content_text:
Sandi Morris set the bar high with her latest do-it-yourself project. Soon, she will be clearing it, too.

The Olympic pole vault silver medalist did not have a place to practice and plenty of down time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so she and her father constructed their own pole-vault setup near Greenville, South Carolina.

Built out of plywood, the 36.5m runway is between a soccer field and a tennis court on neighborhood land two blocks from her parents’ place. Their pole vault project could be operational as soon as this weekend — they just needed the landing mat to arrive.

US pole vaulter Sandi Morris, right, and her father work on a vaulting runway in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday.
 Photo: AP

Viewing is definitely encouraged — from windows for now as social distancing is enforced.

“There are tons of houses that can see the field from their windows,” said the 27-year-old Morris, who usually trains in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but traveled home to start the project with the Tokyo Games postponed to next summer and no foreseeable competitions. “So I’m being literal when I say they’re going to watch me from their windows. It will be fun.”

This project has been in the back of their mind for ages. Morris would always venture home and would not be able to stay long because she had to return to practice. Now, her coach can simply send along a workout.

Olympic pole vaulting silver medalist Sandi Morris runs off the vaulting runway pit she was building in Greenville, South Carolia, on Tuesday.
 Photo: AP

“This virus kind of pushed us to do something that we’ve always wanted to do,” said Morris, who finished second to Katerina Stefanidi of Greece at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The entire endeavor took about three weeks and cost about US$4,000, not counting the landing mat, which usually cost about US$30,000, but one was loaned to her. There is a rubber surface covering the runway for better traction, too. No concrete was used, so it can be moved, although not easily.

Each day, the routine went something like this: Sandi would train in the morning while her father, Harry Morris, worked from home as a geologist. When their day jobs were complete, they headed to the field — about two blocks out their front door — to finish the pole-vault project. Friends volunteered their time, too, on property the owner gave a green light to use.

The father and daughter would be down there until nearly dark. Most times, she would head home first with her dad saying he would be along shortly.

“An hour later, he then comes home. My mom’s like: ‘Where were you?’ And he’s like, and this is always the answer: ‘Oh, I was just tinkering,’” said Sandi Morris, who has earned the silver medal at the past two world outdoor championships. “This project brings him a lot of joy — and that brings me a lot of joy.”

The blueprint was provided by Scott Kendricks, the father of two-time world pole vaulting champion Sam Kendricks. The Kendricks family built a similar setup years ago in Mississippi, although they have since switched to a fabricated runway.

It is no easy task.

“Almost like building a skate-park — you can really mess it up if you don’t know what you’re doing, but I saw her running on it and I was like: ‘Wow, that’s a fine runway you guys have built,’” Sam Kendricks said.

He is eager to try it out once shelter-at-home restrictions are eased, of course.

“Heck yeah. I’d definitely drive through Atlanta to visit Sandi and try that,” he said.

Maybe even a competition on it one day? The runway is mobile enough and could be moved to, say, the streets of downtown Greenville for an event.

“If you build it, they will come,” Kendricks joked. “Or they’ll ask to.”

To stay sharp, Sandi Morris is working out with recently purchased weight room equipment. She is also enjoying some down time at home. She recently purchased a bunny for her niece.

It was one highlight after another last fall for Sandi Morris, who took silver at the world championships. Soon after, she married Bermuda long jumper Tyrone Smith. They are in different locations, though, as he balances training for the Olympics with business school at the University of Texas.

Maybe down the road, a long-jump project.

“There’s not really a great place for him to jump here,” she said. “There are high-school tracks that have long-jump pits, but most of them don’t have a long enough runway.”

As for the Olympics being pushed back until next summer, she is trying to look at the positives — no matter how hard it might be.

“Building this has been such an incredible distraction,” Sandi Morris said. “The pole vaulting here will allow me to just go out and have fun.”

title: Sandi Morris builds her own pole vault runway


content_text:
Just as China has been taking advantage of COVID-19’s spread worldwide to create a narrative that favors Beijing, it is also ramping up its attacks on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Along with the pushback against China’s pandemic propaganda, there must be a pushback against its efforts to limit democracy in the territory under the guise of promoting the rule of law.

Hong Kong Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government Director Luo Huining (駱惠寧) on Wednesday said that the pro-democracy movement was a major blow to the rule of law and called not only for the passage of a bill to amend Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law — which triggered massive protests in 2003 — but for “shortcomings” in the territory’s legal system to be addressed.

His comments, in a speech to mark China’s National Security Education Day — announced by the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) in 2016, one year after China’s National Security Law was enacted — followed accusations by the Liaison Office and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office that some members of the territory’s Legislative Council had potentially breached their oaths by abusing their power, creating a legislation backlog and paralyzing the council.

The two offices targeted Civic Party Legislator Dennis Kwok (郭榮鏗), suggesting that he had committed misconduct by delaying the election of a chairperson for the council’s House Committee with a filibuster. Their comments demonstrated once again that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cannot tolerate anything besides the carefully stage-managed proceedings that exemplify the NPC’s faux legislative oversight.

Disagreeing with a government proposal and promoting alternatives is not abusing the sworn duty of a lawmaker, it is their sworn duty.

Pro-democracy lawmakers were quick to reject Luo’s comments and accuse Beijing of once again trying to blatantly intervene in the territory’s affairs.

That Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) chose, in her own speech to mark National Security Education Day, to parrot Luo’s warnings and label the pro-democracy movement’s protests a threat to national security, and support the need for more “patriotic education,” was not surprising, but disappointing nevertheless.

As if Luo’s and Lam’s comments were not reason enough to worry, on Wednesday Reuters released a report on Hong Kong’s judiciary, which said that three senior judges had warned that the independence of the territory’s judicial system was under a multipronged assault by Beijing, including an effort to restrict the authority of the courts to rule on key constitutional questions.

Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng (鄭若驊) and other top officials in the territory have criticized the article and denied that the territory’s judiciary is under threat.

However, it is clear that the CCP is running scared in the wake of landslide opposition victories in the district council elections in November last year, and is even more determined to hobble the pro-democracy movement ahead of September’s Legislative Council elections. It is also clear that for the CCP, “rule of law” is just a phrase to be pasted into speeches as a sop.

Beijing must be judged for what it does, not what it says — from detaining and jailing critics on trumped-up charges and imprisoning Uighurs in concentration camps to blocking early reports and warnings of the emergence of a new coronavirus and chipping away at Hong Kong’s legal system, rights and freedoms.

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

title: EDITORIAL: Judge Beijing on its actions


events: 冠狀病毒 新冠病毒

companies: 蘋果 特斯拉

things: 油價 iPhone 經濟

countries: 法國 德國 英國 中國 美國 韓國

title: 午盤：美股維持漲勢 波音領漲道指

content_text:
日期:18日凌晨，美股周五午盤維持上漲趨勢，波音領漲道指。美國決策者討論重啟經濟。美媒報導稱吉利德的藥物瑞德西韋有望治療冠狀病毒肺炎。特朗普宣布三階段「重啟美國」計劃。

道指漲383.64點，或1.63%，報23921.32點；納指漲38.49點，或0.45%，報8570.85點；標普500指數漲41.31點，或1.48%，報2840.86點。

波音上漲約12%，成為漲幅最大的道指成分公司。據報導，公司單獨制定了重啟業務的計劃。該公司周四表示，它將在下個月在西雅圖地區開始增加商用飛機生產。在上個月底，波音在該地區暫時停產。

能源與金融板塊普漲，摩根大通公司上漲6.57%，美國運通公司上漲5.09%。埃克森美孚上漲6.10%，雪佛龍公司上漲5.84%，

報告稱瑞德西韋顯示治療冠狀病毒肺炎潛力 但遭分析師質疑

儘管周四公佈的經濟數據顯示美國經濟與就業市場受損狀況嚴峻，其中上周申請失業救濟人數再次突破500萬，但抗病毒藥物的研究進展等最新消息，在一定程度上抵消了悲觀數據的影響。

醫療行業新聞機構Stat News周四晚間發表的一篇文章稱，吉利德科學公司（GILD）的抗病毒藥物瑞德西韋（Remdisivir）可使新型冠狀病毒肺炎患者的「發熱與呼吸系統的多種癥狀迅速恢復正常」。

STAT的文章稱，在芝加哥，一組接受瑞德西韋藥物治療的新冠病毒感染患者「迅速恢復」、癥狀得到緩解。受此消息推動，吉利德科學公司的股價在周四盤后交易中上漲了14%。

這篇報導反映的是吉利德科學在4月10日已經公佈過的一項研究結果，當時該公司在《新英格蘭醫學雜誌》上發表文章，報告稱53名接受瑞德西韋藥物治療的患者取得了積極療效。吉利德公司希望在本月底公佈季度財報的同時，提供此次臨床試驗的完整結果。

抗病毒疫苗研發前景的改善，也激發了交易商的樂觀情緒。包括強生、Moderna等在內，其他一些醫藥巨頭也在競相研發新冠病毒肺炎疫苗。

但一些分析師警告投資者稱，要抑制住對瑞德西韋藥物能廣泛起效的熱情和期待。華爾街分析師指出，吉利德科學公司的瑞德西韋藥物試驗結果中缺乏對照組的任何信息，而許多專家認為這正是了解該藥物有效性的關鍵。

Miller Tabak市場策略分析師Matt Maley表示，瑞德西韋「顯著有效」肯定是個好消息，但類似的「好消息」近期已經出現過多次。所以現在的問題是這個藥物是否能夠讓經濟比預期更快地重啟。如果失業率能夠迅速下降，對於市場而言將構成重大利好。

