Category: Aktualności

A Maryland man accused of joining a white supremacist group and discussing violence at a gun rights rally in Virginia is seeking his pretrial release from federal custody.In a court filing Wednesday, defense attorney Ned Smock asked a federal magistrate judge in Greenbelt, Maryland, to schedule a detention hearing for Brian Mark Lemley, who was indicted on gun-related charges.”The defense has a proposed release plan to present to the Court that we submit addresses any concern about risk of flight or danger to the community,” wrote Smock, an assistant federal public defender. Smock did not disclose any details of that plan.U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan and federal prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to Lemley’s request for a hearing. Sullivan already has refused to set bond for two other men who were arrested in January on related charges.Lemley, 33, of Elkton, Maryland, had waived his right to an immediate detention hearing after making his initial court appearance Jan. 16. He and former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews, 27, separately pleaded not guilty to charges including transporting a firearm and ammunition with the intent to commit a felony.William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 19, of Denton, Maryland, pleaded not guilty to charges that he helped transport and harbor Mathews, who is accused of illegally entering the U.S. from Canada.Federal authorities said the three men were members of a white supremacist organization called The Base. During a hearing last week, a prosecutor said the group’s goal was to accelerate the overthrow of the U.S. government and replace it with a white supremacist regime.Lemley and Mathews discussed “the planning of violence” at a gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia, in January, prosecutors said in a court filing. A closed-circuit television camera and microphone installed by investigators in a Delaware home captured Lemley talking about using a thermal imaging scope affixed to his rifle to ambush unsuspecting civilians and police officers, prosecutors said.”I need to claim my first victim,” Lemley said on Dec. 23, according to prosecutors. Lemley was a member of a different white nationalist, neo-Confederate organization before he joined The Base last year, prosecutors’ filing says. In encrypted online chats, Base members discussed what would happen if law enforcement tried to disrupt their activities, the filing says.”For example, in September 2019, in a discussion with other Base members, Lemley wrote, Hey mr fed' andI spent about 35% of my day daydreaming about killing you today.’ Lemley went on to write, ‘I day dream about killing so much that I frequently walk in the wront (sic) directions for extended periods of time at work,”’ prosecutors wrote.FBI agents arrested Mathews, Lemley and Bilbrough as part of a broader investigation of The Base. Authorities in Georgia and Wisconsin also arrested four other men linked to the group. 
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Federal investigators took the unusual step of wiretapping a retired supervisor in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami office as part of an inquiry into whether sensitive case information was leaked to attorneys for suspected drug traffickers in Colombia, current and former law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.The inquiry comes amid a string of DEA scandals and has sent a chill through South Florida’s close-knit, fiercely competitive narco-defense circles because of former supervisor Manny Recio’s strong ties to federal law enforcement and private-sector lawyers.The FBI wiretapped Recio for at least three months last year while he worked in his post-retirement job as a private investigator for defense lawyers — an extraordinary step requiring approval from a federal judge and the highest levels of the Justice Department. Agents also seized and searched his cellphone.Federal prosecutors in New York declined to comment, but three former and one current law enforcement official familiar with the investigation say it is focused on the flow of information between the DEA and Miami lawyers who represent alleged narcotraffickers and money launderers from Colombia. Among those lawyers is Luis Guerra, who contracted Recio as an investigator shortly after he retired from the DEA in 2018.The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, said the probe is focused on Recio’s interaction with defense lawyers and agents he worked with at the DEA, including Special Agent John Costanzo, whose phone was similarly searched.Phil Reizenstein, a Miami lawyer representing Recio, said he was told late last year by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan that the former DEA agent was not a target of a criminal investigation nor had a grand jury been summoned to investigate him.“I have reviewed Manny’s work on cases and found it to be impeccable, and I have no concerns that he did anything that was close to being illegal,” Reizenstein said. “He devoted his career to the DEA. He has held himself to the highest standards and the same law-abiding ideals in his private work.”Guerra and Costanzo declined to comment.So-called Title III wiretaps require approval from a federal judge for each 30-day period they’re in use. The technique is considered highly intrusive and requires probable cause that a federal crime has been — or is about to be — committed.“They’re relatively rare,” said Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor in New York. “Wiretaps are reserved for when other investigative techniques have been tried and failed, or it’s unlikely anything else would work.”Prosecutors recently began notifying third parties that their communications were intercepted between July and October during the “electronic surveillance” of Recio’s cellphone. The AP obtained a copy of one such notification.Recio, described by former colleagues as soft-spoken and personable, finished his more than two decades with the DEA as an assistant special agent in charge of the DEA’s Miami field division, specializing in cases involving illicit finances. Immediately after retiring, he launched a Miami-based business called Global Legal Consulting, which according to its website provides private investigations, anti-money laundering solutions and other legal services.Such potentially lucrative work is governed by federal laws restricting the role former agents may play in the private sector — so-called revolving door rules that prohibit them from trying to influence their former colleagues with respect to cases they worked or oversaw.Derek Maltz, a retired agent who once headed the DEA’s Special Operations Division, said those rules are in place in part because in the often shady world of narco defense attorneys and abundantly-wealthy clients from Colombia, Mexico and elsewhere who think they can use their influence to cut deals with prosecutors like they were able to do back home.“For these guys it’s all about the juice,” Maltz said. “Having access is a powerful selling point.”Federal prosecutors have been clamping down on attorneys who cross the ethical line. Nelson Alfaro, a Miami attorney known for representing drug traffickers, pleaded guilty in December to trying to trick federal authorities into reducing a client’s prison sentence based on a $80,000 scheme he concocted to offer “third-party cooperation” to the FBI.Also last year, Dallas attorney Jaime Balagia was convicted of trying to shake down three Colombian clients for about $1.5 million with the promise he could bribe U.S. officials to drop or reduce cocaine trafficking charges.The latest investigation comes amid a period of turmoil within the DEA, which has seen repeated cases of criminal misconduct involving its own federal agents.Recio once supervised highly-sensitive money laundering investigations involving Jose Irizarry, a former standout DEA agent in the Miami office who was indicted last month on charges he conspired to launder money with a Colombian drug cartel he was supposed to be fighting and spent lavishly on luxury sports cars and Tiffany jewelry.The Irizarry charges came just one week after another former DEA agent was sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in a decade-long drug conspiracy.
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The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of  the U.S. Constitution’s 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote . Museums in the Washington DC area are celebrating with exhibitions that tell the story of how women fought for voting rights.  Maxim Moskalkov has more from the National Museum of American History
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After winning guilty verdicts against top Enron executives in one of the most high-profile cases of corporate fraud, the lead prosecutor declared: “No matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules.”
    
More than a decade later, that same lawyer, Sean Berkowitz, is fighting to clear “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, of charges that they used their wealth and privilege to skirt the rules in the college admissions process.
    
And he will be a formidable foe for prosecutors looking to put the famous couple behind bars, former colleagues say.
    
“Sean is a prosecutor’s worst nightmare,” said Jeffrey Cramer, who was in the U.S. attorney’s office with him in Chicago. “If Sean has anything to work with at trial, he can show reasonable doubt.”
    
Berkowitz and the couple’s other high-powered attorneys are hoping to help Loughlin and Giannulli avoid the same fate as other prominent parents who’ve landed in prison for participating in a  college admissions cheating scheme that has rocked the world of higher education.
    
A Chicago-area native who led the special Justice Department task force that investigated the Enron scandal, Berkowitz has a reputation for being fearless yet cool-headed and a master at navigating complex cases. Lawyers who’ve worked with him say he’s meticulous and unflappable with a Midwestern charm that makes him persuasive to juries.
    
