Conflict risks and diplomatic opportunities in the time of pandemic

• April 24, 2020
• Peggy Mason
• Blog

Renewed diplomatic efforts from some Gulf States

The International Crisis Group has launched a new area of study on the potential impact of the coronavirus on deadly conflict:

Much remains uncertain, but it is already clear that the pandemic could cause enormous damage in fragile states, trigger unrest and undermine international crisis management systems.

One positive response has been tentative efforts by some states, for example in the Persian Gulf, to use the crisis to pursue new diplomatic openings with regional adversaries. Unsurprisingly results have been mixed. While the UAE, for example, has made somewhat successful overtures to Iran and to Syria’s President Assad, Qatar’s pandemic diplomacy with Bahrain has faltered.

While the immediate results are limited, a strategy of gradual confidence-building can help lay the groundwork for politically-focused diplomatic overtures down the line.

For the full article see: Covid and Gulf Foreign Policy (Elham Fakhro, crisisgroup.org, 20 Apr 2020)

Colombia and Venezuela need to work together to tackle Covid-19

In another report in this new series, Crisis Group details the shared response that is urgently needed from the opposing parties inside Venezuela and between that country and its neighbour Colombia:

Geography, economics and migration patterns dictate that Colombia and Venezuela, which severed diplomatic ties in 2019, will confront the coronavirus pandemic together. The two countries should temporarily mend their relations, and the Venezuelan factions should pause their duel, to allow for a coordinated humanitarian response.

For further work by the Crisis Group to identify measures to mitigate the destabilizing impacts of the pandemic on global security, see: The Covid-19 Pandemic and Deadly Conflict (crisisgroup.com).

WHO update: launch of new global collaboration

On 24 April the World Health Organization held an online event featuring leaders from around the world (minus the USA) to launch the Access to Global Tools (ACT)Accelerator, an initiative meant to ramp up collaborative work on COVID-19 tests, potential treatments and vaccines.

French President Emmanuel Macron, a co-host of the event, urged all G7 and G20 countries to get behind the initiative, adding:

And I hope we’ll manage to reconcile around this joint initiative both China and the U.S., because this is about saying ‘the fight against COVID-19 is a common human good and there should be no division in order to win this battle’.

Another high profile participant, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stated:

This concerns a global public good, to produce this vaccine and to distribute it in all parts of the world.

In related news, China has increased its funding to the WHO in the wake of the Trump administration pull-back, discussed in our 17 April blog – WHO is a vital organization we all must defend.

Whither Canada’s Official Opposition?

In the meantime, the Conservative Party of Canada continues its apparent race to the bottom with leadership candidate Derek Sloan posting a message and video on Facebook and Twitter, which read in part:

Dr. Tam [Canada’s chief public health officer] must go! Canada must remain sovereign over decisions. The UN, the WHO and Chinese Communist propaganda must never again have a say over Canada’s public health!

Globe and Mail reporter, Marieka Walsh, compared the response of some rank –and-file members of the Conservative party to the leadership cadre:

Conservative MPs Michael Chong, Eric Duncan, Eric Melillo and Michelle Rempel Garner all condemned Mr. Sloan’s comments, leaving them out of step with their party’s most senior officials. The Conservative Party did not provide comment nor did the party’s leadership committee co-chairs. None of the other three leadership candidates would criticize Mr. Sloan.

USA, Israel and West Bank annexation

In another law-flouting act by the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was an “Israeli decision” whether to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, an intention reiterated by Israeli President Netanyahu shortly after he regained power.

It is illustrative to consider how western mainstream media like the New York Times or Reuters described the relevant international law regarding such an annexation:

The Palestinians and many countries regard settlements as illegal under the Geneva Conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land.

Here is the actual legal status as accurately reported in Middle East Eye:

The acquisition of these territories by force is illegal under international law. Late in 2016, the UN Security Council declared that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are a “flagrant violation under international law”.

In stunning contrast to the Canadian government’s silence on the matter, the EU was unequivocal in its denunciation, issuing a warning that the Israeli government’s intention to annex parts of the occupied West Bank “would constitute a serious violation of international law.”