Baird Equity Research的分析師寫道：「儘管那篇文章描繪了美麗的前景，但我們認為它激起的樂觀情緒還缺乏批判性分析的支持。」

該公司在研報中表示：「這是未進行對照試驗的傳言性數據，這類數據通常無法在對照研究中得到證實。」他們還指出，抗瘧疾藥物羥基氯喹用於治療冠狀病毒患者的療效也存在爭議，在個別病例中，羥基氯喹也顯示出對冠狀病毒的有效性。

據約翰斯-霍普金斯大學的數據，截止周四晚間，美國的冠狀病毒感染病例已超過65.4萬，致死病例超3萬。

美國疫情趨於緩和 政府醞釀重啟經濟

但美國各地——尤其是大城市實行了為期數周的嚴格社會隔離措施，已經使新增入院病例數與確診病例增速趨於緩和，從而激起了關於重新啟動疫情肆虐期間被迫停止的商業活動的討論。

美國總統特朗普周四向美國各州州長簡要闡述了分三個階段重啟美國經濟的構想，讓各州按照自己的步調選擇採取哪一階段的重啟措施。他還敦促各州確保在萬一再次發生新冠病毒感染激增浪潮時能進行檢測、監控，並制定應急計劃。

但從絕對數字來看，美國的冠狀病毒感染病例數仍在增加。一些受到冠狀病毒疫情打擊最嚴重的州，至少在短期內繼續提高了當前的社會疏遠標準。

聖路易斯聯邦儲備銀行行長詹姆斯-布拉德（James Bullard）周五表示，政府應該為檢測支付所有的研發成本。必須謹慎對待復工。大型集會不會很快恢復。全國各地將以不同的速度重新開放。美國和全球經濟的下行風險很大。

紐約聯儲行長約翰-威廉姆斯（John Williams）表示，冠狀病毒大流行和保持社交距離的影響，即使在相關限制措施取消之後，也將對美國經濟造成壓力。他表示：「我們今天承受著許多經濟痛苦，這種痛苦可能還會持續一段時間。」

威廉姆斯稱：「我認為，到今年年底，經濟不會恢復全力增長。要回到我們希望的狀態，將需要更長的時間。」

在受到冠狀病毒打擊最嚴重的紐約州，州長安德魯-科莫（Andrew Cuomo）周四與美國東北部的其他州協商一致，共同將封州時間延長至5月15日。

一些公司還單獨制定了計劃，準備重啟因冠狀病毒爆發而停止的業務。波音公司周四表示，它將在下個月在西雅圖地區開始增加商用飛機生產。在上個月底，波音在該地區暫時停產。

特朗普提出三階段重啟美國經濟指導方針

特朗普周四提出了備受矚目的重啟經濟指引，美國各州州長可根據指引分三階段逐步解除抗疫封閉措施並重啟經濟。

據報導，特朗普制定了各州分三階段重啟經濟的指引，規定了各州必須滿足的檢測標準，要求迅速提供防護裝備以便重新開放。各州州長可根據本州情況執行指引，而不依賴於聯邦政府的命令。這份指引名為「再次開放美國」，特朗普已經向各州州長分發了文件。指引呼籲：

在「第一階段」繼續儘可能遠程辦公、分階段復工、減少非必要旅行、並保持社交距離措施；

在「第二階段」（疫情無反彈跡象的州）可恢復不必要旅行，學校和有組織的青年活動可重新開放，在採取社交距離措施的情況下可重新開放酒吧、體育館和大型場所。

在「第三階段」，脆弱人群可恢復搭乘公共交通，但應保持距離，低風險人群應考慮盡量減少在人群密集區的停留時間。

新的聯邦政府指引建議，各州在開始三階段重啟之前，感染病例應連續14天呈「下降趨勢」。

該文件闡述了特朗普重啟美國經濟的計劃，但各州的重啟計劃應由本州政府、而非聯邦政府負責。特朗普在每日疫情發佈會上表示，各州長有權根據自身情況確定計劃，如果有必要保持封閉狀態，則應該封閉。

特朗普稱，長時間的封閉措施可能對美國經濟和社會造成深度破壞。「我們不會立即全部開放，而是一步一步謹慎地開放，」特朗普對記者稱。「長時間的封鎖措施再加上由此引發的經濟蕭條將給公眾健康造成巨大和廣泛的影響，」特朗普說，並稱這可能導致藥物濫用、酗酒、自殺和心臟病案例大大增加。

焦點個股

寶潔公司宣布第三財季財報銷售收入低於預期，每股收益超預期。第三財季營收172.1億美元，同比上升6%，略低於市場預期的174.6億美元；每股收益1.17美元，略高於市場預期的1.13美元。

寶潔表示，受到美國消費者大量囤積衛生紙等產品影響，該財季美國銷售額大漲10%。寶潔同時將2020財季全年銷售額預期從增長4%-5%下調至增長3%-4%。

Facebook創始人兼CEO扎克伯格在社交媒體主頁發文稱，除了必須在現場辦公的工程師外，該公司大部分員工將維持在家辦公的狀態直至五月底，同時員工若有需要，可以將集中辦公的時間至少推遲到夏季之後。此外，Facebook還將取消所有50人以上的集會至明年六月。

生物製藥企業Moderna周四宣布，已經獲得了美國政府4.83億美元的注資，將招募150名員工加速新冠疫苗的開發和生產。作為全球疫苗開發的第一梯隊，Moderna與美國國家過敏和傳染病研究所合作研發的mRNA疫苗已經於今年3月進入人體試驗階段，預計最快能夠在明年年初在「緊急狀況」下使用。

高盛在最新出爐的財報中下調蘋果評級至「賣出」，並將目標價從250美元下調至233美元。當地時間周四蘋果收盤報價286.69美元。高盛「看衰」蘋果的主要原因是iPhone銷量的預期下滑。高盛預計iPhone銷量在二季度同比下滑36%，且在2020財年上半年同比下滑24%。

據Clean Technica報導，特斯拉Model 3三月在韓國的銷量達2415輛，第一季度銷量3939輛，在電動車市場排名第一，佔到韓國電動車市場的45%。此外，今日有消息稱，特斯拉3月中國汽車註冊量升至創紀錄的11280輛。

其他市場

歐股全線收漲。德國DAX指數收盤上漲3.08%，報10618.50點；英國富時100指數收盤上漲2.75%，報5783.08點；法國CAC40指數收盤上漲3.42%，報4499.01點。

原油價格重挫，美國WTI原油期貨跌幅超6%，跌破19美元。黃金期貨價格繼續下跌。

美國10年期國債收益率攀升3.5個基點。


content_text:
Lawmakers yesterday passed an amendment to the Spatial Planning Act (國土計畫法), extending the deadline for local governments to finalize their regional spatial plans and functional zoning plans by a year and two years respectively.

Under the amended act, the deadline for submitting regional spatial plans to the Ministry of the Interior for review has been pushed back by a year to May next year, while the deadline for delivering functional zoning plans, originally due in May 2022, has been postponed to May 2024.

A controversial proposal that would have given the Executive Yuan the authority to revise national or regional spatial plans for “major construction projects” was scrapped.

Legislative Speaker You Si-kun bangs his gavel to mark the passage of amendments to the Spatial Planning Act at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
 Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

The proposal drew criticism from environmentalists, who said that it would encourage development at the expense of the environment and run counter to the spirit of the act.

The amendment was passed ahead of an April 30 deadline for local governments to submit their regional spatial plans, to “get local governments off the hook,” the Democratic Progressive Party caucus said on March 13.

At that time, eight of 18 local governments had not submitted their regional spatial plans, despite being required to do so, the party’s caucus said.

Since the regional spatial plans are fundamentally different from the regional plans of the past, it has taken local governments longer than expected to produce them and some that the ministry had received had proved problematic, Construction and Planning Agency Director-General Wu Hsin-hsou (吳欣修) said yesterday.

Local governments had submitted the plans too close to the original deadline, leaving the ministry with not enough time to review them, as the act mandates a three-month time frame for review, Wu said.

An extension of the deadline for the functional zoning plans was also required as they directly affect land rights, and would require a longer period for negotiations to be carried out between the government and those affected, he said.

Additional reporting by CNA

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

title: Regional spacial plans deadline extended


content_text:
With gold prices rising to a seven-year high, many Thais have been flocking to gold shops to trade in their necklaces, bracelets, rings and gold bars for cash, eager to reap profits during an economic downturn.

Gold shops are de facto financial institutions in Thailand and have generally remained open in the country, where measures taken to guard against the spread of COVID-19 have been less severe than in other countries.

Long lines formed all week outside major gold shops in Chinatown in the capital, Bangkok.

Shopkeepers talk with customers selling their jewelry at a gold shop in Bangkok on Thursday.
 Photo: AP

The sell-off has some gold shop owners claiming that they are facing a liquidity crunch, leaving them short on cash to continue purchasing.

They are unable to carry out their normal practice of quickly reselling the gold abroad because of the greatly reduced number of flights to ship the gold and a shortage of buyers in other countries, who are restricted by lockdown orders and market closures.

Jitti Tangsithpakdi, chairman of the Gold Traders Association and owner of Chin Hua Heng Goldsmith Co, told reporters that more than 90 percent of recent gold shop customers are sellers.

Shops are bound by tradition to buy back the products they sell. Prices are fixed by an industry association.

“There’s never been a case where a goldsmith doesn’t buy back the gold, especially if the gold carries markings showing it is from their own shop,” Jitti said, adding that it would destroy customers’ trust in that goldsmith.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, heeding industry appeals, urged restraint on the part of sellers.

“I’m asking people to sell gradually, not in large amounts, as shops may face a cash crunch,” he said on Wednesday.

