Month: March 2020

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday told Americans that “we have to go back to work” and said he wants to open up the country by April 12. Meanwhile the World Health Organization has warned that the United States could become the next epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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President Donald Trump’s attempt to reengage North Korea through “anti-epidemic” help offered through a letter sent to the country’s leader Kim Jong Un is an effort to show the U.S. remains open to dialogue even amid the coronavirus pandemic, experts said. “The main point here is that the U.S. continues to send signals that reinforce a posture of openness to dialogue with North Korea,” said Scott Snyder, director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). “We continue to say that the door is open in various ways, and the coronavirus response is one specific area where both countries could begin engagement with each other if they decide to do so,” Snyder continued.Trump sent a personal letter to the regime’s leader, according to a FILE – Kim Yo Jong, March 2, 2019.She welcomed the letter as “a good judgment and proper action for the U.S. president to make efforts to keep the good relations” with the country’s leader at a time when “big difficulties and challenges lie in the way of developing the bilateral relations.” She said Trump offered help in “anti-epidemic work,” conveying that he values his relations with Kim. But she said it is not good to make a “hasty conclusion” that a close relation between Trump and Kim could lead to a change in relations between the two countries. Denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled since October when the working-level talks held in Stockholm fell through as neither side relented on its position.   Washington has been seeking Pyongyang to fully denuclearize, but Pyongyang has been demanding the U.S. relax sanctions as a precondition for denuclearization.  Trump confirmed that he sent a letter to Kim to help the regime fight the coronavirus that began in Wuhan, China, and spread into a global pandemic.   “North Korea, Iran, and others, we are open for helping other countries,” said Trump on Sunday.Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said, “I think it’s important to keep lines of authoritative communication open, regardless of what the policy is.” North Korea has not reported any confirmed cases of the virus. But it has been taking extreme measures to prevent the virus from making inroads. Pyongyang quarantined thousands of people before releasing almost 2,600 on Friday, according to the FILE – Workers of the Ryongaksan Soap Factory make disinfectant in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 19, 2020.On Monday, the Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction in the Obama administration, said North Korea announced it received Trump’s letter a day after it tested missiles because it views the letter and the tests as unrelated.  “Kim Jong Un doesn’t see any inconsistency between a friendly letter from Trump, which of course, Kim Jong Un’s sister praised, and conducting short-range missile tests,” Samore said.   “They are completely unrelated because, from Kim Jong Un’s standpoint, he feels free to conduct short-range missile tests at any time without breaking any agreement that he has with Trump. So I think the message from Kim is that he’s going to proceed independently with short-range missile tests regardless of the state of relations with the United States,” Samore continued. Trump has said any short-range missile tests North Korea conducts are not in violation of an agreement the two leaders made at the Singapore Summit in June 2018.Kim Jong Un and North Korea tested 3 short range missiles over the last number of days. These missiles tests are not a violation of our signed Singapore agreement, nor was there discussion of short range missiles when we shook hands. There may be a United Nations violation, but..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019Fitzpatrick said North Korea’s response to the letter shows that its position is still locked on demanding the U.S. concession of sanctions relief. “The response from Kim Jong Un’s sister was, in so many words, a rejection … [suggesting] that ‘Your words have to be backed by real change in U.S. policy,'” Fitzpatrick said. “North Korea wants sanctions relief, not a vague offer of assistance.” Christy Lee contributed to this report from VOA Korean. 
 
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U.S. leaders said early Wednesday they have reached an agreement on a $2 trillion economic rescue package to help workers and businesses cope with the coronavirus outbreak. The text of the bill is due to be released Wednesday morning with a vote in the Senate to follow.  If the Senate gives its approval, the measure will go to the House of Representatives. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill is “far from perfect,” but that after improvements from days of negotiations it should be quickly approved. “We have a bipartisan agreement on the largest rescue package in American history,” Schumer said.  “This is not a moment of celebration, but one of necessity.” “Help is on the way,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. He described the measure as good news for doctors and nurses around the country who need more funding and protective equipment such as masks to care for coronavirus patients, as well as for families who are set to get checks as part of an effort to “inject trillions” of dollars into the U.S. economy. “In effect, this is a wartime level of investment into our nation,” McConnell said.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks to the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 23, 2020, as the Senate is working to pass a coronavirus relief bill.President Donald 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 businesses like restaurants, bars and movie theaters. The aid package is aimed at boosting the U.S. economy by sending direct payments to more than 90% of Americans and a vast array of U.S. businesses to help them weather the immediate and burgeoning economic effects of the coronavirus.     “This legislation is urgently needed to bolster the economy, provide cash injections and liquidity, and stabilize financial markets to get us through a difficult and challenging period in the economy facing us right now, but also to position us for what I think can be an economic rebound later this year,” said Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow.  Most U.S. families of four would get $3,000 in assistance, with the aid package also creating the $500 billion lending program for businesses, cities and states, and $350 billion more to help small businesses meet payroll costs at a time when there is a declining demand for their products and services.      During negotiations this week, Democrats focused their objections on the $500 billion lending program for businesses, which some critics called a “slush fund” because the Treasury Department would have wide discretion over who gets the money, with little accounting for how the money is spent.    That led to inclusion of an oversight panel to review the government handouts to businesses, to try to make certain the money is spent appropriately.   The United States has about 55,000 confirmed cases with more than 700 deaths from the coronavirus. 
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As I was gathering material for a live television report, I saw a group of tourists who were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. They couldn’t dine at a restaurant so they were sitting outside, eating take-out food. The street near Times Square, usually bustling with people, is empty. An unusual sight for a New Yorker like myself. A bit haunting, even. This is the new normal in the time of coronavirus.  I see a woman dressed as Minnie Mouse and a man dressed as the Nintendo character Luigi chase a few potential customers walking the streets to see if they can snap a selfie and maybe score a tip. Then the iconic “Naked Cowboy” strolls by – wearing a mask! The buff, long haired man is a fixture in one of New York city’s most popular tourist spots. Wow! Even he has changed his habits, heeding the warnings from city officials who say the number of COVID-19 cases are increasing fast.  Even New York’s iconic ‘Naked Cowboy’ is wearing a face mask in the times of coronavirus! (Photo: Celia Mendoza / VOA)In the city that never sleeps – my city – movie theaters, gyms and nightclubs have closed their doors. I see a few retail stores are still open – they haven’t decided to close up shop yet. People who used to dine out are resorting to ordering take-out or having their food delivered – in accordance with the directive to avoid social gatherings of more than 10 people. As I walk past McDonald’s, the attendants look tired, the customers carrying bags of food seem stressed out.Out in the streets, journalists, photographers and videographers are documenting the scene. We’re all using the unusually empty outdoor tables to upload images to our laptops to be distributed to people around the world who have never seen anything like this.As I stand in the very same location where I have covered massive protests and the famous ball drop on New Year’s eve, I can’t believe how different this feels. Instead of regular people, it’s we journalists who are out and about in the heart of the Big Apple. There are police cars parked on the side of the road, but the anti-terrorism unit isn’t patrolling on foot as they usually do at 45th and Broadway which, on a normal day, would be packed with thousands of people.The worst is yet to come, they say.I see food delivery bicycles speeding down the street. They outnumber the iconic New York yellow cabs, who have few customers these days as many New Yorkers are teleworking. Times Square is eerily empty as most New Yorkers are teleworking these days. (Photo: Celia Mendoza /VOA)Our momentary peace is shaken by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus live updates about the number of infections. Today we learn that four basketball players from the Brooklyn Nets, among them Kevin Durant, has tested positive. It’s as if we are watching a horror movie, only this is real life.The governor says the outbreak is expected to reach its peak in roughly 45 days. That worries me.My childhood friend, who works at an Upper East Side hospital, tells me he’s been seeing patients with flu symptoms since March 9. He texts me that the hospital is overwhelmed. “Everyone is demanding to be tested, the hospital is full of people,” he says. He works in the Emergency Room. City officials are pleading with people to visit the ER only if they are severely ill.Our personal fear of this deadly disease makes New Yorkers panic. We head to the stores to buy hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes and toilet paper. That’s what everyone is looking for. But some of us decide to skip the long lines at the supermarket – and opt for online shopping instead.I’ve stocked up on my favorite potato and pita chips, which I ordered online from Amazon, just in case I need to shelter in place. (Photo: Celia Mendoza / VOA)Just before President Donald Trump declared a national emergency I boarded a plane for Miami, where I spent the weekend. Too busy to shop at my local store, I filled my Amazon shopping cart online with Clorox wipes, a month’s worth of my favorite potato chips and toilet paper. I ordered canned food too, just in case I need to shelter in place at some point. My order was delayed twice because items were out of stock. When I returned home, my doorman – wearing gloves and a mask – handed me a cart full of Amazon boxes. It was another reminder of the strange times we are living in.At this point, so little is known about this deadly virus that I’m beginning to wonder if I myself am a silent carrier. Who knows? Over the past 90 days, I’ve traveled for work to Zurich and Davos in Switzerland, to Madrid, Spain, to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas, and Miami, Florida. Some of these places have confirmed cases of coronavirus.I don’t have symptoms, I have not been exposed to anyone who has it – or have I? My anxiety about catching the virus makes me clean every surface I encounter on my trips. I wipe down my plane seat, I wash my hands every chance I get, I avoid physical contact with loved ones and cancel dates with friends who have asthma or are considered to be vulnerable to coronavirus.People stand outside McDonald’s to eat their food, since the restaurant does not allow people to eat in these days, as a precaution against the coronavirus. (Photo: Celia Mendoza / VOA)Today, I question myself after interviewing Olga Viles, an 80-year-old Ecuadorian grandmother, who lives with her son in Manhattan. She left home to go to the bank. I film her on the street.Afterwards, I replay our interaction in my head – I kept my distance and used a handheld microphone. I did not let her grab it as she reached out – instinctively – to hold it. As she walks away, she smiles and says this terrible situation saddens her. She agrees that sheltering-in-place is a good idea.I keep asking myself whether I stood far enough away from her. I’m a globe-trotting journalist, half her age, standing close to her in the times of coronavirus. It is as dangerous as sleep walking across a busy intersection. Should I be scared? Just days ago, we learned that coronavirus has reached all 50 US states.
