China Warns Holiday Travel Surge Could Spread Deadly Coronavirus - The New York Times

BEIJING — A little-understood coronavirus could mutate and spread further across China as hundreds of millions of people travel over the Lunar New Year holiday, one of the nation’s top health officials warned on Wednesday.

The official, Li Bin, a deputy head of China’s National Health Commission, said at a news conference in Beijing that the number of people infected by the coronavirus that causes pneumonia-like illness had risen to 440 by Tuesday night, up nearly tenfold from last week. Nine people have died.

Every year, Chinese travelers embark on the world’s biggest annual human migration for the Lunar New Year, a weeklong holiday. That begins on Friday, when the country says farewell to the Year of the Pig and welcomes the Year of the Rat. Dr. Li said the huge tide of travel during the holiday could worsen the spread of the virus and make it more difficult to contain.

Already, though, the new virus has spread from Wuhan, a city of 11 million, across many parts of China — and abroad, including to the United States — aided by China’s vast rail network and growing numbers of international travelers. The World Health Organization was expected to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss whether to declare the outbreak an international health emergency, which would escalate the global response.

[Here’s a quick summation of what’s known about the coronavirus outbreak.]

Maps: Where the Wuhan Coronavirus Has Spread

The virus has sickened more than 400 people in Asia and one person in the United States.

Dr. Li endorsed the government’s advice that people should minimize travel to and from Wuhan, the city in central China that is the epicenter of the outbreak.

“The possibility exists that the virus could mutate, and there are risks that the epidemic could spread further,” Dr. Li said.

Reducing travel around Wuhan in particular, he added, would “reduce the chances of the virus spreading.”

[Read about the first confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus in the United States.]

Dr. Li and other health officials leavened their warnings with reassurances that the Chinese government was taking firm steps to staunch the spread of the virus, and that it was disclosing information as quickly as possible. Many Chinese people hold bitter memories of 2003, when SARS — a deadlier coronavirus with some similarities to the current outbreak — spread widely after officials concealed the rising number of infections.

Officials in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, initially downplayed the risks from the new virus, which may have first passed from animals to humans in a market. But as cases increased, officials acknowledged that the virus has spread between humans, raising the risks of a widening epidemic.

The dangers could increase if the virus mutates in ways that make it easier to spread.

“The relationship between viruses and people is a cat-and-mouse game,” Gao Fu, the director-general of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the news conference Wednesday. “Up to this present stage, human-to-human transmission has been confirmed, and it has been disseminated in some communities.”

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2020-01-22 07:16:00Z
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Lebanon announces formation of new government - Al Jazeera English

Lebanon has formed a new government, its presidency announced after Hezbollah and its allies clinched a deal on a cabinet that is now tasked with tackling the country's worst economic crisis in decades.

The country has been without an effective government since caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in October last year under pressure from protests against state corruption and mismanagement.

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Prime Minister Hassan Diab, a 60-year-old professor at the American University of Beirut, now heads a cabinet of 20 members, mostly specialists backed by political parties.

"I've been appointed in the face of many accusations. I wanted to work, not to argue. I have abided by the law informing me to form a government. I followed the rules and regulations to form a new team of ministers," he said, moments after the lineup was read out at the presidential palace in the capital, Beirut, on Tuesday.

"This is a government that represents the aspirations of the demonstrators who have been mobilised nationwide for more than three months," Diab said.

He pledged that his government "will strive to meet their demands for an independent judiciary, for the recovery of embezzled funds, for the fight against illegal gains". 

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"In this decisive moment, I salute the revolution and the uprising that pushed us towards this and Lebanon has become victorious. We will achieve social cohesion. There will be accountability."

He added: "This [is a] government that does not aspire to cronyism and favours. None of the members of the government will be standing for the next elections. This government is made up of non-partisan people who are not affected by political wrangling."

Protesters angry

But Diab's words - and the formation of a new government - failed to satisfy protesters, who have been rallying since October 17.

They have been calling for sweeping reforms and a government led by independent technocrats that can deal with the crippling economic crisis.

The demonstrations, which have mostly been peaceful, turned violent on Saturday and Sunday.

