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Greek police on Friday fired tear gas in clashes with migrants at the border with Turkey, as Athens said a 2016 EU-Ankara deal limiting migration to Europe was “dead.”

Thousands of people have gathered at the border since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week said that his country would no longer stop refugees from trying to leave.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused Ankara of “assisting” an ongoing surge of desperate people gathering at the border.

Migrants demonstrate in the Turkey-Greece border buffer zone near Pazarkule crossing gate in Edirne, Turkey, on Friday.
 Photo: AFP

“Right now, let’s be honest, the agreement is dead, and it’s dead because Turkey has decided to completely violate the agreement, because of what happened in Syria,” Mitsotakis told CNN.

Turkey agreed in 2016 to stop letting migrants leave in exchange for 6 billion euros (US$6.77 billion) — but Ankara says that other parts of the EU deal including improved visa and trade rules were never fulfilled.

Mitsotakis said that Turkey was doing “the exact opposite” of its obligation to hold back asylum-seekers.

The brief clashes occurred as migrants tried to break through the fence, journalists at the scene said, adding that they quickly stopped throwing a volley of rocks and instead sat peacefully chanting “freedom” and “open the gates.”

Greek forces say that they have prevented nearly 39,000 people from crossing the border.

Turkey says the real number is more than three times higher.

Many migrants say they are being pushed to attempt illegal entry to Greece.

“They [the Turkish military] told us that if you don’t go to the border ... you will be forced to come back to Turkey and people don’t want to come back because they don’t have any good opportunities, there isn’t anything,” said Ali, an Iranian.

The EU’s diplomatic chief made a direct appeal to the migrants not to go to the Greek border.

“The border is not open,” High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Zagreb.

Turkey and Russia on Thursday agreed to a ceasefire in Syria, but Ankara is still threatened by a potential new influx of refugees from the last rebel stronghold of Idlib and has sought to pressure Europe into providing greater assistance.

Turkey already hosts about 4 million refugees, and recent advances by the Syrian army, backed by the Russian army, have pushed close to 1 million more towards its border.

Later on Friday, the Greek government released footage which it said showed Turkish riot police firing a tear gas barrage at Greek border guards.

It came after the release of separate footage from Turkish state broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corp, which it said showed asylum-seekers stripped and beaten by Greek forces.

A Greek police source disputed the claim, telling reporters: “We are not letting them through the border, so how can we be doing that to them?”

Ankara has officially accused Athens of using undue violence against asylum-seekers, killing several and injuring many. Greek officials have repeatedly dismissed this as untrue.

Meanwhile, two Greek men were convicted of threatening aid workers on the island of Lesbos, where there has been a violent backlash against those helping the swelling number of arrivals.

“I will continue to defend my country. Most of the [aid groups] operate like spies. These gangsters should leave the island,” said 73-year-old Konstantinos Alvanopoulos after being given a three-month suspended sentence.

Erdogan’s office said that the Syrian ceasefire would not alter its policy on refugees leaving for Europe.

“The Russia-Turkey agreement does not ... change the fact of the European Union’s non-compliance with its promises as part of the 2016 refugee deal,” presidential sources told state news agency Anadolu.

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title: Migrants, police clash at Turkey-Greece border


title: Ukrainian president backs risky reshuffle of Cabinet

content_text:
DUBIOUS CHOICES:
 One replacement worked under Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who stands for everything Zelenskiy was elected to end

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy defended a Cabinet reshuffle that unnerved investors and dismayed voters who had backed him to clean up the country’s notoriously murky post-Soviet politics.

The revamp swapped young newcomers picked to sever ties with the past for experienced hands whose task is to revive stuttering reforms.

The problem is that, in one of Europe’s most corrupt nations, previous administrations are tainted by accusations of malfeasance.

One replacement even worked briefly under Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted leader who was backed by the Kremlin and represents everything Zelenskiy was elected to end.

To Ukraine’s fledgling president, a former TV comic whose first months in office saw him take center stage in US President Donald Trump’s impeachment, this week’s personnel changes have been misconstrued.

“We needed to react to the cabinet’s effectiveness,” Zelenskiy said in his office in Kiev late on Friday. “When you’re making such deep changes in the country, you can’t fail. It’s not about your personal ratings, it’s not that you can be kicked from power, it’s that Ukraine may not ever have a chance again to do this.”

With the reshuffle sparking a slump in bonds, incoming Ukrainian Minister of Finance Ihor Umanskyi sought earlier in the day to stem the damage by pledging continued cooperation with the IMF, including a visit to Washington in the coming weeks along with new Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

A US$5.5 billion loan with the lender has been delayed for months, in part over concerns about the influence of tycoons on the government. The program is vital for foreign investors who have piled US$5 billion into Ukraine’s local debt and were already fretting about the spread of COVID-19.

“Zelenskiy’s latest government reshuffle increases the risk of a setback in reforms,” Oxford Economics said on Friday in a note. “It will likely substantially delay IMF negotiations.”

Zelenskiy has seen his popularity wane as economic growth plunged and ambitious reform plans got bogged down. However, there is concern about the departure of ministers who were well liked by investors, and a chief prosecutor backed by Western donors and local activists alike.

The fear is that the new arrivals herald a return of the outsized influence Ukraine’s billionaire class has long had over politics.

Speculation about links between Zelenskiy and former business partner Igor Kolomoisky has persisted, despite numerous denials from both.

Shmyhal helped lead an energy company owned by Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man.

That does not worry Zelenskiy, who tried and failed to poach another top manager from the tycoon and is still looking to fill six more cabinet vacancies.

Zelenskiy says oligarchs have no influence over his government.

“They own 70 percent to 80 percent of assets in this country,” he said. “Every manager in Ukraine worked for one them or is somehow linked to one of them. And they hire the best — we should understand that.”

The new government has ample opportunities to prove doubters wrong. The advance of COVID-19 might simplify reaching an accord with the IMF. Long-delayed legislation ending a moratorium on farmland sales — a potentially major economic driver in a country where agriculture dominates — might yet be a success.

In the meantime, the new team is likely to face increased scrutiny from voters and more skepticism from the markets.

Zelenskiy is taking responsibility for some key endeavors. He pledges to pass legislation lifting a ban on agricultural-land sales and protecting the 2016 nationalization of Ukraine’s biggest bank — both sought by the IMF.

He also had a warning for the central bank.

“I don’t plan to replace any person in the country who works fairly and efficiently, but we agreed with the central bank on some things they can do. If they give us that, it means they’re efficient,” he said. “I’m still waiting.”

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title: Taiwan in Time: Bloodshed in Taiwan’s east

taiwan-subdivisions: 羅東 鳳林 花蓮

content_text:
March 9 to March 15

All was calm in Hualien County’s Fenglin Township (鳳林) when the 228 Incident broke out in Taipei. Far from the chaos and without a radio, Chang Yi-jen’s (張依仁) family didn’t hear about the anti-government uprising on Feb. 28, 1947 until a family friend visited them shortly after and warned them to stay quiet and lie low.

On April 4, about 10 armed soldiers burst into the family home, tying Chang and his father Chang Chi-lang (張七郎) up and carting them away. The same day, they also arrested Chang’s two brothers, Chang Kuo-jen (張果仁) and Chang Tsung-jen (張宗仁), who had just attended a banquet to welcome the troops to town in place of his ailing father.

The cover of Kavalan 228 features Kuo Chang-tan, the Yilan Hospital director who was killed in the aftermath of the 228 Incident.
 Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times

Chang Yi-jen was the only one of the four to survive the ordeal. The others were found on April 6, stripped to their underwear and shot twice each, with obvious signs of torture. Chang was released three months later without being questioned, and faced the task of supporting his mother, his dead brothers’ widows and children as well as two younger brothers who were still in school.

This was one of the higher profile tragedies to fall upon Taiwan’s east coast in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) brutal suppression of the uprising. While there was relatively little unrest in the area, reinforcement troops from China landed in Keelung on March 8 and wreaked havoc there before making their way down the coast, where they arrested hundreds of people in Yilan County, executing over 20 before landing in Hualien on April 1.

“Some say that Yilan was neither the center of the 228 Incident, nor did many people die. But historic tragedy is not just about the numbers. When dealing with this kind of brutal, inhumane, unjust killing without any public trial, even one victim is too much,” writes Chang Wen-yi (張文義) and Shen Hsiu-hua (沈秀華) in the book Kavalan 228 (噶瑪蘭二二八).

Chang Chi-lang, right, Chang Tsung-jen, second from right, and Chang Kuo-jen, fourth from right, were killed by government troops in the aftermath of the 228 Incident. Chang Yi-jen, third from right, was arrested but survived.
 Photo: Hua Meng-chin, Taipei Times

HUNDREDS ARRESTED

According to Kavalan 228, news of the uprising reached Yilan, which was difficult to access, within two or three days. Most of the China-born officials and residents went into hiding, and unlike the situation in Chiayi, where they were beaten on sight, they received help from locals who sought to keep the peace.

Prominent residents in each town put together committees to deal with the situation. While there was debate whether to partake in the uprising, they managed to avoid bloodshed across the county aside from minor skirmishes. But by March 10 or 11, the troops arrived to “restore order.” Everything went back to normal at first with the officials resuming their posts and the committees disbanding, but the soldiers soon began the arrests.

It’s not clear how many died, but the author interviews 13 relatives of the victims and 13 witnesses to provide a glimpse into the events that transpired.

