Italy Instates Wuhan-Style Lock Down of Milan and Venice Over Coronavirus - The Daily Beast

ROME–The Italian government has approved an unprecedented decree that will block all unnecessary movement of nearly 16 million people to try to stop the rampant spread of the novel coronavirus. The decree applies to more than a dozen provinces in extended red zones in the north of the country. Anyone defying the order will be subject to criminal charges.

This draconian measure comes after Italian civil protection authorities reported an increase in cases from 4,636 to 5,883 across the entire country in a 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday. Deaths also increased during that time from 147 to 233.

The decree, effective immediately, limits all movement into and out of the northern region, which includes the cities of Venice, Milan, Parma, and Modena. It is unclear what will happen to foreign nationals and tourists still in those areas.

A draft of the decree was leaked to the Italian press hours before Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed it, causing a mass exodus by road and rail from the affected area. Although it went into effect Sunday morning, several flights reportedly were allowed to leave from both Milan and Venice, adding confusion to an already chaotic situation.

“This is the moment of self-responsibility.”

— Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte

“We are facing an emergency. A national emergency” Conte said at a press conference around 2 a.m. after an emergency cabinet meeting ended. “This is the moment of self-responsibility.”

Schools and many businesses have been closed in the north since Feb. 21, when the number of cases of COVID-19 in the country grew from just three in Rome to nearly 1,000 in Lombardy and Veneto provinces in under a week.

The decree also extends the closure of schools in the northern red zones to at least April 3 and aims to shut down all gyms, theaters, museums, bars, clubs and churches. Some coffee bars and restaurants will be allowed to remain open on rotation if they can ensure that people are seated a meter, or a little over three feet, apart from each other.

Last Thursday, the Italian government also closed schools and universities across the entire country until at least March 15 and ordered that public gatherings could only be held if people in attendance could maintain a distance of one meter from one another. The government also recommended that anyone over the age of 65 stay indoors, and that everyone refrain from touching or air-kissing as a form of greeting.

The new decree also extends some restrictions across all of Italy, including the closure of cinemas and theaters, nightclubs, bars and museums, as well as famous sites like the Roman Colosseum. Churches are open across the country but weddings and funerals have been suspended.

Anyone who has tested positive with the coronavirus—even if asymptomatic—is required by law to remain at home. It is as yet unclear how the authorities will be able to enforce these measures.

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2020-03-08 08:36:25Z
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Italy Instates Wuhan-Style Lock Down of Milan and Venice Over Coronavirus - The Daily Beast

ROME–The Italian government has approved an unprecedented decree that will block all unnecessary movement of nearly 16 million people to try to stop the rampant spread of the novel coronavirus. The decree applies to more than a dozen provinces in extended red zones in the north of the country. Anyone defying the order will be subject to criminal charges.

This draconian measure comes after Italian civil protection authorities reported an increase in cases from 4,636 to 5,883 across the entire country in a 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday. Deaths also increased during that time from 147 to 233.

The decree, effective immediately, limits all movement into and out of the northern region, which includes the cities of Venice, Milan, Parma, and Modena. It is unclear what will happen to foreign nationals and tourists still in those areas.

A draft of the decree was leaked to the Italian press hours before Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed it, causing a mass exodus by road and rail from the affected area. Although it went into effect Sunday morning, several flights reportedly were allowed to leave from both Milan and Venice, adding confusion to an already chaotic situation.

“This is the moment of self-responsibility.”

— Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte

“We are facing an emergency; a national emergency” Conte said at a press conference around 2 a.m. after an emergency cabinet meeting ended. “This is the moment of self-responsibility.”

Schools and many businesses have been closed in the north since Feb. 21, when the number of cases of COVID-19 in the country grew from just three in Rome to nearly 1,000 in Lombardy and Veneto provinces in under a week.

The decree also extends the closure of schools in the northern red zones to at least April 3 and aims to shut down all gyms, theaters, museums, bars, clubs and churches. Some coffee bars and restaurants will be allowed to remain open on rotation if they can ensure that people are seated a meter, or a little over three feet, apart from each other.

Last Thursday, the Italian government also closed schools and universities across the entire country until at least March 15 and ordered that public gatherings could only be held if people in attendance could maintain a distance of one meter from one another. The government also recommended that anyone over the age of 65 stay indoors, and that everyone refrain from touching or air-kissing as a form of greeting.

