barrister said. "Issues have now arisen," Judge Mooney said. "We live in a society which acknowledges and embraces diversity and allows and encourages people to live the life they want to. "Sometimes society does not make the necessary or appropriate adjustments in all ways it can to reflect the adjustments of society as a whole. "Having reflected again upon the impact an immediate custodial sentence would have, the difficulties there are and the intractable problems the prison service would face, I have reconsidered whether imprisonment must be immediate."
|
| Tennessee mom and grandmother of missing 15-month-old now in same jail Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:24 AM PST  The search for Evelyn Mae Boswell has shifted to Wilkes County, North Carolina, Tennessee officials said
|
| Inspectors in Mexico to Board Cruise Turned Away by Two Ports Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:51 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Local health officials in Cozumel, Mexico, are poised to board the Meraviglia cruise ship Thursday to conduct a review after the vessel was turned away by two Caribbean ports on coronavirus concerns.In a statement Thursday, MSC Cruises said the ship had berthed in Cozumel and was waiting for "customary checks" to be conducted.Late Wednesday, the company said it had received "formal and final authorization" to get to Cozumel. But overnight, Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez -- of the state where Cozumel is located -- appeared to contradict the company, saying no authorization would be given until after the health review.Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also weighed in Thursday, reiterating that the ship was allowed to dock but that an inspection was called for."We're permitting it to dock, and there may be a disembarking of those on the ship," Lopez Obrador said at his morning press conference in Mexico City. "We gave instructions for an inspection to be done and that they be allowed to arrive and stay. We can't act with discrimination. We'll just carry out sanitary regulations."To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Levin in Miami at jlevin20@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Levin, Nacha CattanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| Biden says he's not worried about Trump refusing to leave if defeated in November Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:40 AM PST  Joe Biden says he isn't worried about the prospect of President Trump refusing to leave his post if he's defeated in November.
|
| Why fears of a Bernie Sanders nomination obliterating Democrats' control of the House are overblown Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:37 AM PST  The evidence just simply doesn't support the hand-wringing from moderate Democrats that a Sanders nomination would cost the House majority.
|
| Iran to Sentence Citizens Who “Spreads Rumors” about Coronavirus to Flogging, Three Years in Prison Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:37 PM PST  An Iranian parliament spokesman on Wednesday announced that anyone found to be "spreading rumors" about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak will be sentenced to one-to-three years in prison and flogging, Iran state news agency IRNA reported."Spreading fake news over coronavirus outbreak will people panic. It also will pave the ground for the country's shutdown," said Hassan Norouzi, spokesman for the parliament's legal and judicial committee, in comments translated by the Tehran Times.Norouzi said the prison sentence and flogging is based on "on the Islamic penal code," and 24 people have been arrested already on suspicion of "spreading rumors" about the illness.Iran has reported 139 cases of coronavirus infections throughout the country, with an epicenter in the city of Qom, a destination for Shi'ite Muslim religious pilgrims. Nineteen Iranians have died from the illness so far, and the country has the highest number of cases in the Middle East. While officials have recommended that citizens not visit Qom, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that the government does not plan to quarantine entire cities, only infected individuals."Coronavirus must not be turned into a weapon for our enemies to halt work and production in our country," Rouhani said.On Tuesday Iranian deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi announced that he had contracted coronavirus. In a video taken at his home, Harirchi attempted to reassure viewers, saying "I will certainly defeat corona."Harirchi was filmed a day earlier on state television to announce that the country's outbreak was under control, visibly sweating and wiping his face with a handkerchief.