Protesters, who had called for a "week of rage", lobbed stones, firecrackers and street signs at riot police, who fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to clear a road leading to Parliament.

The escalation saw more than 540 people wounded on the two sides and came as wrangling delayed the formation of the new government.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said people have again taken to the streets and were outside Parliament chanting slogans against Diab and the government.

"What he really tried to do is defend his cabinet lineup, even calling it an exceptional government, saying it meets the aspirations of the people. He even saluted the uprising," Khodr said.

"People are angry," she continued. "They have lost faith in the ruling authorities. They believe they should give up power." 

Protesters on Tuesday chanted "revolution, revolution" and "leave, Michael Aoun", in reference to the current president.

Some said they would not leave until their demands for early elections and a technocrat-led government were met. 

Karen Karem, 41, told Al Jazeera: "We are here because they don't listen. We're here because our parents lived through civil war and manage on less than $300 a month."

A 22-year-old, who requested anonymity, said: "This new government is the same: thieves came and replaced other thieves. I'm still a student and already know I'll graduate and not find a job."

Al Jazeera's Farah Najjar contributed to this report from Beirut.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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2020-01-22 05:26:00Z
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Things have changed for Venezuela. But they're not what Juan Guaido hoped for - CNN

That's the question dogging Juan Guaido as he embarks on another global tour, an uncomfortable mirror of the near-triumphant voyage he took last February in the weeks after declaring himself the rightful interim president of Venezuela.

Back then, he escaped a travel ban and slipped into Colombia to attend a rock concert hosted by British billionaire Richard Branson. He shook eager presidential hands both there and around South America before launching a daring bid to return to Venezuela, flummoxing his opponents by sneaking back into Caracas' main airport in plain sight on a commercial jet.

He was the star in his own meteoric tale, bolstered by the Trump administration and Venezuela's neighbors: that he was the only legitimate leader of his country, and that Nicolas Maduro was done.

As he makes another foreign trip this week, the star power and magnetism -- and the hope -- has mostly evaporated. Guaido met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a counter-narcotics conference in Colombia on Monday, before heading off to Europe, where he may miss President Donald Trump if he gets as far as Davos in Switzerland.

Change is likely not coming in Guaido's wake -- and his air miles are more a bid to resuscitate himself on the international stage than a chance for foreign capitals to hyperventilate about his transitional presidency.

So what has changed, if Guaido brought none?

First was Trump. While the fuel for Guaido's rise was the smoldering and inexorable collapse of Venezuela, the spark was a White House convinced that an easy win was possible. Sacked US national security adviser John Bolton, who told Maduro he should look into beachfront property for retirement, may himself be crafting his explosive memoirs overlooking some gentle sands. Trump's officials still bang the drum of sanctions, but Venezuela is rarely on his lips now. Unless Trump thinks a revived campaign to oust Maduro may help his reelection chances -- perhaps in Florida -- it's unlikely he'll escalate anytime soon. And given how entrenched the Maduro government is, the US would need to consider using force.

Second, Guaido failed. His team was new to cutthroat politics, charmingly dazzled by their sudden overnight ascendance, and alternated between being startlingly adept and shockingly naive. The failed attempt to overthrow Maduro on April 30 was a decisive moment when Guaido and his emboldened supporters, including even soldiers in the streets of the capital in blue armbands, failed to turn the tide. Guaido failed at the one thing everyone knew he needed to break: the security forces and their hold on the guns, drugs, money and borders.

Which leads to the third change -- in Maduro himself. He has been pragmatic, but also ruthless. A recent interview with The Washington Post saw him offer direct talks with the Trump administration and even business opportunities to American oil giants. Offering Trump business deals while the White House is busy instead pillorying you with sanctions borders on ridicule and is not something you do unless you are pretty relaxed.

Maduro has also turned nast(ier). Whereas a year ago, the security forces seemed at times reticent to resort to violence -- and perhaps even feared greater popular anger if they drew Venezuelan blood -- now, the gloves are off. An extensive torture campaign has been documented by human rights workers, intended to rub out any sense of disloyalty from the military. Cuban operatives stalk detention centers where systematic violence and rape is alleged. Civilian opponents have been executed by special police units, human rights workers and the UN say. The Maduro government has rejected these allegations.