Yilan Hospital director Kuo Chang-tan (郭章坦), who had just moved to the area in 1946, was pushed into a leadership role by locals after the 228 Incident. The official reason was his neutrality as an outsider, but his daughter Kuo Sheng-hua (郭勝華) suspects that the other candidates just didn’t want the responsibility.

Soon, word spread that the government troops were coming to arrest all those involved with the various 228 Incident committees, and many townspeople urged Kuo to flee. With his wife pregnant and confident that he didn’t do anything wrong, Kuo declined.

In the wee hours of March 18, soldiers smashed the windows of the Kuo residence and took him away. They found his body buried in front of a temple several days later with a single shot to the heart.

By contrast, Lin Tsai-ling (林蔡齡), a manager at Bank of Taiwan’s local branch, suffered the same fate despite reportedly not being involved at all. Kuo and Lin’s descendants wonder in the book if the victims had offended someone in the government earlier and this was just an excuse to exact revenge. Kuo may have argued with Yilan’s mayor over hospital issues, and Lin may have drawn the ire of local soldiers by refusing to let them withdraw money without proper procedures. The sister-in-law of Chen A-sung (陳阿鬆), another victim, was also convinced that he was killed due to an earlier dispute with a policeman and a local family. But nobody knows for sure.

Some of the victims were just ordinary people who were just going about their lives — Cheng Huo-tu (鄭火土), a fish vendor in Luodong (羅東) township, was allegedly arrested just because he was walking in a group of more than three people. The family was told to collect his body, his hands tied behind his back with wire piercing his palms, on March 24.

Factory worker Wu Nan’s (吳南) three brothers had already been taken away when a wanted man he didn’t know very well tried to seek refuge in his house. The troops ordered them outside and shot both men on the spot. About three weeks later, two of the brothers returned home safely — the third was considered to have “too strong of a Japanese spirit” and was sent to a reeducation program for six months.

MARKED FAMILY

Events in Hualien followed a similar trajectory to Yilan, and by the time the troops got there on April 1, the committees were able to keep things under control. But again, that failed to prevent the soldiers from making arrests.

The only victims mentioned in the book Hualien Fenglin 228 (花蓮鳳林二二八) were the three members of the Chang family. The family had suffered misfortune at the hands of rulers before — Chang Yi-jen’s grandfather and two adopted sons were killed by Japanese soldiers arriving to take over Taiwan in 1895. Chang and his brothers were educated in Japan and found work in Japan-occupied Manchuria, only returning home after World War II.

Chang stresses that his father did not participate in any of the 228 Incident committees because he was sick at that time. He is convinced that his father was killed because he spoke out in front of the National Assembly against Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi’s (陳儀) decision to tax the Taiwanese after initially promising not to do so.

“I’m very sure the central government ordered his killing,” Chang says, noting that the military seemed to come to Fenglin specifically to kill his family members and left abruptly after. He would meet a member of that division years later, who told him that he was just following orders. Chang was spared because he once served as a military doctor.

The case is often tied to then-Hualien county commissioner Chang Wen-cheng (張文成). Chang Wen-cheng and Chang Chi-lang did have their disputes, but Chang Yi-jen doubts that a county official would have the power to order the military to kill an assemblyman.

In the following years, after he relocated to Tamsui and opened up a clinic, Chang says the government special agents and police would visit him several times per month in the middle of the night, asking him all kinds of questions and looking through his belongings. Fed up with the situation, Chang fled to Brazil via Japan in the early 1960s, not setting foot in Taiwan for the next 22 years.

Taiwan in Time, a column about Taiwan’s history that is published every Sunday, spotlights important or interesting events around the nation that have anniversaries this week.


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Harvey Weinstein’s prosecutor said that the movie producer deserves a stiff prison sentence for his conviction on sexual assault and rape charges, saying that he has engaged in a series of “frighteningly similar” attacks upon women dating back to the 1970s.

In a memo to the sentencing judge describing a “lifetime of abuse,” prosecutor Joan Illuzzi cited at least 16 alleged rapes and sexual assaults by the producer that are not part of the case.

Illuzzi did not recommend a specific prison term, but asked the judge to consider the defendant’s “history of misconduct.”

Film producer Harvey Weinstein arrives at the New York Criminal Court in Manhattan on Feb. 24.
 Photo: Reuters

Weinstein, who was convicted on Feb. 24 after a jury trial, is set for sentencing on Wednesday. He faces at least five years and as long as 25 years behind bars for first-degree sexual assault of Project Runway assistant Mimi Haley in his SoHo loft in New York in 2006. He was also found guilty of third-degree rape, which carries a maximum of four years in prison, for assaulting aspiring actor Jessica Mann in 2013. Weinstein was cleared of two counts of predatory sexual assault.

The prosecutor urged New York State Supreme Court Justice James Burke to take into account Weinstein’s “abusive behavior in the workplace” that included “bullying, screaming” of employees and subordinates, along with punching his brother, Bob, in the face so hard that he knocked him out during a business meeting.

Illuzzi also pointed to other “bad acts” that included hiring the private security firm Black Cube to investigate those who Weinstein feared would report him to authorities.

“Throughout his entire adult professional life, defendant has displayed a staggering lack of empathy, treating others with disdain and inhumanity,” Illuzzi wrote in an 11-page memo. “He has consistently advanced his own sordid desires and fixations over the well-being of others. He has destroyed people’s lives and livelihoods or threatened to do so on whim.”

Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Weinstein, declined to comment.

Aidala has said that Weinstein will appeal his conviction, arguing that he did not get a fair trial.

Weinstein’s legal team is expected to file its own sentencing memo to Burke early next week.

During the trial, prosecutors called not only Haley and Mann as witnesses, but also Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, who testified that Weinstein raped her in the early 1990s.

Prosecutors won permission to call three other women to show that Weinstein used “forcible compulsion” upon Mann and Haley. Weinstein argued throughout the trial that the sexual encounters were consensual.

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title: Prosecutor urges stiff sentence for Harvey Weinstein


content_text:
LeBron James on Friday had 37 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the visiting Milwaukee Bucks 113-103 in a matchup of clubs with the NBA’s best records.

Anthony Davis scored 25 of his 30 points in the second half for the Lakers, who won their third in a row and 10th in the past 11 contests. Davis also had nine rebounds. Kyle Kuzma added 11 points and eight rebounds.

James hit 12 of 21 shots from the floor, but missed six of his seven three-pointer attempts. He also had three steals.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, left, goes for a dunk as center JaVale McGee, center, provides coverage against Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez in their NBA game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Friday.
 Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 32 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for the Bucks, who lost for the second time in three games.

The Bucks’ Donte DiVincenzo scored 17 off the bench, while Brook Lopez contributed 13 points before fouling out with 1 minute, 11 seconds left.

Khris Middleton had an off night for the Bucks, scoring 12 points on five-for-19 shooting, while Eric Bledsoe finished with 11 points.

The Lakers held a 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter before the Bucks rallied. A turnaround jumper by Antetokounmpo pulled them within 105-99 with 2:33 to go, but a bucket and two foul shots by Davis put the Lakers up by 10 with 1:11 remaining.

After a Middleton jumper gave the Bucks a 55-50 edge less than two minutes into the third quarter, Los Angeles launched an 18-0 run for a 68-55 advantage, capped by a Danny Green three-pointer with 7:02 remaining. By the end of the third, the Lakers owned an 87-76 lead.

James had 14 points in the third quarter.

The Bucks led by as much as nine in the first half before the Lakers forced a tie at 48 at halftime. Davis was limited to two-of-eight shooting in 10 first-half minutes due to foul trouble.

Overall, the Bucks committed 20 turnovers to 16 for the Lakers. The teams shot at nearly an identical rate, with the Lakers converting 41.8 percent to 41.6 percent for the Bucks.

Bucks point guard George Hill missed his second straight game due to a groin injury.

NO FANS AN OPTION

The NBA has reportedly told teams to look into strategies on how to play games without fans in the arena amid concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak.

As fears grow over the spread of the virus and sports leagues formulate contingency plans, the NBA on Friday sent a memo to its teams telling them to start “developing” plans on how to play games with only “essential staff” in attendance should that be deemed necessary, sports broadcaster ESPN reported.

“The health and safety of our employees, teams, players and fans is paramount,” the NBA said in a statement on Monday.

The global spread of COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the international sports calendar with Formula One motor racing, golf and athletics among the sports canceling or postponing events.

Additional reporting by AFP

Also on Friday, it was:

‧ Suns 127, Trail Blazers 117

‧ Thunder 126, Knicks 103

‧ Jazz 99, Celtics 94

‧ Pelicans 110, Heat 104

‧ Magic 132, Timberwolves 118

‧ Wizards 118, Hawks 112

‧ Nets 139, Spurs 120

‧ Pacers 108, Bulls 102

‧ Mavericks 121, Grizzlies 96

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title: James, Lakers look their best in thrashing Bucks


content_text:
Women with COVID-19 should be quarantined for a longer period than men, because they have a longer incubation period, a Chinese study said.

A research team from the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University said in a paper, titled “Women May Play a More Important Role in the Transmission of the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) than Men,” that women exhibit different characteristics from men in the transmission of the virus after analyzing the sex ratio of those infected.

The researchers, who reviewed 6,013 confirmed cases at the hospital through Feb. 20, said that women accounted for a lower proportion of admissions early in the outbreak, but their ratio increased in the later stages.

