As Haitian government officials intensify their efforts to inform and prepare the nation for the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world, residents of Petionville, a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince, seemed woefully uninformed about the deadly disease.“Do you know how people get infected with coronavirus?” a woman who didn’t want to appear on camera asked VOA Creole’s reporter. “It’s the result of too many sins. That’s why the disease is spreading worldwide. This is God’s way of punishing us.”Louis Jeune François believes the coronavirus is a conspiracy. (Matiado Vilme/VOA)Louis Jeune Francois, a voodoo worshiper who had just attended a service believes the pandemic is a conspiracy.“There are 21 families which rule the world. Maybe they feel the population is too big, so they found a way to reduce it. They created a virus to kill a group of people,” he said. “They especially want the virus to kill people in the poorest countries.”This woman told VOA Creole she doesn’t believe the coronavirus only targets people who practice certain religions. (Matiado Vilme/VOA)Another voodoo worshiper told VOA she doesn’t believe coronavirus has anything to do with black magic.“Coronavirus isn’t just a hex on Haiti, don’t you see China is infected with the virus too?” she said. “People who are blaming it on religion are wrong, the virus targets both Protestants and Pagans. You just need to be cautious.”Another man who didn’t want to be identified seemed to understand the basics.“From what I understand, the coronavirus is a virus. It’s a virus that’s transmitted through the air,” he said.Asked what preventative measures they can take to avoid being infected, residents offered various solutions.“Don’t shake hands, fist bump instead,” one man suggested.This market vendor says hand-washing and avoiding touching your face can keep you healthy, March 12, 2020. (Matiado Vilme/VOA)“Wash your hands, don’t touch your mouth, don’t pick your nose, use a handkerchief,” a woman selling clothing at the local open air market advised.“I don’t buy this washing hands thing,” another man said. “Of course you have to wash your hands, because if your hand is dirty you won’t be able to use it. I was brought up to do that. But some people say you should eat limes, eat local fruits, because they are natural (and won’t harm your health).”Expanding on the homeopathic remedy idea, a man told VOA he heard there are vegetable leaves you can boil to protect yourself from the virus.“Boiling leaves is part of our culture,” he said.This man had accurate information about how the pandemic spreads but also believes consuming certain boiled plants can protect him from being infected. (Matiado Vilme/VOA)Most people VOA Creole spoke to said the government should act more responsibly to inform the nation about the virus.“Haiti is a free country, people do whatever they want here, but there are countries where planes are not allowed to land, transportation is restricted, but here there are no restrictions that I’m aware of,” a woman shopping at the open air market said. “We have no protections whatsoever. We’re in God’s hands.”“If the government forbids groups of 500 people or more to meet, I will know that if I see that happening I should not attend,” one man said. “But if the number they give is 1,000 or 2,000 then I’ll go ahead and attend because it’s hard to get that many people in one place around here.”Haiti’s Public Health Minister Marie Greta Roy Clement announced Wednesday that the government has stepped up efforts to keep coronavirus out. The measures include screening at the nation’s airports and official border crossings, training for health professionals and journalists, and public service announcements airing on radio and television.Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
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Haiti’s public health minister says there are at least 941 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the Americas, as the virus continues to spread globally.“In the Dominican Republic, there are nine confirmed cases,” Marie Greta Roy Clement told reporters on Wednesday. “But I’d like to note that the cases in the Dominican Republic are imported cases, meaning the patients came from foreign countries. There has not yet been — according to my conversations with my Dominican counterpart — any community transmission of the disease.”Clement said this is particularly important for Haiti, which shares a border with the Dominican Republic.According to the health minister, Haiti has no suspected nor confirmed cases of the virus on its territory — as of yet. She said additional measures have been rolled out to protect the country.Haiti Public Health Minister Marie Greta Roy Clément briefs reporters on the latest Coronavirus measures, March 12, 2020 in Port au Prince, Haiti. (Renan Toussaint / VOA Creole)Airports, official border crossingsThe Caribbean nation’s two international airports — in Port-au-Prince and Cape Haitian — are screening incoming passengers for the virus, Clement said.“When a passenger arrives at the airport — no matter where you are coming from — your temperature will be taken and you will be given a form to fill out,” she said. “We also hand out a sanitary information form which provides information about who to call, how to protect yourself and what to do if you experience symptoms.”The minister said at Haiti’s official border crossings, additional measures have been implemented to thoroughly screen travelers.“As you know we have four official entry points, but there are more than 200 unofficial crossings,” Clement noted. “At the four official border crossings — at Malpasse, Ouanaminthe, Belladere, and Anse a Pitre — we are screening travelers using the same methods the airports are using and we are intensifying our efforts there.”TrainingClement said Haiti’s Health Ministry is also providing coronavirus training this week to doctors, nurses and journalists.“On Saturday [March 14] we will be training health professionals at the nation’s private hospitals — because we can’t expect patients to only be seen at the state-run hospitals — so we will continue working with the private hospitals to get them ready,” she said.Health professionals who were previously trained on infectious diseases will be working with local officials in the country’s 10 departments to brief them on best practices with regards to the new virus.“We trained CMI’s [Infectious Disease Coordinators] who will take a leadership role in training the different departmental officials on how to deal with coronavirus cases,” she said.Immigration agents also received training on detecting possible cases of the virus and what questions to ask visitors to determine whether or not they pose a potential health risk.  Hospital workers fear outbreakDr. Jacques Mackenzie says the General Hospital is ill equipped to handle Coronavirus patients. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)News of the intensified efforts in Haiti comes after doctors and nurses at the state-run General Hospital in the capital decried their own lack of preparedness.“It’s sad to say this but the hospital receives a lot of patients daily and we are not — I repeat — we are not ready, as far as I know, to diagnose a person who has the coronavirus,” Dr. Jacques Mackenzie told VOA Creole, adding that they don’t even have the test to determine if someone is infected.Nurse Marie Catherine is disappointed in the lack of communication and support from the Public Health Ministry. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)Marie Catherine, a nurse at the hospital, told VOA she was unaware of the Health Ministry’s directives.“We are already working under conditions that are not normal for most hospitals and now it’s gotten worse,” Catherine said. “The Ministry of Public Health has never discussed with us its policy for what to do when we receive the first coronavirus case in Haiti.”Haiti’s hospitals were hit hard during the mass anti-government and anti-corruption protests last year, during which roads were barricaded, public sanitation employees stayed home and basic supplies were critically low.Greater visibilitySince last week’s outcry, the Haitian government has been more visible on social media, with regards to coronavirus prevention and news. The presidential press secretary, Eddy Jackson Alexis, has been posting alerts on his official Twitter account.The health minister said the government has established a second emergency telephone line — 116 (equivalent to 911 in the U.S.) and that they are working on a third emergency line that citizens can call at no charge, for information on the virus.“What is most important with regards to this pandemic is notifying the public,” Clement told the press. “We have public information announcements airing on TV and radio with advice on how to wash your hands, avoid touching your face, eyes and mouth and what are the best practices when coughing or sneezing to avoid infecting others.”Clement also advised social distancing as a way of preventing the possible spread of the virus.
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Speculation about the political future of Russian President Vladimir Putin became somewhat clearer this week.  He threw his weight behind proposals to amend Russia’s current constitutional cap on presidential term limits  — a move that would allow him to stay in power beyond the end of his current term in 2024. Charles Maynes reports.
