content_text:
‘SAYING IT FOR YEARS’:
 Gold investors who have long prophesized a financial apocalypse appear proven right as markets crash and social interactions become limited

For years, gold bugs were relegated to the fringes of financial markets. Often viewed by mainstream investors as tinfoil-hat conspiracists with basements full of beans and bottled water, their warnings sounded apocalyptic: a coming collapse in financial assets, widespread devaluation of paper money and global disasters that erode civil liberties.

Welcome to 2020.

As the COVID-19 pandemic brings economies around the world to a standstill, gold is rivaling US Treasuries and the US dollar as the best-performing major asset this year. The metal proved its haven status with a 6 percent rally as almost US$16 trillion was wiped off global stock markets and oil plunged.

There has also been a scramble for physical metal as investors in exchange-traded funds build the biggest stockpile in history and dealers say they are struggling to find gold to sell.

“We’ve been trying to warn people that something like this would happen,” said Jim Rickards, the author of several books that predicted a coming financial reset.

Rickards, who spoke from a New England mountain compound, has long recommended holding gold as a precaution for wealth preservation.

“I’ve been saying it for years,” he said. “I’m not happy about being right.”

There are echoes of many of the typical gold bug predictions in today’s crisis: Besides the obvious economic and financial market upheaval, social interaction has become taboo and in some places soldiers are telling people not to leave their homes.

Even the so-called paper market for gold is showing cracks and a squeeze last month on New York’s Comex, the largest gold futures exchange, added fuel to another of the prophecies: that when the crisis came, there would not be enough gold to go around.

“We have written more than 3,000 pages of research about gold and mining stocks in the last 14 years and it is pleasing to see that many of our theories have come true,” said Ronald-Peter Stoeferle, managing partner at Incrementum AG, a Liechtenstein-based investment and asset-management company.

Of course, some of the predictions were always a bit vague. The Armageddon survivalists see gold more as the ultimate haven against generalized risk. As a hard asset, it acts as an inflation hedge. It has deep, liquid markets in which to trade, has kept its value over centuries, and, most importantly, physical metal stored in a vault has no counterparty that can default, not even a government or central bank.

“Central banks have officially lost control of their most powerful policy tools,” said Roy Sebag, chief executive officer and founder of Goldmoney Inc, a precious-metal investment firm with US$2 billion in assets. “It is against this macroeconomic sea change that gold will thrive as the money par excellence.”

Gold rose for a sixth straight quarter in the three months through last month and spot prices traded at about US$1,612 an ounce on Friday, down 0.8 percent for the week.

While that is still well shy of the record US$1,921.17 reached in 2011, predictions are mounting that the metal will scale new highs in the coming years.

Even those in the mainstream are climbing on board.

Analysts at Citigroup Inc see gold climbing to a record above US$2,000 an ounce next year.

Merk Finck and Co chief strategist Robert Greil has predicted it will rise to US$1,750 and Cesar Perez Ruiz, who manages SF236 billion (US$243 billion) at Pictet Wealth Management, has been buying metal on dips near US$1,500.

“Gold might be one of the few things that diversify your portfolio,” Ruiz said. “It’s moved quite fast very recently, so I’m waiting for a pause.”

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Gold bugs see their predictions of doom coming true


people:
陳水扁
陳玉珍
Kolas Yotaka

title: EDITORIAL: Consensus needed on official name

content_text:
The issue of the nation’s name this week became a subject of contention between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators.

KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) on Wednesday said that “the Republic of China [ROC] is a country, Taiwan is not.” She added that “the Republic of China, Taiwan” has the broadest consensus among members of the public as the title of the nation.

Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said: “Taiwan is a sovereign nation whose constitutional title is the ROC. This is the consensus of the majority of the public and how most people identify the nation.”

Regardless of whether the DPP wants to abolish the name “Republic of China” — a sentiment shared by most Taiwanese, according to several polls — the parties need to reach a consensus on a name, as a constitutional amendment to change the nation’s official title is unlikely to be passed in the short term.

Clarity and consensus are necessary for Taiwan to avoid problems, some of which have been highlighted over the past two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy on Jan. 30 included China Airlines and EVA Air in its ban on flights to and from China, with Vietnam following suit two days later. This was partly due to the countries’ adherence to Beijing’s “one China” principle, but reportedly there was also confusion due to Taiwan’s official title, as well as the name of its flag carrier.

The issue was serious enough to garner the attention of a Taiwanese advocacy group in the US, which launched a petition calling on China Airlines to change its name to “Taiwan Airlines.” While the name Taiwan Airlines would likely face opposition from the KMT — based on its opposition to former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) proposal to rename Chunghwa Post — a cross-party consensus might conceive a name that clearly distinguishes the airline as one operated in Taiwan, and not in China. The same name could then be used for Chunghwa Post, Chunghwa Telecom and any other service or institution that confusingly refers to “China” in its name.

The necessity to distinguish between Taiwanese and Chinese has also been the subject of a discussion over whether to change the wording on the cover of the nation’s passports, and what to change it to.

After COVID-19 began to spread, some Taiwanese travelers said they were subjected to discrimination when using their passports for identification abroad or entering a foreign country, as the disease was first reported in China.

The New Power Party (NPP) on Sunday last week released survey results showing that more than 70 percent of Taiwanese thought the government should remove the English name “Republic of China” from the passport’s cover.

The KMT and some members of the public might be opposed to using just “Taiwan” on the cover, but something that retains the country’s official name — for example, “Taiwan, ROC,” or “Chunghwa Mingkuo, Taiwan” — might win every side’s approval.

Researcher Allen Hertzberger in an op-ed (“Making Taiwan Province disappear,” March 21, page 8) wrote that China took credit for a breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19 made by Taiwanese researchers.

He said that even Taiwanese passports list “Taiwan” as a province in the birthplace column, suggesting that the nation’s sovereignty can be easily confused under current conventions.

Eventually Taiwan would need to shed the ROC and redefine itself, but in the interim, the government must seek clarity and cross-party consensus on the nation’s title and definition.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: UEFA’s ultimatum leaves Scottish clubs in the lurch

content_text:
UEFA’s ultimatum to national leagues that a failure to complete the soccer season could lead to exclusion from European competition has left the continent’s less wealthy leagues, such as Scotland, in limbo.

Scottish clubs were due to meet by videoconference on Friday with the possibility of following the Belgian league’s recommendation to call their season to an end amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

That meeting has been pushed back to next week, as Scottish clubs scramble just to survive in the months to come with matches indefinitely suspended on public health grounds.

Celtic defender Greg Taylor, left, evades FC Copenhagen midfielder Pep Biel in their UEFA Europa League round-of-32 second-leg match at Celtic Park in Glasgow on Feb. 27.
 Photo: AFP

Meagre television rights deals, especially in comparison with the English Premier League across the border, have seen Scotland slide down the food chain of European soccer.

The existing broadcast contract for the Scottish Premiership is reportedly only worth ￡21 million (US$22.7 million) annually.

Clubs can therefore little afford to miss out on European competition, with even those who do not participate eligible for solidarity payments from UEFA.

“Since participation in UEFA club competitions is determined by the sporting result achieved at the end of a full domestic competition, a premature termination would cast doubts about the fulfilment of such condition,” UEFA said in a joint letter with the European Clubs Association and European Leagues.

Many Scottish clubs had been eager for the season to be called as it stands — with Celtic crowned champions — so that prize money could be handed out to solve a cash-flow crisis.

A proposal for league reconstruction whereby two teams are promoted and no side relegated from the top four leagues would also mitigate the damage and any potential legal challenges.

Instead, as so often, Scottish clubs have had to turn to their fan bases for support.

According to UEFA’s annual report on club licensing benchmarks, gate receipts provide 43 percent of revenue for the 12 clubs in the Scottish Premiership, by far the highest in Europe’s top 20 leagues.

The inability to play games and get people through the gate has already resulted in Hearts asking players to take a 50 percent pay cut and members of the Hibernian squad deferring up to half of their salaries.

Wage deferrals are on the horizon at Aberdeen, while even Celtic, who had ￡33 million cash in the bank according to their February financial figures, are mulling wage cuts, manager Neil Lennon said.

Despite the fate of this season hanging in the balance, clubs are looking ahead with season tickets for the 2020-2021 campaign, a means to a short-term cash injection.

“I’ve been heartened by the messages of support I have received from fans asking what they can do to help the club through this really difficult period,” Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack said.

With just 10 percent of income for Scottish clubs coming from the TV deal that is due to expire at the end of this season, the big penalty clauses faced by Europe’s top five leagues with broadcasters for failing to fulfil fixtures are not as severe.

However, in Scotland, the issue is complicated by a more lucrative TV deal — worth a reported ￡32 million annually — set to start next season, meaning that clubs do not want to start the 2020-2021 campaign late due to delaying this season.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
The coronavirus crisis highlights the importance of maintaining trust as a decisive factor in winning the battle against the pandemic. Instead of just focusing on understanding the biological aspect of how to defeat the pathogen, social measures should be given equal attention to bring about the often-quoted “flattening of the curve” before effective medicines and vaccines could be produced.

