New Trump mileage standards to gut Obama climate effort

THIS IMPACTS CANADA TOO AS THESE ARE NAFTA STANDARDS

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and TOM KRISHER 3/29/2020

FILE - This Dec. 12, 2018, file photo shows traffic on the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles. President Donald Trump's is expected to mark a win in his two-year fight to gut one of the United States' single-biggest efforts against climate change, relaxing ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards and raising the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is poised to roll back ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards and raise the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come, gutting one of the United States’ biggest efforts against climate change.

The Trump administration is expected to release a final rule Tuesday on mileage standards through 2026. The change — making good on the rollback after two years of Trump threatening and fighting states and a faction of automakers that opposed the move — waters down a tough Obama mileage standard that would have encouraged automakers to ramp up production of electric vehicles and more fuel-efficient gas and diesel vehicles.

“When finalized, the rule will benefit our economy, will improve the U.S. fleet’s fuel economy, will make vehicles more affordable, and will save lives by increasing the safety of new vehicles,” EPA spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer said Monday, ahead of the expected release.

Opponents contend the change — gutting his predecessor’s legacy effort against climate-changing fossil fuel emissions — appears driven by Trump’s push to undo regulatory initiatives of former President Barack Obama, and say even the administration has had difficulty pointing to the kind of specific, demonstrable benefits to drivers, public health and safety or the economy that normally accompany standards changes.

The Trump administration says the looser mileage standards will allow consumers to keep buying the less fuel-efficient SUVs that U.S. drivers have favored for years. Opponents say it will kill several hundred more Americans a year through dirtier air, compared to the Obama standards.

Even “given the catastrophe they’re in with the coronavirus, they’re pursuing a policy that’s going to hurt public health and kill people,” said Chet France, a former 39-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency, where he served as a senior official over emissions and mileage standards.

“This is first time that an administration has pursued a policy that will net negative benefit for society and reduce fuel savings,” France said.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, the senior Democrat on the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, called it “the height of irresponsibility for this administration to finalize a rollback that will lead to dirtier air while our country is working around the clock to respond to a respiratory pandemic whose effects may be exacerbated by air pollution.

“We should be enacting forward-looking environmental policy, not tying our country’s future to the dirty vehicles of the past,” Carper said.

In Phoenix, Arizona, meanwhile, resident Columba Sainz expressed disappointment at the prospect of losing the Obama-era rule, which she had hoped would allow her preschool age children to break away from TV indoors and play outside more. Sainz reluctantly limited her daughter to a half-hour at the park daily, after the girl developed asthma, at age 3, at their home a few minutes from a freeway.

“I cried so many times,” Sainz said. “How do you tell your daughter she can’t be outside because of air pollution?”

Trump’s Cabinet heads have continued a push to roll back public health and environment regulations despite the coronavirus outbreak riveting the world’s attention. The administration — like others before it — is facing procedural rules that will make changes adopted before the last six months of Trump’s current term tougher to throw out, even if the White House changes occupants.

MORE CLIMATE COVERAGE:

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• – US climate activists to livestream Earth Day due to virus
• – Climate change bills failed in shortened Maryland session

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has been the main agency drawing up the new rules, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The standards have split the auto industry with Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen siding with California and agreeing to higher standards. Most other automakers contend the Obama-era standards were enacted hastily and will be impossible to meet because consumers have shifted dramatically away from efficient cars to SUVs and trucks.

Full Coverage: Climate change

California and about a dozen other states say they will continue resisting the Trump mileage standards in court.

Last year, 72% of the new vehicles purchased by U.S. consumers were trucks or SUVS. It was 51% when the current standards went into effect in 2012.

The Obama administration mandated 5% annual increases in fuel economy. Leaked versions of the Trump administration’s latest proposal show a 1.5% annual increase, backing off from its initial proposal simply to stop mandating increases in fuel efficiency after 2020.

The transportation sector is the nation’s largest source of climate-changing emissions.

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing automakers, said the industry still wants middle ground between the two standards, and it supports year-over-year mileage increases. But he says the Obama-era standards are outdated due to the drastic shift to trucks and SUVs.

The Trump administration standards are likely to cause havoc in the auto industry because due to expected legal challenges, automakers won’t know which standards they will have to obey.

“It will be extraordinarily disruptive,” said Richard J. Pierce Jr., a law professor at the George Washington University who specializes in government regulations.

States and environmental groups will challenge the Trump rules, and a U.S. District Court likely will issue a temporary order shelving them until it decides whether they are legal. The temporary order likely will be challenged with the Supreme Court, which in recent cases has voted 5-4 that a District judge can’t issue such a nationwide order, Pierce said. But the nation’s highest court could also keep the order in effect if it determines the groups challenging the Trump standards are likely to win.

“We’re talking quite a long time, one to three years anyway, before we can expect to get a final decision on the merits,” Pierce said.

