Wuhan lab denies virus link as online mega-concert raises spirits

AFP/File / JOHANNES EISELEThe P4 biosafety laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is equipped to handle dangerous viruses

A laboratory in the Chinese city at ground zero of the global coronavirus outbreak has rejected as "impossible" US theories it is the cradle of the pandemic, as President Donald Trump warned Beijing of consequences if it was "knowingly responsible".

The denial came as the world's top musicians -- from the Rolling Stones to Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder and teen superstar Billie Eilish -- joined forces for a virtual mega-concert, hoping to spread cheer to billions under lockdown.

The six-hour online event aimed to cultivate a sense of community during a pandemic that has ravaged the global economy and killed at least 157,000 people worldwide, with nearly 2.3 million confirmed infections.

AFP / Olivier DOULIERYA-listers entertained fans with a six-hour online extravaganza celebrating healthcare workers

"Was it a mistake that got out of control or was it done deliberately?" Trump said at a White House briefing Saturday, questioning the origins of the disease, which first emerged in the city of Wuhan in December.

"If they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences," he said when asked if China should face repercussions for the pandemic.

The highly contagious disease was likely first transmitted to humans at a market where exotic animals were slaughtered, according to Chinese scientists.

But conspiracy theories that the virus came from a maximum-security virology lab have been brought into the mainstream in recent days by US government officials.

AFP / Alberto PIZZOLIAt least 157,000 people have been killed by the disease with two-thirds of the deaths in Europe

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said an investigation was underway into how the virus "got out into the world".

"There's no way this virus came from us," Yuan Zhiming, the head of the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is equipped to handle dangerous viruses, said in an interview with state media.

"I know it's impossible," he added.

- Lockdown protests -

The US has the highest caseload of any country, with more than 735,000 confirmed infections, and by Sunday had lost 39,000 people to the virus, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Progress was marked in some places and New York state reported the lowest number of deaths in weeks, which Governor Andrew Cuomo attributed largely to social distancing.

AFP / Hector RETAMALThe highly contagious disease first emerged late last year in the city of Wuhan in central China

But as Americans and others around the world chafe after weeks under stay-at-home orders, resentment is rising.

Anti-lockdown protests on Saturday drew hundreds of people at the capitols of states including Texas, Maryland, New Hampshire and Ohio. Many demonstrators waved American flags and some carried arms.

The small but spreading movement drew encouragement from Trump, who tweeted that three states should be "liberated" from the stay-home orders.

He has called for a rapid return to normality to limit damage to the US economy -- while largely leaving the final decision on easing lockdowns to state officials.

With 22 million Americans out of work seemingly overnight as businesses closed under the lockdown, families are turning more and more to food banks to get by.

"We have gone for months without work," a woman who gave her name only as Alana said at a food distribution centre in Chelsea in suburban Boston.

- Orthodox Easter -

Mounting evidence suggests that social distancing has slowed the pandemic after more than half of humanity -- 4.5 billion people -- were confined to their homes.

AFP / ARIANA DREHSLERAnti-lockdown protests in several US states drew hundreds of people

Stay-at-home orders have been enforced in Italy and Spain, both still the hardest-hit countries in Europe, with death tolls over 20,000, followed by France, which has recorded more than 19,000 fatalities.

As governments around the world grapple with when and how to ease lockdowns, Spain on Saturday extended its nationwide shutdown to May 9.

Japan, Britain and Mexico have all expanded their movement restrictions.

Yet elsewhere, signs that the outbreak could be easing prompted Switzerland, Denmark and Finland to begin reopening shops and schools this week. Germany is set to follow suit with some shops back in action on Monday.

Iran also allowed some Tehran businesses to reopen Saturday despite the country being home to the Middle East's deadliest outbreak.

AFP / VALERY HACHEFrance has recorded more than 19,000 virus fatalities

"How can I keep staying home? My family is hungry," said Hamdollah Mahmoudi, 45, a shopworker in Tehran's Grand Bazaar.

Israel has also approved some easing to its tight restrictions -- while pointedly avoiding announcing the first stage of an exit from lockdown.

Many of the world's 260 million Orthodox Christians marked Easter on Sunday without attending church services.