The social measures being implemented in most countries consisting of social distancing at the individual level — staying at home, avoiding mass gatherings, protecting vulnerable groups — require personal self-discipline.

It is quite timely for the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to publish guidelines in this respect against a background of a continuing surge in new cases (“Virus Outbreak: Practice social distancing, CECC says,” April 1, page 1). Needless to say, person-to-person trust is the cornerstone of any successful social distancing policy.

Speaking about wearing a mask, it is not just in Taiwan and East Asia that people are coming to realize its merit in slowing the spread of the disease, especially when there are asymptomatic carriers posing as a possible source of transmission (“Virus Outbreak: Testing asymptomatic people seen as key addition,” March 31, page 3).

The list of Western countries mandating compulsory wearing of masks in public places now include the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Austria. Despite the absence of mask wearing habits in these places, the populations have taken up their government’s advice and civic effort in sewing masks in the Czech Republic is particularly impressive.

In the Slovak Republic, which has recently had a change of government, agreement with previous and present government measures, including masking, reached a high of 80 percent.

It is clear that a high level of trust in the government can translate to effective policy implementation to curtail large-scale spread of the disease.

However, the waning of trust in the WHO, an institution which according to its mission aims to “advocate and catalyze global and country actions to resolve the human resources for health crisis” is apparent. On the issue of masking, the agency could have been more helpful if it had taken a serious look at the issue from practical and scientific angles rather than continuing to stand against it.

The latest guidance document from the WHO continues to cite a lack of evidence on efficacy, cultural habits of specific countries, insufficient supply and competing procurement with medical personnel, and more harm done than good if worn improperly, to downplay the values of mass masking.

No doubt there is increasing unease in the medical community, which is calling for the WHO to rethink its mask policy and provide clearer guidance to the public.

The evidence base for masking is not a complete blank as assumed with previous study concluding that professional and homemade masks can equally reduce respiratory infections.

The worldwide DIY mask-making movement elicited at the grassroots level should be given some credit where they have churned out alternatives that are considered a worthy last resort given the supply constraints.

Already, more health authorities, such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are contemplating mass-masking in the face of a reality of asymptomatic, but highly infectious coronavirus carriers.

It would fall on the WHO to realign with common sense and science to ensure that it does not lose the trust that this institution is supposed to engender during times of public health crisis.

Benjamin Tak-Yuen Chan is dean of LiPACE, Open University of Hong Kong.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Trust a key factor in defeating pandemic


content_text:
Foreign ministry to help NGOs provide aid in Africa, India

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on projects that provide assistance to disadvantaged groups, especially children, in Africa, as well as India and other countries.

One of the projects, which involves digging wells, building water tanks and promoting water safety awareness in India, is expected to provide cleaner water and reduce the number of local residents who fall ill from drinking contaminated water, the ministry said in a news release last week.

The project is to be carried out with Good Neighbors Taiwan, which was established in July last year to support vulnerable children and high-risk families in developing countries, it said.

Another project, in cooperation with the Pu-Hsein Educational Foundation and Amitofo Care Center African Executive Association, is to help African orphans learn Chinese to enhance their competitiveness as adults, the ministry said.

The education program by the two Buddhist charity organizations, which began in 2013, has benefited more than 9,000 African children and youths, it said.

The program involves sending instructors to teach traditional Chinese characters and the Chinese language in seven schools that shelter orphans in Eswatini, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and Madagascar, it added.

The ministry said that it would also help the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation-Taiwan, which is dedicated to helping people with cleft lip and palate and craniofacial deformity, in its project with the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital system.

The project involves holding international conferences and training medical personnel from other nations, it said.

Other cooperation projects include a Taiwan-Vietnam education project with the Zhi-Shan Foundation Taiwan, which promotes academic exchanges, and a young women’s empowerment project with the Garden of Hope Foundation, which is focused on organizing training camps for young women and hosting the annual Asian Girl Awards that highlight the achievements of girls, the ministry said.

Department of NGO International Affairs Director-General Scott Lai (賴銘琪) on March 27 signed cooperation agreements with the NGOs at the ministry’s headquarters in Taipei, praising Taiwan’s NGO sector for its active international participation and vowing to continue supporting such groups to increase Taiwan’s international visibility.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Lockdowns not needed if notices heeded: experts
By Rachel Lin and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

There is no need to lock down Taipei, but the International Workers’ Day long weekend from May 1 to 3 should be postponed, a public health researcher said yesterday.

Although the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan has not reached an extent that would necessitate the closure of any area, large crowds that gathered over the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which ends today, showed reduced vigilance among some people, National Taiwan University College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said.

This reduced vigilance increases the risk of the virus spreading, Chan said, adding that the government should push back national holidays to prevent crowds during the pandemic.

Social distancing is proving effective in fighting the virus’ spread worldwide, he said.

Taiwanese authorities are also aware of the effectiveness of distancing, which is why large events like the Matsu pilgrimage were either canceled or revamped this year, he said, adding that groups larger than 10 people posed many risks.

The Central Epidemic Command Center recommends keeping 1m between people while outdoors and 1.5m indoors, but he recommended a distance of 2m at all times, which would require about 16m2 per person, Chan said.

“In all places — night markets, tourist spots, etc — the government should determine how many people can safely be there at a time to maintain proper distancing,” he said.

Infected people might be asymptomatic, so large crowds present a risk of infection from someone who does not appear to be infected, he said.

In the US and Europe, COVID-19 spread quickly after people failed to avoid crowds and such a scenario could emerge in Taiwan if crowds — such as those at Kenting National Park and other tourist spots over the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday — recur, he said.

Strict measures are necessary to prevent such behavior during the pandemic period, he said.

Meanwhile, Asia University vice president Wu Tsung-neng (吳聰能) said that as long as mask supplies meet demand and there is no community transmission, there would be no need for a Taipei lockdown.

However, if the public does not demonstrate common sense and keeps gathering in crowds, the government should consider adjusting or canceling long holidays, he said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
US dollar rises on safe-haven bids, ignoring jobs data

The US dollar on Friday firmed against major currencies for a third straight day as investors took shelter in the US currency amid worsening economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we see poor data coming in from Europe, UK, Italy, if you’re trying to be rushing anywhere, it would be US Treasuries and the US dollar as a safe haven,” said John Doyle, vice president of dealing and trading at Tempus Inc in Washington.

The US dollar largely shrugged off the US non-farm payrolls report that showed massive job losses of 701,000 last month, compared with expectations of 100,000 lost jobs.

Last month’s contraction abruptly ended a historic 113 straight months of employment growth in the US.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent from 3.5 percent the previous month.

The US Department of Labor also revised February’s number upward to 275,000 job gains.

“The plunge in non-farm payrolls in March, which is already close to the worst monthly declines during the global financial crisis, suggests the coronavirus pandemic started to decimate the economy even sooner than we thought,” Capital Economics Ltd senior US economist Andrew Hunter said.

The non-farm payrolls report followed Thursday’s data showing initial claims for US unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the latest week from an unrevised 3.3 million the previous week.

In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar fell against the US dollar on Wednesday, losing NT$0.054 to close at NT$30.308, down 0.2 percent from Friday last week. Markets in Taiwan were closed on Thursday and Friday for the Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend.

The US dollar index rose 0.5 percent to 100.68 on Friday. The index posted a 2.4 percent gain on the week, having whipsawed last month from highs on a scramble for cash before slumping as the US Federal Reserve flooded the market with liquidity.

The euro fell 0.4 percent against the US dollar at US$1.0810, for a 2.9 percent weekly loss. Indecision among eurozone governments about a rescue package for the region’s hobbled economies has weakened the euro.

The Japanese yen, Swiss franc, sterling, as well as the Australian and New Zealand dollars all lost ground as the US dollar strengthened across the board.

The US dollar rose 0.5 percent to ￥108.42, up 0.6 percent for the week.

As lockdowns continue, the economic impact of the pandemic is becoming more marked, with purchasing managers’ indices across the eurozone and the UK on Friday showing a slump in business activity.

“The complication is that while all the things that the governments have done are very positive, they’re like extra welfare payments and they can’t do anything more than that,” Adrian Lee & Partners president and chief investment officer Adrian Lee said.

Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Wall St falls as virus shreds US payrolls

content_text:
‘GRIM ECONOMIC REPORTS’:
 The US employment report showing the loss of 701,000 jobs last month is a sober reminder of what is to come, an investment strategist said

Wall Street’s main indices on Friday fell more than 1.5 percent as the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly ended a record US job growth streak of 113 months, intensifying fears of a deep economic slowdown.