“He’s very comfortable in the courtroom,” said David Hoffman, who worked as a federal prosecutor alongside him and remains a close friend.
    
“He’s very genuine, he’s very relaxed … and that I think comes across to everyone who’s with him,” said Hoffman, now a white collar lawyer in Chicago.
    
Berkowitz, 52, now a partner at Latham & Watkins in Chicago, declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press.
    
Loughlin and Giannulli hired him quickly after they were arrested last March on charges that they paid $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California as fake crew recruits.
    
Other prominent attorneys on their defense team include BJ Trach, also from at Latham & Watkins, who previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Boston and now has other big-name clients such as General Electric and tobacco giant Philip Morris. Trach, 42, is known as a savvy young lawyer who’s friendly with the prosecutors at the Boston courthouse, where Loughlin and Giannulli are scheduled to stand trial alongside six other parents in October.
    
The defense team has their work cut out for them.
    
Nearly two dozen other parents, including fellow actress Felicity Huffman, have already admitted to paying bribes in the scheme, and several have been sentenced to prison.
    
Prosecutors have emails and recorded phone calls between Loughlin and Giannulli and the admitted mastermind of the bribery scheme, Rick Singer. Documents that prosecutors have revealed include a bogus resume presented to USC that falsely claims their younger daughter, Olivia Jade, rowed in such prestigious competitions as the Head of the Charles. Singer and the former coach authorities say Singer paid to create the fake athletic profile for Olivia Jade are cooperating with investigators and will likely testify against the couple at trial.
    
But Loughlin and Giannulli say they believed the checks they wrote were legitimate donations that would support Singer’s charity or go directly to USC as a fundraising gift. Their lawyers have accused prosecutors of withholding information that could support the couple’s claims of innocence, including notes from Singer’s iPhone in which he says the FBI told him to lie and say that he told parents that the payments were bribes.
    
Berkowitz says that information is exonerating, and Cramer said the defense attorney is an expert at turning any problem with a case into a big advantage.
    
“With every case there are problems, and this case is no exception,” said Cramer, now executive director of the Berkeley Research Group consulting firm. “And if there are problems in a case, and you have a defense lawyer who is as good as Sean, those little gaps in cases sometimes can become big holes for you to run through.”
    
Federal prosecutors say calling the payments donations instead of bribes doesn’t make them legal.
    
Outside the courtroom, Berkowitz is an avid runner who used to be a part owner of a now-shuttered rock club on Chicago’s northwest side. He’s married to journalist Bethany McLean, who co-authored The Smartest Guys in the Room, about Enron’s corruption and downfall.
    
Berkowitz was tapped in 2005 to be director of the Enron Task Force and was the lead prosecutor in the trial against founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling for actions that led to the energy company’s extraordinary meltdown.
    
His prosecuting partner at the Enron trial, John Hueston, is now defending another high-profile parent in the college admissions case: William McGlashan, who co-founded an investment fund with U2 Singer Bono. McGlashan denies participating in the scheme and is scheduled to go on trial in January.
    
During the monthslong trial in Houston, Berkowitz impressed even his adversaries with his ability to present the complicated case in a way jurors could grasp. “He was remarkable in his ability to maintain a simple message for the jury,” said Chip Lewis, one of the attorneys for Lay. “It would have been very easy to lose the jury in all those details.”
    
In his final pitch to jurors, Berkowitz showed them a poster with the words “Truth” and “Lies” written in black and white. “You get to decide whether they told the truth, or they told lies,” he said.
    
“Don’t go back and let the defendants, with their high-paid experts and their lawyers, buy their way out of this,” he told them. “You can’t buy justice. You have to earn it.”
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The final act of Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial in New York begins Wednesday, when the once-powerful film producer will be sentenced following his landmark #MeToo conviction.
   
Weinstein is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in New York City. He faces up to 29 years behind bars for raping an aspiring actress in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006. A second criminal case is pending in California.
   
Both women that Weinstein was convicted of assaulting are expected to be in court to give victim impact statements before he is sentenced. Weinstein will also have a chance to speak. He opted not to testify at his trial, but at sentencing he won’t have to worry about getting grilled by prosecutors.
   
Other women who’ve accused Weinstein, including some who testified at his trial, are not permitted to speak at his sentencing under state law. One of those witnesses, Tarale Wulff, who accused Weinstein of raping her in 2005, said in a statement Tuesday that she will still attend and hopes that the sentence sends a clear message that times have changed.''
   
Weinstein was convicted on two counts: criminal sex act for the 2006 assault on the production assistant and rape in the third degree for a 2013 attack on another woman. On the criminal sex act count, he faced a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years in prison, while the third-degree rape count carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
   
Weinstein was acquitted of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault stemming from actress Annabella Sciorra's allegations of a mid-1990s rape. Weinstein maintains his innocence and contends that any sexual activity was consensual.
   
Newly unsealed documents show the 67-year-old former film producer sought help from billionaires Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg as sexual misconduct allegations against him piled up in October 2017, and that he considered issuing a statement at the time claiming that he was suicidal. There is no evidence to suggest either man responded.
   
The New York case was the first criminal matter against Weinstein to arise from accusations of more than 90 women, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman. Many of Weinstein's accusers say he used his Hollywood prestige to befriend them, dangling movie roles to gain their trust.
   
Weinstein's lawyers are seeking the minimum sentence of five years in prison because of his age and frail health.
   
Weinstein, who turns 68 next week, used a walker throughout the trial following recent back surgeries. After his Feb. 24 conviction, he split time between a hospital and a jail infirmary unit, and had a stent inserted last week to unblock an artery.
   
“Given his age and specific medical risk factors, any additional term of imprisonment above the mandatory minimum, although the grave reality is that Mr. Weinstein may not even outlive that term, is likely to constitute a de facto life sentence,” Weinstein's lawyers wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Monday.
   
Once Weinstein is sentenced, he'll be transferred from the city's jail system to the state prison system. The agency that runs New York's state prisons said every inmate is evaluated to determine which facility meets his or her security, medical, mental health and other needs.
   
Martin Horn, the city's former corrections commissioner, said Weinstein's celebrity status could make him a target for another inmate looking to make a name for himself, while the gravity of his convictions and sentence could raise suicide concerns.
   
“No jail wants to have the next Jeffrey Epstein,” said Horn, who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “They're going to make sure that nothing happens to him while he's in their custody. Not because he's important, but just from a public relations point of view, it would be awfully embarrassing.”
   
Prosecutors did not ask for a specific number of years in prison in their sentencing memorandum, but said that Weinstein deserves severe punishment to account for allegations dating to the 1970s that didn't lead to criminal charges.
   
In their letter, prosecutors outlined 16 examples they said showed Weinsteintrapped women into his exclusive control” so he could sexually assault them, starting when he was working as a music producer in Buffalo in 1978.
   
Fordham University law professor Cheryl Bader said she expects Judge James Burke to impose a harsh sentence.
   
“One of the underlying principles of the law of punishment is promoting general deterrence,” Bader said. “I think Judge Burke will want to send a message to `would be’ sexual predators that the hammer of the law will come down hard on you if you use your power, physical and otherwise,  to manipulate and sexual abuse victims.”
   
Just as jury selection was about to get under way in the New York case in January, authorities in California announced they were also bringing criminal charges against Weinstein.
   
Weinstein was charged in California with raping a woman at a Los Angeles hotel on Feb. 18, 2013, after pushing his way inside her room, then sexually assaulting a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel suite the next night.
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Joe Biden’s path to the Democratic presidential nomination widened significantly Tuesday with commanding victories in Mississippi, Missouri and Michigan, a state that his rival Bernie Sanders won four years ago. Key takeaways:
   Biden’s nomination to lose
   
Biden has become the reliable Buick of this race.
   