The new decree also extends some restrictions across all of Italy, including the closure of cinemas and theaters, nightclubs, bars and museums, as well as famous sites like the Roman Colosseum. Churches are open across the country but weddings and funerals have been suspended.

Anyone who has tested positive with the coronavirus—even if asymptomatic—is required by law to remain at home. It is as yet unclear how the authorities will be able to enforce these measures.

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2020-03-08 07:37:00Z
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China's coronavirus quarantine hotel collapses, killing at least 7 - Al Jazeera English

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1. China's coronavirus quarantine hotel collapses, killing at least 7  Al Jazeera English
2. Coronavirus quarantine hotel collapses in China, trapping 70 people  Fox News
3. Seven dead after coronavirus quarantine hotel collapses in China  CNN
4. More Than 70 Trapped After Coronavirus Quarantine Hotel in China Collapses  The Daily Beast
5. Coronavirus quarantine hotel in China collapses  Guardian News
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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2020-03-08 07:47:32Z
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Italy announces lockdown as global coronavirus cases surpass 105,000 - CNN

The sweeping move puts the entire Lombardy region, as well as 14 other provinces, under travel restrictions, and is one of the toughest responses implemented outside of mainland China to get the Covid-19 epidemic under control.

CNN is verifying exactly when the lockdown will go into effect.

The announcement came after Italy saw a dramatic spike of 1,247 confirmed novel coronavirus cases on Saturday, the Civil Protection Department said in a statement.

The country has now recorded 5,883 cases and 233 deaths, the most fatalities outside mainland China and the biggest outbreak in Europe.

Announcing the new measures, Conte said: "There will be an obligation to avoid any movement of people who are either entering or leaving" the affected areas. "Even within the areas moving around will occur only for essential work or health reasons," he said, according to Reuters.

While the lockdown only applies to northern Italy, other measures will be applied to the entire country. These include the suspension of schools, university classes, theaters and cinemas, as well as bars, nightclubs, and sports events. Religious ceremonies, including funerals, will also be suspended.

Other countries in Europe are also struggling to contain outbreaks as cases continue to rise.

On Saturday, France's general director of health, Jerome Salomon, confirmed 16 dead and 949 infected nationwide, and Germany now has 795 cases. The United Kingdom confirmed a second death from the novel coronavirus on Saturday, while 206 people have tested positive, British health officials said in a statement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on "all countries to continue efforts that have been effective in limiting the number of cases and slowing the spread of the virus."

In a statement, the WHO said: "Allowing uncontrolled spread should not be a choice of any government, as it will harm not only the citizens of that country but affect other countries as well."

Meanwhile in China, search and rescue efforts continued on Sunday for survivors from the collapse of a hotel that was being used as a coronavirus quarantine center.

The hotel, in the southeastern city of Quanzhou, in Fujian province, came down Saturday night with 80 people inside. Four people died, one person remains in critical condition and four others are seriously injured, according to China's Ministry of Emergency Management.

"We are using life detection instruments to monitor signs of life and professional breaking-in tools to make forcible entries. We are trying our utmost to save trapped people," said Guo Yutuan, squadron leader of the Quanzhou armed police detachment's mobile unit.

The building's owner is in police custody, according to state news agency Xinhua and an investigation is underway.

South Korea cases surpass 7,000, more than 400 in US

The total number of worldwide cases stands at more than 105,000, with 3,599 deaths. China's National Health Commission reported 27 new deaths from the coronavirus on Sunday, and 99 new infections.

As Italy and Iran suffer from the most deaths outside of China, South Korea continues to battle the worst outbreak.

On Sunday, South Korea announced 367 new infections, bringing the country's total to 7,134, according to the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 50 deaths.

Among the new cases, 294 are from Daegu city and 32 are from North Gyeongsang Province, the most heavily infected areas in the country.

In the United States, 444 cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local governments, and 19 people have died.

This includes presumptive positive cases that tested positive in a public health lab and are pending confirmation from the CDC, and confirmed cases have received positive results from the CDC.

On Saturday, the American Conservative Union announced that one of the attendees at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, tested positive for coronavirus.

President Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence were attending the event, though the ACU said the attendee did not come into contact with either of the men.