Even the loss of 701,000 jobs that US Department of Labor data showed for last month did not completely capture the economic damage from the virus. The survey considered data only until the middle of last month, before widespread US lockdowns put more people out of work.

The worldwide spread of the virus has forced billions of people to stay indoors and pushed entire sectors to the brink of collapse, triggering mass layoffs and dramatic steps by companies to raise cash.

“Even as investors may be bracing for some grim economic reports over the next several weeks, we got a very sober reminder of what is to come by way of today’s jobs report,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.

Investors were also anxious heading into the weekend due to the possibility for “particularly ugly” weekend news on coronavirus case counts or new hotspots around the US, Luschini said.

The S&P 500 closed down almost 27 percent from its mid-February record-high close, or about US$7 trillion in market value, and economists have cut their forecasts for US GDP, with Morgan Stanley now predicting a 38 percent contraction in the second quarter.

“This is not like December 2018. We’re not likely to see a V-shaped recovery, because we haven’t even begun to really tackle the main issue behind why this is happening. That’s still an ongoing process. It’s going to take time,” TD Ameritrade institutional senior trading strategist Mike Turvey said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday fell 360.91 points, or 1.69 percent, to 21,052.53, the S&P 500 lost 38.25 points, or 1.51 percent, to 2,488.65 and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 114.23 points, or 1.53 percent, to 7,373.08.

For the week, the Dow lost 2.7 percent, the S&P retreated 2 percent and the NASDAQ fell 1.5 percent.

Of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors, utilities was the biggest laggard on Friday, down 3.6 percent, followed by materials and financials, with declines of more than 2 percent.

Only consumer staples rose and ended the day up 0.5 percent as the sector is seen as a defensive play, with consumers still needing to eat and buy household goods in a recession.

The energy sector was one of the best performers.

US President Trump met with US oil company executives at the White House, and said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin want something to happen to stabilize the global oil market, where prices have fallen by about two-thirds this year.

Walt Disney Co shares fell 3 percent after it said it would furlough some US employees this month, while sources said luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group Inc was stepping up preparations to seek bankruptcy protection.

Tesla Inc rose 5.6 percent after the electric-vehicle maker said production and deliveries of its Model Y sport utility vehicle were ahead of schedule.

On US exchanges 11.57 billion shares changed hands on Friday compared with the 15.75 billion average for the past 20 sessions.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 3.53-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 2.73-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 11 new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 5 new highs and 179 new lows.

The Cboe Volatility Index, widely known as “Wall Street’s fear gauge,” ended at 46.80, its lowest closing level since March 6.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Centralized data management key to virus control

An article posted on a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site has highlighted Taiwan’s early steps to contain the spread of COVID-19, especially its coordination and use of data.

“Of note, the centralized, real-time database of the country’s National Health Insurance (NHI) helped support disease surveillance and case detection,” the article said.

The article, titled “Policy Decisions and Use of Information Technology to Fight 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease, Taiwan,” on the Web site for the agency’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal is listed as an “early article” to be published in July.

Nantou County police officers yesterday stand next to a monster mascot during an event at the Monster Village in the county’s Lugu Township promoting epidemic prevention awareness.
 Photo: Hsieh Chieh-yu, Taipei Times

The report, written by a research team that included members of Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said that the comprehensive response and innovative use of the NHI database by the CDC effectively delayed and contained community transmission in Taiwan, even as the number of confirmed cases surged in neighboring countries starting in mid-February.

As soon as China on Dec. 31 reported an unidentified outbreak of 27 cases of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan to the WHO, Taiwan assembled a task force and began performing health checks of passengers inside planes from Wuhan after they landed in Taiwan, it said.

Thanks to its rapid implementation of disease prevention measures, Taiwan detected and isolated its first coronavirus case on Jan. 20, it said, adding that laboratories in Taiwan developed four-hour test kits and isolated two strains of the virus before February.

The nation then added people’s travel histories to China and all confirmed and suspected case contacts to the NHI database.

Those additions, along with real-time NHI data on people’s health history “helped pinpoint high-risk patients” and gave the CDC “the ability to quickly identify new patterns of symptoms or clustered cases and the source or path of infection,” the article said.

Other factors that led to an effective response were its experiences during the 2003 SARS outbreak, prevalent public awareness, a robust public health network, support from healthcare industries and cross-departmental collaborations.

Despite its proximity to China, where the COVID-19 outbreak originated, Taiwan has reported relatively fewer confirmed cases with five deaths.

Globally, the virus has infected more than 1 million people in 188 nations, and more than 50,000 have died of the disease.

The research team was led by Duke University professor Tu Pi-kuei (涂碧桂) and CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩).

CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) on Friday said that Taiwan faced the outbreak from China with extreme caution because of its proximity and its painful experience in fighting SARS in 2003.

“Unlike some other nations, in which cities and states fought against the outbreak alone, Taiwan strengthened cross-departmental collaboration on quarantines,” Chuang said.

For example, with the assistance of the police administration system, local governments could quickly locate those who had contact with infected patients to stem the spread of the virus, he said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Virus fines might harm people with dementia: group

Punitive measures for breaching COVID-19 prevention regulations could place unnecessary pressure on the families of people with dementia, the Taiwan Alzheimer Disease Association said yesterday.

As part of its effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday announced that people using public transport must wear a mask or risk a fine of up to NT$15,000.

People with dementia already have cognitive difficulties and it is possible that they might be fined for noncompliance when they are incapable of doing so, association secretary-general Tang Li-yu (湯麗玉) said.

People pass through ticket gates at a Taipei MRT station yesterday, the day after the Central Epidemic Command Center announced that people who do not wear a mask on public transportation would be fined up to NT$15,000.
 Photo: CNA

The association has received calls from family members of people with dementia who are concerned about older individuals with dementia who refuse to wear masks when outside, she said.

Caregivers are concerned that these people could be fined, which would financially burden the families, she added.

It is common for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease to not cooperate with regulations, and enforcement could cause tension and conflict between them and their families, she said.

Social distancing is also difficult to enforce, as caregivers must remain near people with dementia or Alzheimer’s to prevent them from wandering off, she added.

Although the association supports the CECC regulations on wearing masks on public transportation, the government should consider groups that cannot easily comply, Tang said.

The association suggests that caregivers abide by the rules and have certification of a person’s condition ready in case they encounter difficulty.

Tang said that people should stay at home, but if necessary, caregivers can help people with dementia walk outdoors to a nearby location, such as a park.

Out of the about 127,000 people who took Taipei MRT trains as of 11am yesterday, 1,600 were asked to put on a mask and 200 were refused entry and asked to leave stations.

Additional reporting by Lee I-chia

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Oil on Friday posted a record weekly jump on hopes that global producers will decide to make historic output cuts next week, although optimism was tempered by concern that the curbs would not avert a glut.

The OPEC+ coalition, including Saudi Arabia, is to hold a meeting of its members by video conference tomorrow, with the gathering open to even producers outside the group.

While it is unclear who would attend, market watchers are predicting that stockpiles are likely to swell even if global supplies are cut by 10 million barrels a day.

An oil pump is pictured near Almetyevsk, Russia, on March 11.
 Photo: Bloomberg

Investors would be closely watching the guest list of the meeting — especially names outside OPEC and its allies — after Saudi Arabia made clear that it would only cut production if others, including the US, shoulder some of the burden.

US West Texas Intermediate futures ended the week up 32 percent at US$28.34 a barrel, while Brent crude jumped 37 percent to US$34.11 a barrel. Still, prices are less than half the levels at the start of the year, with the COVID-19 pandemic crushing demand.

“I think Russia, Saudi Arabia and OPEC are coming to the conclusion that if they don’t agree to something, it will be forced on them by the market,” Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC portfolio manager Brian Kessens said. “Any cuts will extend the runway to June instead of May, which is helpful as countries try to work through the coronavirus lockdown. But it only softens the blow.”

One delegate from the producer group said that a global cut of 10 million barrels a day is a realistic goal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the country’s top oil executives that producing countries should join together to slash output to reverse the collapse in prices, adding that worldwide curbs of a little above or below 10 million barrels a day are possible.

Getting countries from all over the world to agree would be a tough task. Even if that is successful, an output reduction of the size that is being discussed would be just a fraction of the 35 million barrels of daily demand destruction some traders now see.

Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc have argued that any supply reduction deal would anyway be too little, too late, as consumption craters due to efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

“A near-term return to production cuts still seems unlikely, and we are skeptical that such a large coalition could be put together,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note.

Some of the necessary production shut-ins are likely to occur in the US due purely to market forces.

The announcement of a potential supply cut first came from US President Donald Trump, who on Thursday tweeted that he had spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had in turn spoken with Putin.

However, the US leader’s goal is purely aspirational and would ultimately hinge on whether Riyadh and Moscow can reach a deal, a person familiar with the situation said.

Apart from benchmark futures, hopes for the curbs have boosted every corner of the market over the past 24 hours, from time spreads used to gauge market health, to key North Sea swaps. Those gains are now easing, as traders worry that the undertaking might be too fraught with hurdles.