The price of gold has been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

That is typical of times of uncertainty, as people shift their wealth into what they believe is a hedge against uncertain financial markets.

Gold was on Thursday trading at US$1,755.60 per ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest level since late 2012.

Many Asians hold gold as savings and investments.

In Bangkok, gold shops are clustered in Chinatown, where long lines were stretched even further by social distancing.

Jitti said that he believes the current wave of sellers are mostly seeking to profit from the high price.

However, some of those waiting said that they were selling their gold to get cash to support their families, as many have lost their jobs.

Fruit exporter Saranya Prasert said that the COVID-19 crisis has halted her business and her family is struggling for money.

They are selling gold jewelry that they had kept for more than 10 years as savings, she said.

“The reason we are selling our gold today is because we need to increase our cash flow. We still have to pay our employees, so need the money now for the expense. The situation has impacted us. We can’t export our goods,” she added.

Many in line had similar stories. Not all of them were selling because the price is high.

Office worker Pleonjit Sukcharoen said that while she is lucky that she still has a job, her sister is a street vendor who is unable to work because of a market shutdown order and now needs help with a hospital bill.

To help her sibling, she said that she decided to sell her stash of gold, which she had received as bonuses over the years from her employer.

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title: Thais sell for profit, survival as gold surges


people: 張廖萬堅 鍾佳濱

title: More than 5,000 spied on students for KMT: archives

content_text:
Up to 5,041 informers were active on more than 80 university campuses in 1983, when the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian regime monitored students through its Chunfeng Project (春風計畫), Investigation Bureau archives have showed.

Asked by the Transitional Justice Commission to study the about 3,000 files the bureau transferred to the National Archives Administration, former Taiwan Bar Association chairman Lin Kuo-ming (林國明) said that some incumbent lawmakers, including Democratic Progressive Party legislators Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱), had been targets of the KMT’s surveillance efforts.

The two lawmakers took part in the 1990 Wild Lily Student Movement, a pivotal moment in the nation’s democratization that resulted in the dismissal of the National Assembly and the abolition of the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款).

Once Lin’s research is completed, the commission would provide an account of the surveillance to the public, commission spokeswoman Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said.

Further investigation is needed to establish how many people the Chungfeng Project had placed under surveillance, Yeh added.

In a bid to curtail student movements, the KMT in the early 1970s integrated its educational, administrative and intelligence resources to create the project, the commission said.

In 1975, it is estimated that at least 3,900 people worked for the project on university campuses nationwide, it said.

Project personnel would meet every year on average until the KMT in 1983 instructed the Ministry of Education to convene campus stabilization meetings to strengthen surveillance on university campuses, it added.

Chang Liao said that the commission had informed the two legislators about the declassified archives, adding that he had been aware of KMT informers at university, but had not known who they were.

After browsing through the files, he had gathered some clues about one informer, who had assumed the name Chang Chien (張健) and served as an executive in the student sports club, he said.

Chang Chien had been a perpetrator and victim of the KMT’s propaganda promoting loyalty to the party and the nation, Chang Liao said, adding that it is not necessary to reveal the identity of Chang Chien, who might have reflected on his past wrongdoing.

If he was to meet Chang Chien again, he would laugh it off and give him a hug, Chang Liao said.

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title: Vettel warns against tight schedule

content_text:
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel yesterday cautioned against the temptation to shoehorn too many Formula One races into a revised calendar, describing the move as “not realistic.”

The 22-event F1 season has been cut drastically amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with nine races either canceled or postponed.

The French Grand Prix scheduled for June 28 is also in doubt, as is the Belgian Grand Prix, set for Aug. 30.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany smiles during a news conference at the Albert Park circuit ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 12.
 Photo: AFP

F1 chiefs have floated the idea of making up for lost time by staging races on successive weekends or even having two races on the same weekend.

However, Ferrari star Vettel said that such a move could lead to burnout for team staff.

“We drivers are a little privileged,” Vettel told reporters by teleconference from his home in Switzerland. “Of course, the races are tiring, but there have to be limits for the staff. They must rest. We must also see if it is easy to reschedule races, if the circuits are not already taken. Many questions remain. I think the schedule will be busier, but 10 consecutive weekends is not realistic.”

Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel drives his Ferrari during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on June 9, 2018.
 Photo: Reuters

Vettel said that he would favor staging races without fans if it allowed a quick resumption, as long as it did not become a common feature.

Other sports have already toyed with the idea of staging events behind closed doors.

“It’s complicated,” Vettel said. “On the one hand, there is the health of the sport, on the other, that of the people who work in the paddock and especially the fans.”

“There are several options. No one likes to run in front of empty stands, but we will have to see if it will not allow us to resume much sooner,” he said. “The first races will probably be a little different, but not too much, I hope, because we want to run in front of the fans.”

Vettel said that for him, even a 10-race season is just as valuable as a 22-race campaign.

However, he said that the damage to the sport caused by the pandemic could be fatal for smaller teams.

Without racing, the massive TV and sponsorship revenues have dried up.

Half of the teams have already started furloughing staff.

Teams have agreed to lower the spending cap from US$175 million to US$150 million.

“Clearly, some small teams are in danger and, as a family, F1 has to take care of its own,” Vettel said.

Spending has not been the only talk in the sport. There has also been speculation over Vettel’s contract with Ferrari.

He penned a three-year deal with the Italian giants in 2017, reportedly worth about US$112 million.

There have been talks over an extension. However, those conversations took a twist after Vettel finished last year’s championship behind new teammate Charles Leclerc.

“At the beginning [of the pandemic], the priority was to manage the situation in the best way and therefore the negotiations were put on hold,” Vettel said. “I think we are going to move forward, but we do not have a specific deadline.”

Whatever the outcome of the discussions, Vettel said he would not be revealing if he has been tempted to take a salary reduction.

Two weeks ago, McLaren drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris said they had taken voluntary pay cuts as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures to help their team.

“Whatever happens, we will keep this decision to ourselves, as I have always done,” Vettel said. “I’m not going to use this to polish my image.”

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content_text:
Top rice exporter Vietnam is struggling to replenish government reserves after consumers worldwide rushed to secure supplies of the food staple because of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.

The Southeast Asian nation last month asked local traders to supply rice for state stockpiles, with those offering the lowest prices winning government contracts.

In usual years, traders would be given about three months to buy the rice from farmers and deliver it to the Vietnamese General Department of National Reserves. This year, the novel coronavirus upended those plans, and that could push Vietnam to further tighten rice export restrictions.

Rice prices, in Vietnam and abroad, have surged since the government tendered for supplies, and traders can no longer deliver the rice without making a loss.

Of the 28 traders that won contracts, 24 have either canceled or declined to sign the contracts, department data showed.

Phat Tai is one such company.

The exporter would suffer a loss of 1,500 dong (US$0.06) per kilogram if it fulfills its contract to supply 17,900 tonnes of rice for state reserves, said a company executive, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter.

That would be a total loss of more than US$1 million.

Similarly, state-owned Vietnam Northern Food Corp, which agreed to supply 4,500 tonnes of rice, has delayed signing the contract, said Au Anh Tuan, head of the division of customs management and supervision at the Vietnamese General Department of Customs, citing data from the reserves department.

A spokesperson for the food company, commonly known as Vinafood 1, declined to comment.

Wholesale prices of low-quality rice in Vietnam have soared to about 10,000 to 10,200 dong per kilogram, a 10-year high.

Thai white rice 5 percent broken, an Asian export benchmark, was last week up 30 percent this year to the highest since 2013.

Commitments for more than 46,000 tonnes of rice have had to be scrapped in the past few days, the reserves department said.

There were just 7,700 tonnes added to state reserves as of Tuesday, only 4 percent of the 190,000 tonnes planned for this year, it said.

Most winning bidders were found to have registered for rice shipments this month due to a turnaround in Vietnam’s rice export strategy, Tuan said.

The country had halted overseas rice sales for nearly three weeks on concerns over food security because of the virus.

On Friday last week, it lifted the suspension, but instead put a limit on how much can be exported.

With prices and the opportunity for profits high, traders rushed to apply for the quota.

Phat Tai has registered to ship more than 13,000 tonnes this month, the executive said.

Meanwhile, Vinafood 1 submitted customs declarations to export 7,200 tonnes this, Tuan said.

Vietnamese officials might try to force traders back to fulfilling the stockpiling target.

The reserves department is to hold another tender for rice soon, its representative said.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance, which oversees both departments, has proposed suspending low-quality rice exports until mid-June to ensure that stockpiles targets can be met.

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title: Vietnam’s reserve of rice at risk due to global hoarding


content_text:
HK judges battle Beijing over rule of law as pandemic chills protests
As Hong Kong’s top judge prepares to retire, concern is rising that
pressure from Beijing might erode the territory’s judicial independence

The independence of Hong Kong’s judicial system is under assault from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership in Beijing, senior judges in the territory told reporters, posing the gravest threat to the rule of law since Britain handed its former colony back to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the protests in Hong Kong to a near standstill, the struggle rages on over the future of China’s freest territory.

Three of Hong Kong’s most senior judges told reporters that the independent judiciary, the cornerstone of the territory’s broad freedoms, is in a fight for its survival.

Beijing’s effort to hobble the judiciary is multi-pronged, according to more than two dozen interviews with judges, leading lawyers and diplomats in Hong Kong.

The state-controlled press on the mainland has warned Hong Kong judges not to “absolve” protesters arrested during last year’s demonstrations.

Judges and lawyers say there are signs that Beijing is trying to limit the authority of Hong Kong courts to rule on core constitutional matters.

People close to the territory’s top judge, Geoffrey Ma (馬道立), say he has to contend with CCP officials pushing Beijing’s view that the rule of law ultimately must be a tool to preserve one-party rule.

