The family accused of violating quarantine while their daughter was tested for coronavirus says they were never told to isolate themselves

Missouri officials said they told a family to self-quarantine while their daughter was tested for coronavirus, but that the family went out in public.

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Republicans face backlash over racist labeling of coronavirus

China says US politicians are stigmatizing the country with ‘despicable’ practice of calling the virus ‘Wuhan coronavirus’ and ‘China coronavirus’ * Follow live updates on the coronavirusSenior Republican figures are facing backlash over an apparent effort to label Covid-19 as “Chinese coronavirus” – as China accused some US politicians of “disrespecting science” in order to “stigmatize” the country.Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, are among those to add a geographical marker to the coronavirus in recent days.Pompeo called the virus the “Wuhan coronavirus” on Friday, referring to the Chinese city where the outbreak started, and McCarthy used the term “Chinese coronavirus” on Monday, when he tweeted out a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency that has led the US effort to fight the virus.The CDC website specifically avoids the phrase when talking about Covid-19, the novel strain of coronavirus at the heart of the global outbreak.Other Republicans, including Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Paul Gosar – who is in self-quarantine – have used similar terms.China reacted furiously on Monday, with a spokesman for the foreign ministry criticizing US elected officials.“Despite the fact that the WHO [World Health Organization] has officially named this novel type of coronavirus, certain American politician[s], disrespecting science and the WHO decision, jumped at the first chance to stigmatize China and Wuhan with it. We condemn this despicable practice,” said Geng Shuang.Republicans’ attempts to associate Covid-19 overtly with China repeats a common theme of associating epidemics with certain countries, such as 1918 influenza pandemic being branded “Spanish flu”.Academics have warned the practice leads to stigma and racism, and the World Health Organization sent a memo to governments and media organizations at the end of February, urging people not to use the terms “Wuhan Virus”, “Chinese Virus” or “Asian Virus”.“Governments, citizens, media, key influencers and communities have an important role to play in preventing and stopping stigma surrounding people from China and Asia in general,” the WHO said.The branding fits neatly with Donald Trump’s anti-China rhetoric and ongoing trade war, however – as Democratic congressman Ted Lieu pointed out in a tweet, referring to Trump as Potus, the president of the United States.“One reason @POTUS & his enablers failed to contain COVID2019 is due to the myopic focus on China. The virus was also carried into the US from other countries & US travelers. Calling it Chinese coronavirus is scientifically wrong & as stupid as calling it the Italian coronavirus.”

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Trump Tells GOP He Wants Payroll Tax Waived Through Election

