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EQUITIES

Volatility spooks market

The TAIEX yesterday closed lower as investors remained concerned over further volatility on global markets as COVID-19 continues to spread. Large-cap technology shares were in the doldrums throughout the session, while selling in the petrochemical sector added downward pressure, despite an agreement reached by oil producers to cut output to bolster prices. The TAIEX closed down 58.39 points, or 0.57 percent, at 10,099.22 on turnover of NT$118.358 billion (US$3.93 billion). Foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$7.59 billion of shares, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.

ELECTRONICS

Ichia sees sequential growth

Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday posted pretax income of NT$14.22 million for the first quarter, despite consolidated revenue declining 20 percent year-on-year to NT$1.13 billion because of production disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. With a better product mix and improved management efficiency, gross margin improved 2 percentage points year-on-year to 10 percent in the first three months of the year, the flexible printed circuit board and handset keypad maker said. The outlook for this quarter would be better, as clients have started to replenish their inventories, Ichia said. The company also expects revenue and earnings to increase sequentially this year thanks to steady orders and improving production.

CHIP RESISTORS

Ta-i income rises 77.78%

Chip resistor supplier Ta-i Technology Co (大毅) yesterday posted net income of NT$80 million for last month, up 77.78 percent year-on-year, while revenue rose 28.98 percent to NT$383 million year-on-year. Earnings per share surged 134.55 percent year-on-year to NT$0.56, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Ta-i released the results at the request of the regulator due to an unusual spike in its share price. Ta-i shares yesterday fell 2.95 percent to close at NT$69 in Taipei trading. They have surged 27.07 percent in the past seven sessions, compared with the TAIEX’s 2.86 percent rise over the same period.

MARKETING

Hakuhodo deal approved

The Investment Commission yesterday approved Japanese marketing agency Hakuhodo Inc’s acquisition of advertising firm Growww Media Co Ltd (格威傳媒) via its local unit, Hakuhodo Taipei Investment Inc (台灣博報堂). Hakuhodo Inc in February announced a plan to acquire Growww Media via a tender offer, aiming to purchase 78.81 percent of the firm’s outstanding shares at NT$69 per share, a total investment of NT$1.85 billion. The Japanese company also plans a NT$2.5 billion rights issue to obtain a 100 percent stake in Hakuhodo Taipei.

FOOD DELIVERIES

Meituan rebuts criticism

China’s largest food-delivery provider, Meituan Dianping (美團點評), has hit back at allegations that it has charged onerous commissions to restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Responding to a complaint from a restaurant association in Guangdong Province, Meituan said that its average profit per order was less than 0.2 yuan (US$0.03) in the fourth quarter, accounting for just 2 percent of its revenue. After it launched, the company lost money for five years before breaking even last year, it added. “We need to invest most of our income to help merchants develop professional delivery services, acquire orders and improve digital infrastructure,” Meituan said in a statement.

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title: Taiwan Business Quick Take


people: 羅致政 吳斯懷 吳釗燮 江啟臣 王定宇 陳玉珍 蘇貞昌

title: The reality of Taiwan is evident

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Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) must be coming close to the end of his tether.

He hopes that he has reined in KMT Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), but whether he has remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) touched on the party’s most sensitive nerve during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Yuan, saying, rather provocatively, that “the Republic of China [ROC] is a country, Taiwan is not.”

This is quite at odds with mainstream public opinion in Taiwan, as we know from two recent surveys.

The first was published on Feb. 24 by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, and asked about cross-strait relations in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China. In this poll, 83.2 percent of respondents said they identified with being Taiwanese, the highest percentage polled in 30 years.

The second survey, which was also about how Taiwan is addressing the outbreak, was conducted by a think tank for the New Power Party and published on March 29. It found that almost 75 percent of respondents supported changing the nation’s English name on passports to Taiwan.

With this amount of support among the public for these issues, it is no wonder that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) felt emboldened enough to blast Chen over her statement, saying that she was not qualified to be a legislator.

Taiwan is in a state of suspension in terms of constitutional government and its legal identity. Perhaps the most effective metaphor would be the idea of virtual reality, if only because the ROC exists in the virtual realm, compared with Taiwan, which is the reality.

In 1949 the People’s Republic of China (PRC) defeated the ROC and inherited its status as the representative of China. This circumstance was gradually recognized by nations the world over, as well as the UN, in line with international law.

The point being, Taiwan actually exists, and is both sovereign and independent.

Chen was referring to the “virtual” ROC, while the Taiwan of Su and those who see the situation as he does is actual fact.

This being the case, what exactly is the “one China” principle? Perhaps we could look to official Chinese documents for the answer.

On March 18, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement to the effect that several US journalists working for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal would need to notify it within four days and “hand back their press cards within 10 calendar days” as they would no longer be allowed to work as journalists in the PRC and — and here comes my point — its special administrative zones, including Hong Kong and Macau.

Where in that statement is there any evidence that Taiwan falls under the jurisdiction of the PRC? In what way does China’s power or influence extend to Taiwan?

Chinese officials have proven the point themselves: The “one China” principle, then, is nothing but hot air.

Interestingly, when Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) invited those three newspapers to station journalists in Taiwan, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) responded that “Taiwan is not a country.”

Clearly, in Taiwan’s reality, China has no idea what it is talking about. That is the truth.

China has consistently used the idea of “one China” to bash Taiwan.

However, the corollary of this insistence is that if countries in the international community are required not to use the name ROC, then they have little alternative but to use the name Taiwan when referring to this nation.

It is no wonder that the WHO, which Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso has said should be renamed the Chinese Health Organization, has finally, after a string of prevarications about what to call us, eventually had to settle on “Taiwan.”

In addition, the power to decide whether to allow Taiwan into the WHO lies not in the WHO itself, but with its member states.

The name “Taiwan” has become the consensus within Taiwan and within the international community. Given this context, it does seem that changing the name on the nation’s passports is unavoidable.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) has said that it would be sufficient to simply remove the ROC and retain Taiwan.

If the name is to be changed, it should be done properly, as it needs to be done only once.

So long as it does not impinge upon the level of the Constitution, the greatest likelihood is that the change could be made to the maximum extent possible. This should be the basic principle.

DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) got it right when he said that the best policy would be just to use the name “Taiwan,” which would at the very least get around the problem of the “virtual” and transform it into reality.

The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified Taiwan’s status, just as it has diminished China’s, domestically and within the international community, and the reality of Taiwan has put pressure on Beijing’s delusion.

Chin Heng-wei is a political commentator.

Translated by Paul Cooper

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The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly disrupted life worldwide, and descended on humanity like a curse from above, a devilish and deadly disease, seemingly an act of homicide against men and women everywhere.

It has introduced fear, dread and anxiety into life in ways we could not have imagined only months ago, and disrupted the normal process of life in incredible ways.

Only months ago I was not wearing a mask every moment out of doors, scrubbing my hands dozens of times a day, mopping with bleach solutions inside and outside my home, polishing doorknobs with anti-bacterial wipes, keeping 2m and more distance between myself and others, and risking condemnation if I did not do all of these things.

Life has changed, apparently permanently, and in no way for the better.

What disturbs almost as much is how the comments on this disease by the worried masses are often extremely negative and exasperated (understandably), outwardly biased, or simply politicized in extreme ways.

Such extremism seems to be the likelihood in times like these, and yes, we must understand how people feel, but that does not excuse obstinate, jaundiced and antagonizing attacks.

Probably here I should mention WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ recent attacks on Taiwan, which veered into the baseless and unfounded, and were in sum denounced worldwide.

I appreciated President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) response to this on Facebook. No country should be “attacked” at a time like this, and the simple fact is that as emotions run high, we must control our responses.

Also over-politicized is the approach to China as the source of the virus, and Taiwan’s lack of a role in the WHO and its associated assemblies.

While China can and perhaps must be criticized for its role in all of this, at the same time we must control our reactions, and extend a humanitarian hand of assistance.

After all, China has also suffered during all of this. I denounce those who wish ill on China as a result of this disaster.

Nor is this the time to be hooting for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and any and all other groups Taiwan is excluded from. By its example so far during the crisis, Taiwan has been recognized globally, and made a great contribution to humankind.

I do not endorse the exclusion of Taiwan from the WHO and other collectives, but now is not the time for bureaucratic, jurisdictional rambling and skirmishing.

This turns this issue into a standard policy argument that is commonly made in normal political times, but should be avoided in an emergency. That which is municipal, national, political or communal should be dealt with in these times coincidentally, conjointly and collectively, in the best ways we can.

We should avoid notions of “sovereignty,” “self-determining,” “autonomy,” “populist” and the like during this emergency.

Although China’s actions and behavior have been difficult and often unwarranted in terms of this crisis, now is not the time to launch a quarrel. There is too much else we must address.