The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by COVID-19 is shown in an illustration released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29.
 Photo: Reuters / US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / Alissa Eckert / Dan Higgins

This data “may indicate that women not only suffer less damage, but may also have a longer incubation period than men,” said the paper, which was on Tuesday posted on SSRN’s Preprints with The Lancet, but has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Women naturally have stronger antiviral immunity than men, it said.

“When your immunity is strong enough to hold off the virus for longer, but not to kill it completely, you will gain a longer incubation period,” the paper said.

As evidence shows that COVID-19 patients are highly contagious during the incubation period, a longer latency interval in women “will undoubtedly have an important impact on the spread of the epidemic,” it said.

“In active or passive isolation, women may escape from diagnosis thanks to their long incubation period,” the paper said.

It is the first study to suggest that women might be affected differently by the virus, the team said, adding that China and other nations should adopt different control measures for women to control the spread of the virus.

“During screening, nucleic acid testing should be carried out for women with a clear contact history, whether or not they have symptoms,” the paper said.

“Women under medical observation should also be isolated for longer than 14 days,” the paper added.

The incubation period of those infected is up to 14 days, WHO data showed.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Women require longer quarantine: study


title: Princes detained in Saudi Arabia over ‘coup plot’: reports

content_text:
Saudi Arabian authorities have detained three princes, including Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s brother and nephew on charges of plotting a coup, US media reported on Friday, signaling a further consolidation of power by the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

The detentions cast aside the last vestiges of potential opposition to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a brother of King Salman, and the monarch’s nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef were accused of treason and taken from their homes early on Friday by black-clad royal guards, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Then-Saudi Arabian minister of the interior Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, left, and then-minister of defense Prince Mohammad bin Salman attend a Cabinet meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on June 7, 2016.
 Photo: AFP / HO / SPA

The Saudi Arabian royal court has accused the two men of “plotting a coup to unseat the king and crown prince” and they could face lifetime imprisonment or execution, the newspaper said.

The New York Times also reported the detentions, adding that Prince Nayef’s younger brother, Prince Nawaf bin Nayef, had also been detained.

The detentions mark the latest crackdown by Prince Mohammad, who has consolidated his grip on power with the imprisonment of prominent clerics and activists, as well as princes and business elites.

Prince Mohammad has also faced a torrent of international condemnation over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in October 2018.

The prince is widely seen to be stamping out traces of internal dissent before a formal transfer of power from his 84-year-old father.

“Prince Mohammad is emboldened — he has already ousted any threats to his rise and jailed or murdered critics of his regime without any repercussion,” Becca Wasser, a policy analyst at the US-based RAND Corporation, said of the latest crackdown.

“This is a further step to shore up his power and a message to anyone — including royals — not to cross him,” Wasser said.

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content_text:
Olympique de Marseille on Friday dropped points for the second time in three games as they wasted a two-goal lead in a 2-2 home draw against Amiens SC in Ligue 1.

Second-placed Marseille, who lost to Nantes two weeks ago, went ahead with goals by Morgan Sanson and Dimitri Payet, but conceded the draw in stoppage time when Saman Ghoddos netted the equalizer shortly after Serhou Guirassy had reduced the arrears.

Marseille coach Andre Villas-Boas was shown a red card for insulting match officials after the final whistle.

Amiens SC goalkeeper Regis Gurtner, right, stops a shot by Olympique de Marseille midfielder Dimitri Payet, left, in their Ligue 1 match at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, France, on Friday.
 Photo: AFP

The result left Marseille on 56 points from 28 games, nine ahead of Stade Rennais who host Montpellier HSC today.

Leaders Paris Saint-Germain, whose trip to RC Strasbourg Alsace yesterday was postponed amid the COVID-19 outbreak, are on 68 points from 27 games.

Sanson opened the scoring on the stroke of halftime with a floating shot from just inside the box after being set up by Kevin Strootman.

Amiens were still in the contest and threatened on several occasions, but Payet gave Marseille some breathing space by doubling the tally in the 56th minute after slaloming through the visitors’ defense.

Marseille striker Dario Benedetto played part of the game wearing a swimming cap after being bandaged by the medical staff following a clash of heads with Nicholas Opoku.

Guirassy pulled one back in the 84th minute by converting a penalty after he was fouled in the area by Jordan Amavi.

He came close to equalizing two minutes later, but his deflection of Aurelien Chedjou’s header hit the crossbar.

However, Amiens continued to push and were rewarded six minutes into extra-time when Ghoddos scored from close range.

LA LIGA

Valencia would need a momentous comeback next week to stay in the UEFA Champions League and face an uphill task to qualify for next season’s competition, too, after being held by Deportivo Alaves in La Liga on Friday.

On Tuesday next week, Albert Celades’ side is to host Atalanta BC after managing just one win in seven games, with the match at Mestalla Stadium in Valencia, Spain, also set to be held without fans due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Atalanta own a 4-1 lead from the first leg and any hopes that Valencia had of building some momentum were dashed by Alaves, who earned a deserved 1-1 draw after Edgar Mendez leveled with 17 minutes left.

Dani Parejo had put Valencia in front with a brilliant free-kick in the first half.

The draw leaves Valencia three points adrift of fourth-placed Getafe in the table, despite having played an additional game. Alaves move up to 11th.

BUNDESLIGA

Cologne on Friday claimed their eighth win in their past 10 Bundesliga matches as they beat bottom side SC Paderborn 2-1 away.

Jorge Mere and Jonas Hector struck in the first half to lift Cologne up to 10th on 32 points from 24 games, while Paderborn, who reduced the arrears through Dennis Srbeny, stayed on 16 points, five points from the relegation playoff spot.

Mere put the visitors ahead in the 28th minute when he flicked the ball home from a corner and captain Hector whipped an 18m shot into the top corner in the 36th minute to double the tally.

Srbeny pulled one back with a header in the 73rd minute, but Cologne held firm to hand the hosts their 17th defeat of the season.

Additional reporting by AFP

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title: Marseille held following last-gasp goal by Amiens


content_text:
QUESTIONS:
 A German diplomat said that there was concern ‘about the millions of people who are suffering’ in Syria and hopefully the ceasefire creates safe zones

The US on Friday blocked the adoption of a UN Security Council statement supporting a Syrian ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey, diplomats said following a closed-door meeting.

“It’s premature,” the US said, rejecting the joint statement that Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia had asked the other 14 member states to adopt, diplomats said.

“Various countries took note and welcome the agreement, but due to a position from one delegation, it was not possible,” Nebenzia said.

Lawmakers scuffle in parliament in Ankara on Wednesday during a discussion about Turkey’s military involvement in northwest Syria.
 Photo: AP

Syria’s war-ravaged Idlib Province woke to relative calm on Friday, its skies free of warplanes for the first day in months, following the ceasefire agreement reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“There are a lot of questions about how it will work in practice, who will monitor it, what is happening west of Aleppo and critically — has the Syrian government formally signed up?” British Ambassador to the UN Karen Pierce said.

German Ambassador to the UN Christoph Heusgen echoed the sentiment, saying: “We have to see if this will work.”

“We are concerned about the millions of people who are suffering there and we would [like to] see that this ceasefire leads to a kind of safe zones where people can go back to and they can survive,” Heusgen said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday said during a telephone call with Putin that he was pleased with the ceasefire agreement.

Moscow signaled that it could oppose endorsement of the US-Taliban peace deal in the UN Security Council following Washington’s opposition to the Russia-Turkey ceasefire, diplomats said.

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title: US blocks UN statement on Syria deal


title: Stormy weather delays Malaysia Open golf tourney

content_text:
The third round of the Malaysia Open was halted yesterday due to stormy weather and postponed until today, with Australia’s Andrew Dodt retaining his lead.

Today is still to be the final day of the competition despite the delay, meaning that the event has been reduced to 54 holes instead of the usual 72.

Storms have repeatedly interrupted play this week and the action was abandoned yesterday even before the whole field could tee off.

“As a result of the delays and disruptions we have suffered, we have taken the decision to reduce the tournament to 54 holes,” Asian Tour director Fritz Katzengruber said.

As it stands, Dodt has a two-day total of 13-under-par 131, holding a one-shot lead over China’s Liu Yanwei.

American duo Jarin Todd and Trevor Simsby are trailing the leader by two shots.

Dodt, who fired a 63 and 68 in the first two rounds, is seeking his fourth Asian Tour title.

The US$1 million tournament is making a return following a four-year absence, even as many sporting events are canceled worldwide due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Organizers have put in place precautionary measures including temperature checks for players and spectators.

Taiwan’s Chan Shih-chang, in a nine-way tie for 11th place, has a two-day total of seven-under-par 142 and Chang Wei-lun, in an 11-way tie for 33rd, a total of four-under-par 160, while Lu Wei-chih did not make the cut after totaling three-over-par 147.

QATAR MASTERS

Briton Andy Sullivan on Friday said that he was “in control of myself” as he claimed a share of the halfway lead at the Qatar Masters on 10-under-par.

Sullivan, a former Ryder Cup player, fired a second straight five-under-66 in the second round at the Education City Golf Club, while Jorge Campillo of Spain finished the day tied at the top after also carding back-to-back 66s.

“I’ve got it under lock at the moment. I feel like I’m in control of myself, which is the most important thing for me,” Sullivan said. “I really feel like I’ve taken my time a little bit more... When I’ve been doing well before, I’ve tended generally [to] rush the shot a little bit, trying to hit it quickly.”