His momentum accelerated as he broadened his delegate lead over Sanders with a series of decisive victories. The former vice president’s solid win in Michigan came in a state Sanders was depending on both to bolster his case going forward and for the practical delegate math involved. He came into the day about 96 delegates behind Biden, and Michigan was his best shot at preventing that lead from getting any wider. (Democrats require 1,991 delegates for nomination.)
   
As it is, Sanders lost a big state where his upset of Hillary Clinton four years ago gave him reason to continue his presidential bid through the end the nominating calendar in June. This time, the first round of voting after Super Tuesday ended the same way as last week’s surprise outcome: with a Biden celebration and an increasingly steep climb for Sanders.
   
Biden isn’t just leaning on his base of African Americans. AP VoteCast surveys in Michigan and Missouri also show he topped Sanders in suburbs and, notably, across small-town and rural counties, where Sanders had led Clinton in 2016.
   
“We need you, we want you, and there’s a place in our campaign for each of you,” Biden said Tuesday night. “I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion. We share a common goal, and together we’ll beat Donald Trump.”
   
Sanders’ bad March can be explained this way: Biden’s net delegate gains out of Alabama last week and Mississippi on Tuesday _ two Republican-dominated states _ essentially cancel out the delegate advantage that Sanders pulled out of California, which has the largest delegate trove.
   Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., visits outside a polling location at Bow Elementary in Detroit, March 10, 2020.Does Bernie have a path or a protest?
   
Sanders stayed in the race until June four years ago, fueled in no small part by his Michigan primary victory. This time, the path going forward looks much different.
   
The Vermont senator faces a fraught choice. Does he try something new: going after Biden even more aggressively as an establishment figure, a relative foreign policy hawk, a budget centrist who threatens Social Security? There’s little evidence over the last two weeks that any of that would change the fundamentals of the contest.
   
Another option: Sanders can continue advocating for the issues that his supporters hold dear, like “Medicare for All” and free college, not explicitly ceding the nomination but using his base to pressure a Biden-led party to move as far left as possible.
   
He was back at his home in Vermont Tuesday night.
   Black vote again proves unattainable for Sanders
 
 It can’t be emphasized enough. Black voters are as crucial for picking Democratic nominees as any demographic in the party’s coalition.
   
And Sanders just can’t get over the hump. It happened again in Mississippi on Tuesday, just like Southern Super Tuesday states last week and South Carolina before that. According to AP VoteCast, about 70% of Mississippi’s Democratic primary voters were African American; 86% of them supported Biden.
   
The reality remains: Sanders has not made enough inroads in that critical Democratic constituency to have a clear path to becoming the nominee.
   Biden has an edge on Sanders’ biggest issue
   
Sanders has made universal health care his main policy focus. But when it comes to whom people trust on health care, voters on Tuesday were somewhat more comfortable with Biden.
   
When asked who would best be able to handle health care as president, 41% of Michigan voters said they preferred Biden, according to AP VoteCast. Just 31% liked Sanders. Biden also led on health care in Mississippi, while Missouri was evenly split between both of them.
  Coronavirus curveball
   
Biden and Sanders cancelled campaign rallies because of the spread of coronavirus, a rare example of an external event bringing a presidential race to a temporary halt. Both men had planned to address supporters Tuesday night at watch parties, but cited public health warnings. And their plans going forward are up in the air.
   
Their debate scheduled for Sunday in Arizona is still on, but will not have an audience as previously planned.
   
That likely affects Sanders more, since the Vermont senator, much like President Donald Trump, campaigns as a populist who addresses large rallies with thousands of supporters. But Biden has just started to draw large crowds as well.
   
At the least, Biden and Sanders now have plenty of money to continue television and social media advertising in coming primary states. They will need it for a lineup of states that includes Illinois, Ohio, Florida and Arizona.
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U.S. President Donald Trump briefed Senate Republicans Tuesday on his proposed economic stimulus package in response to the coronavirus outbreak. It included a payroll tax cut, an idea that has drawn opposition from some Republicans and Democrats.White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who sat in on the president’s meeting with Senate Republican lawmakers, declined to specify the dollar amount for the package, but did say that Trump prefers it include a payroll tax “holiday” through the end of this year.The president has also mentioned loans for small businesses and said he wants help for hourly wage workers so that they’re “not going to miss a paycheck” and “don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault.”The final stimulus package will originate in the House, and the president tapped Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Mnuchin later called their meeting productive and said they’d “work together on a bipartisan basis to figure out how we can get things done quickly.”President Donald Trump, joined by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, right, speaks to reporters after meeting with Republican senators, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 10, 2020.Pelosi said her team will have its package ready in the next day or so.Later Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence, at the White House’s coronavirus task force’s evening briefing, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will publish within the next 24 hours recommendations for hard-hit states such as California, Florida, New York and Washington, to help them control the spread of COVID-19.The Trump’s administration’s former Homeland Security adviser, Thomas Bossert, has called for sweeping action to be taken immediately, such as closing schools even in communities where there is not widespread infection.“Everything is on the table,” responded Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, when asked about Bossert’s statement.Fauci, added however, that it is not appropriate to say all schools should be closed “in the entire country tonight.”Also, U.S. health insurance companies will cover costs for coronavirus testing, Pence said at a White House meeting with company executives.”All of the insurance companies here today or before today have agreed to waive all co-pays on coronavirus testing and extend coverage for coronavirus treatment in all of their benefit plans,” the vice president said.Pence said the companies will also pay the costs to provide telemedicine care to patients so that they do not have to leave home.
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One of the United States’ top disease experts says Americans and Europeans should be prepared not to do the things they could do just a few months ago before the coronavirus outbreak.”It doesn’t matter if you’re in a state that has no cases or one case. You’ve got to start taking seriously what you can do now that if and when the infections will come,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci said Tuesday. “And they will come, sorry to say, sad to say.”Fauci used hockey great Wayne Grtetzky as a metaphor for how to deal with an infectious disease — Gretzky doesn’t go where the puck is going, he goes where the puck is going to be.”We want to be where the infection is going to be as well as where it is,” Fauci said.He said it is “no surprise” that the coronavirus outbreak appears to be subsiding in Asia while it grows in the United States and Europe, saying this has been the history of outbreaks of infectious diseases.The number of confirmed cases in the United States skyrocketed Tuesday to 975 — up 400 in just one day. At least 30 have died.The coronavirus outbreak is affecting two major global institutions headquartered in the United States.National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci steps away from the podium during a news conference on the coronavirus in the press briefing room at the White House, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Washington.The United Nations headquarters has closed its doors to the public — a move likely to disappoint millions of tourists who visit New York City.In Washington, The World Bank and International Monetary Fund will hold what it calls a “virtual format” for its annual Spring meeting next month.In a normal year, about 10,000 people convene at World Bank headquarters for the talks, just blocks from the White House.The bank is also restricting access to its  headquarters from anyone who has been to China, Iran, or Italy in the past two weeks as well as those with a cold, fever, or showing flu-like symptoms.Also Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission became the first federal agency to ask its Washington employees to work from home after a staffer was treated for the coronavirus.In Iran, the spread of the virus to all of the country’s provinces has caused more hardship for an economy in recession since 2018 thanks to toughening U.S. sanctions and government mismanagement.A VOA Persian TV viewer in Iran who called in to the Tuesday edition of the network’s Straight Talk show and said he was in Tehran described the local economy as bleak. “Restaurants, coffeeshops, ice creameries, kabob houses and barber shops are closed, and places like theaters and malls with high volumes of visitors are empty,” the man said. “People are scared of getting infected and dying.”VOA could not independently verify the caller’s exact location.Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and Turkey all reported their first coronavirus cases and Germany reported its first death Tuesday.A British junior health minister, Nadine Dorries, became the first lawmaker in the U.K. to be diagnosed.As of late Tuesday, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide was nearly 119,000 with more than 4000 deaths.The World Health Organization says 110 countries report at least one confirmed case.VOA Persian’s Shahram Bahraminejad contributed to this report.
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One of the U.S. military’s largest exercises in Africa has been significantly scaled down due to the threat of the coronavirus. 
  
