Month: March 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill Friday to bolster the economy while he also used government powers to compel General Motors to manufacture ventilators to help COVID-19 patients as the United States became the first country in the world to surpass 100,000 coronavirus cases.Trump said Friday he used his power under the Defense Production Act to require GM to “accept, perform and prioritize” federal government contracts to make ventilators.“GM was wasting time. Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives,” Trump said in a statement.He made the announcement shortly before signing into law the $2.2 trillion stimulus package after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation earlier in the day to blunt the economic effects of the coronavirus that has battered the economy.The United States is now regarded as the epicenter of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, which originated in China.By Friday evening, the U.S. had 101,657 confirmed coronavirus cases, compared with 81,897 in China, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Italy, the epicenter of the virus in Europe, had 86,498 confirmed cases. More than 1,500 Americans have died from COVID-19.During debate on the stimulus bill in the House Friday, lawmakers sat a distance apart from each other in the House chamber to comply with health safety advice as they debated before a voice vote, a quick way to approve legislation.The bill, which was previously approved by the Senate on a 96-0 vote, is the biggest fiscal relief package ever considered by Congress. It authorizes direct payments to U.S. citizens within three weeks of becoming law.New York City, the hardest-hit U.S. city and the country’s largest city, had 44,876 cases and 527 deaths as of Friday evening, according to Johns Hopkins. New York officials said the number of cases is growing by at least 3,000 a day.U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams warned Americans on Friday that they could expect cases to surge in other U.S. cities.“We also see hot spots like Detroit, like Chicago, like New Orleans, will have a worse week next week,” Adams said on CBS This Morning.Adams’ warning comes as U.S. states and cities continue to scramble in response to the outbreak. A survey published Friday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that 90 percent of mayors who responded said they don’t have adequate supplies of protective equipment and other essential items, such as face masks for health care workers and emergency responders.Earlier Friday, Trump said he had “a very good conversation” with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid heightened tensions between the two leaders that was triggered by the outbreak in China. But Trump tweeted, “China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!”The tweet was in sharp contrast to Trump’s previous disparaging remarks about how the Asian nation handled the outbreak and to his repeated description of the virus as the “Chinese virus.”In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive Friday for COVID-19, Downing Street said in a statement.In a video on Twitter, Johnson said he has “a temperature and a persistent cough” and that the symptoms were “mild.” He also said he is “working from home” and is “self-isolating” and added it was “entirely the right thing to do.”The White House said Trump spoke by phone with Johnson Friday and “wished him a speedy recovery.”Other leaders across the globe have also tested positive for COVID-19, including political leaders in Italy, Spain, Australia and Iran.In their first-ever remote vote, EU Parliament members approved a $41 billion package of economic aid to members whose economies have also taken a beating because of the outbreak.Italy reported its largest one-day death toll Friday, announcing 919 deaths. Spain has also been particularly hard-hit, with more than 64,000 cases and more than 4,900 deaths.France announced Friday that it was extending its national lockdown until at least April 15.The coronavirus has claimed nearly 27,000 lives globally, according to Johns Hopkins, which also reported nearly 592,000 cases worldwide.The cruise ship company, Holland America, said Friday that four people have died and another 138 are sick on a ship currently near the Panama Canal but stuck in limbo during the coronavirus pandemic.The company said in a statement Friday that two people aboard the Zaandam ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, while the other sick passengers have complained of flulike symptoms. The company did not say what caused the deaths of the four passengers.China is temporarily closing its borders to all foreign visitors. Nearly all the new coronavirus cases in the past week in China have come from people arriving from overseas.The outbreak appears to have eased in China, and authorities don’t want a resurgence.South Africa and the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Medina and Mecca — the last are two of Islam’s holiest cities — are the latest to go under lockdown.The Associated Press reports U.N. ambassadors from eight countries under United States sanctions — China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela — are asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to press the U.S. to lift the sanctions so they can effectively fight the outbreak. The ambassadors accused the U.S. of politicizing the pandemic.
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Top U.S. adversaries appear to be coming together, using social media and other cyber means to amplify disinformation regarding the coronavirus, with the intent of harming the United States and hindering efforts to curb the global pandemic.
 
The accusation, from senior State Department officials, focuses on efforts by Russia, China and Iran. No longer content to simply pump out their own false narratives, the three countries have now formed a sort of axis of disinformation, officials say, by echoing and magnifying each other’s information operations.
 
“We’re seeing Russian, Chinese and Iranian state information operations converging around the same disinformation narrative about COVID-19,” Lea Gabrielle, head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), told reporters in a telephone briefing Friday.
 
“We’re also seeing Russia’s [disinformation] ecosystem promoting narratives advanced by China and Iran,” she said.On the rise
 
U.S. officials declined to say whether the virtual collaboration was intentional or just opportunistic. But officials, including those in the Pentagon and in the U.S. intelligence community, have previously accused each of the countries of ramping up disinformation operations.
 
“The COVID-19 crisis has really provided an opportunity for malign actors to exploit the information space for harmful purposes and really been providing unnecessary distraction from the global community’s focus on this crisis,” Gabrielle said.
 
According to U.S. and European officials, the bulk of the disinformation has focused on blaming the U.S. or the West for the coronavirus outbreak or on the West’s alleged inability to cope with the crisis.
 
European officials say Russian-linked cyber actors have been especially active, trying to trick people into believing the pandemic is a hoax or persuade them to try bogus cures.
 
U.S. officials have also voiced growing concern that the coronavirus pandemic has emboldened China, which is using social media to launch blunt attacks on official social media accounts.More evidence suggests that the virus was not originated at the seafood market in Wuhan at all, not to mention the so called “made in China”. https://t.co/8cRxkSZB3z— Chinese Embassy in South Africa (@ChineseEmbSA) March 16, 2020 
In Iran, senior officials have also echoed false allegations that the U.S. has weaponized the coronavirus.All three countries have pushed back, rejecting the U.S. and European allegations.China, in particular, has accused the U.S. of using language to stigmatize China and discredit its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.Still, U.S. officials have not let up in their criticism and say they are working with private sector partners to monitor and track propaganda from all three countries “in real time,” Gabrielle said.
 
Other measures to counter the “global false narratives” include public messaging at home and overseas; diplomatic engagement; and promotion of fact-based information to local audiences through overseas U.S. embassies and consulates.
 
Social media companies such as Twitter tell VOA they have been briefed, broadly on the government’s concerns regarding disinformation.It’s not all public
 
But officials and analysts note the problems go far beyond the major social media platforms, adding that much of the disinformation is not easily visible.
 
“Not all of this disinformation goes viral on Facebook or Twitter,” said Lindsay Gorman, the fellow for emerging technologies at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “There are other [forums], which include text messages, which include Facebook groups, which include less viral and less public platforms.
 
“Stopping it on one level doesn’t necessarily mean you quell it on another,” she said.
 
A growing number of U.S. lawmakers have been pressing for stronger actions.
 
Earlier this month, two lawmakers urged Twitter, which is blocked in China, to ban all Chinese Communist Party accounts.Two Republican lawmakers -@BenSasse & @RepGallagher- pushing for @Twitter to ban #China communist party accounts“It is clear that Chinese Communist Party officials are using Twitter to disseminate propaganda in the midst of a dangerous global crisis” they write to CEO @jackhttps://t.co/jJXa4AJAUV— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) March 20, 2020 On Thursday, U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked the State Department to launch a multilateral investigation into China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
 
“To refute the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party’s] dangerous disinformation campaign, [the] United States should work with like-minded democracies, including Taiwan, to produce a definitive account of the origins of the virus, the CCP’s culpability, and how their undue influence undermined the legitimacy of the WHO [World Health Organization] at this critical time,” McCaul wrote.
 
Such calls are resonating with some military officials.“I think any official, Chinese Communist Party or PRC [People’s Republic of China] official, should be banned,” U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding told VOA’s Mandarin service. “I think WeChat, Alibaba, TenCent … all of these platforms ought to be banned as well.”“Every single day, [People’s Liberation Army] and other folks that are being paid specifically by the Chinese Communist Party to do propaganda and influence are in our midst,” he said. “If we won’t allow them physically to be on our soil to coerce our citizens … then why would we ever allow them in our networks and in our data?”Letup appears unlikelySome caution, however, that no matter what Washington does, the slew of disinformation operations targeting the U.S. are unlikely to let up.
 
Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are “using cyber operations much better than they have in the past, and are using [them] in ways that take advantage of asymmetric weaknesses in the United States,” said Ben Buchanan, a fellow at the Wilson Center and author of The Hacker and the State, which looks at the role of cyber operations in global politics.“What we see as a result is this daily, grind-it-out competition between modern nations that is mostly out of view,” Buchanan said.Yuwen Cheng and Zhan Qiao of VOA’s Mandarin service contributed to this report.
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The largest relief package in U.S. history is expected to be soon signed into law by President Donald Trump, after the $2 trillion coronavirus aid legislation passed a last-minute hurdle in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The unprecedented legislation provides billions of dollars in funding to hospitals, small businesses, industries hard-hit by quarantines as well as directly sending cash to most low and middle-class Americans in an attempt to contain massive economic damage and lessen its impact.   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aimed to pass the bill Friday using a procedural maneuver that would have prevented lawmakers from having to fly in from around the nation to vote in person on Capitol Hill.  But Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of the southern state of Kentucky objected to passage of the stimulus by a voice vote, saying he objected to how much the rescue effort would add to the U.S. debt, which already totals more than $23 trillion.  Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., talks to reporters before leaving Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2020, after attempting to slow action on a rescue package.Trump tweeted a warning earlier Friday telling the House Republican to not hold up passage of the bill.  “Looks like a third rate Grandstander named Rep. Thomas Massie, a congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay.”  Lawmakers returned from all around the country so that Congressional leadership could establish a quorum, overcoming Massie’s objections.   Many lawmakers admitted that while they would vote for the aid, the quickly-drafted legislation was far from perfect.  “We have to go into this vote eyes wide open,” Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor Friday. “What did the Senate Majority fight for? One of the largest corporate bailouts with as few strings as possible in American history. Shameful.”   Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., walks Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2020.“The option that we have is to either let them suffer with nothing or to allow this greed and billions of dollars which will be leveraged into trillions of dollars to contribute to the largest income inequality gap in our future,” Ocasio-Cortez said.The gigantic funding measure is designed to flood the U.S. economy with cash to overcome the significant downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy addressed criticism of the legislation on the House floor Friday, saying “We’re not underwriting bad business practices, we are priming the pump. Ultimately, we are laying the foundation for rapid economic recovery. This bill is not only a rescue package, it is a commitment. A commitment that your government and the people whom you elected to serve will do everything We can to limit the harm and hardship you face.”  Pelosi said the Democratic lawmakers who negotiated the pact with the majority Republican leaders in the Senate and the White House “didn’t get everything we wanted” in the measure, but that they “won the day.”  Pelosi said she did not think the rescue package would end congressional efforts to prop up the U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, as the damage from the pandemic continues to wreak havoc.She said she did not “think we’ve seen the end of direct payments” to American workers.The rescue was approved by the Senate on a 96-0 vote late Wednesday after days of at times contentious negotiations.  Members of the House of Representatives walk down the steps of Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2020, after passing a coronavirus rescue package.Trump told reporters Wednesday evening at the White House that he would act quickly after congressional approval, saying the signing would mark “a great day for the American worker and for American families and, frankly, for American companies.”  “I encourage the House to pass this vital legislation and send the bill to my desk for signature,” he said. “Without delay, I will sign it immediately.”  The bill provides $500 billion in assistance to the hardest-hit major U.S. companies, another $367 billion to small businesses with fewer than 500 employees, and $250 billion to bolster state-run unemployment compensation funds, as the ranks of the jobless have ballooned in the last two weeks.   Nearly 3.3 million furloughed workers filed for unemployment compensation claims last week, a U.S. record.  About $150 billion would go to help hospitals suddenly under the strain of caring for the flood of coronavirus patients.Another major plank of the aid package is aimed at helping most American families, with the government set to send about $3,400 to families of four — two parents and two children. The payouts could cover about 90% of U.S. households.   Officials said some checks could be deposited in bank accounts within three weeks.    Individual taxpayers would get $1,200, and couples $2,400, with aid ending for individuals earning more than $99,000 annually and $198,000 a year for couples.   Trump says he wants to restart the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, as lockdown orders in many states have kept workers home and closed such businesses as restaurants, bars and movie theaters, as well as factories employing thousands of workers.   On Tuesday, he said he hopes the country is “raring to go” by Easter Sunday, April 12.  But medical experts have voiced skepticism, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths rising by the hour.   The United States has more than 90,000 confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 1,300 deaths.   
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Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell says that the hundreds of thousands of business owners who have shut their doors as a part of the nationwide effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus are doing a public service, and that the central bank and other government agencies will do their best to help them recover from the economic damage that results.FILE – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference in Washington, March 3, 2020.In an interview Thursday on NBC’s Today Show, Powell said that the economy “may well” be in a recession already, but stressed that the underlying circumstances are vastly different from previous economic slowdowns. The interview took place on a day when it was reported that 3.3 million Americans had filed for unemployment compensation in the previous week — nearly five times the previous high set in 1982. “This is a unique situation — it’s not like a typical downturn,” he said. “We’ve asked people to step back from economic activity really to make an investment in our public health. They’re doing that for the public good.” As part of a government-wide effort, he said, the Fed is taking extraordinary steps to make sure that credit is available to businesses and individuals that need it in order to get through the shutdown without facing financial ruin. Speaking directly to Americans hit hard by the sudden suspension of economic activity, Powell added, “The Federal Reserve is working hard to support you now, and our policies will be very important, when the recovery does come, to make that recovery as strong as possible.” Fed can’t do it alone The Federal Reserve cannot save the American economy from the effects of a lengthy coronavirus shutdown all by itself, but it has a major role to play in limiting the damage a months-long shutdown will cause, and creating the opportunity for businesses to rebound once the crisis has passed. FILE – In this image from video, the final vote of 96-0 shows passage of the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package in response to coronavirus pandemic, passed by the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 25, 2020.Actions by the central bank are just part of a broader federal response, much of it laid out in a $2 trillion rescue package that was expected to receive congressional approval by the weekend. The package includes direct payments to individuals, financial support for struggling businesses, and an infusion of aid to states, whose budgets are being taxed by the costs of mounting a response to a global pandemic. The Treasury Department is also extending the deadline for 2019 income tax payments to July, effectively providing an interest-free loan to millions of Americans.  Unlike the cash stimulus coming from Congress, which is meant to provide immediate relief and to spur demand, the Fed’s biggest mission is to make it possible for businesses and individuals to weather a lengthy shutdown with enough vitality left to start back up again once it is safe to do so. “We’re trying to create a bridge from our very strong economy to another place of economic strength, and that’s what our lending really does,” Powell said. $4.5 trillion in lending The economic stimulus approved unanimously by the Senate and the House of Representatives includes a provision directing the Treasury Department to provide the Fed with a $454 billion “backstop” to support a lending program. The money will effectively serve as a massive loan guarantee fund that the central bank can leverage tenfold to extend credit to banks that make loans to individuals and to businesses —including the small operations being hit hardest by the crisis. Powell said that for every dollar in loan guarantees, the Fed can extend about 10 dollars in credit, meaning that the legislation could support an unprecedented $4.5 trillion in credit. A construction worker sits alone along an empty sidewalk near the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in New York City, New York, March 27, 2020.At the same time, the Fed and its fellow financial services regulators urged the institutions they supervise to make use of the unprecedented amount of funding available.  In a joint release from the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, regulators said they “specifically encourage financial institutions to offer responsible small-dollar loans to both consumers and small businesses. The agencies recognize the important role that responsibly offered small-dollar loans can play in helping customers meet their needs for credit due to temporary cash-flow imbalances, unexpected expenses, or income short-falls during periods of economic stress or disaster recoveries.” Flexibility in repaymentGoing further, regulators asked lenders to make extra efforts to work with borrowers who have trouble repaying those loans. “For borrowers who experience unexpected circumstances and cannot repay a loan as structured, financial institutions are encouraged to consider workout strategies designed to help enable the borrower to repay the principal of the loan while mitigating the need to re-borrow.” Over the past few weeks, the central bank had taken multiple actions to keep credit flowing through the economy. On March 15, the Fed slashed its benchmark interest rates to zero and announced a program to buy as much as $700 billion in Treasury- and mortgage-backed securities, another step meant to keep rates low. In addition, the bank loosened credit requirements for banks that borrow directly from it, and eased regulatory restrictions that require banks to keep significant cash reserves. 
 