While he felt like his approach to decisionmaking was maturing, others might beg to differ, the 33-year-old Sullivan said jokingly.

“I would say I am — my fiancee and a few of my other people ... probably not,” he said. “I do feel like I’m growing up a little bit on the golf course. Having a laugh on the golf course is all well and good, and I still do enjoy it... [but] I’ve had to really knuckle down on the last few days to keep myself in check.”

Britain’s Oliver Fisher, France’s Romain Langasque, Joost Luiten of the Netherlands and Swedish pair Marcus Kinhult and Alexander Bjork were all tied for third on nine-under-par.

Additional reporting by staff writer

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taiwan-subdivisions: 成功 新社

countries: 英國 德國

content_text:
Gulls observe humans to home in on tasty scraps
海鷗觀察人類行為 精確定位飽餐一頓

It’s the sort a sneaky trick only a gull would learn: by watching how people handle their food, the birds can work out when there are snacks to be had. Researchers found that herring gulls were more likely to peck at items left on the ground if humans had pretended to eat them first.

The study suggests that gulls take cues from human behavior to help them home in on tasty scraps in the rubbish people leave behind. “People don’t tend to think of wild animals as using cues from humans like this,” said Madeleine Goumas, a researcher at the University of Exeter. “It’s the kind of behavior that’s more often associated with domesticated animals or those kept in captivity.”

Goumas, who has become one of the more prominent gull researchers in Britain, reported last year that maintaining eye contact can deter seagulls from snatching food. In tests with bags of chips in seaside towns, she found that staring the birds out put them off their daring raids.

A man feeds seagulls at Lake Bodensee in Friedrichshafen, Germany, on Jan. 22.
一名男子在德國腓特烈港的波登湖畔餵食海鷗，攝於一月二十二日。
 Photo: EPA
照片：歐新社

To follow up that work, Goumas wanted to see whether gulls pick up on subtle human cues to help them find their next meal. And so she set off to the Cornish towns of Falmouth, St Ives, Newquay and Penzance, and Plymouth in Devon, armed with shop-bought flapjacks in shiny blue wrappers, a supply of blue sponges, and a pair of dark glasses.

For the first experiment, Goumas donned the sunglasses and walked toward her chosen bird, carrying a bucket with a flapjack in each hand. When she was about 8m from the gull, she sat down, flipped the buckets over so they concealed the snacks, and pushed them out to her sides. She then lifted off the buckets, picked up one of the flapjacks, stood up and pretended to eat it. After 20 seconds, she put the flapjack back and retreated a safe distance.

Goumas, who wore the sunglasses to avoid deterring the birds with her gaze, recorded what the gulls did next. Out of 38 birds singled out for tests, 24 approached and pecked at the flapjacks. Of these, 19 — or 74 percent — pecked at the flapjack she had recently handled. The results suggest that the birds paid attention when she pretended to eat the snack.

To see whether the effect held true for other items, Goumas set off to different parts of the towns in search of more gulls. Once in place, she performed the same experiment but substituted the flapjacks for little blue sponges. This time, the gulls pecked both the handled and unhandled items roughly equally. “Seagulls have made an association between humans and food and the reason for that is probably that we’re not disposing of our food properly when we’ve finished it,” Goumas said. Details of the work are published in Royal Society Open Science.

Clashes between humans and herring gulls are believed to be on the rise as urban expansion encroaches on and overwhelms the birds’ traditional nesting grounds. While the birds seem abundant in seaside towns, the population in Britain fell 60 percent between 1969 and 2015, putting the birds on the UK’s red list of Birds of Conservation Concern.

“Whereas a lot of animals may not be able to live alongside humans and make use of urban environments, herring gulls seem to have been able to adapt and this is possibly one way they have become successful,” Goumas said. “Most seagulls don’t snatch food from people, they wait. If we don’t want to have gulls coming up to us and trying to get our food, we need to dispose of our food properly, and have bins that actually keep food inside them,” she added.

(The Guardian)

這種偷偷摸摸的技倆只有海鷗才學得起來：藉由觀察人類如何處理食物，海鷗能夠算出什麼時候會有點心可以吃。研究人員近日發現，黑脊鷗比較有可能會去啄食人類假裝先吃過、再留在地上的東西。

該研究指出，海鷗會從人類行為得到提示，幫助它們在人類留下的垃圾裡面精準定位出美味的食物碎屑。英國艾希特大學的研究人員瑪德蓮‧郭瑪斯指出：「人們通常不太會想到野生動物能像這樣運用來自人類的提示。」她表示：「這類行為比較常讓人聯想到被馴化、或是那些被關起來豢養的動物。」

郭瑪斯近來成為英國頗富盛名的海鷗研究學者，她在去年的研究報告中指出，跟海鷗保持眼神接觸可以威懾它們不敢從人類手中搶走食物。她當時在靠海的城鎮用炸薯條進行實驗，發現瞪視海鷗可以有效遏止它們放肆的掠奪行徑。

為了進行進一步研究，郭瑪斯想知道海鷗是否能接收細微的人類行為暗示，來幫助它們找到下一餐。於是，她動身前往康瓦爾郡的幾個城鎮，包括法爾茅斯、聖艾夫斯、紐基和彭贊斯，以及德文郡的普利茅斯。她身上配備了從商店買來、裝在閃亮藍色包裝裡的烤燕麥棒、一批藍色海綿，還有一副墨鏡。

在第一項實驗中，郭瑪斯戴上墨鏡，走向她選定的海鷗，兩手各拎著一個水桶和一包烤燕麥棒。當她接近到距離海鷗約八公尺時，便坐了下來，把水桶翻過去藏起點心，然後將它們推向身旁兩側。接下來，她把水桶翻開，選了一包燕麥棒，站起來假裝在吃。這項行為進行二十秒後，她再把燕麥棒放回水桶底下，撤退到安全的距離外。

郭瑪斯戴著墨鏡是為了避免海鷗被她的目光嚇到不敢來吃，隨後她記錄了海鷗們接下來的行動。在選出來作為測驗對象的三十八隻海鷗中，有二十四隻接近並啄食燕麥棒。而在這些吃到點心的海鷗裡面，有十九隻──也就是百分之七十四──啄的是郭瑪斯剛剛碰過的包裝。結果顯示，當她假裝在吃點心時，這些鳥確實有在注意。

為了確定這項結果是否在其他物品上也能成立，郭瑪斯遂前往城鎮的不同地點尋找更多海鷗。只要抵達一個地點，她就會進行一樣的實驗，但是把燕麥棒掉包，換成小的藍色海綿。這次，她碰過和沒碰過的物品，海鷗兩者都啄，且比例大約相同。郭瑪斯表示：「海鷗已經產生人類和食物之間的聯想，其原因大概是因為我們吃完東西以後都沒有好好處理垃圾。」關於該研究的細節日前發表於《皇家學會開放科學》期刊。

科學家相信，隨著都市擴張侵占並吞沒這種鳥類的傳統築巢地點，人類和黑脊鷗之間的衝突正在逐漸升溫。儘管這種鳥類在靠海城鎮看起來數量很多，英國的黑脊鷗族群卻在一九六九年到二○一五年間減少了百分之六十，使得它們被列入英國「須關注保育鳥類」的紅色清單中。

郭瑪斯表示：「相對於許多動物可能無法在人類週遭生活，也無法利用都市環境，黑脊鷗看起來已經能夠適應與人類生活，而這也可能是它們成功繁衍的方式之一。」她補充說：「大部份的海鷗不會從人類手上搶走食物，它們只是在旁邊等。如果我們以後不想看到海鷗朝我們正面飛來，企圖得到食物，那人類就必須正確地丟棄食物，並且設置真正能夠存放廢棄食物（而不會被海鷗打開）的垃圾桶。」

（台北時報章厚明譯）

The details of Goumas’ previous research on deterring seagulls from stealing chips by staring at them can be found in a Reuters report published on Aug. 7 last year with a video:

https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVARI67HJ&jwsource=cl

去年八月七日，路透曾經報導過郭瑪斯直視海鷗，讓它們不敢來偷吃薯條的實驗，詳情可見這段影片：

https://www.reuters.com/video/?videoId=OVARI67HJ&jwsource=cl

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title: Toronto boy safe after abduction

content_text:
A 14-year-old Canadian boy was abducted on his way to school as retribution for a big “cocaine heist” allegedly staged by his stepbrother, but the teen was freed more than a day later after discussions with his abductors, police said on Thursday.

Police superintendent Steve Watts said that an alert was issued after people reported hearing Shammah Jolayemi crying for help as he was forced into a vehicle near his home at about 8:30am on Wednesday.

An alert was sent late on Wednesday to the phones of people across Ontario.

Police said there was then communication from his alleged abductors.

Watts said that while the teen’s stepbrother is suspected of involvement in high-level drug trafficking, Shammah himself had no such connection.

Investigators said the teen was heard screaming: “Help me, help me” as he was forced into a Jeep Wrangler.

A burned-out vehicle found near the town of Caledon, northwest of Toronto, was believed to be that vehicle, Watts said.

Police launched an investigation because of the reports.

However, the incident was not connected to an alleged abduction until the teenager’s parents reported him missing shortly after 5:30pm on Wednesday, Watts said.

The boy’s high school failed to notify his family of his day-long absence because his teachers missed an attendance reporting deadline, the Toronto District School Board said.