|
| ‘The View’ Warns Warren About Going After Bloomberg: ‘Be Very Careful’ Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:50 AM PST  The View's Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar appeared to rally to Michael Bloomberg's defense on Wednesday, telling his rival Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren to be "very careful" when attacking the ex-mayor because he could easily use the "Pocahontas thing" against her.Discussing Tuesday night's chaotic Democratic primary debate, in which Warren confronted the former mayor on his company's treatment of women and comments he allegedly made to a pregnant female employee, Goldberg seemed to side with Bloomberg's longtime partner Diana Taylor saying people need to "get over it" as it was just part of "bro culture" and happened a long time ago."What are people expecting to happen?" Goldberg asked before referencing Bloomberg's release of three ex-employees from non-disclosure agreements. "They said you need to release this, I thought he did. Is it taking too long for people to read it, or what is it?"Goldberg went on to say that she doesn't think Taylor is trying to excuse Bloomberg's past behavior before wondering aloud why people are "upset" about this.Conservative co-host Meghan McCain, meanwhile, said she believes "people want you to fall on the sword with these issues," noting that she appeared to be standing by her partner and explaining that "he's atoned for that."Elizabeth Warren Brings Her Bloomberg Knockout Punch to 'The View'Behar then stepped in to credit Bloomberg for apologizing for his past behavior, invoking the public apology he made just before entering the presidential race over his much-maligned stop-and-frisk policy."Think that he has actually learned—as opposed to a lot of people in politics, who never apologize or backed off," she declared. "I think he has really learned from that stop and frisk thing, I think.""And he's atoned for it, I think, to Meghan's point," co-host Sunny Hostin added.After Hostin said that not all men embraced "bro culture" in the workplace decades ago, Goldberg jumped in to note that there was a "whole TV show" that proved "it happened"—referencing Mad Men—before asking, "What do you have to do to prove that you're sorry?"McCain replied that Bloomberg's team needs to get their "talking points straight" on this issue because Warren is going to keep "going for the jugular" on it."Elizabeth Warren needs to be careful," Goldberg responded. "She needs to be very careful with this.""To his credit, he didn't turn around and say, 'What about that "Pocahontas" thing?' He did not," Behar added, referencing President Donald Trump's favorite slur against Warren.The liberal co-host went on to say she was a bit miffed that Bloomberg had donated money to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in the past, prompting Goldberg to say he was a "different guy" back then."When you have a lot of money, I think you have to see who appeals to what you believe in," she stated. "As most people know, in reality, no one is one thing.""To that point, if you want somebody who reaches across the aisle, Bloomberg's your guy," Behar concluded.Stephen Colbert Booed for Brutal Takedown of Bloomberg's Debate PerformanceRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Elise Stefanik, newest star of Trumpworld, has turned impeachment into a fundraising boon Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:00 AM PST  Leveraging her impeachment performance, Rep. Elise Stefanik raised $3.2 million in the last three months of 2019, exceeding the reelection haul of progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
|
| Indigenous people may be the Amazon's last hope Posted: 27 Feb 2020 06:02 AM PST  Brazil's divisive President Jair Bolsonaro has taken another step in his bold plans to develop the Amazon rainforest. A bill he is sponsoring, now before Congress, would allow transportation infrastructure to be built on indigenous territory. Such lands cover 386,000 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon – one-fifth of the jungle. Here, Native people are constitutionally entitled to exercise sovereignty over resource use.The right-wing Bolsonaro administration says "opening" the Amazon will boost its economy. But environmentalists, indigenous leaders and other concerned Brazilians say that the move will promote mining, logging and other damaging activities. As evidence, they cite Bolsonaro's appointment of a Brazilian general who last year served on the board of the Canadian mining giant Belo Sun to lead Brazil's federal agency for indigenous peoples.Our research on social movements in the Amazon takes us to areas affected by infrastructure development. There, we have witnessed the disheartening aftermath for Native people and met the indigenous leaders fighting to save their homelands. Riches now in reachThe Amazon possesses a wealth of minerals including gold, diamonds, iron ore, manganese, copper, zinc and tin. But the region is so remote, with its southern edge lying 1,000 miles from Rio de Janeiro, that resource extraction was long limited by transportation costs. This began to change in the 1970s, when Brazil's military government built several new highways through the Amazon. It paid little heed to the desires or safety of the 140,000 Native people living there. Terrible abuses occurred, including the military's systematic killing from 1967 to 1977 of up to 2,000 Waimiri-Atroari people to make way for a road to the