——

Krisher reported from Detroit.

Countries crack down on basic rights amid virus pandemic
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC 3/29/2020

In this March 26, 2020, photo, Serbian army soldiers patrol in Belgrade's main pedestrian street, in Serbia. Since declaring nationwide state of emergency Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has suspended parliament, giving him widespread powers such as closing borders and introducing a 12-hour curfew. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Soldiers patrol the streets with their fingers on machine gun triggers. The army guards an exhibition center-turned-makeshift-hospital crowded with rows of bunks for those infected with the coronavirus. And Serbia’s president warns residents that Belgrade graveyards won’t be big enough to bury the dead if people ignore his government’s lockdown orders.

Since President Aleksandar Vucic announced an open-ended state of emergency on March 15, parliament has been sidelined, borders shut, a 12-hour police-enforced curfew imposed and people over 65 banned from leaving their homes — some of Europe’s strictest measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Serbian leader, who makes dramatic daily appearances issuing new decrees, has assumed full power, prompting an outcry from opponents who say he has seized control of the state in an unconstitutional manner.

Rodoljub Sabic, a lawyer and former state commissioner for personal data protection, says that by proclaiming a state of emergency, Vucic has assumed “full supremacy” over decision-making during the crisis, although his constitutional role is only ceremonial.

“He issues orders which are automatically accepted by the government,” Sabic said. “No checks and balances.”

In ex-communist Eastern Europe and elsewhere, populist leaders are introducing harsh measures including uncontrolled cellphone surveillance of their citizens and lengthy jail sentences for those who flout lockdown decrees or spread false information.

The human rights chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that while he understands the need to act swiftly to protect populations from the COVID-19 pandemic, the newly declared states of emergency must include a time limit and parliamentary oversight.

“A state of emergency — wherever it is declared and for whatever reason — must be proportionate to its aim, and only remain in place for as long as absolutely necessary,” the OSCE rights chief, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, said in a statement.

In times of national emergency, countries often take steps that rights activists see as curtailing civil liberties, such as increased surveillance, curfews and restrictions on travel, or limiting freedom of expression. China locked down whole cities earlier this year to stop the spread of the virus as India did with the whole nation.

Amnesty International researcher Massimo Moratti said states of emergency are allowed under international human rights law, but warned that the restrictive measures should not become a “new normal.”

“Such states need to last only until the danger lasts,” he told The Associated Press.

In Hungary, parliament on Monday passed a law giving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government the right to rule by decree for as long as a state of emergency declared March 11 is in effect.

The law also amends the criminal code to include two new crimes. It sets prison terms of up to five years for those convicted of spreading false information about the pandemic and up to eight years for those interfering with efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, like a curfew or mandatory quarantine.

Rights groups say the law creates the possibility of an indefinite and uncontrolled state of emergency and gives Orbán and his government carte blanche to restrict human rights.

“This is not the way to address the very real crisis that has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said David Vig, Amnesty International’s Hungary director,

Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said criticism of Hungary’s bill were “political attacks based on the wrong interpretation or intentional distortion” of its contents.

Elsewhere, governments have also adopted extreme measures.

In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu’s caretaker government passed a series of emergency executive measures to try to quell the spread of the new virus. These include authorizing unprecedented electronic surveillance of Israeli citizens and a slowdown of court activity that forced the postponement of Netanyahu’s own pending criminal trial on serious corruption charges.

In Russia, authorities have turned up the pressure on media outlets and social media users in an effort to control the narrative amid the growing coronavirus outbreak in that country, where the capital, Moscow, went on lockdown Monday and many other regions quickly followed suit.

Under the guise of weeding out coronavirus-related “fake news,” law enforcement has cracked down on people sharing opinions on social media, and on news outlets that criticize the government’s response to the outbreak.

In Poland, people are worried about a new government smart phone application introduced for people in home quarantine.

Panoptykon Foundation, a human rights group that opposes surveillance, says it has received a number of queries from users who support government efforts to fight the pandemic but worry that by using the app they could be giving too much private data to the government.

Panoptykon notes that people have been receiving home visits from police even though the app asks them to send photos of themselves at home. This double control is “disproportionate,” it says.

While nearly 800 coronavirus cases and 16 deaths have been recorded in Serbia, according to Johns Hopkins University, testing has been extremely limited and experts believe the figures greatly under represent the real number of victims. Most people suffer mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, more severe illness can occur, including pneumonia and death.

Images of the transformation of a huge communist-era exhibition hall in Belgrade into a makeshift hospital for coronavirus-infected patients has triggered widespread public fear of the detention camp-looking facility filled with row-upon-row of 3,000 metal beds.

The Serbian president said he was glad that people got scared, adding he would have chosen even a worse-looking spot for the makeshift hospital if that would stop Serbs from flouting his stay-at-home orders.