The massive, U.S.-led African Lion exercises in Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal were supposed to involve 9,300 troops from eight nations. The troops would use the exercises to improve military readiness and integration, while preparing to combat transregional threats. But there was one threat African Lion organizers weren’t prepared for: the coronavirus.
  
Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of U.S. Africa Command, first told VOA and The Wall Street Journal about the change after testifying Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
  
“African Lion has been significantly reduced in scale and scope based on concerns that we all have about the safety of our troops and those of our partners,” he said.
  
Exercises with troops being housed in close quarters have been cut. Townsend says the change mostly effects the Army component of the exercises, because the soldiers’ drills involve close contact.
 
“We’re going to continue on with some training events that require less interaction between large troop formations like air activity, naval activity, and maybe some special operations activity,” he said.
  
Some of the U.S. troops who had deployed ahead of the official March 23 start date will be able to finish their tasks, including the academic portion of the drills which had already started. But many African Lion organizers are shifting their focus to the next set of drills in 2021.
 
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The 2020 census is off and running for much of America now.The U.S. Census Bureau made a soft launch of the 2020 census website on Monday, making its form available online. On Thursday, the Census Bureau will begin mailing out notices far and wide.For the bureau, the once-a-decade head count is akin to running a sprint and marathon at the same time. It takes awhile, but there’s plenty of action throughout.“It is that intense …. counting up to 330 million people in a very diverse, very mobile population, and over 140 million housing units,” Stephen Buckner, a senior Census Bureau executive, said during a recent visit to Miami.The bureau had an official in-person launch in January in Toksook Bay, Alaska. Mail service is spotty and internet connectivity is unreliable in remote Alaska, making door-to-door canvassing the best way to gather responses. The Alaska villages get a head start over the rest of the nation because many residents scatter each spring to subsistence hunting and fishing grounds.There has been a U.S. census every decade since 1790. The results determine how many congressional seats each state gets and how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed.The 2020 census is the first in which most people are being encouraged to answer the questions online, though people can still answer the questionnaire by telephone or by mailing back a paper form if they prefer.The notices mailed out starting this week will include a census ID that matches addresses. People filling out the form via the internet are encouraged to use the ID, but those who answer the questions online before getting their IDs still will be counted.“The best user experience is provided with a Census ID,” the bureau said in a statement Monday evening.About 80% of households receiving mailings will get notices about how to answer the questions online, and about 20% of households automatically will receive a paper ballot if there are large numbers of seniors in their neighborhood or levels of internet connectivity are low.Census workers won’t begin going door-to-door in earnest until May, when they’ll approach homes that haven’t responded and ask the questions in person. Bureau officials are monitoring the spread of the novel coronavirus, which could disrupt the door-to-door phase. If there is a major disaster, such as an epidemic, census workers instead can drop off the questionnaires at homes, with the hope that people will respond on their own, according to the bureau’s operational plan.This week also poses the first true test of the Census Bureau’s new IT systems for capturing online responses. For the past three years, the Government Accountability Office has placed the census on its list of high-risk programs, mainly because it is relying on technology that has not been used before. Last month, the bureau decided to use a backup data-collection system for handling the online responses after officials grew concerned that the primary system would not be able to handle excessive traffic.The online approach to answering the 2020 census questions causes Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass of California, to worry it will lead to an undercount of blacks and other minorities in hard-to-count communities.“Having the census online can be a way of continuously undercounting the black population,” Bass said last week.Perhaps the most attention given the 2020 census over the past several years has been to the failed effort by the Trump administration to put a citizenship question on the form. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected those efforts, but some worry that lingering unease may scare off some Hispanics and immigrants from participating.“It’s a challenge every 10 years to get any American to fill out the census. Some people feel you’re invading their privacy, as though it’s intrusive. Some people are fearful of giving the government more information,” said U.S. Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas. “But every 10 years, that challenge has been especially tough in minority communities, who sometimes are more disconnected from government than other communities.”
 