However Easter celebrations were allowed to go ahead in Georgia despite a nationwide curfew, with hundreds attending.

In Zimbabwe, mass rallies and military parades to mark the country's 40th anniversary of independence from British colonial rule were cancelled.

And Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II will not mark her birthday on Tuesday with a traditional gun salute.

Australia has called for an independent investigation into the global response to the pandemic, including the World Health Organization's handling of the crisis.

Its foreign minister said the country would "insist" on a review that would probe, in part, China's response to the outbreak.

Back in Wuhan there was an emotional return to the city for the Chinese Super League football team after more than three months stranded on the road while the area was on lockdown.

Wearing masks, the players had bouquets of flowers thrust into their hands as supporters clad in the team's orange colours held banners and sang to welcome them home.

burs-kaf/axn

Director of Wuhan lab denies virus link

AFP / Hector RETAMALThe existence of the lab has fuelled conspiracy theories that the germ spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically its P4 laboratory

The director of a maximum-security laboratory in China's coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan has rejected claims that it could be the source of the outbreak, calling it "impossible".

Beijing has come under increasing pressure over transparency in its handling of the pandemic, with the US probing whether the virus actually originated in a virology institute with a high-security biosafety laboratory.

Chinese scientists have said the virus likely jumped from an animal to humans in a market that sold wildlife.

But the existence of the facility has fuelled conspiracy theories that the germ spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically its P4 laboratory which is equipped to handle dangerous viruses.

In an interview with state media published Saturday Yuan Zhiming, director of the laboratory, said that "there's no way this virus came from us".

None of his staff had been infected, he told the English-language state broadcaster CGTN, adding the "whole institute is carrying out research in different areas related to the coronavirus".

The institute had already dismissed the theory in February, saying it had shared information about the pathogen with the World Health Organization in early January.

But this week the United States has brought the rumours into the mainstream, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying US officials are doing a "full investigation" into how the virus "got out into the world".

When asked if the research suggested the virus could have come from the institute, Yuan said: "I know it's impossible."

"As people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples," he said.

He said that because the P4 laboratory is in Wuhan "people can't help but make associations", but that some media outlets are "deliberately trying to mislead people".

Reports in the Washington Post and Fox News have both quoted anonymous sources who voiced concern that the virus may have come -- accidentally -- from the facility.

Yuan said the reports were "entirely based on speculation" without "evidence or knowledge".

Authorities in Wuhan initially tried to cover up the outbreak and there have been questions about the official tally of infections with the government repeatedly changing its counting criteria at the peak of the outbreak.

This week authorities in the city admitted mistakes in counting its death toll and abruptly raised the figure by 50 percent.

ME TOO REACTIONARY RIGHT WING AUSTRALIAN GOVT FOLLOWS TRUMP

Australia calls for independent probe into global virus response

AFP/File / Saeed KHANIn recent weeks, Australia has seen the rate of new coronavirus cases slow dramatically

Australia on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the World Health Organization's handling of the crisis.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the country would "insist" on a review that would probe, in part, China's early response to the outbreak in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 emerged late last year.

"We need to know the sorts of details that an independent review would identify for us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to dealing with it (and) addressing the openness with which information was shared," she told public broadcaster ABC.

Payne said Australia shared similar concerns to the United States, whose President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of "mismanaging" the crisis and covering up the seriousness of China's outbreak before it spread.

Trump has also announced that Washington will halt payments to the UN body that amounted to $400 million last year.

"I'm not sure that you can have the health organisation which has been responsible for disseminating much of the international communications material, and doing much of the early engagement and investigative work, also as the review mechanism," Payne said.

"That strikes me as a bit poacher-and-gamekeeper."

Payne added she believed the fallout from the pandemic was set to change the relationship between Australia and China "in some ways", with her concern around Beijing's transparency now "at a very high point".

Health Minister Greg Hunt backed the call for an independent review, saying Australia had achieved success in limiting the spread of the virus in part by going against WHO advice.

Australia -- which has recorded 6,600 coronavirus cases and 70 deaths linked to COVID-19 -- was one of the first countries to impose a ban on travel from China.