A compelling article in Foreign Policy (subscribers’ only) further elucidates why a long-standing friend and supporter of Israel should strongly oppose annexation:

…because it would jeopardize Israel’s future as a democratic, Jewish state by making a two-state solution unviable; because it would damage Israel’s relations with Jordan; because it would violate international law; because it ignores the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people; and because it could be a harbinger of greater regional instability and possibly violence.

While the article was directed at Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden, the reasons it advances for forthrightly speaking out against illegal Israeli annexation of the West Bank apply equally to Canada.

Whither Canada?

We call on the Government of Canada to demonstrate a commitment to international law commensurate with Canada’s historic role therein and befitting a nation seeking a seat on the UN Security Council.

A reality check on post-covid progress toward a better world

We have devoted considerable space in some recent blogs to the apparent silver lining in this awful pandemic – a renewed sense of multilateralism, a determination to rethink security to encompass old/new notions of cooperative, human and sustainable security and to focus on the real threats to humanity – climate change, environmental degradation and gross inequality within and between states.

But Robert Malley, current President and CEO of the International Crisis Group, provides a cold dose of reality, arguing that we can take nothing for granted in a post-pandemic world:

At first blush, the coronavirus pandemic seems likely to corroborate the argument for deeper international cooperation to confront shared global challenges. But crises tend to intensify and accelerate preexisting trends – in this case, the rise of anti-globalist nativism.

He goes on:

…it is hard to believe that the socioeconomic despair caused by the pandemic will not prepare the ground for an even stronger nativist and xenophobic surge. In many countries, the scapegoating of foreigners and minorities has already begun.

For the full article, see: The International Order After Covid-19 (project-syndicate.org, 24 Apr 2020).

But we did not include this commentary as a counsel of despair, but a clarion call to action. All around the world folks are getting brief, searing glimpses of the just, peaceful and sustainable world we can create in the wake of the coronavirus devastation. Let that be our guide.

Postcript: For a chilling description of where we are headed in the event President Trump wins re-election, and the consequent need for world leaders who believe in multilateralism – and the overwhelming majority do – to stand up to the bully, see:

Jeffrey Sachs Tells Vatican Conference Trump’s Re-election Would Make US “Absolutely Dangerous” ( youtube.com, 5 Feb 2020).

Photo credit: Wikimedia images (ICC)

WHO is a vital international organization we all must defend (updated)

• April 17, 2020
• Ceasefire.ca
• Blog

On Tuesday 14 April President Trump announced he would suspend the U.S. contribution to the World Health Organization (WHO), allegedly for its slow response to the coronavirus and obeisance to China.

This was a monstrous act even by Trumpian standards.

The WHO was founded as the UN global health body in 1948 in the aftermath of the second world war with a mandate to promote global health, protect against infectious disease and to serve the vulnerable. Despite its chronic underfunding, the WHO’s global coordination, facilitation and assistance roles are essential to combatting the global COVID-19 pandemic and the irony of a President – who has led one of the least coordinated responses of any developed country – dismissing its importance is on display for all who care to see it.

There was immediate pushback against both the substance of Trump’s anti-WHO tirade and the timing of the funding cuts.

Editor-in-chief Richard Horton, of the highly respected Lancet Medical Journal, explains on radio (a transcript of which can be seen here) why he dubbed Trump’s WHO defunding a “crime against humanity”:

What I think needs to be made very clear is he’s committed an act of violence against people around the world. We have 215 countries, regions and territories that have been affected by this pandemic. People are dying worldwide.

Horton also refutes the argument that the WHO was party to a Chinese cover-up of the outbreak and failed to take timely action:

There was a degree of hiding the outbreak in those early stages [by local officials in Wuhan] but eventually the news got through to Beijing and Beijing immediately told WHO on December 31st and after that the WHO in Geneva and the Chinese government worked incredibly hard to sequence the virus, to understand the nature of what this outbreak was, to understand the risk, and then write papers to tell the world….