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The Justice Department must give Congress secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, giving the House a significant win in a separation-of-powers clash with the Trump administration.The three-judge panel said in a 2-1 opinion that the House Judiciary Committee’s need for the material in its investigations of President Donald Trump outweighed the Justice Department’s interests in keeping the testimony secret. The opinion authorizes access to information that Democrats have sought since the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation, giving lawmakers previously-undisclosed details from the two-year Russia probe.Writing for the majority, Judge Judith Rogers said that because Mueller himself “stopped short” of reaching conclusions about Trump’s conduct to avoid stepping on the House’s impeachment power, the committee had established that it could not make a final determination about Trump’s conduct without access to the underlying grand jury material.“The Committee’s request for the grand jury materials in the Mueller Report is directly linked to its need to evaluate the conclusions reached and not reached by the Special Counsel,” wrote Rogers, a Clinton appointee.Judge Thomas Griffith issued a separate concurring opinion. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented, suggesting that the need for the testimony could have waned after Trump’s acquittal at a Senate impeachment trial last month.“After all, the Committee sought these materials preliminary to an impeachment proceeding and the Senate impeachment trial has concluded. Why is this controversy not moot?” Rao wrote.It is unclear when the materials might actually be turned over. The Trump administration can ask the full appeals court to rehear the case, and can appeal to the Supreme Court.The ruling softens the blow of a loss the House endured two weeks ago when judges on the same court said they would not force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress. The split decisions leave neither the administration nor Congress with a clear upper hand in an ongoing inter-branch dispute.The ruling is a major win for Democrats who have fought the Justice Department for nearly a year, but it’s unclear what the House will actually do with the material. Lawyers for the Democrats have said the grand jury material could potentially be used for additional articles of impeachment, though the Senate impeachment trial over the president’s interactions with Ukraine ended weeks ago in an acquittal.The case is one of several disputes between the Trump administration and Congress that courts have grappled with in recent months.The two sides had been similarly at odds on the question of whether McGahn could be forced to testify about Trump’s behavior during the Russia investigation. The appeals court ruled in a recent 2-1 decision that judges had no role to play in that dispute and dismissed the case.Mueller issued a 448-page report last April that detailed multiple interactions between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia and that examined several episodes involving the president for potential obstruction of justice. Mueller said his team did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Kremlin to tip the election, though pointedly noted that he could exonerate the president for obstruction.Portions of the report were blacked out, including grand jury testimony and material that Mueller said could harm ongoing investigations or infringe on the privacy of third parties.Grand jury testimony is typically treated as secret, in part to protect the privacy of people who are not charged or are considered peripheral to a criminal investigation. But several exceptions allow for the material to be turned over, including if it is in connection with a judicial proceeding.The House argued that the impeachment inquiry met that definition, and it sought copies of testimony referenced in Mueller’s report. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with the House last October in ordering that the material be turned over.The Justice Department appealed that decision, with lawyers arguing that the material sought by the House had no relevance to the impeachment inquiry and that the House already had ample information about the investigation.Several dozen witnesses appeared before Mueller’s grand jury, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.   
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Coronavirus is most dangerous to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Since the first fatalities in the US originated from a nursing facility in the state of Washington, there is deep concern among health experts, patients and their families that eldercare facilities are especially vulnerable.  VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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Airlines are slashing flights and freezing hiring as they experience a sharp drop in bookings and a rise in cancellations in the face of the spreading coronavirus.Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that travel demand has fallen so badly in the past week that it expects one-third of seats to be empty this month on flights within the United States — previously the market most immune to virus fallout.Business travelers are grounded as meetings and conferences are being canceled. Leisure travelers are scared.Normally airlines try to lure reluctant customers by discounting fares, but that won’t work in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.“If you are scared of flying, you are probably scared at any price,” said Delta President Glen Hauenstein.Delta, the world’s biggest airline by revenue, said it will cut international flights by 20% to 25% and reduce U.S. flying by 10% to 15%, roughly matching cuts previously announced by United Airlines. CEO Ed Bastian said the airline is “prepared to do more” if the outbreak grows.A Delta Air Lines plane is taking off at Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, D.C. (Photo by Diaa Bekheet)The airline is cutting spending, including putting a freeze on hiring, delaying voluntary pension contributions and suspending share buybacks.American Airlines announced it will cut international flying by 10% this summer and reduce U.S. flying by 7.5% in April. It has delayed training of new pilots and flight attendants.United said it has arranged $2 billion in additional bank borrowing to preserve financial flexibility — raising liquidity from $6 billion to $8 billion.The airlines are also evaluating their assets — planes, engines, spare parts and other items — to determine what could be used as collateral for more borrowing, if that is needed.The demand drop-off that began in Asia picked up steam in the U.S. about two weeks ago, when the virus spread outside Asia, notably to Italy. It has been felt equally among business and leisure travelers.Hauenstein said demand has fallen more sharply on the West Coast — Washington state and California have suffered larger outbreaks — than on the East Coast. He said younger people have been more willing to keep flying; people over 55 less willing.The virus appears to be most dangerous among older people. The Associated Press reported this week that the White House overruled a plan by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend that older and physically weak Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new virus, according to a federal official.American’s CEO, Doug Parker, said the largest decline has been in tickets within seven days of departure, which are often bought by business travelers.“That is absolutely driven by U.S. corporations putting in place travel advisories and travel restrictions and canceling travel,” he said. “Once we get to the point where corporate America is ready to travel again, that will come back.”Airlines have been waiving change fees and touting stepped-up cleaning of airplane cabins to make passengers feel more comfortable about flying.Delta, United, American and most international carriers have suspended flights to China, where the outbreak began and has infected the most people.U.S. airline officials have expressed steadfast confidence that they can manage their way through the outbreak.Airline stocks have been among the hardest hit during the market sell-off of the last few weeks.Since mid-February, shares of American have lost more than half their value, United’s stock has fallen more than 40% and Delta and Southwest Airlines more than 25%. They rallied slightly in trading Tuesday morning.
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President Donald Trump is meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday to discuss a payroll tax cut as part of efforts to provide “substantial relief” to  businesses and individuals who suffer financially as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.”We’re also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they’re not could ever miss a paycheck to be working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies so that they don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault,” Trump told reporters on Monday evening in the White House briefing room.With stock prices plunging Monday amid an oil price war and the coronavirus crisis, Trump met with his economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who presented him with policy options to counter the quickly emerging threats to the economy.   “The economy will be in very good shape a year from now,” predicted Mnuchin, who took questions from reporters, alongside Vice President Mike Pence, after a brief appearance by Trump in the press briefing room.Trump announced a news conference would be held at the White House on Tuesday that will focus on economic measures.The U.S. travel industry, which annually generates more than $1.6 trillion in economic output and is expected to suffer substantially because of the coronavirus outbreak, is one key area of the administration’s relief efforts.”We’re also working with the industries including the airline industry, the cruise ship industry, which obviously will be hit,” said Trump.   The United States “will use all our tools” to fight the effects of the coronavirus, said Mnuchin, who announced that the White House will hold a meeting later in the week with bank officials.As the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived more than 2,000 points during Monday morning trading, Trump, via Twitter, blamed the market drop on Saudi Arabia and Russia arguing over the price and flow of oil.”That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop,” he wrote.  Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020But, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is causing the uncertainty in the markets.”I think that what is happening there is a reflection of lack of confidence, and so we would hope that what is coming out of the White House will be more consistent with what the health advisers are putting forth,” Pelosi said.  “We would hope that rather than name-calling, (Trump) would be again joining with his health care professionals who are advising him and the rest of us in a well-coordinated government agenda.”Pence, at the briefing, did not directly answer a reporter’s question as to whether the fall in stock prices in any way resulted from a perception that the White House’s response to the coronavirus crisis lacked leadership and foresight. “I really do believe that the American people can see that this president is putting the health of the American people first,” said the vice president.  The Dow closed off nearly 7.8%, recording its largest-ever single-day point drop of 2,013.76.The number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus, which originated in China, is more than 650, including at least 26 deaths.      
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U.S. President Donald Trump will not be coming to Moscow for Victory Day celebrations on May 9, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
Russia has repeatedly invited Trump to visit Moscow on the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II — the nation’s most important holiday. Trump said last year he appreciated the invitation, but wasn’t sure if he could go as the celebration falls “right in the middle of political season.”
 “Via diplomatic channels, we have received information that the [U.S.] president will not be coming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, adding that it remains unclear who will represent the U.S. on the Victory Day in Moscow.
Peskov didn’t give a reason for Trump’s refusal to come.
In an interview with the state-run Tass news agency, a part of which was released Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it would be “a mistake” for world leaders not to attend the Victory Day celebrations this year.
“I think that, concerning former members of the anti-Hitler alliance, the right thing to do would be to attend [our event], from both a domestic political stance and a moral one,” Putin said. “We look forward to seeing them and we will be glad if they come. If not, well, that’s their choice. But I think that would be a mistake for them.”  
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The U.S. Secret Service is warning Americans to be on the lookout for coronavirus-linked scams saying that “any major news event can become an opportunity for groups or individuals with malicious intentions.”In a statement Monday, the Secret Service said criminals have already begun to use the fears surrounding the coronavirus outbreak to play on people’s emotions.The agency said in one instance that victims received an e-mail purporting to be from a health organization containing supposedly important information about the virus. An attachment, when opened, prompted victims to enter e-mail login credentials that were then stolen or unleashed malware on the computer.It said other schemes used social media sites to get people to donate to phony charitable causes related to the outbreak, while others used advertisements for in-demand medical supplies to get people to pay for items that were never sent.”Fear can cause normally scrupulous individuals to let their guard down and fall victim to social engineering scams, phishing scams, non-delivery scams, and auction fraud scams,” the Secret Service said.The agency urged people to be on heightened alert and said more of these incidents are expected.Last week, police in Britain said victims in that country had lost more than $1 million to coronavirus-linked scams. It said many of those involved scams over face masks, with one victim paying nearly $20,000 for masks that were never delivered.
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U.S. President Donald Trump sought to play down the plunging price of oil and the global spread of the new coronavirus as markets plunged on Monday. Meanwhile his advisers presented him with a list of policy recommendations they hope will mitigate the economic fallout of the outbreak. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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The pace of U.S. military strikes against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab in Somalia this year is nearly on par with the number of strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.The U.S. has carried out 25 strikes against al-Shabab to date in 2020, including one Monday in the vicinity of Janaale, Somalia, that U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said killed four terrorists.Data released to VOA by a U.S. defense official show the U.S. carried out 29 airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from January 1 to March 1, the latest date in which strike data was available. A full strike report from Operation Inherent Resolve is expected later this week.Strikes in Iraq and Syria have significantly tapered off since the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State caliphate last March.In 2019, there were more than 2,000 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, with at least 1,600 of those carried out in the first couple of months. U.S. Central Command has decreased troop numbers in Syria, where thousands of IS fighters are estimated to remain, but increased troop numbers elsewhere in the Middle East in an effort to counter the threat of Iran.FILE – Al-Shabab fighters march during military exercises in the Lafofe area, some 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 17, 2011.Meanwhile, AFRICOM conducted a record 63 strikes in Somalia last year. Most were against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab, which has an estimated 6,000 militants in Somalia, with a handful of strikes against Islamic State. There were 47 U.S. military strikes in Somalia in 2018.”Airstrikes are preventative measures to ensure al-Shabab does not increase in size and strength,” AFRICOM spokesman Maj. Karl Weiss told VOA on Monday. “That said, airstrikes and kinetic operations are not the command’s primary effort in Somalia; our core activity is the training of Somali security forces.”Despite the ramped up strike numbers in Somalia, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has appeared averse to adding more U.S. troops to Africa, where Islamic extremists have plagued the continent from Somalia to the Sahel.FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, March 2, 2020.The Pentagon is in the middle of a review of AFRICOM that could reduce the number of U.S. troops on the continent. The first troop change in Africa under Esper’s leadership withdrew conventional troops and replaced them with specialized military trainers.Esper has said the move would leave “roughly the same number of troops on the continent,” while giving U.S. commanders the capability to bolster partner forces.Members of Congress have pushed back against any potential troop cuts, saying a decrease could provide an opening for strategic competitors Russia and China. Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Jim Inhofe, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have even called for an increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed to Africa.Esper is trying to follow a shift started by his predecessor, Jim Mattis, away from counterterrorism toward strategic competition with China and Russia. During Mattis’ time as defense secretary, the U.S. pulled 100 to 200 troops from West Africa and was preparing for further cuts.Defense officials said extremist groups in West Africa did not appear to pose a threat to the U.S. homeland, but they have since continued to pummel U.S. allies, especially in countries like Burkina Faso. A top general in U.S. Africa Command admitted to VOA at the time of the troop pullout that the U.S. and its allies were “not winning” the counterterror war for the Sahel.AFRICOM Commander Gen. Stephen Townsend has said al-Shabab is the “largest and most violent” of al-Qaida’s branches worldwide. Defense officials have stressed that while al-Shabab does not possess the capability to strike the U.S. homeland, the group has the intent to do so.”It is important to impact their ability to threaten peace and security in East Africa and prevent their threats against the U.S. from being a reality,” Townsend said in a press release last month.Townsend and CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie testify together in front of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
 