"Australia has been able to have, by global standards, just a profoundly important and successful human outcome, but we have done that by following the course that our medical experts here in Australia set out," Hunt said.

"We do know there was very considerable criticism when we imposed on the 1 February the China ban from some of the officials and the WHO in Geneva."

Hunt said although the WHO had "done well" in fighting diseases like polio, measles and malaria, its coronavirus response "didn't help the world".

"We have done well because we made our own decisions as a country," he added.

In recent weeks, Australia has seen the rate of new cases slow dramatically, leading health authorities to declare the country has "flattened the curve".

Tough restrictions on movement and gatherings are set to remain in place for at least the next month as officials attempt to keep the virus spread under control.

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 THIRD WORLD COUNTRY

Hungry, jobless Americans turning to food banks to survive pandemic

AFP / Joseph PreziosoFood and packages of donated goods are distributed to people at a food bank in Chelsea, Massachusetts

American families slammed by the coronavirus pandemic are turning more and more to food banks to get by, waiting hours for donations in lines of cars stretching as far as the eye can see.

And with 22 million people out of work seemingly overnight as business after business closes under the Great Lockdown, these charities feeding hungry and scared people fear the day will come when they cannot cope with the tsunami of demand.

On Tuesday, for instance, some 1,000 cars lined up at a distribution center set up in Pennsylvania by the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Demand for its bags of food soared nearly 40 percent in March.

At eight centers like that one, some 227 tonnes of food were placed in the trunks of cars of families suddenly unable to put meals on the table, said the organization's vice president Brian Gulish.

"A lot of people are utilizing our service for the first time. They've never turned to a food bank before," said Gulish. So they do not know there is a network of 350 distribution points in southwest Pennsylvania.

"That's why those lines are so long. Because they don't know that network that we have," Gulish added.

All over America, from New Orleans to Detroit, people abruptly stripped of a paycheck are flocking to food banks -- sad scenes of desperation among people waiting for their small share of stimulus money included in the $2.2 trillion emergency relief package approved by Congress last month.

AFP / Mark FelixA worker prepares to hand out food in Houston, Texas

Perhaps the most dramatic picture of some Americans' new food insecurity unfolded April 9 in San Antonio, Texas, where a staggering 10,000 cars showed up at one food bank, with some families arriving the night before to just sit and wait.

"We have gone for months without work," a woman who gave her name only as Alana said at a food distribution center in Chelsea in suburban Boston.

"I find a lady yesterday with a 15-day-old baby, a newborn. The husband is not working, she has two more kids. She was having no food in her house," said Alana.

Everywhere, food bank officials say their needs in the pandemic era have skyrocketed all of a sudden -- by 30 percent, for example, at a network in Akron, Ohio.

"We built a supply chain over the years that would serve a certain anticipated need for food. Ramping that up 30 percent overnight is nearly impossible," said Dan Flowers, CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.

In part this is because the food banks are caught up in the maelstrom that has hit the US food industry.

US Air National Guard/AFP / Justin ANDRASNational Guard soldiers prepare packages of food in Indiana

With restaurants closed because of the lockdown, Americans are stocking up on everything in grocery stores, which no longer can make as many product donations as they usually do. Ditto for restaurants that often donate surplus food to homeless shelters.

Fortunately, the US food industry is in fact making donations.

Food banks including 200 local branches of an organization called Feeding America are even getting special kinds of loads to hand out.

US food giant JM Smucker, maker of many well-known products such as Folgers coffee, is a regular donor and has sent extra pallets of food to banks in Ohio. And a distillery called Ugly Dog in Michigan dispatched a truckload of hand sanitizing gel made from residual alcohol and packed in pint bottles that normally hold booze, said Flowers.

- ' Worn out ' -

Cash donations are also coming in, ranging from anonymous people to the likes of Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person, who donated $100 million to Feeding America.

AFP / Frederic J. BROWNPeople line up at a food bank in Los Angeles

"If it wasn't for that, these food banks would not be able to meet this demand," said Flowers.

The Food Bank For New York City, a major one in the Big Apple, is ordering higher volume than it normally does, said Zanita Tisdale, its director of member engagement.

"We know if we're going to go back in a week the cost may have increased significantly or the turnaround time for getting that product to our warehouse may have extended exponentially," she said.