“Someone has to spend 14 to 28 days there,” Vucic said. “If it’s not comfortable, I don’t care. We are fighting for people’s lives. If someone thinks they will apply makeup or brush their teeth four times a day, well they won’t. They’ll do it once a day.“

“Do not Drown Belgrade,” a group of civic activists, has launched an online petition against what they call Vucic’s abuse of power and curtailing of basic human rights. It says his frequent public appearances create panic in an already worried society.

“We do not need Vucic’s daily dramatization, but the truth: Concrete data and instructions from experts,” the petition says.

___

Associated Press writers Jovana Gec, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Privacy rights may become next victim of killer pandemic
WELCOME TO THE NEW SECURITY STATE 

AFP/File / Tiziana FABI

The coronavirus pandemic has led to the creation of apps and tracking systems using people's smartphone location as part of the effort to limit contagion

Digital surveillance and smartphone technology may prove helpful in containing the coronavirus pandemic -- but some activists fear this could mean lasting harm to privacy and digital rights.

From China to Singapore to Israel, governments have ordered electronic monitoring of their citizens' movements in an effort to limit contagion. In Europe and the United States, technology firms have begun sharing "anonymized" smartphone data to better track the outbreak.

These moves have prompted soul-searching by privacy activists who acknowledge the need for technology to save lives while fretting over the potential for abuse.

"Governments around the world are demanding extraordinary new surveillance powers intended to contain the virus' spread," the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in an online post.

"Many would invade our privacy, deter our free speech, and disparately burden vulnerable groups of people. Governments must show that such powers would actually be effective, science-based, necessary, and proportionate."

AFP/File / Wojtek RADWANSKI

The Icon of a special application for people under coronavirus

 quarantine is seen on a smartphone in Warsaw, Poland

The measures vary from place to place. Hong Kong ordered people arriving from overseas to wear tracking bracelets, and Singapore has a team of dedicated digital detectives monitoring those living under quarantine.

Israel's security agency Shin Bet has begun using advanced technology and telecom data to track civilians.

In perhaps the strictest move, China gave people smartphone codes displayed in green, yellow, and red, determining where citizens can and cannot go.

China is also among the countries enhancing censorship about the crisis, human rights watchdog Freedom House said, while others are blocking websites or shutting off internet access.

"We have observed a number of concerning signs that authoritarian regimes are using COVID-19 as a pretext to suppress independent speech, increase surveillance, and otherwise restrict fundamental rights, going beyond what is justified by public health needs," said Michael Abramowitz, president of the group.

- 'Normalized' surveillance -

AFP/File / ANTHONY WALLACE

Governments are using various kinds of tracking such as

 these electronic bracelets in Hong Kong connected to an 

app to monitor people and curb the spread of COVID-19

Some activists cite the precedent of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which opened up the door to more invasive surveillance in the name of national security.

"There is a risk these tools will become normalized and continue even after the pandemic slows," said Darrell West, who heads the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation.

But even some digital privacy defenders say it may be prudent to use some of the available data to help control the outbreak.

"I'm not against fighting this epidemic with data or tech," said Ryan Calo, a University of Washington researcher affiliated with Stanford's Center for Internet and Society.

"The problem with implementing surveillance in an emergency is that it might acclimate people to that."

Calo said it is a difficult trade-off, noting that even the awareness of being tracked or monitored has an impact on people's feelings of privacy and personal security.

- An app for that -

AFP/File / Catherine LAIA 

Government Technology Agency staffer demonstrates 

Singapore's app called TraceTogether, as a preventive

 measure against the COVID-19 outbreak

Much of the debate centers on smartphone location tracking, a sensitive issue which has been at the heart of numerous privacy disputes.

Since the pandemic began several apps have been developed which use the technology to track the outbreak.

One from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers determines if people have "crossed paths" with an infected person -- although it would only work if it -- for lack of a better term -- goes viral.

Cornell University researchers developed another app allowing users to anonymously share their locations and COVID-19 status to receive alerts about other nearby cases.

New York-based technology firm Unacast created a "social distancing scorecard" which uses smartphone locations to determine the extent of respect for recommendations for people to maintain safe distances.

"It can be helpful to know if people are practicing social distancing. That can provide actionable information," Calo said.

But he maintained that crowdsourced data on infections is likely to be "riddled with inaccuracies" and could give people a false sense of security.

A group of university researchers has developed a preliminary version of an app designed to allow people to share data on location and infections using smartphones' Bluetooth technology without compromising personal privacy.

"We designed it so that if a person comes down with COVID there's a way to send an alert (to those in proximity) without identifying who that person is," said Tina White, a Stanford graduate student and co-founder of the Covid-watch app.

White said she and other researchers came up with the notion as an alternative to "authoritarian" measures being adopted in some parts of the world.

She acknowledged the app would only be as useful as the number of people using it -- but said the technology is being made available freely, and suggested that "Android and Apple could use this an option in a system update" to ensure wide adoption.