In spite of all I say here, there have been constructive and helpful comments about how we must move ahead.

EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said recently that “coordination and cooperation need to be our main focus. Now is the time to join forces in order to stop this epidemic. It is crucial that the entire international community focus on preparedness and response efforts to fight coronavirus, keeping international solidarity in mind.”

These are the comments we must pay attention to.

David Pendery is an associate professor at National Taipei University of Business.

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title: Solidarity worldwide crucial at this time


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Chicago’s Glenn Beckert, four-time All-Star, dies at 79

Glenn Beckert, a four-time All-Star second baseman for the Chicago Cubs in the 1960s and 1970s, died on Sunday. He was 79.

Citing his family, the Cubs said that he died of natural causes in Florida.

Playing alongside Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Ferguson Jenkins, Beckert won a Gold Glove in 1968 and made four straight All-Star teams starting in 1969.

“We lost a great one today, Glenn Beckert,” Jenkins wrote on Twitter. “Glenn was My friend, my @Cubs teammate, and the best man at my wedding. He will be greatly missed. My thoughts and prayers are with the Beckert family.”

Beckert batted .283 in 11 seasons with Chicago (1965 to 1973) and the San Diego Padres (1974 and 1975).

He led the National League five times in strikeout-to-at-bat ratio and finished third in batting in 1971 at a career-best .342.

“Glenn Beckert was a wonderful person who also happened to be an excellent ballplayer,” the Cubs said in a statement. “Glenn was a familiar sight at Wrigley Field and numerous Cubs Conventions, and he always had a memory to share of his time on-and-off the field with his beloved teammates.”

After playing shortstop in the minors, Beckert moved to second base with the Cubs for the 1965 season.

Beckert then teamed with shortstop Don Kessinger for his entire nine-year Cubs career to form one of the best double-play combinations in baseball.

Beckert was traded to San Diego after the 1973 season.

Beckert starred in baseball, basketball and football at Perry High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He went on to Allegheny College, earning a political science degree in 1962.

He signed with Boston that year and went to Chicago in the first-year minor league draft.

He is survived by daughters Tracy Seaman and Dana Starck, and longtime partner Marybruce Standley.

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Virus Outbreak: China in control amid calls for debt relief in Africa

Support is growing for debt relief to help the world’s poorest, indebted nations — most of them in Africa — confront the economic havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is one big question mark: China.

A two-decade lending spree has propelled China to the top of Africa’s creditor list and any comprehensive debt deal, including write-offs, would require Beijing to take a leading role and swallow losses, analysts say.

“China is in the driver’s seat, but this is going to require real pain for creditors and I’m not sure they’ve come to terms with that,” said Scott Morris, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington think tank.

A shipment of medical supplies donated by Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma sits on the tarmac at Blaise Diagne International Airport near Thies, Senegal, on March 28.
 Photo: Reuters

Beijing is likely to endorse a temporary freeze on debt payments by African countries as part of an expected agreement by the G20 major economies this week, two sources familiar with the process told reporters.

Debt relief is the obvious next step, but China is unlikely to lead the charge on such a move, analysts say, despite the potential opportunity to burnish its soft-power credentials.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the China International Development Cooperation Agency did not respond to requests for comment.

Unlike major Western countries that granted debt relief in the past, a large part of China’s debt to Africa carries commercial terms.

China itself is still an emerging economy with per capita income last year of US$10,153, below the average of US$45,447 for the top seven major economies, IMF data showed.

“China is still a rising power, and it is only a recent ... entrant as a major financial partner in Africa,” said Yunnan Chen of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a London think tank. “It also needs to make financial and economic returns on its investments. We are very unlikely to see direct loan forgiveness for a substantial bulk of loans.”

With its own economy expected to contract for the first time in three decades, China has signaled little appetite to go beyond its well-worn playbook of bilateral negotiations with debt-distressed partners.

“We can’t answer to every debt relief request without detailed analysis,” said He Haifeng (何海峰), director of the Institute of Financial Policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Science, a government think tank. “Some of the requests could cause moral hazard.”

Wealthy governments watching their own economies lurch toward recession are unlikely to pour significant resources into debt relief if they think the money would indirectly support Chinese creditors, analysts say.

The IMF and World Bank are pushing for a payment moratorium on bilateral debt owed by the world’s poorest countries.

A Chinese official told reporters that Beijing was willing to work with borrowers on a bilateral basis and agreed that some countries should not be forced to service debt during the pandemic.

African finance ministers are calling for a US$100 billion stimulus package, of which US$44 billion would come from not servicing debt — bilateral, multilateral or commercial. They want some debt owed by Africa’s poorest nations canceled and the remainder converted into long-term, low-interest loans.

That is a big ask, experts said.

China’s government, banks and companies lent about US$143 billion to Africa from 2000 to 2017, much of it for large-scale infrastructure projects, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. By some estimates, Chinese lending now dwarfs World Bank loans in Africa.

The ODI estimates that lending from China makes up 33 percent of external debt in Kenya, 17 percent in Ethiopia and 10 percent in Nigeria.

Terms of Chinese lending have generally been favorable, although a CGD study published earlier this month found that they were consistently harder than World Bank terms.

Chinese institutions offered fewer grants; grace periods on loans were shorter, and the weighted mean interest rate was higher — 4.14 percent compared with the World Bank’s 2.1 percent.

Beijing has a history of working with struggling borrowers, but the process often aims to ease short-term pressure to ensure eventual repayment.

The New York-based Rhodium Group research firm, analyzing some recent negotiations between China and its borrowers, last year found that debt forgiveness was relatively common, although the sums involved were often small and paired with substantial additional lending.

In Sudan, for example, China wrote off US$160 million in 2017, 2.5 percent of the estimated US$6.5 billion it was owed.

Ghanan Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta last week said that China needed to do more.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said that the nation would engage its partners individually.

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‘ONE LAP TOO MANY’:
 Sportsmanship cost Moss the 1958 title when he defended the conduct of rival Mike Hawthorn following a spin at the Portuguese Grand Prix

Stirling Moss, widely regarded as the greatest motor racing driver never to win the world title, has died aged 90 following a long illness.

“It was one lap too many,” his wife, Susie Moss, told Britain’s Press Association on Sunday. “He just closed his eyes.”

Tributes flooded in from the world of motorsport and beyond to the gifted and revered driver, who never won the Formula One title, finishing runner-up four times and third three times.

Former British Formula One driver Stirling Moss waves to spectators as he sits in his 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza at the Ennstal Classic rally near Groebming, Austria, on July 20, 2013.
 Photo: Reuters

“Today we say goodbye to Sir Stirling Moss, the racing legend,” reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton wrote on Instagram.

“Two people from massively different times and backgrounds but we clicked and ultimately found that the love for racing we both shared made us comrades,” the six-time world champion wrote.

Meanwhile, three-time world champion Jackie Stewart, who started racing shortly after Moss’ injury-enforced retirement in the early 1960s, told the BBC: “I think he’s probably the best example of a racing driver there’s ever been.”

“He walked like a racing driver, he talked like a racing driver, he behaved like a racing driver should behave,” Stewart said.

“Sir Stirling Moss has reached life’s checkered flag, and what a race he drove. Wonderful driver and a lovely man. RIP,” Former England soccer player Gary Lineker wrote on Instagram

British media reported that Moss had succumbed to a chest infection he caught in Singapore in December 2016 that saw him retire from public life two years later. There is no suggestion his death was linked to COVID-19.

In an era when it was common for drivers to race in different disciplines, Moss won 212 of the 529 races he entered over a 14-year career that started in 1948.

His victories included the 1955 Mille Miglia, where he set a course record in the 1,000 mile (1,609km) event, which took place on public roads in Italy.

In Formula One, Moss won 16 races, with his first victory coming in the 1955 British Grand Prix in Liverpool that saw him become the first British winner.

Moss had the misfortune to compete in the same era as the great Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the world championship five times.

His renowned sportsmanship cost Moss the 1958 title when he defended the conduct of British rival Mike Hawthorn following a spin at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Moss’ action helped spare Hawthorn a six-point penalty, with Hawthorn winning the title by a single point.

“I had no hesitation in doing it,” Moss said. “I can’t see how this is open to debate. The fact that he was my only rival in the championship didn’t come into my thinking. Absolutely not.”

His top-level career in motorsport came to an end in 1962 following a crash at the Goodwood track in southern England that left him in a coma for a month and partially paralyzed for six months.

However, such was the enduring fame of the debonair driver that, for decades afterward, the rhetorical phrase: “Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” was supposedly the standard question all British police officers asked speeding motorists.

“Yes, a policeman did once ask me, but I couldn’t work out if he was taking the mick [joking],” Moss told the Daily Telegraph in a 2012 interview.

He was knighted in the New Year Honours list in 2000 for services to motor racing.