Even Guaido's fellow opposition legislators -- together with journalists and bystanders -- were physically attacked outside the National Assembly this month by Maduro loyalists. There's always been thuggery, but the torture has become systematic and the targets on the street are broader now.

Maduro has also been smart enough to allow tiny reforms. The seat of power -- Caracas -- is strangely calm. A friend there tells me dollars are informally permitted to pay for goods, removing one grievance behind the protests and reducing the impact of hyperinflation on the local bolivar. If you have dollars you can eat, even if the city is even less secure. Wholesale decline has continued in rural areas, where barter is now common and food scarce. But if the capital is muddling through, Maduro's grip on its levers of power can stay tight.

It is hard not to see the hand of Moscow in some of these choices. Tiny economic reforms and targeted brutality are straight from the Kremlin's playbook. Russian state oil firm Rosneft is also accused of trading Venezuelan oil with India and China to get around sanctions. (Russia and its companies have denied any wrongdoing or involvement in deals alleged to break international law.) Again, while the White House's attention span for revolution demands overnight results, Moscow sits in with its allies for the long haul.

Yet none of Guaido's failure alters the underlying crisis at the heart of Venezuela: that its kleptocracy and mismanagement are still bleeding it dry, with hundreds of thousands still refugees around the region. But it marks yet another opposition leader's rise and then deceleration.

Guaido may not be done yet. Maduro's new penchant for strong-arm tactics could see his rival arrested. That could spark internal fury, or meaningful external action. Military defectors in exile may muster enough foreign support to affect some sort of change. The Trump administration may have a backup plan.

But the most startling observation -- a year since Guaido stood before a crowd of thousands of supporters in Caracas and declared he was the legitimate president of the entire nation -- is how smoothly Maduro has sailed out of the storm.

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2020-01-22 02:54:00Z
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Greta Thunberg calls for end to all fossil fuel investment "now" at Davos forum - CBS News

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2020-01-21 14:34:40Z
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Death toll rises from mystery coronavirus in China - New York Post

The death toll from the new coronavirus in China climbed to six Tuesday as new cases of the mysterious flu-like illness surged beyond 300, raising concerns of a major outbreak during the Lunar New Year travel rush.

Anxiety grew both at home and abroad after Zhong Nanshan, chief of the National Health Commission, confirmed fears late Monday that the virus can spread from human to human.

Officials have confirmed more than 300 cases in China, mostly in the central city of Wuhan, a major transportation hub, where the virus may have originated at a seafood market.

There have been six deaths in that city, Mayor Zhou Xianwang told Chinese state media Tuesday.

But the virus has been spreading around other parts of China, including more than 20 cases in the capital of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong province in the south and Zhejiang in the east. Fifteen medical workers are among those infected.

Abroad, Thailand has reported two cases and South Korea one, all involving Chinese travelers from Wuhan. Japan and Taiwan also confirmed one case each, both nationals who had been to that city.

“Information about newly reported infections suggest there may now be sustained human-to-human transmission,” said Takeshi Kasai, the World Health Organization’s regional director for the western Pacific, Reuters reported.

So far, the WHO has not recommended trade or travel restrictions but such measures could be addressed during a meeting Wednesday.

In the US, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are taking temperatures of passengers at New York’s JFK and the Los Angeles and San Francisco international airports who arrive from Wuhan.

Medical staff transfer a patient from an ambulance at the Jinyintan hospital.Reuters

Airports in Australia, Japan and South Korea also have begun screening passengers from the city, where officials have been using infrared thermometers to screen passengers since Jan. 14.

Images of long lines of people lining up to buy face masks were circulating widely on Chinese social media during the Lunar New Year, a major holiday for Chinese, many of whom travel to join family or have a foreign holiday.

The Chinese government has estimated people will make about 3 billion trips during the travel season, but some social media users have said they may stay home amid concern about the virus.

Some online vendors were limiting sales of masks and hand sanitizers as demand skyrocketed. Several online retailers were sold out of masks, which were being sold for more than 10 times their original price.

