Global Deaths From Coronavirus Surpass 6,000 : Goats and Soda - NPR

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A girl and her dog look out from a window Sunday during one of the many flash mobs taking place in Rome. The nationwide lockdown to slow the coronavirus is still in its early days for much of Italy, but Italians are already showing signs of solidarity. Alessandra Tarantino/AP hide caption

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Alessandra Tarantino/AP

With the number of cases worldwide from the novel coronavirus surpassing 150,000, with some 6,000 deaths, governments across the globe continued their struggle to contain the pandemic. Their hope is to limit the number of new infections, while treating those individuals suffering from COVID-19 and isolating others whose symptoms are not as severe but who might spread the disease.

Here's a snapshot by region of what is happening as of Monday morning:

Europe

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said over the weekend that Europe had become the new epicenter of the pandemic after it peaked earlier in Asia.

"More cases are now being reported [in Europe] every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic," Tedros, the organization's director, said at a news conference at the WHO's Geneva headquarters.

Officials in Italy have reported some 3,600 new cases and 368 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections there to nearly 25,000 and some 1,800 deaths. Italy is second in the number of reported infections and deaths only to China, where the epidemic was first identified in December.

Italian officials have expressed concern that the surge in infections has pushed the country's health system to the saturation point, according to NPR's Sylvia Poggioli. Health authorities say there is a severe lack of intensive care unit beds, ventilators and protective masks to treat the huge influx.

"It's not a wave, it's a tsunami," Dr. Robert Rona, who is in charge of intensive care at Monza hospital outside Milan, told The Associated Press.

The disease first appeared in Lombardy, the region that is home to Milan, a metropolis of 3 million people that is Italy's economic powerhouse. It started in a cluster of small-to-medium-size towns in the region and Poggioli reports that "everything is being done to prevent a surge in cases in Milan."

Spain, where the government formally declared a state of emergency over the weekend, ordered a lockdown — requiring people to stay home to foster social distancing and for all nonessential shops to close, along with restaurants, bars, cafes and movie theaters.

In Spain, the total number of confirmed infections now exceeds 7,800 cases with 282 deaths.

Following a lengthy briefing on Saturday, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose wife has tested positive for the virus, said "extraordinary" decisions were required to combat the disease.

"From now, we enter a new phase," he said. "We won't hesitate in doing what we need [to do] to beat the virus."

"During the state of emergency, people will only be allowed out on to public streets for the following reasons: to buy food, basic or pharmaceutical items; to attend medical centers; to go to and from work; to look after children, older people or those with disabilities or who are especially vulnerable; and to attend financial or insurance offices on force majeure grounds," Sánchez said, according to The Guardian newspaper.

In a gesture of gratitude for doctors, nurses and other medical workers who work in Spain's national health system, people went to their balconies all over the country at 10 p.m. local time to applaud in unison.

In France, municipal elections went ahead as planned on Sunday under what officials said were tight sanitary restrictions, including "safe spacing" of voters as they queued and providing hand sanitizer. There have been nearly 5,500 total confirmed cases in France, with 127 deaths from COVID-19. Despite assurances that the polling was safe, the Interior Ministry on Sunday reported turnout was just 18.3%, down 5% from elections six years ago.

France has already ordered a lockdown similar to the one Italy and Spain have imposed.

In the United Kingdom, where nearly 1,400 cases have been confirmed so far with 35 deaths from the coronavirus disease, no lockdown has been ordered.

However, the government is expected to lay out emergency measures this week, including requiring people 70 years and older to self-isolate for as long as four months.

Last week, the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson signaled that it might be considering a different approach to the rest of the world — in essence, allowing a large percentage of the population to become infected, creating a "herd immunity" that would eventually stamp out the epidemic.

But public backlash to that suggestion, which would result in tens of millions of Britons becoming infected with the virus, forced the government to backtrack.

"We will do the right thing at the right time, based on the best available science," Health Secretary Matt Hancock wrote in an opinion piece that appeared in The Telegraph over the weekend. "Herd immunity is not our goal or policy, it's a scientific concept."

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People wearing face masks as a precautionary measure against the novel coronavirus look at electronic accessories for sale from a street vendor in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong on Sunday. Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Nearly 4,000 cases and more than 700 deaths have been reported in Germany and some 1,400 infections and more than 230 deaths in Switzerland. Hundreds of cases and scores of deaths have been reported also in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Greece.