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump told Republican senators on Tuesday that he wants a payroll tax holiday through the November election so that taxes don’t go back up before voters decide whether to return him to office, according to three people familiar with the president’s remarks.Trump spoke to the Republicans at their weekly conference lunch at the Capitol as his administration prepares a package of economic measures to combat the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. But the administration does not have a particularly detailed plan, several Republicans said including John Thune of South Dakota.“Until we have a little bit more of an idea of what it is exactly they’re asking for, it’s hard to react quite yet,” Thune said.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin she called “pleasant” that she and the White House would “exchange further information.”“We know more needs to be done,” she said. She said Democrats have prepared legislation but they’re seeking budget estimates and the advice of legislative counsel and declined to provide a timeline to advance it.Trump said Monday that he would announce “substantial” economic measures in a Tuesday news conference to combat the virus, a statement that dismayed some of his aides because details of such a plan are still under discussion. Democrats have expressed reluctance about a tax cut to address the economic impact of coronavirus and several Republican senators also held back from endorsing the idea before Trump’s visit to the capitol.“What we are doing has to be related to the coronavirus,” Pelosi said.Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the government should focus on guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers who are infected and extending unemployment insurance for people put out of work.Trump also pitched Republican senators on economic relief for the travel and hospitality industries, which have been hard-hit by coronavirus-related cancellations, said Senator Lindsey Graham.Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said reaction to the idea of waiving payroll taxes was “mixed.”Most of the payroll tax funds Social Security, with employees and employers each paying 6.2% on wages up to $137,700. Another 1.45% is paid to fund Medicare.The cost of a payroll tax cut or holiday would depend on how much of the tax is rolled back and for how long. A 2 percentage point cut for employees, as President Barack Obama signed at the end of 2010, would cost $150 billion in government revenue over a year and $300 billion if the employer portion also was cut.“The payroll tax, as a general stimulus -- I’ve got to think about that,” Graham said.Graham said that his colleagues John Hoeven of North Dakota and James Lankford of Oklahoma suggested a federal bailout for the shale drilling industry, which is under sudden stress due to an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.Thune said the shale issue was “one of many” that came up during the meeting. “I don’t know at this point if that will be in any final package,” he said.After the meeting, the Republicans were largely in agreement that some sort of economic stimulus is necessary.“Our economy is going to take a hit,” said Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “You don’t have to be a senior at Cal Tech to figure that out. The world economy’s going to take a hit. It won’t be a permanent hit. But we don’t know how much.”Kennedy defended the Federal Reserve, which the president has harshly criticized this week even after the central bank issued an emergency half-point cut in interest rates to stave off a coronavirus-related slowdown.“I do not think just cutting interest rates is going to do it,” Kennedy said. “I don’t think doing this on the monetary side will succeed. We’re going to have to do it on the fiscal side as well.”Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said that a payroll tax holiday should be paid for because it would otherwise weaken Social Security. Payroll deductions finance the trust funds that support both the retirement program and Medicare, the health program for the elderly and disabled.Senator John Cornyn described coronavirus as presenting a potential “economic 9/11” to the country, a day after he expressed skepticism about passing stimulus measures. Cornyn said that Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming suggested an infrastructure bill to Trump and the president was receptive.If lawmakers “don’t get ahead of it you’re going to see unemployment rise,” Cornyn said, justifying a payroll tax cut.(Updates with Thune and Pelosi remarks. An earlier version of this story corrected the spelling of Senator John Barrasso’s name.)\--With assistance from Erik Wasson, Daniel Flatley and Ari Natter.To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Kevin WhitelawFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Italy is in a nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus. Here are the rules all 60 million citizens now have to follow.

The nationwide lockdown began Tuesday. Citizens now need police permission to travel, and businesses can open only if customers stay 3 feet apart.

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Man shot by police in Chicago subway sues city, officers

Lawyers for a short-order cook shot by Chicago police trying to arrest him for using a subway train's gangway doors filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging officers used excessive force in violation of policies laid out in court-monitored police reforms. Neither officer seeking to detain 33-year-old Ariel Roman — whose Feb. 28 shooting in a busy subway station was captured in bystander video widely viewed online — was properly trained before their deployment as part of a city bid to reduce violent crime on Chicago Transit Authority lines, according to the filing in U.S. District Court. The 12-page suit says the city hired the officer who shot Roman knowing she had been arrested in 2015 for assaulting a fast-food restaurant worker.

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Tell Us: How Has the Coronavirus Affected Your College?

By BY HANNAH WISE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2W41jTl

‘An Eviction Notice’: Chaos After Colleges Tell Students to Stay Away

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If Sean Hannity Thinks Coronavirus Panic Is a ‘Hoax,’ How Many Millions of His Listeners Do Too?

By BY JEREMY W. PETERS AND MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/33cIfna

A Fumbled Global Response to the Virus in a Leadership Void

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Iraq's presidency condemns attack on Taji military camp

Iraq's presidency has condemned an attack that targeted Iraqi Taji military camp north of Baghdad on Wednesday, that killed three personnel from U.S.-led coalition, state news agency said on early Thursday.

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Latin American countries order school closures over coronavirus fears

At least three Latin American governments ordered a short-term suspension of all classes, both at public and private schools, officials said on Wednesday, in a bid to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.

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Biden seizes control of Democratic presidential race with big primary wins over Sanders

Joe Biden maintained his momentum over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race Tuesday, winning state primaries, building his delegate lead and solidifying his status as the clear favorite to win his party’s nomination.