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VOA Spanish reporter Celia Mendoza shares how she is adapting to life as a journalist in one of America’s most populous cities, while trying to also stay coronavirus free.
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U.S. President Donald Trump wants Americans to return to work as soon as possible while continuing to maintain a safe distance from each other to avoid spreading the COVID-19 disease, a combination that health experts warn may not be compatible.   “Our people want to return to work,” Trump said in a Tuesday morning tweet. “They will practice Social Distancing and all else, and Seniors will be watched over protectively & lovingly. We can do two things together. THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM!” Our people want to return to work. They will practice Social Distancing and all else, and Seniors will be watched over protectively & lovingly. We can do two things together. THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM! Congress MUST ACT NOW. We will come back strong!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2020  The tweet echoes comments Trump made to reporters the previous evening in the White House briefing room.    “Our country wasn’t meant to be shut down,” said the president on Monday.      Trump, at the daily media briefing by the White House coronavirus task force, said a large team is working on what the next steps will be in order to end the virtual shutdown of the world’s largest economy.      At a certain point, the country needs “to get open, get moving,” Trump stated, making it clear he is weighing the risk from the COVID-19 pandemic against the economic damage being done to the country from the shutdown of most businesses.       Coronavirus death toll
Deaths as a result of an extended economic crisis could exceed those caused by the virus in the United States, according to the president who stated that the mortality rate for the coronavirus is less than 1% – much lower than had been anticipated.       “America will again and soon be open for business,” said Trump, explaining it will not be the three-to-four-month time frame predicted by some who warn the dire threat from the virus will not recede quickly.       The physicians, if they had their way, would “shut down the entire world,” the president asserted.       Last Monday Trump helped introduce a 15-day plan from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to try to stem the rise of coronavirus cases by encouraging most people to stay home. The campaign is scheduled to end  March 31, but many expect it to be extended.         Trump said governors will “have a lot of leeway if we open up.”    His top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, on Tuesday, told reporters there are zones of the country “where the virus is less prevalent. Things are safe. We’re not abandoning the health professionals’ advice, but there is a clamor to try to reopen the economy.”  ‘I am petrified’ health expert tells VOA    The executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s school of medicine, Dr. Robert Murphy, told VOA he hopes social distancing recommendations will not be relaxed prematurely out of concern for the U.S. economy.         “I am petrified. Hopefully the states will ignore these directives,” said Murphy, a professor of medicine and biomedical engineering.       Such action would be a very sad way “to test Darwinian Law,” added Murphy,   A House member from Trump’s Republican party is among the politicians cautioning against relaxing social distancing.   “There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed t do what’s necessary to stop the virus,” tweeted Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney.  
 There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed to do what’s necessary to stop the virus. https://t.co/AchwfXtuLi— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 24, 2020The governor of New York, the hardest hit state in the country by the coronavirus outbreak, is also criticizing the president’s suggestion. “No American is going say accelerate the economy at the cost of human life,” Andrew Cuomo said at his daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday. “Don’t make us choose between a smart health strategy and a smart economic strategy.” 
  The focus, Cuomo added, should be “on the looming wave of cases” of COVID-19 patients coming in about two weeks. Several U.S. states announced new restrictions Monday, boosting the number of people under stay-at-home orders to about one-third of the population.      Surveys have found, in general, Republicans — compared with Democrats — taking the threat from the pandemic less seriously and more inclined to believe the media are hyping the coronavirus outbreak. 
  The World Health Organization is warning that the United States could be the next epicenter for the global coronavirus pandemic, noting 40 percent of new cases recorded around the world during the previous 24 hours were from the United States.   “They have a very large outbreak and an outbreak that is increasing in intensity,” a WHO spokesperson, Margaret Harris, said on Tuesday.     The United States has the third-highest number of COVID-19 cases of any country after China and Italy, with at least 46,000 people confirmed to have been infected and about 600 dead.      
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Carmaker Ford Motor Co on Tuesday jumped into the emergency push by major U.S. manufacturers to produce thousands of ventilators and respirators needed to help combat the spread of the coronavirus under a partnership code-named “Project Apollo.”   By joining forces with General Electric’s healthcare unit and 3M Co., Ford is taking heed of U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for U.S. automakers to work across sectors in producing equipment needed for the pandemic.   The rapid outbreak, which has killed more than 16,500 people globally, has strained healthcare systems around the world and led to a shortage of ventilators needed to treat patients suffering from the flu-like illness, which can lead to breathing difficulties and pneumonia in severe cases.   “We’ve been in regular dialog with federal, state and local officials to understand the areas of greatest needs,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett said.   Ford said its partnerships were code-named “Project Apollo” after the Apollo 13 launch in 1970 when a lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank failed two days into the mission, forcing the astronauts to improvise a fix.   Ford and GE Healthcare will expand the production of GE’s ventilator design to support patients with respiratory failure or difficulty breathing caused by the pathogen. In addition, they are developing a simplified design that Ford could begin making at one of its plants.   The plan is to get the new design approved quickly by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Tom Westrick, vice president and chief quality officer at GE Healthcare, said on a conference call.   Ford also is evaluating a separate effort not involving GE with the British government to make additional ventilators.   Hackett told “CBS This Morning” he hopes to have Ford producing “hundreds of thousands” of ventilators through both efforts by early June.   Ford on Tuesday extended the shutdown of its North American plants beyond March 30 as originally planned, but a spokesman said the healthcare-related efforts are separate and continuing.   Separately, Ford will work with 3M to increase manufacturing capacity of its air-purifying respirators by up to a factor of 10 to meet a surge in demand for first responders and healthcare workers, while also similarly developing a simplified design that Ford could build at one of its Michigan plants.   Under the simplified design, Ford is looking at using fans from its Ford F-150 pickup’s cooled seats to make parts of the respirators.   Additionally, Ford said its U.S. design team, working with the United Auto Workers union, was starting to test transparent full-face shields for first responders, which when paired with N95 respirator masks, could be an effective way of limiting exposure to the coronavirus. The company is targeting making more than 100,000 a week at non-vehicle manufacturing facilities in Michigan.   Ultimately, Ford officials want to create an open-sourced design that others can adopt and use to make their own shields.   “The teams are just getting scrappy. How do we use what we’ve got to get to something that’s capable and would meet regulatory requirements,” Jim Baumbick, the Ford vice president in charge of the automaker’s efforts, told Reuters.   On Monday, No. 1 U.S. automaker General Motors Co. said it was partnering with medical equipment maker Ventec to build ventilators at GM’s parts plant in Indiana.   Meanwhile, Fiat Chrysler Automobile NV told employees in an email that the Italian-American automaker would start converting one of its China plants to ultimately make over 1 million masks a month to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.   
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The coronavirus pandemic and the nation’s crashing economy are scrambling the themes both major political parties thought would carry them to victory in November for control of the White House and Congress.