School spokesman Ryan Bird said that four staff members at Newtonbrook Secondary School had been put on “home assignment.”

Watts provided few details about the drug theft that allegedly triggered Shammah’s abduction, but said it occurred last summer and involved approximately 100kg of cocaine.

The boy’s stepbrother is thought to have fled the Toronto area after the drugs were taken, he said.

Officers had since made contact with the stepbrother and he is co-operating with investigators, Watts said.

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title: Virus threatens to unleash lawsuits against global business

content_text:
By Bob Van Voris, Chris Dolmetsch, Edvard Pettersson and Hugo Mi / Bloomberg

COVID-19 has upended markets, disrupted supply chains and forced quarantines. It is all fertile ground for lawsuits.

Hospitals, restaurants, daycare centers, nursing homes and hotels might face claims that they did not take adequate steps to protect people. Shareholders can sue if companies fail to act effectively in response to the epidemic. Businesses are scrambling to see if their insurance policies cover disruptions caused by the virus. Governments are reviewing their quarantine powers.

“The impact on the global supply chain, I think, is going to be dramatic,” said Paul White, a partner at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker who represents insurers.

Some cases have already been filed: The pilots’ union at American Airlines sued the carrier to stop it from serving China, while the city of Costa Mesa, California, sued the US government to halt the transfer of quarantined cruise passengers to a state-owned facility there.

Here is a survey of the likely legal landscape:

‘ACT OF GOD’

The fallout from business disruptions is going to be “very significant in a way we haven’t seen before,” said Joe Balice, a litigator with Brutzkus Gubner in Los Angeles who represents clients in the textile and apparel industry, many of them hit by factory shutdowns in China.

Manufacturers might sue over missed deadlines, while suppliers could sue energy companies, which have already stopped taking some shipments as transportation demand dwindles.

Michael Hurst, a partner at Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst in Dallas, expects to see a surge in disputes over whether force majeure clauses, which frees a contract’s parties from their obligations in the event of an “act of God,” apply to the outbreak.

“Someone can say they can’t perform under a contract because they can’t get supplies from China or their people wouldn’t come to work,” Hurst said. “The other side might say you’re being too cautious or you’re just using that as an excuse.”

Insurers are likely to find themselves in court.

Balice said that businesses are poring over their policies to see if they are insured against the coronavirus fallout.

“And a lot will find out that they are not,” he said.

Business disruption insurance claims typically deal with physical damage, like a factory that has burned down, not closures ordered to control a virus, Balice said.

“This could be an area of insurance litigation for many years to come,” he said.

“Companies which already faced business challenges in the Chinese market could get hit hard if they have limited resources,” said Philipp Senff, head of compliance at law firm CMS in China.

WORKER PROTECTIONS

Some companies have already limited business travel and encouraged employees to work from home. Several industry conferences have been scrapped to prevent large gatherings from spreading the virus.

Now some fear they might be held liable for workers’ participation in meetings or corporate events where employees are exposed. At the same time, efforts to protect staff could run afoul of privacy rules.

“What can they and can’t they ask their workforce about their potential exposure to the virus, travel activities and medical history?” said David Newman, a partner at Morrison & Foerster in Washington who is leading the firm’s task force on advising clients about the outbreak.

Domenique Camacho Moran, a partner with Farrell Fritz who represents employers, said that she has been contacted by clients with these very concerns, including one who said an employee caused a brief panic after disclosing a diagnosis of coronavirus — but not the one that is raising the global alarm.

“This is a fluid situation,” Camacho Moran said. “The right answer on Monday may be different by the time we get to Friday.”

Companies “may need to be more flexible in allowing employees to take sick leave and providing sick pay to motivate them to stay home,” said Sloane Ackerman, a labor and employment lawyer with O’Melveny & Myers in New York.

Businesses that have daily contact with the public or that deal with captive populations are also at risk of getting sued, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who teaches class-action lawsuits.

He cited nursing homes, like the one in Washington state whose residents account for many of the US’ casualties so far.

“The claim could be they didn’t move quickly enough to protect residents once it was clear the virus was a danger, or that they didn’t have proper contingency plans in place,” Tobias said.

Airlines have spent years in EU courts battling and shaping rules on when they should compensate passengers.

The EU Court of Justice might again have to weigh in on whether the companies could claim extraordinary circumstances beyond their control to avoid new payouts, European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean told at a news conference on Monday.

In Germany, the season for annual general meetings is about to start. These meetings — which must be held within the first eight months of the year — can be big, filling Olympic stadium halls. While it is still early to gauge what will happen, lawyers are already exploring what can be done with virtual participation and voting.

QUARANTINE POWER

Government efforts to fight the virus through mandatory quarantines and other such steps are another potential source of litigation, if members of the public push back.

Henry Greenberg, president of the New York State Bar Association and a former general counsel of the New York State Department of Health, said that officials have “tremendous authority” to trace and isolate virus carriers, based on a “vast body of law” over communicable diseases.

The trick for government officials is to weigh public health against individual rights and avoid excesses, he said, citing “some overreaction and stigmatizations” that occurred when health workers who treated Ebola patients in Africa returned to the US in 2014.

On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed the state’s second coronavirus case: a 50-year-old lawyer who works in Manhattan and lives in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City.

The lawyer, who has an underlying respiratory condition, has been hospitalized, Cuomo told a news conference.

The first case was a 39-year-old healthcare worker who traveled to Iran, which has had a serious outbreak, and who is isolated at home with what Cuomo called mild symptoms. Unlike her case, the lawyer’s presents no clear source of transmission, suggesting the possibility of a new community of person-to-person infection.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the lawyer’s wife and two children have tested positive for the virus and are isolated at home.

Claims involving the government have already arrived. In addition to Costa Mesa’s suit over the proposed transfer of the cruise passengers, San Antonio, Texas, has sued US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and other officials over the government’s quarantine of a cruise passenger in the area after she was cleared by two tests for the virus. A third test came back positive — after her release.

A dozen passengers from the ship, the Diamond Princess, have contacted Miami-based Lipcon, Margulies, Alsina & Winkleman to explore litigation against Princess Cruises parent company Carnival Corp, and several have retained the firm, partner Michael Winkleman said.

“It’s a very difficult situation for the company, but they should have been familiar from handling previous norovirus cases on board,” he said, adding that the question is “whether they pursued all reasonable and proper care.”

The cruise line said that it did.

Governments must also protect captive populations from infection.

Dan Cogdell, a veteran Texas criminal defense attorney, said that he has discussed with a state judge the viral threat posed by prisoners in a Houston lockup.

“The real danger is that the jails have terrible resources and the coronavirus will likely spread like wildfire in the jail,” he said. “And they’ll bring it straight to the courthouse.”

Prisoners in the Harris County system, which houses the fourth-largest US inmate population, are being screened, and the facility has quarantine experience from managing previous infectious disease outbreaks, system spokesman Jason Spencer said.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Other lawsuits popping up across the US include claims indirectly related to the coronavirus.

A medical staffing agency claims US Citizenship and Immigration Services dragged its feet in reviewing applications for H-1B visas for skilled foreigners and that the delays threaten the supply of medical professionals needed to deal with the outbreak.

A suit seeking class-action status alleges that the maker of the hand sanitizer Purell exaggerates its product’s powers to prevent illness.

There is also the Manhattan lawyer, who asked a court to excuse a delay in suing Consolidated Edison Co for a trip-and-fall over a manhole cover.

It was “due to the extraordinary and unforeseen circumstance” of his being stuck in China for six weeks, he said.

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content_text:
John Millman yesterday lifted Australia to a gritty 3-1 victory over Brazil with a tenacious win over Thiago Monteiro to qualify his country for the Davis Cup finals later this year.

Millman proved to be his team’s hero with a second fighting win in the singles, wearing down Monteiro 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7-3) in three hours, five minutes at Adelaide’s Memorial Drive.

The victory followed up his win over Thiago Seyboth Wild in three sets in Friday’s singles.

Australia next join 11 other qualifiers and last year’s semi-finalists — Canada, Britain, Russia and Spain — along with wildcards France and Serbia for the Davis Cup finals in Spain in November.

“What a performance — that’s what Davis Cup tennis is all about,” Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt said.

Monteiro proved a tough obstacle with his big serves and powerful groundstrokes, taking the opening set in a tiebreaker, but edged out in two more tiebreaks by Millman in a grueling encounter.

Marcelo Demoliner and Felipe Meligeni Alves earlier kept Brazil alive in the tie with a gripping three-set win in the doubles.

Demoliner and Alves fought back to beat John Peers and James Duckworth 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) in almost three hours to pull Brazil back to trail 2-1.

The jubilant pair finally got Brazil home on their fifth match point, after Australia saved four match points, in a fluctuating final set tiebreaker.

Demoliner and Alves had to win the doubles after Jordan Thompson and Millman won Friday’s opening singles to give Australia a commanding 2-0 lead.

ECUADOR VS JAPAN

Underdogs Ecuador yesterday maintained an early lead to sweep their Davis Cup qualifier against Japan to win a ticket for the finals, while playing behind closed doors due the COVID-19 outbreak.

Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador outperformed Ben McLachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in a deciding doubles match in Miki, Japan.

Ecuador, ranked 27, who on Friday took a 2-0 lead against world No. 17 Japan, added another victory to win their qualifier 3-0 and advance to the Madrid finals in November.