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Michigan Worker Says Biden ‘Went off the Deep End’ During Gun Control Confrontation

The Michigan construction worker who confronted Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on gun control remarked afterwards that the former vice president "went off the deep end" with his heated and expletive-laden response.The exchange occurred during Biden's visit to a Detroit assembly plant on Tuesday, the day of Michigan's Democratic primary, which Biden ultimately won against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.> WATCH: "You’re full of sh*t," @JoeBiden tells a man who accused him of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right."> > "I support the Second Amendment," Biden adds while vising under-construction auto plant in Detroit. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/sueOSBaY9P> > -- Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 10, 2020Auto worker Jerry Wayne said he asked the 2020 front runner how he would get the vote of the working man when Wayne and many others like him "bear arms.""If he wants to give us work and take our guns, I don't see how he is going to get the same vote," Wayne said during an appearance on Fox & Friends."You’re full of shit," Biden told him as they stood face to face in a crowd of workers. "I support the Second Amendment.""You're working for me, man," Wayne shot back.The interaction, in which Biden also told Wayne not to be "such a horse's ass," went viral online and attracted criticism of Biden from Republicans as well as the Sanders campaign."He could have easily said, 'I'm not taking questions,' and I would have very respectfully walked away. But he wanted to listen to my question, and I don't think that he was ready for it," Wayne said."I thought I was pretty articulate and respectful. I didn't try to raise any feathers, and he kind of just went off the deep end," the Michigan voter continued. "I saw that he was digging a hole, and I just kind of let him talk for a while to dig the hole."Wayne concluded that Biden "doesn't need to touch anybody's weapon at all" but added that people should be taught "how to respect firearms and how to use them.""This is a right that we need to protect with our heart and soul. It's not to be infringed," the auto worker said.

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Apple: Worried about coronavirus? You can now clean your iPhone with alcohol and Clorox disinfecting wipes

Apple used to warn you not to, but now says it's OK to clean your iPhone, iPad and other Apple products with 70% isopropyl alcohol and Clorox wipes.

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Weinstein Gets 23 Years in Prison for Crimes: Sentencing Update