Shattered, certainly for now, is President Donald Trump’s ability to tout a brawny economy and record stock market prices as the predicate for his reelection. The GOP could face a hard time calling Democratic candidates socialists with a straight face as Congress works on a bipartisan, near $2 trillion rescue package  that would essentially have government drive the economy indefinitely.
Democrats say they’re the party that will protect people’s health care, but it’s unclear that would be heard by people focused mostly on when life will return to normal. And by pounding away at Trump’s competence, they’d risk alienating voters who, during a stressful time, want policymakers to produce solutions, not partisan wrangling.
“We’re in the middle of a hurricane. We don’t know all the political consequences. We don’t know if it’s a Cat 1 or a Cat 5,” said GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak, referring to categories used to express the strength of storms.  
Trump has seized public attention with almost daily briefings about the government’s response to the pandemic. That’s left former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, and his party’s congressional candidates searching for ways to break into the news cycle.  
Clearly, campaign themes are changing.  
Five political advertisers had run ads mentioning the coronavirus through last week, according to Advertising Analytics, a firm that tracks ad data. That included one in Florida, in Spanish, by Biden, and two by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.  
“In times like this, we must work together,” Collins, who faces a competitive November reelection in a state that prizes independence, tells the camera.  
More are coming.
Priorities USA, the largest outside Democratic political organization, planned to start ads Tuesday in election battlegrounds Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The spot plays Trump’s own words, including, “We have it totally under control,” as a bar graph displays the skyrocketing number of coronavirus cases.
The spot ends as “AMERICA NEEDS A LEADER WE CAN TRUST” is displayed against a black background.  
GOP operatives say Republican candidates must emphasize rallying behind the effort to battle the twin crises.
“The message is, ‘We all need to come together, support the president and vice president and do all we can to fight the virus,'” Republican strategist John Feehery said. “Throw everything else out the window.”  
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee provided a memo last week offering guidance to its candidates.
“Remind followers through your actions that you take this seriously and would be a calm voice through crisis,” the House Democratic political arm said in the guidance obtained by The Associated Press.
It urged candidates to discuss the significance of health care access and affordability — issues that helped the party capture House control in 2018. It suggested asking voters, “How are you doing?” and “Do you need anything” during phone calls.
Among the first to test the new political world will be two rivals for an open seat in a narrowly divided House district in Los Angeles’ northern suburbs.
Republican Mike Garcia and Democrat Christy Smith face a special election in May, when voters seem certain to still be focused on the virus and the battered economy. As elsewhere, efforts to curb the infection’s spread means campaign phone calls and digital communications are replacing public events.
Both concede it’s hard to get people’s attention, but each said they are already sharpening their appeals to voters.
During tough times, people “remember what the important things are, and that’s God, country and family,” Garcia, a Trump supporter and former Navy fighter pilot, said in an interview. “We’re all on the same team.”
“Patriotism alone doesn’t set food on people’s tables,” said Smith, a state assemblywoman. She said that Trump’s virus response has put the U.S. “woefully behind” the infection and that it’s time for “a reckoning on what effective government looks like.”  
Both parties say it’s too early to know if the virus will be contained and the economy resuscitated by the time voters focus on the fall campaigns — and whether they’ll blame or laud Trump and the GOP for the outcome.  
Either way, Trump is casting himself as a wartime president in hopes of garnering the broad public support that usually goes to national leaders in times of crisis.  
His reelection campaign has been using the emergencies in fundraising appeals that offer supporters autographed “Keep America Great” hats. “Our country is facing unprecedented times right now and President Trump is working around the clock to keep our Nation and its citizens safe,” his emails say.
Biden used a fundraiser, held by phone, to swipe at Trump, who’s made numerous false statements about the virus, including on its seriousness and the availability of tests.
“We need to tell the American people the truth, the unvarnished truth,” Biden said.  
“Look what we have in the White House right now,” said Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., using that same theme. Bustos, who heads House Democrats’ campaign arm, cited Trump’s lashing out at reporters during new briefings and said, “We all look for leaders to lead in a crisis.”  
Democrats are also using the virus’ spread to reprise their call for better health care.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats marked Monday’s 10th anniversary of President Barack Obama signing his health care overhaul into law. “We couldn’t need it more” than during this pandemic, Pelosi told reporters about the statute. She blamed Trump for making “mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake” in handling the outbreak.  
And on the Senate floor Monday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., underscored something both parties will be looking for: ways to taint the other for using the life-altering crises to seek political gain.  
McConnell accused Democrats of viewing the chamber’s blocked economic bill as “a juicy political opportunity” and trying to stuff it with environmental requirements and other priorities.  
“Are you kidding me? This is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing to do with this crisis? That’s what they’re up to over there,” he said.  
Still, Republicans concede the party faces a huge downside should the virus remain uncontrolled.
“If we become Italy,” said the consultant Mackowiak, citing the country with the highest death toll so far, “there’s no question the party in power would pay a political price for that. Absolutely no question. 
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to Afghanistan amid coronavirus outbreak, sending a strong signal about U.S. interest in salvaging the peace process
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The long-awaited trial of a former U.S. Marine facing charges of espionage got under way in Moscow on Monday — with U.S. officials accusing Russia of providing no evidence in a spy case that has proved an added irritant to already troubled relations between the two countries.  Paul Whelan, 50, was arrested by FSB security agents in late December 2018 after allegedly accepting classified materials on a computer thumb drive in a central Moscow hotel.  Whelan has repeatedly denied those charges, insisting he was in Moscow for a friend’s wedding and had accepted the drive from a Russian acquaintance without ever knowing or viewing its contents. The former Marine, who in addition to U.S. citizenship holds passports from the U.K., Canada and Ireland, also says he’s been mistreated and denied medical treatment while in detention — an assertion that U.S. officials have backed repeatedly and did so again Monday. U.S. Ambassador to Russia John J. Sullivan joined his counterparts from the U.K. and Ireland at the courtroom Monday, where the presiding judge allowed them to speak with Whelan briefly before closing the hearing to the public — a standard practice in Russian-led “top secret” espionage cases. “It’s a sad day for me as an American and a U.S. ambassador, in these circumstances, to come and see a citizen of my country held in such circumstances, with serious health problems unaddressed, with no evidence that’s been produced to justify his incarceration for well over a year, and his inability to communicate with his family despite repeated requests by him and by me to the Russian government,” said Sullivan, in a statement afterward to the press. “I am hoping that, as this process moves forward, we see a fair and transparent judicial process,” Sullivan added. “Every person, every citizen, of every country in the world, deserves that.” In turn, Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Whelan of feigning illness — part of what the ministry says is Whelan’s playbook training as a U.S. intelligence officer after being caught “red-handed” by Russia’s security services. If convicted on existing charges, Whelan faces the possibility of 10-20 years in prison.U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan speaks with journalists after his meeting with Paul Whelan, a U.S. national arrested and accused of espionage, outside a detention centre in Moscow, Russia January 30, 2020.COVID-19, witnesses, and ‘a goat rodeo’ The Whelan trial proved one of the rare court proceedings currently in session in Russia, after the country’s high court postponed most judicial work last week out of fear of the spread of the coronavirus. Whelan’s Russian lawyers, Olga Karla and Vladimir Zherebenkov, said that — barring unforeseen delays because of the contagion — the closed trial would last about a month in which they promised to mount a vigorous defense. Speaking to reporters, Zherebenkov said he planned to call at least a dozen witnesses, all of them Russians with whom Whelan had been in contact during multiple visits to the Russian Federation in recent years. Whelan’s legal team also indicated they planned to call embassy officials to the stand, a move they assured would prove Whelan’s innocence of the spy charges. “We’ll interrogate the embassies to prove that Whelan physically could not be an agent as a citizen of four different countries,” said Zherebenkov, in comments carried by the Interfax News Agency. “It’s simply not possible,” he added. Yet, throughout the run-up to Monday’s hearing, Zherebenkov has repeatedly acknowledged that politics may play a larger role than material evidence in resolving the case. Last December, the lawyer publicly floated the idea of including Whelan in a wider prisoner swap between Russia and the West. “Paul is a citizen of four countries. None of them has asked to organize his exchange yet,” noted Zherebenkov before pleading: “Take the initiative gentlemen!” Meanwhile, Whelan has called on U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene on his behalf, asking the American leader “to tweet your intentions” about a case that Whelan has colorfully labeled “the Moscow goat rodeo.” 