For Formula One pundit and former driver Martin Brundle, Moss was “a mighty racer and gentleman.”

“He had a press on style on the track and in life,” Brundle wrote on Twitter. “Remarkable man. Survived the most dangerous era of motorsport and died today aged 90. He had such great stories to tell, and it was a privilege to know him.”

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno said that Moss had “privately supported me over many years.”

“My thoughts are with his family and all that had the pleasure of knowing him,” Bruno said.

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title: F1 legend Stirling Moss dies aged 90


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Virus Outbreak: Kia Motors plans to suspend three South Korea plants

Kia Motors Corp told its labor union in South Korea that it wants to suspend operations at three of its domestic factories as the COVID-19 outbreak weighs on exports to Europe and the US, a union official said yesterday.

The union has not yet decided whether to accept the plan — under which operations would be suspended from Thursday next week to April 29 — because negotiations over pay are ongoing, the official said.

“Kia Motors is currently reviewing the suspension of some of its plants in Korea in response to declining global demand due to COVID-19. However, a decision has not been made at this time,” Kia Motors said in a statement.

Kia Motors’ share price fell 4.84 percent and that of affiliate Hyundai Motor Co declined 1.91 percent in a wider market that was 1.88 percent lower at the close of trade yesterday.

Hyundai Motor halted a line producing its Tucson sport utility vehicle in the southeastern city of Ulsan from yesterday to Friday

Hyundai and Kia Motors have suspended operations at most of their factories outside South Korea and China as the coronavirus spreads fast beyond Asia.

South Korea’s exports for the first 10 days of April plunged 18.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, far below the 20.8 percent jump from March 1 to March 10.

Shipments of vehicles and vehicle components during the period tumbled 7.1 percent and 31.8 percent respectively, government data showed.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has vowed to focus on saving jobs and protecting the economy amid worries about possible mass unemployment in the wake of the pandemic.

Moon said during a meeting with presidential advisers yesterday that South Korea’s economy cannot help being affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The latest progress in South Korea’s anti-virus quarantine campaign is easing the outbreak’s economic impact, but the biggest concern is an employment issue, because the number of people seeking unemployment benefits is rising sharply, he said.

“It may be the beginning of pains... We must work out special countermeasures,” Moon said.

Additional reporting by AP

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title: Virus Outbreak: ‘Ghosts’ help keep villagers indoors

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Kepuh village in Indonesia has been haunted by ghosts recently — mysterious white figures jumping out at unsuspecting passersby, then gliding off under a full-moon sky.

The village on Java has deployed a cast of “ghosts” to patrol the streets, hoping that age-old superstition can keep people indoors and safely away from COVID-19.

“We wanted to be different and create a deterrent effect because pocong are spooky and scary,” said Anjar Pancaningtyas, head of a village youth group that coordinated with the police on the initiative to promote social distancing.

A handout picture made available yesterday by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense shows a Russian military specialist disinfecting the Nis Military Hospital in Nis, Serbia, on Monday.
 Photo: EPA-EFE / Russian Ministry of Defense

Known as pocong, the ghostly figures are typically wrapped in white shrouds with powdered faces and kohl-rimmed eyes.

In local folklore they represent the trapped souls of the dead.

However, when they first started appearing this month they had the opposite effect: Instead of keeping people in they bought them out to catch a glimpse of the apparitions.

The organizers have since changed tack, launching surprise pocong patrols, with village volunteers playing the part of the ghosts.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has resisted a national lockdown to curb the disease, instead urging people to practice social distancing and good hygiene.

However, with the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths in Asia after China, some communities, such as Kepuh, have decided to take measures into their own hands, imposing the ghostly patrols, lockdowns and restricting movement in and out of their village.

“Residents still lack awareness about how to curb the spread of COVID-19 disease,” village head Priyadi said. “They want to live like normal, so it is very difficult for them to follow the instruction to stay at home.”

There are now 4,557 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, and 399 deaths, with fears the numbers could rise significantly. University of Indonesia researchers estimate there could be 140,000 deaths and 1.5 million cases by next month without tougher curbs on movement.

When reporters recently visited Kepuh village, the supernatural strategy seemed to be working, with villagers running off in fright when the ghosts materialized.

“Since the pocong appeared, parents and children have not left their homes,” resident Karno Supadmo said. “And people will not gather or stay on the streets after evening prayers.”

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MEXICO

Employment market shrinks

The employment market had its worst March in a quarter of a century as the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on Latin America’s second largest economy. The country lost more than 130,500 jobs in the month from February after the employment market shrank 0.6 percent, a statement from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) said. The net job losses were the first for the month of March since 2002 and the most since 1995. Despite net job losses, base salaries grew by an annual nominal rate of 7.1 percent to 399.3 pesos, (US$17.02) IMSS said.

EUROZONE

Official warns of takeovers

EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager told the Financial Times that member countries should buy stakes in companies to counter the threat of Chinese takeovers, with her comments coming as the EU formulates plans to protect its businesses amid the COVID-19 outbreak. “We don’t have any issues of states acting as market participants if need be, if they provide shares in a company, if they want to prevent a takeover of this kind,” Vestager said. “It’s very important that one is aware that there is a real risk that businesses that are vulnerable can be the object of a takeover,” she added. “The situation now really underlines the need so we work really intensively.”

HONG KONG

Officials face pay cut

Senior government officials face a 20 percent reduction in their annual salaries, through a combination of voluntary income cuts and previously announced donations, Financial Secretary Paul Chan (陳茂波) said on Sunday. A portion of the income has been donated to the Community Chest of Hong Kong and the remainder would go to government coffers, Chan told reporters. He said that he has no plans to lift the property measures introduced years ago aimed at cooling the real-estate market, adding that the government expects land sales and tax revenue in the territory to decline.

TRADE

China upholding US pact

China is still implementing the first phase of a US-China trade pact, Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) said, adding that he hoped the two could work together to assess the changing situation and coordinate their response, the Global Times reported on Sunday. The world’s two biggest economies signed the tentative deal to pause a damaging tariff war in January, before the coronavirus pandemic spread, threatening a global economic depression. Cui said China was still buying US agricultural products, and was lifting some curbs faced by foreign companies entering its financial market, the newspaper said.

SECURITIES

Chinese start-ups punished

The China Securities Regulatory Commission has punished two thriving start-ups for misleading shareholders, barring them access to public markets for new funding. Shares of Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology Co (寧波容百新能源科技) and Zhejiang HangKe Technology Inc (浙江杭可科技) closed down at least 10 percent in Shanghai yesterday after the companies were told they would not be allowed to sell stocks or bonds publicly for a year. The punishment — for not fully disclosing links to a customer who then failed to pay its bills — is the first of its kind for a company trading on the city’s Star board.

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title: World Business Quick Take


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After 20 years, cricket still reeling from Cronje scandal

It might be two decades since the Hansie Cronje corruption scandal rocked cricket, but even now the ripples are still being felt.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Cronje being stripped of the South Africa captaincy following an extraordinary sequence of events earlier in 2000.

In January, come the last day of a “dead” Test against England (South Africa had already won the series), a draw seemed inevitable after rain had washed out three days.

Yet Cronje contrived a positive result by getting England captain Nasser Hussain to agree that both sides would forfeit an innings.

England were left with a target of 249 for victory after Cronje declared and eventually won by two wickets.

Traditionalists were aghast at the interference with the “proper” course of a Test, yet few were prepared for what was to come.

In April, Cronje’s image as a religious sportsman — he wore a bracelet inscribed with the words “What Would Jesus Do?” — was shattered for all time.

An Agence France-Presse (AFP) report, later confirmed by New Delhi police, said that the force had telephone recordings of Cronje and an Indian bookmaker discussing predetermined Proteas performances during the tour of India the previous month.

Such was Cronje’s standing at home and abroad, the initial reaction was one of “shock and disbelief.”

It was a sentiment shared by Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board, the forerunner of Cricket South Africa.

“When AFP broke the story before the official press conference by the Delhi police, I remember the office receiving a call from Dr Bacher blasting the agency for ruining the reputation of one of South Africa’s most iconic personalities,” said Kuldip Lal, the Delhi-based cricket reporter behind the scoop.

“He threatened to sue us. I thought to myself that if the story is incorrect, a few of us may need to look for another job,” Lal added.

However, Cronje’s partial confession a few days later led to a “feeling of relief” in AFP’s Delhi bureau.

“To his credit, Dr Bacher called the office to apologize for his earlier outburst,” Lal said.

Cronje later confessed to several allegations at the South African government-appointed King Commission, including attempts to bribe Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to underperform in a one-day international against India.

He also admitted to receiving hundreds of thousands of US dollars from bookmakers to prearrange certain conditions — cricket’s complexity means gambling coups are possible without “fixing” the result — with his Centurion effort netting him about US$6,000 and a leather jacket.