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French airlines expect to lose business as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend travel from Europe to the United States for a month because of the coronavirus outbreak. Transatlantic flights are among the most profitable parts of  Air France-KLM’s business.Air France alone serves more than 20 American cities and operates more than 200 flights to the United States per week. The alliance between Air France-KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic produces combined annual revenue of $13 billion. With the U.S. decision, hope vanishes for tourism officials who wanted to see a reverse in the travel decline from Asia and Europe to North America.About 100,000 French nationals were set to travel to the U.S. in March and April.Shocking developmentValerie Boned, the secretary-general of Enterprises de Voyage, an advocacy group representing travel agencies in France, told VOA the U.S. move was a disaster.She said professionals were quite shocked by the announcement because the United States is one of the main destinations for French people. According to Boned, 1.8 million French citizens travel to the U.S. each year, for leisure or business. It is the No. 1 long-haul destination for the French. Others fear the travel ban for EU citizens to the United States will affect employment, as the travel sector has been fragile for weeks because of the outbreak. René-Marc Chikli, president of SETO, the French union for tour-operating companies, said he was expecting America’s decision to implement a travel ban on EU citizens, because the virus has no boundaries. But it’s still an economic shock. Tour operators represent 3,000 companies and 35,000 employees in France. He indicated that more 10% of the companies might not survive if the crisis lasts for months. Tourism industry leaders will be meeting Friday with French government officials to try to find ways to get relief to the travel sector.
 
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“Lemon trees, like Italians, seem to be happiest when they are touching one another,” wrote British novelist D.H. Lawrence in his travelogue, “Sea and Sardinia.” The lemon trees are still touching, but now the unspoken rule for people is non toccare (no touching).This month, many Italians started pulling off mesh and plastic covers from their lemon trees, no longer worried that they need insulation from frost — a collective unveiling marking the end of winter and traditionally preluding warm sun and glorious Mediterranean summer days ahead.But other traditions have been banished by the coronavirus, and the Italian government’s desperate bid to counter its spread, from no touching to no hugging and absolutely no demonstrative light cheek kissing, otherwise known as il bacetto.Another unusual sight is to see Italians taking their place orderly in line.  To enter food stores Italians are standing the required one meter apart, and all this standing in line is without the usual feints and excuses to jump ahead.’Stay at home’When Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Monday his restrictive “stay-at-home” measures to halt the transmission of the virus, an Italian neighbor confided to me her doubts that it would work as “unfortunately the Italians are very unruly and indisciplined.”That so far has turned out not to be the case.A caregiver (R) keeps her distance from an elderly woman whom she looks after, on the balcony of the woman’s home in Rome, March 11, 2020.When the virus first started to appear last month, many Italians in the center and south of the country deemed the threat far enough away to cause them little alarm. Many looked at what was unfolding in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto as though they were observing a distant planet through a telescope.But as the numbers mounted and the death rate surged, the attitude altered, the mood darkened and the panic shopping started, in spurts at first, depending on the latest case numbers announced each evening by the top officials of the country’s Civil Protection Agency. Their nightly announcement is now the most watched program on Italian television.Prior to Prime Minister Conte locking down the country, many of the young dismissed the threat as overblown, and continued with carefree lives, going out at night and heading to bars and clubs. Their parents and elders, though, were already taking note, and starting to maintain social distance by reducing their sorties from their homes, except to shop and for the daily run of going to and from work.But now, even the young are cautious about venturing out — and not only because of the government decree, summed up by Conte as “I stay at home.””People are staying in because there’s so much fear,” says Michela Bianchi, a university student studying journalism in the Lazio town of Viterbo, north of Rome. “An atmosphere has been created that goes beyond the fear of contagion. We hope everything will pass quickly, but in the meantime it is right to observe all the provisions they have given us,” she added.A woman wearing a protective mask stands in front of a notice recommending to keep the social distance of 1 meter between people, at the Leonardo da Vinci international airport, in Rome, March 12, 2020.Past lessonsNo one wants to catch Coronavirus or to be accused of spreading it — inadvertently or otherwise. The lessons of the past are being remembered — lessons about contagion taught them in the books that were required reading at school.One of the most cited now is Alessandro Manzoni’s 1840 novel “The Betrothed” (“I Promessi Sposi”), which is set against the backdrop of an awful plague that struck the villages around Milan and then advanced into the city itself in 1630. Manzoni outlines the mistakes that allowed the pestilence to spread, from the outlying villages of the contadini [peasants] to the Milanese.He notes that when news of the sickness reached the city “anyone might suppose that there would be a general stir of disquiet, a clamor for precautions of some kind [whatever their real value] to be taken … But one of the few points about which all the memoirs of the time agree is that there was nothing of the kind … Anyone who mentioned the danger of the pestilence, whether in the streets, the shops or in private houses — anyone who even mentioned the word ‘plague’ — was greeted with incredulous mockery or angry contempt.”Fatally, the city’s governor allowed public festivities and mass gatherings to continue, a mistake Conte has not made, who on Wednesday tightened his measures, ordering the shuttering of all shops, except for food stores and pharmacists, and the closure of bars and restaurants.A waiter stands by empty tables outside a restaurant at St Mark’s Square, which is usually full of tourists, after Italy’s government adopted a decree with new emergency measures to contain the coronavirus, in Venice, Italy, March 5, 2020.Al frescoSo, Italy’s streets are unpeopled — a contradiction of how life is lived in Italy, which, aside from the worst of the winter months, is pursued outside, on terraces with neighbors, and in the piazzas with friends. Now if you dawdle on the streets of Rome or Milan, police demand to see your travel papers and hurry you on, telling you to move quickly as though lingering will invite a viral bombardment.Conte has tired to keep up the spirits of Italians, while warning them results of the unprecedented lock-down of the country will take at least two weeks to start bearing fruit.Midweek, he told them in a nation-wide address: “At this moment the whole world is looking at us: they certainly look at us for the numbers of the infection, they see a country that is in difficulty but they also appreciate us because we are showing great rigor, great resistance and I have a deep conviction, I would like to share it, not only will they look at us again and admire us, they will take us as a positive example of a country that, thanks to its sense of community, has managed to win its battle against this pandemic.”Other countries have followed the Italian model — Denmark shut down this week, Ireland closed all schools and universities Thursday. Most European countries have, or are, moving quickly from a strategy focused on containment and trying to keep the virus from their borders, to one of delay and mitigation in a bid to “flatten the curve” of confirmed cases.  Passengers sit at distance from each others on a tram in Milan, Italy, March 12, 2020.Wired worldThey hope this approach will avoid large spikes that risk overwhelming hard-pressed hospitals so that doctors have to make shocking life-and-death decisions about who gets critical-care treatment and who doesn’t. Italian doctors say containment is a thing of the past — “the tsunami is coming,” one tells me, “and it will hit America, too, where there’s already evidence of people being infected who never traveled or had contact with anyone who did. Get ready, get prepared,” he says.The upending of the rhythms of Italian life at least are mellowed by the internet.“I’m working from home,” a friend said on her Facebook page. “In the end, thanks to that progress that often scares us, you can do everything or almost everything with a click — video calls, conference calls, meetings, shopping, news, pastimes,” mother-of-two Patrizia Miano wrote.She added: “But the quarantine has just started and I already feel suffocated. We are not used to the limitations. Only now do we understand the value of saying, ‘I am going to the sea,’ or ‘I am go skiing,’ or I am going for a walk.’ I want to smell the grass. I hope this experience really serves to make us human again, to stop believing that we are omnipotent and that nothing can touch us.” 
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quarantining himself at home after his wife exhibited flu-like symptoms.
    
Trudeau’s office said Thursday that Sophie Gregoire Trudeau returned from a speaking engagement in Britain and had mild flu-like symptoms, including a low fever late, Wednesday night.
    
She is being tested for the COVID-19 disease and is awaiting results. Her symptoms have since subsided.