Asia

New cases in China, where the epidemic began, have been decreasing steadily in recent weeks, with just 27 new cases reported in the WHO's latest situation report, which is updated every 24 hours. It is a long way from the peak of the crisis in China about a month ago, when Beijing reported more than 14,000 new infections in a single day. A total of about 81,000 cases have been reported there since December.

In recent days, the country has begun shifting its efforts from the internal spread of the virus to keeping new cases from abroad from entering.

The number of new cases is also in decline in South Korea and Japan — two countries that were hard hit as the infection spilled over from China in the early days of the epidemic. Seoul reported 76 new cases and Japan 64, according to WHO.

Although government officials have refrained from critiquing the rest of the world's response to the pandemic, some hospital officials haven't been as reticent.

Zhang Wenhong, director of the infectious diseases department at Shanghai Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, wrote on the hospital's social media account: "We had thought the world would synchronise controls with those taken in China – in the way that Singapore, Japan and South Korea have done."

"But Europe has become the new epicentre and brought us huge uncertainties," he wrote, according to the South China Morning Post.

Indonesia, a country whose health minister said last week was free of coronavirus, attributing its good fortune to prayer, now reports nearly 120 cases and nearly 50 deaths.

Middle East

In Iran, where the epidemic has infected some 14,000 people by official accounts, a 78-year-old member of the clerical body that chooses the country's supreme leader has reportedly died from COVID-19. The virus has killed some 700 people in Iran, but suspicions about the government's assessment of the epidemic within its borders has led some to question the official statistics as understated.

Elsewhere in the region, Qatar has reported more than 300 cases and 75 deaths; Bahrain more than 200 with one reported death; and Kuwait says it has more than 100 confirmed cases with 12 deaths.

A number of cases have been reported in a dozen other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Canada and Latin America

In Canada, where last week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he and his family would self-isolate after his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, tested positive for coronavirus, there have been nearly 250 cases with 68 deaths.

Last week, the press secretary to Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro tested positive for the virus after having met with President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. More than 120 cases have been reported in Brazil according to the latest WHO report, with 23 deaths from the virus.

Africa

The continent of Africa, which faced the brunt of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, appears thus far to have been largely spared from COVID-19. According to the WHO, South Africa has had 38 cases, with 21 deaths from the virus, while Algeria has had 37 confirmed cases and Senegal 21, with each of those countries reporting 11 deaths.

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2020-03-16 14:38:47Z
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Amid coronavirus fears, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu sees an opening - CNN

Netanyahu has called for a national emergency government, consisting of all of the parties in the Knesset -- except the Arab parties -- to deal with the impact of the coronavirus. "In light of the world and national crisis, we have to unite our strength and form a strong and stable government that can pass a budget and take tough decisions," he said in a statement Sunday.

But he never included the Joint List of Arab parties, accusing them repeatedly of supporting terror in keeping up with his campaign strategy of attacking the political factions that represent some 20% of the country's population.

He suffered a significant political setback on Sunday evening, when Israel's President announced that Netanyahu's main opponent, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, had received enough support from lawmakers to get first crack at forming a new government. But Netanyahu continues to insist it is he, and not his inexperienced rival, who should be leading the country through the crisis.

Netanyahu's supporters see him as uniquely qualified to lead the country in this time of need. The longest serving prime minister in Israel's history has guided the country through several wars, dealt with dozens of world leaders, and largely become the face of Israel. To them, the coronavirus is one more challenge Netanyahu is sure to overcome.

His critics see things differently. They believe he is using a national emergency for his own political ends. Having failed to secure a governing majority after three straight elections, Netanyahu is now trying to leverage the coronavirus to post facto build a government, they argue.

Emergency government calls

On Sunday morning, citing the pandemic, Netanyahu suggested the formation of an immediate emergency government for six months, or a unity government which he would lead for two years, after which rival Benny Gantz would take over as Prime Minister.

Ben Caspit, author of The Netanyahu Years and a frequent critic of the Prime Minister, viewed Netanyahu's calls for unity with utmost skepticism. "It's impossible to disconnect his call for an 'emergency government' or a 'unity government' from the fact that he failed once again to muster a majority in the Knesset," wrote Caspit in Sunday's Ma'ariv newspaper. "This situation is without precedent: a prime minister who has thrice been unsuccessful in his bid to get reelected, who last received the public's confidence back in 2015, but who refuses to hand over the reins and who has been exploiting a national crisis to retain his grip on power."