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U.S. Representative Thomas Massie enraged President Donald Trump on Friday as he has leaders of Congress worried he will delay a planned Friday voice vote on a $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic rescue plan, drawing calls from the White House to throw him out of the Republican Party.Even before the 49-year-old drew Trump’s ire on Twitter, he had been a thorn in the side of both parties so long that he’s nicknamed “Mr. No.””Throw Massie out of the Republican Party!” Trump tweeted on Friday.Looks like a third rate Grandstander named @RepThomasMassie, a Congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay, which is both dangerous……— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020…& costly. Workers & small businesses need money now in order to survive. Virus wasn’t their fault. It is “HELL” dealing with the Dems, had to give up some stupid things in order to get the “big picture” done. 90% GREAT! WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020Here are some facts about Massie:- Massie was first elected in 2012 with an assist from the conservative tea party movement, from a solidly Republican district in northern Kentucky along the Ohio River. An engineer by training who had built his own company on inventions he made, he beat two establishment Republicans in a primary election along the way.- In his first House vote in 2013, Massie opposed the re-election of John Boehner as speaker. Massie aligned with conservative and libertarian Republicans who formed the Freedom Caucus in 2015, but did not join the caucus.- By 2014, Massie had voted “no” so many times on legislation that Politico dubbed him “Mr. No.” He opposed about a third of measures that came up in his first year, voting against large and small bills sponsored by both parties, from defense spending legislation to a bill to award a gold medal to golf star Jack Nicklaus.- Massie opposed many bills on a cost basis. He joked once that the buttons lawmakers push to register their votes on the House floor – which are labeled “yea” and “nay” – should be relabeled “spend” and “don’t spend,” USA Today reported.- Massie voted twice against the election of former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican. Last year he was one of six Republicans to vote against his party’s candidate, Kevin McCarthy for Speaker; Massie voted instead for Republican Jim Jordan, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. (Democrat Nancy Pelosi won)- Sometimes Massie has worked across party lines on civil liberties issues, such as by opposing bulk data collection by the government. He favors loosening gun laws. He was one of three House Republicans to vote against relief for Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and one of two to vote against additional sanctions on North Korea.
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Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is urging residents of the southeastern U.S. state to stay home and limit contact with others as the rapid spread of new coronavirus has made the area one the nation’s hot spots for the disease. At a news conference late Wednesday, Edwards said Louisiana had moved into a tie with New Jersey for the second-highest rate of virus cases per capita. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards answers questions from reporters about his state’s rapid escalation of coronavirus cases, in Baton Rouge, La., March 26, 2020.As of Thursday, the state department of health reports Louisiana had 2,305 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, and at least 83 deaths.  Edwards said on Thursday alone the state recorded 510 new cases of the disease, a one-day jump of 28 percent. The governor announced that U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed to a request to send two federal field hospitals, along with a 60-member public health strike team, to help with the outbreak.  Health experts and state officials believe New Orleans’ annual Mardi Gras celebration in February contributed to the severity of the spread of the virus in Louisiana. Some 400,000 celebrants from all over the world come to the festival, often celebrating in close quarters. 
 
