AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Governments grapple with virus border closures, lockdowns
BERLIN (AP) — Governments grappled Wednesday with how to implement border closures, travel restrictions and lockdowns that have caused transportation chaos and imperiled economies, but which authorities say are needed to slow the coronavirus pandemic.
European Union leaders agreed to shut down the bloc's external borders for 30 days, while the U.S. and Canada were working on a mutual ban on nonessential travel between the two countries.
In Southeast Asia, the causeway between Malaysia and the financial hub of Singapore was eerily quiet after Malaysia shut its borders, while the Philippines backed down on an order giving foreigners 72 hours to leave from a large part of its main island.
The administration of President Donald Trump was considering a plan to immediately return to Mexico all people who cross America's southern border illegally, according to two administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the plan hasn’t been finalized.
The coronavirus is now present in every U.S. state after West Virginia was the last to report an infection. Hawaii's governor encouraged travelers to postpone their island vacations for at least the next 30 days, while the governor of Nevada — home to Las Vegas — ordered a monthlong closure of the state's casinos.
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Trump's economic rescue package could approach $1 trillion
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a massive federal effort, President Donald Trump asked Congress to speed emergency checks to Americans, enlisted the military for MASH-like hospitals and implored ordinary people — particularly socially active millennials — to do their part by staying home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
His proposed economic package alone could approach $1 trillion, a rescue initiative not seen since the Great Recession. Trump wants checks sent to the public within two weeks and is urging Congress to pass the eye-popping stimulus package in a matter of days.
As analysts warn the country is surely entering a recession, the government is grappling with an enormous political undertaking with echoes of the 2008 financial crisis.
At the Capitol on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed the Senate would not adjourn until the work was done.
“Obviously, we need to act,” McConnell said. "We're not leaving town until we have constructed and passed another bill."
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3 more Biden victories increase pressure on Sanders to quit
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden swept to victory in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, increasingly pulling away with a Democratic presidential primary upended by the coronavirus and building pressure on Bernie Sanders to abandon his campaign.
The former vice president's third big night in as many weeks came Tuesday amid tremendous uncertainty as the Democratic contest collides with efforts to slow the spread of the virus that has shut down large swaths of American life. Polls were shuttered in Ohio, and although balloting went ahead as scheduled in the three other states, election workers and voters reported problems.
Still, Biden's quest for his party's nomination now seems well within reach. His trio of wins doubled his delegate haul over Sanders, giving the former vice president a nearly insurmountable lead. Top Democratic leaders and donors have also increasingly lined up behind Biden as the best option to square off against President Donald Trump in November.
Using a livestream to address supporters from his home state of Delaware, Biden seemed ready to move past the primary. He paid tribute to the Vermont senator for advancing key issues like affordable health care and combating climate change.
“Sen. Sanders and his supporters have brought a remarkable passion and tenacity to all of these issues. Together they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country," Biden said. “So let me say, especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Sen. Sanders, I hear you. I know what’s at stake. I know what we have to do.”
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10 Things to Know for Today
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
1. ‘WE ARE AT WAR’ World leaders grapple with how to implement border closures, travel restrictions and lockdowns that have unleashed transportation chaos and imperiled economies to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
2. HOW COUNTRIES CAN STEM VIRUS’ SPREAD Be pro-active in tracking down and isolate cases, provide access to basic, affordable public health care and issue clear, reassuring messaging from leaders.
3. ‘IN AMERICA, WE DON’T DO SUBTLE AND SUBDUED’ The arrival of the coronavirus, and the muted methods being recommended to the public to arrest its spread, are not surprisingly a hard sell for some Americans.
4. NOVEL CORONAVIRUS, NOVEL PRICE TAG Trump’s possible $1 trillion stimulus package would deliver emergency checks to the public within two weeks and may enlist the military for MASH-style hospitals to care for the sick.
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Ravaged by war, Middle Eastern countries face a new scourge
CAIRO (AP) — When Dr. Ismail al-Mansouri goes to work in Yemen’s capital, he puts on one of the hospital’s few pairs of medical gloves. Then he enters a cramped clinic teeming with listless patients, many malnourished, some vomiting, others with diarrhea.
Al-Mansouri, a pediatrician, has been struggling for years to battle the rapid spread of otherwise preventable and treatable infections, such as cholera, that have surged in war-ravaged Yemen.
Now as the coronavirus outbreak intensifies in the region, he is faced with a new threat, one he can only hope to ward off with a handful of masks.
“I cannot even speak about our preparedness for the coronavirus,” he said, “because we have none.”