The Ecuador pair clinched a thrilling first set, taking advantage of a crucial double fault by Uchiyama in a tie breaker.

The Japanese team struggled to fend off Ecuador’s solid serves and crisp volleying.

The Davis Cup matches were held without spectators amid concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak.

It was difficult to concentrate on a game played without fans, Uchiyama said, but added that he did not mean to use it as an excuse.

The remaining two singles were canceled on account of Ecuador’s three wins.

Japan were without two star players: injury-hit Kei Nishikori and world No. 48 Yoshihito Nishioka, who decided not to play to avoid the possibility of being quarantined on his return to the US.

The limited number of people allowed in the arena were required to have their temperature checked.

Sounds of smashing the ball echoed in the empty arena, as ball kids wore gloves and used baskets for players to toss their towels in, so they would not have to touch them.

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title: Australia edge Brazil in Davis Cup


content_text:
Hellebuyck, Jets shut out Golden Knights 4-0 at home

Goalie Connor Hellebuyck on Friday worked his league-leading sixth shut-out, Kyle Connor netted his team-high 36th tally in the Winnipeg Jet’s three-goal first period and they earned a 4-0 home win over the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

Hellebuyck stopped all 29 shots in his fourth straight start (3-1-0), authoring his 20th career shut-out and moving to 17-11-3 at home.

Nikolaj Ehlers scored his 24th goal in the game’s first minute, while Patrik Laine notched his 27th and added an assist, as the Jets built a 3-0 lead in the opening period of the teams’ second meeting.

Mathieu Perreault scored a goal in his return from a three-game absence because of injury, with Ehlers chipping in an assist for a two-point night for the Jets, who won for the third time in four games and are 10-5-2 since Feb. 1.

The Jets also claimed their fifth straight home win, improving to 8-2-1 in their past 11 on home ice. They are 4-2-1 in all of their matchups against the Golden Knights.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves for the Golden Knights, who are is still 9-2-0 in their past 11 games.

The Golden Knights were shut out to open a five-game road trip — their fourth time being blanked this season — and nine of their final 13 games are to be played away from Las Vegas.

Ehlers started the scoring just 32 seconds into the contest by swooping around Fleury’s net, and curling the puck around the post and into the vacated crease.

Golden Knights winger Ryan Reaves — a Winnipeg native — inadvertently tipped in the puck off the retreating Fleury for a 1-0 lead.

On the game’s first power play, Laine grabbed a rebound of Neal Pionk’s point shot, secured the puck in the right circle and wristed in the second goal at 4:41.

The tally was Laine’s fifth career goal against the Golden Knights — all on power plays — and Pionk’s assist, his 22nd on the man advantage, tied a franchise record for most power-play helpers in a season by a defenseman.

Connor finished off a two-on-one with Jack Roslovic at 18:10 for a 3-0 lead, extending the 23-year-old Connor’s career-high in markers and moving his goal streak to a career-best five games.

Connor, a top-line right wing, has produced eight points (six goals, two assists) in the streak.

Back after a 16-game injury absence, Perreault finished a pass from Josh Morrissey on the Jets’ second power play with six minutes left in the second period — giving the Jets a comfortable four-goal edge as they cruised to the win.

Also on Friday, it was:

‧ Devils 4, Blues 2

‧ Canucks 6, Avalanche 3

‧ Flames 3, Coyotes 2

‧ Ducks 2, Maple Leafs 1

‧ Red Wings 2, Blackhawks 1

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content_text:
World record-holder Caeleb Dressel on Friday finished strong to win the 100m butterfly at the Pro Swim Series in Des Moines, Iowa, in a world-leading 50.92 seconds.

Dressel, whose record eight medals at last year’s World Championships included six golds, notched his first win of the meet, a stepping stone toward the US Olympic trials and the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Although he had missed the “A” final in the 100m freestyle on Thursday, Dressel, competing without significantly breaking his training for the trials, said that he was “in a good spot” physically.

Caeleb Dressel competes in the Pro Swim Series men’s 100m butterfly at the MidAmerican Energy Aquatic Center in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday.
 Photo: AFP

“We can always figure some mental stuff out to get a little edge,” added the American, who ran down compatriot Michael Andrew on the closing lap to claim the victory.

Katie Ledecky continued her winning week, clocking 1:54.59 to dominate the women’s 200m freestyle.

“It’s exceeded my expectations,” Ledecky said of her performance in Des Moines, where she has also won the 1,500m and 400m freestyle events. “I figured I’d have a good meet given how great training is going, but you really never know coming into a meet like this if you’re going to be completely dead from training or if it’s going to start showing.”

Ledecky, who stretched her range to nab 200m freestyle gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, along with 400m and 800m freestyle wins, said the event is just as important to her as the longer races.

“It’s just as high up as any of the other events, if not more given that we’ve got a relay fight on our hands this year,” she said.

World record-holder Regan Smith held off Olympian Kathleen Baker in the 200m backstroke, winning in 2:06.16.

Rio Olympic gold medalist Ryan Murphy won the men’s 200m backstroke in 1:55.22, the fastest time in the world this year.

Germany’s Jacob Heidtmann won the men’s 400m individual medley in 4:12.40, while US veteran Ryan Lochte, gold medalist in the event at the 2012 London Olympic Games, finished fourth in 4:18.95.

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title: Dressel takes gold in 100m butterfly at Pro Swim Series


title: Alpine skiing World Cup finals canceled over virus

content_text:
UNANIMOUS DECISION:
 Both the men’s and women’s overall titles are tight affairs with France’s Alexis Pinturault and Mikaela Shiffrin of the US both under great pressure

The alpine skiing World Cup finals, scheduled for Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, from March 16 to 22, have been canceled due to the spread of COVID-19, the Italian Winter Sports Federation announced on Friday.

The number of those killed by COVID-19 in Italy has jumped and government emergency decrees have led to a swathe of sports events being canceled or postponed.

The cancelation means that there are just four men’s races left of a scheduled 43 and three for the women from a scheduled 37 this season.

Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde participates in a training session for the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup men’s downhill at the Kvitfjell ski resort in Favang, Norway, on Friday.
 Photo: Reuters

“It is with great regret that we cancel the event, but the decision was unanimous,” the Italian ski federation said.

The cancelation adds to the sporting drama in the alpine World Cup. Both the men’s and women’s overall titles are tight affairs with France’s Alexis Pinturault and Mikaela Shiffrin of the US both under great pressure at the end of the season.

While 24-year-old Shiffrin has a run-in featuring her favored slalom, Pinturault has a tough weekend ahead with his weaker speed events, the downhill and super-G, on the menu at the Kvitfjell ski resort in Favang, Norway.

Breathing down the Frenchman’s neck are two Norwegians, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who is just 26 points adrift, and Henrik Kristoffersen at 107 points, with 100 points per-win available.

This made the men’s downhill yesterday and the super-G today the key battleground to decide who takes over the mantle as men’s World Cup winner.

The 30-year-old Marcel Hirscher of Austria retired at the end of last season after winning eight straight overall titles.

Aamodt Kilde has a double advantage this weekend as he is to be racing on home snow and is also a speed specialist.

However, Pinturault said that he would try his luck anyway.

“Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t set foot on that slope [for the super-G], but given the context it would be stupid not too,” the 28-year-old said.

A week later, Pinturault might be favored when his preferred giant slalom and slalom are raced, especially as Aamodt Kilde is not even slated to compete in the season-ending slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

Shiffrin could be back next weekend at Are in Sweden after missing four weekends of action following the death of her father.

Three-time World Cup overall winner Shiffrin trails Italian all-rounder Federica Brignone by 153 points.

The cancelation means that Switzerland’s Beat Feuz is confirmed as the men’s downhill discipline winner this season, with his compatriot Corinne Suter adding the women’s super-G title to her downhill crown.

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title: HK women discuss their evolution on protest front lines

content_text:
University student “A” said that she used to be a “typical girl” who liked to shop, drink bubble tea and watch South Korean soap operas, but all that changed as Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests gained momentum and she stepped up to take a place on the front lines.

She is now charged with rioting, an offense that carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence, and is out on bail awaiting trial.

The protests began in June last year and, at first, the front lines consisted predominantly men. That started to gradually change and women began building roadblocks and throwing back tear gas canisters, as well as facing rubber bullets and bean-bag rounds.

The 22-year-old, who did not want to be identified for fear that it could affect her trial, said that her shift to the front line came in stages.

“I was at the back, I would just go home after I marched. I started to think I could go further and further forward, till I was at the very front,” A said.

At the front lines, it can be hard to tell the difference between men and women among the black-clad protesters, but she said that she felt a sense of female empowerment and gender equality when she came across other women — even if men sometimes told women to retreat.

In the past nine months, 7,165 people have been arrested, Hong Kong Security Bureau data showed.

The protests have quietened down due to an outbreak of COVID-19, but there are signs that the movement could again mobilize with at least three protests scheduled for today.

Although a controversial extradition bill, which sparked the protests, has been withdrawn, protesters have been marching for an investigation into alleged police brutality and the downgrading of riot charges for those who have been arrested.

A said that she believes more women could play a greater role in advancing the campaign for more democratic measures to be put in place across the territory.

“Women should also come out for this. Men shouldn’t be responsible for everything, women should also take some responsibility,” she said.

“We’re no longer weak, or the ones with ‘princess syndrome.’ So I think now, we are evolving like Pokemon, we’re on another level. We’re different,” she added.