---30---

 S.African police fire rubber bullets at shoppers during lockdown

SERIOUS ABOUT TOILET PAPER LIMITS

AFP / MARCO LONGARIPolice had to use force to get people to respect the social distancing rules

South African police fired rubber bullets towards hundreds of shoppers queueing outside a supermarket in Johannesburg as authorities battled to keep people at home in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

With 1,187 confirmed infections and one death, the country has the highest numbers of confirmed infections on the continent.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a 21-day lockdown for the country's 57 million inhabitants, deploying police and the military to enforce the restrictions.

But on day two of the nationwide lockdown, the government was struggling to get people to observe the restrictions.

Many in working-class neighbourhoods ventured out to buy food, standing close to each other in lines while waiting for turns to get into grocery stores.

Between 200 and 300 people gathered outside a popular grocery store, early Saturday in Yeoville, a crime-prone area in Johannesburg's gritty central business district.

Scrambling to secure their spots, many did not observe the recommended safe distance between each other.

Police arrived in 10 patrol vehicles and started firing rubber bullets towards the shoppers.

Startled shoppers trampled on each other and a woman with a baby on her back fell to the ground.

AFP / MARCO LONGARI

Later the police used whips to get the shoppers to observe social distancing rules.

In Johannesburg's Alexandra township, shopping trolleys helped keep the rules respected.

"So for today, what we have adopted is to do the 1.5 metre distance using the trolleys," said Lilly Bophela, Alexandra shopping mall manager.

"So as you can see now we are just making sure that people are one meter away using the trolleys".

While jogging and dog-walking are banned, shopping for food and other basics, but not alcohol, is permitted.

- Police whip shoppers -

South African billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe on Saturday pledged one billion rand (US$57 million) to help fight the pandemic.

"Our number one concern is to save lives and ... to make sure that we slow down ... the spread of coronavirus pandemic," he told a new conference.

Africa's confirmed cases were Saturday creeping towards 4,000 cases with at least 117 deaths - and governments are scrambling to slow the spread.

Zimbabwe starts a three-week lockdown on Monday, while on the same day Lesotho will also go on a 25-day lockdown.

Elsewhere on the continent, Ghana has announced a two-week lockdown in the country's two main regions of Accra and Kumasi starting Monday.

AFP / Marco LONGARISouth imposed its lockdown on Friday, but many people have not respected it until forced to by police

The move came as the authorities reported 137 confirmed cases, including four deaths.

President Nana Akufo-Ado said residents would only be allowed to go out to buy food, water and medicines and to use public toilets.

On Saturday the Democratic Republic of Congo sprawling capital, Kinshasa, was meant to go into lockdown for four days, but local officials delayed the measure after the announcement caused a spike in the price of basic goods and worries about unrest.

And in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville, President Denis Sassou Nguesso declared a health emergency and announced a lockdown in the country, combined with a night curfew, from Tuesday.

He set the length of the lockdown at 30 days, adding in a televised address that the security forces would be mobilised to enforce it.

In the Sahel, Burkina Faso, which last week recorded sub-Saharan Africa's first death, announced that eight towns, including the capital Ouagadougou, would be quarantined for two weeks from Friday.

In Mali, the government has imposed some anti-coronavirus measures, including a night-time curfew, but said a long-delayed parliamentary election would go ahead on Sunday.

29MAR2020

 

   

Scared New York medical workers decry lack of virus protection

AFP/File / Angela WeissMedical personnel outside New York's Elmhurst Hospital Center, where 13 COVID-19 patients died in 24 hours

Medical staff in America's coronavirus hotbed New York are struggling with long hours and a dire need for protective equipment -- and as infections surge, they increasingly fear for their own safety.

Doctors and nurses are working around the clock caring for patients hit by the fast-spreading infection, risking their lives on the front lines of the global crisis.

The same week the United States became the new epicenter of the pandemic -- with about 120,000 confirmed cases of infection and 2,000 deaths -- Kious Kelly, a nurse manager at a Manhattan hospital, succumbed to a fatal case of the COVID-19 illness.

The death of the 48-year-old crystallized fears of many medical workers who've lamented severe shortages of necessary supplies, including plastic protective gowns and hospital-grade masks.

"It's abysmal," said Andrew, a psychiatry resident in a New York hospital who spoke on condition his name be changed.

He is now quarantined at home with a likely case of the virus himself.

"There's not enough money, there aren't enough tests, there's not enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for people who are dealing with this -- not just the doctors, but nurses, ancillary staff, janitors -- everyone in the hospital who are getting huge exposure to the virus," he told AFP in an interview punctuated by coughs.

About 20 health care workers protested their working conditions on Saturday morning outside the city's Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

"We risk our lives to save yours," one of their signs said, appealing for "#PPENow" -- masks, goggles, gloves and other protective gear.