As supply chains get more complex and the legions of desperate families grow, there is the issue of those manning the food banks, who are simply exhausted after weeks of toil.

"Our staff is worn out. They've been working so hard. We're all ready for this to end," said Flowers.

GETTY IMAGES/AFP / Gregory ShamusCars line up at a food bank in Oak Park, Michigan

After a month of all this frenetic work, the food banks are holding up, at least for now. But the future -- like for so much of the new world created by the pandemic -- is uncertain.

"The supply is still good, but a month from now we don't know," said Gulish.

The relief plan passed by Congress includes $850 million for food banks and Flowers says he expects that cash to start flowing in June.

"I think we'll get back on track then. I'm mostly concerned about the next six to eight weeks," said Flowers.

TRUMP MINI ME 

Brazil's Bolsonaro attacks coronavirus lockdowns as supporters take to streets


Maria Carolina Marcello, Leonardo Benassatto
APRIL 19, 2020
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday again attended a public rally and attacked lockdown measures meant to fight the coronavirus, as supporters of the right-wing leader joined political motorcades around the country.

Brazil has more cases of the new coronavirus than any other country in Latin America. On Sunday, confirmed cases rose to 38,654 with 2,462 deaths.

Bolsonaro, who was not wearing a face mask, addressed a crowd of a few hundred in Brasilia, many of them wearing Brazil’s yellow-and-green soccer jersey.

His brief address, which was punctuated by the president coughing, touched on talking points that have become his usual rallying cry.

He called those in attendance “patriots” and said they were helping defend individual freedoms that he said are under threat by lockdowns imposed by authorities at the state level.

“Everyone in Brazil needs to understand that they are subject to the will of the people,” Bolsonaro said.

Protesters in Brasilia chanted slogans against the country’s Supreme Court, which has upheld state-organized lockdowns, and against Congress, whose opposition lawmakers have also defended quarantines.

Some of the protesters also called for a return to authoritarian measures used during Brazil’s last military regime, known as AI-5.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s richest and most populous state, Bolsonaro supporters have been demanding that governor Joao Doria resign because he has been a staunch supporter of shelter-in-place measures.

“The people cannot die of hunger,” one protester told Reuters.

Air quality levels in Ukraine dip to 'moderate' as fires continue to burn

By Christen McCurdy APRIL 18, 2020

Smog haze hangs over Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday. This week air quality in Ukraine ranked as worst in the world due to multiple fires burning in the country, including in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE

April 18 (UPI) -- Multiple wildfires spreading across Ukraine have burned 38 homes and 15.4 square miles of forest and forced residents to keep their windows shut due to air pollution.

On Friday and Saturday the concentration of dust and burning residues have at least doubled and may have increased fourfold, with concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde increasing by two or three times over typical amounts, the Kyiv Post reported.


Air quality levels in Ukraine this week have registered as the worst in the world.As of Saturday morning, Kiev's Air Quality Index ranged from 360 and 499 in different parts of the city, rated "hazardous," though markers had returned to a "moderate" rating by Saturday evening.

Meteorologists say air quality in Kiev, the country's capital and largest city, may improve early next week due to a predicted change in wind direction.

Kiev officials initially said smoke in the city was caused by fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but Anatoly Prokopenko, deputy director of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center, said fires in the Zhytomyr Oblast -- a large province in the north of Ukraine -- had caused Kiev to be blanketed in smoke since Thursday night.

By Saturday evening, six of 15 fires in the Zhytomyr Oblast forests had been extinguished and five more had been contained, said Volodymyr Demchuk, director of the emergency response at the State Emergency Service.

Firefighters were also trying to extinguish four fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The Chernobyl fires broke out April 4 and were considered contained by Tuesday, but flared up again Thursday due to high winds in the area.

A report released Wednesday by the French Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute found elevated levels of radiation in the area, but Demchuk was quoted in the Kyiv Post on Saturday saying radiation was at a normal level.