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin say they hope a deal on a $2 trillion economic aid package can be reached Tuesday. They held talks until late into the night Monday after the Senate failed for a second time to advance a bill that would send money to most Americans and many businesses that have been severely impacted by the deadly coronavirus.    Republican and Democratic leaders have exchanged sharp words as the process unfolded in recent days, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accusing Democrats of delaying the process by asking for changes to the bill and Schumer saying McConnell wasted time by bringing two procedural votes on the measure he knew would fail. Democrats first blocked advancing the aid package on Sunday.  After more negotiations Sunday night and Monday morning, they again voted against moving the legislation forward on Monday afternoon, triggering the fresh talks between Schumer and Mnuchin, with a phone call to President Donald Trump. The aid package is aimed at boosting the U.S. economy by sending direct payments to more than 90% of Americans and a vast array of U.S. businesses to help them weather the immediate and burgeoning economic effects of the coronavirus.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. speaks to reporters outside the Senate chamber after Democrats block a coronavirus aid package on Capitol Hill, Monday, March 23, 2020, in Washington.Most U.S. families of four would get $3,000 in assistance, with the aid package also creating a $500 billion lending program for businesses, cities and states, and $350 billion more to help small businesses meet payroll costs at a time when there is a declining demand for their products and services.    Democrats focused their objections on the $500 billion lending program for businesses, which some critics are calling a “slush fund” because the Treasury Department would have wide discretion over who gets the money, with little accounting for how the money is spent.     Trump, in comments made Sunday, appeared to agree with the Democrats’ contention.   “I don’t want to give a bailout to a company and then have somebody go out and use that money to buy back stock in the company and raise the (stock) price and then get a bonus,” Trump said. “So, I may be Republican, but I don’t like that. I want them to use the money for the workers.”    But by Monday afternoon he stood before reporters at the White House and said Congress should approve “the Senate bill as written.” Governors in at least 13 states have ordered millions of people to stay home, in effect quarantined, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. No national shutdown is planned.    The toll from the coronavirus is mounting in the U.S. More than 41,000 cases have been confirmed, with more than 500 deaths. Both figures have markedly increased in recent days. 
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At a time of great uncertainty, even the seasons seem scrambled. Christmas lights in springtime?  Wrapped around a tree trunk in Colorado, fashioned into a heart in Alabama and hung high over Main Street in a New Hampshire town, holiday lights are going back up. As the coronavirus spreads, the displays are providing a bit of emotional and actual brightness. And they’re especially easy to enjoy from a safe social distance. “We live out in the country, but I know you can see them from the highway,” said Julie Check, who turned on the white lights that trace the roof line of her home in Eastman, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night. “Anything I can do to make people happy right now, I’m going to try to do.” In Farmington, New Hampshire, a roughly five-block stretch of downtown has been re-illuminated with holiday lights that swoop and zigzag between tall wooden posts. So cherished is the town’s 80-year decorating tradition that taxpayers approved spending $11,500 six years ago to erect the posts after the electric company said lights could no longer be affixed to its poles. Jason Desjardin, of the Farmington Preservation & Improvement Organization, turns the Christmas lights back on in Farmington, N.H., March 19, 2020.”It’s a small town; we don’t have a lot of traditions. That was one of them, and we just didn’t want it to go away,” said Lee Warburton, president of the Farmington Preservation and Improvement Organization, which maintains and installs the lights. At his suggestion, the 27 strands totaling 2,000-plus bulbs were tested and turned back on Thursday night. “It’s tough for everybody right now. Everyone is on edge,” he said. “We just thought it would be nice to give the folks in town something to smile about.” Police Chief John Drury was all for the idea. He remembers how pretty the lights looked when he first visited the town for a job interview on a December day 20 years ago.  “It was one of the things that actually drew me to this community when I was first looking to be a police officer,” he said. “By bringing the lights back, hopefully it gives people the sense of hope that we’re all in this together. We’ll get through it.” A lit Christmas tree hangs from a pole at dusk as holiday lights illuminate downtown in Farmington, N.H., March 19, 2020.Many of the posts on Twitter and other social media platforms point back to a Colorado man who tweeted Monday that his mom thought people should put Christmas lights in their windows “to remind each other there is still life and light” while they stay home to avoid the virus.  Rosemary Peterson, the mom in question, said Thursday she made the offhand suggestion after making the wrenching decision to indefinitely postpone the funeral for her sister, Marlene, who died on March 13. “We know we are not alone. Many are giving up events, experiences, celebrations and milestones,” she said. “So in the midst of a lot of darkness, I thought we could all use some light.” Both she and her son were surprised that his tweet took off. “He told me, ‘Mom, there are a lot of people looking at this!’ and I said, ‘Oh, no! We have to go put out some lights!'” Peterson said. “We ran out and wrapped a tree and had another light string we put around our front window. Nothing too fancy, I’ll tell ya.” Two young men walk down Main Street under Christmas lights in downtown Farmington, N.H., March 19, 2020.Since then, others have adopted his #lightsforlife hashtag to share photos of their efforts. In Huntsville, Alabama, Sarah Bang said she usually just winds a string of white lights around the railing of her apartment balcony for Christmas. But after seeing Peterson’s tweet, she made a heart shape instead. “I had Christmas lights because I’m super into Christmas, so I dug them out and decided love was a good thing to spread,” she said.  
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Rising seas are causing inland flooding in many parts of the world. This is especially true in southern Florida where, increasingly, high tides are flooding buildings and roads, threatening drinking water and causing soil erosion.  As we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block, human-caused climate change is the biggest culprit, but Mother Nature is lending a hand to hold back the tides.
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A Trump administration official said Sunday that illegal border crossings have dropped by half as the strictest U.S.-Mexico border policies yet went into place amid the coronavirus pandemic, but there was confusion about how it was all working.  
Anyone caught crossing the border illegally is to be immediately returned back to Mexico or Canada, according to the new restrictions based on an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday. According to Mark Morgan, the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the decision applies to all migrants.  
“We’re not going to take you into our custody,” he said Saturday evening on Fox News. “We don’t know anything about you. You have no documents, we’re not going to take you into our facilities and expose you to CBP personnel and the American people as well as immigrants,” he said.  
But Mexican officials have said they would only take people from Mexico and Central America and only those who are encountered straight away — not people already in custody. Officials later said the elderly and minors won’t be taken back and that they expected to take in about 100 per day. 
“If people who are not Mexican or Central American are returned to us, Mexico would not accept them,” Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Friday in Spanish. “The United States will take care of that.”  
The majority of people crossing the border are from Central America, but not all. For example, there were some 6,000 Brazilians and nearly 1,200 Chinese who arrived between January and February this year, according to Customs and Border Protection data.  
But it’s not entirely clear what happens to those people. Morgan said the migrants should be “expeditiously” returned to the country they came from.  
CDC on Friday issued an order in effect for 30 days that bars anyone coming illegally in part because migrants are held in close quarters and there isn’t enough proper staffing or space to keep them at a safe distance and to screen for the illness. Plus, migrants who are suspected of having COVID-19 are sent to local hospitals, possibly further infecting others, the CDC warned.  
The borders remain open, according to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, but only to facilitate trade; the U.S. has about $3 billion per day with Canada and Mexico. Tourists and shoppers were asked to stay home.  
Wolf said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that the number of migrants crossing illegally had plummeted, but it was important to “keep supply chains open,” but to do it in a careful and considerate way that would “limit the introduction and spread of the virus.”  
Meanwhile, there was growing concern on the Mexican side of the border that the number of migrants stranded there would only increase, with shelters already at capacity.  
“We have 300 people in the shelter and we can no longer take it. We have been a week without the United States asking for people and if they don’t ask, we are going to be overcrowded,” said Héctor Joaquín Silva, director of the Senda de Reynosa shelter, which borders McAllen, Texas.
Silva said he hasn’t accepted more migrants and has kept the shelter in quarantine to avoid infections but that migrants continue to arrive in Reynosa.  
Meanwhile, in the U.S., immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit in Washington D.C. requesting the immediate release of migrant families from detention facilities over concerns of inadequate care and an environment ripe for an outbreak. They say the country’s three detention centers where families are held — Berks in Pennsylvania, and Karnes and Dilley in Texas — have failed to take adequate measures to protect families from COVID-19.  
Immigration enforcement has  wide latitude on when to release migrants. Earlier this year, Homeland Security officials said they would detain families as long as possible in an effort to discourage migrants from crossing the border. Most families are held 20 days.  
“The families who are detained in these detention centers facilities have no criminal history and do not pose any threat whatsoever to public safety and are not a flight risk — they all came to the United States to seek asylum and are actively pursuing the right to remain in the United States,” the advocacy groups wrote.
ICE has said it is working to contain any spread of the virus in its detention facilities. The agency did not comment on the lawsuit. Immigration courts are still operating, but with scattered closures and delays in some hearings.  
For most people, the new  coronavirus  causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. More than 300,000 have been infected worldwide.  