- 'Hopelessness' -

Diana Torres, a former colleague of the late Kelly at New York's Mount Sinai hospital group, said hospital staff are "devastated" that he "paid the ultimate price."

The mother of three told AFP there are units of the hospital filled to the brim with coronavirus patients.

She works in a rehabilitation section of the facility and personally has handled at least three patients known to have the virus -- perhaps more, as a lack of testing makes it impossible to be sure.

AFP/File / Angela WeissA medical worker walks out of a COVID-19 testing tent at Brooklyn Hospital Center -- health care workers throughout New York are alarmed at the dearth of protective equipment to keep staff safe

Kelly's death triggered an outpouring of angry posts on social media over inadequate protections, including one viral photo showing staff wearing garbage bags over their scrubs.

Mount Sinai said in a statement it was "grieving deeply" over Kelly's death, while also emphasizing that "we always provide our staff with critically important PPE."

But Torres said it took significant pushing to acquire one face shield, just one N-95 respirator mask and one gown -- which she said she must reuse.

"I have nothing for my head, nothing for my shoes," she said. "There is this sense of hopelessness."

"Everybody is scared."

- 'Lambs to slaughter' -

New York state has counted more than 50,000 positive cases, with around 6,500 people hospitalized.

Andrew is among the many New Yorkers who have fallen ill but has been unable to get tested because tests are reserved for the most critical cases.

A week ago he came down with a scratchy throat that evolved into the virus's customary symptoms: dry cough, body aches, headache, chest pressure and elevated temperature.

AFP / Bryan R. SmithA temporary hospital is set up at Manhattan's Javits Center, as medical facilities in New York struggle to handle the influx of coronavirus patients

Andrew also experienced an abrupt inability to taste or smell -- believed to be a sign of infection -- and has yet to regain his olfactory senses.

His case is mild, but he worries others in hospitals could develop more severe infections because of constant exposure to sick patients without proper safety measures.

"People on the front lines aren't getting protected. They're lambs to slaughter," he said. "It's criminal."

Andrew said federal action has been "wholly inadequate" and "more people are going to die."

- Dwindling staff -

Torres fears potentially spreading the infection to her children and husband. "Unless we get tested, we cannot contain the virus within the facility," she said.

"We are all walking around paranoid, trying to keep our distance from each other because we can't get tested -- unless you are symptomatic and the symptoms are serious enough."

She says hours are extended and staffing "shorter than ever, because our own staff is getting sick."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that "right now" there is enough protective equipment, although "nobody has enough long term" and efforts are being made to obtain more.

AFP / Angela WeissParamedics carry a stretcher with a patient at Brooklyn Hospital Center -- New York state has about half of the novel coronavirus cases in the United States

He acknowledged concern among health care workers that guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for how often gowns, masks and so on are changed during a crisis do not adequately protect them.

Cuomo said the issue is being looked at.

"If we believe the CDC guidelines don't protect health care professionals then we will put our own guidelines in place," he said.

Authorities estimate the virus's peak in New York might not come for three weeks.

For the time being health care workers "don't really have the luxury of stopping to digest any of this," said Andrew.

"We just have to do it."

US could take equity shares in coronavirus-hit airlines: officials
ONLY STATE CAPITALISM CAN DEFEAT CORONAVIRUS

AFP/File / JIM WATSONUS Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

The US government could take equity shares in airlines and other troubled but vital American corporations as it moves to stabilize an economy amid the new coronavirus pandemic, top US officials said Sunday.

White House economics adviser Larry Kudlow said the government should get a stake in companies that receive direct cash grants from the federal government.

"I think in return for direct cash grants, which is what the airlines have asked for, I see no reason why the American taxpayer shouldn't get a piece," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation" talk show, also said the government could take equity positions in return for infusions of taxpayer money.

"As the president said, we'll look at each one of these situations," he said.

"Some of them are very good companies that just need liquidity and will get loans. Some of these companies may need more significant help and we may be taking warrants or equity as well as that.

"The president wants to make sure the American taxpayers are compensated. This is not a bailout."

Mnuchin said any such transactions would take the form of warrants, a type of security that gives its holder the right to buy or sell an asset at a certain price up to a certain date determined when it is emitted. Warrants can thus be converted into shares.

The massive financial rescue plan passed by the US Congress designates $50 billion for the airline industry.

Half that sum would take the form of loan guarantees, and the rest direct cash payments.

Invoking their importance to the economy and the social risks if they fail, Boeing and the US airlines have demanded an unprecedented government bailout.

Air transportation has been one of the hardest hit sectors by the COVID-19 epidemic. Most transatlantic flights by US airlines have been suspended, as have 40 to 70 percent of domestic flights.

Bailouts using taxpayer money in the form of direct financial infusions or loans guaranteed by the federal government would follow a decade of growth in which the airlines made billions of dollars.