Ukrainian officials: Fires out near Chernobyl nuclear plant

In this photo taken from the roof of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant late Friday April 10, 2020, a forest fire is seen burning near the plant inside the exclusion zone. Ukrainian firefighters are labouring to put out two forest blazes in the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station that was evacuated because of radioactive contamination after the 1986 explosion at the plant. (Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP)

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2020 


KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian emergency officials said Tuesday they have extinguished forest fires in the radiation-contaminated area near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but acknowledged that grass was still smoldering in some areas.

Hundreds of firefighters backed by aircraft have been battling several forest fires around Chernobyl for the past 10 days. They contained the initial blazes, but new fires raged closer to the decommissioned plant.

Emergencies Service chief Mykola Chechetkin reported to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that rains helped firefighters put out the flames, but acknowledged that it would take a few more days to extinguish smoldering grass.

Chechetkin said emergency workers have prevented the fire from engulfing radioactive waste depots and other facilities in Chernobyl.

The emergencies service said radiation levels in the capital, Kyiv, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the plant, were within norms.

On Monday, activists warned that the blazes were getting dangerously close to waste storage facilities.

Yaroslav Yemelyanenko, a member of the public council under the state agency in charge of the closed zone around the plant, said one fire was raging within 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles) from one of the radioactive waste depots.

Last week, officials said they tracked down a person suspected of triggering the blaze by setting dry grass on fire in the area. The 27-year-old man said he burned grass “for fun” and then failed to extinguish the fire when the wind caused it to spread quickly.

On Monday, police said that another local resident burned waste and accidentally set dry grass ablaze, triggering another devastating forest fire. They said he failed to report the fire to the authorities.

The 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established after the April 1986 disaster at the plant that sent a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe. The zone is largely unpopulated, although about 200 people have remained despite orders to leave.

Blazes in the area have been a regular occurrence. They often start when residents set dry grass on fire in the early spring — a widespread practice in Ukraine, Russia and some other ex-Soviet nations that often leads to devastating forest fires.

Copyright 2020 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Ukraine gov't: Fire under control near Chernobyl nuclear power station

Firefighters battle a wildfire in the exclusion zone near the Chernobyl nuclear power station on Friday. Photo by EPA-EFE

April 14 (UPI) -- The Ukrainian government said Tuesday a large fire burning in the "exclusion zone" near the Chernobyl nuclear power station is under control, but some witnesses say that doesn't appear to be true.

The Ukrainian interior ministry said there "were no open fires" remaining within the 18-mile zone that surrounds the plant, which was the site of one of the world's worst nuclear accidents in 1986.

Interior ministry officials said crews had dumped 500 tons of water onto the fire and there's only "a slight smoldering of the forest floor with separate cells" remaining. They said 500 people and 110 vehicles were sent into the exclusion zone to fight the blaze.

Background radiation in Kiev and the surrounding region is within normal limits, the ministry added.

Ukraine's State Agency on Exclusion Zone Management said in a Facebook post that fires were still burning in the Rossokha village, a scrapyard containing the irradiated emergency vehicles that responded to the accident.

A Chernobyl tour operator, however, said the fire is still out of control and has reached the abandoned city of Pripyat, less than two miles from a site where contaminated debris from the accident is stored.

The situation has raised some concern that radiation still contained the exclusion zone could be spread by the fire, which started on April 4.

The No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl exploded and experienced a core meltdown following a safety test at the plant on April 26, 1986. It's one of only two nuclear disasters rated at seven, the maximum level, on the International Nuclear Event Scale. More than 77,000 square miles in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, which in 1986 were all part of the Soviet Union, were seriously contaminated by radiation.

The disaster directly killed less than 50 people, mainly emergency first responders known as the Chernobyl "liquidators," but it's estimated that as many as 60,000 have died over the last three decades due to ailments related to the radiation fallout. Officials concluded design flaws at the plant contributed to the accident.

Scientists have said the area around the Chernobyl plant won't be habitable for 20,000 years.

Wildfire near Chernobyl releases spike in radiation
By Clyde Hughes

A wildfire near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, show following the April 26, 1986 explosion, burned 50 acres inside an established exclusion zone. UPI File Photo | License Photo

April 6 (UPI) -- A weekend wildfire in a forest inside the shuttered Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's exclusion zone in Ukraine caused radiation to spike in the area.

The fire, which started Saturday, burned about 250 acres.