When asked by reporters if he was worried about being exposed to coronavirus after he attended CPAC, Trump said, "I'm not concerned at all."

Trump, who was speaking alongside Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of their dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, also noted that the administration would not cancel any political rallies as the virus spreads.

"We'll have tremendous rallies. We're doing very well. We've done a fantastic job, with respect to that subject, on the virus," Trump said.

Meanwhile, 14 out of 16 coronavirus deaths in the US state of Washington are associated with a nursing home in Kirkland, according to a Seattle & King County Public Health press release. The Life Care Center is at the center the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

Some Life Care Center patients have gone from no symptoms to acute symptoms within an hour, according to Tim Killian, spokesperson for Life Care Center of Kirkland.

"We've had patients die relatively quickly under those circumstances," he said, adding that the virus was "volatile, unpredictable."

There were 180 staff members employed at Life Care Center as of February 19 and 70 employees now have symptoms of novel coronavirus. The Center of Disease Control has provided "extra nurses, practitioners and doctors," to the nursing home.

CNN's Steven Jiang, Shanshan Wang and Yong Xiong in Beijing, Akanksha Sharma and Chermaine Lee in Hong Kong, Livia Borghese in Rome, Yoonjung Seo in Seoul and Taylor Barnes and Jennifer Hauser in Atlanta contributed.

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2020-03-08 06:12:52Z
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Saudi rivals to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrested - The - The Washington Post

Pool Reuters Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, attends a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jidda on Sept. 18, 2019.

Saudi royal guards have arrested two of the most prominent members of the Saudi ruling family and charged them with treason, a move that could be designed to further strengthen the position of the kingdom’s de facto ruler, according to two people close to the Saudi leadership.

Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, an uncle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and one of his cousins, Mohammed bin Nayef, were detained Friday morning, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive internal Saudi matters.

Mohammed bin Nayef had been replaced as crown prince and heir to the throne in 2017 when King Salman elevated one of his sons, Mohammed bin Salman, to the role and gave him wide authority to effectively run the kingdom.

Mohammed bin Nayef had earlier served as the country’s interior minister, developing a close working relationship with U.S. security officials.

Both the arrested men could claim a more senior place in the line of succession to Mohammed and were seen as potential rivals to the throne.

[U.N. report: Saudi crown prince involved in alleged hacking of Bezos phone]

The two princes had returned together from a hunting trip late Thursday when they received a call summoning them to meet the crown prince at the royal palace, said one of the people who had been briefed on the events by members of the royal family. When they arrived, they were taken into custody, according to the account.

The arrests come at a sensitive time for the kingdom, with oil prices plummeting and Mohammed’s decision to halt visits to Mecca in response to the coronavirus stoking discontent. The arrests were first reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

The royal family also has faced international criticism over the October 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi. The United Nations blamed what it called an “extrajudicial execution” on Saudi state agents, and U.S. intelligence officials have privately told Congress that Mohammed, who is often called by his initials MBS, was responsible.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/the-assassination-of-jamal-khashoggi/2019/04/01/407e8f06-1ef1-4b5e-8a9c-ed0f3fb54015_video.html

Mohammed, the crown prince, has been consolidating his power over the past couple years, seeking to disarm critics and silence dissent both at home and abroad.

While he has succeeded in concentrating authority in his own hands to a degree that’s highly unusual in the kingdom, it’s unclear what kind of opposition he might face to becoming king when his elderly father dies. It is also uncertain what may have prompted the reported detentions.

[As backlash fears fade, major firms begin to return to Saudi Arabia]

Some Saudi commentators said the arrests suggest rifts within the royal family over the succession of the crown prince, whose strong-arm tactics have alienated many princes.

“The arrest of several senior disgruntled princes such as Ahmed and MBN [Mohammed bin Nayef] reflects a growing discontent with the ‘Son King’ over his despicable hegemony and erratic social, economic, foreign and religious policies,” tweeted Madawi al-Rasheed, a Saudi academic based in London and a fierce critic of the crown prince.

Hugh Miles, editor of ArabDigest.org, a subscription service offering political analysis about the Middle East, noted that fissures within the royal family could post long-term difficulties to the crown prince once he take the throne.

“Although many questions still remain about what has happened in Saudi Arabia in the last 24 hours, what is clear is that MBS is now facing ruling Saudi Arabia without the backing of the rest of the royal family,” said Miles. “This is a major problem for him because any would-be Saudi King is expected not only to have the royal family’s full allegiance, but also to be able to prove it.”