There was no mention in Netanyahu's statements of his upcoming criminal trial on charges of bribery and fraud and breach of trust, a crucial sticking point since Gantz and his Blue and White party have refused to serve under a Prime Minister who has been indicted.

Originally scheduled to begin on Tuesday, the trial has now been delayed for more than two months after the Justice Minister, considered one of those closest to Netanyahu, declared a 24-hour "state of emergency" in the court system to deal with the spread of coronavirus. Within hours, the three judges appointed to preside over the Prime Minister's case had moved to postpone the trial opening until May 24th.

The coronavirus had done what Netanyahu's high-powered legal team could not -- delay the start of the trial and give him more time to lead the country.

Netanyahu's former Defense Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, who is now one of the top members of Gantz's Blue and White, tweeted on Saturday: "Anyone who criticized us when we warned of the dangers of Israel becoming like Erdogan's Turkey should think carefully about the cynical exploitation of the coronavirus crisis, for personal political needs, by a defendant facing trial."

There is no doubt that Israel is in a state of emergency because of the coronavirus, that will affect the economy, the military, the government, and the people. On the face of it, a unity government made up of the biggest parties might well offer the sort of strong and stable option that mainstream Israel is looking for in these trying times. Much less certain is how to get there.

Over the weekend, Gantz and Netanyahu were still trading barbs. On Sunday evening, Netanyahu accused Blue and White of "lying to its voters" because of its willingness to form a government with the support of the Arab parties. Last week, he tweeted that such a government would be a "disaster for Israel."

Gantz was just as acerbic. "Netanyahu, let's not manipulate the public," he said on Twitter. "If you're interested in unity, why postpone your trial at 1 a.m. and send an 'emergency unity' outline to the press, rather than sending your negotiating team to a meeting. As opposed to you, I will continue to support every appropriate governmental measure, leaving political considerations aside. When you get serious, we can talk."

In 2008, as corruption investigations were closing in on then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Netanyahu said, "A prime minister steeped up to his neck in investigations doesn't have a moral or public mandate to make such fateful decisions regarding the state of Israel." Then the leader of the opposition, Netanyahu called on Olmert to resign, which he did a short time later.

Netanyahu now finds himself staring down his own words, as his critics call on him to heed his past advice.

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2020-03-16 15:34:48Z
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In Afghanistan, Coronavirus Complicates War and Peace - The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — When the coronavirus began spreading, many Afghans were in denial even after it became an obvious and deadly crisis in neighboring Iran.

Some touted their piety as a shield — they already washed and prayed five times a day. Others, even some officials, joked that the health system had been so bad, the country already so infested with germs and bacteria, that a new invading virus simply could not make it far.

That denial is crumbling now, as the 21st positive case has been announced in the country. Testing remains extremely limited — only roughly 250 tests have been conducted thus far — so Afghan officials and lawmakers fear that the number of infected is much higher in the absence of capacity to detect and slow the spread of the virus.

Most worrying is that Iran has disregarded the Afghan government’s plea to restrict border crossings, with as many as 15,000 people still crossing into Afghanistan daily. All of the 21 confirmed coronavirus cases in Afghanistan involved travelers who had returned from Iran, according to Wahidullah Mayar, a spokesman for the Afghan health ministry.

The virus is spreading at a time of raging war and a political crisis that has stalled governance in Afghanistan. Impoverished, with its health and nutrient systems gutted by the conflict, the country has always been extremely vulnerable.

The first positive case was reported in Herat Province, which shares a large border with Iran and is the main entry point to Afghanistan. Now, six other provinces have also reported cases of the virus, raising fears that infections have spread across the country without containment.

Much of the fear stems from the fact that Afghanistan hasn’t even been able to get the situation in the worst-hit province under control, with medical staff lacking some of the most basic equipment and government officials decrying the continuing flow of people from Iran and the lack of funding.

“We are in a situation where the politicians and even some parts of the government don’t feel how grave the danger is,” Abdul Qayoum Rahimi, Herat’s governor, said on Saturday. “If we don’t start acting, I am afraid there might come a day where we can’t even collect the dead."

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

The very prospect of being quarantined seemed to terrify patients. At the Shaidahe Hospital in Herat, 38 patients attacked staff members late Monday, then fled the hospital as police stood by.