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Asian markets rose by midday Friday after U.S. markets surged for a third straight day as the U.S. Senate passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief  bill.Japan’s Nikkei index gained 1.2 percent, so did the Hang Seng in Hong Kong. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.7 percent and the Shanghai Composite index was up 1.4 percent.Jakarta’s benchmark shot up 7.2 percent and Singapore’s STI climbed 2.9 percent while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.6 percent.The advances followed U.S. stocks surging again Thursday after the Senate passed the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill with the House likely to follow Friday.The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 1,352 points, a 6 percent gain. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ also climbed 6 percent.Analysts say U.S. investors shook off the record high 3.2 million new jobless claims recorded last week, expecting that number to be higher.U.S. President Donald Trump is promising to sign the economic stimulus package as soon as the House passes it Friday.It aims to flood the U.S. economy with billions of dollars in new spending for businesses, many of which have been brought to a standstill by the coronavirus.Those businesses have been forced to lay off millions of workers and those who are still working and getting paid aren’t finding too many stores and amusements open in which to spend.Millions more are expected to file for unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. The U.S. jobless rate is forecast to hit double digits and economists say a recession is almost a certainty. But it has always been the nature of Wall Street to shake off bad economic news, such as high unemployment. Experts say the markets don’t always run parallel with the economy and that traders buy and sell stocks based on what they see in the months ahead.
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In New York City, they’ve started dismantling basketball hoops to prevent people from gathering in parks and playing. In Lakewood, New Jersey, police broke up a wedding being held in violation of a ban on large gatherings. And in Austin, Texas, officers are encouraging people to call a hotline to snitch on violators of the city’s orders for people to stay home.Police departments are taking a lead role in enforcing social distancing guidelines that health officials say are critical to containing COVID-19. Along with park rangers, fire inspectors and other public servants, officers more accustomed to chasing suspects and solving crimes are spending these troubled days cajoling people to stay at least 6 feet apart.”We’re used to crowds, we’re used to lines, we’re used to being close together,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a briefing this week. “No more.”New York City Department of Parks and Recreation employees remove the basketball hoop from a court in Tompkins Square Park, March 26, 2020, in New York as part of the social distancing effort.The no-more mandate has forced the New York Police Department — a squad that normally prides itself on protecting packed crowds like the ones at the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration — into service dispersing small groups of people on city streets and public spaces.Instead of the threat of terrorism, they’re trying to stop the spread of a silent killer that as of Thursday had left more than 1,000 people dead in the U.S., at least 280 of them in New York City — all while trying to avoid using a heavy hand.For starters, the nation’s largest police department made thousands of visits to bars and restaurants to make sure they were observing a shutdown of dine-in services imposed this month, resulting in warnings but only a handful of citations.Now comes an effort to impose restrictions in parks, playgrounds, housing project courtyards and sidewalks, where some people to congregate out of habit or indifference as temperatures rise. On Wednesday, de Blasio said the city was removing basketball hoops at 80 of its 1,700 public courts — places where he said people were ignoring instructions not to shoot around with anyone outside their household.Enforcement also will include marked patrol cars driving through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and other popular outdoor escapes around the city, broadcasting recorded reminders about the importance of social distancing.NYPD video shot in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and posted on Twitter showed a squad car slowly rolling down a nearly empty street — occupied by just two people running on opposite sides of the street — and playing a message that implores, “Please help us keep you safe.”Newark police officers, encouraging people to practice social distancing, patrol an intersection in Newark, N.J., March 26, 2020.In addition, the city is mobilizing departments to form roving enforcement teams for the effort, including members of the fire and parks departments and the mayor’s community affairs unit.People are not being discouraged from getting out for a breath of fresh air solo, as couples or as families. But other activities like team sports or gatherings like outdoor family barbecues are going to be shut down, de Blasio said.”If we see people in groups, we’re going to break them up,” he said. “If we see a place that’s too crowded, we are going to get people to disperse.”De Blasio said he would even consider closing playgrounds as soon as Saturday if families don’t follow new rules to “not overcrowd them” or allowing “kids playing with kids outside their own family.”Pedestrians stand near a bus stop at an intersection in Newark, N.J., March 26, 2020. Police departments are taking a lead role in enforcing social distancing guidelines that health officials say are critical to containing COVID-19.In New Jersey, police charged three people in recent days for holding large gatherings in defiance of a state ban. In San Jose, Calif., officers have checked 369 businesses for compliance and issued their first citation on Wednesday. If the city’s parks and trails continue to be crowded with residents, authorities could be forced to step up their enforcement — which Chief Eddie Garcia said could be difficult to determine.”They can’t play ‘red light, green light’ and say ‘everybody, freeze! Let’s get a tape measure out!’ ” he said.In New York City, officers patrolling recreation areas and enforcing social distancing this week were seeing “a lot of empty soccer fields and a lot of empty basketball courts, which is good,” NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.For now, the department is trying to avoid a more lax approach used in Italy that is believed to have only fueled infection rates, while avoiding any semblance of the Big Brother-type crackdown in China.As the crisis worsened, Italy ordered police to patrol cafes to make sure that people kept their distance and that shops shut at 6 p.m. each day, only to see the death count continue to rise. It has since shut down bars and cafes altogether.In China, officials took more extreme measures, including locking people inside their apartment complexes. A state-run news agency even released what it claimed was video from a drone sent out to chase down and shame people not wearing masks.Social media photos and videos from India showed police officers in surgical masks using batons to keep violators in line.There also were reports that Singaporean authorities criminally charged a couple who lied about their travel history and revoked the residency of a man who broke his medical quarantine.At this point, New York police say, the effort is “more about education and getting compliance,” Monahan said. “It’s about explaining to people the dangers involved and that this is a different world.”  
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The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is extending a two-week curfew to April 12 and warning residents that new restrictions are on the way to help curb coronavirus cases.Gov. Wanda Vázquez said beginning Tuesday, nonessential workers will have to be home by 7 p.m., two hours earlier than the current curfew.She also said vehicles with license plates ending in even numbers can only be on the road Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Vehicles with tags ending in odd numbers are only permitted to move about on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.Vázquez said the new restrictions come in response to hundreds of people being cited for violating a curfew imposed nearly two weeks ago.The leader of Puerto Rico’s coronavirus task force, Dr. Segundo Rodríguez, estimates that there are more than 600 people infected on the island, with more than 60 already testing positive.Authorities also reported two tourists on the island had died of the virus.Meanwhile, there has been a shake-up in the territory’s health department over the handling of the coronavirus.The governor Thursday announced appointment of Lorenzo González as Puerto Rico’s third health secretary in less than two weeks.  González was health secretary during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.  The move came hours after former health secretary Concepción Quiñones resigned for unclear reasons; her appointment followed the resignation of Rafael Rodríguez over complaints about the department’s handling of COVID-19.
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As hospitals and nursing homes desperately search for hand sanitizer amid the coronavirus outbreak, federal regulators are preventing ethanol producers from providing millions of gallons of alcohol that could be transformed into the germ-killing mixture.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s roadblock has been frustrating the health care and ethanol industries, which have been calling for a relaxed regulation to deal with the public health care emergency.”Hand sanitizer is a big part of our lives,” said Eric Barber, CEO of Mary Lanning Healthcare, a hospital in Hastings, Nebraska. “We can’t get any. We order it and it’s just not available.”The problem for the ethanol industry is that most plants make food-grade ethanol, one step below the highest pharmaceutical grade. But since the plants aren’t certified to comply with stringent production standards designed to protect quality of medicines, food ingredients and dietary supplements, the FDA doesn’t want the alcohol used for a product to be applied to the skin.Brandy Hamilton puts labels on bottles of hand sanitizer at the Prairie Distillery, which has switched from making liquor to making hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Guthrie, Okla., March 21, 2020.In addition, the alcohol is not denatured or mixed with a bitter additive to make it undrinkable. The FDA insists this step is “critical” because of cases of poisoning, sometimes fatal, among young children who have accidentally ingested hand sanitizers.An FDA spokesman said Thursday that regulators have already seen a rise in poisonings linked to hand sanitizers in recent weeks, “heightening this public concern.”The FDA is also skeptical of industry claims that undenatured sanitizers could be distributed in a way that would keep them away from children.”It is unclear what, if any, measure could be instituted to ensure that the product does not make its way into consumer hands, where children could have access,” the FDA’s Jeremy Kahn said in an emailed statement.Facing a nationwide shortage, Barber said the FDA should temporarily relax regulations to allow alternative production.”You’re talking about alcohol. Does it matter if it’s fuel grade or whatever the stuff is they’re trying to price gouge now? I think it’s common sense,” he said.The American Hospital Association encouraged flexibility to help protect patients and caregivers, without directly weighing in on the sanitizer dispute.Hand sanitizer is dispensed at a mobile shower service for the homeless provided by The Shower of Hope MacArthur Park on March 23, 2020, in Los Angeles.”We may need to consider a range of possible solutions that were not on the table before the pandemic,” said Nancy Foster, a vice president with the group, in an emailed statement to the AP.The Consumer Brands Association, formerly the Grocery Manufacturers Association, has had conversations with the FDA to push the agency to reconsider its guidelines. The group, which represents branded food, consumer products and beverage companies, said that hand sanitizer supplies are running so low that its members have had to ration it out to workers in stores, distribution centers and manufacturing plants.”We need a temporary solution,” said Mike Gruber, vice president of regulatory and technical affairs at the