On January 30 a situation of international concern was declared. So within a month the world went from knowing nothing to declaring a public health emergency of international concern. That’s not a cover up.

Many critics also saw other motivations at work. Professor Thomas G. Weiss, author of “Would the World Be Better Without the UN?” and the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (2018), writes:

The actual explanation for depriving the organization of 22 percent of its resources at this critical juncture was that the WHO is a convenient scapegoat for his own slow and ineffective responses to what he earlier had called a “hoax.” …

Trump’s decision was a device to deflect criticism from his own wildly irresponsible and erratic behavior. Earlier targets had included the media, Democrats in Congress, state governors and Barack Obama. Trump’s vilification of the WHO is part of his systematic attack on what he considers the uselessness of international organizations.

For an authoritative article on the Trump administration’s consistently shambolic response to the coronavirus see: Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic and U.S. Response (Ryan Goodman and Danielle Shulkin, justsecurity.org, 16 Apr 2020).

UN Secretary-General responds

In his characteristically diplomatic – but emphatically clear – style, UN Secretary-General António Guterres embraced the need for a global performance review at the appropriate time while underscoring the WHO’s essential role right now in fighting the pandemic:

Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis. The lessons learned will be essential to effectively address similar challenges, as they may arise in the future.

But now is not that time.

As it is not that time, it is also not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus. As I have said before, now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.

Trump is isolated from rest of G7 Leaders over WHO

On Thursday 16 April, the leaders of the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) held a virtual summit by teleconference where Donald Trump found himself isolated, as the other leaders expressed strong support for the World Health Organization.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated:

There is a need for international coordination and the WHO is an important part of that collaboration and coordination. We recognise that there have been questions asked, but at the same time it is really important we stay coordinated as we move through this. That is certainly what Canada is going to do.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, through her spokesperson, “expressed her full support for the WHO”, while French President Emmanuel Macron said the organization must play a “central role” as part of an “ambitious and coordinated international response” to the virus crisis; and stressed the need to bring “massive aid” to the most vulnerable countries, especially in Africa.

The Italian foreign ministry said it was committed to consolidating a global governance of health care “in which the WHO plays a crucial leadership role” while a separate statement from the French, Italian and German foreign ministers highlighted the need for new contributions to the WHO for research and distribution of a vaccine “for which a global, inclusive effort will be necessary.”

The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas went so far as to compare the funding cut to “throwing the pilot out of the plane in mid-flight.”

Health Experts condemn Trump’s action

Health leaders and experts, less burdened by the constraints of political leadership in the time of Trump, were more direct in their denunciations of Trump’s actions:

• Lancet editor-in-chief Richard Horton (cited earlier): this is a “crime against humanity”
• Lawrence Gostin, a global health law expert from Georgetown university: “there’ll be many more deaths” without a WHO that’s empowered;
• Thomas Bollyky, the director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations: “The president’s decision makes Americans less safe, let’s be clear about that”;
• American Medical Association President Dr. Patrice Harris: halting funding “is a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier.”

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates tweeted:

Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them… The world needs @WHO more than ever.

Canada’s own Chief Public Health Officer, Theresa Tam, is a veteran of the WHO, having served on three WHO emergency committees – Ebola, Middle East respiratory syn-drome (MERS) and poliovirus.

Conservative Party interim Leader Andrew Scheer sides with Trump

There is shameful, though perhaps not unsurprising, Canadian exception to the outpouring of support for the WHO in the wake of Trump’s unconscionable funding freeze. Andrew Scheer, interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada echoed Trump’s attacks:

We’ve got serious concerns about the accuracy of the information coming out of the WHO and it’s incumbent upon this government to explain why they have based so many of their decisions on the WHO….

An example of alleged WHO incompetence cited by Scheer was the change in advice over the advisability of face masks being worn by the general public. This example reveals more about Scheer that he might realize. Rideau Institute President Peggy Mason comments:

One of the challenges the WHO and individual governments alike face throughout the pandemic is that of maintaining public confidence while conveying updated advice in light of constantly evolving data and information on the behaviour of the coronavirus, and the utility of various measures. Either Andrew Scheer does not understand this balancing act or he does not care.