The National Police said the fire started "on dry grass and bushes" near the village of Vladimirovka. Firefighters made 42 water drops on the largest fires as 124 others battled smaller blazes started by the wildfire.

Police said 50 of the acres burned were inside the exclusion zone. No new fires were reported in the area as of Monday morning.

Yegor Firsov, Ukraine's ecological inspection service chief, said the fire caused radiation to spike.

"There is bad news -- in the center of the fire, radiation is above normal," Firsov said, posting a video of a Geiger counter on Facebook. "As you can see in the video, the readings of the device are 2.3, when the norm is 0.14. But this is only within the area of the fire outbreak."

He would later say the fire did not "affect the radiation situation" in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and suburbs, so people should not be afraid to open windows there.

The police said it opened a criminal investigation into the fire for possible violations of fire safety requirements.

Vladimirovka is part of a deserted 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone established after the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion that sent radioactive fallout across Europe and exposed millions to heightened levels of radiation.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrate to 'let democracy win'
AFP / JACK GUEZ

The demonstrators observed social distancing rules

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated Sunday in Tel Aviv to warn against what they said was a threat to democracy from ongoing coalition talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former rival Benny Gantz.

Some 2,000 protesters, according to media estimates, followed a call launched on Facebook by the "Black Flag" movement which condemns Netanyahu's continuing rule.

Israel's parliament was tasked with forming a government on Thursday after speaker Gantz and Netanyahu missed a deadline to seal an alliance, but negotiations between the sides were ongoing.

Israel's deeply divided 120-member parliament has no clear path towards a stable governing coalition, so the move risks prolonging the country's worst-ever political crisis.

Many waved black flags as a symbol for threats against Israel's democracy

Gantz and Netanyahu could still agree on an emergency unity government to help Israel confront the COVID-19 pandemic, prospect the protesters spoke out against.

Wearing protection masks and mostly dressed in black, the protesters observed social distancing rules in force to fight the coronavirus.

"Let democracy win", said one placard, while some protesters had written "Minister of Crime" on their masks, an apparent reference to Netanyahu's upcoming trial for corruption.

Many waved black flags as a symbol for threats against Israel's democracy.

"You don't fight corruption from within," said Yair Lapid, the new opposition leader, of his former ally Gantz. "If you're inside, you're part of it."

Democracies in 21st Century died because "good people are silent and weak people surrender", Lapid said.y win'

AFP / JACK GUEZ The demonstrators observed social distancing rules

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated Sunday in Tel Aviv to warn against what they said was a threat to democracy from ongoing coalition talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former rival Benny Gantz.

Some 2,000 protesters, according to media estimates, followed a call launched on Facebook by the "Black Flag" movement which condemns Netanyahu's continuing rule.

Israel's parliament was tasked with forming a government on Thursday after speaker Gantz and Netanyahu missed a deadline to seal an alliance, but negotiations between the sides were ongoing.

Israel's deeply divided 120-member parliament has no clear path towards a stable governing coalition, so the move risks prolonging the country's worst-ever political crisis.



Anti-Netanyahu rally draws thousands under coronavirus curbs

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Wearing face masks, waving black flags and keeping two yards apart, thousands of Israelis demonstrated against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu under strict coronavirus restrictions on Sunday.

Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases.

He is also negotiating a power-sharing deal with his rival Benny Gantz to form a coalition government that would end a year of political deadlock after three inconclusive elections.

Demonstrations are allowed under Israel’s coronavirus restrictions, as long as participants maintain distance from each other and wear face masks.

Under the banner of “Save the Democracy,” protesters called on Gantz’s Blue and White party not to join in a coalition led by a premier charged with corruption.

Gantz has campaigned for clean government, but said that the coronavirus crisis has forced him to go back on his election pledge.

A Reuters cameraman estimated that a few thousand demonstrators attended the rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. Israeli media put the figure at about 2,000 people.

Israel has reported more than 13,000 coronavirus cases and 172 deaths. A partial lockdown has confined most Israelis to their homes, forced businesses to close and sent unemployment to about 26%. Some restrictions have been eased since Saturday.