     
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Prime Minister is opting to self-isolate and work from home until receiving Sophie’s results,” the statement said.
    
His office said the doctor’s advice to the prime minister is to continue daily activities while self-monitoring, given that he is exhibiting no symptoms himself. He is spending the day in briefings, phone calls, and virtual meetings from home, including speaking with other world leaders and joining a special cabinet committee discussion on the new coronavirus.
    
Trudeau has also cancelled an in-person meeting with Canada’s provincial premiers.
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German authorities are formally placing parts of the far-right Alternative for Germany party under surveillance after classifying it as extremist, the country’s domestic intelligence agency said Thursday.Thomas Haldenwang, head of the BfV intelligence agency, said that after more than a year of examination his office has concluded that a radical faction within Alternative for Germany, known as “The Wing,” meets the definition of a “right-wing extremist movement.”“This is a warning to all enemies of democracy,” said Haldenwang, noting that it was his agency’s duty to prevent growing far-right extremism from overthrowing the country’s democratic order the way the Nazis did in the 1930s.Alternative for Germany immediately criticized the move, which allows authorities to use covert methods to observe The Wing and its estimated 7,000 supporters. They make up about 20% of the party’s overall membership but hold significant sway over its direction, according to former party members including its one-time leader Frauke Petry.The Wing is led by AfD’s regional chiefs in the eastern states of Thuringia and Brandenburg, Bjoern Hoecke and Andreas Kalbitz.Haldenwang described Hoecke and Kalbitz as “right-wing extremists,” noting Hoecke’s historical revisionism, his anti-Islam and anti-immigrant rhetoric and his close ties to other known extremists outside of the party. Hoecke has described Berlin’s memorial to the victims of the Nazi Holocaust a “monument of shame” and called for a “180-degree turn” in the way Germany remembers its Nazi past.“We mustn’t just keep an eye on violent extremists but also watch those who use words to spark fires,” said Haldenwang, adding that anti-Semitism, hatred of Islam and racism spread online or in political arenas provides the “breeding ground” for violence.Germany has been shaken by a series of far-right killings over the past year, including the slaying of a regional politician from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, the attack on a synagogue in Halle and a deadly mass shooting targeting people with migrant backgrounds in Hanau.“Right-wing extremism and terrorism are currently the biggest threats to democracy in Germany,” Haldenwang told reporters, adding that more than 200 people have been killed by right-wing extremists in the country since 1990.Kalbitz, the AfD leader in Brandenburg, called the intelligence agency’s decision “factually unfounded and completely politically motivated.”Putting The Wing under increased surveillance could strengthen calls for it to be banned. Germany’s top court rejected a bid to outlaw the far-right NPD party in 2017, deeming it too insignificant in part because it had no presence in parliament. Alternative for Germany, by contrast, has seats in all 16 state assemblies and the federal parliament.Intelligence scrutiny of the The Wing could also have consequences for any supporters who are civil servants or state employees. “They will get into trouble” with their superiors in the future because the AfD faction’s aims run counter to the German Constitution they swore to uphold, Haldenwang said.
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The European Central Bank deploying new stimulus measures to cushion the economic pain inflicted by the virus outbreak, but avoided cutting interest rates in a situation where economists say monetary policy can do little more than limit the damage.The central bank for the 19 countries that use the euro decided Thursday to buy up to 120 billion euros ($132 billion) more in bonds this year.The money is newly created and injected into the financial system. It comes on top of purchases worth 20 billion euros a month it is already carrying out, and would be aimed at corporate bonds, which should help keep credit available to companies.The ECB is also providing additional cheap, long-term loans to banks to make sure they have the liquidity they need. And the ECB will temporarily ease some capital requirements for banks to help them keep lending.It’s all aimed at helping businesses get the financing they need and stimulating activity to offset the downturn from all the closings and restrictions due to the virus outbreak.The central bank did not cut interest rates as many analysts had expected. Rates are already low and economists have said deeper cuts might not help much.Thursday’s steps “will do no more than cushion the blow to the economy from the coronavirus,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Economics. “Monetary policy is powerless to prevent a deep downturn and, unlike in the U.S. and China, it has little scope to support the recovery afterwards.”The move comes as the eurozone is forecast to slide into recession and financial markets keep falling over concerns about the virus outbreak’s hit to the economy. Concerns deepened after the U.S. decided to halt travel from 26 European countries.The bank’s policy meeting was held without several members of the 25-seat governing council physically present and participating by remote conferencing. Italian central bank head Ignazio Visco is among them since his country, so far the hardest hit in Europe by the virus outbreak, has restricted movement. The central bank governors of Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are also taking part by remote.Economists are saying that the impact of the virus outbreak is difficult to address with monetary policy, since it first and foremost deals a shock to the supply of goods and services. Monetary policy is better equipped to stimulate demand, not supply, by making credit more widely available.Central bank action is aimed at limiting the damage from knock-on effects of business interruption. More abundant and targeted credit could help businesses get through a period of interruption without going out of business.The Bank of England cut its key benchmark to 0.25% from 0.75% on Wednesday; the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark by a half-percentage point to 1.0-1.25% on March 3.Meanwhile governments are developing plans for targeted stimulus through tax breaks or labor market assistance programs.Italy is earmarking 25 billion euros ($28 billion) in new spending and Britain said it would make 30 billion pounds ($39 billion) available.The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to ease eligibility requirements for a program in which the government helps pay workers who are put on shorter hours by their companies. That could help companies rebound quickly after the outbreak passes because they will have avoided layoffs and would not need to reassemble a trained workforce.Yet European rules limiting debt and deficits for members of the euro currency may restrict what governments can do. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that the maximum flexibility available in the rules will be applied.The commission has started a longer-term review of the rules themselves, but economist Rosie Colthorpe at Oxford Economics said any changes would not come before 2021. “This leaves the eurozone ill-prepared to deliver a forceful and coordinated fiscal response to the looming coronavirus-related downturn.”“There is a chance that a serious recession would trigger meaningful reform, but for now the onus will remain on the ECB, despite its increasingly depleted arsenal,” Colthorpe said. 