We also feel compelled to note, with great concern, that the CBC online article outlining Andrew Scheer’s critique of the WHO made no ascertainable attempt to balance his accusations with readily available information on the WHO “side” of the story.

Whither Canada?

We commend Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for joining with other G7 leaders in support of the WHO and its vital role in confronting the pandemic. We call for that support to include appropriate additional funding.

We unreservedly condemn the Interim Leader of the Conservative party of Canada, Andrew Scheer, for joining in Donald Trump’s monstrous attack on the World Health Organization in the middle of a global infectious disease outbreak.

Postscript: Longer-term Impact on USA itself of WHO funding cuts

If the USA is indeed concerned about China exercising too much influence over the WHO, then reducing its own role by slashing funding would seem a strange way to proceed. Amanda Glassman, of the Washington-based Center for Global Development goes further:

We need the WHO in lots of different ways. We’re able to have access to strains of flu from outbreaks in Indonesia and other places around the world in order to develop a flu vaccine for the United States because of the WHO…. The United States’ participation in the WHO is not optional.

The same applies to every other UN member state including Canada.

For an excellent review of the “diplomatic balancing act” the UN agency faces as it struggles to navigate the interests of member states that are often working at cross purposes, see: WHO’s diplomatic balancing act faces new challenge with Trump attacks (Reid Wilson, thehill.com, 15 Apr 2020).

UPDATE: The headline says it all: Global concert raises more than $127M for WHO emergency [covid-19] response fund (Rory Sullivan, CNN, 19 Apr 2020).

Photo credit: WHO

Q&A: With rock-bottom prices, will the oil industry

This Sunday, April 26, 2020, photo shows gas prices displayed at a gas station in Hattiesburg, Miss. With a barrel of crude oil costing less than a New York pizza, many U.S. shale producers are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and experts are wondering when, and if, the oil industry will recover. The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil closed at $12.34 a barrel Tuesday, April 28. At the start of the year, the price was around $60. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

NEW YORK (AP) — With a barrel of crude oil costing less than a New York pizza, many U.S. shale producers are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and experts are wondering when, and if, the oil industry will recover.

The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil closed at $12.34 a barrel Tuesday. At the start of the year, the price was around $60.

Demand for oil has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, especially as shelter-in-place orders reverberated around the globe. “International travel, certainly by air, has essentially ceased, and that’s shocking,” said Jim Burkhard, vice president, IHS Markit.


The Energy Information Administration expects jet fuel use to fall 34% in the second quarter. In addition, the agency expects gasoline use to drop by 25% from April to June as drivers stay home instead of hitting the road during warmer weather.

Oil prices were declining even before the pandemic hit as producers flooded the market with more oil than the world could use. Now, as demand shrinks, the industry is running out of places to store it. As the downturn wears on, oil producers are dramatically curtailing their plans to drill for new oil and some have announced they’re shutting in wells that were already producing, a process that could damage oil fields.

WILL THE U.S. OIL INDUSTRY RECOVER?

No one can predict the future, but sustained low prices are likely to have a lasting impact on the U.S. oil industry. Prices are too low for most oil companies to drill new wells, and the amount of oil that existing wells generate declines over time. When oil companies stop drilling, that leads to long-term production declines.

IHS Markit suggests U.S. oil production could decline by 3 million barrels per day to 10 million by the end of this year, and could decline further to 9 million barrels per day in 2021.

U.S. oil production might not return to the same levels it enjoyed before the coronavirus hit, and 2019 may have been the peak of global oil consumption, Burkhard said.

“U.S. production is going to get hit hard,” Burkhard said. “Once you stop drilling, you have these very rapid decline rates that you don’t have anywhere else in the world.” Many producers in the U.S. are shale producers, and their wells cost more to operate than traditional oil drilling. Their wells also produce most of their oil in the first few years; after that, production drops off dramatically, so when drilling stops that leads to rapid declines.