A number of voices have been raised, particularly among Democrats, insisting that certain conditions be met in extending public support to corporations, including equity participation in those companies.

Great Pyramid in Egypt lights up in solidarity against virus

AFP / Khaled DESOUKI 

Egypt has carried out sweeping disinfection operations at archaeological

 sites, museums and other sites

Egypt's famed Great Pyramid was emblazoned Monday evening with messages of unity and solidarity with those battling the novel coronavirus the world over.

"Stay safe", "Stay at home" and "Thank you to those keeping us safe," flashed in blue and green lights across the towering structure at the Giza plateau, southwest of the capital Cairo.

Egypt has so far registered 656 COVID-19 cases, including 41 deaths. Of the total infected, 150 reportedly recovered.

"The tourism sector is one of the most affected industry but our priority is health," said tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Anani, speaking at the site.

Senior antiquities ministry official Mostafa al-Waziri thanked "all the medical staff who help to keep us safe."

Egypt has carried out sweeping disinfection operations at archaeological sites, museums and other sites across the country.

In tandem, strict social distancing measures were imposed to reduce the risk of contagion among the country's 100 million inhabitants.

Tourist and religious sites are shuttered, schools are closed and air traffic halted.

Authorities have also declared a night-time curfew and threatened penalties including fines and even prison.

On Monday, the interior ministry said hundreds were arrested for violating curfew orders. It was not immediately clear if they were later released.

The World Health Organization has commended Egypt's response to the pandemic as "strong and adapted to the situation".

But it called on the Arab world's most populous country to boost hospital resources to better prepare for potential wider transmission.

The novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic on March 11. It originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has so far spread in 183 countries.

Over 727,000 people have been infected and more than 34,000 have died worldwide, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

---30---

Facebook and Instagram remove Bolsonaro video questioning virus quarantine

AFP/File / Sergio LIMABrazilian president Jair Bolsonaro shared

 videos showing him flouting his government's social distancing guidelines

Facebook and Instagram removed videos of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on Monday, saying they spread misinformation about the coronavirus, a day after Twitter did the same.

"We remove content on Facebook and Instagram that violates our terms of use, which do not allow misinformation that could cause physical harm to individuals," Facebook said in a statement in Portuguese.

Twitter on Sunday explained it had removed the videos in accordance with its recently expanded global rules on managing content that contradicted public health information from official sources, and could put people at greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

The videos showed the far-right leader flouting his government's social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia on Sunday and urging them to keep the economy going.

On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus. Brazil has reported the most coronavirus cases in Latin America so far: 4,256, with 136 deaths.

On Monday, Mandetta again stressed the importance of social distancing in order to slow the virus.

"At this time, we must maintain the highest degree of social distancing, so that we can... give time for the (health) system to strengthen itself," he said.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, describing it as "a flu" and calling for schools and shops to re-open, with self-isolation necessary only for people over the age of 60.

On Monday, his leading opponents urged him to resign in a joint letter, arguing that he committed a crime with his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Bolsonaro is more than just a political problem, he has become a public-health problem... He should resign," said the statement, which was signed by a dozen leading left-wing figures.

Twitter removes two Bolsonaro tweets questioning virus quarantine

AFP / EVARISTO SA

Brazilian soldiers disinfect the Subway Central Station in Brasilia on March 29, 2020

Two tweets by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in which he questioned quarantine measures aimed at containing the novel coronavirus were removed Sunday, on the grounds that they violated the social network's rules.

The far-right leader had posted several videos in which he flouted his government's social distancing guidelines by mixing with supporters on the streets of Brasilia and urging them to keep the economy going.

Two of the posts were removed and replaced with a notice explaining why they had been taken down.

Twitter explained in a statement that it had recently expanded its global rules on managing content that contradicted public health information from official sources and could put people at greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

In one of the deleted videos, Bolsonaro tells a street vendor, "What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work."

"What I have said from the beginning is that 'we are going to be careful, the over-65s stay at home,'" he said.

"We just can't stand still, there is fear because if you don't die of the disease, you starve," the vendor is seen telling Bolsonaro, who responds: "You're not going to die!"

In another video, the president calls for a "return to normality," questioning quarantine measures imposed by governors and some mayors across the giant South American country as an effective containment measure against the virus.

"If it continues like this, with the amount of unemployment what we will have later is a very serious problem that will take years to be resolved," he said of the isolation measures.

"Brazil cannot stop or we'll turn into Venezuela," Bolsonaro later told reporters outside his official residence.

On Saturday, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta highlighted the importance of containment as a means of fighting the coronavirus, which has already infected 3,904 people in Brazil, leaving 114 dead, according to the latest official figures.

"Some people want me to shut up, follow the protocols," said Bolsonaro. "How many times does the doctor not follow the protocol?"

"Let's face the virus with reality. It is life, we must all die one day."