Amazonian capital of Manaus. The territorial aggressions culminated in the 1980s, when up to 40,000 wildcat miners invaded the Yanomami homeland looking for gold. An estimated 20% of the resident indigenous population perished from disease and violence over a seven-year period. Today there are about 900,000 indigenous people in Brazil.After democracy was restored in 1985, Brazil got a new constitution that codified indigenous rights, including the right to aboriginal homelands. Because so much of the Amazon is indigenous territory, indigenous sovereignty became instrumental to Brazilian environmental policy.The connection between indigenous communities and conservation is global. Indigenous people make up 5% of the world's population, but their homelands hold 85% of its biodiversity. This can make indigenous people extremely effective environmental defenders, because in fighting for their ancestral territory they protect some of the world's most pristine places. A world in perilAt the turn of the millennium, Brazil was generally considered a good steward of the Amazon. About a decade into the 21st century, however, environmental policy began to weaken to allow more infrastructure development in the Amazon. By 2016, some 34,000 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon had lost its previously protected status or seen protections reduced. Indigenous sovereignty, however, was never called into question – until now. Since taking office in January 2019, Bolsonaro has also cut funds for the enforcement of Brazil's strict environmental laws, leading Amazon deforestation to spike. Brazil's president has long seen protected indigenous land as a treasure trove of resources. In 2015 then-Congressman Bolsonaro told the newspaper Campo Grande News that "gold, tin and magnesium are in these lands, especially in the Amazon, the richest area in the world." "I'm not getting into this nonsense of defending land for the Indians," he added.Bolsonaro defends his current efforts to build in the Amazon as a means of assimilating native Brazilians so they will no longer need their territorial homelands. "The Indian has changed, he is evolving and becoming more and more a human being like us. What we want is to integrate him into society," he said in a video posted to social media in January. The statement prompted a lawsuit by indigenous Brazilians accusing the president of racism, a crime in Brazil. Resistance as conservationAccelerating deforestation under Bolsonaro has sparked violence in the Amazon.Seven indigenous land activists were killed in 2019, according to the Brazilian not-for-profit Pastoral Land Commission, the most in over a decade. Indigenous environmental leaders in the Colombian and Ecuadorian Amazon have also been murdered. Such killings mostly go unsolved. But Brazil's Indigenous Peoples Association says one indigenous activist killed in 2019, Paulo Guajajara, was gunned down by illegal loggers in November for defending Guajajara territory as part of an armed group called Guardians of the Forest."We are protecting our land and the life on it," Guajajara told Reuters shortly before his murder. "We have to preserve this life for our children's future."Indigenous Brazilians have also defended their land in court. In 2012, the Munduruku sued to stop the construction of mega-dams and waterways in the Tapajós River Valley – projects that would have ended life as they know it. Federal prosecutors agreed, filing in support of the Munduruku and calling for the suspension of the largest dam's environmental license. Under legal pressure, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources in their April 2016 decision curtailed the entire infrastructure plan, conserving 7% of the Amazon Basin. Amazon's last hopeNot every indigenous Brazilian is a born environmentalist. Many mix traditional livelihoods like hunting, fishing and gathering with agriculture and ranching. Like other farmers who clear forest to plant more crops, indigenous farmers stand to benefit from Bolsonaro's environmental deregulation. The president recently announced his administration would offer credit to indigenous soybean farmers who want to expand their operations.In Roraima state, the Raposa Serra do Sol people live on land rich with gold, diamonds, copper and a slew of lesser-known metals that Bolsonaro regards as strategic to Brazil's metallurgical economy. Royalty payments to Native peoples who open their land to miners could be substantial.So far, however, indigenous groups are united in their resistance to federal and corporate interference. They may be the Brazilian Amazon's last hope.[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Strict Amazon protections made Brazilian farmers more productive, new research shows * Amazon deforestation, already rising, may spike under BolsonaroRobert T. Walker, Aline Carrara, Cynthia Simmons, and Maira Irigaray have received funding from the Rutherford Foundation and from the US National Science Foundation. Aline Angotti Carrara has received funding from LASPAU affiliated with Harvard University, The Rufford Foundation and from CAPES.Cynthia S. Simmons and Maira I Irigaray do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
|
| Mom and son charged 25 years later in killings of her husband and sister Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST  The sister of Dolores Morgan was stabbed more than 20 times and found dead in 1994. About six month's later, Morgan's husband was shot multiple times in the head.