That tension flared into view in September last year when Ma spoke at the International Bar Association conference in Seoul about the rule of law, including the extensive human rights protections built into Hong Kong’s legal system.

Judges must not be influenced by “extraneous factors such as politics,” Hong Kong’s chief justice said.

As Ma finished, a representative from AllBright Law Offices, a leading mainland Chinese legal firm that cosponsored the lunch event, rushed to the podium to object to what he said was a “political” speech by the chief justice, three witnesses said.

Amid gasps and snorts of derision, the man was escorted from the microphone, the witnesses said.

AllBright did not respond to questions.

Some in the territory’s legal establishment are now bracing for the possibility that China will begin to meddle in the appointment of new judges, following objections by some pro-Beijing lawmakers in Hong Kong to two recent appointments on the top court.

With the search under way for at least one new justice for the top court, the three judges who spoke to Reuters said that they feared vacancies could create an opening for Beijing.

Any intervention in the selection process would likely spark resignations on the bench, one of the justices said.

“We’re worried that they are losing patience and will find ways of tightening the screws,” the judge said, referring to the Beijing leadership.

“We know from our interactions with senior mainland judges that they just don’t get Hong Kong at all,” said the justice, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They always want to know why Hong Kong is so confused and chaotic, and not ‘patriotic.’”

A spokesman for Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said that the central government in Beijing had “time and again made it clear” that it would continue to fully implement the “one country, two systems” principle guiding Hong Kong’s autonomous relationship with its Chinese sovereign.

Beijing was committed to the Basic Law, the territory’s mini-constitution that protects its rights and freedoms, the spokesman said.

The Chinese authorities did not respond to questions.

MASS PROTESTS

Deepening concern over Beijing’s meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong fueled the mass protests that erupted last year. The unrest was set off by a perceived assault on the judicial system: The territory’s government proposed a bill that would have allowed for the extradition of defendants to mainland China, where the courts are tightly controlled by the CCP.

The Hong Kong government ultimately withdrew the bill as the protests mushroomed, but by then opposition to the legislation had escalated into a broad movement for greater democracy.

The demonstrators have occasionally focused their anger on the courts, which are handling the cases of thousands of protesters who face criminal charges. Late last year, some demonstrators lobbed petrol bombs outside the entrance to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and the Hong Kong High Court building.

A Reuters poll last month showed that even with the protests dying down amid the pandemic, support for the demands of pro-democracy protesters has grown. Backing for universal suffrage in Hong Kong, for instance, rose to 68 percent from 60 percent in December last year. Support for the protests remained strong at 58 percent, compared with 59 percent previously.

Beijing denies intervening in the running of Hong Kong. It has blamed “Western forces” for spurring unrest in the territory. Still, many residents fear that the “one country, two systems” formula, agreed when the territory was handed over to China by Britain in 1997, is being further eroded.

Responding to questions, a judiciary spokeswoman said that Ma “would not offer any comment.”

After this story was published, Ma released a statement in response to “media inquiries arising from a report by Reuters.”

“Since taking office in 2010, the chief justice has not at any stage encountered or experienced any form of interference by the mainland authorities with judicial independence in Hong Kong, including the appointment of judges,” the statement said.

“Judicial independence is guaranteed under the Basic Law and is a main component of the rule of law in Hong Kong,” it said.

The judiciary is now at the heart of the battle over Hong Kong’s autonomy. These conflicts are playing out largely behind the scenes in the rarefied atmosphere of the territory’s judicial corridors. With their horse-hair wigs and ceremonial robes, Hong Kong’s judges symbolize one of the core promises of the handover: the right to a fair trial and equality under the law, all administered by an independent judiciary.

Such rights, a British legacy, do not exist on the mainland. Yet they are written into the Basic Law.

Those rights have long been touted, frequently by the Hong Kong government, as the bedrock beneath one of the world’s most important financial cities. Significantly, they include the right of Hong Kong’s chief justice to appoint foreign judges.

However, the Basic Law contains a caveat: Ultimately, the rulings of Hong Kong’s top court, the Court of Final Appeal, can be re-interpreted by the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress. Beijing last used that power in late 2016 to effectively bar several pro-democracy lawmakers from taking office.

The three judges who spoke to Reuters said that they feared China would begin to wield this power more frequently, potentially undermining the territory’s courts.

In November last year, a Hong Kong court overturned a government emergency ban on protesters wearing masks to obscure their faces. The next day, Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman for a body attached to the standing committee saying that Hong Kong courts had no power to rule on the constitutionality of the territory’s laws.

The announcement was swiftly condemned by local lawyers, and local and foreign academics. The Hong Kong government last week partially won an appeal against the November decision.

China’s state-controlled media weighed in as protests intensified last year. The Global Times, a tabloid published by the CCP’s People’s Daily, wrote in a commentary in November last year: “The rule of law can save Hong Kong, but the premise is that the rioters must be punished.”

“Just like the rioters, the judges and lawyers who absolve rioters of their crimes will be despised,” it said.

XI’S VIEW

Writing in a CCP journal last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) explained his view on the rule of law. The “socialist rule of law must adhere to the party’s leadership,” he wrote in the journal, Qiushi (求是), which means “Seeking Truth.”

China, Xi said, “must not copy” other countries, nor follow Western-style “judicial independence.”

China’s leaders have made their expectations of Hong Kong clear. Last year in Beijing, Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng (韓正) publicly told Lam that stopping the violence was the “common responsibility” of her government, the legislature and the judiciary. In so saying, Han blurred the lines of Hong Kong’s separation of powers — a check on the state that does not exist on the mainland.

This month, a top Chinese official in Hong Kong wrote about the need for “strengthening” the territory’s legal system to “safeguard” China’s national security.

Under their oath of office, Hong Kong’s judges must steer clear of the political fray. Following Han’s remarks, though, one justice used his ruling on a matter related to the protests and freedom of the press to stress the doctrine of separate powers.

“As an aside,” Hong Kong Justice Russell Coleman wrote two days after Han’s remarks, “I do not think any judicial officer in Hong Kong requires anyone, whether from in Hong Kong or beyond, to tell him or her how to perform his or her role as part of the independent judiciary.”

The judiciary said that Coleman had no comment.

“The rule of law and an independent judiciary are constitutionally protected by the Basic Law,” Lam’s spokesman said.

Some in Hong Kong believe that Beijing will struggle to bring the territory’s judicial system to heel.

“The roots of the common law run deep in Hong Kong and will not be easily uprooted, so I think China can only ultimately take a gradual approach, despite the rhetoric,” said Simon Young (楊艾文), a barrister and professor at the University of Hong Kong’s law school. “Those values are entrenched through the system.”

Young was encouraged by what he said were the robust public defenses of the territory’s judicial system being mounted by Hong Kong’s top judge, Ma, as well as Coleman and others.

A retired senior judge, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while the mainland is clearly trying to pressure Hong Kong’s judiciary, it does not amount to an existential threat to the rule of law.

The test would be if the legal system succumbed to these pressures, the former judge said, adding: “I have not seen that.”

RULE OF LAW

Ma, 64, became chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal in 2010 after a long career as a barrister and a High Court judge. Amid the drama that has shaken his territory in the past year, he has forcefully defended judicial independence.

Concluding his speech in Seoul last year, Ma told the audience: “Speaking up for the rule of law as it is properly understood is very much a part of what a lawyer should be doing. Look within yourselves and ask whether you are prepared to stand up and be counted.”

At a public appearance in January in Hong Kong, Ma again addressed judicial independence. He repeatedly told reporters that he could not discuss the political or even the legal questions raised by the statements of the leadership in Beijing.

However, he did say: “The powers of the courts, by the way, are stated in the Basic Law. Hong Kong is to have independent judicial power, and those words mean exactly what they say.”

“Judges don’t look at the litigant’s background nor his political stance,” he said. “Destroying the rule of law is when the court thinks not everyone is equal before the law, and that some are more equal than others.”

Several friends and former colleagues of Ma say he is showing signs of strain from the job, including having to continually defend the integrity of the courts. This was evident, they say, when Ma appeared at the January event, a start-of-the-year gathering of judges, leading lawyers and senior government officials and diplomats.

Ma confirmed that it would be his last time opening the annual event and that he would be retiring in January next year, when he turns 65, forgoing his option of an extension.

By then he would have served more than a decade as chief justice. Ma is only the second person to serve in the position since the 1997 handover. His successor is to be Hong Kong justice Andrew Cheung (張舉能), who sits on the Court of Final Appeal and whose appointment was announced in March.

The judiciary said that Cheung had no comment for this article.

Some people close to Ma said that while he hasn ot been pushed to leave, the constant battle to safeguard the judiciary has worn on him. His job includes dealing with visiting mainland judges and briefings from locally based Chinese officials, which can be tough going, these people said.

While they apparently know better than to meddle in individual cases, the Chinese judges and officials constantly seek to push Beijing’s “patriotic” agenda by stressing the importance of the judiciary in defending China’s sovereignty and national security, the people close to Ma said.

“I know he tires of the apparatchiks whose Communist Party mantra has no room for even starting to grasp the separation of powers that exists in Hong Kong, or the real meaning or value of judicial independence,” said one person who knows the chief justice. “Sometimes he stops engaging ... and simply tries to talk football.”

APPOINTING JUDGES

Ma is looking forward to a rest and having time to indulge in his lifelong passions for cinema, cricket and England’s Manchester United soccer team, those who know him said.

Hong Kong born and British educated, Ma mixes easily in international legal circles as he recruits judicial talent from abroad, foreign envoys and judges say. His ability to continue to attract leading foreign judges to serve on Hong Kong courts is a source of pride for him.