In the four videos posted on his Twitter account, Bolsonaro is seen surrounded by small crowds as he walked about the capital.

Bolsonaro has described the coronavirus as "a flu" and advocated the reopening of schools and shops, with self-isolation necessary solely for the over-60s.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/mutual-aid-solidarity-and-humor-in.html

On This Day: 15th Amendment gives African-American men right to vote
On March 30, 1870, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

MANY ABOLITIONISTS WERE FEMINISTS WHO STILL COULD NOT VOTE
By UPI Staff


A voter casts a ballot in the Democratic presidential primary February 29 at the Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, S.C. On March 30, 1870, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution. File Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1842, Dr. Crawford Long became the first physician to use anesthetic (ether) in surgery.

In 1858, a U.S. patent was granted to Hymen Lipman for a pencil with an attached eraser.

In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.

File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI

In 1923, the Cunard liner Laconia arrived in New York City, the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the world. The cruise lasted 130 days.

In 1975, the South Vietnamese city of Da Nang fell to North Vietnamese forces. UPI correspondent Paul Vogle described "the flight out of hell" as refugees attempted to flee the city.

In 1981, On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and injured U.S. President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a Washington police officer also sustained injuries. Hinckley was released from a psychiatric hospital in September 2016.

In 1999, a jury in Oregon awarded $81 million in damages to the family of a smoker who died from lung cancer. A state judge reduced the punitive portion to $32 million.

In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was freed in Baghdad after being held for 82 days by kidnappers.

In 2018, at least a dozen Palestinians died in the first week of the so-called Great March of Return protests in Gaza. More than 180 people died in the nearly weekly protests through the end of 2019.

In 2019, Slovakia elected its first female president, liberal lawyer Zuzana Caputova.

File Photo by Martin Divisek/EPA-EFE

(Trump) FDA OKs system to decontaminate, reuse face masks for coronavirus
DUE TO TRUMP FAILURE TO GET MASK PRODUCTION UNDERWAY IN JANUARY USING DPA
St. Louis Fire Department paramedic Andrew Beasley wears a mask, gloves and

 a gown as he disinfects the back of an ambulance with a bleach mix, after

 delivering a patient to the Emergency Department at Barnes-Jewish Hospital 

in St. Louis on March 16. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new decontamination system that enables health providers to reuse industrial face masks that have become scarce during the coronavirus outbreak.

The FDA on Sunday issued an emergency-use authorization under which the Battelle Decontamination System, built by the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, will be sent to critical facilities around the United States.

Battelle says the system is capable of decontaminating 80,000 N95 respirator masks each day, which would provide relief to front-line healthcare providers who are seeing severe shortages of personal protection equipment.

The FDA also did an about-face on an earlier stance limiting the number of masks that can be decontaminated each day, following complaints from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

The agency approved a plan over the weekend allowing Batelle to sterilize only 10,000 masks per day, but DeWine said the sterilization was only allowed to occur on a limited basis.

"That's just not good enough, he tweeted.

DeWine later said he spoke with President Donald Trump and the FDA lifted the limit a short time later.

RELATED Esper: Pentagon to give masks, ventilators to HHS



Also Sunday, the FDA issued an emergency-use authorization for a pair of anti-malaria drugs to treat COVID-19. The authorization will allow 30 million doses hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated by pharma giants Sandoz/Novartis and Bayer Pharmaceutical to be developed for possible treatment of the coronavirus disease.

Although the anti-malarial drugs have not yet been shown to be effective against COVID-19 in clinical trials, anecdotal evidence exists to show that they could be.

FDA emergency-use authorizations enable new products or new uses for existing drugs without clinical trials if it determines the benefits outweigh the known risks, when there are no alternatives.
RELATED WHO: Hoarding hurts medical supply for health workers

ACLU, Planned Parenthood, file suit against Iowa over halting abortions

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Planned Parenthood filed 

suit Monday against Iowa state officials based on governor's order halting

 abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.

 File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit Monday against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' order halting abortions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pat Garrett, a spokesman for Reynolds, told the Des Moines Register Friday that the governors' proclamation earlier this week to suspend "non-essential" medical procedures through mid-April included surgical abortion.

The lawsuit filed in Johnson County District Court against Reynolds and other state officials "asks the court for an emergency injunction to block the Governor's Proclamation as it applies to abortions," an ACLU of Iowa statement said Monday.

The suit was filed on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which offers services at health centers in Iowa and Nebraska, its medical director Jill Meadows, and the abortion clinic called Emma Goldman Clinic, based in Iowa City.

"Abortion is an essential, time-sensitive medical procedure," Planned Parenthood's Iowa Executive Director Erin Davison-Rippey said in a statement. "We are in a critical moment for our state when we must come together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, not politicize health care services that are constitutionally protected. Iowans are doing all they can to protect their families and communities during this pandemic and Planned Parenthood is focused on providing our patients with crucial services they need."