The physical oil market of actual barrels of crude continued to remain under pressure, giving producers more urgency to act.

Belarus said Russian companies are offering Urals oil for US$4 a barrel.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Oil posts record leap on hopes of production cuts


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Seven new cases of COVID-19 reported, one domestic

Seven new cases of COVID-19, including one domestic case, were reported yesterday by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which added “diarrhea of unknown cause” to the criteria for reporting suspected cases.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the domestic case — the nation’s 352nd — is a man in his 40s who lives alone, did not travel abroad recently and began showing symptoms on Monday.

“The man sought treatment for a fever at a clinic on March 30, went to the same clinic again on April 1 for loss of taste and smell, and sought treatment again at a hospital the next day and was hospitalized and reported for testing,” Chen said.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, center, speaks at the daily Central Epidemic Command Center news briefing in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo provided by the Central Epidemic Command Center via CNA

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman, said that the man lives alone and was mostly either at work or at home, and he did not go to work on Tuesday.

So far, nine people who have had direct contact with him have been listed for investigation, Chuang said.

The nine people are seven coworkers and two friends, he said, adding that surveillance footage from his workplace has been obtained to help identify people he had close contact with, while the local health department is investigating whether he had contact with people who recently returned to Taiwan from overseas.

The six imported cases are four women and two men who returned from Germany, South America, Switzerland, the UK and the US from March 15 to Thursday, Chen said.

Case No. 350 is a man who was on a business trip to the US from March 12 to 18, Chen said, adding that as he returned on the same flight as a married couple who were previously confirmed to have COVID-19 — cases 197 and 202 — and was considered to have been in close contact, he was ordered into home isolation.

The man reported mild diarrhea on Monday and mild chest tightness on Tuesday, and he sought treatment after ending his 14-day quarantine on Wednesday, Chen said.

As some people have recently tested positive after seeking medical attention of their own volition, Chen said that the CECC is considering reviewing symptoms people might have experienced during home isolation or quarantine before isolation orders are lifted.

Some quarantined people might experience mild symptoms, such as diarrhea or abnormal taste and smell during the 14-day period, but neglect to report them, so asking them to review their symptoms might help reduce the risk of transmission, he said.

Case No. 355, a woman in her 60s, went on a group tour to five countries in South America from Feb. 20 to Wednesday last week, with two previously confirmed cases — Nos. 259 and 331, he said.

She was listed as a close contact and was tested for COVID-19, although she did not report symptoms, he said.

The total number of confirmed cases in Taiwan rose to 355 — 304 imported and 51 domestic — including five deaths and 50 people discharged from hospitals, the CECC said.

The others are still hospitalized, including 12 people in a serious condition and on ventilators, it said.

As more infected people have reported diarrhea, Chuang said that the CECC decided at a specialist panel meeting yesterday to include diarrhea of unknown cause as part of the definition for reporting suspected cases.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
LOOPHOLE?
 A lawmaker expressed concern about employees with access to classified files transiting through Hong Kong 25 times over the past year

Work is under way on amendments to the Act for the Establishment of the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (國家中山科學研究院設置條例) that would extend travel restrictions for military personnel to Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology employees, a source said on Tuesday.

As the institute in 2014 became a private entity, it is no longer under the direct control of the Ministry of National Defense. The transition removed all travel restrictions for the institute’s employees, who are no longer considered military personnel.

However, any employees who want to travel abroad must obtain approval from the institute.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) had previously expressed concern that the arrangement posed a potential loophole in information and national security, saying that there were 15 incidents of institute employees with access to classified information transiting through Hong Kong from May to October last year and another 10 incidents from October to February.

At a legislative question-and-answer session early last month, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said that the ministry would propose amendments to the act to close the loophole.

Under the amendments, institute employees entering or departing the nation would have to follow the same regulations as military personnel, with the authority to approve requests to travel abroad elevated from the institute to the ministry, the source said.

Institute staff with clearance to access classified information would also be prohibited from traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau for three years from the day they resign or are removed from a position that grants them the clearance, the source said.

The ministry said that it is in the process of drafting the regulations into amendments, which would grant it a legal basis for enforcement.

Talks continue on the details and method of implementation, it said.

The institute said that it would comply with the regulations.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Amendments aim to restrict institute staff travel: source

people: 趙天麟 嚴德發


title: Asian stocks fall on US jobs data

content_text:
Asian stock markets on Friday tumbled after soaring US job losses tempered enthusiasm about a possible deal to stabilize oil prices amid anxiety over the global economic decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong all retreated. Australia’s main index fell 2.3 percent.

Some markets followed Wall Street higher in early trading after US President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he expected major oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia to back away from their price-cutting war.

However, by midday, all major Asian markets had retreated. Southeast Asian benchmarks were mixed.

US unemployment numbers were a “hard dose of economic reality” for markets, Oanda Corp’s Jeffrey Halley said in a report.

Government data showed 6.6 million initial US unemployment claims this week, double the previous week’s record-breaking figure.

That raised the number of Americans who have lost jobs in the coronavirus-driven downturn to almost 10 million.

Markets were closed in Taipei for the Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend. The TAIEX on the last day of trading on Wednesday fell 0.46 percent to close at the day’s low at 9,663.63, up 2.7 percent from Friday last week.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 on Friday fell 0.6 percent to 17,712.51.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.8 percent to 23,098.68.

South Korea’s KOSPI retreated 0.6 percent to 1,713.55, while Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 declined to 5,032.80. India’s SENSEX fell 2.4 percent.

Shanghai shares eased to conclude the week lower, as risk-averse sentiment strengthened on continued spread of the coronavirus.

The Shanghai Composite Index (SSEC) fell 0.6 percent to 2,763.99.

The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.57 percent, with its financial sector sub-index falling 0.9 percent, the consumer staples sector up 0.52 percent, the real-estate index down 0.18 percent and the healthcare sub-index up 1.05 percent.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index ended down 0.47 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite Index was weaker by 0.5 percent.

For the week, the SSEC shed 0.3 percent, while the CSI300 gained 0.1 percent.

New Zealand and Jakarta gained on Friday, while Singapore and Bangkok retreated.

Markets usually welcome lower energy costs for companies and consumers.

However, the abrupt plunge to below US$20 this week from US$60 at the start of the year triggered fears that heavily indebted producers might default, undermining credit markets.

Trump on Thursday said on Twitter that he expects production cuts are coming after talking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

The Kremlin denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin had talked with bin Salman, but Saudi Arabia called for a meeting of major producers, including Russia.

Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


title: Britain needs to learn from Taiwan

content_text:
Having returned to the UK late last year and with a Taiwanese spouse remaining in Taiwan, I have been afforded the chance to compare and contrast the UK and Taiwanese governments’ responses to the COVID-19 crisis. My early conclusions are that Taiwan benefits from a rational, competent government, which quickly recognizes, adapts to and confronts large-scale disasters. It is led by a government that does more than just talk of respecting democracy and human rights, one that is scrutinized and responds to criticism, one that is concerned about public opinion, and one that is used to dealing with emergencies on a regular basis, such as earthquakes and typhoons, not forgetting the ever-present existential threat of Chinese armed forces trained and equipped to invade, annex and brutally occupy the nation at a moment’s notice.

When the virus first began to spread, the Taiwanese government immediately recognized the vulnerable position its proximity and business ties to China presented. It did not argue about the economy: It knew that if the disease were to rage uncontrolled across the country, it would severely damage it anyway. The priority, it appears, was containment and preventing spread, and that would allow the most people to keep working, earning, and spending.

Hence, early on, flights from China were suspended, all visitors or returning citizens were put in a mandatory and policed 14-day quarantine, and incredibly a system was set up to provide everyone three masks a week using the National Health Insurance (NHI) card from all participating clinics and pharmacies linked to the NHI within a week.

As a result, after three months, Taiwan has had fewer than 200 cases and half a dozen deaths. Following WHO rules, like South Korea and Vietnam, Taiwan went to work testing and tracing all cases.

That the disease spread out of control in China and did not in Taiwan is ample illustration of how independent Taiwan actually is. Had it been a part of China, “Chinese Taipei,” or “Taiwan, China,” it would surely have been dealing with the same severity of outbreak as across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwanese have long learned not to believe Chinese figures, yet in the West we now see a slew of articles pointing to China’s “good metrics” on “flattening the curve.”

It was China’s, and the Chinese Communist Party’s, instinctive reflex to suppress news of the outbreak and sanction the doctors identifying it that led to the spread of the disease outside of Wuhan and then the wider world. Any casualty figures out of China should probably have at least one or two zeros added to them before they can be considered with any kind of credibility.