Cronje, who insisted that he had never thrown a game, was later given a life ban from cricket, yet his reputation remained high with both his former teammates and the South African public.

Batsman Daryll Cullinan testified that Cronje, who died in a 2002 plane crash, had offered the team US$250,000 to throw a match, before adding that he still thought of him “as a great captain and a great leader.”

Meanwhile, separate national hearings and investigations led to life bans for Pakistan’s Saleem Malik and India’s Mohammad Azharuddin.

Yet their suspensions were among several punishments subsequently overturned, although for Malik and Azharuddin the initial sanctions effectively ended the careers of two world-class batsmen.

The International Cricket Council responded by creating a new anti-corruption unit led by Paul Condon, former head of London’s Metropolitan Police.

However, it was desperately understaffed and 10 years ago it was Britain’s News of the World that exposed the willingness of Pakistan captain Salman Butt, and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, to engage in spot-fixing.

Since then a beefed-up unit, respected for its work in educating players about the dangers of corruption, has had a greater impact, with its investigations leading to New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent receiving a life ban for match-fixing in 2014.

However, the rise of Twenty20 franchise leagues and the development of the sport have created new targets for fixers.

As has happened in tennis, they can now turn their attention to less high-profile areas of the game, where the financial rewards for players are far less and the temptation to cheat potentially all the greater.

One constant, though, is that betting on cricket in India, the sport’s biggest market, is illegal, meaning there is no formal regulation, even though gambling on horse racing is not.

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content_text:
Thomson Reuters Foundation, IGWA, Solomon Islands

Jessica Jacinta was just a child when loggers first arrived in the forest a few kilometers from her Solomon Islands village of Igwa.

Soon, they had cleared large stretches of land so aggressively that it would take decades for trees to recover and leave behind contaminated water sources and ruined agricultural ground, local residents said.

Every year, Jacinta saw there was a little less distance between her and the loggers, until in 2016 a logging company called Ngu Brothers began operating in an area that bordered forest belonging to the people of Igwa, she said.

This was where Jacinta, now 29, and her sisters had learned bushcraft, her father had hunted and her family had fled during periods of violence in the South Pacific island nation.

“I like it here, it’s so beautiful,” Jacinta said, making her way through the untouched slopes one morning. “My grandmother taught us how to eat the fruits and the leaves and to survive in the bush.”

The Solomon Islands is one of the poorest countries in the Pacific and logging makes up a major portion of its national income.

Wood accounted for about 75 percent of its total exports in 2018, according to the World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) database.

The logging industry is loosely regulated in the Solomon Islands, and companies regularly encroach into areas without licenses to fell, said Chris Bone of the New Zealand-based advocacy group OceansWatch.

Jacinta wanted to make sure that did not happen to her community, so she and half a dozen women became self-appointed rangers in the forest, monitoring their land and making sure the loggers knew they were doing so.

“I was really worried,” she said. “If they came here, there’d be no wood left to build even a house.”

The Thomson Reuters Foundation could not find any Web site for Ngu Brothers, but contacted a LinkedIn account listed as belonging to Derek Ngu, a New Zealand-based director for the company, who did not respond.

One of the company’s security guards in Igwa said logging companies provided scarce job opportunities.

Martin, a security guard related to Jacinta who asked to only be identified by his first name, said he had recently returned to the Solomon Islands after dropping out of university in Fiji.

“This was the only job I could get,” he said with a shrug, declining to comment on the firm’s logging operations.

Not long after Ngu Brothers arrived, Jacinta and a group of local women secured the support of their village, where conservation was still a novel concept.

Every week, they ventured up into the trees to walk the boundaries of their land, picking their way barefoot through the mud, machetes in hand.

They soon confronted loggers who had attempted to fell there.

“They already tried to go into our land,” said Monica Taafuni, 48, on one such walk. “But we stopped the logging company from coming to this bit.”

Jacinta said local people who hoped to derive an income from logging firms opposed them, but the women built a relationship with some of the company’s workers.

The women joined a coterie of small, community-led conservation initiatives that have sprung up in the Solomon Islands in the past few years following growing awareness about climate change and deforestation.

Widespread logging began in the archipelago soon after its independence from Britain in 1976. Since then, forests have been devastated, wreaking a severe toll on wildlife and residents alike, local activists said.

The timber companies are usually Chinese or Malaysian, and most of the wood is exported as round logs to be processed in China, according to UK-based advocacy group Global Witness.

Commercially viable natural forests could be exhausted by 2036 if current trends continue, said a 2018 Global Witness report that referenced satellite imagery and Ministry of Finance trade data.

The Solomon Islands government also described logging and log export trends as “highly unsustainable” in a 2018 paper.

Despite such concerns, there is little political will to tackle the problem, and corruption is endemic in the industry, said Ruth Liloqula, executive director of the watchdog group Transparency Solomon Islands.

With few job alternatives, some community leaders sign over rights to their land in exchange for a tiny fraction of its worth or in the hope of employment opportunities, but skilled positions are usually filled by foreign workers, Liloqula said.

The Solomon Islands ministries of finance and the environment did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

In a still-strongly patriarchal society, women like Jacinta usually do not benefit from the logging industry or potential jobs, charity World Fish said in a 2018 report.

The arrival of foreign firms might also put younger women and girls at risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation, said Angelica Neville, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration in the Solomon Islands.

“Logging projects tend to increase project-induced migration toward particular locations, bringing a predominantly male workforce and cash economies where they did not always used to exist,” Neville said.

There are currently several logging operations near Igwa, locals said, and much of the forest along the bumpy road leading there from the provincial capital of Auki is already gone.

Logging roads cut up into the hills and piles of tree trunks labeled with spray paint lie in cleared ground by the sea where they are loaded into barges bound for cargo ships anchored offshore.

Jacinta’s father, Timothy Kwaitaa, 62, has fond memories of picnicking under the trees by the water with family and friends.

Today, there is nothing but scarred red earth dotted with piles of rusted fuel drums and abandoned heavy machinery.

“It’s too awful,” Kwaitaa said, gesturing around at the damage. “We will never grow anything here again.”

Initially skeptical, he and the rest of their family are now enthusiastic backers of Jacinta’s group.

The group linked up with the Mai-Maasina Green Belt Initiative, a recently founded organization on Malaita Island designed to connect and organize communities that wish to be involved in similar projects.

Further down the coast, another small group of villagers has formed to look after endangered leatherback turtles and recently hosted Jacinta and the others at a conservation workshop.

The Igwa women have now built a hut a few kilometers inland from the village and close enough to the Ngu Brothers logging encampment that they are aware of its movements.

They spend days and sometimes weeks there at a time.

Kwaitaa’s brother, Simon, sometimes picks up rubbish around the camp in exchange for small sums of money.

The women say they have maintained relations with the firm, which employs a number of local men in unskilled positions.

They plan to remain there as long as the company does, and to ask the government to declare the land a formal conservation area, which requires extensive surveying, mapping and paperwork.

“This was our ancestors’ land,” said Florence Arukwai, 42, another member of the group. “If we weren’t here, the loggers would destroy it all.”

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title: Women join forces to fight logging in the Solomon Islands


content_text:
As the scientific community struggles to understand the workings of COVID-19, the pandemic is being faced by countries worldwide.

One nation, Taiwan, has been able to stand on the front line, less than 100km from the east coast of China, from late December last year until now, with fewer than 400 confirmed cases and just six deaths.

The majority of the confirmed cases identified in Taiwan since late February were imported, while most of the cases were brought from China from late January to February.

Taiwan’s frontline defense has been extremely effective, making it a very safe country since the outbreak first began in Wuhan, China.

With more than half a million Taiwanese working in the epicenter of the pandemic, Taiwan’s early success in defending against the virus was incredible.

Many have wondered what magical strategies Taiwan employed, while global superpowers such as the US were not able to effectively ward off the virus.

A lack of trust in global health authorities such as the WHO, as well as China’s health authority helped Taiwan defend against the virus.

Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣中正) regime was expelled from the WHO from January 1972, and for decades, Taiwan was a name unheard in the global health world.

In 1998, enterovirus 71 spread across South Asia, eventually reaching Taiwan. The nation had more than 400 confirmed cases, resulting in 71 infant deaths.

Not a single piece of information was reported by the WHO with regard to the emerging casualties in Taiwan.

In the late 1990s, the Western Pacific WHO region sought to declare the whole region free of poliomyelitis, but the WHO had no understanding of the situation in Taiwan. With no polio cases reported since 1983, Taiwan’s success went unrecognized.

Taiwan called up an international committee of experts which was only able to make the ad hoc announcement in 2000.

The reality was that, since 1972, the WHO was not at all aware of the public health situation and disease prevalence in Taiwan, as China had failed to report on its so-called “rogue province island.”