Only one of the 38 patients had tested positive for the virus, said Dr. Abdul Hakim Tamana, director of public health for Herat Province. He said that 18 patients remained quarantined at Shaidahe Hospital.

A day earlier, a patient in Balkh Province in northern Afghanistan who had tested positive for the virus fled a hospital in the middle of the night to return home to his family, officials said.

Mr. Rahimi lamented the fact that Herat Province still lacked basic funding. The central government, in a meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani two weeks ago, announced that it had allocated $25 million for measures to prevent the spread of the virus and that a large share of it would be spent on Herat. But Mr. Rahimi said his province had only received $130,000 — and that sum hadn’t officially hit Herat’s accounts yet.

“We have had to borrow from companies to supply our hospitals,” he said.

In Herat, the doctors at the regional hospital that have dealt with processing the suspected cases said they were simply overwhelmed already. On Sunday, they had no masks until 11 a.m.

“I haven’t gotten close to my own wife and children after I came from work, isolating myself in a room in case I am carrying it since we didn’t have the right equipment,” said one doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing government retaliation. “When we say we are facing a shortage of equipment and that our staff is low, the officials say you can work or you can resign.”

The virus could also derail efforts to start direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

That process was already complicated. For weeks now, Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, has been in Kabul to try to work out a compromise over releasing thousands of Taliban prisoners, which the Afghan government has resisted, and getting the divided Afghan factions to agree on a united negotiating team.

The direct negotiations were scheduled to begin on March 10, with Qatar, Norway, and Germany talked about as likely hosts of the talks. Now, between the ongoing political crisis in Kabul and the advent of travel restrictions around the world because of the coronavirus, it is unclear when the talks could start even if the Afghan government side got back on track.

Mr. Ghani’s government had canceled large gatherings before his planned March 9 inauguration out of a fear of spread of the virus, and has continued that ban since. But thousands were invited to the palace for the oath-taking. Mr. Abdullah, a medical doctor who has disputed Mr. Ghani’s victory and declared a parallel government, held his own inauguration next door, which was also attended by thousands.

Social distancing is already a difficult task in a deeply communal society where homes often contain several generations of family members.

There were concerns that the American-led military coalition might also be exposed to the virus in Afghanistan.

A U.S. defense official said while any military personnel at risk of flulike symptoms have access to on-base medical care, COVID-19 tests were not available for them in Afghanistan. Samples of anyone with high-risk symptoms would be sent to labs in Germany. A batch of 300 U.S. soldiers who had returned from Afghanistan are being quarantined at Fort Bragg for 14 days, said Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the unit.

The task of distancing is even harder for soldiers amid a raging war. The Taliban is a guerrilla force, spread in small bands of dozens of fighters. But the Afghan Army and police are a regular force distributed in close quarters in bases, barracks, and dining halls of hundreds and thousands. They might be one of the most vulnerable groups, their immune systems weakened by exhaustion and poor diets and hygiene.

Interviews with members of the security forces around the country showed a clear split between what their officers and generals were saying on measures being taken, and what the soldiers were actually seeing. Many senior officials said they had started supplying the barracks with disinfectants, and canceling large gatherings. The soldiers said they hadn’t seen much beyond simple posters on personal hygiene taped in some barracks.

“How can anyone help us on the front lines? My personnel is busy fighting, surrounded by the enemy. God knows they don’t even know that coronavirus is spreading,” said Maj. Gulzar Kohi, who leads the Afghan Army unit in a restive district of northern Baghlan Province.

Major Kohi said his fighters had faced constant fire from the Taliban over several days, with the previous night’s battle, which left two of his men dead, lasting until the early hours of the morning.

“Coronavirus be damned,” said the major, who said he hadn’t slept in two days. “I am busy fighting another virus — the Taliban.”

Mujib Mashal and Najim Rahim reported from Kabul, and Asadullah Timory from Herat. Reporting was contributed by David Zucchino, Fahim Abed, and Fatima Faizi in Kabul, Taimoor Shah in Kandahar and Farooq Jan Mangal in Khost.

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2020-03-16 14:15:32Z
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Israel's president tasks Netanyahu rival Gantz with forming government - Reuters

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz received an official mandate on Monday to try to form Israel’s next government, and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join him in a unity administration.

In a sharp blow to Netanyahu, who had declared victory in a March 2 election, 61 of parliament’s 120 legislators voiced support for Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, in consultations with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday.