The Court of Final Appeal has 23 judges, of whom 15 are foreigners. Many are from the UK, Canada and Australia. All serve as non-permanent members on the court, which means they are called on periodically to sit on cases. Their presence stems from an arrangement established at the handover that has become an entrenched part of the territory’s judicial system.

All cases reaching Hong Kong’s highest court, the Court of Final Appeal, including key constitutional and human rights matters, are generally adjudicated by a panel of five judges. This includes the chief justice, three permanent judges and one non-permanent judge.

Ma is now leading the hunt for at least one new member on the highest court in his statutory role as head of a committee that handles judicial appointments.

The selection body, known as the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, comprises judges, senior lawyers and prominent community figures, as well as a government representative, the secretary for justice. They are barred by law from talking about their work. Any key documentation they use is hand-delivered.

“The question is whether outside forces will try to meddle” when decisions need approval, said a person with direct knowledge of the panel’s secret deliberations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I have to have faith the system will work, but it hangs by only a convention.”

The appointments must be approved by Lam and the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Traditionally, they have been approved with little fuss, but some of the commission’s last significant appointments encountered rare scrutiny in 2018, when some pro-Beijing lawmakers questioned the candidacies in the legislature, as well as the selection process itself.

Brenda Hale, then-president of the British Supreme Court, and Beverley McLachlin, former chief justice of Canada, were the first women to be appointed to Hong Kong’s highest court. Pro-Beijing legislators questioned whether they were too socially liberal for Hong Kong, based on their past rulings.

The judiciary said that Hale and McLachlin had no comment.

The appointments were eventually approved, but the message had been sent — Ma and his successors could expect fights over appointments, particularly of foreign judges.

“That was a shot across the bows,” said one of the three senior judges who spoke to Reuters. “We all heard it.”

Another of the justices said he is concerned that a generational shift under way on the bench could leave it starved of judges strong enough to withstand meddling in the years ahead.

“Pressures will build on the new judicial leaders,” the judge said. “Some of us doubt that they will be able to withstand those pressures as previous generations have done. We just have to hope they can,” the judge said. “The rule of law will depend on it.”

Additional reporting by Clare Jim and Anne Marie Roantree

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title: Assign COVID-19 blame carefully

content_text:
In times of uncertainty, it is only natural to ask questions in search of some semblance of certainty. One question commonly asked during this pandemic is: “Who is to blame for COVID-19?”

In some schools of thought, the epidemic was inevitable — it is part of a larger plan from a higher being; or it is part of the natural order.

However, in a more realistic sense and based on what is already known about the origins of this outbreak (and its predecessor SARS), the answer might not be so simple.

US President Donald Trump has already decided that the “Chinese” are to blame, insisting that this “kung flu” be called the “Chinese virus” because of its country of origin.

This has shifted the blame to the people who fall under the umbrella term of “Chinese,” and some emboldened individuals have taken it upon themselves to mete out revenge against them.

In addition to racist comments and name-calling, in a Texas Sam’s Club, a man attacked an Asian-American family (originally from Myanmar) thinking they were Chinese.

The icing on top of this racism cake is the everlasting assumption that all Asians are the same, one that Asian-Americans fight tirelessly (and seemingly pointlessly) against.

To address this question of blame for COVID-19, begin with the premise of who is not to blame: Asian-Americans and Chinese. The assumption that Asian-Americans and the term Asian are synonymous is more nuanced than is shown at face value.

While many, including me, look stereotypically Asian, the idea of who we are runs deeper. Asian-American identities can run from a first-generation immigrant to several generations removed. Asian-Americans speak their parent’s native languages at different levels — some speak fluently, while some do not know it at all.

Asian-Americans also speak English at different fluency levels, depending on where they settled in the US and in what environment they grew up. Many feel like strangers when visiting the countries of their parents — I am always identified as “the American” by my dress, mannerisms and accent.

First, the assumption that Asian-Americans brought the virus from China to the US is faulty. It assumes that the only people from the US with a reason to travel to Asia are Asian-American.

Although it was unfortunate timing that the virus broke out during the biggest pan-Asian holiday of the year, most Asian-Americans do not travel to Asia for this celebration, due partly to it not being a public holiday in the US, and some bypass the celebration altogether.

Second, the assumption that all Asian-Americans come from this amorphous, synonymous region called Asia means that we all are the same culture and identity. The term “Asian” encompasses many identities that are political, ideological, ethnic and national.

Take for example myself: I am half Chinese and half Taiwanese, and even though my ethnicity is mostly Han, I identify as an American (South Carolinian, specifically) first, and Taiwanese second. This is the nuance missed in all assumptions that Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Thais, Singaporeans, etc, are more or less the same.

To them, how can Asians be different if they all have the same hair color, skin color and eye shape? The lesson here: Asian-Americans do not always equal Asians. They can be, but also do not have to be.

This leads to a second question: What about the Chinese people?

Did their dirty eating habits lead us to COVID-19? It is commonly accepted that the COVID-19 outbreak can be attributed to a wet market in Wuhan where exotic species are kept together in unsanitary conditions, making it a perfect breeding ground for novel viruses.

Virologists have suggested that the pangolin (used in parts of traditional Chinese medicine) is where COVID-19 started. University of Houston professor Peter Li, who specializes in East Asian politics, has come out with a statistic that only a small number of Chinese purchase these exotic animals; the vast majority of Chinese have never consumed any of these animals in their life. (I can vouch that my parents have never eaten bats, dogs, civet cats, pangolins, snakes or the like; it is simply not part of the mainstream cuisine.)

Li said that lobbying by a small group has led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to prioritize their needs over the whole of the population by allowing these wild animal breeding grounds and exotic wet markets to flourish.

It is obvious that a majority of Chinese, especially those who lost family members to COVID-19 or were infected by it, were the victims of the CCP’s mismanagement of food safety, as well as oligarchical pandering toward those in the exotic animal business and those who sustain demand.

The CCP clearly has not learned its lessons from SARS — and thus it is obvious that the CCP, especially at the local level (with their poor, corrupt system of governance and wildlife policies) are one of the “who” to blame, not the general population.

The CCP is not the only one to blame. The US response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been abysmal, ineffective and too little, too late.

Comparatively, the US is behind in testing and the US federal government has shown no unified leadership. If the CCP is to blame for the original outbreak, then Trump’s administration is to blame for worsening the spread.

Individual states and their healthcare workers are left to struggle on their own while the president unhelpfully crowed that the US would be open by Easter.

Additionally, the WHO is partially to blame. Although the world relies heavily on their expertise, they have not been immune to political pressure where Taiwan, perhaps the only nation that has effectively handled this outbreak, has been left out of best practices sharing and the international forum.

After being left out of receiving advice from the WHO during the SARS outbreak, this nation built its own mechanisms to fight pandemics, and today, life remains almost normal, as restaurants are full, and children still go to school.

Chinese must pressure their government to learn from this deadly outbreak and the international community must pressure China to change its exotic foods policies and allow Taiwan to join the WHO. The international community must also implore the WHO to stop putting politics over people, and Americans must recognize who is to blame and vote those who lead poorly during times of crisis out of office.

Please stay safe, wash your hands and think before you blame.

Tiffany Wei, a native South Carolinian, is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Furman University. She is interested in international affairs, EU politics and East Asian politics.

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title: World Business Quick Take

content_text:
SINGAPORE

Exports surge 17.6 percent

The nation’s exports last month unexpectedly surged from a low base in the previous year, despite disruptions to global supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-oil domestic exports last month grew 17.6 percent from a year earlier, the highest level since October 2017, data published by Enterprise Singapore yesterday showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a contraction of 8 percent. “This is a little bit of good news for the economy, which has been significantly impacted by COVID-19, but we must not be complacent,” Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing (陳振聲) said in a news release. “The next few months will be very tough as global demand shrinks and shifts. We will have to be on our toes to manage the challenges and retain jobs for our workers.”

AIRLINES

Cathay to lay off crew in US

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) yesterday said that it would lay off 286 cabin crew based in the US and furlough 201 pilots based in Australia and Britain, as the pandemic has virtually halted global travel. The carrier has grounded most of its airplanes because of falling demand, flying only a skeleton network this and next month to major destinations such as Beijing, Los Angeles, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Vancouver that makes up 3 percent of normal capacity. In a statement, Cathay said that it was communicating with the affected cabin crew based in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as their union. The airline said that it was standing down 129 Airbus SE pilots in Australia from May 1 until about June 30, although the end date could change.

E-COMMERCE

Amazon workers urge strike

An Amazon.com Inc workers’ group is calling for a virtual one-day strike to pressure the online retail giant over warehouse safety conditions amid the pandemic. The e-commerce colossus is believed to have had COVID-19 cases in a number of its warehouses, and has seen employee protests and walkouts in several of them to press for safety improvements. The workers group, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, called on colleagues to call in sick on Friday next week, accusing the company of firing workers protesting a lack of coronavirus safety precautions and environmental issues. The Seattle-based Internet giant set a goal of investing US$350 million to support employees and partners during the pandemic, which has thrust Amazon into the spotlight as demand surges for online services during extensive lockdowns.

BANKING

India eases loan regulations

The Reserve Bank of India yesterday further eased bad-loan rules and told lenders to freeze dividend payments to strengthen the financial system’s response to the coronavirus-fueled slowdown. To preserve capital, lenders would not pay any further dividends for the year ended March 31, Governor Shaktikanta Das said. He asked banks to boost provisions for loan repayments that are frozen under the debt moratorium. “It is imperative that banks conserve capital to retain their support for the economy and absorb losses in an environment of heightened uncertainty,” Das said in a televised speech. The dividend curbs would be reviewed in the quarter ending on Sept. 30. The central bank eased a time line allowing loans to companies that have defaulted since the start of February to not be classified as bad.