The drama created by China in the WHO since the early 1970s and the propaganda pushed by Beijing in the UN and the WHO with regards to Taiwan’s representation was realized openly in the annual World Health Assembly from 1997.

Each year, Taiwanese health professionals and health authorities have asked allies to support Taiwan’s inclusion in high-level public health conferences.

Chinese delegates have viciously used any means possible to beat down each of these attempts its pretend that China has the right to present and to decide on Taiwan’s health affairs.

However, the arguments are mostly about political interests, instead of following the WHO constitution and the principle of “health of all.”

Taiwan learned another painful lesson in its fight against SARS. In late 2002, an unknown viral pneumonia spread from China’s Guangdong Province to Hong Kong and other destinations frequented by Chinese travelers.

Taiwan reported imported cases after the Lunar New Year in 2003. However, a few cases of SARS were missed entering Taiwan from China, resulting in massive community transmission.

It eventually led to a semi-lockdown of Taiwan, with more than 100,000 people being placed in quarantine for weeks.

When all the other countries — including China, Vietnam and Malaysia — made their way out of the SARS outbreak, Taiwan was left alone in its fight against SARS, without any assistance or information from the WHO, let alone from China.

Ten healthcare workers died after being infected as they treated SARS patients.

Taiwan’s healthcare system was given a tremendous wake-up call — many changes to the system occurred in the following years, which included setting up hospital patient safety measures, building negative-pressure wards throughout the country, implementing intensive training for healthcare workers and giving the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) new resources, such as access to community disease reporting from all clinics and hospitals simultaneously.

The CDC was equipped with decentralized reference laboratories, supported by an informatics-based national health insurance scheme.

The CDC also declared implementation of the WHO’s revised International Health Regulations (2005) in early 2006, one of the first to do this before all the WHO member states.

However, the WHO has continued to be blind to all of Taiwan’s efforts, and rejected donations worth millions of US dollars to fight the Ebola epidemic and for other health matters.

Taiwan was not simply lucky in battling COVID-19, as it was so close to the epicenter of outbreak, with many people traveling between Taiwan and China.

The only systemic magic Taiwan used in defeating the new coronavirus was due to the painful lessons it had learned, it failure to be recognized by the WHO and its mistreatment by China.

Taiwan learned in the past 20 years to safeguard its people and hospitals from negligence and “not to trust your enemy or the WHO.”

Peter Chang is a member of the Control Yuan.

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title: A nation long failed by the WHO


people: 沈榮津 蔡英文 馬英九

title: EDITORIAL: Cash handouts not the answer

content_text:
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been criticizing the government’s plan to give people electronic coupons to spur the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic abates, calling ad nauseam for the government to give people cash handouts.

Even former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), of all people, yesterday urged President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to provide cash handouts, citing the NT$3,600 (US$119.52) “consumer vouchers” that his administration distributed in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis, which he said were “very popular.”

True, people were happy to receive the vouchers, but did they really work in terms of revitalizing the economy?

The Ma administration pushed national debt up by NT$85.8 billion by issuing the vouchers, which only generated NT$36.3 billion in GDP.

As of December 2009, the Council for Economic Planning and Development, the precursor of the National Development Council, said the vouchers only contributed approximately 0.4 percent GDP growth — much lower than the estimated 0.66 to 1 percent.

This was the result of a widespread substitution effect — nearly 70 percent of the goods purchased with the vouchers were consumables such as daily necessities.

A major difference between Ma’s vouchers and Su’s coupons is that the latter would utilize mobile payment methods and would only be redeemable when the value of products people have committed to purchase reaches a certain sum.

Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) has said that the electronic coupons, which would have a combined value of NT$3,000 and would cost the government about NT$10 billion, are expected to trigger purchases worth four times their value and bring stores NT$100 billion in profits.

Rather than squandering taxpayers’ money by just giving the public cash equivalents to spend, the coupons are already looking more promising in terms of leveraging consumption.

Another KMT argument against the government’s economic stimulus plan is that the US, Singapore and Hong Kong have all pledged to give their citizens cash.

However, the government has reiterated its stance against giving out cash indiscriminately, saying that wealthy people do not need the money, and its many subsidy programs for sectors that have been hard hit by the pandemic all involve cash payments.

Yet despite the government’s repeated explanations of its bailout policies, the KMT appears deaf, as the party continues to call for cash handouts.

It is important that people not be tricked by the KMT’s deliberate obtuseness. Since it lost the presidency and a legislative majority four years ago, it has become a master of creating conflict and pitting personal interests against the public interest.

The KMT, knowing full well that the Public Service Pension Fund was headed for bankruptcy, supported protests against the Democratic Progressive Party administration’s pension reforms.

Similarly, the KMT knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that its cross-strait policy stance that the Republic of China is the “one China” is no more than a pipe dream, yet has touted that pipe dream for more than a decade, because it knows that only by creating conflict can it gain enough support to control resources, if only at the local government level.

KMT politicians are not the blind fools that many people think they are. They clearly have agendas.

The bottom line is that people should remain clear-headed in the face of the KMT’s rhetoric — a lesson that Kaohsiung residents have learned the hard way after the 2018 mayoral election.

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content_text:
No choice but to retire due to virus, Abendanon says

Former England rugby union fullback Nick Abendanon on Sunday announced that he was retiring due to a lack of an opportunity to prove his quality with the French Top 14 season on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abendanon, 33, who made his two Test appearances in 2007, joined ASM Clermont Auvergne in 2014 after nine seasons with Bath and his contract finishes this summer.

“It’s difficult, but at the end of June I have to stop, I haven’t got a choice,” Abendanon told the Midi Olympique. “In my head, I hoped to play as much as possible at the end of the season to prove I was at this level and I deserved a contract at another club.”

The season has been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nine rounds of the French top flight remaining.

Clermont had also qualified for the European Champions Cup quarter-finals.

“It’s not at all my decision. There are things above us in life, events more important than your plans. I don’t feel ready to stop, but I have to,” Abendanon said.

Abendanon, who won the Top 14 in 2017, two Challenge Cup trophies and was the European Player of the Year in 2015, had talks with the San Diego Legion in the US and had been linked with a return to the English Premiership with London Irish.

“I had contact with some clubs, discussions that were advanced, but everything went cold. Now, I have nothing,” he said.

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title: EDITORIAL CARTOON


content_text:
Pass the salt: The minute details that helped Germany build virus defenses
More than 40 German scientists helped investigate the first documented chain of multiple human-to-human transmissions of COVID-19 outside of Asia, pushing for the testing and isolation of infected people in a bid to stop the virus from spreading

One January lunchtime in a car parts company, a worker turned to a colleague and asked to borrow the salt.

As well as the saltshaker, in that instant, they shared the new coronavirus, scientists have since concluded.

That their exchange was documented at all is the result of intense scrutiny, part of a rare success story in the global fight against the virus.

The coworkers were early links in what was to be the first documented chain of multiple human-to-human transmissions outside Asia of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

They are based in Stockdorf, a German town of 4,000 near Munich in Bavaria, and they work at car parts supplier Webasto Group.

The company was thrust under a global microscope after it disclosed that one of its employees, a Chinese woman, caught the virus and brought it to Webasto headquarters.

There, it was passed to colleagues — including, scientists would learn, a person lunching in the canteen with whom the Chinese patient had no contact.

The Jan. 22 canteen scene was one of dozens of mundane incidents that scientists have logged in a medical manhunt to trace, test and isolate infected workers so that the regional government of Bavaria could stop the virus from spreading.

That hunt has helped Germany win crucial time to build its COVID-19 defenses.

The time Germany bought might have saved lives, scientists said.

Its first outbreak of locally transmitted COVID-19 began earlier than Italy’s, but Germany has had many fewer deaths.

Italy’s first detected local transmission was on Feb. 21.

By then Germany had launched a Ministry of Health information campaign and a government strategy to tackle the virus, which would hinge on widespread testing.

In Germany so far, more than 3,020 people have died of COVID-19. In Italy, with a smaller population, the total exceeds 19,890.

METICULOUS TRACING

“We learned that we must meticulously trace chains of infection in order to interrupt them,” said Clemens Wendtner, the doctor who treated the Munich patients.

Wendtner teamed up with some of Germany’s top scientists to tackle what became known as the “Munich cluster,” and they advised the Bavarian government on how to respond.

Bavaria led the way with the lockdowns, which went nationwide on March 22.

Scientists, including UK Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty have credited Germany’s early, widespread testing with slowing the spread of the virus.

“We all know Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus and there’s a lot to learn from that,” he said on TV last week.

Christian Drosten, deputy coordinator for emerging infections at Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin, the hospital’s top virologist, said Germany was helped by having a clear early cluster.

“Because we had this Munich cohort right at the start ... it became clear that with a big push we could inhibit this spreading further,” he said in a daily podcast for NDR radio on the coronavirus.