At a televised ceremony, Rivlin gave Gantz 28 days, with the option of a two-week extension, to assemble a ruling coalition.

But Gantz’s backers include opposing forces - the Joint List of Arab parties, and the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu faction led by former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman - that complicate efforts to form a viable government without wider support.

Netanyahu and Lieberman have proposed a six-month “national emergency government” grouping Blue and White and the prime minister’s right-wing Likud party, to confront the coronavirus crisis.

“I give you my word, I will do all in my ability to establish within a few days as broad and patriotic a government as possible,” Gantz said at the nomination ceremony, without going into details.

Israel has held three inconclusive elections in less than a year, and Netanyahu faces a criminal indictment on corruption charges, which he denies.

Gantz, who in failed coalition negotiations with Netanyahu after a national ballot in September insisted on serving first as prime minister in a “rotating” leadership arrangement, called on his rival to agree to a unity deal now.

“The time has come for an end to empty words,” Gantz said at the ceremony. “It’s time to set aside our swords and unite our tribes and defeat hatred.”

Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-16 14:20:52Z
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Trump claims coronavirus is under control -- contradicting reality and his own top expert - CNN

The fresh sign of Trump's unwillingness to accept the full, sobering reality of the outbreak came as an anxious America knuckles down to its new self-isolating reality. The country is bracing for the full fury of the virus that is already escalating sharply and is set to subject the foundations of basic life — the nation's health care, economic and political systems — to a fateful test.

The number of US infections raced up to at least 3,485, including 65 deaths, up more than 500 cases in a day and up from a case load of 457 a week ago, showing how the crisis, that may not reach its peak for weeks, is accelerating.

Among his tweets on coronavirus Sunday, Trump suggested that his entire focus was not on the national emergency: He tweeted that he was thinking about a full pardon for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI.

Earlier that day, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, warned that the US could face a similar crisis as Italy if citizens do not fully embrace self-isolation and social distancing, which are designed to flatten the curve of infections.

Asked whether hundreds of thousands of Americans could die, Fauci said on CNN's "State of the Union": "It could happen, and it could be worse." Fauci added that the limits on public life were designed to "try and make that not happen."

"If we go about our daily lives and not worry about everything," the death toll could be high, Fauci said. "People sometimes think that I'm overreacting. I like it when people are thinking I'm overreacting because that means we're doing it just right." Fauci also said he had not ruled out calling for a national lockdown in order to stem the spread of the virus.

The administration is expected to release new guidelines on social distancing -- for instance relating to bars and restaurants -- on Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday recommended not holding gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. The White House Correspondents Association, which is urging its members to work from home when possible, has instituted a seating arrangement in which every other chair in the briefing room is vacant, and there are mandatory temperature checks for anyone seeking to enter White House grounds.

But serious questions remain over whether Trump's administration -- which was slow to recognize the threat, mischaracterized its impact and seemed most concerned about mitigating political damage -- has now got the federal act together.

Trump flagrantly contradicted Fauci's warnings at a White House briefing Sunday at which he celebrated the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates to 0% to help the shocked economy.

"It's a very contagious virus, it's incredible, but it's something we have tremendous control of," the President said.

Listen to the CNN Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction podcast with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta here.

In a possible indication of how Trump's repeated misinformation is having an impact, a new poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal Sunday showed that while seven in 10 Democrats are worried that they or someone in their family may catch the coronavirus, only 40% of Republicans, who are more likely to believe what they hear from the President and in conservative media, feel the same.

Trump's upbeat predictions about the coronavirus crisis did not just contrast with Fauci's warnings, they also clashed with the conditions being experienced by local officials.

"We have been behind on this disease since day one," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, told Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."

"I believe on any projection that that flattening of the curve is not going to be enough. I don't see it as a curve. I see it as a wave. And the wave is going to crash on to our hospital system."

The coronavirus also dominated the opening exchanges of the CNN Democratic presidential debate on Sunday evening -- with former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders standing six feet apart in a Washington studio to comply with government health guidelines -- both arguing they would be far better at handling the pandemic than Trump.

"This is like a war, and in a war you do whatever is needed to be done to take care of your people," Biden said.

Sanders was scathing about Trump's handling of the crisis.

"First thing we have got to do, whether or not I'm president, is to shut this President up right now, because he's undermining the doctors and the scientists who are trying to help the American people," Sanders said. "It is unacceptable for him to be blabbering with un-factual information, which is confusing the general public."