The contrast with the actions taken, or not taken, by a supposed “advanced” and “developed” Western nation that is the sixth-wealthiest on the planet could not be starker. The UK has still at the time of writing not implemented testing and tracing at airports. Passengers are still flooding into Heathrow and other airports and getting on local public transport without even basic thermal imaging to identify high temperatures. Taiwan implemented that after the SARS outbreak in 2003.

Then there is the almost genocidal strategy of the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (many of whom, including the prime minister and the minister of health now have the virus themselves) in first downplaying the severity and risk, then refusing the shut down transport and schools, then advancing what can only be called a eugenics policy of “herd immunity” at a time when no-one had any idea of whether the virus produced antibodies in survivors that would prevent repeat infection.

We still do not know the answer to that question, but once their transparently cruel and idiotic idea finally collapsed, Johnson relented and issued a lockdown, arguably two to three weeks too late, and months after being informed of the danger of the disease by an article in the Lancet at the end of January.

The British public was grossly misinformed of the scale of the problem by a government that obviously sought to protect the economy from the virus, but not the workers whose labor actually produces the material and social wealth the economy is built on. The man who boasted of shaking hands with COVID-19 patients is now running the UK from isolation.

At this point, it is probably fair to estimate that as many as one-quarter or half of all politicians in the British government and the mainstream media in the UK which shilled Johnson back into office (collectively they can be called the “polidia” given their deep integration and cooperation) now have the disease, and Westminster and London by extension, are now the main COVID-19 hotspots in the UK.

The high number of celebrities with the disease shows how it spread among people who have traditionally faced the fewest questions and barriers to entry at customs. Their desperation, and ability to pay any sum to escape or secure preferential testing and treatment, was a key vector for the global spread of the disease.

That COVID-19 can infect asymptomatically was possibly one of the worst aspects of the disease as millions of people rushed home, taking it with them.

However, as bad as the disease is, Taiwan has shown that with competent and quick leadership it can be controlled. In the UK, there are tests for the rich and famous, but almost none for anyone else, including hospital staff.

Therefore it is the government and its actions that have had the greatest impact on the spread of the disease, and the two nations most responsible, the UK and the US, are the ones with far-right extremist ideological governments that run on PR and narrative framing and cutting government expenditure so that it can be funnelled instead into the private sector.

As someone on my Twitter timeline so insightfully noted, Johnson was not elected to lead in crisis and his party only knows how to cut spending or outsource provision. They have no ideological commitment to the people as a concept, only to power insofar as it can be decorated with a Union Jack and a sheepish smile with a ruffle of the hair.

Johnson was elected to “get Brexit done” and now he has let COVID-19 in. However, his failures as a leader are only the latest of his party in governance, whose ignorant, cavalier, callous slashing of budgets set the stage for the crisis.

For the past decade, the Conservative government in the UK implemented unnecessary and cruel cuts to social services, care and the British National Health Service (NHS) totaling almost ￡36 billion (US$44.17 billion). Conservative lawmakers cheered from the back benches in parliament as they passed the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which decimated services and began the process of privatizing the NHS via salami slicing of services for private companies with no record of effective healthcare management and service provision to profit from.

Then it introduced Universal Credit as a replacement for benefits, causing an estimated 120,000 people to die as a result, many of whom were disabled.

Those cuts continued well into last year, despite Johnson’s first act as prime minister declaring that “austerity” was over. It was not, and the effects of it became hideously apparent as soon as the crisis broke.

Doctors, nurses and paramedics are treating COVID-19 patients without proper personal protective equipment; they are getting sick themselves, they are dying on the front lines and some are taking their own lives.

Before the last election the Johnson government promised 50,000 new nurses and 20,000 new police officers, but these would only effectively replace the ones they had axed through systematic and targeted funding cuts.

As a result, the UK’s capacity for ICU beds fell by thousands nationwide. The government is now scrabbling to find companies to make ventilators, but when existing producers have offered help they have been snubbed in favor of companies like JCB and Dyson run by Conservative party donors, despite them having no expertise in manufacturing medical equipment.

Johnson’s government is using a national emergency to help its friends profit.

In a less tolerant age and place, the kind of deliberate cynical maladministration demonstrated by Johnson, and major business owners refusing to cover the pay of workers they have laid off, and landlords trying to evict tenants who have lost their jobs because of the lockdown — not to forget those hoarding and spiking prices of everyday goods — would likely have resulted in an orderly line of them being led to the “King Charles I Departure Lounge.” Perhaps this is one reason that a ban on evictions was just announced, some weeks after landlords were awarded a three-month mortgage holiday.

However, while pressure from outrage on social media has swung the dial a bit toward humanity, empathy, compassion and collaboration, Johnson’s party and government know that a vast majority of the British media is far-right and would blindly support him, however many contortions and contradictions that forces them into.

Johnson might well be overthrown by the summer, but do not underestimate the ability of the British public to tug their forelocks and look to blame anyone but the government. That would not be patriotic in a time of national crisis apparently.

From across the world in the UK I can only look with longing to a nation with a functional democracy, a more politically literate population, with no polidia acting as an opinion and narrative firewall against any policy or leader slightly left of center-right, and with a president who is a policy wonk brave enough to take the decisions necessary to protect the people.

Today, Taiwan is a more advanced, developed, democratic nation than the UK. For all its wealth, the UK should look to and learn from Taiwan for examples of how a more civilized nation responds to a national emergency.

For all Taiwanese considering coming to the UK, or who have rose-colored images of my nation, please get your immunizations beforehand, pack extra toilet roll and remember that you are visiting a nation that is falling apart at the seams.

Please take the same precautions as you would visiting any divided, sick, corrupt and criminally underdeveloped country.

Ben Goren is an essayist, businessman and long-term resident of Taiwan.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Pizza rendezvous, odd bedfellows: how T-Mobile won Sprint
Years of negotiations and navigating regulatory hurdles have resulted in a
merged carrier with the airwaves to take on the US’ two largest telecoms

T-Mobile USA Inc on Wednesday completed its US$26.5 billion acquisition of Sprint Corp, a years-long saga that included a stare-down with US anti-trust officials, a court battle with state attorneys general and a virus crisis that has brought the US to a near standstill.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, Sprint chairman Marcelo Claure last week said in an interview that the new T-Mobile is arriving at a good time to offer lower-priced wireless options to consumers battered by economic damage.

“This will be a tough crisis for the world and Americans to absorb,” Claure said. “But at the end, every single person in the US needs their mobile phone.”

Combining the nation’s two most aggressive wireless competitors was a fraught proposition from the start. It drew opposition from consumer groups, unions, politicians and regulators. Wall Street only gave it 50-50 odds. Then the spread of the coronavirus closed stores and forced executives, lawyers and officials from 16 banks to try to finish the deal remotely, most working from home.

The journey started more than six years ago and almost immediately hit a wall. The vibrant wireless industry had four competitors and Washington was dead-set against reducing it to three.

A series of setbacks ensued, including a bitter dispute over ownership structure, a new executive team, a secret meeting at a pizza shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, and a return to the table with new resolve, several people familiar with the situation said.

SON’S IDEA

Softbank Group Corp in 2013 bought Sprint for US$22 billion.

In February 2014, Masayoshi Son, chairman of both Sprint and Softbank, met with regulators in Washington to sell them on his idea that Sprint and T-Mobile together could provide a formidable third competitor to the dominant duo of Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc.

Son’s plan got a chilly reception from regulators in the administration of then-US president Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom AG’s US mobile unit T-Mobile had been rapidly recovering from its failed takeover by AT&T in 2011.

Much of its success was due to then-CEO John Legere, a 20-year industry veteran who reinvented himself as the rebellious, shaggy-haired leader and mascot of the company. His deft social-media skills and an unending arsenal of marketing plans fueled an underdog assault on “Dumb and Dumber” — his name for AT&T and Verizon.

Starting at a distant fourth place in its wireless peer group, T-Mobile soon became the fastest-growing carrier. With the arrival of the iPhone, improved network performance and enticements like video and music streaming, the company leapfrogged Sprint to become the No. 3 US carrier.

Deutsche Telekom and Softbank were close to an agreement to merge T-Mobile and Sprint, but eventually walked away due to the regulatory risk. During this time, Sprint was still losing money and customers.

Disheartened, Son briefly explored selling the company, but later resolved to pursue his original plan with even more determination. He in August 2014 hand-selected Claure to lead the company and they drew up a five-year plan to stabilize the business, staunch its losses and make it attractive enough to swing a deal.

CLANDESTINE SLICES

US President Donald Trump’s election in November 2016 gave them a new opening in Washington. Claure and Legere agreed to meet. Not wanting to be spotted together, they decided to rendezvous in Hoboken, across the river from New York City.

They were not friends — Claure had sniped at Legere amid an August 2016 Twitter spat: “You truly are a con artist.”

They met at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria on Washington Avenue. The dark tavern with high-back booths allowed the kind of privacy they needed. They discovered that they had similar goals, and by the end of the conversation they reached an agreement to start working toward a merger. It was a crucial first step in a multi-round negotiation.