HOW MUCH HAS PRODUCTION DECLINED?

In March, drilling for oil was down 25% compared to last year, according to law firm Baker Hughes. And things have only gotten worse since. March began with oil trading at around $43 a barrel and ended at $20. In April, oil prices dropped to a low of $6.50 a barrel and before bouncing back to the teens.

Oil companies have cut $80 billion from capital spending budgets this year, with about $36 billion of those cuts coming from the U.S., said Chris Midgley, global head of analytics at S&P Global Platts.

WHO WILL BE HIT THE HARDEST?

Major oil companies like Exxon with diversified businesses will survive, but smaller oil producers are going to have a harder time. “They just don’t have a lot of alternatives to stay in business once they stop production,” said Richard Marshall, head of global oil and gas industry practice at Nakisa.

Many producers, especially shale companies, took on a lot of debt to finance operations and can only make ends meet at about $40 a barrel. In the shale industry, about $20 billion in debt will come due in 2021 and $30 billion in 2022, Midgley said. The heavily-indebted companies are going to have to refinance in an environment where the availability of capital is constrained, he said.

The signs are already showing. Whiting Petroleum, a shale producer, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month, followed by Diamond Offshore Drilling. Parsley Energy, a mid-sized fracking company, lost half its market value since the year began and told regulators it has been shutting down enough wells to take about 400 barrels of oil per day off the market. Continental Resources, another shale oil producer, announced it would suspend its quarterly dividend.

Smaller producers will likely be bought by larger companies that are better equipped to weather the storm. “We will see more consolidation of the industry,” Midgley said. “We’ll probably see more bankruptcies.”

Trump order keeping meat packing plants open worries unions

By JILL COLVIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took executive action to order meat processing plants to stay open amid concerns over growing coronavirus cases and the impact on the nation’s food supply.

The order signed Tuesday uses the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure to try to prevent a shortage of chicken, pork and other meat on supermarket shelves. Unions fired back, saying the White House was jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers’ health.

More than 20 meatpacking plants have closed temporarily under pressure from local authorities and their own workers because of the virus, including two of the nation’s largest, one in Iowa and one in South Dakota. Others have slowed production as workers have fallen ill or stayed home to avoid getting sick.

“Such closures threaten the continued functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain, undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency,” the order states.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million food and retail workers, said Tuesday that 20 food-processing and meatpacking union workers in the U.S. have died of the virus. An estimated 6,500 are sick or have been exposed while working near someone who tested positive, the union says.

As a result, industry leaders have warned that consumers could see meat shortages in a matter of days. Tyson Foods Inc., one of the world’s largest food companies, ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times and other newspapers Sunday warning, “The food supply chain is breaking.”

“As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain,” it read.

Tyson suspended operations at its pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa after a slew of infections, and Smithfield Foods halted production at its plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after an outbreak infected 853 workers there.

The 15 largest pork-packing plants account for 60% of all pork processed in the U.S., and the country has already seen a 25% reduction in pork slaughter capacity, according to UFCW.

A senior White House official said the administration was trying to prevent a situation in which a “vast majority” of the nation’s meat processing plants might have temporarily closed operations, reducing the availability of meat in supermarkets by as much as 80%.


The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the order before its release, said the White House was also working with the Labor Department to provide enhanced safety guidance for meatpacking workers. That will include trying to minimize the risk to workers who may be prone to serious complications from the virus, including strongly recommending those over the age of 65 and with preexisting conditions stay home.

The order, which was developed in consultation with industry leaders including Tyson and Smithfield, is designed, in part, to provide companies with additional liability protections in case workers get sick.

Trump on Tuesday said the order would address what he described as a “legal roadblock.” It will “solve any liability problems where they had certain liability problems and we’ll be in very good shape.”



But UFCW International President Marc Perrone said that more must be done to protect the safety of workers.