|
| Moscow rounds up stray animals, kills rats over coronavirus fears Posted: 27 Feb 2020 03:48 AM PST  Moscow authorities are rounding up stray animals and exterminating rats as a precaution against the new coronavirus, actions that animal rights campaigners decried as cruel and scientifically groundless. Russia has imposed an array of measures to stop the virus gaining a foothold in Russia, ranging from restrictions on flights to China and South Korea to visa curbs for Iranian and Chinese citizens. "We are currently carrying out a large-scale complex (of measures) for the total deratization of the city, catching wild animals, strays," Elena Andreeva, the Moscow head of the Rospotrepnadzor consumer health watchdog, was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.
|
| Teacher who allegedly washed out student’s mouth with hand sanitiser receives 10-day suspension Posted: 25 Feb 2020 01:12 PM PST  A Florida middle school teacher has reportedly been suspended for putting hand sanitizer in a student's mouth after he wouldn't stop chatting during class.NBC News said Guyette Duhart, a science teacher at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington, allegedly admitted holding the bottle to the child's mouth after he kept talking in class, but she denied pumping the sanitiser, NBC News reported.
|
| Doctors Inside Iran Believe Coronavirus Is More Serious Than Reported, and Getting Worse Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:54 AM PST  Medical professionals inside the Islamic Republic tell TIME they believe the country is now grappling with an "epidemic"
|
| Cruise ship docks at Mexico's Cozumel amid virus fears Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:44 AM PST  López Obrador said Mexico had to act with "humanity"after the ship was refused entry at ports in Grand Cayman and Jamaica. The cruise line had expressed frustration with the rejections, which came after it reported one crew member from the Philippines was sick with common seasonal flu.
|
| Rush Limbaugh is fueling a coronavirus conspiracy theory about Rod Rosenstein's sister Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:35 AM PST  Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the award-winning director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, has worked in the public health sector since 1995. But for some people, apparently, her accomplishments and experience pale in comparison to the fact she's the sister of former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.Messonnier reportedly angered President Trump on Tuesday when she said it's not a question of if, but when and how fiercely, the coronavirus will hit the United States. "She never should have said that," a senior administration official told CNBC. "It's bad."But some of Trump's supporters, like conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, have taken things a step further. Limbaugh, who has said the coronavirus is nothing more than the common cold and a scare tactic meant to hurt Trump by tanking the stock market, doubled down on his conspiracy theory Wednesday by tying Messonnier to her brother, who is, to put it gently, not viewed favorably by Trump and his allies, thanks to his role overseeing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into 2016 Russian election interference.Limbaugh falsely suggested Messonnier was part of a "deep state" conspiracy to exploit the coronavirus to bring down Trump.> Rush Limbaugh and right-wing fringe sites are attacking Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a top CDC official handling the coronavirus response, because she is Rod Rosenstein's sister. They're spreading the lie that she's part of the deep state and trying to tank the markets to weaken Trump.> > -- Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) February 26, 2020Perhaps not shockingly, others have followed suit. > Right on schedule: The rightwing news sites (Gateway Pundit, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) have seized upon the fact that Dr. Nancy Messonnier--the CDC official who warned of potential severe disruptions--is Rod Rosenstein's sister. > > Buckle up. This is going to keep getting stupider. pic.twitter.com/PTyGz0FKlH> > -- Mark Strauss (@MarkDStrauss) February 26, 2020More stories from theweek.com Lori Loughlin's attorney claims new evidence proves her innocence Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears
|
| Crime Against Humanity: China Has Never Forgotten Japan's Bloody Assault On Nanking Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:00 PM PST  A combination of factors led to some of the worst atrocities in history.
|
| Man who faked being gay to gain lesbian's trust is convicted of raping her Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:38 AM PST  In Georgia, where the attack took place, rape can carry a sentence of 25 years in prison to the death penalty.
|
| Japan says China leader Xi's visit still on despite coronavirus Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:01 AM PST  Japan said on Thursday that preparations for a rare state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping planned for April were going ahead, even as it called for sports and cultural events to be scaled down to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. "Things are on track for President Xi Jinping's visit to Japan, and we are proceeding as usual with preparations," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi spoke by telephone on Wednesday evening to confirm the visit would go ahead, Japan said.