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
Curbing immigration has been a signature policy of Trump’s, and he’s tried to block asylum seekers before but failed after courts ruled against him. On Sunday, a text from his re-election campaign read: “Pres. Trump is making your safety his #1 priority. That’s why we’re closing BORDERS to illegals.”
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U.S. lawmakers are racing to enact a massive rescue package to prop up an American economy increasingly paralyzed by efforts to contain the novel coronavirus.Stock markets plunged last week — wiping out nearly all gains recorded during Donald Trump’s presidency — as activity in public places across the country ground to a halt.  With factories, businesses, restaurants and schools shutting down and entire industries in shambles, workers are facing layoffs, cutbacks in hours or having to make the difficult choice of working while ill if they lack paid sick leave.  Despite positive test results for lawmakers in both chambers that have forced self-quarantining measures, Democratic and Republican leaders say lawmakers must stay in Washington to finish work on an economic stimulus package.  “The coronavirus is slowing our economy to a near standstill,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor last week. “We’re almost certainly anticipating a recession.” Lawmakers and the White House have devised a series of phases to rescue the U.S. economy. Here is a summary of what each phase has been designed to do.   Phase One Lawmakers initially focused on funding U.S. public health efforts to combat the coronavirus, passing an $8.3 billion package earlier this month. Trump asked Congress for little more than $2 billion in funding, with a plan to fund $535 million of that request by rerouting unused funds allocated to fight Ebola. Democrats pushed back on that plan and ultimately negotiated a bill with the White House that included $3 billion for coronavirus vaccine development and $1 billion for U.S. international aid efforts to combat the virus.  Trump signed that bill on March 6.  Phase Two  The Democrat-majority House of Representatives took the lead on negotiating the first bill with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to address the devastating economic impact of the crisis.  The Senate passed “phase two” of the bill last week by a 90-8 vote. The bill offers COVID-19 testing without cost, an extension of unemployment benefits to address the needs of workers who may be laid off due to the crisis, as well as paid sick leave for workers at some U.S. companies.  The MGM Grand hotel-casino, which is closing, flashes messages on their marquees, March 16, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.Lower-income workers in the United States make up one-quarter of the American workforce that has no access to paid sick leave.  The House-passed bill has several loopholes, which means the sick leave extension would not apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees or more than 500 workers. The bill also caps the amount of sick leave pay workers can collect.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky expressed reservations about the bill but encouraged Republicans to pass it.  “I do not believe we should let perfection be the enemy of something that will help even a subset of workers,” McConnell said on the Senate floor last week. “The House bill has real shortcomings. It does not even begin to cover all of the Americans who will need help in the days ahead.” The Republican-majority Senate passed the bill last week, as it became clear that lawmakers would need to quickly work on passage of a more ambitious economic stimulus bill.  Phase Three  The Senate is taking the lead on working with the White House to craft a massive economic stimulus plan that could be nearing $2 trillion in cost. A member of staff gives food to families at the DC Bilingual School after the school was closed due to the global coronavirus pandemic in Washington, March 17, 2020.The Treasury Department proposed a direct deposit of $1200 to hundreds of millions of Americans, based on family and income size starting in April. Under that plan, the U.S. government would also offer billions of dollars in loans to small businesses teetering on the edge of financial ruin amid social distancing and quarantines. Republicans have also proposed $75 billion in aid to hospitals and health care providers. But Democrats have expressed concerns the bill does send enough money to hospitals and state and local governments. They are also arguing the legislation does not do enough to help lower and middle-class Americans hurt by the crisis, pushing back against Republicans’ proposal for a $500 billion fund controlled by the Treasury Department to aid the hardest-hit industries. “We want the workers to come first,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told news network CNN Sunday. “If a corporation is getting money because they need something, and airlines is the industry they’re talking about, they’ve got to keep their employees, they’ve got to not cut the pay of their employees, and they should not do stock buybacks, increases in compensation for the top executives.”Leverage over Republicans
Democrats have unexpected leverage in the Republican-majority Senate after Rand Paul of Kentucky became the first U.S. senator to test positive for the coronavirus. His absence – along with self-quarantining measures by Utah Senators Mike Lee and Mitt Romney – means McConnell must have Democrat votes to pass the measure.Lawmakers are aiming to pass this new round of economic relief by the end of this week to calm an anxious public. But once the bill is passed in the Senate it would head over to the House of Representatives, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are drafting their own version of the economic assistance bill. “We’ll be introducing our own bill and hopefully it will be compatible,” Pelosi said Sunday.Identical legislation must pass both chambers before it can go to the White House for President Trump’s signature.Despite warning signs negotiations could be much longer than expected, President Trump said the bill would provide much-needed assistance.“Our goal is to get relief to Americans as quickly as possible so that families can get by and small businesses can keep workers on the payroll,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “This will help our economy, and you will see our economy skyrocket once this is over. I think it’s going to skyrocket.” 
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Now that the restaurant where he works full time in the Washington suburb is closed, server Gerardo Espiell, 23, plans to move back in with his mother and sister to make ends meet. Together, he’s hopeful they can make the mortgage.  “Honestly, it’s kind of crazy,” he says. “I’m very calm about everything. I’m just taking it day by day. I have some PTO (paid time off) saved up, so I’m using my PTO.”  Server Gerardo Espiell says he has no savings because all of his earnings go to rent and other living expenses. (Photo courtesy Gerardo Espiell)In San Francisco, Anita Reyes, who had her fourth child six months ago, usually waitresses at SanJalisco, the family restaurant owned by her mother, Delores. Her husband works there, too.  “It’s overwhelming,” she says. “I thought I’d come in and help her because she can’t afford the workers. We’re living off this food (in the restaurant refrigerator) right now. We’re taking it home to our families.”   Percy Saloman, who drives for a ride-hailing service in Virginia, is still working, but he’s putting in longer hours for less money.  “Yeah, I’m worried, because right now, this is my second shift, and I only made like $70. And usually, I finish with around $150 or something,” he says.  Saloman, Espiell and Reyes are among millions of American workers in service industries that are among the hardest hit by restrictions imposed by many U.S. states trying to stem the spread of the coronavirus known as COVID-19. Some states are telling people they must stay home. Businesses that are deemed as nonessential are closing. About one in six workers, some 17% of U.S. employees, could be impacted by social distancing, according to an analysis from Ball State University. “Four-and-a-half million retail sales folks, 3.5 million food preparation, almost 3.5 million cashiers, 2.5 million waiters and waitresses,” says Ball State University economist Michael Hicks. “So, those numbers add up pretty quickly to about 28 million workers in the United States who are immediately affected by the social distancing measures that have been taken at the federal, state and local level in the U.S … a very vulnerable share of the workforce. These are mostly low wage workers. (They) face almost immediate financial problems.” Congress is debating a relief package that could include a direct cash payment to U.S. adults. “I think something like at least a short-term universal basic income that pays everybody $1,000 a month for three, four or five, six months,” Hicks says. “We could collect some of that back in taxes from the better-off, for those of us who are unaffected by this. Those are the sorts of policies that are going to, I think, sustain households through this short-term social distancing that we’re facing right now.” Server Syndi Brooks, a married mother of one who works at a San Diego eatery, relies on tips to help support her family. (Courtesy Sydni Brooks)Money like that could go a long way for some workers.  “That would help a lot, actually,” says Syndi Brooks, a server in the San Diego area. “That would hold me over for a few months.”  The 29-year-old has a 7-year-old daughter. She and her husband, a tattoo artist whose business is also suffering, are living off money they’ve saved.  “I’m worried. I’m lucky to have some savings, and I know a lot of people don’t,” Brooks says. “This wasn’t what we intended to save for. We were intending to save for a house.”  Espiell, the server from Virginia, says help from the federal government could make all the difference, especially with money already being tight. “Not just me, but, like, everybody in the service industry sometimes live paycheck by paycheck, especially, like, it’s been very slow this winter, too,” he says. “Not a lot of people have been coming out, so, everybody’s trying to save up all that winter money by not going out and all that stuff. Or, like, you know, some people don’t eat.” Ride-hailing driver Percy Saloman, picking up a fare in Northern Virginia on March 17, 2020, is driving longer hours for less money.Saloman intends to keep driving. Beyond that, he admits to having no plan for his, and his family’s, future. “So far, the only thing that I can do day by day, is just to keep working longer shifts to be able to provide the same income that I was bringing in before,” he says. Reyes, the San Francisco server, is hopeful her family and its business can see the crisis through. “We’re staying together,” she says. “If this is only a timeout for a little bit, then we’re sticking together.” 