As a son of the founder of the Saudi kingdom, Prince Ahmed is senior in line to Mohammed, but was passed over in favor of a new generation of younger princes.

As Mohammed has strengthened his grip, there had been speculation that he could be considered as an alternative to Mohammed bin Salman.

Mohammed bin Nayef had been living in Britain, afraid to return after he made comments that appeared to criticize the crown prince. He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2018 after Khashoggi’s killing after being given assurances for his safety, according to the person with knowledge of the arrests.

Mohammed bin Nayef has survived four assassination attempts, including one in which he was injured by an al-Qaeda suicide bomber in 2009.

In 2017, the crown prince ordered the arrests of hundreds of princes, government ministers and business people, detaining some of them in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Ostensibly an anti-corruption crackdown, the sweeps were seen as a part of his effort to consolidate power.

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2020-03-07 19:22:23Z
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China May Be Beating the Coronavirus, at a Painful Cost - The New York Times

BEIJING — As the new coronavirus races around the world, tanking markets, cutting off global travel and suspending school for hundreds of millions of children, governments are desperate for ways to contain it.

China, the place where it first appeared, says it has the answers.

To the surprise of some, the country that concealed and mismanaged the initial outbreak appears to be bringing it under control, at least by its own official figures. The number of new cases reported has fallen dramatically in recent days even as infections are surging in other countries. The World Health Organization has praised Beijing’s response.

Officials reported only 99 new cases on Saturday, down from around 2,000 a day just weeks ago, and for the second day in a row, none were detected in Hubei Province outside of its capital, Wuhan, the center of the outbreak.

China says the trend proves that its containment measures — which include a lockdown on nearly 60 million people in Hubei and strict quarantine and travel restrictions for hundreds of millions of citizens and foreigners — are working. And it has begun trying to promote its efforts as successful in propaganda at home and abroad.

The rest of the world, much of it fearfully confronting its first cases, has taken note. But there is also concern that China’s numbers may be flawed and incomplete. The real test will be whether the virus flares again when children return to classrooms and workers to factories, and commuters start taking buses and subways.

China’s blunt force strategy poses deeper questions for other countries. Its campaign has come at great cost to people’s livelihoods and personal liberties. Even countries that could copy China still have to ask whether the cure is worse than the disease.

“I think they did an amazing job of knocking the virus down,” said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “But I don’t know if it’s sustainable. What have the Chinese really accomplished? Have they really contained the virus? Or have they just suppressed it?”

Elsewhere, Italy, South Korea and Iran are struggling to control the spread of the virus. In the United States, where there are now more than 300 confirmed cases, the government has been criticized for fumbling its rollout of test kits and allowing the virus to spread in vulnerable communities like a nursing home in Seattle. The outbreak now threatens global growth and is intensifying a backlash against immigration and globalization.

Countries studying China’s approach would need to consider how it has upended nearly every corner of Chinese society.

Get an informed guide to the global outbreak with our daily coronavirus newsletter.

The economy has ground to a near standstill, and many small businesses say they may soon run out of cash. Patients with critical illnesses are struggling to find timely care, and some have died. Hundreds of millions of people have been placed in some form of isolation. As of Friday, about 827,000 people remained under quarantine in Beijing, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.

“I have been worried about all the focus on just controlling the virus,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. She recommended a more measured response, such as that taken by the governments in Hong Kong and Singapore. Officials there enacted targeted quarantines but did not shut down workplaces altogether, allowing their respective economies to continue operating while so far successfully containing the virus.

“We have to take a broad view of the impact on society,” Dr. Nuzzo said, “and do a better accounting for the social tolls of these measures that is not just focused on the numbers.”

For China, the numbers are key.

The number of cases reported on Saturday was a substantial decline from two and a half weeks ago, when China was recording around 2,000 new infections and as many as 100 deaths a day. Twenty-eight new deaths were reported on Saturday, all in Hubei.

By comparison, Italy reported 49 deaths from the virus on Friday.

Outside of Wuhan, the spread has effectively stopped, according to the official figures. All but one of the 99 new cases reported on Saturday were in Wuhan or were people who had traveled to China from abroad.

