title: Virus Outbreak: Powertech says pandemic won’t hinder revenue

content_text:
RECORD HIGH EXPECTED:
 The semiconductor maker sees strong demand for Q3 and Q4, and said its DRAM business will outgrow that of NAND flash memory

Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) yesterday said the COVID-19 pandemic would not be an obstacle to it making a record-high revenue this year, after posting its strongest first-quarter net profits in about nine years amid robust solid-state-disk (SSD) demand.

The Hsinchu-based memorychip packager and tester said most of its factories in Taiwan, China and Japan have been operating normally, unaffected by the outbreak.

“We still hold an optimistic and positive view about the second quarter. Local governments have reined in the spread of the pandemic, allowing Powertech’s fabs to operate smoothly,” chairman D.K. Tsai (蔡篤恭) told investors.

Powertech Technology Inc chairman D.K. Tsai poses in Hsinchu in an undated photograph.
 Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times

“Some might be worried about the impact of [high] inventory [amid concern over supply disruptions last quarter], but we are seeing strong customer demand for the third and fourth quarters,” Tsai said. “We believe Powertech’s [revenue] will climb to a historical high this year, unfazed by COVID-19.”

Its confidence is also built on healthy fundamentals, as 5G-related applications, such as smartphones and 5G-enabled infrastructure and networking devices, are to fuel growth, the firm said.

Work-from-home, e-learning, e-commerce and game consoles are also stimulating demand for data centers, PCs and memory chips used in those devices, it said.

Powertech expects “a positive growth in revenue for the second quarter,” president Hung Chia-yu said.

Its DRAM business is expected to outgrow that of NAND flash memory, benefiting from launches of new smartphones and high-speed graphics, and ongoing momentum from notebook computers and data centers, he said.

Demand for system-in-package (SiP) modules has also been strong, driven by increasing consumption of SSD storage for data centers, he said.

Powertech is adding capacity this year after its loading rate climbed to 95 percent last quarter, Hung said.

Overall, loading rate for packaging services is expected to rise to as high as 85 percent this quarter, from 80 percent last quarter, he said.

Net profit jumped to NT$1.63 billion (US$54.15 million) in the first quarter, compared with NT$1.05 billion in the same period last year, marking the best first-quarter in about nine years.

On a quarterly basis, net profit dipped 21.6 percent from NT$2.01 billion, which was an all-time high.

Earnings per share rose to NT$2.1 from NT$1.36 a year ago, but down from NT$2.68 in the previous quarter.

The pandemic has delayed construction on its first panel-based packaging fab in Hsinchu by one to two quarters, but it still aims to complete construction in the fourth quarter this year, paving the way for small-volume production in the second half of next year as scheduled, Powertech said.

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people: 吳斯懷 蔡英文

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Virus Outbreak: Tsai orders military to probe for negligence on ship

MISPLACED OUTRAGE?
 As its voyage was part of Taiwan’s defense diplomacy, the president would have had to give final approval for it to proceed, Wu Sz-huai said

The Presidential Office yesterday called on the military to thoroughly investigate and find those responsible for a cluster of at least 27 COVID-19 cases on a navy ship.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has ordered the Ministry of National Defense to undertake a complete internal investigation as soon as possible to determine whether there was negligence that contributed to the outbreak, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.

The cluster infection occurred on the supply ship Panshih (磐石), which was part of a navy “Friendship Flotilla” that visited Palau from March 12 to 15 before returning to Kaohsiung’s Zuoying Naval Base on April 9.

The crews of the vessels disembarked on Wednesday last week — 30 days after departing from the Pacific ally, in line with Central Epidemic Command Center guidelines.

A total of 744 officers, sailors and cadets were on Saturday last week recalled for testing and placed in 14-day centralized quarantine after the first case from the ship was confirmed earlier that day.

The center said that health authorities were conducting an investigation to determine whether the crew members contracted the disease locally or overseas.

The ministry should make public the results of its internal investigation to dispel the public’s doubts over the outbreak, Chang said, adding that it should take responsibility if it finds that negligence by military personnel contributed to the incident.

Chang made the comments after lawmakers across party lines raised concerns about speculation that the military had tried to conceal the outbreak.

On Monday, Deputy Minister of Defense Chang Che-ping (張哲平) defended the decision to conduct the visit to Palau, saying that the goodwill trip was an important annual mission by the navy.

It was also crucial for the training of navy personnel and cadets, as well as to promote closer ties with Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, he said.

National Taiwan Normal University political science professor Fan Shih-ping (范世平) yesterday questioned on Facebook why the flotilla set out on March 5 — after the disease had been designated by the WHO as a public health emergency of international concern.

“Some have claimed that the military personnel were on a ‘special mission,’ but on board the Panshih were naval cadets who had little experience,” Fan said.

“How could they be aboard the ship if it was a special mission?” he asked.

The flotilla’s mission each year reportedly alternates between what are called “big” and “small” dunmu (敦睦) — the former consisting of visits to other nations and the latter voyages around Taiwan, he said.

This year, the mission was purportedly a “big dunmu,” Fan said, adding that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the navy might have compromised and sent cadets to Palau, as not going anywhere would have upset them.

“Was the navy’s top brass not even able to set the priorities straight?” he asked.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), a retired lieutenant general, said that as the mission was part of Taiwan’s defense diplomacy, the president must have known about it and would have had the final say on whether it could proceed.

The last thing Tsai should do is say that she is livid about the cluster infection, Wu said, adding that instead, she should stabilize the morale of the nation’s armed forces by first taking care of the sick personnel and their families.


content_text:
‘SHEER MOCKERY’:
 The resumption has the backing of the leaders of Germany’s two most powerful states, but a collective of fan groups voiced harsh criticism of the plan

The Bundesliga could resume from May 9, regional leaders of Germany’s biggest states said on Monday, although games would only take place without spectators to prevent COVID-19 contagion.

Bavaria Minister President Markus Soeder, head of the state which hosts champions Bayern Munich, said it remains “completely unimaginable to have spectators” in the stadiums given the need for social distancing to slow the pandemic.

However, “we could perhaps from May 9 play such a round of ‘ghost games,’” Soeder told Bild, using the German term Geisterspiele for matches played in empty stadiums.

“A weekend with football is much more bearable than a weekend without football,” he said.

Likewise, North Rhine-Westphalia Minister President Armin Laschet, head of the state which is home to Borussia Dortmund, said Germany’s top flight could resume “on condition that there is a thoroughly thought-out concept.”

The German Football League (DFL) has presented “safeguards,” Laschet said, adding that he “can imagine us returning to ‘ghost games.’”

The backing of the leaders of Germany’s two most powerful states could prove to be crucial to the DFL as it mulls a resumption of the Bundesliga.

A decision is imminent, with a videoconference due to be held tomorrow between the DFL and the 36 clubs in the first and second divisions.

While Germany began easing curbs and allowing smaller shops to open from Monday, large public events have been scrapped through to Aug. 31.

In the face of pressure from an industry anxious to get business going again, Laschet, who controls Germany’s biggest state by population, has pushed for more relaxations, but Soeder, who runs the biggest state by area, has taken a more cautious stance, including keeping schools shut a week longer than elsewhere in the nation.

German soccer was halted on March 13 to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The DFL is desperate for the season to be finished by June 30 to secure an installment of TV money, reportedly about 300 million euros (US$325 million).

It is hoping to get the green light from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government for the top two tiers to resume next month — possibly on May 9 or May 16.

Earlier on Monday, German Football Association president Fritz Keller said that the Bundesliga could only resume next month behind closed doors, although a nationwide collective of fan groups voiced harsh criticism of the league returning.

“The resumption of football, even in the form of ghost games, is not justifiable,” supporters’ group Fanszenen Deutschlands said in a statement.

The group said that it would be a “sheer mockery of the rest of society,” and especially to those working in Germany’s health service dealing with the pandemic.

“We are very much aware that football without fans lacks its heart,” Keller told Kicker magazine, adding without the TV money “some fans might never be able to attend a game of their club again, because it might soon no longer exist.”

Another issue that needs to be clarified is the testing of players and backroom staff every few days, should the league resume.

A reported 20,000 tests would be needed just for the season to be completed, and a leading German politician said that soccer’s return during the pandemic would send the wrong message.

“It would be wrong to use tens of thousands of tests for ‘ghost games’ when there is not enough testing for nursing homes and teachers,” Karl Lauterbach, a member of the Bundestag and a professor in epidemiology, wrote on Twitter.

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title: Bundesliga could resume from May 9


content_text:
In China, demands for more free speech outlast virus lockdowns

As an official’s son visiting the UK back in 1989, Xiao was afraid to talk about the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square. However, in January, as word spread among his friends that a Wuhan doctor had contracted the virus sweeping the Chinese city, he spoke up.

“Situation is very ill-condition in Wuhan. Take care of yourself! The case this time could be even worse than 2003,” he wrote on the messaging app WeChat, referencing the SARS outbreak 17 years earlier.