“Simply put, we cannot have a secure food supply without the safety of these workers,” he said in a statement, urging the administration “to immediately enact clear and enforceable safety standards” and compel companies to provide protective equipment, make daily testing available to workers, and enforce physical distancing, among other measures.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said the administration should have acted earlier to put safety measures in place.

“We only wish that this administration cared as much about the lives of working people as it does about meat, pork and poultry products,” he said.

And Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, which represents 3,000 workers at the JBS meat processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, said the order “will only ensure that more workers get sick, jeopardizing lives, family’s income, communities, and of course, the country’s food supply chain.”

The administration is working with companies to help them secure protective equipment, like face shields and masks, and ramp up testing, the official said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have issued extensive guidelines on steps companies and workers should take.

Protecting workers can be especially challenging at plants that typically employ thousands of people who often work side-by-side carving meat, making social distancing all but impossible. Some companies have been working to reduce infections by checking workers’ temperatures, staggering breaks and altering start times. Owners said they have also done more to clean plants and added plastic shields between workstations.

When outbreaks have happened, local public health agencies have pushed in some cases for temporary closures so they can limit wider outbreaks in communities and conduct mass testing to determine who is carrying the virus. Some plants have also briefly closed for deep cleaning and to install new safety measures.

Yet concerns about working conditions persist and have led some to walk off the job. In central Minnesota, some workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant walked out Monday night to protest the company’s record on worker safety.

Mohamed Goni, an organizer with Greater Minnesota Worker Center, said workers have complained the company is not sharing information about sick colleagues, has not implemented social distancing on the line, and that workers who were sick returned after just two or three days, and some workers who developed symptoms were not allowed to leave when they asked to go home.

“The company refused, saying there would be a shortage of workers,” Goni said, adding that 80% to 85% of the plant’s workers are Somali.

“They have other family members living with them — elderly, children, people with underlying conditions. So if one of them brings that to their homes, it’s going to be more worse and a more serious problem,” Goni said.

Cameron Bruett, head of corporate affairs for JBS USA and Pilgrim’s, said in an email that employees are never forced to work or punished for an absence due to health reasons.

“We will endeavor to keep our facilities open to help feed the nation, but we will not operate a facility if we do not believe it is safe. The health and safety of our team members remains our number one priority,” Bruett said.

In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem has said she hopes to see a reopening plan for Smithfield this week, but sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether she agreed with Trump’s order, which might have prevented the Sioux Falls plant from shutting down if it had been in place earlier.

“We need to keep (plants) running, but we also need to protect people,” Noem said.

___

Associated Press writers Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; Amy Forliti in Minneapolis; and Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this report.


Trump to use Defense Production Act to order meat plants stay open

By Sommer Brokaw
CARGILL BEEF PROCESSING PLANT
April 28 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would sign an executive order under the Defense Production Act to make meat processing plants stay open amid the pandemic.

The announcement was made in an Oval Office meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis open to reporters.

"We're going to sign an executive order today, I believe, and that'll solve any liability problems," Trump said.

The order comes amid farmers fearing that the $19 billion in aid to cope with the coronavirus pandemic won't be enough because of widespread closures due to virus outbreaks.

It also comes about a week after Tyson Foods suspended operations at its Waterloo, Iowa, plant after almost 200 out of 2,800 workers tested positive for COVID-I9.

The company, based in Springdale, Ark., which is one of the world's largest food companies, said that workers would continued to be paid while the plant was closed.

It also paused production at its Pasco, Wash., facility to test its more than 1,400 workers for COVID-19.

Tyson is among more than a dozen meat plants that have closed since the start of the pandemic.

Due to closures, Howard AV Roth, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said last week farms are so crowded there are hog farmers who have started to kill pigs they can't sell to slaughterhouses.

The executive order Trump plans to sign will declare the meat processing plants as critical infrastructure.

The Trump administration is working with the Department of Labor to issue guidance on which employees should stay home, including vulnerable populations.

In March, consumer demand for meat surged across the country, but the closures since then have resulted in reduced capacity to process meat.

The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization with focus on conservation, criticized Trump's statement that he would order meat plants to remain open.