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In 2016, Michigan gave Sen. Bernie Sanders one of the most surprising primary wins in U.S. political history.In 2020, the self-described democratic socialist will need another boost from Michigan to revive his campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination over his lone remaining major rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.  With 125 delegates, Michigan is the biggest prize up for grabs among the six states holding primaries Tuesday. Sanders signaled the importance of Michigan to his campaign, abandoning a planned rally in Mississippi to hold five campaign events in the state over the weekend, including one in Dearborn, where the nation’s largest Muslim community strongly supports him.Dearborn was one of the areas that helped Sanders secure his 2016 victory in the Michigan primary over eventual Democratic party nominee Hillary Clinton by a narrow margin of 49.8% to 48.3%. After trailing Clinton significantly in the polls, Sanders won by just 17,000 votes.   Sanders aims to improve on that narrow margin of victory in 2020, even though in some states to date, he has struggled to turn out voters in the same numbers he did in 2016. A Detroit Free Press poll released Monday does not look promising for him. The survey of 400 Michigan voters shows Biden outpacing Sanders by a significant margin — 51% to 27%.”If Bernie doesn’t score a big victory in Michigan, you’re really starting to see the end of the possibility of his candidacy,” said Jim Kessler, a senior vice president at public policy think tank Third Way, and former legislative director for then-Congressman Charles Schumer.Watch: Michigan Primary Looms as Showdown for Biden and Sanders  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders greets supporters after speaking during a rally in St Louis, Missouri, March 9, 2020.African American voteSanders’ weakness with African American voters could be the blow that kills his chances in Michigan.  Democratic delegate math in Michigan is anything but straightforward. Democrats allocate their delegates according to the statewide vote and the vote by congressional districts. Because of this weighting system, winning boils down to securing large population areas such as the predominantly African American city of Detroit. Sanders failed to win the city in 2016, and his poor 2020 performances in southern states with African American electorates does not bode well for his chances in the Motor City.  Hutchings said African Americans make up about 15% of the Michigan electorate overall, and an even larger share of the Democratic voters controlling the results Tuesday. “I would be very surprised, extremely surprised, if Sanders were to win the black vote in the state. And because that vote typically votes in the bloc fashion, that means that it’s going to be difficult, not impossible, but difficult. If that remains the case, it’s going to be difficult for Sanders to win,” said Hutchings.Meanwhile, Biden heads into the primary with major endorsements from two former African American presidential candidates, senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, who were campaigning with him Monday in Detroit.The impact of endorsements  In addition to the Harris and Booker endorsements, Biden also gained the support of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Sanders endorsed Whitmer’s progressive Democratic challenger, Abdul El-Sayed, in 2018, but campaigned for her in the general election.  Analysts differ on the impact of endorsements. Conventional political wisdom holds that endorsements usually do not dramatically alter political races. That appears to have been upended this election cycle with the boost Biden received from Congressman James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina who gave the former vice president his stamp of approval just days before the do-or-die primary in his home state, which Biden won handily.Biden had pinned his hopes on his ability to mobilize the African American vote in South Carolina after severely disappointing showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, two smaller states that do not reflect the demographic diversity of the United States.  Both Dulio and Hutchings said Whitmer’s endorsement of Biden in Michigan was significant.“It certainly is a highly visible endorsement for the Biden campaign, and it can’t hurt him,” Hutchings said. “It probably helped him increase the (vote) margins.”  Trade warsSanders’ campaign does have a strength that is uniquely suited to Michigan: outreach to blue-collar factory workers, which has been a central point of his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020. Nowhere is that more important than in Michigan, the center of the auto industry.  Sanders has been savaging Biden’s record on trade, citing his support for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) on the campaign trail and in numerous advertisements airing locally, according to Dulio.  He said that argument could resonate with the all-important suburban women demographic, swinging some of their votes to Sanders. “Michigan is a unique place, because so many people are tied to the auto industry. Whether it’s in a place like Macomb County, where you’re talking about folks who work in manufacturing and do the manufacturing at Ford, GM and Chrysler plants, or part of the auto manufacturers supply chain, or if you’re talking about folks in, say, Oakland County right next door, who are part of the white-collar contingent of auto company employees,” said Dulio.If Sanders can convince those key voters their livelihoods are at stake in this election, his campaign may be able to survive past Michigan. 
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With stock prices plunging amid an oil price war and the coronavirus crisis, U.S. President Donald Trump met Monday afternoon with his economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who presented him with policy options to counter the quickly emerging threats to the economy.     White House sources say the options included paid sick leave and emergency help for small businesses.  The meeting was convened after Trump returned to the White House from Florida, where he attended a fundraising luncheon at the home of a wealthy donor.  The president did not speak to reporters after he strode from the Marine One helicopter to the South Portico.As the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived more than 2,000 points during Monday morning trading, Trump, via Twitter, blamed the market drop on Saudi Arabia and Russia arguing over the price and flow of oil.”That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop,” he wrote.  Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020Trump said the big decline for oil prices will be good for the consumer, as gasoline will cost less.  The Dow closed off nearly 7.8%, recording its largest-ever single-day point drop of 2,013.76.Trump also downplayed Americans’ fears about the novel coronavirus.  The president said the number of deaths in the United States from the new disease is a tiny fraction compared to the tens of thousands who succumb annually to seasonal influenza.”Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on,” tweeted Trump.  So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020The number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus, which originated in China, is 566, including 22 deaths, according to state public health authorities and Johns Hopkins University.Left unsaid in Trump’s messaging was that people can be immunized against the flu strains, while there is no vaccine yet to protect against COVID-19, which health experts predict will have a higher mortality rate than influenza.”The markets have obviously been very active today,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar of the historic sell-off on Wall Street.”President Trump has delivered a historically strong economy,” and the economic fundamentals remain strong, stated Azar, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force. “The public health and protecting the American people is the No. 1 priority for all of us.”Briefly speaking on the White House North Lawn driveway, the Cabinet official declined to answer any questions from a group of reporters who had been waiting while he conducted interviews on Fox News and Fox Business channels, friendly media outlets for the Trump administration.  Vice President Mike Pence and others on the task force are scheduled to speak to reporters at a briefing later in the day.  The White House is denying reports that it has issued formal guidelines to staff instructing them to limit in-person interactions and meetings.”While we have asked all Americans to exercise common-sense hygiene measures, we are conducting business as usual. I want to remind the media once again to be responsible with all reporting,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
 