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As more people across the US stay home due to the threat of the coronavirus, they are learning to adapt to a new way of life. VOA’s Julie Taboh spoke with a few Washington area residents to see how they’re making the best of a scary situation.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Kabul Monday on a previously unannounced visit to try to resolve a political dispute between President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah that has threatened to derail a deal signed between the U.S. and the Taliban last month. Both Ghani and Abdullah declared themselves president of the country after a contentious election.       The trip, at a time when world leaders are limiting travel due to a coronavirus pandemic, and when the Trump administration’s Afghanistan czar Zalmay Khalilzad has been in Kabul for weeks trying to help sort out the political mess, speaks to the gravity of the dispute.   FILE – Afghan presidential election opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah (L) and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani are seen after a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Feb. 29, 2020.“What we want is President Ghani and former chief executive Abdullah to come to an agreement about how to form an inclusive government that is acceptable to both,” a senior State Department official told reporters.  “Both sides know there is some distance. Let’s see if they can overcome that today.”    Meanwhile, after weeks of squabbling, the Afghan government and the Taliban made their first direct official contact Sunday using Skype video conferencing facilities to discuss the issue of prisoner release.      “The over two-hour technical discussion today was important, serious, and detailed. My thanks to all sides. Everyone clearly understands the coronavirus threat makes prisoner releases that much more urgent,” tweeted Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation.        
 The over two-hour technical discussion today was important, serious, and detailed. My thanks to all sides. Everyone clearly understands the coronavirus threat makes prisoner releases that much more urgent.— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 22, 2020The issue of the release of up to 5000 Taliban prisoners in return for up to 1000 Afghan security personnel has been holding up the start of negotiations between Taliban and other Afghan factions that were supposed to commence on the 10th of March as per the deal signed between the U.S. and Taliban in Doha last month.      A Qatar Foreign Ministry statement called the talks “fruitful and constructive, in which the two parties discussed important issues related to the lists of prisoners and how to verify them and the locations of their release and transfer them to the agreed locations.”       Both the United States and Qatar, the two parties that facilitated the contact, made sure to identify it as “technical talks” focused on prisoner release to avoid making them sound like the start of official negotiations.      The Taliban have strongly refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, calling it a puppet of the Americans. Instead, they have agreed to negotiate with a team of Afghans including representative of various political factions, including the government, civil society activists, women, and others.  
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President Donald Trump is directing the federal government to cover the costs of coronavirus relief efforts carried out by National Guard troops that are activated under the control of state governors. During a White House news conference Sunday evening, Trump specifically mentioned California, New York and Washington state, those hardest-hit so far, and said National Guard troops would help set up medical stations and distribute hundreds of tons of masks, gowns, respirators and other supplies.   Trump has already approved major disaster declarations for all three states. Judie Shape, center, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, but isn’t showing symptoms, presses her hand against her window after a visit through the window and on the phone with her relatives, March 17, 2020, in Kirkland near Seattle.A number of governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo, have been appealing to the White House to nationalize efforts to get medical supplies, complaining that state leaders have been competing against one another to get their hands on what’s available. “I think the federal government should order factories to manufacture masks, gowns, ventilators, the essential medical equipment that is going to make the difference between life and death,” Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday in Albany. “It’s not hard to make a mask or PPE (personal protective equipment) equipment, or a gown, but you need companies to do it.” Trump said the U.S. Navy medical ship Mercy, will be deployed off Los Angeles and another ship, the Comfort, will be sent up the East Coast within weeks, likely to be docked in New York Harbor. The head of the White House coronavirus task force, Vice President Mike Pence, said all commercial laboratories in the United States must make in-patient coronavirus testing their priority. Pence said 254,000 Americans have been tested so far, and that a new test with results in about 45 minutes will be ready by the end of next week. Surgeon General Jerome Adams says 9 out of 10 people who think they have coronavirus symptoms test negative. U.S. President Donald Trump briefs reporters at a news conference on the latest steps the United States is taking to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Washington D.C., March 22, 2020. (C. Presutti/VOA)When a reporter asked if illegal migrants can be tested at hospitals or clinics without the fear of being detained, Trump said: “Yes. If that’s not the policy, I will make it the policy.”   Closing stores and restaurants, theaters and other amusements, grounding travel and ordering people to stay home has battered the U.S. economy. Record losses on Wall Street, predictions of soaring unemployment numbers and a forecast of a recession are tangible signs that the coronavirus is turning life upside down for 7 billion people around the globe. But Trump said the U.S. economy will “skyrocket” when the country wins what he calls the war against “the hidden enemy.” Trump did not use the word coronavirus during his news conference, but twice called it the “China virus,” ignoring those who say such words veer into a racism. Trump has denied any racist intent. But he again Sunday complained that he is still upset with China for apparently rejecting U.S. offers of help when the outbreak grew earlier this year. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have repeatedly asked people to call the disease by its proper scientific name: COVID-19. Facing criticism that he has failed to show genuine compassion during the outbreak, Trump said he wanted those who feel alone and isolated to know that “no one is alone as long as we are a united people.” He promised to always fight for Americans.  As of late Sunday, there were about 34,000 coronavirus cases in the U.S. and 450 deaths. 
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President Donald Trump is activating the U.S. National Guard in the three states hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak – California, New York and Washington state.During a 90-minute-long White House news conference Sunday evening, the president said the guard will be at the command of the three governors to help set up federal medical stations and distribute hundreds of tons of masks, gowns, respirators and other supplies.  Trump has already approved major disaster declarations for New York and Washington state and said he will have done the same for California by the end of the day Sunday.Judie Shape, center, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, but isn’t showing symptoms, presses her hand against her window after a visit through the window and on the phone with her relatives, March 17, 2020, in Kirkland near Seattle.A number of governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo, have been appealing to the White House to nationalize efforts to get medical supplies, complaining that state leaders have been competing against one another to get their hands on what’s available.  “I think the federal government should order factories to manufacture masks, gowns, ventilators, the essential medical equipment that is going to make the difference between life and death,” Cuomo said at a news conference Sunday in Albany. “It’s not hard to make a mask or PPE (personal protective equipment) equipment, or a gown, but you need companies to do it.”  Trump said the U.S. Navy medical ship Mercy, will be deployed off Los Angeles and another ship, the Comfort, will be sent to the East Coast within weeks, likely to be docked in New York Harbor.The head of the White House coronavirus task force, Vice President Mike Pence, said all commercial laboratories in the United States must make in-patient coronavirus testing their priority.Pence, who had been tested himself with a negative result, did not sugarcoat the test, calling it uncomfortable. A technician swabs the patient’s nasal cavity or the back of the throat for cells.He said 254,000 Americans have been tested so far. Pence said a new test with results in about 45 minutes will be ready by the end of next week.  U.S. President Donald Trump briefs reporters at a news conference on the latest steps the United States is taking to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Washington D.C., March 22, 2020. (C. Presutti/VOA)Surgeon General Jerome Adams says 9 out of 10 people who think they have coronavirus symptoms test negative.  When a reporter asked if illegal migrants can be tested at hospitals or clinics without the fear of being detained, Trump said “Yes. If that’s not the policy, I will make it the policy.”  Closing stores and restaurants, theaters and other amusements, grounding travel and ordering people to stay home has battered the U.S. economy.  Record losses on Wall Street, predictions of soaring unemployment numbers and a forecast of a recession are tangible signs that the coronavirus is turning life upside down and inside out for 7 billion people around the globe.But Trump said the U.S. economy will “skyrocket” when the country wins what he calls the war against “the hidden enemy.”Trump did not use the word coronavirus during his news conference, but twice called it the “China virus,” ignoring those who say such words veer into a racism.  Trump has denied any racist intent. But he again Sunday complained that he is still upset with China for apparently rejecting U.S. offers of help when the outbreak grew earlier this year.The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have repeatedly asked people to call the disease by its proper scientific name: COVID-19.Facing criticism that he has failed to show genuine compassion during the outbreak, Trump said he wanted those who feel alone and isolated to know that “no one is alone as long as we are a united people.” He promised to always fight for Americans.As of late Sunday, there were about 33,000 coronavirus cases in the U.S. and 400 deaths.