Xiao wrote the message partially in English to evade official censors, as Chinese authorities still had not acknowledged human-to-human transmission.

Now, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member says he is still angry over the local government’s attempts to cover up a disease that has now killed more than 170,000 globally, including more than 4,600 in China. Like many who endured the 11-week lockdown in Wuhan, Xiao believes the government must become more transparent and more receptive to people’s concerns.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of speaking out on the right things,” said Xiao, who asked that his full name not be used. “My purpose of expressing my opinion is not to overthrow a regime. I’m not debating anyone, but hoping to make the nation stronger.”

RARE CRITICISM

Three months after the COVID-19 outbreak unleashed a rare outpouring of criticism of China’s government, doubts linger about how much the CCP’s secrecy and censorship contributed to the crisis. Even as China seeks to revive its economy under a host of restrictions meant to prevent another outbreak, some are urging looser limits on speech.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) allowed some criticism of local officials during the height of the outbreak, including mass expressions of grief for whistle-blowing doctor Li Wenliang (李文亮), who died on Feb. 7 after contracting COVID-19.

During a visit to Wuhan on March 10, Xi told local officials to “understand, tolerate and pardon” some outbursts after the long period of quarantine.

Still, Xi has declared the party’s handling of the virus “correct” and complaints about the central government remain off-limits.

Outspoken property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang (任志強) was placed under investigation earlier this month after he was widely associated with an anonymous article denouncing the country’s “great leader” as a “clown with no clothes on who was still determined to play emperor.”

The risk of dissent boiling over during the outbreak-induced economic slowdown has been driven home by incidents of unrest as the government lifted lockdowns in Hubei Province, which encompasses Wuhan.

Dozens of small shop owners protested outside one of Wuhan’s biggest shopping malls to demand a cut in rent earlier this month, days after violent border clashes as police in Jiangxi Province tried to keep Hubei residents out.

Some prominent academics are advocating for a system that allows for more dissenting views without threatening a regime many Chinese credit with the country’s return to global wealth and power.

Earlier this month, 25 academics from the nation’s so-called New Confucians (新儒家) intellectual movement posted an article calling for relaxing Internet controls and creating a channel to allow for people to share blunt feedback with the government.

“Although the country is emerging from the disaster brought by the coronavirus plague, the trauma and pain are enormous,” wrote the academics, including professors Guo Qiyong (郭齊勇) of Wuhan University and Bai Tongdong (白彤東) of Fudan University in Shanghai. “In this process, many problems facing the state governance manifested. We hope these problems get serious reflection and are addressed.”

The self-described “moderate” academics said that such systems have a long history in China, with Confucius more than 2,500 years ago praising a minister for opening public spaces for discussion and tolerating dissent.

Invoking one of China’s most influential historical figures is intended to be less threatening to the CCP, which early on in Xi’s tenure banned the promotion of “Western values,” including multiparty democracy and freedom of the press.

In the years since, Xi has expanded controls on social media, requiring real-name registration of accounts, criminalizing the spread of rumors and punishing influential commentators with millions of followers.

The Wuhan outbreak exposed the cost of such controls, with Li and several other doctors reprimanded for sharing warnings about the coronavirus infection risk in WeChat groups in late December last year.

Zhang Hai (張海), who took his 76-year-old father to Wuhan for surgery on Jan. 17, said the army veteran who worked on China’s early nuclear program might still be alive if they had known the coronavirus was contagious before the trip.

Officials would not acknowledge the threat of human-to-human transmission for another three days.

By Feb. 1, his father, Zhang Lifa (張立發), was dead from complications related to the virus.

“I am very patriotic, don’t get me wrong. I very much support what the central government has done,” said Zhang, who has been fighting rules requiring him to be accompanied by officials to collect his father’s ashes. “But as for the local government — they were trying to cover up the fact in the beginning by saying this virus is containable and it’s not contagious among human beings.”

‘IT’S ALL FAKE’

Last month, Chinese social media users defied censors by reposting an interview with Ai Fen (艾芬), a whistle-blowing Wuhan doctor, by posting dozens of coded versions of the text in scripts ranging from emoji to Klingon. The original link was restored the next day.

Other incidents have exposed cracks in government efforts to manage public opinion. Some occupants of a Wuhan apartment block shouted “it’s all fake” during a visit last month by Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan (孫春蘭), a protest that state media attributed to the community’s failure to deliver food to residents as promised.

“Some well-educated, middle-class people discovered that their insecurity is eternal under this regime, but I don’t think a majority of them want to challenge the political regime,” said Chenchen Zhang, a lecturer in politics and international relations at Queen’s University Belfast. “This time, it’s possible that the system of disease control will be reformed, but as a technocratic reform without political reforms.”

Besides replacing the party chiefs of Hubei and Wuhan, Xi’s government has censured local police who disciplined the whistle-blowing doctors. The national health commission has since honored some, including Li, as martyrs.

Xiao said the episode showed that some in the government had forgotten that their job was serving the public.

He said he was “really pissed off” when the city government asked residents to express gratitude to the CCP during Xi’s visit last month.

“What is the president responsible for? It’s serving the people,” Xiao said. “The government officials should offer help to the people when we are in trouble because we pay our taxes. Then, why do you want us to be grateful?”

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title: Arsenal players, coaches agree 12.5% salary cut

content_text:
Arsenal on Monday became the first English Premier League club to agree a pay cut with their players as manager Mikel Arteta and his stars slashed their wages by 12.5 percent.

After Southampton and West Ham United announced wage deferral agreements with their players, Arsenal went one step further by securing the pay cut from Arteta and the first-team squad.

“We are pleased to announce that we have reached a voluntary agreement with our first-team players, head coach and core coaching staff to help support the club at this critical time,” Arsenal said in a statement. “The move follows positive and constructive discussions. In these conversations there has been a clear appreciation of the gravity of the current situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a strong desire for players and staff to show their backing for the Arsenal family.”

The pay deals come after a series of negotiations amid a backdrop of criticism of Premier League players over their failure to agree quick wage cuts, while some top-flight teams furloughed non-playing staff to save money.

The Premier League asked clubs to put a 30 percent pay cut to players, but the Professional Footballers’ Association said that would affect tax contributions to the state-run National Health Service.

It was reported that Arsenal initially proposed a 12-month drop in salary for their players.

After a muted response to their request, Arsenal were able to secure the agreement thanks to Arteta’s influence, reports said.

Arteta, who has recovered after contracting the coronavirus last month, spoke to his 27-man squad in a videoconference on Wednesday.

He is said to have made it clear that he would not engage them in discussions about money normally, but in this case he wanted them to take a strong collective stance in supporting Arsenal through the unprecedented financial mayhem caused by the pandemic.

There are reports that Arsenal, whose annual wage bill is about ￡230 million (US$285 million), would give the players their money back in the event that they bridge an eight-point gap and qualify for the UEFA Champions League when soccer returns.

“If we meet specific targets in the seasons ahead, primarily linked to success on the pitch, the club will repay agreed amounts,” the statement said. “We will be able to make those repayments as hitting these targets, which the players can directly influence, will mean our financial position will be stronger.”

“The agreement is based on the assumption we will finish the season 2019/20 and receive the full broadcasting revenues,” it said. “The resulting savings will help cover some of the financial risks we have this season in relation to our matchday and commercial income.”

Arsenal last week announced that the executive team, including chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and head of football Raul Sanllehi, would waive more than a third of their earnings over the next year.

The English Premier League believes the pandemic could cost it about ￡1 billion if the season cannot be completed.

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content_text:
Pakistan star batsman Babar Azam knows he might be a bit rusty after the extended break from competitive cricket during the COVID-19 lockdown, but he is confident his strong basics would help him quickly get back up to speed.

The elegant right-hander has been cooling his heels at home since playing a Pakistan Super League match last month as professional cricket remains suspended due to the pandemic.

“If the break goes on, it can make me rusty, but you can’t forget your basics,” the 25-year-old told ESPNcricinfo. “It might take some time to regain the rhythm, but the base is there, and inshallah [God willing] I will be the same Babar Azam you saw a few weeks ago.”

Babar Azam of the Karachi Kings plays a shot against Peshawar Zalmi in their Pakistan Super League match in Rawalpindi on March 2.
 Photo: AFP

Babar is using the time to go through footage of his innings to analyze his game, which has improved significantly. He smashed centuries in his past five Tests and is ranked among the top five batsmen in all three formats.

The top-order batsman attributed his rise to overcoming complacency and building a positive mindset.

“I used to become complacent easily if I performed well. I used to have a negative thought process and that’s the area I realized I had to cover,” he said. “Now a good performance doesn’t make me happy, instead I push myself to go further and try to expand my game.”

“It’s easy to perform, go back, and be happy, but now I have told myself that whatever I do is for the team, and that is more relevant and important,” he added. “My work isn’t done if I score runs. If you perform in a win, it actually makes you happier inside.”