(Bloomberg) -- Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison Wednesday for sexual assault. His next stop is likely to be a maximum-security prison an hour north of the lower Manhattan courtroom in which his punishment will be pronounced.Weinstein, who became an emblem of the MeToo movement as waves of women accused him of harassing or attacking them over the years, was convicted last month of forcing oral sex on production assistant Miriam Haley and raping Jessica Mann, who wanted to be an actor.The maximum total penalty was 29 years. Weinstein, 67, has asked New York State Supreme Court Justice James Burke for five, citing his age and failing health. Weinstein, who has been jailed since his conviction, arrived in court shortly after 9:30 a.m. in New York, handcuffed to his wheelchair. Court officers removed the cuffs as sentencing got underway.Weinstein Compares MeToo to McCarthy Era (10:58 a.m.)Harvey Weinstein addressed the court in the final moments before sentencing, warning of a “crisis” in America that he compared with the McCarthy era.“I’m worried about this country,” he began. “We are going through this crisis right now in our country, it started basically with me. I was the first example and now there are many men who have been accused of abuse, something I think that none of us understood.”“It is not the right atmosphere for the United States of America,” he said. “Everybody is on some kind of blacklist. I had no power. Miramax was a small company. I couldn’t blackball anybody.”“I think possibly men like myself, like Dalton Trumbo -- they said they were Communists, and now there’s a scare, just like that now.”Weinstein’s Lawyer Says He Didn’t Get a Fair Trial (10:52 a.m.)Defense attorney Damon Cheronis called a letter prosecutors filed with the court Friday arguing for a harsh sentence “a laundry list of unsubstantiated allegations that have not been vetted” and said the judge shouldn’t consider those uncharged crimes in fashioning Weinstein’s sentence.“I read the letter through the very same prism that you saw it through,” Burke told Cheronis.Lead defense lawyer Donna Rotunno then argued that a report by probation officials includes errors and misstates testimony and asked Burke to disregard it.Rotunno asked for the minimum sentence and said her client couldn’t get a fair trial because of various prejudices against him.“Having every single thing you do and every move you make be scrutinized and dominated by the media, as you can hear by the clicking of the typewriters today in court,” was insurmountable, she said.“Mr. Weinstein is a sick man,” she said, referring to a history of heart disease and other unspecified medical issues that were recently diagnosed.“His parents taught him that you should give back,” she said. “If you look at the allegations in this courtroom, it’s a very small side of who he is. What you don’t see is the other side of what he’s done. He built careers, and because he built careers, everybody wanted a piece of him.”Rotunno cited Weinstein’s five children, including two grown daughters and three young children.She said allies of Weinstein wanted to come forward in support but were afraid to do so.“They don’t feel they can do so because they can lose their jobs,” she said.Weinstein Showed Contrition, Denial in 2017 (10:40 a.m.)Yesterday the court released a trove of documents relate to the case, including two letters Weinstein sent to industry colleagues in late 2017, as the allegations against him were becoming public.In an October 2017 letter, Weinstein expressed some contrition, calling himself “a flawed human being” and admitting he had been “inappropriate in many ways.” He expressed admiration for the then-nascent MeToo movement, saying it was “teaching old dinosaurs like me the way” in terms of his interactions with women in the industry.But he also sought to cast blame back, saying he had seen “actors and actresses take an almost predatory stance toward casting.” He also said “things have been wildly exaggerated” and decried the “vitriol” being expressed against him.On Dec. 21, 2017, Weinstein struck a more despairing tone. “I have lost my family,” he wrote. “I have daughters that will not talk to me. I have lost my wife. I have lost the respect of my ex-wife and generally all of my friends. I have no company. I’m alone.”He again tried to defend himself though, calling himself a “sex addict” and saying his conduct reflected changing social mores.“There’s a difference between assault and womanizing,” Weinstein said. “There’s a difference between assault and cheating. Men my own age grew up in a different era. Now in a movement that has swept our country, things that were consensual 22 years ago have become non-consensual.”Defense Lays Out Case for Leniency (10:31 a.m.)Defense attorney Arthur Aidala told Burke the average sentence for the most serious crime Weinstein was convicted of, which carries a prison term of five to 25 years, is 8 1/2 years.