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New Yorkers are fighting the coronavirus in any way they can: respecting the government directives, recommendations by health authorities and trying to stay strong in the face of calamity as they did in the wake of September 11, 2001  terrorist attacks.  Many New Yorkers, like people around the world, derive strength from their families. So, it is not surprising that some couples refused to postpone their wedding plans and took their vows wearing gloves or protective masks in ceremonies performed by an official standing at a distance.  Unseasonably warm weather Friday drew many New Yorkers to parks for jogging, riding bicycles and playing outdoor with their children.People gather in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park as state and city officials urge residents to maintain social distancing to control the growing COVID-19 outbreak, Sunday March 22, 2020, in New York.But the city’s life is far from normal, said scholar Kannan Srinivasan who has been doing a lot of research at a specialized department of the New York Public Library.“I knew this place might shut down any day, so I went through an elaborate procedure to check out the books that I normally use there, and brought them home so I could continue working,” Srinivasan told VOA in an email. “But a lot of my time has been wasted on watching the news, trying to follow precautions and so on. So, I’ve done very little work,” he said, adding that his wife also will have to start working from home this week and he is worried they might get on each other’s nerves.  A surgical mask is placed on The “Fearless Girl” statue outside the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in New York.But Srinivasan told VOA both he and his wife are impressed with the response by their governor, Andrew Cuomo, and mayor, Bill de Blasio.The numbers are growing by the hour. New York state had nearly 16,000 confirmed cases, up from 5,100 confirmed Friday and 800 just more than a week ago.The United States has more than 33,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 400 confirmed deaths, 117 of them in New York state, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine on Sunday night.Cuomo, New York state’s governor, has placed a lot of blame on the slow response by the Trump administration, especially a delay in approving COVID-19 tests.  Cuomo confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in New York City on March 1.  The federal government authorized New York City to create its own test on March 11.  Since then New York has conducted 45,000 tests.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers remarks at a news conference regarding the first confirmed case of coronavirus in New York State in Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 2, 2020.In an effort to curb the spread, Cuomo ordered workers in nonessential fields to stay at home, starting Sunday night. Essential businesses that will remain open include grocery stores, pharmacies and public transit. Schools have been closed across the country as well as in New York.The New York restrictions came as some hospitals struggled with shortages of safety masks, breathing ventilators and other health supplies.De Blasio, the city’s mayor, Sunday called on U.S President Donald Trump to turn the making and distributing of medical supplies over to the U.S. military.“I can’t be blunt enough. If the president doesn’t act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,” de Blasio told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”Hours later, Trump said he had ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ship mobile hospital centers to Washington, California and New York. For New York, that would mean another 1,000 hospital beds. The president also ordered one of the U.S. Navy’s hospital ships to New York Harbor.On Sunday, New York surpassed Washington state in the number of fatal cases.And the governor told hospitals to find a way to expand the number of beds by half because predictions from health officials are that COVID-19 cases needing advanced medical care will top 100,000 in New York state in the coming weeks.
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Senator Rand Paul confirmed Sunday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 – the first U.S. Senator to do so.  “Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He is feeling fine and is in quarantine,” a tweet from the Kentucky Republican’s account read.  The Senator said that he was asymptomatic and had not been in contact with any known carriers of the novel coronavirus but was tested out of an “abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events”.  Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person.— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2020 The Senator’s office began operating remotely ten days ago, so it affirmed that “virtually no staff” had been in contact with him.  As many Americans across the United States struggle to get tested for COVID-19, many critics have taken to social media questioning how and why the senator was able to be tested if he was asymptomatic and had no known contact with a carrier.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said that testing abilities in the United States are expected to increase. 
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New York City was hit by the nation’s largest coronavirus jail outbreak to date this week, with at least 38 people testing positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities — more than half of them incarcerated men, the board that oversees the city’s jail system said Saturday.Another inmate, meanwhile, became the first in the country to test positive in a federal jail.In a letter to New York’s criminal justice leaders, Board of Correction interim chairwoman Jacqueline Sherman described a jail system in crisis.She said in the last week, board members learned that 12 Department of Correction employees, five Correctional Health Services employees, and 21 people in custody at Rikers and city jails had tested positive for the coronavirus.And at least another 58 were being monitored in the prison’s contagious disease and quarantine units, she said.“It is likely these people have been in hundreds of housing areas and common areas over recent weeks and have been in close contact with many other people in custody and staff,” said Sherman, warning that cases could skyrocket. “The best path forward to protecting the community of people housed and working in the jails is to rapidly decrease the number of people housed and working in them.”New York officials have consistently downplayed the number of infections in its prisons and jails, The Associated Press has found in conversations with current and former inmates.Late Saturday, the city’s Department of Corrections acknowledged 19 inmates had tested positive — two fewer than in the board’s letter — and 12 staff members. On Friday, department said just one inmate had been diagnosed with coronavirus, along with seven jail staff members.Earlier this week, Juan Giron was transferred to Rikers Island from an upstate facility after his sentence was vacated because the judge had failed to consider him for youthful offender treatment. After going through intake, where he underwent health screening, he was taken to a dormitory that housed more than two dozen men, their beds lined up next to one another, spaced a few feet apart.“This is like a shelter. So everybody is out and about. You’re talking to people, mingling” Giron said. “Last night, a guy is brought in at around 6 p.m., and a few hours later, two police officers come in with masks and gloves on and try to give the guy a mask. They looked scared, didn’t even want to touch him. They told him to pack up, so he packed up and they took him out. It was crazy.”“We asked one of the officers and they said, ‘That’s the process we are doing now for guys who have the virus,’” Giron said, adding that others who had had contact with the man have not been questioned or notified about his status.More than 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States — more than anywhere in the world — and there are growing fears that an outbreak could spread rapidly through a vast network of federal and state prisons, county jails and detention centers.It’s a tightly packed, fluid population that is already grappling with high rates of health problems and, when it comes to the elderly and the intern, elevated risks of serious complications. With limited capacity nationally to test for COVID-19, men and women inside worry that they are last in line when showing flu-like symptoms, meaning that some may be infected without knowing it.The first positive tests from inside prisons and jails started trickling out just over a week ago, with less than two dozen officers and staff infected in other facilities from California and Michigan to Pennsylvania.Sherman wrote to Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Correction, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, New York’s Acting Commissioner, and district attorney asserting that those who are at higher risk from infection, including people over 50 or with underlying health conditions, should be considered for early release. So should people detained for administrative reasons, like parole violations, she wrote.Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this week said prosecutors were working to identify candidates and by Friday night, prosecutors in New York City agreed to release 56 Rikers inmates on their own recognizance.Bianca Tylek, executive director of the national criminal justice advocacy organization of Worth Rises, said that wouldn’t cut it.“There are nearly 1,500 people incarcerated on Rikers Island for low level offenses or technical parole violations who can be released immediately,” she said. “Releasing them would reduce their risk of infection, reduce the risk for all those who remain incarcerated, and reduce the spread of the virus into the public.”A man incarcerated in New York City, meanwhile, became the first confirmed case in the federal prison system on Saturday.The man, who is housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, complained of chest pains on Thursday, a few days after he arrived at the facility, the federal Bureau of Prisons told the AP. He was taken to a local hospital and was tested for COVID-19, officials said.He was discharged from the hospital on Friday and returned to the jail, where he was immediately placed in isolation, the agency said, adding medical and psychiatric staff were visiting him routinely.Others housed with the man are also being quarantined, along with staff members who may have had contact with him.There have been two positive cases among BOP staff members: an employee who works at an administrative office in Grand Prairie, Texas, and another employee who works in Leavenworth, Kansas, but who officials said did not have contact with inmates since becoming symptomatic.Ronald Morris, who leads the union for correctional officers at FCC Oakdale in Louisiana, said Sunday that two inmates at the federal prison complex had tested positive. One was hospitalized and the other was being isolated in the prison’s special housing unit, he said. Staff members were having their temperature taken and some were sent home after they didn’t pass the screening, Morris said.The Bureau of Prisons referred the AP to their website, which had not been updated since Saturday.The Bureau of Prisons has temporarily halted visitation at all 122 federal correctional facilities across the U.S., including both social and legal visitation, though officials have said some exceptions could be made for legal visits.For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and even death.The vast majority of people recover from the virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe cases may take three to six weeks to recover.