Progress on testing logjam

One of the big criticisms of the administration's effort has been that it failed to make millions of coronavirus testing kits available sufficiently quickly.

Vice President Mike Pence announced Sunday that as of this week, more than 2,000 labs would come online nationwide with high-speed testing facilities.

He said that the new system would allow all Americans who need to be tested to go to a community site outside their normal health networks for testing. Officials asked that those at highest risk, the elderly and patients with pre-existing conditions be given priority.

Top officials were still unable to give full figures Sunday on how many Americans have now been tested after the disastrously slow roll out of diagnosis kits. The lack of clarity is seriously hampering efforts to keep pace with the disease.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine suggested on CNN's "State of the Union" that an estimated 100,000 undiagnosed infections could already have happened in his state alone.

"We have got a lot of people walking around in Ohio who are positive who've not been tested. Some don't know it. Some may never know it," the Republican governor said.

Despite his calls for national unity, Trump exploded at the media on Sunday after it emerged that his announcement that Google would quickly open a national virus testing website was at best premature and at worst highly misleading.

"The Fake and Corrupt News never called Google. They said this was not true. Even in times such as these, they are not truthful. Watch for their apology, it won't happen. More importantly, thank you to Google!" Trump tweeted.

The President, as is his custom, managed to make the story of coronavirus all about him this weekend. A White House reversal led him to get tested for the disease after interacting with several people last weekend who have since been diagnosed with COVID-19. Happily, the President, who shook hands with top CEOs at a press conference on Friday in contravention of his own government's advice, tested negative for the novel coronavirus, according to the White House.

While Trump's response has been marked by chaos and confusion -- The Washington Post on Sunday reported internal power games raging in the White House over the virus -- true leaders have been emerging all over the country. Governors, mayors and local officials have been making timely, high-stakes decisions and providing accurate information that sometimes surpasses that dispensed in White House briefings, which remain filled with self-congratulation and fawning praise for the President.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin solved one of the big questions of the Trump era: will the bitter recriminations between the White House and Congress -- especially in the wake of the impeachment drama -- stop both sides working together in a time of national crisis?

Mnuchin and Pelosi swapped multiple calls late last week brokering an economic stimulus plan that includes money for sick workers and small businesses hurt by the crisis. The Senate is expected to act on the package this week. The Speaker also said an additional plan for economic mitigation was already on the way.

And the White House is likely to ask Congress this week for another round of funding specifically for the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Veterans Affairs, two White House officials told CNN. Administration officials have discussed relying on the VA to supplement the broader health care system by taking care of civilians in the event the coronavirus crisis worsens.

New problems emerged with the federal authorities' response to the crisis over the weekend, which caused fresh tension with local political leaders.

Meanwhile, the massive lines at airports -- with passengers returning from abroad huddled in unhealthy crowds for virus screening -- suggest the government was unprepared for Trump's sudden orders.

"I want to make known my strong concerns and disappointments with the federal government's lack of preparedness in issuing new directives regarding airport screening," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that a White House staffer called to yell at him after he complained about the long lines at O'Hare airport.

"They should have increased the Customs and Border Patrol numbers. And they should have increased the number of CDC personnel on the ground doing those checks. They did neither of those," the Democratic governor said.

Trump asks Americans not to besiege supermarkets

Hospitals and medical staff are awaiting a spike in patients unsure whether they have sufficient breathing machines and intensive care beds for a rush of gravely ill patients.

Fauci said that in the worst case scenario he wants to prevent there may not be sufficient ventilators available for patients who need them.

"That's when you're going to have to make some very tough decisions," he told CNN's Brianna Keilar.

Fauci's sobering comments came as the fabric of everyday American life ebbed in the biggest economic and societal shutdown of the modern age.

DeWine suggested schools in his state could be out for the rest of the academic year. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an order outlawing price gouging of items like cleansing and disinfecting supplies that are in high demand.

City authorities in Washington, D.C., introduced new restrictions meant to cut down on the numbers of people in bars and restaurants after large crowds were out celebrating St. Patrick's Day over the weekend.

A trade group representing food and retail companies like Clorox, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo told the State Department and the US Trade Representative they fear other countries cutting off exports to the US, which could exacerbate the public health emergency.

The group is particularly concerned about countries restricting chemicals, ingredients and products they manufacture from getting to the US.

Trump held a call with grocery, food and beverage corporate leaders on Sunday about supply chain concerns.