TODAY IN HISTORY APRIL 19
Warsaw remembers World War II ghetto uprising with low-key events

AFP / JANEK SKARZYNSKI

Zygmunt Stepinski, head of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, lays a wreath to mark the 77th anniversary of the doomed rebellion by Jewish partisans against Nazi Germany, in front of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial anniversary

Poland commemorated the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising on Sunday, replacing its annual official ceremonies with low-key gatherings on site or online as the coronavirus pandemic prevented any big events.

Wearing a protective mask, Poland's chief rabbi Michael Schudrich recited a prayer at the monument dedicated to the uprising in front of a few dozen people who observed social distancing rules before laying a wreath.

April 19 commemorates the day in 1943 when Jewish insurgents began a violent resistance against police and SS auxiliary troops who planned to deport the Jews in the ghetto to concentration camps.

Their revolt, which the insurgents knew was doomed but allowed them to die fighting rather than in gas chambers, bogged down the German advance into the ghetto by several weeks.

The main part of the revolt lasted 10 days but it was only definitively ended almost a month later on May 16 when the Nazis demolished the Great Synangogue of Warsaw.

An estimated 13,000 Jews were killed in the ghetto during the uprising. It was the largest single act of Jewish resistance against Nazi Germany.

On Sunday sirens went off in Warsaw at midday, like every year, honouring the rebellion.

In the streets, there was no distribution of daffodils which Warsaw residents usually pin to their clothes to mark the day, and which ressemble the yellow badges Jews were ordered to wear by Nazi Germany.

Instead, the Polin Musem of the History of Polish Jews published a template online inviting Poles to use it to make their own yellow flowers out of cardboard and post their picture wearing it on social networks -- a call that was widely followed.

The museum is also planning to re-broadcast online conferences, documentaries, ceremonies and artistic events linked to the anniversary.


On This Day:APRIL 18

 Ireland formally declares independence
On April 18, 1949, the Republic of Ireland formally declared itself independent from Britain.
By UPI Staff

On April 18, 1949, the Republic of Ireland formally declared itself independent from Britain. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 18 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1506, the cornerstone was placed for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In 1775, U.S. patriot Paul Revere began his famous ride through the Massachusetts countryside, crying out "The British are coming!" to rally the minutemen.

In 1906, an earthquake estimated at magnitude-7.8 struck San Francisco, collapsing buildings and igniting fires that destroyed much of what remained of the city. Researchers and historians concluded that about 3,000 people died in the quake and its aftermath, and roughly 250,000 were left homeless.

In 1912, three days after the sinking of Titanic, her survivors arrived in New York City aboard the RMS Carpathia.

In 1923, Yankee Stadium opened in New York.

In 1942, Lt. Col. James Doolittle led a squadron of B-25 bombers in a surprise raid against Tokyo in response to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

In 1945, U.S. journalist Ernie Pyle, a popular World War II correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific.

In 1949, the Republic of Ireland formally declared itself independent from Britain.

In 1968, McCulloch Oil Corp. paid $2.24 million to buy London Bridge, which was sinking into the Thames under the weight of 20th century traffic. The oil company rebuilt the bridge bloc by block over Lake Havasu in Arizona.

In 1980, Rhodesia became the independent African nation of Zimbabwe.

In 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was severely damaged by a car-bomb explosion that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.

In 1992, an 11-year-old Florida boy sued to "divorce" his natural parents and remain with his foster parents. The boy eventually won his lawsuit.

In 2002, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., revealed that at least 13 civilians were killed by his U.S. Navy unit in a Vietnamese village in 1969.



File Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI

In 2007, more than 125 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb explosion near a Baghdad market.

In 2014, an avalanche on what is known as a particularly dangerous route to the top of Mount Everest in the Himalayas killed 16 Sherpa guides.

In 2018, the first movie theaters in Saudi Arabia opened with a public screening of Black Panther.

In 2019, Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee was shot to death while covering riots in Belfast. The New IRA claimed responsibility.