On Dec. 6, 2016, a month after Trump’s election, Son visited Trump’s Fifth Avenue office in Manhattan and pledged to invest US$50 billion in new companies and create 50,000 jobs. It was an obvious homage to a new business-friendly leader and a gesture that could help Son’s plans in the US.

Within a year, T-Mobile and Sprint had a deal ready. To celebrate, Legere, Claure and Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges flew to Tokyo to have dinner with Son.

Instead of reveling, Hoettges and Son tangled over who would control the combined company. The impasse could not be fixed and for the second time, the deal was discarded.

Talks took a brief hiatus, but were soon back on again. The prospects of 5G technology gave the merger even more impetus. The combination of T-Mobile’s low-band airwaves and Sprint’s mid-band ones would create the largest US holding of ready-to-build 5G network capacity.

On April 29, 2018, the two companies announced the deal. With all the terms finally ironed out, the next step — regulatory review — would prove to be equally challenging.

‘WAR ROOMS’

The battle plan called for “war rooms” to be set up in Washington, where T-Mobile executive vice president of corporate services Dave Carey would oversee teams from both companies.

During negotiations with officials from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the executives camped out at the Mandarin Oriental hotel near the FCC offices in downtown Washington.

About a year after announcing the deal, the companies had secured a key regulatory victory: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai recommended deal approval with conditions, including divestiture of Sprint’s prepaid brand Boost, 5G build-out commitments and a price freeze for at least three years.

After the FCC recommendation, the companies moved their deal teams to the Willard Hotel, a short walk from the US Department of Justice’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the final stage of the review took place.

Makan Delrahim, a Trump administration appointee and the head of the department’s anti-trust division, was not ready to sign off on the deal. Delrahim was not a fan of conditions and conduct requirements that put the onus on agency staff to police the agreements, preferring cleaner remedies like divestitures. He also did not like reducing the number of competitors in the market.

However, the deal presented a unique opportunity if the companies could pull it off: let T-Mobile and Sprint combine their networks and spectrum to take on AT&T and Verizon, while at the same time setting up a new competitor that had the wireless airwaves needed to build a network.

HELPFUL OPPONENT

Dish Network Corp, at first a major opponent of the deal, was the key to getting it through.

Dish cofounder and chairman Charlie Ergen had a track record of creating disruptive businesses, from his flagship satellite TV operation to streaming pioneer Sling TV, and was known as a shrewd negotiator. In a dispute with AT&T, Dish became the first TV distributor to black out HBO, one of the world’s most popular TV networks.

Dish had amassed US$20 billion of airwaves over the past decade, with the goal of building or acquiring an advanced nationwide wireless network for 5G.

With Delrahim wanting to set up a competitor with its own network, Dish was really the only logical choice to buy assets from T-Mobile and Sprint and get the deal across the finish line.

In May 2018, the day after Pai recommended approval of the deal, Ergen and Delrahim met to discuss how Dish could be the basis of the remedy.

One of the key obstacles was that Ergen needed FCC approval to extend regulatory deadlines tied to the spectrum Dish owned.

In June 2018, Delrahim told Ergen in a text: “Today would be a good day to have your senator friends contact the chairman,” a reference to Pai.

Ergen spoke with US Senator Cory Gardner and US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

As negotiations with Delrahim were heating up, a group of attorneys general led by New York and California sued to block the deal.

The consolidation would remove choices, raise prices and stifle innovation, and the fallout would affect poorer people most, they said.

The move presented a potentially insurmountable obstacle to the deal that hung ominously over the review process.

Talks with Delrahim hit a standstill over final details of the Dish remedy. That is when Claure rushed to the department’s headquarters to meet Delrahim in his office.

Delrahim gave him a stark choice: take the settlement the department wanted or face a lawsuit. Claure gave in.

Now Ergen is vowing to take on the industry.

“There’s an old saying — I think this is an [former US president] Abraham Lincoln quote — but if you are going to chop down a row of trees and you got six hours to do it, spend the first four hours sharpening your ax,” Ergen told the judge who ultimately rejected the states’ lawsuit and approved the deal.

“We spent 10 years sharpening a pretty sharp ax to go and compete, and this particular transaction is the catalyst that allows us to do that in a much faster manner than we thought,” he added.


title: UN says ceasefire appeal produced some good results

content_text:
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that warring parties in 11 countries have responded positively to his appeal for a global ceasefire to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, but turning words into peace is enormously difficult, and fighting has escalated in major conflicts including Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan.

Guterres called on all governments, groups and people with influence “to urge and pressure combatants around the world to put down their arms,” saying the need is urgent because “the COVID-19 storm” is now coming to all conflict areas.

His appeal 10 days ago was rooted in the recognition that “there should be only one fight in our world today: our shared battle against COVID-19,” Guterres told a briefing at UN headquarters in New York.

The appeal is “resonating” around the world, he said, citing a growing number of endorsements for the ceasefire from 70 countries, civil society, religious leaders including Pope Francis and more than 1 million people in an online petition organized by Avaaz, he said.

Parties to conflicts in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen have also expressed their acceptance, Guterres said.

However, “there are enormous difficulties to implementation, as conflicts have festered for years, distrust is deep, with many spoilers and many suspicions,” he said.

He also warned that “terrorist or extremist groups may take profit from the uncertainty created by the spread of the pandemic.”

“In many of the most critical situations, we have seen no let-up in fighting and some conflicts have even intensified,” he said.

In Yemen, he said that despite support for a ceasefire by the government, Houthi rebels and other parties, “the conflict has spiked.”

In Libya, the warring parties welcomed calls to stop the fighting, “yet clashes have escalated drastically on all front lines, obstructing efforts to effectively respond to COVID-19,” he said.

In Afghanistan, where fighting increased, Guterres said the time has come for the government and the Taliban, who are working on a prisoner exchange, to cease hostilities “as COVID-19 looms over the country.”

In Syria, he said a ceasefire in the last rebel stronghold in northwest Idlib that was negotiated by Russia and Turkey is holding, but a permanent nationwide ceasefire is essential to tackle COVID-19 and help the millions suffering from the conflict.

“There is a chance for peace, but we are far from there,” Guterres said. “We need robust diplomatic efforts to meet these challenges. To silence the guns, we must raise the voices for peace.”

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
CHARITY

Hospital raises NT$6m

Taiwanese have donated more than NT$6 million (US$197,968) to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, following an appeal for help on Wednesday by an Italian priest who has worked for more than 50 years building healthcare services in rural Taiwan. Catholic Father Giuseppe Didone issued a public letter asking for donations to the fundraising center of Camillian Saint Mary’s Hospital Luodong in Yilan County, which would be used to purchase emergency provisions, including masks and protective gowns, for medical personnel in Italy. The hospital said its fundraising deadline is April 15. Because of restrictions on the purchase and export of medical supplies, the Camillian order, which operates the hospital, said it is seeking permission to purchase the supplies locally and ship them to Italy. If that fails, the order said it would consider trying to purchase the products abroad.

HEALTH

Fast-food takes on virus

Fast-food restaurants have said they are taking additional precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19, in response to new social distancing guidelines announced on Tuesday by the Central Epidemic Command Center. KFC is encouraging people to use its “contact-free” pick-up and delivery option to reduce the risk of infection and is posting notices at its outlets of distancing guidelines. TKK Fried Chicken said it has asked employees to remind customers to stay at least 1.5m apart indoors. At McDonald’s locations, in-store and delivery workers are required to wear masks and wash their hands once per hour, and have been asked to voluntarily test and record their temperatures. MOS Burger employees are required to take their temperature before starting their shifts and to wear a face mask while on duty.

DIPLOMACY

US calls for WHA inclusion

The US Department of State on Friday called for Taiwan to receive observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), and said its model for fighting COVID-19 could benefit countries worldwide. “Taiwan is a leader in preventing the spread of COVID-19. The United States and Taiwan hope to share the Taiwan Model with countries around the world. Taiwan has a role to play in global health and should be a World Health Assembly observer,” the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs tweeted. On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would push for an “appropriate role” for Taiwan at the WHA, the policy-setting body of the WHO. On Tuesday, Taiwanese and US officials held a virtual forum to discuss efforts to reinstate Taiwan’s WHA observer status and to share the successful “Taiwan model” of containing COVID-19.

TOURISM

Arrivals drop significantly

The number of passengers arriving in Taiwan has continued to drop dramatically month-on-month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said on Friday. The number of arrivals handled by airports and sea ports were 2,262,692 in January, 1,136,655 in February and 215,662 last month, when the government began to clamp down on travel, such as banning the entry of all foreign nationals with few exceptions from March 19. The number of daily arrivals last month averaged about 7,000, an NIA official said, adding that the figures for March 19 and March 20 were 6,511 and 5,607 respectively. International flights in and out of the nation’s airports have also declined.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: Virus Outbreak: Taiwan News Quick Take


content_text:
UNITED STATES

Trump fires Atkinson

President Donald Trump on Friday fired inspector general of the intelligence community Michael Atkinson. Atkinson handled the whistleblower complaint that triggered Trump’s impeachment last year. Trump said in the letter that it is “vital” that he has confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general, and “that is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.” He added: “It is extremely important that we promote the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and activities,” and that inspectors general are critical to those goals.