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The World Health Organization Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, with 114 countries confirming cases, while the United States announced a European travel ban and the National Basketball Association said its games are on hold for now.“In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquarters, March 11, 2020, in Geneva.Tedros warned that the worst is yet to come with the WHO “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.“In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of COVID-19 cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries to climb even higher,” he said.Tedros said his organization has “rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” and that countries “can still change the course of this pandemic.”Trump announces new measures U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday night, declaring “the virus will not have a chance against us,” and announcing a 30-day suspension of all travel from Europe to the United States, starting Friday. Travel from the United Kingdom is exempt, as are U.S. citizens, legal residents and their immediate families.Trump also announced financial relief for people and businesses affected by the virus.The U.S. State Department issued updated guidance Wednesday advising Americans to “reconsider travel abroad” because of the coronavirus outbreak.Dr. Anthony Fauci, left, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a House committee hearing on preparedness for and response to the coronavirus outbreak on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 11, 2020.There are more than 1,200 confirmed cases in the United States. When there were just 15 cases last month, Trump said that number would soon drop to zero. It has since spread to about 40 of the 50 U.S. states. Thirty-eight people have died.The first confirmed case in Capitol Hill offices was reported Wednesday with a staffer in Senator Maria Cantwell’s office testing positive.“Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,” the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, said Wednesday.Fauci says how much worse depends on the U.S. government’s ability to control the number of travelers coming into the U.S. and local efforts to contain the virus.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $728 million package to fight the virus, much of which will be used to develop a vaccine.Medical staff checks a passenger in a car for the novel coronavirus at the border crossing with Italy in Vrtojba, Slovenia, March 11 , 2020.Europe takes more drastic measures
Some European nations are taking more drastic steps. Italy, Europe’s hardest-hit country, is under a nationwide lockdown.All museums and schools in Spain are closed. Denmark has also shuttered schools and Britain announced a multibillion-dollar package to boost the country’s health care system and to also help businesses taking an economic hit.Festivals and any kind of event that attracts large crowds and brings people close together have been canceled across much of Europe.Impact on sports players and events
The NBA announced late Wednesday it is suspending its season until further notice after a player for the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus.That followed a decision earlier by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to play its popular annual “March Madness” basketball tournaments without fans.As of late Wednesday, there were more than 126,000 coronavirus cases in 114 countries and more than 4,600 deaths.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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Governments around the world are responding to the coronavirus pandemic with more and more travel bans as they seek to prevent imported cases while also avoiding or containing the spread of cases within their borders.U.S. President Donald Trump issued a ban on foreign travelers who recently visited Europe’s Schengen Area as he gave a televised speech that also highlighted economic measures his administration is taking.He drew criticism from Democratic leaders who say not enough is being done to accelerate testing of potential cases in the United States, and they have offered legislation that includes free testing and paid leave that would encourage people to stay home from work.WATCH: White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara’s video report.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A man and a girl on a scooter are backdropped by a Lombardy region campaign advertising reading in Italian ‘ Coronavirus let’s stop it together ‘, at the Porta Nuova business district in Milan, March 11, 2020.In addition to travel bans, governments have increasingly turned to restricting public gatherings to go along with advice from public health officials who say such social distancing, along with hand washing and staying home for those who feel sick, can help stop the virus from spreading.The U.S. state of California said late Wednesday that any gathering of more than 250 people should be canceled, and those in smaller groups should stay about two meters apart.The National Basketball Association suspended its season indefinitely after a player for the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus. The National Basketball Association suspended its season indefinitely after a player for the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus.  The governing body for collegiate sports in the United States said the popular men’s and women’s basketball championship tournaments would be held with only staff and family members in attendance.The world figure skating championships set to be held next week in Montreal have also been canceled.Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after the press conference, in Melbourne, Australia, March 12, 2020.In Australia, the Formula One racing series is set to go ahead with its opening event Sunday, despite several team staff members being held in isolation while they await the results of coronavirus tests.  British driver Lewis Hamilton, who has been the top F1 driver in five of the past six seasons, said Thursday he was “very surprised” the race is still on.”It seems that the rest of the world is already reacting a little bit late, but you have seen this morning with Trump shutting down the border to Europe to the States, the NBA suspended, yet Formula One continues to go on,” Hamilton told reporters.Bahrain, host of the second race of the season, has already said it would not allow spectators.
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“Where to find it?” and “Whatever you want” and “What do you need?”These are the names of some of the social media groups catering to thousands of Cubans who are using newly available mobile internet to grapple with shortages of basic goods that are worsening under tougher U.S. sanctions.Armed with internet access on cellphones that came into general use last year, Cubans are forming online chat groups to share tips about where to find dish detergent, chicken, diesel fuel and other scarce essentials. They do so on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.Claudia Santander, a 21-year-old graphic designer, poses with her mobile phone as others line up to buy goods at the 4 Caminos market in Havana, Cuba, March 11, 2020. Santander administers 10 Whatsapp groups that help others search for necessities.Chat groupsWithout the chat groups, people would have to “spend all day going around the city” looking for things that they need, said Claudia Santander, a graphic designer who administers a dozen WhatsApp groups at no charge.Now, for example, someone can ask about a certain product — toilet paper or milk powder or soap — and another person on the chat might reply within minutes to say which store in Havana, the Cuban capital, is stocking it.“I’ve been able to sort out” diaper and other purchases since joining several social media groups aimed at locating essential items, said Havana resident Laura Vela, who has a young child.Some of the groups have waiting lists of people anxious to get the benefits of being a member. WhatsApp limits group chat sizes to 256 people, while other platforms accept thousands.Inequality worsensShopping through social media is easing life for many on the island, but it may be exacerbating inequality and making things harder for those without internet connections. Moreover, people get discounts on data if they pay with badly needed dollars through companies outside Cuba, meaning those without U.S. currency are at a disadvantage.“A lot of people can’t afford” to buy phone data or a good phone, said Lucia March, a writer. For those who can, she said, “the usefulness is obvious and it’s something that represents, above all, development and also helps open people’s minds a little.”Cuba doesn’t have classified ads in official newspapers. Some businesses offer sales on the internet, but the social media groups help people grapple almost in real time with constant challenges.Cooking oil might vanish from shelves, but then it returns and there is no flour. One day there is no butter and the next there is no cheese. Many people, particularly those not getting information from a social media network, can spend hours fruitlessly searching for household items.US sanctionsCubans have been used to struggling for the basics since the collapse of their benefactors in the Soviet Union decades ago, but the situation deteriorated in 2019 after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated sanctions. The economic woes of Venezuela, a key provider of oil to Cuba, has also hurt the Caribbean country.As a result, there have often been long lines at shops as well as rationing of products. Many people then turned to social media to try to find what they need.Cuba began to provide data for cellphones in December 2018, and now has more than 3 million lines in service.It costs the equivalent of $5 for 400MB and $20 for 2.5GB, although more discounts have become available recently. Average monthly salaries are between $20 and $50, although many people receive remittances from relatives abroad.Paying in dollarsIn recent months, Cuban authorities have started to promote websites that allow people to pay in dollars through Visa and Mastercard for items including flowers, meat, mattresses and air conditioners.Although the use of such websites is not widespread, they could increase inequality between those with access to dollars and foreign credit cards, and those who don’t, or don’t have relatives living abroad who can help them out.Some people have used the internet to campaign on issues such as the abuse of women, or to engage in unofficial journalism, drawing criticism from authorities in the one-party state who have warned against any anti-government activism.Ted Henken, a Latin America expert at Baruch College, City University of New York, said many Cubans use social media for personal or non-political reasons. But he said the use of social media has broader implications for society because it is “much more free, social and spontaneous.”
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The World Health Organization Wednesday declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, with 114 countries confirming cases, while the United States announced a European travel ban and the National Basketball Association said its games are on hold for now.“In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquarters, March 11, 2020, in Geneva.Tedros warned that the worst is yet to come with the WHO “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.“In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of COVID-19 cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries to climb even higher,” he said.Tedros said his organization has “rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” and that countries “can still change the course of this pandemic.”U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday night, declaring “the virus will not have a chance against us,” and announcing a 30-day suspension of all travel from Europe to the United States, starting Friday. Travel from the United Kingdom is exempt, as are U.S. citizens, legal residents and their immediate families.Trump also announced financial relief for people and businesses affected by the virus.The U.S. State Department issued updated guidance Wednesday advising Americans to “reconsider travel abroad” because of the coronavirus outbreak.Dr. Anthony Fauci, left, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at a House committee hearing on preparedness for and response to the coronavirus outbreak on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 11, 2020.There are more than 1,200 confirmed cases in the United States. When there were just 15 cases last month, Trump said that number would soon drop to zero. It has since spread to about 40 of the 50 U.S. states. Thirty-eight people have died.The first confirmed case in Capitol Hill offices was reported Wednesday with a staffer in Senator Maria Cantwell’s office testing positive.“Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,” the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, said Wednesday.Fauci says how much worse depends on the U.S. government’s ability to control the number of travelers coming into the U.S. and local efforts to contain the virus.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $728 million package to fight the virus, much of which will be used to develop a vaccine.Medical staff checks a passenger in a car for the novel coronavirus at the border crossing with Italy in Vrtojba, Slovenia, March 11 , 2020.Some European nations are taking more drastic steps. Italy, Europe’s hardest-hit country, is under a nationwide lockdown.All museums and schools in Spain are closed. Denmark has also shuttered schools and Britain announced a multibillion-dollar package to boost the country’s health care system and to also help businesses taking an economic hit.Festivals and any kind of event that attracts large crowds and brings people close together have been canceled across much of Europe.The NBA announced late Wednesday it is suspending its season until further notice after a player for the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus.That followed a decision earlier by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to play its popular annual “March Madness” basketball tournaments without fans.As of late Wednesday, there were more than 126,000 coronavirus cases in 114 countries and more than 4,600 deaths.