trade association. “This goes toward ensuring basic food safety practices.”Distillers that produce vodka, whiskey and other alcoholic drinks have been given some regulatory waivers by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau allowing them to produce hand sanitizer. Many have done that, but they produce much smaller volumes of alcohol than an ethanol plant could produce. They also receive a benefit in the Senate-passed stimulus bill.Erik Tekell, head distiller and part owner of the Prairie Distillery, mixes a vat of hand sanitizer, as the distillery has switched from making liquor to making hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Guthrie, Okla., March 21, 2020.The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, which represents dozens of large and small distillers, applauded Congress for easing taxes on distillers who make hand sanitizer.Under the stimulus package passed late Wednesday, distillers don’t have to pay federal excise taxes on alcohol used for hand sanitizer through Jan. 1, 2021.”Hundreds of U.S. distillers are stepping up to produce hand sanitizer and they should not be hit with a huge tax bill for producing this much-needed item, especially at a time when so many of them are struggling,” said Chris Swonger, the group’s president and CEO.But the council said it’s urging the FDA to update its guidance and let distillers use undenatured alcohol for hand sanitizer. The stimulus bill requires distillers to follow the FDA’s guidance if they want to receive the tax breaks.The FDA has waived dozens of regulations in recent weeks to boost production of key medical supplies, including coronavirus tests, ventilators, gloves and hand sanitizers.A customer buys two 8 oz. bottles of hand sanitizer at the Prairie Distillery, which has switched from making liquor to making hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Guthrie, Okla., March 21, 2020.Under the latest FDA guidelines, regulators maintain standards for alcohol, requiring new producers to use alcohol that meets federal or international standards for use in either drugs or food products.The regulatory hurdles are especially frustrating for Midwest ethanol producers who are facing plunging fuel demand and a petroleum fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia that caused prices to plummet. The factors are forcing more plants to curtail production and close.For ethanol producers, relaxed rules, including a requirement of the hard-to-acquire denaturant, would allow them to step in and help in a national emergency.”If we could get the FDA to say, ‘Yes, you can use the beverage grade, and for the duration of this emergency, at least for some point in time here for the next two weeks, you can waive the denaturant,’ we would literally have millions of gallons of hand sanitizer available within a matter of days,” said Monte Shaw, CEO of Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol trade group. “Every one of our plants has gotten contacted by people who want this stuff and we can’t send it to them.”Andrew Vrbas owner of Pacha Soap, a boutique soap shop in Hastings, Nebraska, had just finished renovating a 100,000-square-foot former bread factory as a project to boost the community. Now, he’s preparing to set up hand sanitizer production there to supply to hospitals. He’s received calls from hospitals in Nebraska, Florida and New York City seeking hand sanitizer.”We are literally three miles from a plant that has as much ethanol as you could imagine,” he said. “We’re sitting on millions of gallons of alcohol. If we could rally the federal government to say look if you just let us work with local ethanol producers we have the expertise, we have the ability to provide hand sanitizer to hospitals not only in Nebraska but all across the country that are just reaching out through my network saying if you could send us hand sanitizer, we’re out.”
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North Korea needs to publicly admit there is a coronavirus outbreak inside its borders and officially ask the international community for help fighting COVID-19 before any sanctions are lifted, experts said.“North Korea has not even acknowledged a single case of coronavirus,” said Christopher Hill, a chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration. “Until [the North Koreans] acknowledge that they have a problem, I cannot see any relaxation of sanctions.”North Korea has not publicly reported any confirmed cases of COVID-19. But the regime has taken measures to contain the virus, including Workers of the Ryongaksan Soap Factory make disinfectants in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2020.North Korea’s all-out efforts against the virus raised speculation that a possible outbreak has occurred in the country that shares a porous border with China, where the virus originated in Wuhan.The Financial Times reported Thursday that North Korea FILE — In this file photo taken on June 30, 2019, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump shake hands during a meeting on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea.Michelle Bachelet, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, on Tuesday People wear masks to protect from a new coronavirus as they walk through the Kwangbok Street in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 26, 2020.“Although North Korea says [it’s] not affected … those sanctions should be lifted,” said DeTrani.During an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show on Thursday, Pompeo said the U.S offered assistance for battling the coronavirus to countries like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.“In countries like Venezuela — North Korea would be in a similar situation — we’re doing our best to ensure that humanitarian assistance can make its way,” said Pompeo. “In some of these countries, when humanitarian assistance is offered — we have offered assistance for Iran — they’ll often reject it.”In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s official state media, on Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said U.S. President Donald Trump sent a personal letter offering “anti-epidemic” help.She has not given any concrete reply to the offer but only welcomed the letter as “a good judgment and proper action for the U.S. president.”  She also said it is not good to make a “hasty conclusion” that a close relationship between Trump and Kim could lead to improved relations between the two countries.Although the two leaders have been exchanging letters, nuclear talks have been deadlocked since October, when the working-level talks in Stockholm collapsed because of their differing demands. Since then, Washington has offered to resume the working-level talks, but Pyongyang has not responded to the offer.Christy Lee contributed to this report from the VOA Korean service.
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As the coronavirus continues to disrupt people’s lives in ways both big and small, many are seeking greater spiritual nourishment. Religious institutions across the country are heeding that call by connecting with their congregations in a number of creative ways. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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The U.S. state of New York crossed a grim threshold Thursday, with 100 residents dying from the coronavirus in a 24-hour period, and the governor warning that the numbers will continue to rise. “The number of deaths is increasing,” Andrew Cuomo told reporters. With the latest deaths, 385 people have now succumbed to the virus in New York state. He said the fatalities are primarily among patients who have been on ventilators for weeks. COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is a respiratory virus and many patients experience difficulty breathing, requiring the assistance of a breathing machine. “We now have people who have been on ventilators for 20, 30 days,” Cuomo said. “The longer you are on a ventilator, the more likely you are not going to come off the ventilator. That is what is happening.” A worker walks past freezer trucks to store cadavers, part of a makeshift morgue behind a hospital, during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, March 26, 2020.It is a troubling development, as there are 1,300 COVID-19 patients in the state’s intensive care units — those are the hospital beds equipped with ventilators. Cuomo said in normal medical situations, patients tend to use a machine for 3 to 4 days, while patients with the coronavirus average 11 to 21 days. The state of 19.5 million people has become a global hotspot for the virus. There are now more than 37,000 confirmed cases statewide. More than 5,300 people are sick enough to be hospitalized. Many more may have the virus but do not meet criteria to be tested. Cuomo has a team working to procure new ventilators to meet his state’s projected needs when cases are likely to peak in 2 to 3 weeks time. Cuomo has said they are trying to secure 30,000 machines. So far they have about 12,000. New York is also looking at “splitting” ventilators — refitting one machine with two sets of tubes in order to assist two people simultaneously.”It is not ideal, but we believe it is workable,” Cuomo said. “We are also converting anaesthesia machines to ventilators.” FILE – Ventilators lie at the New York City Emergency Management Warehouse before being shipped out for distribution due to concerns over the rapid spread of coronavirus disease, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, March 24, 2020.He said the state’s hospitals have a couple of thousand anesthesia machines that could be converted. New York City is the epicenter of the state’s pandemic, with more than 21,000 cases. New cases are growing by more than 3,000 a day there. Cuomo said authorities are looking at moving some patients from the city to less overwhelmed hospitals in the north of the state. “We are working on a collaboration where we distribute the load between downstate hospitals and upstate hospitals, and we are also working on increasing capacity for upstate hospitals,” he said. Economic fallout While the state’s health care system tries to cope with the growing number of patients, officials are looking at the catastrophic fiscal fallout. A $2 trillion stimulus package passed in the U.S. Senate late Wednesday allocates $5 billion to the hardest-hit state. Cuomo said New York is looking at a loss of between $10 billion and $15 billion in revenue from the coronavirus and that the legislation did not address that. “The congressional action, in my opinion, simply failed to address the governmental need,” the governor said. “I said I was disappointed. I find it irresponsible, I find it reckless.” 
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A Virginia man has come up with a way to help medical workers caring for people with COVID-19. Jeremy Filko is using his 3D printer to create plastic mask shields for doctors, nurses and other first responders. VOA’s Shih-Wei Chou reports.
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The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday announced narco-terrorism and other criminal against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and 14 other current and former officials of the country, accusing them of collaborating with a leftist Colombian guerrilla group involved in flooding the United States with cocaine.       In addition to Maduro, Maidel Moreno, the current chief justice,  Diosdado Cabello, a former speaker of the National Assembly, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, a former defense minister and two former leaders of the leftist Colombian guerrilla group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) were named in separate federal indictments returned in Washington, D.C., New York and Florida.  The dramatic charges were announced by Attorney General William Barr and other senior law enforcement officials at a virtual press conference.  “Today’s announcement is focused on rooting out the extensive corruption within the Venezuelan government – a system constructed and controlled to enrich those at the highest levels of the government,” Barr said. “The United States will not allow these corrupt Venezuelan officials to use the U.S. banking system to move their illicit proceeds from South America nor further their criminal schemes.” 