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With 8.6 million residents cooped up at home indefinitely, New York City’s health department has offered graphic guidance on safe sex practices during the coronavirus pandemic.“You are your safest sex partner,” the 2-page document says. It then encourages individuals to wash their hands and any pleasure devices they may use.The city advises that other than masturbation, “the next safest partner is someone you live with.” But urges you to “skip sex if you or your partner is not feeling well.”Health officials warn that kissing – which involves saliva — can quickly spread COVID-19, the respiratory infection caused by the new coronavirus, but it has not yet been found in other bodily fluids associated with sex.“We know that other coronaviruses do not efficiently transmit through sex,” the guidance says. SARS and MERS are examples of two earlier coronaviruses.New York State is leading the United States with virus cases, with more than 10,300 as of Saturday. More than 8,000 are in the densely populated city.People queue to enter a tent erected to test for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York City, March 19, 2020.The state’s governor has ordered all non-essential workers to stay home and has told residents to only go out for groceries or the occasional exercise. That leaves people with a lot of free time.After blizzards and hurricanes, many cities see baby booms, and perhaps it is with this in mind that health officials issued their guidance. They also recommend you “have an effective form of birth control for the coming weeks.”Officials are also urging people to avoid online dating for now and keep your circle of contact as small as possible.“If you usually meet your sex partners online or make a living by having sex, consider taking a break from in-person dates,” the city says. “Video dates, sexting or chat rooms may be options for you.”And if you do go that route, health officials recommend that you disinfect keyboards and touch screens that you share with others.Social distancing — staying 2 meters apart —  is still the order of the day.But whatever route you go, always, always wash your hands.Full NYC guidance on sex and the coronavirus can be found at: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-sex-guidance.pdf 
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The U.S. Congress is moving toward passage of a massive $1.8 trillion economic aid package to send money to most Americans and many businesses that have been severely impacted by the deadly coronavirus. Aside from the obvious impact of the public health crisis, perhaps two million or more U.S. citizens have been laid off from work as thousands of schools, national businesses and such community enterprises as gyms, restaurants, bars and stores have shut their doors, either voluntarily or under state and local government orders. Governors in five states — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the East, Illinois in the U.S. heartland and California on the Pacific coast — have ordered millions of people to stay home, in effect quarantined to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. No national shutdown is planned. FILE – Traders at the New York Stock Exchange listen to President Donald Trump’s televised White House news conference, March 17, 2020.All stock market gains since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017 have been erased in a matter of a few weeks, while economists say the U.S., the world’s biggest economy with more than $21 trillion in goods and services produced last year, could soon slip into a recession, its first in more than a decade. FILE – A caregiver tests a patient for coronavirus at University Hospitals, March 16, 2020, in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.The toll from the coronavirus is mounting in the U.S., with more than 27,000 confirmed cases and at least 323 deaths, with both figures markedly increasing in recent days. The U.S. Senate, normally sharply politically divided between the 53-member Republican majority and the 47 opposition Democrats, is working on the aid package in tandem with the administration of the Republican Trump.  The Senate is planning to approve it in a rare Sunday afternoon session, with final passage in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Monday. “We’re all negotiating and everybody’s working hard,” Trump said Saturday, while urging his countrymen, “Stay at home and save lives.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s key negotiator with congressional leaders, told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “I do think it will get done. The president is very determined to help Americans.” “We think we can stabilize the economy,” Mnuchin said. FILE – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 11, 2020, before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the FY’21 budget.Mnuchin said the aid package would give thousands of small businesses, those with 500 or fewer employees, enough cash to keep their businesses afloat for two weeks provided they keep their employees working as soon as they can and not dismiss them. He said this part of the aid package would affect about 50% of the U.S. economy, about half of its workforce of 160 million people. Mnuchin said that in addition, most Americans would get direct aid, with a family of four getting about $3,000 in one-time assistance. Congressional leaders say this part of the aid package would extend to individuals earning up to $99,000 annually and married couples up to $198,000, which covers about 91% of U.S. households.  “They can think of this as a bridge to get through this,” Mnuchin said. He said the cash to families would be a one-time payout, but that if the coronavirus impact lasts longer “we’ll come back for more.” The Treasury chief said a third plank of the package would sanction $4 trillion in lending rights for the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, to inject new liquidity into the American economy as it sees fit.  “We need the money now,” Mnuchin said of the overall package. “The president has every intention this is going to look a lot better in eight to 10 weeks.” “The U.S. economy is strong,” he said. “The economy is going to bounce back significantly.”    
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Young German adults hold “corona parties” and cough toward older people. A Spanish man leashes a goat to go for a walk to skirt confinement orders. From France to Florida to Australia, kitesurfers, college students and others crowd beaches.Their defiance of lockdown mandates and scientific advice to fight the coronavirus pandemic has prompted crackdowns by authorities on people trying to escape cabin fever brought on by virus restrictions. In some cases, the virus rebels resist — threatening police as officials express outrage over public gatherings that could spread the virus.“Some consider they’re little heroes when they break the rules,” said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. “Well, no. You’re an imbecile, and especially a threat to yourself.”People ride their bikes along a bike bath near the pier, March 21, 2020, in Huntington Beach, Calif. California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay at home order for Californians in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.‘You’re not Superman’After days of noncompliance by people refusing to stay home and venture out only for essential tasks, France on Friday sent security forces into train stations to prevent people from traveling to their vacation homes, potentially carrying the virus to the countryside or beaches where medical facilities are less robust.The popular Paris walkway along the Seine River was closed and a nightly curfew was imposed in the French Mediterranean city of Nice by Mayor Christian Estrosi, who is infected with the virus.Florida’s governor closed all of the state’s beaches after images of rowdy spring break college crowds appeared on TV for days amid the rising global death toll, which surpassed 13,000 Sunday. Australia closed Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach after police were outraged at pictures of the crowds.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that people from 18-to-49 account for more than half of the state’s coronavirus cases, warning them “you’re not Superman, and you’re not Superwoman.”Many people were not complying with social distancing recommendations to stay away from each other in New York City’s vast city park network ahead of a ban on congregating in groups that goes into effect Sunday night, Cuomo said.“You can wind up hurting someone who you love, or hurting someone wholly inadvertently. Social distancing works, and you need social distancing everywhere,” Cuomo warned.China’s exampleAs new coronavirus cases in China dropped to zero several days in a row, the chief medical officer for the International Clinic of Wuhan was alarmed at those elsewhere refusing to follow rules to contain the virus. Dr. Philippe Klein said people should look to China’s confinement of tens of millions as an example to emulate “with courage, with patience, with solidarity.”“I exhort you, the French, to apply the rules in our way,” said Klein, who is French.Worldwide, over 307,000 people have been infected. For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. But it can cause more severe illness in others, especially older adults and people with existing health conditions. Some 92,000 people have recovered, mostly in China, where the virus first struck late last year.A woman wears a face mask to protect against coronavirus infection as she shops at an IKEA store in Beijing, March 21, 2020.Who are the virus rebels?The virus rebels tend to range from restless teens to wealthy adults who can travel to their getaway homes. Even in Italy, where the virus death toll soared beyond China’s last week, authorities are still trying to rein in people from going outside for fresh air, sun and visits with friends to escape walled-in lives.French farmers markets where people congregate to shop for food have posed a special challenge for police trying to keep people apart from each other at the recommended 2 meters (6 feet), along with neglected urban housing projects where distrust and disobedience of authorities runs deep.In Clichy-Sous-Bois, a Paris suburb where nationwide riots triggered by police harassment allegations erupted in 2005, a person bit a police officer trying to enforce confinement rules, said Linda Kebbab, a police union spokesperson. And a large crowd threatened to spit on officers who had planned to disperse them in the southeastern city of Lyon but left instead, she said.In the southern German state of Bavaria, Gov. Markus Soeder lamented that “there are still corona parties, there are young people who cough at older people and shout corona for fun and, above all, there are an incredible number of groups being formed.”A police officer wearing a face mask patrols the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, as Nice’s mayor said Friday he will be closing a part of it as part of measures to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak spread in France, March 20, 2020.Spain enforces from aboveNational police in Spain, which has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections in Europe after Italy, are using helicopters to spot groups of people meeting up outdoors. Then agents are sent in to break up the gatherings.Spanish police have also taken to highlighting examples on social media of what people should not do in public during the country’s state of emergency. In the southeastern Murcia region, they posted video of police stopping a person waddling outside in a full-body dinosaur costume and tweeted that pets can be taken for brief walks by owners but that “having a Tyrannosaurus Rex complex is not” allowed.And in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia, police posted a picture of a man walking a goat on a leash, apparently trying to take advantage of the pet walking exception.France now has 100,000 security personnel on the streets who are issuing fines amid a new national “Stay Home” mantra and warnings by officials that the country’s two-week lockdown could be extended if the country’s infection rate keeps rising. France on Sunday had nearly 15,000 infections.In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos tried to convince people to say home, warning citizens that future virus prevention measures depend “on our behavior.”But after Florida’s governor shut down the state’s famed beaches, some businesses were still trying to draw in tourists, including Clearwater Mega Bite Shark Boat, a 40-foot (12-meter) vessel with a bow shaped like a shark’s snout that cruises the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s western coast.The boat can carry 50 passengers but the owner was limiting trips to 10 to comply with federal advice. Only four people signed up for a Saturday trip, said an employee named Chase who answered the phone but declined to give his last name.“Normally we’d be packed this weekend,” he said.
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