|
| Cuba buys fuel shipment, vessel and all, due to US sanctions Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:17 PM PST  Cuba purchased a shipment of oil -- and the vessel holding it -- as its owner refused to dock at the island nation over fears of violating US sanctions, the government said Wednesday. Authorities in Cuba -- which is facing a fuel shortage -- did not specify where the fuel or ship came from, nor when the purchase took place. "We have reached the point where we had to buy a ship near our shore -- buy the ship -- because the owner refused to dock with the fuel on board," Transport Minister Eduardo Rodriguez said.
|
| New Monmouth poll shows Joe Biden with 20-point lead in South Carolina primary Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:13 AM PST  Results of a Monmouth University poll show former Vice President Joe Biden well ahead of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and businessman Tom Steyer.
|
| Arabs Flex Muscles and Talk as Erdogan Ups Ante in Libya’s War Posted: 26 Feb 2020 07:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- The black smoke billowing from Tripoli's port as rival Libyan officials sat down for peace talks carried an unmistakable message to far-off Cairo and Abu Dhabi.Shelling the facility was eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar's way of making clear he wouldn't let diplomacy in Europe halt his efforts to prevent Libya's internationally recognized government securing military assistance from its new Turkish ally.For the rulers of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the episode summed up the dilemma they face. They back Haftar as a bulwark against Islamist groups that prop up the Tripoli administration, and which could find succor from an expansionist Turkey. But his determination to resist outside pressure to scale back his 10-month offensive on the capital and focus on a political process risks dragging them deeper into the Libyan mire.So the Arab states provide military aid, along with Russia, but doubting Haftar has the fire-power to win the war without unacceptable costs in lives and infrastructure have also backed negotiations, said Claudia Gazzini, a consulting analyst on Libya at International Crisis Group."They were trying to do with diplomacy what they had been unable to achieve on the battlefield," she said. The port attack last week briefly halted United Nations-supported talks but they have since stumbled on.Haftar has long been an intransigent leader, with little patience for the messy compromises of negotiation. He has consistently signaled he sees ending opposition to his march on Tripoli as the only way to restore stability in a country that's important to European security and sits atop Africa's largest oil reserves. The nation's only functioning international airport is shut more than open as a result of repeated shelling by Haftar's forces."An end to hostilities depends on a number of conditions," Haftar told Russian state news service RIA Novosti on Friday after talks in Moscow. "A withdrawal of Syrian and Turkish mercenaries, stopping Turkish arms supplies to Tripoli and wiping out terrorist groups."The U.A.E. has struggled with other recent military forays. In 2015, it joined the Saudi-led war to restore a friendly regime in Yemen only to announce a pull-out late last year with most of its objectives still far from achieved.But for the country's ruling family, Turkey's intervention in Libya was a game changer, said a Western diplomat based in the Gulf.Abu Dhabi doesn't want to see a Libya where the balance of power is held by hard-line Islamist militias, the diplomat said, offering the opportunity for such groups and the Muslim Brotherhood movement to grow in influence. Most hereditary Gulf rulers have a deep-seated antagonism to political Islam based on popular franchise, and many have banned the Brotherhood.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party embrace the movement, and the U.A.E. watched with concern as Turkey reinforced ties with Qatar after it was ostracized by a Gulf Arab-led alliance in 2017, in part over its policy toward Islamists.Turkish soldiers are training forces loyal to Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have also joined the conflict. The country has suffered its first fatalities in Libya, with two soldiers confirmed killed.The U.A.E.'s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter this month that his country was aiming for "a political solution that addresses the threat of extremism and terrorism in Libya."Egypt shares a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) frontier with Libya that would be vulnerable to spiraling violence, and Cairo has invested greater efforts in finding a political solution. Its leader, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, was prominent in a huddle of global leaders at talks on Libya in Berlin in January.'New Threat'Yet it still sees Haftar's Libyan National Army as the best way to protect the border and halt Erdogan's drive into the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean, waters where Egypt is trying to move ahead with plans to become a regional gas exporter, said Mohamed Anis Salem at the Egypt Council of Foreign Relations."It's difficult to see Egypt standing back as long as the situation in Libya is not stabilized," he saidForces fighting with Haftar control the majority of Libya's territory as well as its key oil facilities, and are on the outskirts of the capital."We're not supporting him or his vision for Libya," Hussein Haridy, a former deputy Egyptian foreign minister, said of Haftar. "What we're supporting is his protection of the western border."But, Haridy points out, that approach has opened the door to Turkish involvement in the war and might need reconsidering."As far as Egypt is concerned, maybe its time for a deep reassessment of policies in Libya," he said. "We have to review what we have achieved so far. We have to look at the new threat coming out of Libya -- out of the stalemate."To contact the reporters on this story: Tarek El-Tablawy in Cairo at teltablawy@bloomberg.net;Sylvia Westall in Dubai at swestall@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Benjamin Harvey at bharvey11@bloomberg.net, ;Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net, Mark WilliamsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| 44 airlines have canceled flights beyond China amid fears coronavirus is spreading globally — here's the full list Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:54 AM PST  As coronavirus spreads across the globe, airlines are cutting services on routes that don't even touch Chinese territory.