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‘NOT A GOOD DAY’:
 Economists said that any economic benefits from next year’s Games would be negligible compared with the size of Japan’s US$5 trillion economy

International Olympic Committee (IOC) member John Coates, who is in charge of planning for next year’s Tokyo Olympics, has said that the postponed Games could help “kickstart” Japan’s economy.

Japan has been devastated like many countries by the COVID-19 pandemic and could be in a recession when the Olympics are to open on July 23 next year.

“These Games are a very positive opportunity for an economic stimulus,” Coates said in a teleconference on Thursday with the Tokyo organizing committee. “These Games can help kickstart the economy again. These Games could be the rebirth of the tourism industry.”

The Olympic Flame is displayed at the J-Village National Training Center in Naraha, Japan, on April 2.
 Photo: AFP

Coates also praised Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, calling him a “very, very smart man.”

He said that Abe also viewed the Games as providing an economic stimulus.

However, economists and Olympic researchers yesterday said that any economic boost would be negligible given the size of Japan’s US$5 trillion economy and the limited tourism and economic benefits from the 17-day Games.

In some previous Olympics, soaring prices and crowding have discouraged tourists instead of attracting them.

“His predictions fly in the face of all the research on the financial impacts of hosting the Games ‘on a good day’ — and the current global crisis does not qualify as ‘a good day,’” said Helen Lenskyj, a professor emerita at the University of Toronto.

Lenskyj has written eight books on the Olympics, including her most recent, The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach. She suggested that Japan would be better off if it did not have to finance next year’s Games.

“At this moment in history, ‘a very smart man’ would be wishing his country did not have the added burden of hosting the Olympics,” Lenskyj said.

Japan is officially spending US$12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a government audit report in December last year said that it was twice that much. All but US$5.6 billion is taxpayer money.

IOC and Japanese officials say they do not know the cost of the one-year delay, but estimates have put it at US$2 billion to US$6 billion. Nearly all of the added costs fall to Japan under an agreement signed in 2013 when Tokyo was awarded the Games.

Coates confirmed that the IOC would be spending “several hundred million dollars” because of the postponement.

The funds would go to distressed international federations and national Olympic committees, not to Tokyo.

Tokyo organizing committee chief executive officer Toshiro Muto has described the added costs as “massive,” while Coates said that “there will be some negative impacts.”

“If Tokyo is hoping that a surge of tourism is going to cover the costs of moving the Games by a year, they are likely to be very disappointed,” said Victor Matheson, a sports economist at the College of the Holy Cross.

Matheson and colleague Robert Baumann calculated the impact of foreign tourism on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. They discounted local spending, as it was simply moving expenditures from one place in the country to another.

They said that Rio had 60,000 added arrivals and estimated US$5,000 spending by each arrival, an impact of US$300 million.

Rio spent about US$13 billion to organize the Olympics and some put the figure at US$20 billion.

Matheson and Robert Baade of Lake Forest College published a study in 2016 titled Going for Gold: The Economics of the Olympics. They looked at the impact of short-term and long-term tourism, sports and other infrastructure, employment, trade, and the intangible “feel-good factor”of holding the Olympics.

They concluded: “In most cases, the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities; they result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances.”

The IOC and Japanese organizers on Thursday promised to cut out frills to rein in spending. They are still trying to nail down if all of the 43 Olympic and Paralympic venues will be available next year and at what cost.

“On the Japanese side, they are assessing the impact of the postponement including costs,” Coates said. “These are not matters that are going to happen quickly. I couldn’t put a finger on when the additional costs will be assessed and done.”

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title: Olympics not expected to boost Japan


title: Rexon revenue to surge thanks to Peloton: analyst

content_text:
Rexon Industrial Corp Ltd (力山工業), a maker of fitness equipment and power tools, is to see a 60 to 70 percent year-on-year surge in revenue this year on the back of growing treadmill shipments to US fitness equipment company Peloton Interactive Inc, TF International Securities Group Co (天風國際證券) analyst Kuo Ming-chi (郭明錤) said on Thursday.

Taichung-headquartered Rexon, which assembles more than 90 percent of Peloton’s treadmills and 25 percent of its stationary bikes, would see revenue increase to NT$13.4 billion (US$445.2 million) this year, Kuo said in a report.

Rexon’s advantages in design and development would help it secure almost all orders for new treadmills from Peloton from next month, as the US firm is expected to launch its next generation of equipment between the end of this quarter and the start of the next, he added.

“If shipments are steady, Rexon could remain Peloton’s sole supplier of treadmills for up to six months,” Kuo said in the report.

Peloton is expected to contribute an estimated NT$10.2 billion to Rexon’s revenue, a 111 percent year-on-year increase, he said.

Rexon is this year expected to see an 800 percent year-on-year increase in shipments to Peloton of treadmills and stationary bikes to 236,000 and 830,000 units respectively, the report said.

New York City-based Peloton, which operates a streaming platform that allows users to participate in various courses through a monthly subscription service, would see tremendous growth in market demand as consumers remain confined indoors amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said.

“This enables users to work out at home at any time while satisfying their need for social interaction,” Kuo said.

Pointing to lockdowns in Europe that are stricter than those in North America, Kuo said that demand from the European market would surpass that of Peloton’s home market, boosting its shipments.

Rexon, which also designs and develops rowing machines, is expected to continue benefiting from Peloton, as the US firm aims to expand its presence in the fitness equipment market through the launch of rowing machines within the next two years, he said.

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title: CIER lowers forecast for GDP growth

content_text:
GLOBALIZATION BITES:
 Taiwan has avoided strict isolation measures, but lockdowns in other nations have reduced trade and people flows, while confidence has also fallen

The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday lowered its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year to 1.03 percent, less than half of its previous projection of 2.34 percent, as the COVID-19 pandemic is hurting exports and consumer spending.

The Taipei-based institute lent support to the government’s belief that Taiwan would manage to grow GDP for the whole of the year, although Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P) expects the nation to see a 1.2 percent contraction.

“Economic activity is chilling on both domestic and external fronts due to global lockdowns to contain the pandemic,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) said.

A mild spread — with 395 confirmed cases so far — has enabled Taiwan to avoid instituting strict isolation measures to fight the novel coronavirus, which has brought economies in Europe, the US and other countries to a virtual standstill.

Nevertheless, the nation is not immune to reduced trade and people flows, or to a potential nosedive in business and consumer confidence, CIER economist Peng Su-ling (彭素玲) said.

The manufacturing and service industries hold bleak views about their business prospects, although exports staged a stronger performance than the government expected, thanks to robust demand for electronics used for 5G deployment and artificial intelligence, Peng said.

Taiwan is home to the world’s leading suppliers of semiconductors, the mainstay of outbound shipments, the economist said.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) on Thursday told investors that demand for advanced technologies would hold strong in the coming years.

Exports might pick up 2 percent this year, while imports increase 1.4 percent, assuming that the virus shock is plateauing this month and the world would return to normalcy next quarter, Peng said.

Still, Taiwan’s economy would see a small and temporary decline of 0.12 percent in the current quarter, dragged by sluggish consumer spending and private investment, as well as cheaper wholesale and fuel prices, CIER said.

Private consumption would make a nearly zero contribution to GDP this year, it said, as the number of furloughed employees soared to 14,821 this week, the highest in eight years.

S&P was less optimistic, forecasting that economies in the region would enter a transition period when social distancing measures would be common between full lockdowns and business as usual until the middle of next year.

Job losses would be a sticky issue and much higher in the absence of government measures directly targeting the retention of jobs, the ratings agency said.

Intense uncertainty renders economic projections extremely difficult at this stage, CIER and S&P said.

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Chunghwa Chemical Synthesis & Biotech Co Ltd (CCSB, 中化合成生技) yesterday said that it is ready to produce remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug being studied as a treatment for COVID-19, if the government determines that it is safe and effective against the novel coronavirus that causes the disease.

The company earlier this week completed the synthesis of 4.73g of remdesivir with a purity of 99.72 percent.

“We spent about two weeks replicating the drug. The synthesis part was not time-consuming, but we spent some time waiting for ingredients from abroad,” CCSB spokesman Eason Wang (王冠傑) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

The company purchased the processed ingredients from overseas, as it lacks low-temperature equipment to proceed with synthesis, he said.

“As some chemical reactions have to take place at a very low temperature — about minus-78°C — when combining the compounds to make remdesivir, a special device is necessary,” Wang said, adding that the firm is considering buying such equipment to enable full production.

CCSB, a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, was the latest local institution or company to succeed in replicating the experimental drug after Academia Sinica and Formosa Laboratories Inc (台耀化學).

Remdesivir, developed by US-based Gilead Sciences Inc, has shown promising results in fighting the novel coronavirus in an early analysis of overseas studies, Wang said.

Taiwan is also conducting clinical trials to test the drug’s efficacy, he said.

As no definitive conclusion on whether remdesivir is an effective treatment for COVID-19 has been made and Gilead has a patent for the drug, CCSB does not plan to mass-produce it, unless the government makes it compulsory for local companies to produce such drugs, Wang said.

With a stable supply of ingredients from overseas, CCSB could manufacture 30kg of remdesivir within 12 weeks, which should be enough to treat 30,000 patients, who would each need about 1.1g, he said.

“As the spread of COVID-19 seems to have abated in Taiwan,” with the Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday reporting zero new cases for the third time this week, “we do not expect high demand for the drug domestically,” Wang said.