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title: Babar Azam to go back to basics after shutdown for virus


content_text:
After years battling his own demons, All Black legend John Kirwan is attempting to help fellow Kiwis struggling through the COVID-19 lockdown by releasing a smartphone app he calls “a mental well-being coach in your pocket.”

The Rugby World Cup-winning winger broke one of sport’s great taboos after a stellar international career when he revealed his struggles with depression, helping explode the myth that on-field glory equates to happiness off the pitch.

“I had medical depression, I was on anti-depressants — I wanted to jump out of a window one night,” Kirwan said in a telephone interview. “I’ve got learned experience in this space.”

Such is Kirwan’s passion for speaking out about mental health that when he was knighted in 2012 it was his pioneering advocacy, not his exploits in a black jersey, that earned him the award.

After writing two memoirs on the topic, Kirwan has devoted himself to a more high-tech means of communication, a smartphone app called Mentemia.

The app uses personality tests and cognitive games to build up a picture of the user and provide tips for reducing stress.

These include breathing techniques, mood tracking, action plans for boosting mental well-being or simple reminders to take some time out during a busy day.

While it might sound warm and fuzzy, Kirwan said it was developed with a team of clinical psychologists using evidence-based techniques.

“The journey I went on was very much about listening to professionals and understanding what they were telling me,” Kirwan said. “This information is already out there, it’s about getting that science and knowledge, and delivering it to people in a way that’s engaging.”

Mentemia (“my mind” in Italian) was originally envisaged as a tool to help large corporations reduce stress in the workforce, but as the coronavirus crisis deepened, Kirwan and his business partners became convinced it could play a positive role in helping New Zealanders cope during the pandemic.

“I’ve got family in Italy and I knew what was coming up, so we sat down as a business and said: ‘What should we do?’” said Kirwan, whose wife, Fiorella, hails from Italy and whose son, Niko, plays for Serie C soccer club Reggina 1914.

“The right thing to do was to gift it to the whole of New Zealand,” John Kirwan said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government proved receptive to the idea and last week the app was made available free to all as part of the COVID-19 response.

“It provides users with practical tips and techniques to help them take control of their mental well-being,” New Zealand Minister of Health David Clark said.

John Kirwan, now 55, said his personal situation had long since transformed “from surviving to thriving,” thanks to the techniques available on the app.

“I’ve got a very simple mental health plan — this morning I got up and had a shower, but the secret to the shower was being able to stop and enjoy the water,” he said. “Then I had a little half-hour workout, and after that I sat down and had a coffee. Already today I’ve done three things to contribute to my mental well-being.”

The World Rugby Hall of Famer with 63 Test caps said that he is one of many keenly missing the absence of sports as a distraction during difficult times.

“I think it’s having an incredible impact. I love my rugby, I love my football — sport to me is part of my mental health, so I’m missing it hugely,” he said.

He said there is an acknowledgement of the strains COVID-19 is placing on people and he hoped to provide the tools to help cope.

“I interviewed a lot of young men developing the app and they’d say: ‘My mind’s a treadmill, can you stop it?’” John Kirwan said. “I said I can stop mine, but you need to pick up the techniques yourself, so you can do it yourself.”

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title: Rugby legend tackling mental health issues


title: Baseball returns to Seoul as virus restrictions eased

content_text:
Professional sport returned to South Korea yesterday as COVID-19 restrictions were eased, with the first pitch thrown in a baseball pre-season derby in front of empty stands.

The Seoul-based Doosan Bears and LG Twins are South Korea’s biggest rivals in the nation’s most popular spectator sport and their shared stadium in the capital would usually be packed, but with fans barred, the stands were empty as the Twins’ Cha Woo-chan threw the first pitch.

Even the cheerleaders — an essential element of firing up the atmosphere at what would normally be a feverish encounter — were also absent.

Jeong Keun-woo of the LG Twins, right, slides at the home plate as he is tagged out by Park Sei-hyok of the Doosan Bears in their pre-season game in Seoul yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

The stadium was silent except for the continuous clicking of camera shutters from about 50 members of the media, and occasional shouts from the dugouts.

Reporters were not allowed to approach the players.

“Although it is being held behind closed doors, I think it’s good that we can hold these games for the fans who are watching from their homes,” LG Twins media officer Kim Kwang-hwan said. “We hope that the coronavirus outbreak will be contained soon so many fans can come and enjoy our game just like previous years.”

Sports fans around the world have been starved of live action because of the pandemic, with broadcasters resorting to repeats of matches from past years, while leagues face the prospect of paying rights-holders multimillion-dollar refunds.

South Korea endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the virus outside China, prompting professional sports, including soccer and baseball, to suspend or delay their seasons, but South Korea appears to have brought its outbreak under control thanks to an extensive “trace, test and treat” program.

Seoul at the weekend said that it would permit outdoor sport to resume behind closed doors in light of a steady decline in new cases.

The derby was among the first of 20 pre-season games and the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) yesterday said that the season would start behind closed doors on May 5.

Strict health guidelines were being enforced at the game.

Players had their temperature checked twice before the game, with masks strongly recommended in all parts of the stadium, except for on the field and in the dugout, the KBO said.

Players have been asked not to shake hands or exchange high-fives, while spitting is prohibited.

The Doosan Bears were last year’s champions, but the LG Twins ran out 5-2 winners in a one-sided encounter and more than 700,000 fans watched a stream of the match on Naver, the nation’s largest Internet portal.

“I like to relieve my stress by cheering at the stadium while munching on chicken and having a cup of beer, and it’s a shame that I can’t do that, but I think it’s much better than being worried about contracting the virus,” Bears fan Yi Hyon-hui said.

“This is a really good decision for all the fans who have been waiting,” she said.

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title: EDITORIAL CARTOON

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content_text:
LOWER THAN EXPECTED:
 Herd immunity hopes have been dealt a blow by a WHO report suggesting that only 2 to 3 percent of people have been infected

Only a tiny proportion of the global population — maybe as few as 2 perceant or 3 percent — appear to have antibodies in their blood showing they have been infected with COVID-19, the WHO said, a finding that bodes ill for hopes that herd immunity would ease the exit from lockdown.

“Easing restrictions is not the end of the epidemic in any country,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing in Geneva on Monday. “So-called lockdowns can help to take the heat out of a country’s epidemic.”

However, serological testing to find out how large a proportion of the population have had the infection and developed antibodies to it — which it is hoped would mean they have some level of immunity — suggests that the numbers are low.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 28.
 Photo: Reuters

“Early data suggests that a relatively small percentage of the populations may have been infected,” Tedros said. “Not more than 2 percent to 3 percent.”

Maria Van Kerkhove, a US infectious diseases expert who is the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said that they had thought the number of people infected would be higher, but added that it was still too early to be sure.

“Initially, we see a lower proportion of people with antibodies than we were expecting,” she said. “A lower number of people are infected.”

A study carried out in Santa Clara, California, by Stanford University and released on Friday as a “pre-print” without peer review, found that 50 to 85 times more people had been infected with the virus than official figures showed.

Santa Clara County had 1,094 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the time the study was carried out, but antibody tests suggest that between 48,000 and 81,000 people had been infected by early this month, most of whom did not develop symptoms.

However, even those high figures mean that within the whole population of the county, only 3 percent have been infected and have COVID-19 antibodies.

A study in the Netherlands of 7,000 blood donors also found that just 3 percent had antibodies.

Van Kerkhove said they needed to look carefully at the way the studies were being carried out.

That would include asking how they found the people to test. Was it at random or were they blood donors, who tend to be healthy adults? They would also need to look at how well the blood tests were performed.

The WHO-supported studies would use robust methods and the tests would be validated for accuracy.

The hope is that people who have had COVID-19 would be able to resume their lives.

However, Van Kerkhove last week said that even if tests showed a person had antibodies, it did not prove that they were immune.

“Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual has immunity or is protected from reinfection,” she said.

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title: Virus Outbreak: WHO says few have developed virus antibodies


title: Let lawyer go home: US

content_text:
The US has called for Chinese authorities to allow a prominent human rights lawyer to return home, after having spent almost five years in “unjust detention.”

Wang Quanzhang (王全璋) was released two weeks ago after serving four-and-a-half years for “subversion,” but has been barred from reuniting with his family.

On his release, Wang was sent for two weeks of compulsory coronavirus quarantine to his home town of Jinan, instead of to Beijing, where he lives with his wife and seven-year-old son.

At the end of the 14 days his wife, Li Wenzu (李文足), said that Wang was still being barred from returning to Beijing and was under strict supervision.

“We remain very concerned about reports of his declining physical and mental health, and of his mistreatment in prison,” the US Department of State said. “Wang was detained as part of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] nationwide roundup of more than 300 human rights lawyers and legal associates beginning July 9, 2015. We continue to call for the release of all of those unjustly detained, such as Li Yuhan (李昱函) and Yu Wensheng (余文生), as well as other Chinese citizens who are in detention simply for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms in pursuit of a more equitable and just society, governed by the rule of law.”