|
| Belarus leader says nation being forced to merge with Russia Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:26 AM PST  The president of Belarus said Thursday that his country is "being forced into integration" with Russia and insisted that real integration of the two countries' economies implied "sovereignty and independence" for Belarus. "We remain committed, as always, to real integration without being forced into integration," President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with Mikhail Myasnikovich, chair of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
|
| AOC says she feels unsafe because Trump’s 'wack job' tweet with her is fueling white supremacist threats Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:14 PM PST  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has admitted she feels unsafe in Washington D.C. over her home in the Bronx, New York — which is fueled, in part, by the threats she's received after President Trump tweeted against her.
|
| Is Iran Giving the Houthis Plane-Killer Missiles? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:40 AM PST  More menacing munitions.
|
| New Jersey school bus driver sentenced to 10 years for crash killing 5th-grader, teacher Posted: 26 Feb 2020 01:03 PM PST  Prosecutors said Hudy Muldrow, 79, tried to make an illegal u-turn on a highway when a dump truck hit the bus he was driving.
|
| Second Cruise Ship Blocked From Ports Over Coronavirus Fears Posted: 26 Feb 2020 05:07 AM PST  Following a pattern set by the MS Westerdam, a cruise ship in the Caribbean has been turned away from two ports over fears of the coronavirus. The ship, with more than 4,500 passengers and 1,600 crew members, was not allowed to dock in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after it was discovered a crew member onboard was unwell.The MSC Meraviglia from MSC Cruises arrived in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, from Miami on Tuesday morning. After the ship's command reported one case of influenza onboard, Jamaican authorities, concerned that the man might have the coronavirus, said no one could disembark. The ship left Ocho Rios for its next port of call, Georgetown, Cayman Islands, after waiting to be cleared for nearly four hours.The ship was expected to dock in Georgetown on Wednesday morning, but the Caymanian Ministry of Health and Public Health Department said Tuesday night that it could not do so."In an abundance of caution, in order to provide protection to the health and safety of the residents of the Cayman Islands, the government has denied permission for the cruise ship to call on Grand Cayman as previously scheduled," Dwayne Seymour, health minister for the Cayman Islands, said in a statement."I hope this voyage doesn't get any worse," said Philip Emerson, a British passenger on the ship said in a direct message on Twitter before the decision was made public.The incident came on the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States said that Americans should brace for the likelihood that the coronavirus will spread to communities domestically.This month, Holland America's MS Westerdam ship was turned away from five countries whose authorities feared that people onboard might have Covid-19. After the Westerdam docked in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, one passenger tested positive for the illness. The CDC later said that the woman's diagnosis was a false positive.Having another ship blocked from docking is more bad news for the cruise industry, which has already seen falling bookings across Asia. Another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, was placed in a two-week quarantine in Japan where hundreds of people onboard fell ill.In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, MSC said that the crew member and all passengers on the ship passed mandatory health screenings in Miami before embarking on the cruise Sunday."The crew member had traveled to Miami from Manila, via direct connection in Istanbul," MSC said. "He developed symptoms of common flu and tested positive to Type A influenza after he visited the ship's 24/7 Medical Center while already on board. He has no other symptoms."The Ministry of Health in Kingston nevertheless said it was acting judiciously to block the ship."The crew member had a cough, fever and associated muscle pains with a travel history to a country of interest relating to the Covid-19," the National Ministry of Health in Kingston said in a statement.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
|
No comments:
Post a Comment