“We did our research and we did our homework, and what we came up with, that the top count that Mr. Weinstein is facing today, the New York state mean number is 8 1/2 years,” he said.Aidala said other cases involved weapons.“There’s no evidence of that here,” he said, adding that “it’s lower for people who are first-time offenders.” Aidala said last fall Burke sentenced another man, who had raped an underling, and pleaded guilty, to 7 1/2 years.“Here there are less serious charges,” he said.‘Harvey was the power over the powerless’ (10:12 a.m.)Victims broke into tears as they addressed the judge.“The day my uncontrollable screams were heard form the witness room was the day I got back my voice, the day I got back my power,” Mann told Burke. “That, your honor, is what the victim of a rapist looks like.”Mann said “there is so much still left unsaid about his abuse” and pointed to “the wreckage Harvey Weinstein made of my life.” She asked the judge to recognize the trauma she has experienced, calling it “rape-induced paralysis.”“Harvey had every advantage over me,” she said, citing his weight and strength. “Flight was not possible.”Weinstein, in a blue suit, sat silently with his hands clasped in front of him.“Harvey was the power over the powerless,” Mann said, adding that he went so far as to threaten her father “with an old-school Mafia beatdown.”“My rape was preventable,” she said, noting the long history of abuse that prosecutors have detailed and saying Weinstein frequently paid off accusers and made them sign nondisclosure agreements.Mann asked Burke to give Weinstein the maximum prison term, noting that a drunk driver can get five years.“Harvey should be given a chance to be rehabilitated while he serves time for his crimes,” she said.Prosecutor Asks Judge for the Maximum Sentence (10 a.m.)Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi called for the maximum sentence and praised Weinstein’s accusers.“Simply put, without these women and others willing to come forward, being 100% transparent and sacrificing their privacy and well-being, this matter would have never been undertaken and the defendant would never have been stopped,” she told the judge. “He led a life of crime, unchecked for decades.”Haley, addressing the court, said Weinstein raped her.“What he did not only stripped me of my dignity as a woman ... it diminished my confidence and faith in people,” she said. “It was embarrassing and very hurtful that this person that I knew would do this to me. I am relieved to know he is no longer out there. I am relieved he will now know he is no longer above the law.”But mostly, Haley said through tears, “the past couple of years have been excruciatingly difficult. I lived in fear and paranoia on a daily basis, fearing retaliation. I would have panic attacks and nightmares and I feared for my life.”Will Weinstein Speak? (9:43 a.m.)Before Burke hands down his sentence, Weinstein will have an opportunity to address the court. Will he? That remains to be seen. Weinstein may use the opportunity to apologize for his crimes, to plead for mercy or at least to thank the judge for his handling of the case. Or he may stay silent and let his lawyers do the talking for him.The Calm Before the Storm (9:15 a.m.)The scene outside the courthouse isn’t quite as chaotic as it was during the trial. There are about six satellite trucks and a dozen cameras right now, significantly fewer than in January and February. Concern over the coronavirus may be a factor. Some trains into Manhattan seemed less crowded than usual, and the streets downtown are noticeably less bustling.Weinstein’s Accusers Stride Into the Courtroom (8:55 a.m.)Weinstein’s six accusers from the trial strode into the courtroom just before 9 a.m. in a show of force, with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. following behind. The actor Annabella Sciorra, in a pair of wire-rimmed aviator glasses and a leather jacket, is seated directly next to Vance and is chatting with him. Beside them are Haley and then Tarale Wulff, Dawn Dunning and Lauren Young, the three witnesses prosecutors called to show a pattern of nonconsensual sex. Mann is at the end of the row. Weinstein’s accusers are all seated directly behind the prosecution table, where Assistant District Attorneys Joan Illuzzi and Meghan Hast are seated.To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net;Olivia Raimonde in New York at oraimonde@bloomberg.net;Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter JeffreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Italy enters its first day of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown as it becomes the worst-hit country outside China