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U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) plans to increase U.S. military presence in the Western Hemisphere while taking on funding cuts to partner security programs that help Latin American partners counter drug cartels.In written testimony Wednesday, SOUTHCOM commander Admiral Craig Faller said the U.S. “only enabled the successful interdiction of about 9% of known drug movement” recently in Latin America and the Caribbean.Faller told the House Armed Services Committee that he’d need significant assets to drastically improve that number, including dozens of ships.“Recognizing these complex challenges in our neighborhood, we will see an increase in U.S. military presence in the hemisphere,” Faller said, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon after the briefing.Partners vitalThe increase, which is coinciding with a Pentagon review of the command, will include more ships, aircraft and forces, said Faller, who declined to discuss numbers.But the increase will not be enough to fully counter the threats, which is “why it’s so important to get partners in the game,” Faller added.Last year, half of U.S. drug interdictions in the region were enabled by local partner forces, according to SOUTHCOM.The need for more partner nation participation comes as the latest Pentagon budget slashes SOUTHCOM’s partner security program funds by about 20%.”That reduction will mean we’ll have to make some choices and have to defund some programs … that have increased our partners’ ability to do things like counternarcotics,” Faller said Wednesday.He added that the increased military presence would help the U.S. offset short-term losses to security cooperation program funding. But he acknowledged that “there might be some areas where we’ll take risks as we look in the future.”Georgian scolds administrationThe Pentagon’s failure to prioritize the geographic command responsible for counternarcotics operations south of the United States has hurt Americans, Republican Representative Austin Scott of Georgia said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on national security challenges in the Western Hemisphere.”All of the additional money we’ve given [to defense] has been transferred to other priorities and not to the priority that is resulting in more deaths than any other area,” Scott said, adding that the U.S. saw tens of thousands die last year from drug overdoses.Scott scolded administration officials for giving the command “what’s left over” in intelligence and surveillance abilities after fulfilling other regions’ needs.SOUTHCOM’s budget for this year is $1.2 billion, which is 1/14th of what was spent in Afghanistan alone.
 
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The president of France and the king of Spain paid homage Wednesday to victims of terrorism in a special ceremony prompted by attacks that hit both their countries and changed Europe’s security posture.France’s Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia led a ceremony on Trocadero plaza overlooking the Eiffel Tower with survivors of terrorist attacks and families of victims.The European Union chose March 11 as a day of continent-wide commemoration of terrorism victims after the Madrid train bombing on March 11, 2004 that killed nearly 200 people and woke Europe up to 21st century threats of Islamic extremism.Macron paid tribute to the victims of a string of attacks in France, starting with shootings in 2012 that killed children at a Jewish school, a rabbi and paratroopers in the Toulouse region.Extremists claiming links to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaida hit France repeatedly in 2015 and 2016. Among their victims: cartoonists at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, shoppers at a kosher market, concert-goers at the Bataclan, diners in Paris cafes, an elderly priest at the altar, holiday revelers on the seaside of Nice, and several police officers.
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A two-train subway collision in Mexico City killed a male passenger, injured 41 people and disrupted service Wednesday on the bustling metro system serving this megalopolis of over 20 million people.Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said via Twitter that one of the trains apparently reversed into the other by accident the previous night, shortly before midnight.Twenty-five of the injured were treated at the scene, and the other 16 were taken to hospitals, Sheinbaum said. All the injuries were “light to medium” and not life-threatening. Hours later, Sheimbaum’s chief of staff, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, said that only four of the 16 remained in hospitals.She said the cause of the crash was under investigation.Mexico City’s Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, center, leaves Tacubaya metro station, where two trains collided leaving one dead and 41 injured, in Mexico City, March 11, 2020.Metro authorities said the two drivers of the trains were among those hurt.Mexico City Metro director Florencia Serrania said at a news conference that the “black boxes” from both trains, which will provide a “second-by-second” record of what happened, were turned over to the city prosecutor’s office and their information appeared to be intact.Workers had separated the stacked metro cars and were working to clear the track. She said she expected the line to be ready for service Thursday morning.Serrania said the accident occurred 20 minutes before the end of service Tuesday night when one train was headed to the garage to prepare for Wednesday morning service.She added that an international expert had been hired to conduct an independent review of the incident.Images of the accident published in local media showed wrecked subway cars derailed in the Tacubaya underground station, and rescuers carrying people away.Diana Segura Canchola, who was selling sweets from her street stall outside the station on Wednesday, said she was packing up the previous night when she heard a loud bang “as if a transformer had exploded,” followed by a burned odor.Soon people began emerging from the station saying there had been a crash, and about 10 minutes later police, firefighters and ambulances started arriving.”A lot of people came out disoriented, in shock … very frightened by what had happened,” Segura said.Metro personnel remain at the entrance of the Tacubaya station, where two trains collided, in Mexico City, March 11, 2020.The Mexico City Metro system, one of the world’s largest and most transited, has seen at least two serious accidents previously since it opened five decades ago.In 2015, a train failed to brake in time and smashed into another at the Oceania station in the city’s north, injuring 12 people. Authorities later blamed “double human error.”In the most serious incident, two trains collided at the Viaducto station in 1975, killing at least 31 and injuring more than 70, according to the national newspaper El Universal.Tacubaya is a key station for the Metro system, with three of its 12 lines intersecting there, and there were disruptions during the Wednesday morning commute as people formed long lines outside Tacubaya station waiting to board buses.Metro authorities said service on Line 1 would be reduced throughout the day with Tacubaya and a neighboring station out of action and 45 buses deployed to bridge the gap of about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers).Serrania told Milenio television that about five cars on each train were damaged.Mexico City’s Metro system transported more than 1.6 billion passengers in 2018, according to official figures, or about 4.4 million per day.