The World Health Organization says China’s containment measures may have saved hundreds of thousands of people from infection. Its efforts show that uncontrolled spread of the virus “is not a one-way street,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the group’s director general, said on Thursday.

“This epidemic can be pushed back,” Dr. Tedros said, “but only with a collective, coordinated and comprehensive approach that engages the entire machinery of government.”

W.H.O. experts sent to China have also highlighted clinics that could diagnose hundreds of cases a day with CT scans and laboratory tests, and the mass isolation centers in stadiums in Wuhan that separated people who had mild infections from their families.

“There’s no question that China’s bold approach to the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of what was a rapidly escalating and continues to be a deadly epidemic,” Dr. Bruce Aylward, the leader of the W.H.O. team that visited China, told reporters in Beijing late last month.

The numbers suggest that aggressive quarantine measures, when fully enforced, could choke the spread of the virus, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.

“This is the largest public health experiment in the history of humankind,” Dr. Schaffner said. “They can’t turn it off, but they did turn it down. And it did provide the rest of the world with some extra time.”

Still, the total number of infections in China, at more than 80,000, is staggering. And there are reasons to doubt the official figures.

In the early days of the outbreak, a shortage of test kits and hospital beds meant that many were not able to get tested. Many mild infections are likely going undetected. The government has changed how it counts cases several times in recent weeks, prompting large fluctuations in the reported figures, though experts say such adjustments are not unusual.

Medical experts say that there have been few signs that the government has aggressively tested for the coronavirus outside of medical facilities in Hubei. Until they broaden the scope of testing, experts say, it will be impossible to determine the true extent of the epidemic because those who have mild infections might not see a doctor.

“At the moment we are focused on the tip of the iceberg,” said David Hui, the director of the Stanley Ho Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The ruling Communist Party hails the slowdown of the outbreak as a sign of the superiority of its authoritarian, top-down political system that gives officials nearly unchecked power. But its heavy-handed measures are testing the patience of its citizens, many of whom think such a clampdown could have been avoided if officials had not first hid the scale of the outbreak and silenced whistle-blowers.

The impact of the restrictions has been felt most acutely in Hubei, where 56 million people have been effectively penned in since January. For more than five weeks, the typically bustling hub of universities, commerce and transportation has been transformed into a collection of ghost towns as the virus has ravaged communities, ensnared entire families and infected thousands of medical workers.

China’s experience combating the virus has also highlighted the risk of family transmission if hospitals run out of beds and testing kits, as they did in Wuhan, where for weeks, many who were sick were sent home and infected their relatives.

Roadblocks have sealed off cities, public transportation has been shut down and private cars have been mostly banned from the roads. In Wuhan, restrictions on individual movement have been stepped up in recent weeks, with residents now mostly barred from leaving their homes.

Among residents in Hubei, there are signs that anger and frustration are mounting. Chinese social media sites are flooded with posts from residents saying they have lost their jobs because of the extended lockdown, making it difficult to make payments on mortgages and loans. Others have described food shortages in their communities.

On Thursday, in a rare public rebuke of the government, disgruntled people in a residential community in Wuhan heckled high-level officials as they walked through the neighborhood on an inspection.

“Fake! Everything is fake!” shouted one resident at the delegation, which included Sun Chunlan, a vice premier leading the central government’s response to the outbreak.

The state-run People’s Daily newspaper later said that the accusations were aimed at local neighborhood officials who had “faked” delivery of vegetables and meat to residents. Ms. Sun ordered an immediate investigation into the issue.

Wang Zhonglin, the party secretary of Wuhan, announced plans on Friday to teach the city’s residents to be grateful to the party, a move that was quickly met with derision and anger on Chinese social media.

Relationships are also fraying as families are forced to live for extended periods in confined spaces. Guo Jing, a feminist activist in Wuhan, said she and other volunteers had fielded a number of requests for help from residents reporting physical abuse by their family members at home.

“Under these circumstances, it’s really difficult for them to find help during the epidemic,” said Ms. Guo. “It’s so difficult to leave the house.”

Fang Fang, a writer who has been keeping a widely read — and often-censored — online journal of life in Wuhan, said that the lockdown was exacting a psychological toll on residents.

“Ordinary people have no source of income and lack a sense of certainty even about when they’ll be able to go out,” she wrote in a recent entry. “When you can’t feel the ground or you lose control over a situation, it’s easy to lose the most basic sense of security.”