"It doesn't get more Trumponian than shielding meatpacking companies' profits at the expense of worker protections," the center's director, Stephanie Feldstein, said in a statement. "Even before the pandemic hit, Trump's USDA had gutted federal oversight of hog slaughterhouses and was routinely approving waivers for chicken plants that exceeded federal safety limits for slaughter line speeds. And now Trump is willing to sacrifice workers' lives to prop up the nation's inhumane and environmentally destructive addiction to meat."

Trump previously invoked the DPA in late March to push General Motors to produce ventilators and also invoked it more recently for COVID-19 testing swabs.

Still, Trump has urged hospitals and states to take the lead in getting other supplies. In response, nurses protested last week to demand Trump use the DPA to produce personal protective equipment for health workers who care for COVID-19 patients.

UK climate activists stranded in historic town in Kosovo
By VISAR KRYEZIU

1 of 11
In this photo taken on Friday, April 24, 2020, Rosie Watson and Mike Elm visit the medieval fortress in Prizren, Kosovo. British climate activists Rosie Watson and Mike Elm were on an international bicycle and running tour to promote their campaign when they got stuck in Kosovo because of the coronavirus pandemic. Watson, 25, from Loweswater in northwestern England, and Mike Elm, 32, from Edinburgh, Scotland, have been stranded in Prizren, a town in Kosovo, 85 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of the capital Pristina. Since mid-March, Kosovo has been in a lockdown with all of its land and air border crossings shut. The virus has killed at least 22 people and there are more than 780 confirmed cases. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)PRIZREN, 

Kosovo (AP) — British climate activists Rosie Watson and Mike Elm were on an international bicycle and running tour to promote their green campaign when they got stuck in Kosovo because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Watson, 25, from Loweswater in northwestern England, and Elm, 32, from Edinburgh, Scotland, have been stranded in Prizren, a town in Kosovo, 85 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of the capital, Pristina.

Since mid-March, Kosovo has been in a lockdown with all of its land and air border crossings shut. The virus has killed at least 22 people in the Balkan nation, which has more than 790 confirmed cases.

The couple decided against getting on an evacuation flight organized by the British government, saying they are against plane travel and they want to continue their journey once it’s possible to do so. Their trip is low-budget and they have had free accommodation since the start.

They are enjoying the historic, cobblestone streets of Prizren, a town along the Bistrica River and the Sharri Mountains that was founded in the second century A.D. and has a medieval castle. They have also been sampling fli, a local butter pie, and been reassured by a traditional welcome from residents.

In Prizren, they have focused on writing about their trip. Watson has a blog as does Elm.

Watson started her “The New Story Run” in August last year from the United Kingdom, planning a two-year tour on foot to Mongolia “to tell stories of people finding a better and more equal and healthy way of living for us and the planets and tackling the climate crisis.” After running 3,570 kilometers (2,220 miles), or 17 kilometers (around 10 miles) per day, she has a lot to write about.

Inspired by her efforts, Elm joined her in November aiming to cycle a total of 12,000 kilometers (7,450 miles), or 50 kilometers (30 miles) a day. Before getting stuck, they took different routes, but they met up time and again along the way.

Elm met people in Prizren trying “to improve this beautiful city by bringing more trees and green space.” Previously, he was in Zlarin, which aims at becoming Croatia’s first single-use plastic free island. In neighboring Albania, Watson met with a community battling against hydroelectric operations that he says are endangering nearby Valbona National Park.

“A better world for our children needs a better world for us right now,” Elm said.

The pandemic will urge people to “see some of the benefits of having less cars in the city and the cleaner air, the nicer sound, the quieter environment,” he added.


When borders reopen, their plan is to continue their journey through Bulgaria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and finally Mongolia.

This virus has shown that we, and governments, have the ability to transform society and whole countries very fast — something which we need to do to avoid the impacts of the climate crisis,” Watson said.
_

Llazar Semini contributed to this report from Tirana, Albania.

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Follow AP coverage of climate change at http://apnews.com/Climate