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Until a few days ago, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden kept a low profile while in protective self-isolation from the coronavirus at his home in Delaware.After surging past chief rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Super Tuesday and in a handful of subsequent crucial primaries, Biden and the Democratic primary contest were abruptly overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis sweeping the nation.But as Democratic criticism of President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic has grown, Biden, 77, seems to have found an opening to speak out more — to critique the president and explain how he would have handled the situation differently.Workers construct what is believed to be a makeshift morgue behind a hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, in the Manhattan borough of New York City on March 25, 2020.In a speech Monday and a subsequent media blitz, Biden criticized Trump for being slow in responding to the virus, ignoring medical experts’ advice and playing down the threat, even as his own intelligence officials were warning him about it as early as January.“For too long, the warning signs were ignored,” Biden said during the live-streamed speech from a tiny TV studio built in his home.”For too long, the administration said the threats were “under control,” “contained,” “like the flu.” Biden then took Trump to task for failing to exercise powers under the Defense Production Act to order manufacturers to ramp up production of medical supplies such as ventilators and surgical masks.Trump keeps saying he’s ‘a wartime president.’  Well, start to act like one,” Biden said.Trump has signed two executive orders invoking powers under the Korean War-era law but has said he is reserving it for “a worst-case scenario.”The president has backed a series of massive spending bills to address the public health crisis and temporarily prop up the economy and has supported state and local orders that have forced as many as 100 million Americans to shelter in place.A couple walk a dog at sunset March 25, 2020, in Kansas City, Mo. The city, along with neighboring counties, is under Stay at Home orders to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.As China locked down major cities hit by the virus in January, the Trump administration on January 31 announced travel restrictions to and from China, and on March 12, imposed a ban on most travel from Europe.However, Trump’s latest call for a major scaling back of the shelter-in-place orders by Easter to allow millions to return to their jobs and recharge the economy — even while the virus continues to spread throughout the country at an alarming pace — has drawn fire from Democrats,  governors, public health experts and scientists.The crisis has put Biden in a tight spot.The virus grew into a full-blown pandemic earlier this month, just as the former vice president was basking in a surprise comeback during key primary contests for the Democratic nomination.But with the country focused on the crisis and the Trump’s administration’s response, Biden’s campaign has struggled to garner attention.Patients wear personal protective equipment while maintaining social distancing as they wait in line for a COVID-19 test at Elmhurst Hospital Center, March 25, 2020, in New York.A detailed coronavirus plan released by the Biden campaign earlier this month seems to have fallen by the wayside. The plan promised a “decisive public health response,” including widely available free testing and a “decisive economic response,” including paid leave and help for small businesses affected by the pandemic. “What a challenge!” said Joseph Pika, a retired University of Delaware political scientist who has followed Biden’s political career.”Campaigns are usually based on what has worked before, especially during the last presidential election cycle. This requires the managers to be creative.” Pika said via email that while Biden’s speech was “effective,” as it came before Trump adopted a “war-time commander-chief posture,” the former vice president now runs the risk of appearing to take partisan advantage of a crisis.What’s more, Trump’s approval rating has risen as he began making almost daily appearances with his coronavirus task force to tout administration efforts to combat the virus.A subway rider wears a glove while holding a pole as several riders wear face masks during the coronavirus outbreak on the D train in the Brooklyn borough of New York on March 25, 2020.Seeking to avoid charges of partisanship during a national emergency, Biden has carefully avoided blaming Trump for the virus outbreak.“The coronavirus is not his fault, but the lack of speed with which to respond to it has to move much faster,” Biden said on ABC’s “The View” on Monday.”This is not about Democrat or Republican. This is not about what your party is. It’s about getting through this.”It was one of Biden’s three TV appearances on Monday, including CNN and MSNBC. They were all designed to project an air of authority and a different leadership style in the face of the nation’s worst public health disaster in more than a century.Appearing on CNN after Trump announced Tuesday that he wanted to “reopen the country” by Easter on April 12, Biden suggested the president’s goal was unrealistic given that the virus is still spreading. “Look, we all want the economy to open as rapidly as possible,” Biden said. “But the idea that we’re in a position where we’re saying, by Easter, he wants to have everybody going back to work. What’s he talking about?”An aerial view shows the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, shortly before sunset, with lighter than normal traffic as the coronavirus pandemic continues on March 25, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.Biden has made his decades of public service a centerpiece of his career. He served as a Democratic senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009, and two terms as vice president during the Obama presidency from 2009 to 2017.As Biden has chided Trump over the coronavirus, the Trump campaign has pushed back, citing Biden’s own much-criticized comments about the way germs move during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. “Joe Biden will again politicize coronavirus today.But his record on pandemics is one of incompetence,” a Twitter account managed by the Trump campaign tweeted.During the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Biden made reckless comments unsupported by science & the experts. The Obama Admin had to clean up his mess & apologize for his ineptitude.”Fact-checking site PolitiFact rated the Trump team’s claim as “mostly true,” reporting that Biden’s comment “drew criticism over fear-mongering, particularly from the travel industry, and experts told us Biden got it wrong.”Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said Biden should explain how he would handle the crisis differently.“What’s important for him to do is to showcase, to tell what he would do differently and to explain what difference that would have made so that people can make a decision about his crisis leadership should he become president,” Rozell said in an interview.
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The leading U.S. infectious disease expert is warning the coronavirus outbreak the world is experiencing maybe a cyclical occurrence and could return even stronger if the proper precautions are not taken. Speaking late Wednesday during the daily White House coronavirus briefing, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said cases of the virus are starting to appear in South Africa and other southern hemisphere countries where winter is coming.   He said if a substantial outbreak occurs in those areas, it would be a strong indication that the virus could become cyclical and countries in the northern hemisphere should be prepared for a second round of the virus next year.  Fauci said that puts greater emphasis on the need to continue working on a vaccine that can readily available if that second round of coronavirus comes, as well as a menu of drugs that can be effective and safe in treating patients who get it. 
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In an unprecedented videoconference of G-7 foreign ministers, global leaders are pledging to work together to battle the coronavirus outbreak.  The United States says it is ready to work with China to end the global pandemic and restore the world economy.  But as VOA’s State Department correspondent Nike Ching reports, some analysts are skeptical about the ability of both countries to cooperate to fight the global pandemic.
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 U.S. President Donald Trump is appealing to both houses of the U.S. Congress to pass the $2 trillion stimulus bill aimed at rebooting an economy brought to a standstill by the coronavirus pandemic.It is the biggest single package to help American citizens and shuttered businesses cope with the ensuing disaster.The Senate and White House hammered out the details Wednesday after a complex series of negotiations and procedural votes.While it includes a lot of provisions aimed at relieving the economic stress, the bill’s outstanding features include cash payments to individuals and married couples making less than $99,000 a year.In this photo taken March 20, 2020, Mike Johnston, a clerk at the Maupin Market in Maupin, Oregon, wipes down the ice cream case to protect customers from the coronavirus.Unemployment benefits are boosted, student loan payments suspended, and the badly hit airline industry will get tens of millions of dollars in help.The bill specifies that none of Trump’s businesses will benefit and no money for the Pentagon can be spent on the border wall.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters that the administration anticipates the stimulus package will keep the economy afloat for three months.“Hopefully, we won’t need this for three months,” he added.The bill contains details that both Democrats and Republicans say they don’t like.But even Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has threatened to block it, said he supports the plan overall.It was unclear as of late Wednesday when the full Senate and House will vote on the bill.If the Senate passes it, it goes to the House, which is currently not in session. Representatives would either agree to its passage by unanimous consent, or return to Washington to vote, risking debate and objections by lawmakers from both sides who are unhappy with some of its provisions.Late Wednesday, the government of Washington, D.C., ordered a citywide lockdown with the number of cases in the city and suburbs topping 1,000.FILE: Researchers work with coronavirus samples as a trial begins to see whether malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine can prevent or reduce the severity of the coronavirus disease, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, March 19, 2020.The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. now exceeds 900, with New York City the epicenter of the country’s outbreak.Mayor Bill de Blasio bitterly complained Wednesday that the stimulus bill doesn’t do enough to help the country’s largest city. He blamed Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and said he will appeal directly to President Trump for more help.Spain has now surpassed China and only trails Italy as the world’s coronavirus hot spot. China has lifted the lockdown on Hubei province, where the global outbreak began in December.China had been the epicenter of the pandemic but reported just 67 new cases Wednesday – all of them in people who came to China from overseas.Russia confirmed its first coronavirus deaths Wednesday, and Britain’s Prince Charles has become one of the most recognizable names to become ill.The heir to the British throne has isolated himself in Scotland, saying his symptoms are mild. He said he is not sure where or how he caught the virus.As of late Wednesday, nearly 469,000 people around the world were infected and close to 21,200 had died. The coronavirus has now reached every country on Earth.