 
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PROGRESO, ECUADOR — For years, Dionisio Romero has relied for his livelihood on a magenta-colored dragon fruit that is wildly popular in Asia, planting dozens of the spindly trees at his farm near Ecuador’s Pacific coast.But as the coronavirus wreaks economic havoc worldwide, the 72-year-old farmer has watched demand for his fruit plummet and prices drop to astonishing lows, wiping away much of the profit he might normally expect.“It’s affecting all of the production of pitahaya in Ecuador,” he said on a recent morning from his farm, called Voluntad de Dios, or Will of God. “You don’t want your fruit to grow rotten on the tree so you sell it for whatever price you can.”The virus and its wide-ranging effects on business have Latin America bracing for a downturn that could test the resilience of the beleaguered region’s already ailing economy.China, where the virus emerged, has been making inroads into Latin America over the last two decades. It is now the region’s second-largest trading partner, meaning any economic contraction there will have a ripple effect. Demand for products like Chilean salmon and Argentinian beef have dipped. The prices of all-important commodities like copper and oil have also declined.Countries such as Chile, Peru and Mexico, with export-driven economies, are likely to see the most serious impact, while others like Brazil and Argentina, whose markets are more closed, could be somewhat shielded from the fallout.“This is a cataclysm for our economy,” said Manuel Viera, president of the Camera Minera de Chile, an independent association representing mining interests. “We should have been thinking about the lean years when the price of copper was up.”Trade between China and Latin America soared to $306 billion in 2018, up from just $12 billion at the start of the century. Exports to China now represent nearly 10% of all goods produced and sent for sale abroad.“The region is so dependent on China and Chinese investments, so every country is going to take a hit,” said Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Those more dependent are going to take more of a hit.”There are mounting signs that the entire global economy could sustain a blow, with stocks falling Wednesday as the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic. Oil prices fell Monday by the most in one day since the 1991 Gulf War. The selling stems from fear of the unknown. Many investors are trying to estimate how badly COVID-19 will hurt earnings.Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 121,000 people. Latin America and the Caribbean thus far has had a fairly low caseload, with about 160 people diagnosed across the wide region, though health officials are confirming new cases almost every day and preparing for a wider outbreak.For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The majority of people recover.The economic impact is likely to be felt on several fronts in Latin America: a devaluation of currencies as investors seek refuge in gold and U.S. dollars; a decline in tourism; and dips in demand for exports and prices.In Colombia, flower companies say they’ve redirected fresh cut bouquets originally destined for China to other markets. In Chile, fruit exporters say crops like strawberries languished in Chinese ports as cities were quarantined and prices dropped. Ships carrying salmon slated for China were redirected to Brazil and the United States. In Mexico, there are concerns about interruption of supply chains impacting assembly plants.Goldman Sachs has downgraded its growth forecast for several countries in the region, including Brazil, in part due to the coronavirus. Brazil’s economy grew just 1.1% in 2019, its third straight year of meager activity after a crushing two-year recession.Rubens Ricupero, a Brazilian who was secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development for nearly a decade, said the nation could be somewhat protected by its relatively small degree of integration into world trade. Nonetheless, he said the crash in oil prices Monday would likely be felt in lower export revenues for state-run oil giant Petrobras, among other side effects.“There will be a mixed impact on Brazil, in general damaging,” he said.Calamity in the oil industry could be particularly damaging for nations like Venezuela, which is already teetering on the edge. Venezuela’s oil production was bringing in up to $37 million daily, but the sudden fall of crude prices has cut that to $20 million, estimated Russ Dallen, head of the Miami-based Caracas Capital Markets brokerage.President Nicolas Maduro’s government has been struggling to counter hyperinflation, an economic contraction worse than the U.S. Great Depression and mounting sanctions targeting the country’s flagging oil industry.Ecuador, where the economy was already projected to contract this year, could also be hurt by a sustained drop in oil prices because the country depends on those revenues to have sufficient liquidity, analysts said. Petroleum is the nation’s top export, generating several billion dollars a year for the small Andean nation.“We’re facing a scenario that I wouldn’t say is catastrophic, but is very delicate, very difficult,” President Lenin Moreno said Tuesday, later announcing measures to cut $1.4 billion from the budget.At least one industry in the region is enjoying a bright spot: In Brazil, the 71-year-old Companhia Nacional de Alcool said demand has surged for its hand sanitizer. The company sold more than 1 million units of its most popular brand in February, up from 200,000 bottles during the same month a year before. They have added a second shift with another 20 employees and are weighing whether to start exporting.“Our workers are very engaged in this, working a lot of extra hours,” CEO Leonardo Ferreira said. “They see how concerned their friends and relatives are.”Back at Romero’s farm in Ecuador, the price of his fruit, which usually fetches $2.50 a kilo (2.2 pounds) is now selling for around 80 cents, if he can find a buyer.A lifelong farmer, he said he chose to grow pitahaya over a decade ago because he was intrigued by the nutritional benefits. The fruit comes in magenta or yellow and has a soft but thick exterior with green stems that look like succulents. The inside is filled with a delicate white fruit sprinkled with tiny black seeds.Instead of throwing out the fruit he can’t sell, he has chosen to give it to locals, many of whom had never tried it before. Before the crisis, nearly all his fruit went to the U.S., where it was popular in Asian communities.“We’ve never tried it and it’s delicious!” he said neighbors tell him.Having observed economic rises and falls before, he’s willing to weather the storm.“That’s the life we have, to produce,” he said. “At high prices or low ones.”
 
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Seven children stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a Texas immigration facility. Their image was beamed 1,000 miles away to Atlanta, where a judge sat in a largely empty courtroom and contended with glitchy audio.At multiple points, a woman’s voice broke through the audio into the Atlanta courtroom, translating the testimony of an asylum seeker in a separate hearing.The Trump administration this week expanded the use of video hearings for immigrant children, having dozens of them held in Houston appear before a judge based in Atlanta. Advocates believe the effort could portend a nationwide expansion of video courts to process the immigration claims of children in U.S. government custody.While the government would not confirm its plans, advocates warned of a greater burden being placed on detained immigrant children, many of whom are not yet teenagers and don’t have guaranteed access to an attorney.Technical difficulties caused delays and snarled the launch of the hearings in Houston, one of the busiest immigration courts in the nation.Video court hearings already occur for some children held in facilities that are hours away from an immigration court — in parts of Texas, Virginia, New York and Tennessee.But Houston has one of the nation’s largest immigration courts, with hundreds of cases heard weekly and children often appearing before a judge in person.Neither the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, nor the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which has custody over 3,650 immigrant children, would answer why the Houston-to-Atlanta pilot was necessary. EOIR spokeswoman Kathryn Mattingly said that using video in general “reduces costs, increases hearing flexibility for backlogged dockets, and generally reduces processing or waiting times for decisions in administrative proceedings, without affecting the integrity of the proceedings.”There were 25,351 immigration court hearings held by video conference in the first 17 days of January, roughly a quarter of the 95,492 for all of 2019, according to government figures obtained by immigration attorney Andrew Free.Most of the children in government custody crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone. Some children in ORR’s custody were sent across the border by their parents in border camps, while others may have been separated from a parent or adult relative due to suspected fraud or neglect.On Monday, the first day of the change, Judge Sirce Owen in Atlanta saw dozens of children via video conference. They included a confused 7-year-old boy with no lawyer, a teenage mother trying to calm her toddler daughter, and a group of kids all dressed in the same green sweaters.In the Atlanta courtroom, against the din of fuzzy audio, the judge pressed on with the group of seven children from a government-run facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, telling them why they were there and explaining their rights.As the audio interference worsened, Owen narrowed her eyes at the screen and said, “We’re hearing some feedback on the microphone.”The audio problems continued as the judge finished with the kids, resetting their hearings for April 20 to give them time to find attorneys.As Owen waited for another group of children to file into the room in Corpus Christi, a female interpreter’s voice came over the speakers in the courtroom, “…and they pointed a gun at me…” before fading to garble.Outside observers are typically prevented from sitting in on asylum testimony to protect the privacy of the person applying. Owen ultimately cut off the video and delayed court for more than an hour so the problem could be fixed.Eventually, Owen got to the children waiting in Houston. One by one, she called up about a dozen children from a facility wearing matching forest-green zip-up sweaters. The children sat at a table next to an attorney from Catholic Charities.Owen’s face was shown on a flat-screen television to the left of the table. But the children instead looked forward at a Spanish-language interpreter.In the courtroom gallery, a teenager waiting for her hearing tried to calm her 2-year-old daughter as the delays mounted. The toddler tapped a toy against the bench and ran up and down the line, gently hitting the knees of other children waiting for their hearings.A 7-year-old boy named Justin appearing from a government-run facility seemed confused when the judge asked him about whether he understood his right to an attorney. Owen explained again slowly and the boy told her he did want more time to find one.Owen saw more than 40 children Monday. She reset some cases to allow the children to find attorneys or to give their attorneys time to prepare. She granted a handful of voluntary departure requests. And she transferred some to the adult docket because they would turn 18 before their next hearing.“Kids are being railroaded through the proceedings,” said Zenobia Lai, vice president of immigration legal services for the Catholic Charities chapter in Houston.“If it’s in person, the judge would be able to catch body language,” she said. “Here, I don’t know if the judge was looking at them at all. I don’t know what she sees.”Judges have been urged to decide children’s cases more quickly and children’s attorneys learned that government-contracted facilities would no longer take children to law offices for meetings, making these cases more difficult to prepare, said Jennifer Podkul of immigrant advocacy group Kids in Need of Defense.Gladis Molina, child advocate program director at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, notes that video has been used for children at government-contracted facilities in recent years. In a previous pilot program in Phoenix, children participated in their hearings from the facility while the judge and government attorney were in court about five minutes away, she said.“It almost felt in the courtroom what was happening was the processing of file after file because the kids weren’t there,” she said. “They were just images on a screen as opposed to children whose lives were being impacted by the decision that was being made in court.” 