Drosten, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was one of more than 40 scientists involved in scrutiny of the cluster.

Their work was documented in preliminary form in a working paper at the end of last month, intended for The Lancet. The paper, not yet peer-reviewed, was shared on the NDR site.

It was on Monday, Jan. 27, that Webasto chief executive Holger Engelmann told the authorities that one of his employees had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The woman, who was based in Shanghai, had facilitated several days of workshops and attended meetings at Webasto’s HQ.

The woman’s parents, from Wuhan, had visited her before she traveled on Jan. 19 to Stockdorf, the paper said.

While in Germany, she felt unusual chest and back aches and was tired for her whole stay, but she put the symptoms down to jet lag.

She became feverish on the return flight to China, tested positive after landing and was hospitalized. Her parents also later tested positive.

She told her managers of the result and they e-mailed the chief executive.

Engelmann said he immediately set up a crisis team that alerted the medical authorities and started trying to trace staff members who had been in contact with their Chinese colleague.

The chief executive himself was among them.

“Just four or five days before I received the news, I had shaken hands with her,” he said.

CASE NO. 0

Now known as Germany’s “Case No. 0,” the Shanghai patient is a “long-standing, proven employee from project management” who Engelmann knows personally, he said.

The company has not revealed her identity or that of others involved, saying anonymity has encouraged staff to cooperate in Germany’s effort to contain the virus.

The task of finding who had contact with her was made easier by Webasto workers’ electronic calendars — for the most part, all the doctors needed was to look at staff appointments.

“It was a stroke of luck,” Wendtner said. “We got all the information we needed from the staff to reconstruct the chains of infection.”

For example, Case No. 1 — the first person in Germany to be infected by the Chinese woman — sat next to her in a meeting in a small room on Jan. 20, the scientists wrote.

Where calendar data were incomplete, the scientists said, they were often able to use whole genome sequencing, which analyses differences in the genetic code of the virus from different patients, to map its spread.

By following all these links, they discovered that Case No. 4 had been in contact several times with the Shanghai patient. Then Case No. 4 sat back-to-back with a colleague in the canteen.

When that colleague turned to borrow the salt, the scientists deduced, the virus passed between them. The colleague became Case No. 5.

Webasto said on Jan. 28 it was temporarily closing its Stockdorf site. Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, a total of 16 COVID-19 cases were identified in the Munich cluster. All but one were to develop symptoms.

All those who tested positive were sent to hospital so they could be observed and doctors could learn from the disease.

Bavaria closed down public life in mid-March. Germany has since closed schools, shops, restaurants, playgrounds and sports facilities, and many companies have shut to aid the cause.

NOT OVER YET

This is not to say Germany has defeated COVID-19. Its coronavirus death rate of 1.9 percent, based on data collated by Reuters, is the lowest among the countries most affected and compares with 12.6 percent in Italy.

However, experts said more deaths in Germany are inevitable.

“The death rate will rise,” said Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s federal agency and research institute for infectious diseases.

The difference between Germany and Italy is partly statistical: Germany’s rate seems so much lower because it has tested widely.

Germany has carried out more than 1.3 million tests, the institute said.

It is now carrying out up to 500,000 tests a week, Drosten said.

Italy has conducted more than 807,000 tests since Feb. 21, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said.

With a few local exceptions, Italy only tests people taken to hospital with clear and severe symptoms.

Germany’s government is using the weeks gained by the Munich experience to double the number of intensive care beds from about 28,000.

The country already has Europe’s highest number of critical care beds per head of the population, according to a 2012 study.

However, even that may not be enough. A German Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community paper sent to other government departments on March 22 included a worst-case scenario with more than 1 million deaths.

Another scenario saw 12,000 deaths — with more testing after partial relaxation of restrictions. That scenario was dubbed “hammer and dance,” a term coined by blogger Tomas Pueyo.

It refers to the “hammer” of quick aggressive measures for some weeks, including heavy social distancing, followed by the “dance” of calibrating such measures depending on the transmission rate.

The German government paper argued that in the “hammer and dance” scenario, the use of big data and location tracking is inevitable.

Such monitoring is already proving controversial in Germany, where memories of the East German Stasi secret police and its informants are still fresh in the minds of many.

A subsequent draft action plan compiled by the government proposes the rapid tracing of infection chains, mandatory mask-wearing in public and limits on gatherings to help enable a phased return to normal life after Germany’s lockdown.

The government is backing the development of a smartphone app to help trace infections.

Germany has said it would re-evaluate the lockdown after the Easter holiday; for the car parts maker at the heart of its first outbreak, the immediate crisis is over.

Webasto’s office has reopened.

All 16 people who caught COVID-19 there have recovered.

Additional reporting by Markus Wacket and Gavin Jones

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Johnson says he risked dying during virus treatment

‘PERSONAL COURAGE’:
 The UK prime minister said that the NHS saved his life and especially thanked the two nurses who ‘stood by’ his hospital bedside for 48 hours

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday praised doctors for saving his life during his week-long hospitalization for COVID-19 treatment has left him too weakened to resume immediate leadership of the government.

Looking pale and gaunt, the prime minister thanked the British National Health Service (NHS) for the care he had received.

In a five-minute video posted on Twitter, he called the health service “unbeatable,” and lauded the “personal courage” of the doctors, nurses, cleaners and cooks who work for it.

“The NHS has saved my life, no question; it’s hard to find words to express my debt,” Johnson said, his voice still croaky.

He thanked the staff who cared for him, including “two nurses who stood by my bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way.”

Johnson would not return to work right away, instead continuing his recovery at his official country residence, Chequers, his office said.

British Secretary of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab has been deputizing, while emphasizing that decisions are being made by the Cabinet as a whole.

Meanwhile, the British government said in a statement that Parliament would resume activity on Tuesday next week.

British House of Commons authorities would consider how to use technology to best allow lawmakers to fulfill “essential constitutional functions of conducting scrutiny, authorizing spending and making laws,” the government said on Sunday.

British Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma told Sky News that 4,200 small and medium-sized businesses had secured government-backed loans, a number dismissed as “low” by former Bank of England governor Mervyn King.

Sky News reported that British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak plans to double the amount companies can borrow under a state-guaranteed loan program.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer reiterated a call for the government to publish an exit strategy from the lockdown, as the nation is still far from returning to normality.

After three weeks of lockdown, which has brought large swaths of the economy to a standstill, government scientists still are not confident the pandemic has peaked.

The death toll rose by 737 on Sunday, surpassing 10,000 to reach 10,629, making the UK the fifth country to cross the grim threshold.

“The UK is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst-affected country in Europe,” Jeremy Farrar, a member of the scientific panel advising the government on the pandemic, told the BBC.

British Secretary of Health Matt Hancock called the death toll landmark “somber” and said comments like Farrar’s show the need for the public to keep its discipline in observing “social distancing” rules.

“The future of this virus is unknowable as yet, because it depends upon the behavior of millions of people,” Hancock said in a televised news conference. “The good news is that so far we have managed to start to see a flattening of the curve, because people are following the social distancing measures.”

Hancock also said the NHS is preparing to launch a contact tracing app that can be used to tell other users if someone they have been physically near had tested positive for the virus.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Volunteers feed hungry animals at Nepalese shrine

When COVID-19 came to Nepal, attention turned to an unlikely group of victims: hundreds of monkeys, cows and pigeons.

Normally, the animals are fed by thousands of devotees at the country’s most revered Hindu temple, Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu.

However, last month the Nepalese government ordered a complete lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus. People were forbidden from leaving their homes. Temples closed. And the animals risked starvation.

A Nepalese volunteer feeds monkeys at Kathmandu’s Pashupatinath Temple on March 31 amid a COVID-19 lockdown.
 Photo: AP

Now, every morning and evening, a few guards, about a dozen staff and some volunteers come out to ensure that the animals survive.

“We are trying to make sure that these animals are not starving and they are taken care of,” said Pradeep Dhakal, an official of the Pashupatinath Development Trust, which controls the temple and surrounding areas.

Nepal has 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one person has recovered.

The lockdown, imposed on March 24, banned all flights and ground transport, and closed markets, schools and offices.

It is common for devotees to feed cows, which are sacred and worshiped by the Hindus, and monkeys, which are believed to be descendants of the Hindu god Hanuman.

Cows line up the path leading to the temple and the banks of the Bagmati River, while monkeys roam freely around the forested hill next to the shrine.

Dry corn is spread out on the banks of the river for pigeons while a dough is made for cows from grain. Hundreds of monkeys mostly line up to receive food from volunteers wearing masks and rubber gloves.

Each meal takes about four to six sacks of food.

The monkeys have not attacked the volunteers, said Nivesh Dugar, an environmental engineer who is one of the volunteers.