Users of the popular Weibo social media platform urged people to wash their hands and stay home. Initial symptoms of the new coronavirus include fever, cough, chest tightness and shortness of breath.

The coronavirus has caused alarm because of its genetic similarities to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which first infected people in southern China in late 2002 and spread to dozens of countries, killing nearly 800.

The Chinese government announced it was classifying the new outbreak in the same category as SARS, meaning mandatory isolation for those diagnosed with the disease and the potential to implement quarantine measures on travel.

China initially tried to conceal the severity of the SARS epidemic, but its cover-up was exposed by a high-ranking physician.

With Post wires

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2020-01-21 13:52:00Z
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Iran confirms two missiles fired at downed Ukrainian airliner - Al Jazeera English

Iran has confirmed two missiles were fired at a Ukrainian airliner mistakenly brought down earlier this month amid heightened tensions with the United States.

The country's civil aviation authority said it has yet to receive a positive response after requesting technical assistance from France and the US to decode black boxes from the plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board.

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"Investigators ... discovered that two Tor-M1 missiles... were fired at the aircraft," Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation said in a preliminary report posted on its website late on Monday.

However, the report said "the impact of these missiles on the accident and the analysis of this action is under investigation."

The statement confirms a report in The New York Times which included video footage appearing to show two projectiles being fired at the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines.

The Tor-M1 is a short-range surface-to-air missile developed by the former Soviet Union that is designed to target aircraft or cruise missiles.

Iran had for days denied Western claims based on US intelligence reports that the aircraft had been shot down, before admitting to the "disastrous mistake" on January 11.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh accepted full responsibility but said the missile operator who opened fire had been acting independently.

Black-box impasse

The downing triggered days of student-led protests mainly in the Iranian capital.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that the demonstrations were unrepresentative of the Iranian people and accused the country's enemies of exploiting the air disaster for propaganda purposes.

In its report, the Civil Aviation Organisation said it was "impossible" for it to read the flight data and cockpit voice recorders - commonly known as black boxes - because they were so advanced.

Bodies of Ukrainian victims of Iran plane crash repatriated

But it suggested Iran wants to keep them for now.

"If devices are provided, the information (on the black boxes) can be restored and retrieved in a short period of time," it said.

The aviation body said it had asked its French and US counterparts, the BEA and NTSB respectively, to provide a list of the equipment required to read the black boxes.

It said it had also sought the transfer of the equipment, but added that neither the BEA nor NTSB had "so far responded positively".

The organisation said it had acquired the list nonetheless, without saying how, and hinted it would use it to buy the equipment itself.

The report said that based on passports used to board Flight PS752, there were 146 Iranians, 11 Ukrainians including nine crew members, 10 Afghans and four Swedes on the ill-fated airliner.

Canada, which says 57 of its nationals were on the plane, has repeatedly asked Iran to hand the black boxes over to Ukraine or France for expert analysis.

US-Iran tensions

The aircraft was downed when Iran's air defences had been on high alert hours after its armed forces fired more than 20 ballistic missiles at US targets in Iraq.

That was carried out in reprisal for a January 3 US drone strike that killed Iran's most prominent military commander, Qasem Soleimani, near Baghdad airport.

US President Donald Trump had threatened to hit back if Iran struck US citizens or assets in retaliation for Soleimani's killing, but refrained after the missiles caused no casualties.

It was the second time in little more than six months that the two countries were on the brink of war.

In June 2019, Trump had approved a strike on Iran in response for the downing of a US drone in the Gulf, before calling it off at the last minute.

Longstanding US-Iran tensions have soared since May 2018 when Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal that offered Tehran sanctions relief in return for curbs to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons.

Washington says it seeks to rein in Tehran's ballistic missile programme as well as its "destabilising behaviour" in the region.

It has since slapped punishing sanctions on Iran, which denies it wants to acquire nuclear weapons and has hit back by progressively rolling back commitments to the unravelling nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Tehran and world powers.

World mourns Iran plane crash victims (2:23)

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2020-01-21 12:47:00Z
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Trump blasts impeachment trial upon arrival at Davos Economic Forum - CBS This Morning

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2020-01-21 12:22:33Z
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