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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has included pro-Kremlin social-media users, Russia’s communications regulator, and an Iranian state body tackling cybercrime on its list of press freedom’s 20 “worst digital predators” that it says represent a “clear danger for freedom of opinion and expression.”The Paris-based media freedom watchdog unveiled the list ahead of the World Day Against Cybercensorship to be marked on March 12.This list, which RSF says is not exhaustive, includes “state offshoots” and government agencies in authoritarian countries. It also covers private-sector companies specializing in targeted cyberespionage that are based in Western countries such as the United States and Britain.
“The authoritarian strongmen behind predatory activity against press freedom are extending their tentacles into the digital world with the help of armies of accomplices, subordinates, and henchmen who are organized and determined digital predators,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement.
“These accomplices sometimes act from or within democratic countries,” Deloire said, adding that “opposition to despotic regimes also means ensuring that the weapons for suppressing journalism are not delivered to them from abroad.”In Russia and Iran, the “Kremlin’s troll army,” Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor, and the Iranian Cyberspace Supreme Council use digital technology to “spy on and harass” journalists and thereby “jeopardize” people’s ability to get news and information, according to RSF.It said pro-Kremlin actors use social media to spread “false” reports and videos, publish personal information, and attack the reputation of journalists.One of their targets includes Finnish investigative journalist Jessikka Aro, who in a recently published book “shed light on the propaganda they spread about those who denounce their activities.”For instance, Russian journalist Igor Yakovenko and the Moscow-based foreign reporters Isabelle Mandraud and Shaun Walker are “often targeted by this troll army,” according to RSF.Meanwhile, Roskomnadzor has “blocked more than 490,000 websites without warning and without respecting legal procedure and has a secret blacklist of banned sites,” the group said.The government agency’s targets have included Ferghana and other news agencies, investigative sites such as Listok and Grani.ru, and political magazines including ej.ru and mbk.news.Roskomnadzor also “blocks platforms and apps that refuse to store their data on servers in Russia or provide the Russian authorities with keys to decrypt messages,” RSF said, citing the example of the encrypted messaging service ProtonMail, which was partially blocked earlier this year.RSF said the Iranian Cyberspace Supreme Council uses “online selective access and control,” and blocks news websites, platforms, and apps such as Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter to enforce state censorship.Created in 2012 and consisting of senior military and political figures, the council “is constructing a firewall using Internet filtering techniques,” the watchdog said.
“Internet shutdowns are increasingly used to contain and suppress waves of street protests, and to restrict the transmission and circulation of independent information regarded as ‘counter-revolutionary’ or ‘subversive’ in nature,” it added.
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The conviction of the only man ever found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie aircraft bombing has been referred for an appeal to Scotland’s High Court, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said on Wednesday.Pam Am flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 en route from London to New York, an attack that killed 270 people, mostly Americans on their way home for Christmas.In 2001, Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was jailed for life after being found guilty of carrying out the attack. He died in Libya in 2012 after being released three years earlier by Scotland’s government on compassionate grounds following a diagnosis of terminal cancer.Chairman of the Commission Bill Matthews said it was the second time they had reviewed Megrahi’s conviction. “We note that since our last review further information has become available, including within the public domain, which the Commission has now been able to consider and assess,” he said in a statement.”I am satisfied that the matter is now returning to the appropriate forum – the appeal court – to consider fully all of the issues raised in our statement of reasons.”
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Governments around the world are trying to take steps to address the ever-changing outbreak of a new coronavirus, which since December has infected more than 118,000 people and killed about 4,300 in 114 countries.The virus, known officially as COVID-19, first emerged in China, where health officials Wednesday reported 24 new cases.People wait in a queue to get temperature check before entering a bank in Beijing, March 11, 2020.While the increase represents a sustained decline from the height of the outbreak in China, the country where the government puts cities on lockdown to prevent inter-community spread is now dealing with an increase in the number of cases arriving from other nations.That prompted officials in Beijing to order anyone arriving to go into a 14-day quarantine.Italy follows China’s playbook Italy has followed China’s playbook after becoming a secondary center of the outbreak with more than 10,000 reported cases so far and cases in numerous other countries linked to people who traveled from Italy.  Italians were under a second day of a nationwide lockdown Wednesday with people only able to move around for urgent health and work reasons.Officials in the United States are showing increased concern as the number of cases there surpassed 1,000.  Medics transport a patient through heavy rain into an ambulance at Life Care Center of Kirkland, the long-term care facility linked to several confirmed coronavirus cases in the state, in Kirkland, Washington, March 7, 2020.US outbreak pockets
There are pockets of outbreaks in the western state of Washington, where the governor is expected to announce a ban on gatherings of more than 250 people, and across the country in New York where that state’s governor is instituting an isolation zone around a community with more than 100 reported cases.Most people who contract the new coronavirus experience mild or moderate symptoms, but some, mainly older people and those with existing health problems, are at risk for more serious illness.The World Health Organization recommends people wash their hands, avoid touching their face, maintain distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing, and stay home if they feel ill.Recommendations to avoid large gatherings of people have led to numerous event cancellations around the globe.Police officers wearing masks patrol an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 11, 2020.Vatican live-streams mass
Pope Francis gave a live-streamed mass from inside the Vatican on Wednesday, and the Vatican’s representative in East Timor said the pope would not be making an expected trip there later this year.A Premier League match between British football clubs Manchester City and Arsenal set for Wednesday night was postponed after several Arsenal players and staff members went into self-quarantine linked to contact with the owner of another club who tested positive for the virus.Popular Coachella festival canceled
In the United States, organizers of the Coachella music festival moved the April event to October.  And a Sunday debate between Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders will go on without anyone in attendance.
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Venezuelan police used tear gas to break up an anti-government demonstration in Caracas called for by opposition leader Juan Guaido Tuesday.Thousands of protesters gathered in the Venezuelan capital to march on the National Assembly, which was taken over in January by lawmakers of President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling Socialist Party.  The marchers advanced only a few blocks before their path was blocked by riot police.  Some of the protesters responded by hurling stones at the police.Shortly after the failed march, officers with a special police unit raided a Caracas hotel and arrested three opposition lawmakers who were staying there.  Two of them were later released, but a third, Renzo Prieto, remained in custody.Guaido organized the march in an effort to revive the street protests against President Maduro that erupted in 2019 after he used his post as president of the National Assembly to declare himself Venezuela’s legitimate interim president, claiming that Maduro’s re-election the year before was illegitimate.  The United States and nearly 60 other countries have recognized Guaido as the country’s rightful leader, but Maduro continues to cling to power.More than four million Venezuelans have fled the oil-rich country as it has slid from prosperity into economic ruin, complete with rising poverty and soaring inflation.The protests were held on the same day as Michele Bachelet, the United Nations human rights commissioner, denounced Maduro’s government in a scathing report to the U.N. Human Rights Council Tuesday.  Bachelet told the council that opponents of the Maduro government are in a particularly difficult and dangerous situation.  