The statement also expressed continued concern over China’s “weak rule of law,” arbitrary detention and torture of detainees, and human rights violations.

It is not the first example of the practice of releasing human rights advocates from prison into de facto house arrest or to their hometown, which has been labeled “non-release release” by rights groups.

Human Rights Watch China researcher Wang Yaqiu (王亞秋) said that the Chinese government seemed determined to indefinitely silence Wang, and called his continued detention “a complete travesty of justice.”

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QUICK WIN?
 Albin Kurti said that a US envoy was ‘directly involved’ in causing political upheaval to secure a diplomatic breakthrough with Serbia before US elections this year

Acting Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has launched a stinging attack on US President Donald Trump’s acting national intelligence director, accusing him of meddling in Kosovo’s politics and helping to bring down Kurti’s former government with the goal of delivering a quick diplomatic victory for Trump.

Kurti is staying on as prime minister in an acting capacity after his coalition partners turned against him in a legislative vote last month that was egged on by US diplomats.

The upheaval was met with disbelief among many Kosovars, who wanted the government to focus on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kurti acknowledged the crisis had a local dimension, but accused US Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, who has been working on a potential deal for Serbia to recognize Kosovo, of being “directly involved” in pushing for the vote.

“My government was not overthrown for anything else, but simply because Ambassador Grenell was in a hurry to sign an agreement with Serbia,” Kurti told a news conference held via video link from Pristina.

A Trump loyalist, Grenell is US ambassador to Germany and was also appointed as the acting director for national intelligence, coordinating the work of 17 US intelligence agencies.

He previously caused controversy in Berlin by saying that he wanted to “empower” right-wing forces in Europe.

“What he [Grenell] needs is a quick deal to show they can fix crises in the world, perhaps in contrast to the Clintons, Bushes and Obamas, without any military intervention, and this can be presented as a success in this electoral year,” Kurti said.

He accused Grenell of being disinterested in the substance of any deal and of being focused only on getting “the signature on the bottom of the paper” as soon as possible.

After Trump’s failure to make progress on a deal with North Korea or in the Middle East, it is possible that the White House now sees the Balkans as the best bet for a diplomatic breakthrough, but time is running out before the US presidential election in November.

Belgrade refuses to recognize the independence of its former province, which split off from Serbia after a bloody crackdown by Belgrade triggered a NATO bombing campaign in 1999.

A deal would ideally pave the way for Kosovo to take up a seat at the UN and for both countries to become EU members in future. The most controversial aspect of discussions has been talk of a possible land swap. Parallel talks between the two countries have been held under EU auspices.

Kosovar President Hashim Thaci has proved more receptive than Kurti to US overtures, and Grenell on Sunday wrote on Twitter that he had spoken to Thaci and to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic “to make clear they must start building confidence today in preparation” for dialogue.

He denied that he or anyone else in the discussions had mentioned a land swap.

Thaci on Sunday wrote on Twitter that he would form a new government this week, although it was unclear whether he can do so constitutionally without new elections.

The COVID-19 crisis would appear to make elections and any major protests against the situation impossible for now.

“They are hoping that coronavirus will last and people will have to stay indoors,” Kurti said.

As of Monday, Kosovo had 561 confirmed cases, with 12 deaths.

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title: Kosovo leader blames US for ouster


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Declaring that Australia was on the road to recovery with new COVID-19 infections almost stamped out, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said that hospitals would resume many elective surgeries and schools would be reopened for more children.

As part of broad social distancing restrictions, Australia last month banned all non-emergency surgeries to free up hospital beds amid expectations of a surge in coronavirus cases. Schools were also closed.

However, with infection rates falling from more than 25 percent in the middle of last month to less than 1 percent a day, Morrison said in Canberra that Australia could relax some restrictions from next week.

“We are on the road back and I think we have already reached a turning point,” Morrison told reporters.

Australian Minister of Health Greg Hunt said that the easing of elective surgery restrictions was possible after authorities secured more protective and medical equipment, including a “full capacity” of 7,500 ventilators.

The expanded list of surgeries, including in vitro fertilization and joint replacements, can begin next week.

The government said it would shortly release details of a contact tracing app designed to alert users if they come into close contact with people later diagnosed with COVID-19.

Authorities believe the tracing app needs to be put in place before many services are reopened.

After more than a month of teaching children online, Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), said all students would begin face-to-face lessons next month.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said students would begin to return to school on May 11 on a staggered basis in preparation for full-time schooling to restart in July.

“It’s time to turn our mind to getting our kids back into the classroom,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. “We will have extra cleaning, extra sanitizer, extra health provisions, including forehead thermometers and also extra health equipment in our sick bays.”

Australia is one of the few nations to detail plans to reopen schools.

Despite sometimes conflicting advice from the federal government, which had wanted schools to remain open, children of emergency workers are among the few who have continued to go to school.

Education is run by Australia’s state and territory governments.

The reopening of schools has been a key demand of the federal government, which hopes the move would stimulate Australia’s economy and allow parents to better juggle work commitments.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Australia eases virus restrictions


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CHINA-MALAYSIA STANDOFF:
 Tensions sparked by a Chinese government research ship led the US to call on Beijing to stop ‘bullying behavior’ in the South China Sea

Two US warships are operating in the South China Sea, the US Navy said yesterday, with three regional security sources saying that the ships were near an area of a standoff between China and Malaysia.

The Haiyang Dizhi 8, a Chinese government research ship, was spotted last week conducting a survey close to an exploration vessel operated by Malaysia’s state-owned Petroliam Nasional (Petronas), months after it undertook a similar patrol off Vietnam.

The incident prompted the US to call on China to stop its “bullying behavior” in the disputed waters, citing concern over Beijing’s provocative actions toward offshore oil and gas developments there.

The US Department of State has said that China was taking advantage of the region’s focus on the COVID-19 pandemic to “coerce its neighbors.”

The USS America amphibious assault ship and the USS Bunker Hill guided-missile cruiser have been deployed and are operating in the South China Sea, US Indo-Pacific Command spokeswoman Nicole Schwegman said in an e-mailed statement.

“Through our continued operational presence in the South China Sea, we are working ... to promote freedom of navigation and overflight, and the international principles that underpin security and prosperity for the Indo-Pacific,” Schwegman said. “The US supports the efforts of our allies and partners to determine their own economic interests.”

US Navy Rear Admiral Fred Kacher, commander of the USS America Expeditionary Strike Group, said that his forces had interacted this week with Chinese naval forces in the South China Sea.

“All our interactions continue to be safe and professional with them,” Kacher said by telephone from the USS America.

Schwegman did not state the exact location of the warships, but security sources said on condition of anonymity that the vessels were close to the Haiyang Dizhi 8 and the Petronas-operated West Capella drill ship.

The area is near waters claimed by Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as China through its sweeping claim to most of the South China Sea within its U-shaped “nine-dash line,” which is not recognized by its neighbors or most of the world.

China has denied reports of a stand-off, saying that the Haiyang Dizhi 8 is conducting normal activities.

“The ‘confrontation’ at sea you mention did not happen,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a faxed statement on Monday.

Petronas and the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Chinese survey vessel’s moves this month come as Beijing ramps up coronavirus diplomacy, donating large supplies of medical equipment and aid to Southeast Asian countries.

A team of Chinese medical experts this week arrived in Malaysia.

The US has accused China of taking advantage of the distraction of the pandemic to advance its presence in the South China Sea.

Vietnam on Sunday protested after China said that it had established two administrative districts on the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in the disputed waters.

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title: Two US warships pilot disputed sea


content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Japan tests show 11 dead were infected with virus

WHO GUIDELINES:
 The tests involved people who died at home and one man who was found lying on a street, while Rakuten has started selling test kits to companies

Japanese police have reported that 11 people whose deaths were deemed to be unnatural in the past month subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, media said yesterday.

Japan, with more than 260 virus-related deaths according to Japan Broadcasting Corp, has avoided the kind of explosive outbreak that has plagued the US and many European nations.

However, the WHO voiced concern about Japan’s rising number of confirmed cases, while saying they fell short of a large-scale community outbreak.

Some of the 11 deaths recorded in the month to the middle of this month involved people who died at home and one found lying in the street, the Nikkei business daily and other media said, citing the Japanese National Police Agency.

Six were in Tokyo, where virus cases have topped 3,000, from a nationwide tally of more than 11,000.

Contacted by reporters, the agency said that it could not confirm the facts before receiving questions by fax.

One case involved a man in his 60s found on a street in eastern Tokyo and taken to hospital, the Nikkei said, adding that a polymerase chain reaction test after his death from symptoms of pneumonia confirmed he had been infected.

The government has said it follows WHO guidelines for virus testing, with all suspicious pneumonia deaths tested for the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Against the backdrop of questions whether Japan is testing sufficiently, Rakuten has started selling testing kits for companies and organizations.