UNITED STATES

Singer Bill Withers dies

Bill Withers, the performer who delivered hits such as Ain’t No Sunshine with silky yet funkified vocals and came to define 1970s soul, has died. He was 81 years old. The Grammy-winning artist behind the beloved Lean on Me succumbed to heart complications, according to his family, which said they were “devastated” over the loss. “A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other,” they said. “In this difficult time, we pray his music offers comfort and entertainment as fans hold tight to loved ones.”

PANAMA

Transgender people worry

Members of the transgender community have reacted with “dread” to the implemention of gender-based social distancing regulations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities said this week that men could only leave home to go shopping on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with women allowed to do so on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. No one is allowed out on Sundays. The measure has left transgender people worried they will be the targets of discrimination. Ali, a 25-year-old illustrator who identifies as a man has an identity card that has “female” in the sex field. “My biggest fear, obviously, is the police, who aren’t trained or sensitized to this subject and I don’t know what attitude they will take with me,” Ali said. “I’m 100 percent sure I’ll be stopped in the street and seeing as I don’t fit the mold ... I don’t know if they’ll be aggressive. That’s what scares me.”

FALKLAND ISLANDS

First virus case reported

The government has confirmed the territory’s first case of COVID-19 after a patient was admitted to hospital with symptoms on March 31, a statement released on Friday said. They were in isolation and in “stable condition,” it said. The British overseas territory had been among a dwindling number of remote places that had reported no cases. The disparate group of places to officially remain untouched by the pandemic include Samoa, Turkmenistan, North Korea and bases in Antarctica.

INDIA

Twins named for pandemic

A couple in Chhattisgarh state have named their newborn twins Corona and Covid. The twins — a boy and a girl — were born during an ongoing 21-day long nationwide lockdown that began on Tuesday last week. “The delivery happened after facing several difficulties and therefore my husband and I wanted to make the day memorable,” Preeti Verma, the 27-old mother of the twins, told the Press Trust of India. The couple said the names would remind them about the hardships they faced during the lockdown and ahead of the successful delivery last week.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: World News Quick Take


content_text:
The chief judge of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday ordered the FBI to provide him with details about some of its investigations, including into the campaign team of Donald Trump prior to his 2016 presidential election win, after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) identified problems with more than two dozen wiretap applications.

The order from James Boasberg signals growing concern from the court that authorizes FBI surveillance about whether the bureau provided inaccurate information when it applied for wiretaps, including applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the early months of the investigation into alleged ties between the campaign and Russia.

The inspector-general last year found that the FBI made serious errors and omissions in its applications.

Those problems were highlighted in an earlier inspector-general report about the FBI’s Russian probe, then amplified by a new audit this week that suggested far more pervasive problems in the bureau’s use of its surveillance powers.

The scrutiny from the court, which relies on truthful information from the Justice Department in issuing warrants, could prompt additional changes in how the FBI conducts surveillance and also fuel concerns from lawmakers, who last month permitted certain tools to at least temporarily expire.

The latest review found problems in 29 surveillance applications, from October 2014 to September 2019, that Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Horowitz’s office reviewed. Those problems included factual statements in applications that were not corroborated by any supporting documentation.

In a four-page order on Friday, Boasberg directed the FBI to provide him with the names of the targets for each of the 29 applications.

He also asked the FBI to evaluate whether the applications contained “material misstatements or omissions” and whether those misstatements make any of the applications that were granted by the court invalid.

“The [Office of the Inspector-General] memorandum provides further reason for systemic concern,” Boasberg wrote in his order.

“It thereby reinforces the need for the court to monitor the ongoing efforts of the FBI and DOJ to ensure that, going forward, FBI applications present accurate and complete facts,” he wrote.

The FBI said in a statement that it would continue working with the court to ensure that its powers are used correctly.

It also said that the applications the inspector general reviewed were filed before FBI Director Chris Wray announced dozens of corrective steps after the conclusion of the Russia investigation.

“Maintaining the trust and confidence of the court is paramount to the FBI and we are continuing to implement the 40-plus corrective actions ordered by Director Wray in December 2019,” the statement said.

“Although the applications ... predate the announcement of these corrective actions, the FBI understands the court’s desire to obtain information related to the applications,” it said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: US judge demands more about Trump-linked FBI spying


title: Plane delivering pizzas in Australia

content_text:
Pizza and beer are being delivered by plane to remote ranches in the Australian outback in an attempt to bring a slice of cheer to those in extreme isolation amid a COVID-19 lockdown.

The Dunmarra Wayside Inn, a usually bustling roadside diner in Australia’s Northern Territory, used a small fixed-wing aircraft for a trial run of what it hopes will become a weekly flying takeaway service to far-flung cattle stations.

“The station that we did send them to absolutely loved them, so much that they ate them for breakfast the next morning,” Ben Anderson, the inn’s manager and pizza cook, told reporters on Friday.

The business had tried to keep the service under wraps until it was certain the plane deliveries would work.

“We’ve put in a massive pizza oven, which we kept extremely secret,” Anderson said.

However, news of the tasty drop-off proved too hot to handle and on Friday he was fielding calls from reporters — with one radio station asking if he could deliver to their studio in Perth, more than 3,000km away.

“That’s probably a bit out of our range,” Anderson said.

At the moment, Anderson and his team are only planning to fly to properties within 100km.

The idea was cooked up as travel restrictions bit into the outback’s peak tourist season, stopping the usual stream of caravans and months of booked-out rooms.

Regional travel in the Northern Territory remains strictly controlled, with large swathes in lockdown over fears for remote indigenous communities who experts warn could be particularly susceptible to an outbreak due to higher rates of chronic illness.

The idea to fly pizzas and other supplies to remote properties was more about supporting those in the area than simply a business venture, the inn’s owner, Gary Frost, told national broadcaster ABC.

“We’re just doing it as a friendly gesture to try and help people out,” Frost said.

Under the restrictions, even fly-in, fly-out deliveries have to be left at the door for residents to pick up.

“I said to the boss: ‘Maybe we should just get parachutes and drop them out the sky,’ but you never know where they’re gonna end up,” Anderson said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.


content_text:
Since becoming mayor of Prague more than two years ago, Zdenek Hrib has repeatedly irked China by meeting dissidents, criticizing its treatment of ethnic minorities and promoting ties with Taiwan.

Now, the 38-year-old Pirate Party member is a symbol of the skepticism Beijing must overcome as it rushes to aid a Europe ravaged by a pandemic that began on Chinese soil.

The Czech Republic was among numerous European countries to receive virus test kits and other medical supplies from China in recent weeks.

“This isn’t a humanitarian gift or aid,” Hrib said in a statement on Friday last week. “From China’s perspective, it’s business.”

Such sentiments are hardly surprising from Hrib, who flew the Tibetan flag over city hall on March 10 to commemorate the anniversary of the region’s failed 1959 revolt against Chinese Communist Party rule.

The defiant move — a throwback to late Czech president Vaclav Havel’s support for the Dalai Lama — came at a sensitive time for Beijing just as COVID-19 was prompting its first lockdowns in Europe.

The pandemic has shaken up China’s diplomatic efforts on the continent, which has been a major focus of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Belt and Road Initiative to recreate ancient trade routes across Asia.

In recent weeks, Xi’s government — confident that the coronavirus is under control at home — has sent supplies and disease experts to Europe, where the disease has killed more than 20,000.

Many such as the Czech Republic’s China-friendly president, Milos Zeman, have gladly accepted the support. Hrib represents another strain of Czech and European politics that is skeptical of Beijing’s promises and its strategic aims.

“I would really like us to be a country that wouldn’t steer away from the tradition of human rights,” Hrib said in an interview last year. “A country that would not turn away from victims of injustice, but one that offers a helping hand.”

Hrib’s moves have prompted angry protests by China, and the Shanghai municipal government severed economic ties with Prague after he entered a partnership with the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

If Prague continues to challenge China on Taiwan, Xinjiang or Tibet issues, the Chinese government would respond with firm countermeasures, said Shi Yinhong (時殷弘), an adviser to China’s cabinet and also a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.

“The Czech Republic, faced with the coronavirus challenge, took an opportunistic turn by seeking aid from China while its traditional European allies are unable even to fend for themselves,” Shi said. “China, which is aiming to project its victory overseas, enforced the narrative by offering help.”

Czechs critical of Beijing’s coronavirus support have highlighted problems with some 300,000 quick tests purchased from China, which health authorities said only worked if patients had been infected for at least five days, while about one-third were defective.