The number of coronavirus cases in Italy surpassed 9,100 on Monday night, prompting the government to quarantine the whole nation.

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'People here don't matter': arrival of coronavirus-hit ship in Oakland plucks at old hurts

Grand Princess was originally headed for San Francisco but was rerouted to Oakland, a historically more racially diverse and impoverished cityThe port of Oakland spans more than 800 acres of land along the waterfront and includes 20 berths and an international airport. Its towering cranes are the first thing to greet visitors driving in from San Francisco, a constant flow of trucks and containers humming below.California officials chose the port this week to dock the Grand Princess, the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship originally headed for San Francisco, citing the port’s scale and its transportation connections. Emergency workers would easily be able to isolate an 11-acre stretch while passengers disembarked to their quarantine locations, officials said.But to many in Oakland, a historically more racially diverse and impoverished city long overshadowed by its counterpart across the bay, the decision – however rational - plucked at old hurts, steeped in racial and environmental discrimination.“There’s a feeling, particularly among people of color in this city, that things keep happening to us and not for us,” said Oakland activist Cat Brooks. “When something like this [cruise ship] happens, that allows for a breeding ground of hysteria and mistrust.”The decision over the Grand Princess fanned a longstanding tension between San Francisco and Oakland, a dynamic entrenched in inequality and economic disparity. San Francisco became the center of the latest tech boom, while Oakland remained its rustier, more industrial counterpart. Oakland was the place San Franciscans turned to for affordable housing, until Oaklanders could no longer afford to live in their own city.The median household income in San Francisco is more than $104,000 while in Oakland, it’s $68,000. San Francisco’s poverty rate teetered at 11% while Oakland’s pushed 18%. Oakland had the Golden State Warriors – then the star basketball team moved to San Francisco after becoming a dominant force in the NBA.“If you look at the type of comments that Oakland people have been posting about on social media, it’s not like anybody would wish ill on the ship passengers,” the Oakland council member Rebecca Kaplan said. “It’s that this is a pattern and a history that San Francisco treats Oakland this way. They’re using Oakland to solve a San Francisco problem.”It’s a continuing theme, she said. Kaplan pointed to Oakland’s current housing affordability crisis, which she blames in part on San Franciscans moving to Oakland for cheaper housing and then driving up the costs.“San Francisco builds jobs but not housing, and then expects Oakland to house the workforce that serves the profits of San Francisco,” Kaplan said. “That has been an ongoing problem for at least a couple of generations.”This cuts particularly deeply in communities of color, which comprise almost 72% of Oakland’s population, many of whom found themselves getting pushed out of their own neighborhoods. Jhamel Robinson, an Oakland activist who co-founded BBQ’n While Black after a white woman called the police over two black men barbecuing at Lake Merritt, called this “the gentrification plague”.For Robinson and other Oaklanders of color, this was why the decision to reroute the cruise ship to Oakland felt insidious. The West Oakland neighborhoods bordering the port are historically some of the city’s poorest and most polluted. Last month, a West Oakland high school was shut down after trichloroethylene was found in the groundwater under the campus.While the risk of viral contamination is low – the ship’s passengers were isolated and moved to quarantine outside the city, with none remaining in the community – for some of Oaklanders, it felt like an intentional risk.“I think that it’s important for people to remember that for black people in particular, there’s no logical reason for us to believe anything that comes out of the mouths of health officials, government officials or elected officials,” Brooks said. “When you look at the history of sterilization, experimentation, purposely infecting people, there’s a long history in this country where black people were purposely exposed for a variety of different reasons.”Assembly member Rob Bonta, who represents Oakland, addressed these issues in a Facebook post.> It makes it seem like people in these communities don’t matter> > Jhamel Robinson“I am very sensitive to the perception that the Grand Princess being berthed and disembarked at the Port of Oakland – instead of in San Francisco – is wrong and unjust,” he wrote. “Frankly, that was my first reaction. It is absolutely appropriate to view this through the historical context and lens of environmental racism and injustice in Oakland, specifically in West Oakland, including exposure to toxics, dirty air and lead.“But from my vantage point and in my estimation, after being briefed, informed and hearing directly from the team collaborating to execute this operation, my view is that the disembarkation operation of the Grand Princess is not at all the same.”Kaplan made a point to note that objections to the decision to dock had nothing to do with the passengers on the ship. “Oakland is always willing to take in refugees,” she said. But officials could act quickly to protect Oakland’s vulnerable populations in the same way they acted quickly to dock the cruise ship.“Yes, the state should stand up for the people on the ship, but also for the people in danger on the streets right now,” she said. “A bunch of high-ranking state officials moved heaven and earth to help them, and bless them, but we have people in desperate need, people who need hand-washing stations and public toilets right now, and the state needs to take action.”BBQ’n While Black had planned a community baby shower to take place in West Oakland. After the cruise ship docked, Robinson said they decided to postpone the event as a precaution.“It’s frustrating,” he said. “We’re trying to do something good for the community and trying to give back to the community and it feels like these barriers are in the way. We chose West Oakland [for the event] because we know there’s a dire need there.”A need, he said that is now put on hold for the needs of the passengers on the cruise ship.“To me personally, it makes it seem like people in these communities don’t matter,” he said.

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US fighter jets escort Russian aircraft away from Alaskan coastline

Two Russian jets that flew over the sea near the Alaska coastline were intercepted by US and Canadian aircraft, military officials said on Tuesday.The two planes were escorted by F-22 and CF-18 aircraft according to the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) after they flew as close as 50 nautical miles to the Alaska coast.

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Trump's radical plan to waive payroll tax would punch hole in Social Security, Medicare budgets

President Donald Trump has picked his favourite weapon to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus - an elimination of the "payroll tax" on workers' gross earnings that is used to fund national retirement programs. Trump advisers on the White House economic team and Republican lawmakers are pushing for more targeted stimulus. Trump told Republican senators in a meeting Tuesday he would like to waive the payroll tax entirely through the end of the year, or even permanently suspend it, one attendee told Reuters.

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Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Had Been Laying Low. That's Over.