The kit, developed by Genesis Healthcare, an affiliate of the e-commerce giant, would be priced at ￥14,900 (US$138) for those who do not meet the specific symptoms in Tokyo and four neighboring prefectures, the company said on Monday.

Japan still faces a shortage of masks, even though the government has started distributing two masks free to each household.

It has also drafted prisoners to make masks, with the Japanese Ministry of Justice saying that about 100 prisoners in seven facilities have turned them out since last month, following orders from private firms, with monthly output capacity of 66,000.

Ground crews of airline ANA Holdings have been making faceguards from plastic folders for workers at a boarding gate for international flights, the Asahi Shimbun said.

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With Spain one of the nation’s hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Barcelona great Andres Iniesta said that he is finding it tough to watch events unfold in Europe from his new home in Japan.

Iniesta, who joined Vissel Kobe in 2018 after a trophy-laden career at Barcelona, said in an interview yesterday that while the importance of soccer is secondary during the health crisis, it is frustrating not to be able to play.

Japan’s domestic soccer season has been put on hold during the crisis, with Iniesta remaining in Kobe with his wife and three children.

Vissel Kobe’s Andres Iniesta, left, vies for the ball with Kento Misao of the Kashima Antlers in the Emperor’s Cup final in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 1.
 Photo: AFP

The 35-year-old, one of the most technically gifted midfielders to play the game, said it was difficult to be away from his wider family and friends back in Spain.

“It is a very difficult situation because you are not there with them, with your loved ones,” Iniesta said through a translator. “You can’t see what is happening on a daily life level, so that is difficult, but we keep talking on a daily basis, checking in with them and just hoping that the situation gets better.”

Having to stay home and being unable to train properly has been a challenge, but Iniesta is savoring being able to spend more time with his family.

“Right now, I think football becomes a secondary thing,” said Iniesta, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final. “What is important right now is people’s lives, people’s jobs, trying to move society forward to get out of this situation. Having said that, of course as a professional footballer it is difficult to not be able to play football, to not be able to share time with my fans, my teammates.”

“I try to focus on the positive things — staying at home I get to spend much more time with my family and with my kids, which normally it is not that easy to do,” he said.

After a 16-year spell at Barcelona that saw him win nine La Liga and four UEFA Champions Leagues titles, Iniesta decided to take up a new challenge in the J1 League.

His storied career and that move to Japan are the subject of a documentary about his life: Andres Iniesta — The unexpected hero, which is to be released tomorrow.

Despite winning virtually everything there is to win in Europe, Iniesta has not moved to Japan to slide quietly into retirement.

He led Vissel Kobe to their first piece of silverware when they won the Emperor’s Cup in January and is hungry for more success.

After his playing days are over he says he wants to move into coaching, but would take things one step at a time.

“I feel I want to pursue being a coach, but we will see what happens, things change on a daily basis, so in a few years we don’t know what will happen,” he said. “For now, I am focusing on what I have in front of me.”

When soccer resumes, Iniesta wants to pick up where he left off, imparting his wisdom to Vissel Kobe’s younger players and aiming for a first J1 League title.

The J1 League has said it would be next month at the earliest when matches can return.

“I want to share my experience with the young players. I think it is my responsibility, too, and it forms part of the big project I came here for,” Iniesta said. “I like to talk with them, share things with them, and I also like the feeling that they can ask me questions and they are learning stuff.”

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title: Soccer secondary during virus crisis, Iniesta says


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A bride in a long white gown posed by Wuhan’s East Lake with her groom, masks off momentarily as a photographer snapped pre-wedding photographs.

At a nearby park in the city, a grandfather swung his tiny grandson in a hammock strung between trees, while families with tents and picnic mats made the most of a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Signs of life unimaginable during the recently ended lockdown at the COVID-19 pandemic’s ground zero have appeared in the past few days, as Wuhan returns to work-and-play days after lifting a 76-day quarantine on April 8.

Couples dance in a park next to the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China, on Monday last week.
 Photo: AFP

Onlookers joined a man singing and dancing near a bridge by the Yangtze River, while swimmers dove into the water elsewhere along the bank, even as public spaces around the world fell silent under the shadow of the pandemic.

Wuhan’s malls and convenience stores reopened late last month, initially requiring visitors to submit to strict temperature checks and show a code on a special app that assigns each person a color-based rating depending on their level of infection risk.

By Saturday, some smaller stores were allowing customers in without any checks, while boutiques at the Hanjie outdoor shopping mall had stopped checking health codes.

Even traffic jams have returned, with vehicles slowing to a crawl on the way to the Wuhan railway station and in tunnels under the Yangtze during rush hour last week.

Final-year high-school students in the city and the surrounding Hubei Province are to return to school from May 6, officials said on Monday, while many workers have already returned to their offices.

“It may take a while, but things are moving in a good direction,” Bai Xue, a 24-year-old Wuhan resident, told reporters.

However, while new infections in the city have dwindled as the city recovers, fear of asymptomatic carriers and cases imported from overseas has stopped Wuhan from fully letting down its guard.

Commuters are urged to scan QR codes on subway trains to register the exact car they take, while lines of people seated on plastic chairs a safe distance apart stretch outside banks across the city.

Residential communities continue to monitor people entering and leaving compounds, while barricades remain on many streets in the metropolis of 11 million people.

Wuhan has reason to be fearful: After believed to have emerged in a live animal market late last year, the virus spread like wildfire across the city, infecting more than 50,000 and killing more than 3,800 — a toll revised upward last week after authorities admitted errors in counting victims.

The industrial city also faces great economic uncertainty, with businesses ranging from wholesale market sellers to cat cafes telling reporters that losses incurred during the lockdown have made rents unaffordable, while continued restrictions on movement within the city are hurting sales.

“We have very, very few customers,” said Han, the 27-year-old owner of a soy drink stall in central Wuhan.

Wuhan residents told reporters they were wary of celebrating too much, too soon.

“My life isn’t good,” said Li Xiongjie, a 30-year-old local who said the pandemic had left him unemployed. “Just staying alive is a victory, staying alive is the most important thing.”

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title: Virus Outbreak: Flickers of joy mask fears in Wuhan


content_text:
Taipei Zoo keepers care for elephant with lopsided teeth 亞洲象「友愷」換牙不尋常 引發腸道消化問題

Humans grow two sets of teeth, during childhood. Elephants, on the other hand, while fellow members of the mammal species, grow as many as six sets of molars throughout their lives. Elephants have a rather unique way of growing teeth: according to Taipei Zoo, an elephant has six sets of molars on each side of their upper and lower palates, which grow one after the other. The first set of molars gradually become worn out due to various factors, age and diet among them. Once a new molar begins to grow, it gradually pushes the old molar forward until it is worn smooth and falls out. The new molar then takes over from the old one.

One of Taipei Zoo’s resident Asian elephants, named Youkai, grew its final set of molars two years ago. However, according to zoo keepers, Youkai encountered a unique problem: the old molars only fell out on one side of the elephant’s mouth. Additionally, the old molars were much larger than the new ones. This left Youkai with lopsided teeth, making it difficult to chew on food and causing problems for the elephant’s intestines and digestive system.

To help with Youkai’s teething problems, zoo keepers chopped up the elephant’s normal diet of Chinese fountain grass into a fine mince to facilitate eating and digestion. Fountain grass contains large strands of fiber, which elephants normally break down in their mouths and which helps their intestines and digestive system to absorb and break down the food. The wonky teeth impeded Youkai’s ability to masticate food properly. Fortunately, during the year and five months that Youkai was on the adjusted diet, body mass and bowel movements remained stable. The missing set of molars did come through in the end, ejecting the old set of ivories and finally bequeathing Youkai a symmetrical set.

One of Youkai’s old molars, with the chewing surface facing outwards.
亞洲象「友愷」脫落的臼齒（咬合面）。
 Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo
照片：台北市立動物園提供

(Translated by Edward Jones, Taipei Times)

人的一生只會在幼年時期換一次牙齒，同樣身為哺乳類動物的大象，其臼齒的替換卻高達五次，換牙方式極其特殊，台北市立動物園表示，大象上、下顎及左、右方各長出六顆臼齒，是一顆顆依續現身，最先長出的一顆臼齒會隨著年齡、食物種類等因素而逐漸磨損，新長成的臼齒會把舊臼齒往前推進，直到舊臼齒磨光、脫落後，新臼齒完全接替前一顆臼齒。

動物園的亞洲象「友愷」，前年底面臨最後一次換牙。園方指出，友愷開始換牙時，出現特殊狀況「只有單邊臼齒掉落，而且掉落的牙齒比以往的大上許多」，這使得牠的臼齒左右變得不對稱，連帶影響到咀嚼，引發腸道消化等問題。


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Virus Outbreak: Virus upends outsourcing sector as firms embrace AI

COVID-19 is permanently shaking up the global outsourcing industry as lockdowns from Bangalore to Manila prompt firms to “reshore” jobs and, with artificial intelligence (AI), to move further away from needing humans at all.