In this difficult time, “we are just trying to help the animals survive,” Dugar said.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Iran records 4,585 deaths as restrictions are eased

Iran’s death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has risen to 4,585, with 111 more overnight, a Ministry of Health official said yesterday, adding that the total number of infected cases had reached 73,303 in the most-affected Middle Eastern nation.

On Sunday, the government lifted a ban on travel between cities within Iranian provinces, while restrictions on trips between provinces are to end on Monday next week, state media reported.

“45,983 of those infected with the virus have recovered ... There were 1,617 new infected cases in the past 24 hours,” Alireza Vahabzadeh, an adviser to Iran’s health minister, said on Twitter.

Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told Iranian state TV that 3,877 of those infected with the virus were in a critical condition.

State TV showed streets packed with people, crowded buses and subway cars in several cities as so-called low-risk businesses — including many shops and workshops — have reopened across Iran from Saturday, with the exception of the capital, Tehran, where they are to resume activities from Saturday.

Some health officials and experts have warned the government about a second wave of COVID-19 that they said could hit Tehran hard.

Coronavirus Taskforce of Tehran head Alireza Zali called on people to stay at home.

Businesses and services seen as high-risk, including theaters, swimming pools, saunas, beauty salons, schools, shopping centers and restaurants, have yet to reopen.

Iran’s clerical rulers, who have been struggling to curb the spread of the disease, are concerned that measures to limit public activities could wreck an economy that has already been battered by US sanctions.

“We have to fight against the coronavirus and the virus of sanctions together,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a televised weekly news conference.

Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018, when US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers.

Iranian authorities have blamed the sanctions for hampering their efforts to combat the disease. However, Iran’s leaders have rejected Washington’s offer of humanitarian assistance to contain the outbreak.

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content_text:
‘REACTIVATED’:
 Cases of people testing positive again for COVID-19 might be due to faulty tests, or remnants of the virus might still be in their systems, experts said

South Korea yesterday reported that at least 116 people initially cleared of COVID-19 had tested positive again, although officials suggested they would soon look at easing strict recommendations aimed at preventing new outbreaks.

South Korea yesterday reported only 25 new cases overall, but the rise in “reactivated” patients has raised concerns as the nation seeks to stamp out infections.

Officials are still investigating the cause of the apparent relapses. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jeong Eun-kyeong has said the virus might have been reactivated rather than the patients being reinfected.

Other experts said faulty tests might be playing a role, or remnants of the virus might still be in patients’ systems, but not be infectious or of danger to the host or others.

The 116 cases is more than double the 51 such cases South Korea reported a week earlier.

Government leaders called on South Koreans to continue to follow guidelines and restrictions on social gatherings, but hinted that such measures could soon be eased.

South Korea has called on residents to follow strict social distancing until at least Sunday, but as cases have dropped and the weather has improved, a growing number of people have been flouting the guidelines.

At a meeting on disaster management, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the government would soon be looking to loosen the guidelines, which call for people to stay at home, avoid social gatherings of any type, and only go out for essential reasons.

“Later this week, we plan to review our intensive social distancing campaign that we have carried out so far and discuss whether we will switch to routine safety measures” he said.

Some local governments have imposed stricter measures, including closing bars and nightclubs, banning large demonstrations, and limiting church services.

Chung cautioned that even when the restrictions are eased, the country would not return to life as before the outbreak.

“We need a very cautious approach because any premature easing of social distancing could bring irreversible consequences, and have to ponder deeply about when and how we switch to the new system,” he said.

In related news, South Korea plans to send kits designed to run up to 600,000 coronavirus tests to the US today after an appeal from US President Donald Trump, a Seoul official said.

Trump made the request in a telephone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on March 25, as the US was grappling with fast-growing outbreaks in many states.

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title: Virus Outbreak: South Korea reports more relapses


title: Chelsea ’keeper Bonetti dies at 78

content_text:
Former Chelsea and England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti has died at the age of 78 following a long-term illness, the English Premier League club announced on Sunday, with tributes describing him as a “hero and a gentleman.”

Nicknamed “The Cat” because of his agility, Bonetti was a mainstay of the west London side for close on 20 years throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

“Our former goalkeeper had been suffering from long-term illness,” Chelsea said in a statement. “All at Chelsea wish to send our heartfelt and deepest condolences to Peter’s family and friends.”

England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti, right, makes a save against Italy’s Ruggiero Rizzitelli in an Italy and England Legends match at the National Stadium in Ta’ Qali, Malta, on Nov. 1, 2007.
 Photo: AFP

Relatively short by modern standards for a goalkeeper at under 1.82m, Bonetti made 729 appearances for Chelsea and kept 208 clean sheets.

His Chelsea career started in 1960 and finished in 1979, with his two spells at Stamford Bridge separated by a 1975 stint in the North American Soccer League at the St Louis Stars.

It took until 2014 for Petr Cech to surpass Bonetti’s shutout record.

Only Bonetti’s former teammate Ron Harris has made more Chelsea appearances, with the defender playing in 795 games for the Blues.

“He [Bonetti] was about 5 feet, 10 inches [1.77m], ever so slim and acrobatic. He pulled off some unbelievable saves,” Harris told Sky Sports News on Sunday. “I’m not knocking any of the present-day ’keepers, but ask any Chelsea supporter who’s been around for some time and I bet they’d say the No. 1 ’keeper at Chelsea was Peter Bonetti.”

With Bonetti’s career overlapping those of Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton, he made just seven appearances for England.

Paying tribute on Twitter, Shilton said Bonetti was “a hero of mine, a tremendous player and a true gentleman.”

Bonetti was a member of England’s victorious 1966 World Cup squad, but such was Banks’ form he did not play during the tournament.

It was not until 2009 that Bonetti received a winners’ medal, the rules at the time meaning only the playing XI in the final were so honored.

However, his England career is destined to be remembered for one unfortunate match at the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

With Banks having suffered a case of food poisoning, Bonetti was called up to the side beaten by West Germany in the quarter-finals.

Alf Ramsey’s team were 2-0 up, but lost 3-2 in extra-time, with Bonetti criticized for being at fault for the first two goals England conceded.

At his club, Bonetti helped Chelsea win the 1964-1965 League Cup, the 1969-1970 FA Cup — after the Blues beat bitter rivals Leeds United in a final that went to a replay — and the 1970-1971 European Cup Winners’ Cup.

One of the pioneers of specialist gloves for goalkeepers, Bonetti also had spells with Dundee United and Woking.

He later became a goalkeeping coach, working with both Chelsea and England, as well as with Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United, Manchester City and Fulham.

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content_text:
Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome on Sunday said that his recovery from a horrific accident last year is nearly complete and his training load is back to normal as he prepares for when competition resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during a Team Ineos virtual race, Froome described his recovery as “going really well” as he waits out the COVID-19 lockdown at home in France.

“I’d go as far as saying it’s pretty much complete,” the 34-year-old British rider said. “I am still doing some exercises off the bike just to strengthen that right side that was injured, but I’m back to normal training loads again.”

Britain’s Chris Froome of Team Ineos waits at the start of the UAE Tour in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 23.
 Photo: Reuters

Froome spent more than three weeks in hospital after breaking his neck, femur, elbow, hip and ribs when he crashed into a wall at high speed while training for the Criterium du Dauphin in June last year.

The accident happened when he took his hands off the handlebar to blow his nose and was hit by a gust of wind.

He returned to competition in February at the UAE [United Arab Emirates] Tour, a race that was cut short by the coronavirus outbreak.

International racing has been suspended until at least June 1, with next month’s Giro d’Italia, as well as the Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege classics all having been postponed because of the pandemic.

However, the Tour de France organizer is focusing on a postponement of the June 27 to July 19 race rather than a cancelation, according to an e-mail seen by Reuters on Saturday which was sent to the publishers of the Tour program.

Since returning home, Froome said that life had revolved around family and training.

“Staying really busy with the kids every day and doing as much training as I can on the turbo trainer [stationary bike], and a lot of gym work as well,” he said. “We’re all driving each other mental, but getting through it.”

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title: Recovery almost complete, Ineos’ Chris Froome says


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Russia, China and the EU vie in Serbia

SEEKING AN ADVANTAGE:
 As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, rival powers are deploying soft power and aid to advance their own foreign policy goals in Belgrade

First, the Chinese came to Belgrade, with planeloads of equipment and six medical experts to help coordinate national coronavirus policy. An emotional Serbian president kissed the Chinese flag in gratitude and slammed Europe for its lack of assistance.

Then came the Russians, who flew in less crucial, but nevertheless welcome resources on military jets with much media fanfare.

Finally the Europeans came, pointing out that they had been there all along and had funded significantly more than Russia and China put together.

In Serbia, a candidate country for eventual EU accession that has also courted Moscow and Beijing in recent years, the intersection of competing “coronavirus diplomacies” is highly visible.