However, local regulators might consider allowing companies to produce the drug to help other nations deal with escalating outbreaks of the disease, as the government earlier this month donated masks to affected countries, he said.

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title: CCSB prepared to make remdesivir if necessary


people: 蘇建榮 蔡英文

title: Singapore PM’s wife apologizes to Tsai

content_text:
Ho Ching (何晶), the wife of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), on Thursday apologized to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for sharing a video on Facebook that criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Ho wrote on Facebook a day earlier about meeting a Singaporean woman whose son suffered from serious tinnitus — a loud, persistent ringing in his ear — but who recovered after receiving treatment in Taiwan.

“Taiwan was a life saver for the son,” Ho wrote. “So for this and many other ways of support, I fully applaud Taiwan.”

However, the video shared with the post did not mention the boy’s story, but was a clip from a political commentary show hosted by Chen Feng-hsin (陳鳳馨) and Tang Hsiang-lung (唐湘龍).

The image for the video was a picture of Tsai next to the words “mask diplomacy fail.”

In the video, the two commentators criticize the DPP, accusing it of overindulging Taiwanese netizens, who they thought unfairly attacked Ho for a previous post she made on Facebook.

They also said the relationship between Taiwan and Singapore had become “hopeless.”

Ho on Thursday added a postscript to her post, saying that she did not agree with some parts of the video that were “clearly biased domestic political fights.”

She asked people to “please look past the cover photo for the video,” and apologized to Tsai.

“I owe the president of Taiwan a personal apology and hope to make amends in calmer times,” she wrote.

Despite apologizing, she did not take down the video.

On April 11, Ho stoked controversy when she shared an English-language news story about Taiwan donating masks to Singapore and captioned it “Errrr...”

The comment seemed to indicate that she was not keen on the plan.

A few days later, she updated the post, saying that she was grateful for Taiwan’s donation of masks.

She also said that “mistakes” had been forgiven, which has been widely interpreted as referring to Taiwan’s ban on mask exports, which has impacted mask supply to Singapore, as the city-state has two production lines in Taiwan.

Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) has said that before the ban took effect on Jan. 24, Singaporean mask manufacturer ST Engineering was given permission by the government to send N95 masks already packed for export to Singapore.

That batch of masks cleared customs on Jan. 29, before mask production equipment owned by the company was shipped back to Singapore on Feb. 12, Su said.

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title: SpaceX獵鷹9號運載火箭屆時將搭載宇航員。

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title: EDITORIAL CARTOON


content_text:
VITAL ROLE:
 US Republicans said in a letter that they ‘understand and value’ the WHO as ‘the only organization working on the ground in the worst places in the world’

US Congressional Republicans on Thursday urged US President Donald Trump to condition funding for the WHO on the resignation of its chief over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seventeen Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said that they had “lost faith” in WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, even as they stressed that the organization is vital to tackling the world’s health problems.

“Director-General Tedros has failed in his mandate to objectively respond to the largest global health crisis since the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” the lawmakers, led by Republican Michael McCaul, wrote to Trump in a letter.

Trump on Tuesday announced that Washington would halt payments to the UN body that amounted to US$400 million last year.

He accused it of “mismanaging” the crisis and covering up the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak in China before it spread.

More than 141,000 people worldwide have died, and the global economy has nosedived.

The Republicans accused Tedros of being too willing to believe Beijing and of brushing off a Taiwanese warning on the ease of viral transmission.

They said that Tedros delayed emergency declarations “despite clear evidence of the rapid spread and human-to-human transmission of COVID-19.”

WHO on March 11 declared a pandemic, after 114 countries had reported cases and 4,500 people had died, and after weeks of Tedros advising against travel bans.

“We have lost faith in Director-General Tedros’ ability to lead the World Health Organization,” the lawmakers said.

However, they added that they “understand, and value, the vital role that the WHO plays around the world, especially in acute humanitarian settings.”

They also said that the WHO is often “the only organization working on the ground in the worst places in the world, and the US should continue to support this important work.”

Still, they urged swift action to ensure the “impartiality, transparency and legitimacy” of the WHO.

“We recommend that you condition any future Fiscal Year 2020 voluntary contributions to the WHO on the resignation of Director-General Tedros,” they said.

The 55-year-old malaria specialist is Ethiopia’s former minister of health and foreign affairs.

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title: Virus Outbreak: US lawmakers say Tedros must resign


title: Tianjin fans keep ‘Chariots of Fire’ runner in spotlight

content_text:
Eric Liddell was a Scottish Olympic champion, but a group of diehard Chinese soccer fans is determined not to let the legendary runner be forgotten there, 75 years after his death.

The 400m gold medalist from the 1924 Paris Olympics, immortalized in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, was a Christian missionary and athlete who was born, worked and died in China.

He was 43 when he succumbed to a brain tumor at a Japanese internment camp in 1945. He is said to have refused a ticket out from then-British prime minister Winston Churchill, instead giving it to a pregnant woman.

Now, three-quarters of a century later, fanatical supporters of Chinese Super League club Tianjin Teda want to ensure that the memory of Liddell’s contribution to the city of his birth does not fade away.

“Eric was a great man. He was not a Chinese national, but we consider him a Tianjiner,” said Sam Wang, 25, cofounder of ultras group Tiger Wings. “He sacrificed his life in China.”

In his honor, Wang and his fellow Tianjin diehards made a flag depicting Liddell with a gold medal slung around his neck. They plan to send it to Liddell’s family.

Wang said the flag was partly a riposte to what he sees as a rise in nationalism among fans of some other Chinese soccer clubs.

In an historic area of Tianjin, a city of 15 million people on China’s northeast coast, lies Minyuan Stadium, the former home of Tianjin Teda.

It has been turned into a cultural center, but it was Liddell’s idea to base the stadium’s design on Stamford Bridge, home ground of London club Chelsea.

“He brought the drawings of Stamford Bridge Stadium to Tianjin in 1925, so it was one of the earliest cities in China to have a stadium,” Tianjin Sports Museum director Bai Guosheng said. “I think he deserves to be remembered — he was a selfless devotee to Chinese sports and laid the groundwork for modern sports in China.”

After his birth in 1902 in Tianjin to missionary parents, Liddell was educated in Britain and represented his country at the Olympics.

He returned to China as a missionary, and was also a sports and chemistry teacher in Tianjin. He is regarded by some as China’s first Olympic champion.

In 2015, a statue to Liddell was unveiled in Weifang, the city where he died.

At the unveiling, Liddell’s daughter Patricia told the Times: “My father was multi-faceted, he didn’t just appeal to religious people. He was born in China, he worked in China, he died in China. He’s their Olympic hero. He didn’t leave the Chinese people when the going got tough.”

There are no suggestions that China is airbrushing the “Flying Scotsman” from history, but the Tianjin fans want to keep his star burning bright.

“We want to deliver the message to the locals and make sure they remember him and pass his legacy through generations of Tianjin football fans,” Wang said.

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title: Taiwan should host forum on pandemic

content_text:
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on April 1 told a news conference at the Presidential Office Building that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan would assist countries by sending them masks and medical supplies, as well as offering disease prevention guidance through videoconferencing, to fulfill its duty as a global citizen and share its experience for joint efforts to safeguard public health.

The announcement shows that Taiwan is willing to participate in the work of the WHO. Hopefully, Taiwan will receive more international friendship and support.

Taiwan could capitalize on this moment and hold an international forum on COVID-19 prevention along with the US, Japan and other nations, as well as the EU. As the pandemic is approaching its peak, timely discussion, coordination and mutual support are crucial. The world cannot wait for the WHO to hold a face-to-face forum.

Taiwan could team up with nations severely affected by the pandemic and launch a videoconferencing forum, which could serve as a real-time platform outside of the WHO to exchange useful disease prevention methods, provide support and coordinate resource distribution.

The platform could also enable nations to exchange feasible and faster testing methods and screening reagents, as well as facilitate the research and development of potential medicines, such as hydroxychloroquine, along with rapid screening kits and vaccines.

Through such a platform, governments could follow new medicines’ progress in clinical trials, determine appropriate dosages, effects and observation results from other nations, as well as come up with practical ways to ensure the safety of and provide support to frontline medical professionals.

Late last month, Taiwan gave urgent disease prevention training to its diplomatic allies by teleconference, providing guidance on disease prevention to countries lacking resources and experience. This kind of one-on-one videoconferencing can be continued, conducted according to each nation’s needs after the large-scale forum.

Providing care for nations severely hit by the pandemic would leave a profound and positive impression.

Disregarding China’s objections, US President Donald Trump on March 26 signed the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act into law. It not only supports Taiwan in maintaining and strengthening external relations, but also advocates for Taiwan’s membership in international organizations. It is believed the act’s primary goal is to support Taiwan’s participation in the work of the WHO.

As the pandemic continues, Taiwan’s participation becomes a practical issue for most countries. Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among others, have on various occasions expressed support for Taiwan’s participation in the WHO.

Given the US’ and Japan’s influence and power in the WHO, along with the worrisome circumstances of the pandemic, support from countries and their affirmative attitudes would create pressure on China and the WHO to reassess Taiwan’s capability and reconsider its participation.

If Taiwan takes the initiative to hold an international forum and invites the US, Japan and EU countries to cosponsor it, the nation would leave a deep impression on the world.

The cost of orchestrating such an event would not be high, as the forum would be conducted through videoconferencing.

The world would remember Taiwan selflessly sharing its experience at a time when the nation is making all-out efforts, regardless of whether the WHO allows it to participate.

Sunny Young is a former director of Chinese Television System’s News Reporting Center.