Long-running wars and conflicts across the Middle East have wrecked potential defenses against coronavirus outbreaks, leaving millions vulnerable in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip and elsewhere. Health care systems have been gutted; war has blasted key infrastructure. Several of the countries are carved up among rival claimant governments, factions or armed groups, snarling any attempt at nationwide protection programs. Hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes by fighting are crowded in close quarters in tent camps or improper housing.
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Best strategies against virus: Track, isolate, communicate
SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore, a tiny city-state of less than 6 million people, had one of the earliest and biggest clusters of cases of the coronavirus in early February, before it began its rapid, inexorable expansion around the globe.
Within weeks, the country's tally of infections with the highly contagious virus that causes COVID-19 was overtaken by skyrocketing caseloads in South Korea, several European countries and the U.S.
Some strategies are proving more effective than others in containing the pandemic: pro-active efforts to track down and isolate the infected, access to basic, affordable public health care, and clear, reassuring messaging from leaders. East Asia's experience with the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which also originated in China, has likewise helped.
Since testing rates vary widely, it's hard to know for sure. But with the global number of infections approaching 200,000, Singapore appears to be among the handful of places that tick all those boxes, though recent spikes in new cases show that any lapses can have dire consequences.
Singapore's first case, confirmed on Jan. 23, was a 66-year-old man from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the disease was first detected in December.
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Analysis: American attitudes make virus response a hard sell
When Americans are summoned to deal with an attack or defy overwhelming odds, the response typically goes something like this: Fight. Hold the line. Stand together. This won’t stop us. Keep on living your life. We will prevail.
Some of the coronavirus language from leaders has mirrored this imagery. “An invisible enemy,” President Donald Trump called it. “We’re at war with a virus,” Joe Biden said at Sunday’s debate. Countered Bernie Sanders: “We have to act dramatically, boldly.”
Contrast that with a meme that has been popping up everywhere on social media this week: “Your grandparents were called to war. You’re being called to sit on your couch. You can do this.”
The arrival of the coronavirus, and the muted methods being recommended to the public to arrest its spread, are a hard sell for some Americans, and that’s not surprising. Literature, movies and advertising have always shown us otherwise.
The central mythology across much of the country’s history, from the Puritans to the frontier to 9/11, has been about getting up and going out to do what needs to be done — not staying home, being quiet and practicing what can look a whole lot like inaction.
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Global stocks sink after Trump promises virus aid
BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets sank Wednesday in a third day of wild price swings after President Donald Trump promised aid to get the U.S. economy through the coronavirus outbreak.
London and Frankfurt opened more than 3% lower and Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong all declined. Australia's main index fell 6.4%.
The White House proposal could approach $1 trillion in spending to ward off the pressure of business closures to contain the virus. The Federal Reserve has announced more measures to keep financial markets operating.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Trump wants to send checks to Americans in the next two weeks to help support them while more parts of the economy come closer to shutting down.
On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index was down 3.7%. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 3.9%.
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Watchdog says Israel's West Bank settlements surged in 2019
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank surged ahead in 2019, a watchdog group said in a report Tuesday, maintaining a rapid pace that has drawn strength from the friendly policies of the Trump administration.
Peace Now, a monitoring group that opposes the settlements, said that Israel's average annual construction rate has risen 25% since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.
Perhaps more significantly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government last year approved plans to build thousands of new homes, laying the groundwork for a sharp spike in construction in the coming years. That included an explosion in plans for new settlement projects approved early this year.
“In my opinion, they’re trying to take advantage of the window of opportunity that they have under the Trump administration, knowing that it might change in a few months,” said Hagit Ofran, a researcher for the group. “There was no such supportive administration for the settlements previously, ever.”
Most of the world considers the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, to be occupied territory and Israeli settlements illegal obstacles to peace.
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AP PHOTOS: Virus redefines respecting personal space
ROME (AP) — Social distancing could qualify as an oxymoron in Italy, where walking arm-in-arm with friends, kissing neighbors in greeting and patting the heads of babies are part of the demonstrative culture.
But a new virus has rapidly redefined the concept of respecting personal space for tactile Italians, as well as for South Koreans, Filipinos, Americans, Spaniards and citizens of many other crowded parts of the world.
Whether acting under government orders or following basic public health advice, people are putting distance between themselves to keep the coronavirus away. The new rules of engagement call for maintaining a gap of one to two meters (or three to six feet) to prevent possible exposure when an infected individual coughs or speaks.
The COVID-19 illness causes mild or moderate symptoms in most of those infected, but severe symptoms are more likely in the elderly or people with existing health problems. The vast majority of those infected recover.
The reset norm for an acceptable degree of separation became visible evidence of the pandemic's reach as schools, shopping malls and sports venues closed and opportunities for public encounters dwindled. Outside a gun shop in California, a post office in Hungary and a supermarket in Manila, lines lengthened as customers queued up at more or less proper intervals.