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Relatives of victims in last year’s Ethiopian Airlines crash have arrived in Addis Ababa to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy and to get answers.  An airline industry final report on what caused the Boeing 737 MAX to crash is expected this week. Families of the 157 victims on board Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 are holding memorials in Addis Ababa Monday before traveling Tuesday to the crash site, about 45 kilometers outside the capital, for a private ceremony.  A monument for the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 Boeing 737 Max plane crash is seen during a memorial ceremony at the French Embassy in Addis Ababa, March 9, 2020.At a small gathering at the French Embassy Monday, relatives of the 10 French citizens killed in the March 10 crash commemorated their lost loved ones.   There were no survivors when the nearly new Boeing 737 MAX crashed, just minutes after takeoff.   Virginie Fricaudet is president of the victim’s association ET302 Solidarity Justice.  She lost her 38-year-old brother Xavier, a teacher at the French School in Nairobi.
“I would say that we have created a community between all families — the French families on one side and the other global families on the other side.  It’s a big and huge moment of being all together because we are linked by the same tragedy and destiny.  It’s a moment that we should live like a big family,” she said.Surviving relatives have asked for Boeing not to be involved in the anniversary memorials and have filed lawsuits against the company to seek compensation.Their visit to Ethiopia comes as air safety investigators are expected to release an interim report on the roles played by Boeing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Ethiopian Airlines.  The report found that pilots on the 737 MAX were not provided with adequate training by the aircraft’s manufacturer. It also determined that Boeing’s MCAS, or Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which aggressively pushed down the nose of the plane, was “vulnerable to undesired activation.”A woman draws a cross with oil on the forehead of another woman during a memorial ceremony at the crash site of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 airplane accident in Tulu Fara, Ethiopia, on March 8, 2020.Relatives and friends of victims are still waiting for answers and remain critical of how the aftermath of the crash was handled.  Yeshiwas Zeggeye was president of Arline Pilot’s Association of Ethiopia at the time of the crash.“What’s quite interesting up to this point is that the company did not have a consultation with pilots and cabin crews at all after the crash.  That is not something that I would have expected.  I would expect the company would engage more with its pilots, especially those who flew on the Boeing 737 MAX at the time,” he said.Zeggeye also criticized Ethiopian Airlines for not acting after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia, also a 737 MAX, that took place months earlier.   Relatives of the Ethiopian Airlines crash victims agree the 737 Max should have been grounded soon after the Lion Air crash.  FILE – A United Airlines Boeing 737 Max airplane takes off in the rain at Renton Municipal Airport in Renton, Wash., Dec. 11, 2019,Aviation engineer and vice president of ET302 Solidarity Justice Matthieu Willm says Boeing needs to explain why the 737 MAX aircraft were allowed to continue flying.A U.S. congressional report last week into the crash accused Boeing of concealing crucial information from the FAA, making faulty assumptions about critical technologies, and production pressures that jeopardized aviation safety.
Boeing did not immediately reply to a request for comment.But in public statements, the company has said it will review the report, continue to cooperate with investigators, and that its thoughts and prayers are with the relatives who lost loved ones.Boeing last year set aside $100 million to assist the families of victims and communities impacted by the crashes, which killed 346 people in total.The funds are not part of any compensation the aircraft maker might have to pay to those who are suing the company for damages.Boeing has said it is strengthening safety measures and estimates it will be able to re-certify the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for use around the middle of this year. 
    