File Photo by Jess Lowe/EPA-EFE




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USA
Tribes sue over distribution of coronavirus relief funding
By FELICIA FONSECA April 17, 2020

FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2020, file photo, George Chakuchin, left, and Mick Chakuchin walk on ice over the Bering Sea in Toksook Bay, Alaska, a mostly Yuip'ik village. Native American leaders are raising questions about how $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief tagged for tribes will be distributed, with some arguing that for-profit Alaska Native corporations shouldn't get a share of the funding. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Several Native American tribes sued the federal government Friday, seeking to keep any of the $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief for tribes kept out of the hands of for-profit Alaska Native corporations.

The U.S. Treasury Department is tasked with doling out the money by April 26 to help tribes nationwide stay afloat, respond to the virus and recover after having to shut down casinos, tourism operations and other businesses that serve as their main moneymakers.

The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in Maine, and the Akiak Native Community, Asa’carsarmiut Tribe and Aleut Community of St. Paul Island in Alaska filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Treasury Department, named as the defendant, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

“It is what Indian Country will rely on to start up again,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. “And Congress surely didn’t intend to put tribal governments, which are providing health care, education, jobs, job training, and all sorts of programs, to compete against these Alaska corporate interests, which looks like a cash grab.”

The Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said Alaska Native corporations are eligible for the funding, pointing to a definition that includes them as an “Indian Tribe” in the federal bill. The corporations are unique to Alaska and own most Native lands in the state under a 1971 settlement but are not tribal governments.

Tribes argue that the Interior Department has taken a limited view of the definition and that Congress intended for the money to go to the country’s 574 federally recognized tribes that have a government-to-government relationship with the U.S.

The Treasury Department posted a form online Monday for tribes to submit information to get funding, including their land base, number of tribal citizens, corporate shareholders, employees and spending. The deadline to respond is Friday.

It’s unclear how the agency will decide which tribe gets what.

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2020, file photo, a woman walks before dawn in Toksook Bay, Alaska, a mostly Yuip'ik village on the edge of the Bering Sea. Native American leaders are raising questions about how $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief tagged for tribes will be distributed, with some arguing that for-profit Alaska Native corporations shouldn't get a share of the funding. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

For some tribes, Monday was the first time they saw any mention that Alaska Native corporations would be eligible for tribal funding. They had to respond quickly because the deadline to weigh in on the funding formula was the same day.

Jonodev Chaudhuri, chairman of the Indian Law and Policy Group at the law firm Quarles and Brady LLP, said the timing is concerning.

“The federal government’s responsibility to consult with tribal nations is based on not only longstanding policies, but it’s also based on important standards of respect,” said Chaudhuri, a former Interior Department official. “Consultation is to be meaningful and timely.”


Federal officials held two talks with tribes by phone April 2 and April 9, drawing more than 3,000 participants, according to the Interior Department. Tara Sweeney, who oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs, held a separate call with Alaska interests Monday.

Some tribes have suggested that Sweeney has personal motives in ensuring Alaska Native corporations receive funding. An Inupiaq Eskimo from Alaska’s North Slope, she worked for nearly two decades for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. — one of the largest and most profitable of the Native corporations in Alaska.

The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota said it’s prepared to file a court challenge to halt the distribution of funding, alleging Sweeney has recommended at least $3 billion go to Alaska Native corporations.

The Interior Department said Sweeney has not made that recommendation and supports all indigenous people in the U.S.

“To suggest she has personal motives or that she is attempting to divert funds away from American Indians is completely false,” the department said in a statement. “Her approach has always been focused on inclusiveness, transparency and partnerships.”
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Sweeney in a tweet Thursday of diverting funds for tribal governments to the corporations.

She responded with her own tweet: “Even for you, this is an ignorant and despicably low attack that could not be further from the truth. Perhaps you should read the law you negotiated and voted for as Alaska Natives are entitled to receive the funding from @USTreasury.”

The Alaska Federation of Natives supported Sweeney, saying if the Interior Department was deviating from the law, the agency’s solicitor would have taken action. Alaska has nearly 230 federally recognized tribal governments.

The Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association, the Inter-Tribal Council of Five Civilized Tribes, the National Congress of American Indians and the Navajo Nation also said Alaska Native corporations should not be on par with tribal governments.

The Navajo Nation has reported more coronavirus cases than any other Native American tribe. As of Friday, it had 1,127 cases among the 175,000 residents of the vast reservation that extends into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Deaths total 44.


Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this story.

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