China has said that inaccurate results can be caused by user error and cautioned against politicizing any issues with faulty equipment.

“This is China fulfilling its role as a responsible major country and the Chinese people making kind and selfless contribution to the global response,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said on Tuesday in response to a question about whether Beijing was using its assistance to sway public opinion. “I believe that such efforts are worthy of respect, not disparagement.”

Before Hrib took over in 2018 — his first elected post — Prague’s position toward China had been aligned with the country’s official diplomatic stance, focused on economic ties. Two years earlier, Czech police suppressed peaceful protests and forced people to remove Tibetan flags from their homes during a visit by Xi.

Bilateral relations between China and the Czechs reached a pinnacle in 2015, when Zeman joined Xi at a military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Zeman was the only EU head of state in attendance.

Hrib, the Pirate Party’s former health policy expert, developed a fondness for democratically run Taiwan when he spent two months there as a medical student in 2005.

A certificate of honorary citizenship to Taipei hangs on his office wall. While his views resonate with much of Prague’s liberal population, it contradicts the Czech Republic’s “one China” principle.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry in October said that the Prague city government had since 2018 “repeatedly made erroneous moves and inappropriate remarks on major issues concerning China’s core interests such as topics regarding Taiwan and Tibet.”

Tensions between Prague and the Chinese government came to a head in January last year, when Chinese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Zhang Jianmin (張建敏) demanded that a representative of Taiwan be expelled from a reception hosted by Hrib.

“I refused, and I told him that here we don’t throw out guests we invited,” Hrib said. “So the ambassador rushed out himself.”

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: The Czech mayor who does not want China’s COVID-19 help


content_text:
NO LEGAL CLAIM:
 US District Judge Jed Rakoff wrote in his opinion that a sport that celebrates ‘stealing,’ even if only of a base, might not foster honest play

A US federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by fantasy sports contestants who claimed they were damaged by sign stealing in Major League Baseball.

Five men had sued MLB, MLB Advanced Media, the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox in US federal court in Manhattan, claiming fraud, contravention of consumer protection laws, negligence, unjust enrichment and deceptive trade practices by teams that broke league rules against the use of electronics to steal catchers’ signs.

“A sport that celebrates ‘stealing,’ even if only of a base, may not provide the perfect encouragement to scrupulous play,” US District Judge Jed Rakoff wrote on Friday in a 32-page opinion. “Nor can it be denied that an overweening desire to win may sometimes lead our heroes to employ forbidden substances on their [spit] balls, their (corked) bats, or even their (steroid-consuming) selves, but as Frank Sinatra famously said to Grace Kelly (in the 1956 movie musical High Society): ‘There are rules about such things.’”

League commissioner Rob Manfred ruled in January that the Astros broke regulations against electronic sign-stealing during home games on their way to World Series titles in 2017 and 2018.

He suspended manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow for one season apiece, and both were fired by the team.

Manfred fined the Astros US$5 million, the maximum under league rules, and stripped the team of its next two first and second-round draft picks.

Manfred fined the Red Sox in 2017 for using Apple Watches to pass along signals.

Boston is being investigated for possible breaches of electronic sign-stealing rules in 2018, when it won the World Series.

“In 2017 and thereafter, the Houston Astros, and somewhat less blatantly the Boston Red Sox, shamelessly broke that rule, and thereby broke the hearts of all true baseball fans,” Rakoff wrote.

“But did the initial efforts of those teams, and supposedly of Major League Baseball itself, to conceal these foul deeds from the simple sports bettors who wagered on fantasy baseball create cognizable legal claim?” Rakoff added. “On the allegations here made, the answer is no.”

The five men who sued participated in fantasy contests hosted by DraftKings between 2017 and last year.

“The connection between the alleged harm plaintiffs suffered and defendants’ conduct is simply too attenuated to support any of plaintiffs’ claims for relief,” Rakoff said.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: US judge dismisses sign-stealing suit


content_text:
From Virat Kohli having his hair cut by his Bollywood wife to Ravindra Jadeja on a stallion, India’s superstar cricketers are making the most of their enforced break during the national coronavirus lockdown.

At a time when the Indian Premier League (IPL) would normally be in full swing, Kohli has sent out a number of video messages telling people to stay indoors so that the virus’ spread can be contained.

However, the tweet that got the most media coverage and “likes” — more than 100,000 — was one posted by his actress wife Anushka Sharma of her cutting her style-icon husband’s hair.

At the same time, Kohli, 31, has been chatting live on Instagram with former England star Kevin Pietersen “about what’s happening world over at the moment and also about all the years we’ve known each other.”

Elite cricketers have a relentless travel schedule and while the lockdown is tough for many, Australia coach Justin Langer said that it was “nirvana” for his players to have an extended break at home.

Jadeja has been able to indulge his love of horses, posting a video of himself riding a white stallion. The all-rounder was also seen sprinting without a shirt on a treadmill.

Paceman Jasprit Bumrah, famous for his lethal sling-arm action, is contenting himself with watering plants, and using “this time to reflect on the aspects of my life that are truly important and picking up some new hobbies along the way.”

With many rich and middle-class Indians forced to do the housework themselves because their domestic staff cannot get to work, Bumrah also posted a video of him mopping a floor — less than successfully.

“My modified mobility drills are keeping the house clean and my mother very happy. (P.s — I had to do everything again without the slippers),” the 26-year-old wrote on Twitter along with the video.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which donated US$6.8 million to the prime minister’s coronavirus relief fund, has also kept its Twitter account active with the news of the players during curfew.

Pictures of Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara with his wife and daughter were displayed on the BCCI page.

“The Pujara family is spending some quality time home. Some household chores & fun time with the little one. Stay Home Stay Safe,” the post said.

Fast bowler Mohammed Shami is “having the most amazing time” with his dog Jack and opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan posted a skit of him doing household chores.

Cricket commentators have also kept the humor alive with witty posts, as India pursues a 21-day lockdown.

The lockdown has left hundreds of thousands of poor jobless, prompting many of them to walk hundreds of kilometers back to their home villages.

“Our hearts are breaking looking at the suffering of so many & we hope our contribution, in some way, helps easing the pain of our fellow citizens,” Kohli tweeted, adding that the couple were donating to relief funds.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

title: India cricketers make the most of virus lockdown


title: Compressed MLB schedule could mean more pitchers

content_text:
When and if opening day comes around this year, New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake anticipates a brimming bullpen.

Major League Baseball and the players’ association have talked about a compressed schedule to get in as many games as possible, which would set off a call to arms.

“I think if you have 15 guys it gives you some depth,” Blake said on Wednesday.

The Minnesota Twins’ Sergio Romo pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays in their MLB spring training matchup at the CenturyLink Sports Complex in Fort Meyers, Florida, on Feb. 23. Each team racked up five runs.
 Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY

Active rosters were to expand from 25 to 26 players from opening day through Aug. 31 in exchange for the limit dropping from 40 to 28 from Sept. 1 on.

When a strike delayed the start of the 1995 season until April 25 of that year, teams were allowed 28 players through May 15.

There is talk of 28 to 30-player rosters following the shutdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

Minnesota Twins pitcher Sergio Romo stops to say goodbye to parking operations worker Bill Fear as he leaves the Hammond Stadium in Fort Meyers, Florida, on March 14 after Major League Baseball suspended spring training.
 Photo: AP

Teams are preparing for a season that could extend into late November or even December, if domes and ballparks in warm-weather cities are used.

“Both the PA [Players Association] and the MLB are very, very adamant about playing as many games as we can this year,” Seattle pitcher Marco Gonzales said. “I think it favors everyone — the fans, the ownership group, the players. I think it’s the right thing to do, and so we’re going to probably have to get creative on how to do that. There’s been talk of doubleheaders, skipping off days here and there. There’s going to be a lot of things that we have to get creative with.”

Teams that carried nine or 10 pitchers in the 1960s and 1970s have had 13 in recent years, and even 14 for some American League games.

A new rule this season limits pitchers to 13 through August and 14 the rest of the way, but that could be tossed in a reconfigured season, as openers and perhaps six-player rotations gain prominence.

“We haven’t really mapped it out that far yet,” Blake said during a conference call from his home in Ohio. “We obviously know that our depth will be tested, as will both teams.”

MLB has delayed opening day until the middle of May at the earliest. Starting pitchers were two-to-three outings within being ready for the season.

“We’re doing everything we can to maintain kind of where we were, getting our up-and-downs and our pitch counts and all of that,” Chicago White Sox All-Star right-hander Lucas Giolito said. “Despite limited resources, we’re able to pick up a ball and throw it and change intensities and measure it out.”

“I think when it does come time for us to play again, we’ve already been communicating pretty much on a weekly basis with our coaching staff and training staff and everything like that,” Giolito added. “We’ll just kind of pick it up and kind of gauge where guys are at and make decisions from there.”

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.