First he ordered the detention of at least four senior members of his own royal family. The next day he plunged Saudi Arabia into a price war with Russia that sent energy and stock markets around the world into free fall.For a while, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had appeared to be living down his reputation for dangerous aggression.Perhaps chastened by the blowback over his connection with the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the 34-year-old crown prince had kept a low profile for more than a year.Now his new power plays are reviving debates in Western capitals about whether he is too rash to trust as a partner. His sudden, steep cut to the price of oil has rocked a global economy already at risk of falling into recession, threatened to burn through Saudi Arabia's cash reserves and undermined his grandiose promises of new investments to lessen the kingdom's dependence on oil."It is mutually assured destruction for any oil exporting economy, certainly including Saudi Arabia and Russia and probably the United States as well," said Greg Brew, a scholar of the region and a fellow at Southern Methodist University."But this is typical MBS, right?" he added, referring to the crown prince by his initials. "He is a risk taker, and he is prone to impulsive decisions."The detention of the senior royals, which began to leak out on Friday, has not been acknowledged or explained by the Saudi officials.Two of the detained princes -- Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the younger brother of the crown prince's aging father, King Salman, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the former crown prince and interior minister -- had once been seen as possible rivals for power. Their arrests stirred anxious speculation among cowed members of the royal family that Crown Prince Mohammed might be sidelining opponents in preparation for taking the throne from his father, who is 84 and has sometimes appeared forgetful or disoriented.People close to the royal court, though, insisted the crown prince had merely lashed out at his uncle and cousins for speaking critically about him. He wanted to teach the rest of the family a lesson."It was quiet for a while and people were wondering if MBS had mellowed," Steffen Hertog, a scholar at the London School of Economics, said. "But clearly his character is pretty persistent."Crown Prince Mohammed slashed the oil price to punish Russia, which he faulted for failing to cooperate in cutting production and propping up prices. The slowdown caused by the coronavirus was already reducing demand for oil."The Russians called their bluff, and now the Saudis are trying to demonstrate to the Russians what the cost is of a lack of cooperation," Hertog said. But for Saudi Arabia, "it is a risky game of chicken."Saudi Arabia has much more to lose than Russia. Russia has more diverse sources of revenue and it has built up its reserves since the last oil price downturn.Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, remains overwhelmingly dependent on oil. What's more, its cash reserves have remained flat for about four years at around $500 billion, down from a peak of about $740 billion in the summer of 2014.Analysts say that the kingdom needs a so-called break-even price of about $80 a barrel to meet its budget without either further drawing down those reserves or adopting painful austerity measures. But the price on Monday fell to about $35 a barrel, less than half the break-even price.A downturn of as much as two years could cut into those reserves severely enough to put pressure on the Saudi exchange rate as well as the plans to diversify the economy, Hertog said.The crown prince's economic plan for the country centered on a public offering of shares in the Saudi state oil company, Aramco, to raise money to invest in other sectors. But plans for a debut on a major international market were pulled in favor of the more lax Saudi domestic exchange, and over the last two days the oil price cut has sent shares tumbling by 20%, shaving $320 billion off the value of the company.The timing of the price war so soon after the roundup of his royal relatives on Friday has aroused speculation that the crown prince sought to contain potential opponents in anticipation of trouble. Perhaps he wanted to preempt any foes before economic pain from the downturn made him politically vulnerable, some suggested."The threat to MBS is not coming from his royal rivals," argued Kristin Smith Diwan, a scholar at the Gulf States Institute in Washington. "It is coming from the collapse in oil revenues and what that does to his ambitious economic plans."But other analysts, former diplomats and officials with experience in Saudi Arabia, and Saudis close to the royal court said that Crown Prince Mohammed had consolidated power so thoroughly that he had little left to fear.With a level of ruthlessness unprecedented in modern Saudi history, the crown prince has seized more direct power over the kingdom than any monarch in decades, largely by intimidating into submission his own sprawling ruling family. Even in a severe downturn, the members of the royal family he detained had little hope of challenging him.He had already put the same royals under tight surveillance, limiting their ability to plot against him, according to people close to the royal court.A spokesman for the Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.The most senior figure detained, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, more than 70 years old, had once been recorded in London making comments distancing himself from the crown prince's policies but had since appeared submissive, at least in public.The other prominent royal detained, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, had already been under house arrest since 2017, when he was removed from his posts as crown prince and interior minister by the current crown prince.Previous Saudi rulers might have provided some advance warning to Washington and London before such high profile detentions, former diplomats said. Crown Prince Mohammed had met in Riyadh last week with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab of Britain and last month with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.Yet the crown prince gave no indication that the arrests were imminent, according to diplomats and other officials with knowledge of the matter.Western officials worry about the "reputational risk" of associating with such an unpredictable leader, said Emile Hokayem, a scholar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. But so far Crown Prince Mohammed has faced few adverse consequences.He has led a five-year military intervention in Yemen that has produced a humanitarian catastrophe. He rounded up hundreds of his royal relatives and other wealthy Saudis in a Ritz Carlton hotel in 2017 to squeeze them for repayment of what he claimed was self enrichment. He even temporarily kidnapped the prime minister of Lebanon and forced him to announce a resignation (which the prime minister later retracted).American intelligence agencies concluded that in 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who lived in Virginia.Since then, some analysts have seen signs of maturation, in particular his pulling back from a potential armed clash with his nemesis, Iran, last year. At a meeting last summer in Japan of the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, Crown Prince Mohammed was welcomed as a fellow statesman and tapped to host the group's next summit this fall in Riyadh.President Donald Trump called him "a friend of mine.""You have done a spectacular job," the president told him.And when the crown prince shook world markets on Monday, Trump emphasized the positive."Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!" he said in a Twitter posting.Andrew Miller, a researcher for the Project on Middle East Democracy and a former State Department official, said the detentions and price war were "just MBS.""Contrary to what many had said previously, he has not learned any lessons and he has not matured," Miller said. "He has drawn the opposite lessons, that he is above the law, because Saudi Arabia is so important to its Western allies that he will always be welcomed back into the fold."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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The US is struggling to test more people for the coronavirus. Now it's facing a shortage of the materials used to run those tests.