Restrictions on normal activity in these countries and others have created a logistical nightmare for the managers of call centers and other back-office operations for foreign corporations.

Having their staff work from home is difficult because of rules governing the handling of sensitive material, such as financial transactions for bank customers from Scotland to San Francisco.

Moreover, many workers in places such as India and the Philippines live in crowded housing with poor quality broadband, while some firms do not have enough equipment like laptops to provide to staff.

“The outsourcing industry doesn’t lend itself to working from home,” said consultant Vivek Sood, author of Outsourcing 3.0.

“We are talking about companies which used to ask employees to leave even their pens and pencils outside the office because of security concerns,” Sood said.

Desperate to stay operational, some firms have resorted to having staff live at their place of work.

Vodafone India, for example, said that it has “organized temporary stay arrangements at our data center locations, [and] made food and groceries available at critical locations.”

Similar practices by others have sparked the ire of trade unions.

Business Process Outsourcing Industry Employees’ Network president Mylene Cabalona said that the union had received reports of some workers “effectively quarantined and locked down in their offices.”

The Financial Times early this month published photos that it said appeared to show workers sleeping on the floor of a call center in the Philippines, living in what they described as “subhuman” conditions.

Anthony Esguerra, who works at a Manila firm handling data for a Chinese online gaming company, said that 80 percent of its operations were disrupted.

“The workflow of processing players’ requests really slowed down, since our Internet access was limited compared to when we were working at the office,” he said.

Companies such as telecom firm Spark New Zealand and Taiwanese computer maker Acer, which uses a Philippine facility to serve Australian and New Zealand customers, have simply told people not to call.

Australia’s Telstra and Optus and Britain’s Virgin Media — all of which have offshore units in India and the Philippines — have announced plans to recruit hundreds of staff back home.

However, the bigger lasting change from the pandemic will likely involve the wider use of AI to handle tasks currently performed by human beings, experts said.

“AI doesn’t go on strike, it can work 24/7 and throws up fewer complications,” said Michael Czinkota, who teaches international business at Washington’s Georgetown University.

Telstra, which was already planning to cut customer service calls by two-thirds by 2022, now plans to accelerate its use of AI.

“[We] will be using this as an opportunity to further digitize and automate our business,” chief executive officer Andy Penn told the Sydney Morning Herald this month.

“COVID-19 [has] achieved in six to eight weeks what the evangelists of automation have not managed ... for more than five years,” Ilan Oshri from the University of Auckland’s Graduate School of Management said.

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title: Coronavirus a ‘test run’ for greener lifestyles

content_text:
The restrictions currently in place could potentially show a pathway to combating climate change

Working from home and other measures to help stem the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain show how quickly the country could change its ways to address climate change too, participants in the Climate Assembly UK said on Sunday.

“With coronavirus, [the government] has had to act because they had no choice in the matter. With climate change, they need to act in the same way,” said Marc Robson, 46, a British Gas installer and one of the 110 members of the citizens’ assembly.

As with the response to the COVID-19 respiratory disease, “people will die if we don’t do it,” the Newcastle resident warned in a video interview.

A jackal last week roams at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel. Reports state that wild animals feel safer walking around the streets of the cities and empty parks as most citizens are staying back home.
 Photo: EPA-EFE

“And we all need to buy into this as well. It needs to be explained to the public that if we don’t change what we’re doing, it’s going to cost us, big time.”

The assembly, chosen to reflect Britain’s diverse geographic and demographic makeup, as well as different viewpoints on climate change, has met once a month in Birmingham since January to hear from experts on climate science and policy.

It is expected to submit over the summer its recommendations to the government on how Britain should meet a legally binding goal to cut its climate-heating emissions to net zero by 2050.

A monument to Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev is seen in an empty pedestrian street on Monday in Moscow, Russia. Officials in Moscow and other regions have ordered most people except those working in essential sectors to stay home through April 30.
 Photo: AP

But with coronavirus restrictions now in place on public gatherings, the assembly this weekend was held for the first time online — a change some assembly members saw as a “test run” for potential climate-smart shifts they had been discussing.

“This has opened up my mind that we can make these changes, like working at home,” Robson said.

Sarah Allan, the head of engagement at Involve UK, a charity helping run the assembly, said some members of the group had asked to discuss coronavirus during this weekend’s event and reflect on “how it makes them feel about what they’ve heard.”

Ibrahim Wali, 42, a physician based in Surrey, said he had been conducting COVID-19 assessments via telephone and video-link since the outbreak began and realized “it’s doable.”

“People could stay home more, work remotely. Sometimes in life you just need a challenge to change the way you live and operate,” he said.

What he had learned more generally at the assembly sessions also had led him to install LED lightbulbs at home, look at switching to a hybrid or electric car and reconsider how often he eats meat, which has a large carbon footprint.

“If you can do that on an individual level, that’s where it starts. Then it’s friends, family, society,” he said in a video interview.

Reducing emissions “is not just something for the government to do. I thought in the past the government would sort it all out with laws and legislation. But it makes a huge difference if everyone looks at themselves and makes a change,” he added.

KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL

Ellie, a 21-year-old assembly member and new university graduate from North London, who did not want her surname to be used, said she had started taking part in the gatherings confident “technology will solve all the problems.”

“I’ve been made aware of how actually it’s acceptance there’s going to be a change in our lifestyles and we will have to compromise,” she said. “We can’t rely on tech and someone else doing it for us. It has to be all of us working together.”

The assembly’s meetings had given her a much better understanding not just of the range of options available to deal with global warming, she said, but how they might affect people living very different lives from hers, including in rural areas.

“If we’re going to make genuine progress, there needs to be a real awareness of what the options are, the impact they will have on different groups and what’s actually financially viable,” she said.

The assembly participants said they wished everyone in Britain could have access to the information they had received from experts speaking at the gatherings.

Organizers noted the sessions had been recorded and are available for public access online: www.climateassembly.uk/about/speakers/

“There’s a real kind of segregation — between people who know a lot about climate change and people who don’t — and that’s creating problems and tensions,” Ellie said.

“If we can educate everyone to the same level, we can create a real consensus for progress,” she added.


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HONG KONG

Lam extends restrictions

The government is to extend restrictions aimed at tackling the coronavirus for another 14 days to preserve the city’s success in keeping the number of cases down, Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said yesterday. The extension comes as governments around the world are gradually relaxing restrictions or considering doing so. The territory recorded zero new cases on Monday for the first time since early March, keeping the total at 1,025 infections and four deaths. “This is indeed a very difficult balancing act,” Lam told a regular weekly news conference, referring to the toll the restrictions are taking on the recession-hit economy. “For the time being, the better balance to be struck and a safer approach to ensure all these successes that Hong Kong has achieved over the last months would not be wasted is to extend these social distancing measures for another 14 days.”

INDONESIA

Eid al-Fitr travel banned

The government banned an annual ritual of citizens traveling in large numbers to their hometowns and villages ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. President Joko Widodo, who yesterday announced the ban at a cabinet meeting in Jakarta, said that the prohibition was based on an assessment that about 24 percent of people who usually undertake the holiday travel were planning trips irrespective of the virus outbreak. As of Monday, the nation had reported at least 6,760 infections, including 590 deaths

UNITED KINGDOM

Booker prize on hold

The six authors up for this year’s International Booker Prize would have to wait a little longer to find out who won. The announcement has been postponed until the summer due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on book sales. The winner of the ￡50,000 (US$61,945) award for the best novel translated into English, shared equally between author and translator, was due to be announced on May 19, but prize organisers say that the announcement of the shortlist on April 2 exposed the difficulties that readers were having getting hold of books during lockdown. Only one of the shortlisted books, Japanese author Yko Ogawa’s novel The Memory Police, has sold more than 5,000 copies. Three of the books — The Discomfort of Evening by Dutch newcomer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Iran’s Shokoofeh Azar, and The Adventures of China Iron by Argentina’s Gabriela Cabezon Camara — have sold fewer than 1,000 copies.

UNITED STATES

Navarro accuses China

White House adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said that China might be withholding data about early COVID-19 infections because it wants to win the commercial race to create a vaccine. The US, the country worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic according to official statistics, has repeatedly called on Beijing to share early data on the outbreak, which began in China. “One of the reasons that they may not have let us in and given us the data on this virus early, is they’re racing to get a vaccine and they think this is just a competitive business race, it’s a business proposition so that they can sell the vaccines to the world,” Navarro told Fox Business Network.

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title: World News Quick Take


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Virus Outbreak: Surfing’s ‘Indiana Jones’ stages unlikely photoshoot

It is a scene that seems almost surreal today — adventure filmmaker Alison Teal paddle surfing along the River Thames in bubblegum-pink swimwear, fishing out plastic rubbish from the murky waters.

The photographs were taken just last month before anyone could have imagined that within weeks, half of humanity would find itself confined at home to stem the spread of COVID-19.

However, their message remains valid: protect our planet.