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title: Swim champion and rape survivor fights abuse in sport

content_text:
Three years after the trauma of being raped by a stranger while jogging outside a university campus, US swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar lit up the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games by winning three gold medals and a silver.

Today, the 57-year-old lawyer, mother and women’s rights advocate devotes her life to the fight for gender equality and the battle against sexual abuse in sports.

Hogshead-Makar remains “unrealistically optimistic” about her work and life in general, she said in an interview to mark today’s International Women’s Day.

“I guess you have to be in order to try to win in the Olympics and try to address sexual abuse in sports,” Hogshead-Makar said. “They’re pretty audacious goals.”

The day before the interview, Hogshead-Makar had been working until the early hours drafting a letter to the US Congress about bipartisan legislation that calls for tougher protections for amateur athletes against abuse by coaches and employees.

Hogshead-Makar’s work ethic mirrors the dedication that formed the cornerstone of her swimming career — from the age of 11, she spent four hours a day churning the waters of her training pool.

“My winning formula was to compete,” Hogshead-Makar said. “That’s how I was successful in life.”

After retiring from swimming, the Iowa native channeled her energy into helping others. After becoming a lawyer, she focused on campaigning for gender equality and combating sexual abuse in sports.

For decades, Hogshead-Makar did not talk publicly about the traumatic events that occurred in the autumn of 1981 when she was 19. While out jogging outside the campus of Duke University in North Carolina, she was raped by a stranger.

“I felt profoundly broken. I felt forsaken by God. I was scared all the time,” said Hogshead-Makar, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for months after the attack. “I thought that I could overcome it by willing it away.”

Hogshead-Makar said she benefited from two things that many sexual assault victims do not receive.

“First, everybody around me believed that it happened,” she said. “Second, people believed in the depth of my emotional harm. Nobody told me: ‘Just get over it.’”

With help and support from loved ones, coaches, Duke faculty and administrators, she rebuilt her life, but kept the attack private.

“I didn’t talk about it for 20 years, because I would have started to cry,” Hogshead-Makar said. “I wasn’t quite healed enough.”

Eventually, a friend and mentor, the human rights advocate Richard Lapchick, suggested that talking publicly about her experience as a rape survivor could be a way to help others.

“He said: ‘You really need to start talking about your own experience,’” Hogshead-Makar said. “And he was right. It made me a better advocate. My hope is that other, older women with great lives will disclose this part of their story.”

There have been cases of questionable behavior.

One of Hogshead-Makar’s former coaches, Mitch Ivey, was suspended from the sport for life in 2013 after evidence emerged of improper sexual relationships with multiple swimmers that he had coached.

“The boundaries are just not well spelled out the way they are for counselors, religious leaders, lawyers or teachers,” said Hogshead-Makar, who has founded the advocacy group Champion Women.

In 2012, the US Olympic Committee ordered all its member federations to ban intimate relationships between coaches and athletes, regardless of age and consent.

Hogshead-Makar said the message still needs to be reinforced.

She estimates that only 0.5 percent of swimmers and 1.4 percent of their parents have received adequate training to safeguard against the problem.

To raise awareness on the issue, Hogshead-Makar is working on a social media campaign with Child USA, a non-profit that works to end child abuse and neglect in the US.

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title: US star Rapinoe adjusts to her life in the spotlight

content_text:
Megan Rapinoe’s life has changed before her very eyes. Eight months after helping the US win a fourth women’s World Cup crown, Rapinoe is in high demand, on and off the pitch.

The 34-year-old swept the individual prizes at the World Cup, scooping the Golden Boot for Top Scorer and the Golden Ball for Best Player.

She wrapped up last year by winning the women’s Ballon D’Or and the FIFA Best Women’s Player awards, an unprecedented clean sweep of honors in a single year.

Megan Rapinoe of the US shoots against England in the SheBelieves Cup at the Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday.
 Photo: AFP

The openly gay striker has also enhanced her reputation as an unflinching advocate for social justice off the field, whether it is demanding equal pay and conditions for the US women’s team or sparring with US President Donald Trump.

She made headlines again last year when she was honored as one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year.

Rapinoe used her acceptance speech to draw attention to the cause of Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who ignited controversy in 2016 after kneeling during the US national anthem in a protest against racial injustice.

Rapinoe said that her new life as a global sports icon has taken some getting used to.

“It’s changed dramatically,” said Rapinoe of her life since the World Cup. “It’s not in a completely different way — there are just 10 times more of everything. It’s been something to get used to, but I do feel I’m getting a better handle on it now. It was all a little overwhelming in the fall if I’m honest.”

“I don’t have too many photographers following me around, but the demands on my time are much greater and that is something that I initially struggled with,” Rapinoe said. “The opportunity for financial success right now is far greater than it was, but that means more days on shoots. It means more days have been given to other people, and it’s less days focusing and committing to the game and my craft.”

“You’ve got to roll with it,” she said. “You can’t get too stressed out about it. I have an amazing team, helping me, not just the US soccer team, but also an agency that looks after the other areas of my business. That helps.”

The midfielder has a plethora of options — and wealth — available to her in retirement, a scenario which, according to Rapinoe herself, would be analyzed at the end of the Tokyo Olympic Games, where a second gold medal is the aim.

“First and foremost, I want to remain a footballer, most definitely,” she told reporters in Florida as she prepares for this week’s SheBelieves Cup. “I’m not looking to retire any time soon. I’m fully focused on the Olympics and making sure I’m prepared for that. After that, we will assess things and see where we go from there.”

For now, Rapinoe is firmly focused on this week’s challenges against World Cup semi-finalists England, 2015 World Cup finalists Japan and emerging force Spain.

Speaking of the US’ intense rivalry with England, Rapinoe said that the US women have gotten used to being the team that everyone wants to beat.

“I think we approach every game like that,” Rapinoe said. “We’re the ones that have the No. 1 on our back, and the big target, but we understand that every team is gunning for us as one of their biggest games of the year.”

Rapinoe and her teammates are approaching the SheBelieves Cup with the same sort of steely determination that marked their World Cup victory last year.

“Once you’re preparing and getting into your season, we don’t really want to give any team anything, ever,” Rapinoe said. “It’s important for us to not only to give a good performance, but to get the result that we want as well.”

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content_text:
Oil in London plunged the most since 2008 on signs of a breakdown in the global producer alliance that helped engineer the crude’s recovery from the worst crash in a generation.

Futures plummeted more than 9 percent in London as talks between members of the OPEC+ group collapsed in Vienna.

Producers in the alliance are free to pump at will starting next month, after Russia refused to bend to Saudi Arabia’s wish for output cuts aimed at offsetting the COVID-19 outbreak’s effects on demand.

Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, center, arrives at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna on Friday.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

The end of the talks without a deal raises the prospect of another war for market share among producers, which had exacerbated the crude’s collapse in 2014 amid a global glut.

The OPEC+ alliance was formed in 2016 after the price crash imperiled economies dependent on oil revenue and led to a wave of bankruptcies among smaller exploration companies across the globe.

Oil’s plunge of Friday was mirrored in shares of producers, with Exxon Mobil Corp sliding 5 percent and Chevron Corp dropping 3.3 percent.

Global markets are already in a precarious condition, with investors fleeing risk assets on mounting fears that the outbreak will derail economic growth.

“There’s going to be pain for everyone in oil markets,” RJ O’Brien & Associates senior market strategist Josh Graves said. “The collapse of this deal means we’re going to see oil test US$40 a barrel.”

Russia resisted pressure from allies in OPEC to join a 1.5 million-barrel supply reduction, saying that it favors maintaining supply reductions at current levels until June.

Moscow is said to be still willing to have a meeting with OPEC and allies in June.

The collapse in discussions is the latest escalation of tensions between the Saudi-Russia alliance. Unlike other oil-exporting nations, Russia has a higher tolerance for lower prices given its plentiful international reserves, low debt levels and resilient fiscal budget.

OPEC+, which controls more than half of the world’s oil production, has underpinned prices and reshaped the geopolitics of the Middle East, but is now under significant strain.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for April delivery fell US$4.62 to US$41.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 7.8 percent for the week.

Brent for May settlement on Friday dropped US$4.72 to US$45.27 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange, down 8.9 percent for the week.

The structure of the futures market revealed concerning signs of oversupply as Brent’s so-called red spread — the difference between December contracts in consecutive years — sank deeper into bearish contango, reaching the lowest level since 2016.

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title: Oil plunges most since 2008 on unraveling alliance


title: Blues get rare NZ win; Rebels cruise

content_text:
A NEW CHAPTER?
 The Blues, long the underachievers of New Zealand rugby, ended a string of 25 straight losses in away games in New Zealand with yesterday’s victory

The Auckland Blues yesterday snapped a woeful losing record downing a 12-man Wellington Hurricanes, while the Melbourne Rebels coasted past the Golden Lions in Super Rugby.

The Blues ended a run of 25 straight losses in away games in New Zealand with a 24-15 win over the Hurricanes in Wellington, while in Melbourne, the Rebels broke a run of five losses against the Lions with a bonus-point 37-17 win over the South Africans.

The Blues — for so long the underachievers of New Zealand rugby — had their cause helped by the Hurricanes’ poor discipline.

The Rebels’ Dane Haylett-Petty, right, is tackled by the Lions’ Courtnall Skosan in their Super Rugby match in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

Prop Tyrel Lomax was handed a red card early in the second half for a shoulder to the head of Blues fullback Stephen Perofeta, while Vaea Fifita with 13 minutes to go received a yellow card. Jordie Barrett was sin-binned soon after.