Outside of Hubei, China wants to fire up its economy, but local officials are also under immense pressure to take no risks in order to reduce the number of infections. Even as provinces have lowered their alert levels for the virus, many companies are choosing to err on the side of caution. Some have even faked electricity consumption rates in order to hit stringent back-to-work targets, according to a recent report by Caixin, an influential Chinese magazine.

Some experts are increasingly wondering if China’s lockdown will become pointless the more widespread the virus becomes. Given the global spread of the virus and the difficulty of spotting mild cases, they say, it is unlikely that it will ever be completely eliminated — even in China.

“I do think the declining case numbers likely mean that all these incredible measures that have been taken are probably having an effect,” said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “But I don’t think zero is zero.”

Donald G. McNeil Jr. contributed reporting from New York. Zoe Mou contributed research from Beijing.

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2020-03-07 17:42:19Z
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Saudi rivals to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrested - The - The Washington Post

Pool Reuters Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, attends a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jidda on Sept. 18, 2019.

Saudi royal guards have arrested two of the most prominent members of the Saudi ruling family and charged them with treason, a move that could be designed to further strengthen the position of the kingdom’s de facto ruler, according to two people close to the Saudi leadership.

Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, an uncle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and one of his cousins, Mohammed bin Nayef, were detained Friday morning, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive internal Saudi matters.

Mohammed bin Nayef had been replaced as crown prince and heir to the throne in 2017 when King Salman elevated one of his sons, Mohammed bin Salman, to the role and gave him wide authority to effectively run the kingdom.

Mohammed bin Nayef had earlier served as the country’s interior minister, developing a close working relationship with U.S. security officials.

Both the arrested men could claim a more senior place in the line of succession to Mohammed and were seen as potential rivals to the throne.

[U.N. report: Saudi crown prince involved in alleged hacking of Bezos phone]

The two princes had returned together from a hunting trip late Thursday when they received a call summoning them to meet the crown prince at the royal palace, said one of the people who had been briefed on the events by members of the royal family. When they arrived, they were taken into custody, according to the account.

The arrests come at a sensitive time for the kingdom, with oil prices plummeting and Mohammed’s decision to halt visits to Mecca in response to the coronavirus stoking discontent. The arrests were first reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

The royal family also has faced international criticism over the October 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi. The United Nations blamed what it called an “extrajudicial execution” on Saudi state agents, and U.S. intelligence officials have privately told Congress that Mohammed, who is often called by his initials MBS, was responsible.

Mohammed, the crown prince, has been consolidating his power over the past couple years, seeking to disarm critics and silence dissent both at home and abroad.

While he has succeeded in concentrating authority in his own hands to a degree that’s highly unusual in the kingdom, it’s unclear what kind of opposition he might face to becoming king when his elderly father dies. It is also uncertain what may have prompted the reported detentions.

[As backlash fears fade, major firms begin to return to Saudi Arabia]

Some Saudi commentators said the arrests suggest rifts within the royal family over the succession of the crown prince, whose strong-arm tactics have alienated many princes.

“The arrest of several senior disgruntled princes such as Ahmed and MBN [Mohammed bin Nayef] reflects a growing discontent with the ‘Son King’ over his despicable hegemony and erratic social, economic, foreign and religious policies,” tweeted Madawi al-Rasheed, a Saudi academic based in London and a fierce critic of the crown prince.

As a son of the founder of the Saudi kingdom, Prince Ahmed is senior in line to Mohammed, but was passed over in favor of a new generation of younger princes.

As Mohammed has strengthened his grip, there had been speculation that he could be considered as an alternative to Mohammed bin Salman.

Mohammed bin Nayef had been living in Britain, afraid to return after he made comments that appeared to criticize the crown prince. He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2018 after Khashoggi’s killing after being given assurances for his safety, according to the person with knowledge of the arrests.

Mohammed bin Nayef has survived four assassination attempts, including one in which he was injured by an al-Qaeda suicide bomber in 2009.

In 2017, the crown prince ordered the arrests of hundreds of princes, government ministers and business people, detaining some of them in a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Ostensibly an anti-corruption crackdown, the sweeps were seen as a part of his effort to consolidate power.

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2020-03-07 18:35:30Z
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