As the COVID-19 pandemic gathers speed, major players are looking to use soft power and aid to fulfil their foreign policy goals.

For the EU, it is trying to prove that talk of European values and solidarity is not just empty words.

For China, it is changing the narrative to present the country as the solution to COVID-19, not its cause.

For Russia, it is using more modest resources for maximum effect, with Russian military vehicles driving through Italy or a planeload of equipment dispatched to the US partly produced by a sanctioned company.

The Americans, focused internally under US President Donald Trump’s administration, have largely been absent from the COVID-19 diplomacy game.

In Serbia, it all started on March 15, the day Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic declared a state of emergency. It was the same day that a statement from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to suggest a ban on exporting medical supplies from the bloc.

This infuriated Vucic and led to an emotional outburst.

“European solidarity does not exist. It was a fairy tale. I have sent a special letter to the only ones who can help. That is China,” Vucic told the nation.

He asked China for supplies, equipment and advice on fighting the pandemic, and soon after, a plane landed in Belgrade.

“It was not exactly what we would want to hear from a government that claims it is doing its utmost to join the EU,” one European diplomat based in Belgrade said.

However, even in Spain and Italy there has been anger at the lack of a coordinated European response to coronavirus, and for those outside the bloc like Serbia, the rejection was felt even more strongly.

“The EU was initially a bit slow and clumsy. This is what happens very often with the EU, of course it cannot be as fast and interventionist in the way China or Russia can be,” said Milena Lazarevic of the European Policy Centre in Belgrade.

China was happy to step into the gap. Serbian officials said the Chinese experts, who have remained in the country, are now running the government’s coronavirus policy.

Unlike most of Europe, Serbia is following the Chinese model of isolating even mild cases of COVID-19 in large field hospitals, rather than trusting people to self-isolate.

The Chinese also recommended an absolute lockdown such as the one that had been implemented in Wuhan, one Serbian official said.

This was rejected on the basis that the Serbian public would not accept it, but strict curfews have been put in place, and those older than 70 are confined to their homes at all times.

A promised mass-testing regime is not yet up to speed and reports suggest the testing procedure is chaotic, but Serbian officials are hopeful that implementing the strict Chinese measures early means the country avoids a large-scale epidemic as seen in western European countries.

As of yesterday, Serbia had 3,630 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 80 deaths.

Russia also sent aid, mainly disinfectant solution for hospitals and apartment block entrances.

Back in Moscow, opposition figures have griped that the Kremlin has been sending equipment abroad for propaganda gain, while doctors at home lack basic supplies.

In Serbia, the help was welcome, though there was a sense that the fanfare around the deliveries might outweigh their actual use.

Since Vucic’s outburst, the EU has also been working hard to showcase the ways in which it has helped Serbia.

The EU delegation in the country said that more than 200 million euros (US$218.47 million) of grants and 250 million euros of loans have been provided to help build and equip medical facilities over the past two decades.

An EU-funded laboratory, initially designed to do quality control tests for milk and other food products, has been repurposed as a coronavirus testing lab.

A further 93 million euros has been pledged by the EU over the short and medium term to fight COVID-19 and its effects.

The COVID-19 situation is in many ways an extension of the previous battle for hearts and minds in the Serbia.

A survey carried out in December last year showed that many Serbs believed Russia or China to be the country’s largest donor over the past two decades, while in fact the EU had given about 100 times more than either.

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title: Storms sweep southern US, killing at least six

content_text:
Strong storms on Sunday pounded the southern US, killing at least six people in south Mississippi, and damaging up to 300 homes and other buildings in northern Louisiana. Storms continued to batter the region overnight, with much of it under flash flood, tornado and thunderstorm warnings and watches.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Greg Michel said one person was killed in Walthall County, two were killed in Lawrence County and three were killed in Jefferson Davis County.

All three counties are more than an hour’s drive south of Jackson, near the Louisiana state line.

People inspect a damaged home after a tornado ripped through Monroe, Louisiana, on Sunday.
 Photo: AP

The two people killed in Lawrence County were a married couple — Lawrence County sheriff’s deputy, Robert Ainsworth, and a Walthall County Justice Court deputy clerk, Paula We, a Facebook post from the county sheriff’s office said.

The US National Weather Service said strong winds were sweeping through other parts of Mississippi and a tornado was spotted north of Meridian near the Alabama state line.

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves on Sunday night declared a state of emergency after he said several tornadoes had struck the state.

“This is not how anyone wants to celebrate Easter,” Reeves said on Twitter. “As we reflect on the death and resurrection on this Easter Sunday, we have faith that we will all rise together.”

The weather service said that thunderstorms would shift across the southeast and mid-Atlantic states yesterday, bringing potential tornadoes, wind and hail.

About 750,000 people were without power early yesterday in a 10-state swath ranging from Texas to Georgia up to West Virginia. News outlets reported downed trees, flooded streets and other damage in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, but the weather service had not immediately confirmed additional tornado touchdowns.

Strong winds late on Sunday toppled power lines and blew trees onto several houses in Clarksdale, Mississippi, trapping some people inside, Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy said.

“I know these are some tough times and I’m just asking everyone to stay prayed up,” Espy said.

Before the storms moved into Mississippi, the weather service reported multiple tornadoes and damaging winds over much of northern Louisiana. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

The mayor of Monroe, Louisiana, Jamie Mayo, told KNOE-TV that the storm damaged 200 to 300 homes in and around the city.

Flights were canceled at Monroe Regional Airport, where siding was ripped off buildings and debris was scattered on runways.

Airport director Ron Phillips told the News-Star that the storm caused up to US$30 million in damage to aircraft inside a hangar.

In northwest Louisiana, officials reported damage to dozens of homes in DeSoto and Webster parishes, according to news outlets.

In Morgan County, Alabama, a church roof and steeple were damaged by lightning, Morgan County Emergency Management Agency Eddie Hicks told Al.com.

Shoals Creek Baptist Church in Priceville was struck by lightning. No injuries were reported.

WBMA-TV reported that strong winds damaged buildings and snapped trees in Walker County, Alabama, north of Birmingham.

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references: Facebook Twitter


title: Virus Outbreak: Fauci says ‘rolling’ US restart possible

content_text:
MAYBE NEXT MONTH:
 The US’ top infectious disease expert said that parts of the nation could reopen, provided infected people are quickly identified and isolated

New cases of COVID-19 are certain to arise when restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the virus are eased, said Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert for the US.

However, Fauci on Sunday said that the economy in parts of the country could have a “rolling re-entry” as early as next month, provided health authorities can quickly identify and isolate people who would inevitably be infected.

Fauci also said he “can’t guarantee” that it will be safe for Americans to vote in person in the US presidential elections on Nov. 3.

Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends a Coronavirus Task Force news conference at the White House in Washington on Friday.
 Photo: Bloomberg

When asked on CNN if earlier action on “social distancing” and “stay at home” policies could have saved lives, Fauci responded in part: “It’s very difficult to go back and say that. I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated.”

US President Donald Trump, who has been chafing at criticism that he did not do enough early on to fight the coronavirus, later reposted a tweet that referenced Fauci’s comments and that said “Time to #FireFauci.”

The US president again pointed to his decision in late January to restrict travel from China, writing: “Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up.”

The tweet was one of several that Trump posted on Sunday that defended his handling of the virus outbreak and blamed others for missteps.

Rather than flipping a switch to reopen the entire country, Fauci said a gradual process would be required based on the status of the pandemic in various parts of the US and the availability of rapid, widespread testing.

Once the number of people who are seriously ill sharply declines, officials can begin to “think about a gradual re-entry of some sort of normality, some rolling re-entry,” Fauci said.

In some places that might occur as soon as next month, he said.

“We are hoping that, at the end of the month, we could look around and say, OK, is there any element here that we can safely and cautiously start pulling back on? If so, do it. If not, then just continue to hunker down,” Fauci said.

Whenever restrictions ease, “we know that there will be people who will be getting infected. I mean, that is just reality,” he said.

Social distancing guidelines from Trump are set to expire on April 30.

Trump is eager to restart the US economy, which has stalled as most Americans are under orders to stay at home to help slow the virus’ spread.

However, governors would have a lot to say about when to ease restrictions in their states, and the governors of Maryland and New Jersey on Sunday said that they are not likely to do so until widespread testing is available.

“The question is how fast we can get enough tests up to speed in order to help us get to the point where we are able to do all of those things,” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said.

He said he has set no “artificial deadline.”

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the risks of reopening too soon are dangerously high.

“And I fear, if we open up too early, and we have not sufficiently made that health recovery and cracked the back of this virus, that we could be pouring gasoline on the fire, even inadvertently,” Murphy said.

Increased testing would allow authorities to identify, isolate and trace the contacts of people who are newly infected, Fauci said.

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