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Two American soldiers were killed by “enemy forces” in Iraq Monday, a statement by the military said.The service members were killed “while advising and accompanying Iraqi Security Forces during a mission to eliminate an ISIS terrorist stronghold in a mountainous area of north central Iraq,” said a statement by Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF- OIR) —  the headquarters responsible for overseeing U.S. and coalition efforts against Islamic State.The military has not yet released the names of the victims pending notification of next of kin.The United States maintains more than 5,000 troops in Iraq to train and support Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State. 
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Western High School opened in Baltimore, Maryland on November 1, 1844 – four years before the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in New York. It is the oldest all-girls school in the country and is very proud of its traditions. Karina Bafradzhian visited the unique school and talked to students and teachers.
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Some of Virginia’s scores of Confederate monuments could soon be removed under legislation state lawmakers approved Sunday.The Democratic-led House and Senate passed measures that would undo an existing state law that protects the monuments and instead lets local governments decide their fate. The bill’s passage marks the latest turn in Virginia’s long-running debate over how its history should be told in public spaces.The legislation now heads to Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he supports giving localities — several of which have already declared their intent to remove statues — control over the issue.After white supremacists descended on Charlottesville in 2017, in part to protest the city’s attempt to move a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, many places across the country quickly started taking Confederate monuments down. But Virginia localities that wanted to remove monuments were hamstrung by the existing law.In the two legislative sessions that followed the rally, Republican lawmakers defeated bills like the one that passed Sunday. But Democrats recently took full control of the statehouse for the first time in a generation.One of the bill’s sponsors, Del. Delores McQuinn of Richmond, said she feels great about letting local leaders decide what’s right for their community. But she said she thought many places would opt to keep the monuments.“I think more of them are going to be interested in contextualizing, you know, making sure that there is a sense of truth told and shared with the public,” she said.As for Charlottesville, city spokesman Brian Wheeler said staff would review the new legislation and determine the steps needed to carry out previous City Council votes to remove the Lee statue and another of Stonewall Jackson from its public parks.Virginia, a state that prides itself on its pivotal role in America’s early history, is home to more than 220 public memorials to the Confederacy, according to state officials. Among those are some of the nation’s most prominent — a collection of five monuments along Richmond’s Monument Avenue, a National Historic Landmark.Critics say the monuments are offensive to African Americans because they romanticize the Confederacy and ignore its defense of slavery.“My family has lived with the trauma of slavery for generations. … I hope that you understand that this is a situation that’s so much deeper than a simple vote on simple war memorials,” Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who presides over the Senate, said earlier in the week.Others say removing the monuments is tantamount to erasing history.Republican Amanda Chase said during the same Senate debate that slavery was evil.“But it doesn’t mean that we take all of these monuments down,” she continued. “We remember our past, and we learn from it.”The House and Senate initially passed different legislation, with disagreements about what hurdles a locality must clear before taking down a statue. A conference committee hashed out the differences.The compromise measure says a locality must hold a public hearing before voting to remove or otherwise alter a monument. If it decides to remove one, it must be offered to “any museum, historical society, government or military battlefield,” although the governing body ultimately gets the say on the “final disposition.”The measure, which passed largely but not entirely along party lines, wouldn’t apply cemeteries or the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, which has a prominent statue of Jackson.Northam, who last year was embroiled in a scandal over a racist photo that appeared in his medical school yearbook, announced at the start of the legislative session what he called a historic justice agenda aimed at telling the accurate and complete story of Virginia’s past.In addition to the monuments bill, lawmakers also have advanced bills removing old racist laws that were technically still on the books, substituting the state’s holiday honoring Lee and Jackson for one on Election Day and creating a commission to recommend a replacement for a Lee statue Virginia contributed to the U.S. Capitol. They have also passed legislation that provides protections and funding for historic African American cemeteries.Another bill introduced this year took aim at a controversial statue on Capitol Square, one of Harry F. Byrd Sr., a former Virginia governor and U.S. senator who’s considered the architect of the state’s “massive resistance” policy to public school integration.Republican Del. Wendell Walker introduced the bill that would have removed the bronze figure with the aim of needling Democrats on the larger monuments issue, saying “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Byrd, a Democrat, led a political machine that dominated Virginia politics for decades.But when met with some agreement from across the aisle on removing the statue, Walker asked that the bill be killed.
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From Miami to Seattle, nursing homes and other facilities for the elderly are stockpiling masks and thermometers, preparing for staff shortages and screening visitors to protect a particularly vulnerable population from the coronavirus.In China, where the outbreak began, the disease has been substantially deadlier for the elderly. In Italy, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Europe, the more than 100 people who died were either elderly, sick with other complications, or both.Of the 21 deaths across the U.S. as of Sunday, at least 16 had been linked to a Seattle-area nursing home, along with many other infections among residents, staff and family members. The Seattle Times reported that a second nursing home and a retirement community in the area had each reported one case of the virus.That has put other facilities in the U.S. on high alert, especially in states with large populations of older residents, such as Florida and California. About 2.5 million people live in long-term care facilities in the United States.“For people over the age of 80 … the mortality rate could be as high as 15 percent,” said Mark Parkinson, president of the nursing home trade group American Health Care Association.The federal government is now focusing all nursing home inspections on infection control, singling out facilities in cities with confirmed cases and those previously cited for not following protocol.Federal rules already require the homes to have an infection prevention specialist on staff, and many have long had measures in place to deal with seasonal flus and other ailments that pose a higher risk to the elderly.Even so, facilities’ response to the coronavirus has varied across the country.In Florida, where about 160,000 seniors live in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, mandatory visitor screening is not in place “because we’re not at that stage,” said Kristen Knapp, a spokeswoman for the Florida Health Care Association.But elder care centers are posting signs urging visitors to stay away if they have symptoms, and are looking into alternate ways for families to connect, such as through video chats, Knapp said.Concierges in the 14 Florida nursing homes run by the Palm Gardens corporation are now giving all visitors a short questionnaire asking about symptoms, recent travel and contact with others, said company Vice President Luke Neumann.Neumann said the nursing homes also have purchased extra thermometers in case they need to check visitors’ temperatures and stockpiled preventive supplies, including medical masks, protective eyewear and gowns. In the laundry rooms, they are making sure to use enough bleach and heat to kill any lingering virus germs, he said.At the South Shore Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center south of Boston, patient Leo Marchand keeps a container of disinfecting wipes on a shelf by his bed that he uses several times a day. The 71-year-old Vietnam veteran and retired truck driver has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that makes it difficult for him to breathe. The possibility of contracting the coronavirus scares him.“It’s a concern,” Marchand said. “It really is.”Many facilities across the country have said they were having trouble getting medical masks and gowns because of shortages.More intensive screening of visitors, meanwhile, is not sitting well with some.“Some of the visitors have been quite reluctant to comply, and that has been stressful,” said Janet Snipes, executive director of Holly Heights Nursing Center in Denver.Under federal regulations, nursing homes are considered a patient’s residence, and the facilities want to keep them connected with family, especially when they are near death.“I don’t think you can flat-out prevent visitors,” said Dr. David A. Nace, director of long-term care and flu programs at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine. He oversees 300 facilities in Pennsylvania.For now, facilities in most states are stressing basic precautions, including hand washing and coughing etiquette.Centers throughout the country are also trying to prepare their staffs for the worst.An adult day care center in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood bought long-lasting prepared meals in preparation for possible shortages. The Hebrew Home in Riverdale, New York, is running nursing staff through drills to see how they will handle situations at the 750-bed facility if the virus progresses. Their IT department is setting up infrastructure for staff to work remotely if they become sick.“If one of our sites has an outbreak, we quickly will deplete the staff in that location,” said Randy Bury, CEO of The Good Samaritan Society, one of the largest not-for-profit providers of senior care services in the country, with 19,000 employees in 24 states.Some families are considering pulling their loved ones out of facilities.Kathleen Churchyard said her family has decided to move her 80-year-old mother out of her retirement community near Jacksonville, Florida, and into her sister’s home nearby if the virus is confirmed in the area.Churchyard, who lives in Concord, North Carolina, worries her mother is not taking it seriously, and is particularly worried about her dining hall.“I tried to get her to buy some stuff to prepare. … She said, ‘No. If (the virus) takes me, it takes me,’” Churchyard said.
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Lawmakers from both parties told Pentagon leaders on Wednesday that the Defense Department is undermining its own efforts to get military money by diverting billions of dollars for the construction of President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall.
    
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the committee’s top Republican warned Defense Secretary Mark Esper that overturning congressional funding decisions to shift money for the wall is an enormous problem that will have consequences.
    
The plan to shift money has triggered rare Republican opposition to one of Trump’s priorities.
    
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said the result may be that Congress will place greater restrictions on the Pentagon’s ability to move money around to meet military needs. The chairman, Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, said the money transfer is “very, very damaging to the Pentagon.”
    
“The message it sends is the Pentagon has plenty of money,” said Smith, adding that it “undercuts any arguments for any need for resources.”
    
The Pentagon announced this month that it was slashing billions of dollars in funding for Navy and Air Force aircraft and other military programs to free up money for the construction of the wall.
    
Esper approved the $3.8 billion border wall request from the Department of Homeland Security, and the Pentagon acknowledged that more cuts could be coming to provide additional dollars for the wall. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Mexico is paying for his promised “big beautiful wall,” but that has never happened.
    
The Pentagon’s decision, announced in “reprogramming” documents provided to lawmakers, stripped money from major aircraft and procurement programs that touch Republican and Democratic districts and states.
    
Despite congressional opposition, Trump faced no consequences when making similar transfers last year, when the Pentagon canceled dozens of military construction projects to free up $3.6 billion and transferred $2.5 billion in counterdrug money.
    
Altogether, Trump has obtained just over $3 billion for border barrier construction by working through regular congressional channels, subject to limitations imposed by lawmakers. He has used various transfer and emergency authorities to shift almost $7 billion more from the emergency declaration, from a forfeiture fund containing money seized by law enforcement and from funding for military counterdrug activities.
    
Specifically, the plan targets money for more than a dozen aircraft, including two F-35 fighters sought by Texas Rep. Kay Granger, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, and other members of the Texas congressional delegation.
    
It also cuts money for eight Reaper drones, four Air Force C-130 transport aircraft, two Marine V-22 Osprey helicopters and also for amphibious ships, National Guard equipment and Army trucks. 
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