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Doctors across the United States are telling their patients to put off routine checkups and elective procedures to keep hospitals and clinics free to test and treat anyone who may have COVID-19.This plea for patience and understanding is also coming from veterinarians, who treat pets of all kinds.They are asking pet owners to forgo regular exams and minor surgery so animal hospitals can free up their equipment for redeployment to human hospitals.Doctors say the same machines that keep animals healthy can be used on their owners.“We buy at the same stores,” said Paul Lunn, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. “There’s no difference in the equipment.”The school handed over two ventilators and hundreds of protective suits and masks to hospitals in and around Raleigh, the state capital.There are 30 accredited veterinary hospitals across the country, and Lunn says there are more than 70 ventilators that can be pressed into service, if needed.The animal hospitals also have examination rooms and operating theaters large enough to treat people.No direct transmission from petsThere is no evidence that domestic animals such as dogs and cats can catch or directly transmit COVID-19 to humans.A widely circulated story that a 17-year-old dog in Hong Kong died from the disease is false. The animal succumbed to old age and other health problems.But if a human infected with the coronavirus pets a dog or cat, someone else can pick up the virus from the animal’s fur.Many animal shelters and adoption centers around the United States have closed to practice social distancing until the pandemic subsides.Chris Bombaugh, president and CEO of the Montgomery County Humane Society in Montgomery County, Maryland, said it has suspended all adoptions of dogs and cats.She says the animals can sense that something is going on but are still getting lots of love and care from the staff.For small animals lucky enough to have a home, Bombaugh recommends that people make arrangements for someone to take care of their pets and have a 14-day supply of food and medicine on hand if the coronavirus strikes.
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The U.S. government has concluded that retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished more than a decade ago, has died while in the custody of Iran, his family said Wednesday.Shortly after the family’s announcement, President Donald Trump told reporters that “I won’t accept that he’s dead,” even though his own acting national intelligence director appeared to confirm the news with a statement conveying sympathies for the Levinsons.The family said in a statement posted on Twitter that it had no information about how or when Levinson had died, but that it occurred before the recent coronavirus outbreak. The family said information that U.S. officials had received led them to conclude that he is dead.U.S. officials communicated the news to Levinson’s family in a meeting in Washington in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private encounter. The person said the information about Levinson had come from Iran’s foreign minister.”It is impossible to describe our pain,” the family’s statement said. “Our family will spend the rest of our lives without the most amazing man, a new reality that is inconceivable to us. His grandchildren will never meet him. They will know him only through the stories we tell them.”Senator’s statementU.S. Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Wednesday, “I am incredibly saddened by recent reports from the Levinson family that Bob Levinson passed on while in Iranian custody. This is further evidence that the Iranian regime will stop at nothing to subvert and abuse human rights. The Levinson family deserves justice, and we will continue to push for Bob’s return to his loved ones.”Levinson disappeared on March 9, 2007, when he was scheduled to meet a source on the Iranian island of Kish. For years, U.S. officials would say only that Levinson was working independently on a private investigation.But a 2013 Associated Press investigation revealed that Levinson had been sent on a mission by CIA analysts who had no authority to run such an operation.The Trump administration has made it a priority to seek the release of American hostages and prisoners detained overseas. Last week, administration officials touted the release from Lebanon of a New Hampshire restaurant owner jailed on decades-old allegations and the medical furlough of a Navy veteran from an Iranian prison.The Levinson family thanked multiple U.S. officials for their help, including FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Robert O’Brien, the Trump administration’s national security adviser.But it also said: “Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done. We will spend the rest of our lives making sure of this, and the Iranian regime must know we will not be going away.”The family said it does not know when or if Levinson’s body will be returned for burial.’A great gentleman’At a White House briefing on the coronavirus, Trump appeared to equivocate on the accuracy of the family’s statement, saying that Iranian officials had not told the U.S. that Levinson was dead and that “I won’t accept that he’s dead.”But he also acknowledged that “it’s not looking promising” and said Levinson, who had diabetes and high blood pressure at the time of his disappearance, had had “some rough problems.””He was a great gentleman,” he said.The family received a video in late 2010 and proof-of-life photographs in 2011 in which he appeared disheveled with a long beard and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit like those given to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison. But even then, his whereabouts and fate were not known.Iran repeatedly has said it has no information about Levinson, though U.S. diplomats and investigators have long said they thought he was taken by Iranian government agents.In November, the Iranian government unexpectedly responded to a United Nations query by saying that Levinson was the subject of an “open case” in Iranian Revolutionary Court. Although the development gave the family a burst of hope, Iran clarified that the “open case” was simply an investigation into his disappearance.The announcement of his death comes just weeks after a federal judge in Washington held Iran liable for his disappearance, saying the country was “in no uncertain terms” responsible for Levinson’s “hostage taking and torture.” The family had sued for $1.5 billion in damages.The judge’s decision followed a weekslong trial of emotional testimony from Levinson’s family, including each of his seven children.
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DUFUR, OREGON — The social distancing rules repeated like a mantra in America’s urban centers, where the coronavirus is spreading exponentially, might seem silly in wide-open places where neighbors live miles apart and “working from home” means another day spent branding calves or driving a tractor alone through a field.  But as the pandemic spreads through the U.S., those living in rural areas, too, are increasingly threatened. Tiny towns tucked into Oregon’s windswept plains and cattle ranches miles from anywhere in South Dakota might not have had a single case of the new coronavirus, but their main streets are also empty and their medical clinics overwhelmed by the worried.Residents from rural Alabama to the woods of Vermont to the frozen reaches of Alaska fear the spread of the disease from outsiders, the social isolation that comes when the town’s only diner closes, and economic collapse in places where jobs were already scarce.”Nobody knows what to do and they’re just running in circles, so stay away from me is what I’m saying,” said Mike Filbin, a 70-year-old cattle rancher in Wasco County, Oregon, one of the few parts of the state that has yet to see a case of COVID-19.”Right now, we’re pretty clean over here, but we’re not immune to nothin’ — and if they start bringing it over, it’ll explode here.”In this photo taken March 20, 2020, cattle rancher Mike Filbin stands on his property in Dufur, Oregon, after herding some cows, and talks about the impact the coronavirus is having on his rural community.To make matters worse, some of the most remote communities have limited or no internet access and spotty cellphone service. That makes telecommuting and online learning challenging in an era of blanket school and work closures, and it eliminates the possibility of the FaceTime card games and virtual cocktail hours that urban Americans have turned to in droves to stay connected.The routine ways that rural Americans connect — a bingo night, stopping in at a local diner or attending a potluck — are suddenly taboo.”Rural people are reliant on their neighbors and have more confidence and trust in their neighbors,” said Ken Johnson, a senior demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire. “Now you have people who are supposed to self-isolate themselves. What does that mean when people you depend on, in order to help you, are going to put themselves and their families at risk? I don’t know what that will do in rural America.”Neil Bradshaw, the mayor of Ketchum, Idaho, is starting to see the answer in his own community.The rural resort town has struggled since the arrival of COVID-19, and he fears if the virus lingers too long, it could devastate it. The town is nestled next door to the tony skiing destination Sun Valley Resort and is known as the second-home haven for dozens of celebrities.It’s also become the epicenter of Idaho’s caseload, with at least 35 cases and known community spread of the virus. At least 14 of the cases are among health care workers, forcing the town’s small medical workers to bring in replacement staffers from nearby cities.In this photo taken March 20, 2020, a sign outside a fly fishing shop in Maupin, Oregon, advises customers of new policies to limit the spread of the coronavirus in rural areas.”Our town thrives on people coming to town, and for the first time in our history we are discouraging visitors,” said Bradshaw, of the town of 2,700 people. “Initially people had different levels of adoption, but there’s tremendous community pressure that we’re all in this together. We’ve gone from being a vibrant town to a ghost town.”The town’s coffers rely on a local option tax, and if that drops by half the city will have lost $700,000 in revenue, he said.  Some communities have pushed back on shutdowns that have brought daily life to a standstill. Leaders from seven Utah counties, for example, sent a letter earlier this week to Gov. Gary Herbert urging a “return to normalcy,” and said the closure of schools and business was causing panic and hurting the economy.”As of (Monday), the total deaths attributed to the virus in the United States stands at ninety,” the letter states. “Not nine hundred, not nine thousand, not ninety thousand. Ninety. This number is sure to rise in the near future but we need to keep our wits about us.”Others worry about outsiders bringing the disease to truly remote areas that aren’t equipped to deal with it. Across the nation, there are over 51,000 general intensive care beds in urban counties, compared with just 5,600 in rural counties, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.  Those beds serve a smaller population than in urban areas, but it would still take fewer people in rural areas to overwhelm a typical hospital. In fiscal year 2018, the average rural hospital had eight ICU beds, compared with 20 for a typical hospital in an urban area.In this photo taken March 20, 2020, Mike Johnston, a clerk at the Maupin Market in Maupin, Oregon, wipes down the ice cream case to protect customers from the coronavirus.In Georgiana, a small town in southern Alabama, the only hospital closed last year, so residents flocked to the health clinic instead when a person in a town 5 miles (8 kilometers) away was diagnosed with COVID-19. More than 30% of Georgiana’s 1,600 residents are over age 60, putting them at higher risk with limited medical facilities to serve them, said Mayor Jerome Antone.  For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.  Georgiana’s older residents, Antone said, are “aggressively upset,” even though no one there has been diagnosed yet.In Alaska’s Point Hope, an Inupiat whaling village at the edge of the Arctic Ocean nearly 700 miles (1,130 kilometers) north of Anchorage, tribal leaders have been preparing and discussing potential issues such as air travel into town. The state’s limited road system doesn’t reach the community of 900 people, which relies on planes for much of its connection to the outside world.This week, one of the two airlines that serve Point Hope will begin restricting flights to cargo and passengers with medical or other essential needs.Still, residents worry the recent deaths of two elders will bring out-of-town mourners for the funerals.”We have all kinds of different people who come into our village,” said acting Mayor Daisy Sage. “This coronavirus is serious.”Thousands of miles away, in South Dakota, falling prices for beef are generating as much — or more — worry than the virus.Sam Stoddard, a cattle rancher near the town of Kadoka, population 650, said futures markets for beef have dropped up to 30% because of the coronavirus. He’s worried about longtime ranchers being able to hang on.  If the market remains terrible, he said, ranchers can put off selling their calves until later in the year — but no one knows how long the economy will be in upheaval, leaving everyone stressed.At the same time, the state has not shuttered businesses, leaving residents wondering what to expect next. South Dakota has 30 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.”Normally this time of year we’re more worried about a big blizzard coming in and killing 10% of our calves. You know it’s coming, and you can prepare for it,” Stoddard said.  “With this, you don’t know what’s coming or what you should be doing.” 