The Hurricanes’ record slipped to three wins from five games, while the Blues now have four wins from six games.

The Blues have begun to believe in themselves after returning victorious from South Africa, where they toppled the Northern Bulls and the previously unbeaten Western Stormers.

However, it was difficult to imagine them winning when the Hurricanes produced an explosive start.

Ngani Laumape crashed through the Blues first line of defense and Fifita pulled in the remaining defenders, leaving Ben Lam to scamper 30m to the line.

It was the sort of start that would have seen the Blues of old lose heart. Instead, they produced a huge defensive effort as the Hurricanes controlled most of the first half, and then took control as the Hurricanes lost players in the second half.

Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu said that there is a new determination within the side.

“There’s certainly a difference in mood... It’s a good feeling,” he said. “What I’m most happy with is we managed to keep our composure, especially in tough times. Certainly in past years, we probably wouldn’t have.”

The Rebels led 15-10 at halftime after roaring ahead to 15-0 in the opening 30 minutes from tries by Andrew Kellaway and Richard Hardwick.

However, yellow cards received by to Marika Koroibete and Tom English in the final 10 minutes of the first half allowed the Lions back into the contest.

Left-winger Jamba Ulengo scored a try for the Lions, six minutes before the break, that was converted by Elton Jantjies, who also landed a penalty goal right on halftime.

The Rebels took charge in the second half. Kellaway completed his third double of the season, a total of seven for the campaign, while other tries came from Isi Naisarani and Dane Haylett-Petty.

The Lions, who leave Australia for New Zealand having lost both of their two tour games, had only a converted try by Sithembiso Sithole to show for their efforts in the second halfs.

“It was a very good win — really proud of the boys. The main thing was probably the work ethic. We chased everything and showed a lot of heart,” Rebels skipper Dane Haylett-Petty said. “Attack was good. Defense was good. We’re building really nicely.”

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content_text:
US WITHDRAWAL:
 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that despite the attack, which killed 32 people, violence was still less than it had been in five or six years

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the deadliest assault in Afghanistan since the US signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban. Dozens of people were killed on Friday when gunmen opened fire at a political rally in Kabul.

The attack highlights a glaring lack of security in the Afghan capital just 14 months ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of all foreign forces.

It also calls into question a key element of the US-Taliban deal signed Saturday last week — whether the Taliban can stop militants such as IS from running amok in Afghanistan after US forces pull out.

Relatives yesterday attend the funeral of the victims of Friday’s attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

In a statement, IS said that two brothers had targeted a “gathering of apostates” with machine guns and grenades.

The gunmen inflicted devastating carnage at the crowded event in west Kabul, killing 32 people and wounding 58 others, Afghan Ministry of Public Health spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said.

Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Nasrat Rahimi put the toll at 29 dead, with an additional 61 wounded.

Special forces units eventually killed the two gunmen, he said.

The assault occurred at a commemoration ceremony for Abdul Ali Mazari — a politician from the Hazara ethnic group, most of whom are Shiite Muslims.

The Sunni-extremist IS had claimed an attack on the same ceremony last year, when a barrage of mortar fire killed at least 11 people.

Gunfire had erupted from a construction site near the event, Rahimi said.

Several top political officials were at the ceremony, including Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

The Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs later confirmed that all the high-ranking officials had been “safely evacuated.”

“We left the ceremony following the gunfire, and a number of people were wounded, but I do not have any reports of martyred people for now,” Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqiq told Tolo News.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the massacre as a “crime against humanity.”

The attack came less than a week after the US and Taliban signed a deal that would result in the complete withdrawal of foreign troops in 14 months.

However, the withdrawal depends heavily on the Taliban being able to control militant forces such as al-Qaeda and IS.

If such groups remain, so too does the US military.

A US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman said that the response to the attack was “Afghan led,” but US personnel gave medical aid to the victims.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that despite the attack, violence in Afghanistan was “significantly down.”

“The violence levels, they’re still lower than they have been in the last five or six years,” Pompeo told CNBC television. “We see the path forward toward a peace and reconciliation opportunity.”

He later condemned the “despicable” attack, saying in a statement that the peace process “presents a critical opportunity for Afghans to come together to build a united front against the menace of [IS].”

Yet since the deal was signed in Doha fighting has continued across Afghanistan, raising questions over whether the agreement would reduce violence and lead to talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Afghan government officials and the Taliban are supposed to meet in Oslo next week, but talks are likely to be delayed over disagreement about a prisoner release.

The US-Taliban deal calls on the Afghan government to release as many as 5,000 Taliban prisoners before March 10, when talks are supposed to start.

However, Ghani has rejected that commitment.

The Taliban’s political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said that the insurgents were ready for talks — but only if the prisoners were released.

“If the negotiations are delayed beyond the stated date, the responsibility will rest with the others,” Shaheen tweeted.

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title: IS claims deadly attack on ceremony in Kabul


content_text:
A trade war between the US and China might be on hold, but both sides’ slide toward a new Cold War is only accelerating.

The decision by the administration of US President Donald Trump to effectively expel much of China’s state-run media staff is the clearest sign yet of a fundamental shift in how Washington manages its relationship with Beijing.

Starting on Friday next week, four Chinese media companies would be allowed to employ a combined 100 Chinese citizens, a 40 percent cut from current levels, US Department of State officials told reporters on Monday.

The move casts aside long-held arguments that the US could steer the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in a more liberal direction by setting an example on human rights issues, such as freedom of the press. Instead, the Trump administration has expanded its demands for “reciprocity” to cover a host of other facets of the relationship after reaching a preliminary trade deal with China in January.

“For a long time, it was a generally shared judgement that displaying our open society for Chinese reporters and news organizations outweighed the lack of reciprocity for US,” said James Green, a former US trade official in Beijing who is now a senior research fellow with Georgetown University’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues. “With this decision, that calculation has changed.”

That is not just because Trump is in the White House. Support for a more confrontational position toward China has been building over the past decade as Beijing increasingly challenged US leadership on everything from the security of the South China Sea and global rulemaking to human rights. The more assertive policies of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the open hostility of Trump’s trade war have only lit a fire under that process.

The media have always been a key point of friction, as the two societies have such divergent views on the press. Whereas US media companies are largely private and protected by the First Amendment, China’s news organizations are either state-run or closely censored. All are overseen by the CCP Publicity Department, or the “Central Propaganda Department” in Chinese.

The exceptions in China are foreign correspondents, whose reports provide rare windows into the world’s second-largest economy, especially during events that affect the world, like the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. Media organizations have complained of pressure from authorities, even as Chinese state media companies expanded their own footprints in the US and elsewhere overseas.

CCP-backed Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin (胡錫進) late on Tuesday said that China “is mulling countermeasures and is determined not to back off.”

About 82 percent of Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China members experienced interference, harassment or violence while reporting last year, the group said in an annual report.

About one-fifth of respondents said that they had difficulty securing visas due to issues related to their reporting.

China on Tuesday rejected that assertion, with Chines Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) saying that the country has never limited the number of US media agencies.

Zhao condemned Washington’s decision, which he said “shows how hypocritical the US is while boasting of freedom of the press.”

Tensions over the press have escalated over the outbreak, which has prompted a rare outpouring of criticism against the government on social media.

On Feb. 3, Xi told a meeting of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee that officials must do more to ensure the “the effectiveness of publicity work” during the crisis, which he described as a “major test of China’s system and capacity for governance.”

On Feb. 20, the ministry took the unusual action of revoking the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters, prompting their expulsion. While the immediate reason was an opinion piece published by another section of the US newspaper that called China the “sick man of Asia,” the timing underscored the growing risk of a tit-for-tat battle over journalist visas.

A day earlier, the Trump administration had designated five Chinese media companies, including the official Xinhua news agency and state broadcaster China Global Television Network, as “foreign missions,” curbing their ability to acquire property and take other actions.

The expulsion of the Wall Street Journal reporters prompted an intense debate in the White House over how to respond, Bloomberg News reported, citing officials familiar with discussions.

Some, including US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, argued for a more moderate approach, especially as the two sides seek to stem the coronavirus outbreak. Ultimately, the administration decided to cut foreign staff allowances for five Chinese companies, including Xinhua and China Global Television Network.

“This is in line with Trump administration’s China policy,” said Zhou Qi (周琪), director of the Institute of American Studies at the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “It’s not surprising that the US government rolled out this latest restriction on the Chinese media, especially in the bigger context of the US designating China as its strategic rival and is growing wary of the Chinese presence on the ideological front.”

Chinese outlets such as Xinhua have long blurred the lines between journalism and diplomacy, with generations of Chinese leaders relying on state media reporters to track developments overseas.

The Xinhua office served as China’s de facto embassy in British Hong Kong and the agency’s journalists have in the past filed secret reports to party leaders from secure rooms in embassies, one former Chinese diplomat said.

While US officials were aware of the ambiguous missions of such outlets, the view was that openness would encourage more transparency from China. Now, openness has given way to confrontation.

“It is clear that selective decoupling policies and measures from both countries will intensify over the medium to long term,” said Shi Yinhong (時殷弘), an adviser to the Chinese State Council and a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China in Beijing. “The carrot is getting smaller and the stick, however, is growing bigger.”

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title: Trump’s Chinese media move points to wider US strategy shift