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Australia’s High Court opened a two-day hearing Wednesday on Cardinal George Pell’s last-ditch appeal of his convictions on sexually assaulting two teenage choirboys.The 78-year-old Pell was convicted in December 2018 on charges that he molested the boys in Melbourne’s St. Patrick Cathedral in 1996 while serving as archbishop of the Melbourne diocese.  He was sentenced exactly one year ago this month to six years in prison.  Pell’s lawyers went to the High Court after the Victoria Court of Appeals rejected his appeal last August by a vote of 2-1 vote.  Defense attorney Bret Walker is arguing that it was implausible that the alleged assault even happened because it supposedly took place in a busy area of the crowded cathedral, unlike other sexual assault cases.  Walker is also arguing that the Victoria appeals court incorrectly put the burden of proof on Pell to prove his innocence, rather than place it on the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.The seven-member High Court could decide to either accept or reject Pell’s appeal, or send it back down to the Victoria Court of Appeals.  Pell is the the highest-ranking Catholic official convicted in connection with the global child sexual abuse scandal that has embroiled the church for three decades.  At the time of his conviction, he had taken a leave of absence as a member of the Vatican’s Council of Cardinals, who serve as Pope Francis’s cabinet and inner circle of advisers.  He had also served as the Vatican’s treasurer and economic minister.  Only one of the alleged victims came forward to tell authorities what happened; the other died in 2014 of a drug overdose having never spoken of the alleged assault. A lawyer for the father of the late choirboy says if the High Court rules in Pell’s favor and allows him “to walk free from jail, our client says he will lose all faith in our legal system.”
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Russian leader Vladimir Putin threw his weight behind proposals to amend Russia’s current constitutional cap on presidential term limits — a move that opens the door to Putin, 67, staying in power far beyond the end of his current and, in theory, final term in 2024.Under the proposed changes, which Putin insisted would need backing by an upcoming nationwide referendum, as well as the approval of Russia’s Constitutional Court, the Russian leader would be eligible to run for two more terms in office, possibly extending his 20-year Kremlin rule through 2036.“The proposal to remove restrictions for any person, including the incumbent president … would be possible, but on one condition: if the Constitutional Court gives an official ruling that such an amendment would not contradict the principles and norms of the constitution,” Putin said in addressing the proposal before lawmakers in the Duma on Tuesday.Putin framed the move as injecting stability into Russia’s uncertain political future — in effect, suggesting that by staying in power, he could lead Russia toward a day when change in power through elections would be possible.”I am certain that a time would come when the supreme presidential power in Russia would not be so personified, will not be tied to a certain single person,” Putin said.“We are done with revolutions in Russia,” he added.A legendary cosmonaut, a new mission?The proposed constitutional reforms were the latest in a series of moves that appear to provide Putin with options as he confronts the end of his fourth and final term in office.Indeed, the announcement came as lawmakers in the Duma debated additional constitutional reforms first proposed by Putin amid a surprise government shakeup last January. Those proposals included a newly empowered parliament, prime minister’s post and Security Council — all measures that suggested Putin was envisioning a possible new role from which to wield influence beyond the end of his presidency.Yet today’s announcement signaled that at least some in the Kremlin had united around a simpler plan: Putin would stay right where he is.The roll out was highly choreographed.First, lawmaker Valentina Tereshkova, a legendary Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space, took to the Duma lectern, to say that lawmakers’ recent constitutional debates had failed to take into account Russians’ true wishes: that Putin remain in power.Moreover, Tereshkova said impending new changes to the constitution afforded the president the right to “reset to zero” the number of terms already served.Next, Vyachaslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, informed journalists that Putin had heard the news and was on his way to the Duma to address the idea.Soon, Putin was before lawmakers agreeing that the “return to zero” option was indeed possible, provided it passed muster during a national vote scheduled for an April 22 referendum and received the subsequent backing of the Constitutional Court.The Duma quickly approved the measure.Opposition replyKremlin critics had few, if any, illusions of the road ahead.“The fact that Putin was never going to leave — we’ve always known. That he didn’t make any clever moves, and instead stupidly just took another term — now that’s a bit of a surprise,” Leonid Volkov, chief strategist of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, wrote in a post to Facebook.“The current constitution guarantees that I can definitely participate in presidential elections, and that Putin definitely cannot,” Navalny said in a tweet, noting the Kremlin had banned him from participating in elections despite rulings to the contrary by the European Court for Human Rights.Как интересно получается.Действующая конституция гарантирует, что я точно могу участвовать в президентских выборах, а Путин – точно не может.На практике же, я выиграл два суда в ЕСПЧ и всё равно не могу.А Путин был у власти 20 лет, но всё равно пойдёт на первый срок.— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 10, 2020″Yet Putin has been in power for 20 years and all the same is headed for his first term,” Navalny said, in taking a swipe at the “return to zero” argument.While members of the opposition pushed for supporters to protest the move, the calls were immediately hamstrung by another crisis: the coronavirus.Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people were banned until at least April 10 over fears of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Yet government critics were quick to question the timing of the decision, with many noting that tens of thousands had taken to the streets in 2012, when Putin stretched constitutional norms to return to the Kremlin for a third term in office.For the time being, critics were left to take part in smaller protests against Putin’s new power move, with a reported 100 people taking part in rotating single-picket demonstrations in order to not run afoul of Russia’s punitive freedom of assembly laws.Cue the jokes onlineSocial media churned with grim jokes on the news, parodying a week that, in addition to Putin’s announcement and concerns over coronavirus, saw the ruble collapse amid an oil pricing war with Saudi Arabia.“You read the news about the government coup, and in fear you want to hug somebody,” wrote one Facebook user. “Then you remember about coronavirus. And you think, better instead to head to see a therapist. And then you remember about the value of the ruble.”“Due to the quarantine, they’ve forbidden Putin to leave his post,” photojournalist Dave Frenkel jokes in a post on Twitter.Из-за карантина Путину запретят покидать президентский пост— Dave Frenkel (@merr1k) March 10, 2020“Putin said that he’s not against zeroing out his presidential terms,” Russian blogger Ruslan Usachev wrote in another tweet. “Now, all those who were born under President Putin, have a chance to die under President Putin.”Indeed, should Putin remain healthy and retain public support, Russians faced the prospect of Putin remaining in power well into his 80s.Yet the Russian leader said his country’s ultimate goal was to get to a place where “people in power can be changed regularly,” an argument that some political observers suspected was tightly bound to Putin’s own political reign.“I hope that by 2036, (Putin) will somehow convince the population that democracy is better than a dictatorship,” Vladimir Inozemtsev, director of the Center for Post-Industrial Society Studies, in a blog post dripping with sarcasm.“Learning quicker, it seems, is unlikely to happen,” Inozemtsev said.
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Italian streets are empty after the government extends a clampdown across the entire country in a bid to slow Europe’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus. Elsewhere, Lebanon records its first casualty from the virus while guests at a Canary Islands hotel celebrate the end of a two-week lockdown. VOA’s Mariama Diallo has more.
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