Translated by Chang Ho-ming

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Piano truck takes music instruction mobile to beat virus

Yoyo, 6, frowns with concentration as she plays the piano in the back of a truck — still able to practice thanks to an innovative Hong Kong music school keeping lessons going during the coronavirus pandemic.

While Hong Kong’s infections remain comparatively low — just more than 1,000 cases and four deaths — schools have been shut since late January and authorities have ramped up social distancing measures in recent weeks.

Schools and tutoring services have had to switch to online lessons, but music tutors like Evan Kam are trying to keep personal lessons going — while reducing the risk of infection for both teachers and students.

Piano teacher Evan Kam, 28, on Friday last week sanitizes a shoe mat at the entrance of his piano truck shortly after arriving in the village of one of his students in Hong Kong.
 Photo: AFP

“Video teaching doesn’t suit us well as piano fingerings and gestures are better instructed with a teacher by your side,” the 28-year-old said.

The tutoring center where Kam works saw business plunge by 70 percent in February when infections first crossed into Hong Kong from mainland China.

Many students stopped attending because they did not want to take public transport.

Inspired by mobile libraries, the company rented three trucks and fitted them into mobile music classrooms, complete with air-conditioning and soundproof boards.

“We wanted to keep our colleagues employed. That’s why we wanted to step out of our comfort zone and see how far we can go,” Jessica Lam, the firm’s business development manager, said.

“We like to offer our services directly to where the students live to shorten their travelling time,” she added.

Last week, Kam’s truck was in Ha Tsuen, a remote village in northwest Hong Kong, close to the border with China.

After parking, he cleaned the keyboard, set up an air purifier, sprayed a doormat with disinfectant, and prepared hand sanitizer for his students. Soon, Alfred Tang, 10, and his sister Yoyo arrived.

Both beginners, Alfred played a gentle ballad called Proud of You, while Yoyo perfected a rendition of the notoriously catchy Baby Shark.

Their mother, who declined to give her first name, said that the lessons were a highlight for the children, who are cooped up at home for most of the week.

“It’s convenient for us, as we can just go downstairs and take lessons,” she said.

“My children mostly just stay at home as schools have been suspended and we don’t go into town that much,” she said.

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content_text:
‘IMMENSE TOLL’:
 A prolonged lockdown and an economic depression could lead to a rise in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicide and heart disease, the US president said

US President Donald Trump on Thursday laid out new guidelines for states to emerge from a COVID-19 lockdown in a staggered, three-stage approach meant to revive the economy, even as the nation continues to fight the pandemic.

The recommendations call on states to show a “downward trajectory” of COVID-19 cases or positive tests for the disease over 14 days before proceeding with the plan, which gradually loosens restrictions on businesses that have been shuttered to blunt the spread of the coronavirus.

“We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx speaks at a news conference at the White House in Washington on Thursday.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

Trump earlier this month had said that he wanted to reopen the economy with a “big bang.”

The plan is a set of recommendations for state governors, not orders. In that sense, it represented a U-turn by Trump, who on Monday said that he had total authority to direct states to reopen or remain closed.

The responsibility for such decisions lies with state, not federal, authorities.

With the onus on state governors, the plan also gives Trump political cover if not everything goes to plan. The president, a Republican who is running for re-election in November, has faced criticism for downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus in the early weeks of the pandemic.

The recommendations drew criticism from Ron Klain, who spearheaded the response to Ebola for the administration of then-US president Barack Obama and has advised former US vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

“This isn’t a plan. It’s barely a powerpoint,” Klain wrote on Twitter, adding that it did not include provisions to ramp up testing or set a specific standard for levels of the disease before economic opening.

Democrats such as US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden said that testing was key to reopening the nation and criticized Trump’s presentation for lacking specifics.

“I wouldn’t call it a plan. I think what he’s done, he’s kind of punted,” Biden said in an interview on CNN.

The new guidelines effectively end, at least for some states, the 30-day federal coronavirus mitigation rules that were meant to stay in place through the end of this month.

States that have met the criteria could move into the first phase of reopening yesterday, Trump said.

However, before they do that, the guidelines suggest hospitals have a “robust testing program” that includes antibody testing in place for healthcare workers.

States should have the ability to set up screening and testing sites for people with symptoms, contact-tracing capabilities, and healthcare facilities that are able to supply personal protective gear independently and handle surges of COVID-19 cases.

In the first phase of reopening, the guidelines say groups of more than 10 people should be avoided if appropriate distancing measures are not practical. Non-essential travel should be minimized, teleworking should be encouraged and common areas in offices closed.

Schools remain closed in the first phase, but large venues — such as movie theaters, restaurants, sports stadiums and places of worship — could reopen with “strict physical distancing protocols.”

Hospitals, which have been hit hard by the pandemic, could resume out-patient elective surgeries and gyms could reopen, but bars should remain closed, the guidelines say.

In the second phase, applicable to states and regions with “no evidence of a rebound” in cases, the guidelines recommend groups of more than 50 be avoided where social distancing is not practical.

Non-essential travel could resume, schools and youth camps could reconvene, and bars with “diminished standing-room occupancy” could reopen. Hospitals could also resume in-patient elective surgeries.

The third phase includes unrestricted staffing of workplaces, but Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force who took a lead role in designing the guidelines, said that a “new normal” would remain in place — a need for higher hygiene standards and more space between people to prevent asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus.

Trump has been pushing to get the US economy going again after the lockdowns have left millions of Americans unemployed.

More than 20 million people have filed for unemployment in the past month.

“A prolonged lockdown combined with a forced economic depression would inflict an immense and wide-ranging toll on public health,” Trump said, adding that it could lead to a sharp rise in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicide and heart disease.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Trump unveils ‘reopening’ guidelines


title: Virus Outbreak: Singapore eyes ships for recovered workers

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Singapore is assessing whether migrant workers who have recovered from COVID-19 might be safer on cruise ships than back in dormitories that have become infection hotbeds, despite problems controlling onboard outbreaks encountered elsewhere.

The city-state has seen virus cases surge in sprawling housing complexes for foreign workers, recording its biggest ever jump in cases on Thursday, and is looking for new accommodation solutions for hundreds of workers.

About 60 percent of the 4,427 people infected on the island stay in dormitories, where mainly South Asian workers live 12 to 20 in a room, and share toilets in conditions some workers have said are unsanitary.

The “SuperStar Gemini” cruise ship is docked in Singapore yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

“Cruise ships are being considered as they have readily available rooms and en suite toilets to minimize person-to-person contact,” the city-state’s tourism board said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

It said the measure could be rolled out for workers who have recovered from the novel coronavirus and tested negative, helping free up space in dormitories. Authorities are also moving some healthy workers from dorms into public housing, military camps and industrial ships used to accommodate offshore staff.

People rarely catch infectious diseases twice as they develop some immunity, medical experts say, though there have been isolated reports of such cases since the pandemic began in China in December last year.

Two ships owned by Genting Cruise Lines that could each accommodate up to 2,000 people were being checked to see if they had suitable ventilation systems, security protocols and infection control measures, the tourism board said.

Cruise ships have also been at the center of mass outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 130,000 lives and infected more than 2 million people globally.

One of the most notable incidents involved the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined for nearly a month in Japan, with eventually more than 700 people becoming infected.

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Virus Outbreak: Soyuz crew return to Earth roiled by COVID-19

Two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut yesterday made a safe return from the International Space Station (ISS) to a planet roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka touched down in central Kazakhstan at 5:16am GMT in the first returning mission since the WHO declared the coronavirus a global pandemic last month.

“TOUCHDOWN. Welcome home, Oleg Skripochka, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir,” Russia’s Roscosmos Space Agency wrote on Twitter yesterday.

A still image from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency shows US astronaut Jessica Meir sitting in a chair shortly after the landing of the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, yesterday.
 Photo: AP / Roscosmos Space Agency

Although the space explorers’ landing site southeast of Dzhezkazgan was the same as for previous crews, the pandemic forced the space agency to introduce some changes to mission-end protocol.

Roscosmos on Tuesday said that the crews meeting the trio at the landing site had been tested for COVID-19 and would don full-body protective wear.

The crew also avoided the usual staging post of Karagandy International Airport — shut down like so many other airports across the world — for their respective journeys back to Russia and the US.

Instead, Skripochka is to fly from the Baikonur Cosmodrome used to launch missions to the ISS, while the NASA duo is to take off in an airplane from the steppe city of Kyzlorda after a drive of several hours.

In a media appearance aboard the ISS prior to her departure, Meir said that it would be difficult to forgo embraces with family and friends as she gets up to speed with the new culture of social distancing on Earth.

“I think I will feel more isolated on Earth than here,” reflected Meir, who made history as one half of the first all-woman spacewalk along with NASA colleague Christina Koch in October last year.

The International Space Station — a rare example of cooperation between Russia and the West — has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000kph since 1998.

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Virus Outbreak: Foreign hackers are targeting COVID-19 research: FBI official

A senior FBI cybersecurity official on Thursday said that foreign government hackers have broken into institutions conducting research into treatments for COVID-19.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Tonya Ugoretz told participants in an online panel discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute that the bureau had seen state-backed hackers poking around the US healthcare sector as well.

“We certainly have seen reconnaissance activity, and some intrusions, into some of those institutions, especially those that have publicly identified themselves as working on COVID-related research,” Ugoretz said.

Ugoretz said it made sense for organizations working on promising treatments or a potential vaccine to tout their work publicly.

“[But] the sad flip side is that it kind of makes them a mark for other nation-states that are interested in gleaning details about what exactly they’re doing and maybe even stealing proprietary information that those institutions have,” she said.

Ugoretz said that state-backed hackers had often targeted the biopharmaceutical industry, but that “it’s certainly heightened during this crisis.”

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