He urged Americans to stop besieging stores after a weekend in which basic staples like pasta, meat, toilet paper rolls and cleaning products vanished from supermarket shelves.

CNN's Sarah Westwood and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

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2020-03-16 13:48:58Z
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Satoshi Uematsu, worker who fatally stabbed 19 disabled people in Japan, sentenced to hang - CBS News

A Japanese court on Monday sentenced a former care home employee to hang for knifing to death 19 disabled people and injuring two dozen others in the deadliest mass attack in post World War II Japan. The Yokohama District Court convicted Satoshi Uematsu of the killings and of injuring 24 other residents and two caregivers at the Yamayuri-en residential center in July 2016.

During the investigation and trial, Uematsu repeatedly said he had no regrets and was trying to help the world by killing people he thought were burdens. Advocacy groups said the suspect's views reflected a persistent prejudice in Japan against people with disabilities.

The trial focused on his mental state at the time of the crime. Chief Judge Kiyoshi Aonuma dismissed defense requests to acquit him because he was mentally incompetent due to a marijuana overdose.

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"The attacks were premeditated, and the defendant was acting consistently to achieve his goal," Aonuma said, according to NHK public television.

Satoshi Uematsu, suspected of a deadly attack at a facility for the disabled, is seen inside a police car as he is taken to prosecutors, at Tsukui police station in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 27, 2016. KYODO / REUTERS

"The crime, which took the lives of 19 people, was extremely heinous and caused damage that is incomparable to any other case," he was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

Uematsu, his long hair tied in a pony tail and wearing a dark suit, listened as the judge delivered the ruling, according to drawings by an artist in the courtroom. After the judge declared an end to the session, Uematsu raised his hand seeking permission to speak, but was not allowed to do so.

Prosecutors said Uematsu's motive came from his biases and work experience at the home and not from use of marijuana. They said Uematsu was mentally competent and should take responsibility for his actions.

The killings mirrored a plot described in a letter that Uematsu had tried to give to a parliamentary leader months prior to the attack. He quit his job at the Yamayuri-en facility after being confronted about the letter and was committed to psychiatric care, but was released within two weeks, officials have said.

Uematsu, 30, told medical staff and officials that he was influenced by the ideas of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, whose killings of disabled people were seen as intended to improve the perceived master race.

Japan maintains the death penalty despite growing international criticism. A government survey showed an overwhelming majority of the public supports executions. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven industrialized nations that retain capital punishment.

Executions are carried out in high secrecy in Japan, where prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged. Since 2007, Japan has begun releasing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.

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2020-03-16 12:37:59Z
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Live updates: Coronavirus deaths pass 6,500 worldwide - CNN

Ryanair and Easy Jet planes are seen at John Paul II Krakow-Balice International Airport in Krakow, Poland, on Sunday. Credit: Artur Widak/NurPhoto Getty Images

Airlines are calling on governments across the globe to take further measures over the "unprecedented challenges" faced by the industry during the coronavirus outbreak.

Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance, which represent almost 60 airlines between them, said they were “jointly calling on governments and stakeholders to take action to alleviate the unprecedented challenges faced by the global airline industry amid the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The statement urged governments “to prepare for the broad economic effects from actions taken by states to contain the spread of Covid-19, and to evaluate all possible means to assist the airline industry."

The alliances called on airport operators to evaluate landing charges and fees "to mitigate the financial pressure faced by airlines due to a severe decline in passenger demand.” They welcomed recent moves by some regulators to temporarily suspend slot regulations and urged others to follow suit.

The International Air Transport Association estimates up to $113 billion in revenue losses for global passenger airlines. The alliances warned that the forecasted revenue loss does not include travel restrictions recently imposed by the US and other countries.

European low-cost carrier Ryanair said that it could not rule out the full grounding of its aircraft fleet as a result of the coronavirus.

The airline said in a press release Monday that travel restrictions “many of which have been imposed without notice” have had a significant negative impact, and it expected the result would be the grounding of the majority of its aircraft across Europe over the next seven to 10 days.

"We are working with our people and our unions across all EU countries to address this extraordinary and unprecedented Covid-19 event," the company said.

Ryanair said it was taking immediate action to reduce expenses by freezing recruitment and discretionary spending, implementing voluntary leave options, temporarily suspending employment contracts, and making significant reductions to working hours and payments.

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2020-03-16 12:30:25Z
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