Italy, South Korea, and China are "way ahead of us on testing," one US health-system CEO told Business Insider.

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Trump reportedly won't meet with Pelosi on a coronavirus bill, or for any reason, because he's mad at her

President Trump traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss a coronavirus economic stimulus package with Senate Republicans. Any bill would have to be approved by the Democratic-led House, where Trump's big idea, a payroll tax cut, is a nonstarter. So why didn't he also meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)? "Trump and Nancy Pelosi aren't exactly on speaking terms," Politico reports, "so he's deputized Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to handle talks with the speaker."Senate Republicans are also leery of the payroll tax cut, especially as Trump gave the impression he wants the taxes used to fund Social Security and Medicare slashed to zero, permanently, The Washington Post reports. Pelosi's caucus is already putting together its own bill funding paid sick leave for workers and lunches for students whose schools are closed during the outbreak. Mnuchin "is going to have ball control for the administration, and I expect that will speak for us as well," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after meeting with Trump. "We're hoping that he and the speaker can pull this together."On MSNBC Tuesday, CNBC's Eamon Javers said the White House doesn't think it "would end well" if Trump met with Pelosi. "It's a tragic statement that because he's so wounded — I mean, we're in the middle of a national crisis, and he can't get in a room with the speaker of the House?" host Nicole Wallace asked. "What the White House would say is, that's Pelosi's fault," Javers said. "Because she ripped up his speech, she's been tough on him, she impeached him, and therefore the president has every right to not want to be in a room with her."In fact, White House spokesman Judd Deere said Monday that Trump had declined Pelosi's invitation to attend the annual St. Patrick's Day lunch — a bipartisan tradition that started in 1983 as a fence-mending gathering hosted by House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill (D-Mass.) for President Ronald Reagan — because "the speaker has chosen to tear this nation apart with her actions and her rhetoric.""You know, Bill Clinton built part of his political narrative by saying 'I feel your pain,'" former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) told Wallace on Tuesday. "Donald Trump is asking the nation to feel his, and it is a weird leadership quality in a moment of crisis."More stories from theweek.com Coronavirus is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu, Trump's task force immunologist says Health analyst says slowing 'tidal wave' of coronavirus cases is key to avoid overwhelming hospitals A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators

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South Korea reports jump in coronavirus cases after call center outbreak

South Korea reported a jump in new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, reversing 11 days of slowing infections, as authorities tested hundreds of staff at a Seoul call center where the disease broke out this week. Another 242 new cases were reported, compared with 35 a day earlier, bringing the total to 7,755 in Asia's worst outbreak outside mainland China, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The daily tally of new cases in South Korea peaked at 909 on Feb. 29, as authorities tested about 200,000 followers of a fringe Christian church at the center of the nation's epidemic.

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