The Iowa Constitution grants women a fundamental right to abortion, according a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling, which the lawsuit cites.

Reynolds has been a vocal pro-life advocate for years and in 2018 signed one of the most restrictive state abortion bans in the nation into law, known as the "heartbeat" bill, banning the procedure after six weeks.

RELATED U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Louisiana abortion case

The pro-life governor has defended her position and said it is not because of her ideology, but part of plan to deal with national shortage in medical equipment during the pandemic.

However, the lawsuit says the governor calling abortions non-essential procedures "flagrantly defies clear and binding constitutional precedent," showing "protected liberty interest in terminating an unwanted pregnancy."

Officials in Texas, Ohio and Mississippi have also halted abortion procedures amid the pandemic.

RELATED Senate fails to pass two abortion bills

Anti-LGBTQ hate groups surged by 43% in 2019, advocacy group says

A Southern Poverty Law Center report released earlier this month showed anti-LGBTQ groups surged last year.

 Marchers in parade are shown celebrating LGBTQ pride in San Francisco 

last year. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

March 30 (UPI) -- The number of anti-LGBTQ hate groups in the United States increased by 43 percent last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center said.

The hate groups grew from 49 in 2018 to 70 in 2019, the a new SPLC report said.

President Donald Trump has shown support for at least some of these hate groups, the report shows.

"Though Trump promised during his campaign to be a 'real friend' to the LGBTQ community, he has fully embraced anti-LGBTQ hate groups and their agenda of dismantling federal protections and resources for LGBTQ people," the report said.

RELATED N.Y. man dies 3 months after hate crime-related machete attack

The SPLC highlighted the Trump administration's affiliation with the Family Research Council, which it has deemed a hate group that uses "junk science" to make "false claims" about the LGBTQ community in an effort to promote hate and fuel the fight against their civil rights.

SPLC spokeswoman Lecia Brooks told NBC News that long-time FRC President Tom Perkins has had "unfettered access" to the Trump administration, noting that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appointed Perkins to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD has listed more than 30 examples of Perkins' opposition to LGBTQ rights. Among them, the FRC has distributed a pamphlet comparing same-sex marriage to a "man-horse marriage." Perkins also claimed lawmakers who voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had the "blood of young Marines" on their hands.

RELATED Gay, lesbian teens at higher risk for physical, sexual abuse

Trump spoke at an FRC-hosted event in October in which he reiterated his position against the Equality Act, a bill the House passed that would extend to LGBTQ people federal non-discrimination protections.

The Trump administration's Department of Justice has also filed briefs supporting the Alliance Defending Freedom, which the SPLC has also designated a hate group, in three anti-LGBTQ lawsuits.

The ADF won a case before the Supreme Court in 2018, representing a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding. In another high court case, the ADF is defending a Detroit funeral home who fired a worker going through a gender transition.

In a lower court, the ADF is representing three athletes suing the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for its policy of allowing transgender girls to compete with other high school girls.

"Trump's embrace of these groups, their leaders and their policy agenda fuels this growth," Brooks said of the rise in "anti-LGBTQ hate groups."

The report noted that anti-LGBTQ hate groups represented the "fastest-growing sector" of hate groups last year. White nationalists groups have also been on the rise, increasing 55 percent from 100 in 2017 to 155 in 2019.

Anti-immigrant groups also went up slightly from 17 in 2018 to 20 in 2019.

The SPLC exposed hundred of emails Trump's senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, wrote to the far-right website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016 which showed he was "stepped in the language, literature and ideology of the white nationalist movement," the report said. It added that Miller has been connecting groups the SPLC has designated as extremist anti-immigrant hate groups -- such as the Center for Immigration Studies and Federation for American Immigration Reform -- to some lawmakers with similar views.

Still, the number of overall hate groups declined from a record high of 1,020 in 2018 to 940 in 2019.

The "collapse of two neo-Nazi factions riven by leadership turmoil and community pressure," contributed to the overall decline in the number of hate groups after a 30 percent rise since 2015, the SPLC said.

ADF's senior counsel, Jeremy Tedesco, rebuked the SPLC for releasing the report on March 18, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's appalling that the Southern Poverty Law Center would choose this time of national emergency to launch their divisive and false 'hate report,'" Tedesco told NBC News. "We call on SPLC to retract the report, stop sowing division and join the rest of America against our common foe: COVID-19."

Brooks dismissed this rebuke.

"Fighting hate is something we have to keep at the forefront of our minds," Brooks said. "They don't take a break, and we don't take a break either."

The SPLC similarly defends compiling a list of hate groups, exposing that their "patriotic" rhetoric masks their true intentions, in its report.

"For all their 'patriotic' rhetoric, hate groups and their imitators are really trying to divide us; their views are fundamentally anti-democratic and need to be exposed and countered," the report said.

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