Hawaiian “protest surfer” Alison Teal stands with her surfboard by a Horse Guard during a visit to London on March 6 to raise awareness of the need to combat climate change.
 Photo: AFP

Dubbed the “Female Indiana Jones” by Time magazine, Teal, who is in her 30s, has for years traveled the globe raising awareness about the environment and battling plastic pollution.

With a wide social media following, her aim is to “educate through entertainment” with spontaneous events in dramatic — if unlikely — spots, always in her signature pink, like her eco-friendly surfboard made from recycled coffee cups.

She wants to convey the warning that the world’s oceans are in trouble and hopes to inspire youngsters to act.

A series of photographs featuring Teal are to be published today to mark Earth Day. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has swept across the globe, the project has taken on new meaning for the adventurous Hawaiian.

“Hopefully this is the time in history to recognize how interconnected we all are globally to improve our health for both humans and the planet,” she said in e-mailed comments from confinement at her home in Hawaii.

“It’s severely tragic the impact that the virus is having on people’s lives,” she said.

However, she added that she also saw “a ray of hope” with the effect the confinement was having on the environment.

“It makes me hopeful that we have the capability to work on improving our planet’s waterways and air quality,” she said.

Having surfed along the River Seine in Paris past the Eiffel Tower in 2018, Teal came to the British capital early last month to stage a series of photographs.

The images also show her night surfing and posing at London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace or following in The Beatles’ footsteps on Abbey Road.

They add to an impressive portfolio the surfer has amassed in the past few years.

Teal has published short films on her blog and social media, showing her diving to retrieve plastic from the ocean or paddling through stretches of rubbish from the Maldives to Los Angeles.

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Flags have been lowered to half-mast across Canada, as friends and families paid tribute to the victims of the country’s worst-ever mass shooting

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Monday said that 18 people were known to have been murdered in a handful of tightly-knit Nova Scotia communities in the hours-long rampage on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

The police warned that the casualty figure was likely to rise as investigations continued.

Children sign a Canadian flag at an impromptu memorial in front of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment in Enfield, Nova Scotia, on Monday.
 Photo: AFP

Authorities said that Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist, impersonated a police officer during the shooting spree that began in the coastal town of Portapique, but quickly spread out over the province, ending at a gas station in the town Enfield, about 93km away.

Wortman was shot dead by police following a standoff late on Sunday morning.

The victims included an elementary-school teacher and a police officer, with at least three married couples also killed.

The first identified was RCMP constable Heidi Stevenson, a mother of two who had served on the force for 23 years.

Stevenson was killed after responding to an active-shooter situation on Sunday morning, police said.

“We have lost one of our own while she was protecting others,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said on Monday afternoon.

“This is the definition of a true hero,” Leather added.

Stevenson previously worked as a school liaison officer. Former colleagues shared a photograph of her crossing the street with a group of smiling children.

“She was answering the call of duty, something she had done every day,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

As news of the shootings spread, family and friends remembered the victims over social media.

Among the dead was Tom Bagley, who neighbors said was killed as he rushed to help others.

“This beautiful soul was taken from me so unnecessarily. I can’t even comprehend it,” his daughter Charlene wrote on Facebook.

Her request that the community share memories of her father was met with hundreds of comments, where Bagley was remembered as a fun-loving and caring friend who never thought twice about lending a hand.

Residents told local media that Wortman set fire to numerous properties on Saturday evening — including his own — and shot people fleeing for safety.

The house of John Zahl and Elizabeth Joanne Thomas, who were neighbors of Wortman, was among those destroyed in a fire.

The couple, and their cats, are presumed dead, their family said in an online fundraiser.

A family of three, Jolene Oliver, Aaron (Friar) Tuck and their daughter, Emily, were also killed in the shooting.

Tammy Oliver-McCurdie remembered her sister Jolene as a “lover of poetry and books” and full of infectious laughter.

“She was super-fun and enjoyed the beauty in life,” Oliver-McCurdie wrote on a crowdfunding page set up to help cover funeral expenses.

Oliver-McCurdie said that her niece Emily, 17, loved playing the fiddle and fixing vehicles with her father.

Heather O’Brien, a nurse and grandmother from the town of Truro in central Nova Scotia, was remembered for her kind and generous spirit.

“The pain comes and goes in waves. I feel like I’m outside of my own body,” wrote her daughter, Darcy Dobson, who described texting her mother minutes before she died.

“I want everyone to remember how kind she was... Let those things define her. Not the horrible way she died,” she added.

O’Brien’s niece, Megan Brown, remembered her aunt, who worked as a nurse for 17 years, as a “healer” and a “bright light.”

Husband and wife Greg and Jamie Blair were also those killed.

“I have absolutely no words for the heartache my family & many others are going through,” wrote Jessica MacBurnie on Facebook.

The couple, married in 2014, left behind their two children.

Lisa McCully, a teacher and mother of two, was also killed during the rampage, her sister and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union said.

“She was somebody who taught from the heart,” union president Paul Wozney said.

“She taught her kids not just the curriculum, but teaching about virtues and personal qualities,” Wozney added.

Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins, who both worked as corrections officers, were also killed.

With Nova Scotia already in lockdown in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, Trudeau acknowledged that the grieving process would be especially difficult, announcing a virtual Facebook vigil on Friday at 7pm.

“To the grandparent who lost a child, the children who lost a parent to the neighbor who lost a friend: we are so sorry for your loss,” he said. “Such a tragedy should have never occurred.”

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title: Canadians mourn at least 18 killed in mass shooting


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China’s COVID-19 narrative has been offset by the exemplary performance of Taiwan, which has employed neither an authoritarian system nor draconian controls, something that makes Beijing unhappy. Taiwan, despite having few diplomatic allies and no WHO membership because of the Chinese government, is doing better than its powerful rival across the Taiwan Strait.

China finds it difficult to digest that the neighboring democracy, which Beijing often sneers at and harasses, has outperformed it in the face of this challenge.

When it became clear that China’s outbreak could no longer be kept a secret, as the number of cases and casualties in Wuhan soared, Beijing revved up all of the state machinery to incapacitate it — although it was fatally late for China and the world.

The Chinese government followed this with a propaganda blitz that touted its political system as ideal for fighting contagious diseases, a model to be applauded at home and imitated abroad. A favorite story of Beijing’s propaganda machine is how a 59,922m2 makeshift hospital with 1,000 beds was put up in just 10 days. Another is how quickly the Chinese government locked down city after city.

Once enacted, the response effectively contained the coronavirus. By all official accounts, China seems to have its outbreak under control, provided that its virus statistics can be relied upon.

What would have been even better is if the one-party state had not withheld and suppressed vital information from the public in the early days of the outbreak. Thousands of people could have been saved, trillions of US dollars in livelihoods not lost, and the world spared so much fear and uncertainty.

Instead of confessing its complacency as the coronavirus spread in China and overseas — which would demand political and moral fortitude — China has primarily used the health crisis to burnish the image of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, lauding them as decisive, swift and courageous in the face of grave challenges.

Beijing’s narrative, in which an authoritarian system shows itself to be the most competent at handling major crises, has been punctured by Taiwan’s crisis response, a far different reaction than China’s more aggressive and high-handed approach.

Taiwan’s COVID-19 narrative is simple: If information is promptly shared with people — and screening, testing and social distancing are implemented early on — then there is no need to rush to construct a makeshift hospital or force millions of people into lockdown, with such enormous economic and human costs.

As there are no grounds for China to make Taiwan the scapegoat of the health crisis, Beijing seems to be bullying Taipei just to satisfy its imperial ego. The Chinese government used its sizeable influence within the WHO to ensure that the global health body did not share with Taiwan critical information and data on containing the pandemic.

A video interview of WHO Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward with Radio Television Hong Kong’s Yvonne Tong (唐若韞), in which he avoided her questions about Taiwan’s membership in the WHO, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ accusation against Taiwan that the nation was running a racist campaign against him show how China has been aggressively lobbying to denigrate Taiwan’s profile and performance during the pandemic.

Overnight, the WHO became Beijing’s “borrowed knife” to stab Taiwan, but Beijing’s thirst for blood is insatiable. As Taiwan donated millions of masks to European countries and the US, and signed cooperative agreements for the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines, the Chinese government cried foul, attacking Taiwan’s health diplomacy as a “political plot to pursue independence with the help of the epidemic.”

The superior quality of Taipei’s donations have made Beijing envious, as millions of Chinese-made testing kits and masks have been rejected around the world due to their being substandard. The Chinese government remains adamant about politicizing Taiwan’s support to the international community during the pandemic, whose outlook remains gloomy.

Small nations, which desperately need testing kits, masks and healthcare expertise, could end up refusing Taiwan’s help due to pressure from China, which would only place an additional obstacle along their path to containing the coronavirus.

Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) said: “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.” Given the colossal costs that nations are paying to subdue this health crisis, it would be politically prudent and ethically sound for China to let loose Deng’s cat, at least for the time being, as whichever feline kills the virus is a “good cat.”