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The State Department has advised against all international travel because of the coronavirus, but that didn’t stop Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from flying to Afghanistan this week.
Gyms across the nation’s capital are shuttered, but Sen. Rand Paul, an eye doctor, still managed a workout at the Senate on Sunday morning as he awaited the results of a coronavirus test. It came back positive.
The guidance against shaking hands? That hasn’t always applied to President Donald Trump, whose penchant for pressing the flesh continued even after public health officials in his administration were warning that such bodily contact could facilitate the spread of the contagious virus. Practice social distancing? Daily White House briefings involve Trump and other senior officials crowded around a podium.
Even as the country has largely hunkered down, heeding the guidance of health experts and the directives of state leaders, some powerful people in Washington have defied preventative measures aimed at curbing the spread. Their business-as-usual actions are at odds with the restrictions everyday Americans find themselves under — and with the government’s own messaging.  
Some human behavior experts say the “do as I say, not as I do”‘ ethos seemingly on display is common among powerful officials, who may be inclined to think rules for the general public don’t apply to them in the same way or who can easily disassociate their own actions from what they say is best for others.
“When we have high power, we think of ourselves as exceptional as if the rules don’t apply to us,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who has researched behavior and decision-making. “We’re much more prone to do what we want because we don’t feel constrained in the way that less powerful people do.”
In Pompeo’s case, the State Department says the unannounced trip — coming amid a near-global travel shutdown — was necessary and urgent because of political turmoil in Afghanistan that U.S. officials fear could threaten a recent U.S.-Taliban peace deal that calls for American troop withdrawals. Pompeo left Kabul on Monday without being able to secure a power-sharing deal.
People traveling with Pompeo had their temperatures taken and were given small plastic bags containing a face mask, hand sanitizer, bleach wipes and mini-disposable thermometers. A State Department medical official told reporters that Pompeo and his staff would not be quarantining themselves because Afghanistan is not considered a high-risk country for the virus and because Pompeo’s movements on the trip were controlled.
But some of the behavior by other officials has drawn rebukes.  
Asked in a Science Magazine interview about Trump shaking hands, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he tells White House staff that “we should not be doing that. Not only that — we should be physically separating a bit more on those press conferences.”
Several senators, meanwhile, scolded Paul for refusing to self-quarantine after he’d been tested, with the doctor overseeing the government’s coronavirus response suggesting the Kentucky Republican’s actions fell short of model “personal responsibility.” More than two dozen senators are in their 70s and 80s, putting them at high risk if exposed.
Still, despite risk to senators and the fact that gyms across the country have been closed as a precaution, Paul and other senators were able to continue going to the Senate gym, using a keypad for access.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in an interview with Newsy that Paul’s actions were “irresponsible” and that senators in general have been acting as if they were somehow immune to getting sick. He cited what he said was a “photo opp” for senators held over the weekend.
“I think that senators must think that they’re invincible,” Brown said.  
Paul, a proud civil libertarian, said he had thought it “highly unlikely” he was sick before getting the test results and had no symptoms of the illness. He said he did not have contact with anyone who tested positive for the virus or was sick. He was at the Senate gym Sunday morning, though Paul’s staff says he left the Capitol as soon as he received the results.  
Asked about Paul, Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said people can spread the virus while being asymptomatic, so social distancing is imperative. She noted that she herself stayed home over the weekend when she felt ill. She took a coronavirus test that came back negative.
“These are the kinds of things that we have to do for one another. This is the personal responsibility that I’m talking about that we all have to practice,” Birx said.
Trump raised eyebrows among public health specialists when he methodically shook the hands of retail and health industry specialists at a Rose Garden news conference two weeks ago. He acknowledged Monday that shaking hands has been a hard habit for him to break, having become accustomed as president to doing so with “literally thousands of people a week.”  
Even now, he stands close to other officials at daily White House briefings, including Vice President Mike Pence. By contrast, Defense Secretary Mark Esper began separating from his deputy this month as a precaution.
Itzhak Yanovitzky, a Rutgers University communications professor, said senior officials or people in positions of power frequently separate their public behavior from their private, especially if they think they have greater control over their circumstances compared to strangers. Doctors, for instance, may not always follow their own recommendations to their patients if they think they have better control over their illnesses.
In times of crisis, most people look to health experts as the ultimate authority, Yanovitzky said in an email. But for the segment of the population already disinclined to take the risk seriously, inconsistencies between what people say and do risk undermining the recommendations and mandates of the public health community, he said.
“The problem,” said Schweitzer, the Wharton professor, “is that the mixed messages sow confusion, and it seems disorganized, undisciplined, chaotic.”
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Hand sanitizer is one of the products Americans have been stockpiling during the coronavirus outbreak and that’s left many store shelves empty of the product.  That shortage is prompting companies like a small distillery in Falls Church, Virginia, to find creative ways to help.Instead of producing whiskey, gin or vodka, Falls Church Distillers is busy making high-alcohol-content hand sanitizers. “We’ve pivoted into making sanitization,” says Michael Paluzzi, founder of Falls Church Distillers. “It’s the same type of process we’re using the same whiskeys, our base spirits, that we would use to make a lot of our other products.” Falls Church Distillers outside of Washington, D.C., is producing high-alcohol-content hand sanitizer to help keep up with high demand.But production depends on access to raw materials.  “We’re producing about 300 gallons of sanitizer right now,” Paluzzi says. “We could easily do that every day if we could get the supplies. We can only get supplies every couple of [days, every] three days, because there’s not many truckers on the road.” Distillery workers say they’re happy to shift their business model because it helps the local community while also keeping them employed.  “I went on Amazon just to look at what was available on Amazon and it looks like people are ripping everyone off,” says employee Kallie Stavros. “So it’s nice to just kind of help the local community and still have a job. Actually, I feel really lucky right now.” Locals appreciate the effort. “Well I know he’d probably like to be making something other than sanitizer here,” says customer Matthew Quinn, “but now this is a great idea that, you know, to fill a void in the marketplace and to have small businesses set up and work together to get this done.” Falls Church Distillers founder Michael Paluzzi (left) with employee Kallie Stavros, making hand sanitizer rather than their usual alcoholic drink products.Paluzzi says it is essential to boost people’s morale and not take advantage of their fears by gouging prices.”The price right now is important to us,” he says. “That was a very, very important thing to us — to not gouge. You’re seeing people buy up toilet paper or hand sanitizer, and then trying to charge exorbitant prices for that. That is part of what we were battling here, plus the need, and plus the reasonableness of fulfilling that need.” How long the company’s new direction might last is up in the air.“This will keep us busy for a while I am sure,” says Stavros. “As long as there is a need for the hand sanitizer, more than likely for the next few months — the ways it is looking like — we will be here.” Falls Church Distillers is currently selling its sanitizers for $29 a gallon which, according to Paluzzi, is nearly half of the market price. The company also promises to set aside 5,000 ounces in 5-ounce bottles to give away for free. “I think all of us are trying to do what we can,” says customer Quinn. “I think seeing small businesses step up and provide this type of service is fantastic.”
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A U.S. cybersecurity firm said Wednesday it has detected a surge in new cyberspying by a suspected Chinese group dating back to late January, when coronavirus was starting to spread outside China.
FireEye Inc. said in a report it had spotted a spike in activity from a hacking group it dubs “APT41” that began on Jan. 20 and targeted more than 75 of its customers, from manufacturers and media companies to healthcare organizations and nonprofits.
There were “multiple possible explanations” for the spike in activity, said FireEye Security Architect Christopher Glyer, pointing to long-simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade and more recent clashes over the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 17,000 people since late last year.
The report said it was “one of the broadest campaigns by a Chinese cyber espionage actor we have observed in recent years.”
FireEye declined to identify the affected customers. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not directly address FireEye’s allegations but said in a statement that China was “a victim of cybercrime and cyberattack.” The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined comment.
FireEye said in its report that APT41 abused recently disclosed flaws in software developed by Cisco, Citrix and others to try to break into scores of companies’ networks in the United States, Canada, Britain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and more than a dozen other countries.
Cisco said in an email it had fixed the vulnerability and it was aware of attempts to exploit it, a sentiment echoed by Citrix, which said it had worked with FireEye to help identify “potential compromises.”
Others have also spotted a recent uptick in cyber-espionage activity linked to Beijing.
Matt Webster, a researcher with Secureworks – Dell Technologies’ cybersecurity arm – said in an email that his team had also seen evidence of increased activity from Chinese hacking groups “over the last few weeks.”
In particular, he said his team had recently spotted new digital infrastructure associated with APT41 – which Secureworks dubs “Bronze Atlas.”
Tying hacking campaigns to any specific country or entity is often fraught with uncertainty, but FireEye said it had assessed “with moderate confidence” that APT41 was composed of Chinese government contractors.
FireEye’s head of analysis, John Hultquist, said the surge was surprising because hacking activity attributed to China has generally become more focused.
“This broad action is a departure from that norm,” he said.
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Global markets surged Wednesday after U.S. leaders announced a massive financial response to the coronavirus outbreak. Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 8%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished up 4% and the Shanghai Index gained 2%. European markets followed with strong openings, and U.S. futures pointed to gains when those markets open later in the day. Uncertainty about the virus and its economic toll have rattled markets for months, slashing stock prices while governments and central banks rushed to enact rescue measures. 
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