The whole of humanity is suffering because of China’s repressive political system at home and it should not multiply the same hardship on account of Beijing’s geopolitical considerations abroad.

In this context, the international community has a moral responsibility to ensure that Taiwan is not the next Li Wangling (李文亮), the Wuhan physician whose efforts to notify the public of the virus’ danger were in vain, because the CCP was not happy about it.

Instead of bullying Taiwan, China should have the moral courage and decency to appreciate Taipei for controlling the cases within its borders, thereby drastically reducing the risk of retransmitting the coronavirus to China, given their proximity.

Unfortunately, authoritarian regimes are not typically known for being accountable or giving credit where credit is due — and, in particular, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) version of Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) regime is obsessed with nationalistic arrogance and its dream of becoming a great power.

Beijing claims its anger over Taiwan’s international outreach has to do with its “one China” principle, but that appears to be more pretext than context.

The CCP’s real calculus is to amplify its narrative that authoritarianism is better suited to managing major crises and cement its role as hero — instead of acknowledging its failure to contain the original outbreak and its suppression of warnings from the medical community — but Taiwan’s exemplary performance at home and abroad stands in the way of that grand narrative, which is not only painfully embarrassing for Beijing, but could also be politically dangerous.

Palden Sonam is a researcher in the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies’ China Research Programme in New Delhi, India.

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title: Taipei upstages Beijing’s virus act


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Seventeen years ago today, the SARS outbreak in Taiwan took a turn for the worse when seven workers at Taipei City Hospital’s Hoping branch developed symptoms. The next two weeks saw Taiwan become one of the hardest-hit nations as the number of cases multiplied.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation has been able to convert its painful SARS experience into a success story, even if Chinese influence has barred it from participating in the WHO and other international bodies. Despite this, Taiwan’s international profile has received a boost as it continues to garner praise from public figures and in major media broadcasts for its handling of the crisis.

On Thursday last week, Time magazine featured a piece by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in a special issue titled “Finding Hope,” where it asked more than 50 “Time 100” honorees for their insights on the challenges the world faces navigating the pandemic.

That same day, CNN ran a report on female leaders “doing a disproportionately great job at handling the pandemic” and led the story with Taiwan’s significant donations of masks to help the rest of the world battle the virus.

In the Time article, Tsai reiterated that “Taiwan Can Help” — which has been the nation’s diplomatic catchphrase over the past few years as it exports its soft power to increase its international visibility, instead of taking on China directly in diplomatic circles, which is an impossible task.

Since getting the outbreak in China under control, Beijing has been donating masks and equipment to other nations in an attempt to increase its global influence and improve the international narrative about its handling of the initial phase of the crisis.

Yesterday, CNN reported on Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) criticism of China for censoring early coverage of the outbreak, stating that the “global pandemic could have been averted or lessened had journalists had more freedom.”

RSF’s World Press Freedom Index for this year, released yesterday, ranked China fourth from last, while Taiwan came in at 43rd from the top.

Humanitarian aid should not be a competition, but neither should it be used to divert the world’s gaze. While China extends goodwill to the world, it is also taking advantage of the global coronavirus struggle and its recovery at home to fuel aggressions in its home region.

Fortunately, this has not gone unnoticed. Reuters ran a piece yesterday detailing China’s arrest of 15 pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong — a move condemned by the US and the UK. Reports have also covered how China has ramped up military drills near Taiwan now that the US military is dealing with the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, China has criticized Taiwan for its humanitarian efforts and increased global visibility — especially its cooperation with the US in combating the coronavirus — saying that these are part of a political plot to further its independence agenda.

Beijing’s aggressive actions during the pandemic, as well as ongoing tensions with the WHO, are the reason Taiwanese became so upset after photographs of China Airlines planes delivering shipments of masks donated to European nations led some people outside of Taiwan to think the masks had come from China. Even Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications have voiced support for changing the airline’s name.

It would serve Taiwan’s best interests not to politicize its humanitarian efforts to help fight the pandemic, but when faced with such oppressive behavior and bullying, something must be said.

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title: EDITORIAL: Virus aid should not be politicized

people: 蘇貞昌 蔡英文


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Whispered insults, social isolation and lost opportunities — Morn Chear is channeling the stigma he has endured since he lost both of his hands a decade ago into artwork that highlights the hardships of Cambodia’s disabled.

At 20, he was electrocuted in a construction accident and both his hands developed gangrene, pushing doctors to amputate them below the elbow.

“I was depressed. I did not know what I could do to earn money to feed my family,” he said, describing the shock he felt when he woke up from surgery.

Artist Morn Chear creates a linocut block print at the Open Studio in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on March 6.
 Photo: AFP

Ten years later, Chear has found his place at an arts collective based in Siem Reap, where he specializes in linocut block printing — a technique rarely used in Cambodia.

Open Studio Cambodia represent several contemporary artists, selling their pieces out of an airy studio in the heart of a city famed for the Buddhist Angkor Wat temple complex.

Linocut block printing requires chiseling a scene into a block of linoleum and applying ink on the print — a challenge for Chear.

“Most of my works are all about my real stories,” he said, gesturing at a piece that features himself sitting in a hammock as others walk toward a pagoda.

Chear remembers clear as day how his friends snubbed him.

“Don’t call him to come with us. He is handicapped — it’s embarrassing,” he said, recalling their whispers.

Cambodia has undergone significant changes in the past two decades, with cities such as Siem Reap and its capital, Phnom Penh, developing at a breakneck pace to satisfy a growing tourist and export-reliant economy.

However, health and education remain sticking points and for people with disabilities, access is even more of a challenge.

A survey released last year by the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation found that 60 percent of the country’s disabled live below the poverty line.

Government officials said that 310,000 of the country’s 16 million people have disabilities, although the number is likely higher as many fall through the cracks.

Discrimination is rife, with Cambodians seeing the disabled as street beggars or a burden to their families.

For Chear, the social isolation from once-friendly peers was the most cutting.

After his return home, he was nicknamed A-Kambot by villagers — a derogatory Khmer word for those with physical disabilities, which “pierced” him deeply and made him question whether life was worth living.

Relief came for Chear in 2015 when he was recruited into a non-profit group’s training program. It taught him contemporary dance, drawing, computer skills and even some English.

Working with Open Studio Cambodia in 2018 seemed a natural move, as it fueled his drive to use art to persuade the public to see those with disabilities as capable people.

“Some people who looked down on me in the past have become friendly again,” Chear said, adding that his work has been displayed in the US and France.

However, as billions worldwide have been forced to remain at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he is reminded of the social isolation he endured right after he lost his arms.

“I hope we will overcome it,” he said from his home in Kampot Province, as the workshop has been temporarily closed. “If I can’t make art, I don’t know what I can do.”

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title: Cambodian amputee artist uses art to fight stigma


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Virus Outbreak: Healthcare workers protest US anti-lockdown rallies

As healthcare workers in Colorado and Pennsylvania staged counter-protests against right-wing anti-quarantine rallies that continue to spread across the US, some experts said that such rallies could cause a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Several nurses on Monday gathered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where a protest against stay-at-home orders was taking place. The nurses carried signs urging people to go home.

The SEIU Healthcare union said that a number of nurses participated, a day after two healthcare workers in Denver blocked a similar protest in an action that went viral online.

Anti-lockdown rallies have also been seen in states including Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota.

Video of the Harrisburg event showed many protesters defying social distancing recommendations.

On Sunday a rally in Olympia, Washington state, attracted more than 2,000 people, according to the Seattle Times.

Photographs showed hundreds standing in close proximity outside the state capitol.

“2,500 anti-lockdown rally in Olympia, Washington,” Eric Feigl-Ding (丁亮), an epidemiologist and public health scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan. School of Public Health, tweeted. “I predict a new epidemic surge (incubation time ~5-7 days before onset symptoms, if any, and transmission to associates around that time, even among asymptomatics) so increase in 2-4 weeks from now.”

In pictures of the Olympia rally, one man held a sign that said: “Governmet [sic] isn’t the solution, you are!!” Another carried a sign that said: “No to 5G!”, probably referring a disproven conspiracy theory that the 5G wireless network is responsible for the virus.

Many such events have been inspired by a Michigan protest that was planned by the Michigan Conservative Coalition (MCC) and the Michigan Freedom Fund (MFF), right-wing lobbying groups with links to the Trump administration.

Meshawn Maddock, a member of the advisory board of Women for Trump — an official arm of the president’s re-election campaign — is an MCC member and helped organize the protest at the Michigan state capitol in Lansing on Wednesday last week.

The MFF has received more than US$500,000 from the family of US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. DeVos has personally donated US$80,000 in the past four years.

On Monday, ABC News reported that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper had asked US Vice President Mike Pence to stress the need for social distancing to be observed.

Whitmer reportedly said that although people wanted to “do the wonderful American tradition of dissent and demonstration … it’s just so dangerous to do that.”

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