Fears of China’s Coronavirus Prompt Australia to Screen Flights - The New York Times

HONG KONG — Australian officials said Tuesday that the country would begin screening passengers on flights from Wuhan, the Chinese city where a new coronavirus has infected more than 200 people and killed at least four, as global concern has grown about the spread of the disease.

Adding to worries about the outbreak was confirmation by a prominent Chinese scientist on Monday night that the disease is capable of spreading from person to person. Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a scientist leading a group of experts in examining the outbreak in Wuhan, said the virus could be present in particles of saliva and that in one case, a patient appeared to have infected 14 medical workers.

The number of reported cases in China more than tripled earlier this week as the authorities expanded testing across the country. Most of the cases were found in Wuhan, where the disease was first reported last month.

China’s health commission said Tuesday that 291 cases had been reported nationwide, with 270 in Hubei, the province that includes Wuhan. Major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have also reported cases of infections.

Infections have been confirmed abroad in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, all in people who traveled from Wuhan. The World Health Organization said it would hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to determine whether the outbreak was an international public health emergency.

Confirmed Cases of Coronavirus

Note: Confirmed cases as of Jan. 21, 2020.

By The New York Times

“It is now very clear from the latest information that there is at least some human-to-human transmission,” said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the Western Pacific regional director for the World Health Organization.

Dr. Kasai said that the infections among health care workers added to the evidence that the virus was spreading between humans, but more analysis of the data was necessary to understand the full extent of such transmission.

Worries that the outbreak could worsen and hit the Chinese economy sent financial markets down across Asia on Tuesday. The Chinese currency, the renminbi, weakened in value against the American dollar. Stock markets in Europe also opened generally lower.

On Monday, China’s health commission said it would respond with measures intended to manage outbreaks of the most virulent diseases, including mandatory reporting of cases, and classified the virus as a class B infectious disease — a category that includes diseases such as SARS.

The authorities in Wuhan will begin barring group tours from traveling outside of the city and carry out checks of vehicles to search for live animals, state media reported on Monday. The city has also installed infrared thermometers at airports, and bus and train stations.

The potential for the disease to spread across more countries has prompted health authorities to step up checks at their borders.

In Australia, border security and biosecurity staff will meet and screen passengers from three direct flights from Wuhan to Sydney, Brendan Murphy, the government’s chief medical officer, said Tuesday.

Professor Murphy warned, however, that such measures were not foolproof. Some people who are carrying the virus might not show symptoms, he added.

“You cannot absolutely prevent entry into the country of a disease like this,” he said.

Australia is also considering expanding the screening to cover more of the 160 flights that come from China each week.

In the Australian state of Queensland, health officials placed in quarantine a man who had traveled to Wuhan and returned with a respiratory illness.

“The man will remain in isolation until his symptoms have resolved,” the Queensland health department said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that the United States would begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In Hong Kong, the authorities have reported more than 100 potential infections. So far, none have tested positive for the new coronavirus, and most have been discharged. But the possibility of the illness emerging in the territory remained, Matthew Cheung, the city’s second-highest official, said Tuesday.

High-speed rail passengers will have their temperatures checked on arrival in Hong Kong. Air passengers from Wuhan will be required to declare their health status, and people suspected of having an infection will be “forcibly transferred to public hospital to be treated in isolation,” Mr. Cheung said.

Elaine Yu in Hong Kong and Javier C. Hernández in Wuhan, China, contributed reporting.

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2020-01-21 08:26:00Z
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How Trump Twisted Iran Intel to Manufacture the 'Four Embassies' Threat - The Daily Beast

When President Donald Trump publicly claimed earlier this month that he had seen intel showing Iran’s now-deceased top military leader Qassem Soleimani was plotting attacks on “four [American] embassies,” senior officials in Trump’s national-security apparatus shook their heads. They weren’t sure exactly why the president leaned on that particular talking point, and scrambled in the following days to formulate answers to a barrage of questions from the media on exactly what the president had meant. Other officials wondered aloud whether the president had misrepresented the intelligence. 

“There were definitely questions [at the time, internally] about whether he had just made it up on the spot,” recalled one White House official.

It turns out Trump—technically—didn’t get his eyebrow-raising claim out of nowhere, The Daily Beast has learned. According to three sources familiar with the matter, the president had simply seized on a small part of what he’d heard in private briefings, exaggerated that aspect of the intelligence, then began sharing the inflated intel to the American public during his post-Soleimani victory lap. 

In doing so, President Trump generated yet more confusion and discord among the national-security brass that had already struggled to sell the American people on its case for the strike that just brought Iran and the United States to the precipice of all-out warfare. For weeks the Trump administration had struggled to get on message in talking about why the U.S. decided to strike Soleimani and what it would do in the future to manage any diplomacy with Tehran. Trump’s embassy claim didn’t help, officials said.

“There were definitely questions about whether Trump had just made it up on the spot.”

— White House official

The White House did not comment on the record for this story.

Shortly before he began announcing to the media and rally-goers that the Iranian general was planning assaults on multiple U.S. embassies, the president received briefings at the White House from both national-security officials and communications staffers. The purpose of some of these meetings were to prepare Trump on how best to talk to the press regarding his administration’s justifications for killing Soleimani. 

The president received a briefing shortly before he entered the Roosevelt Room Jan. 9 and said Iran was “looking to blow up our embassy.” 

According to two people familiar with this briefing, Trump was told that following the killing of Soleimani, Iran could retaliate against American assets in the region. The president was again told this in a subsequent briefing that day, one of these sources added. However, embassies were a part of a long list of American outposts and bases potentially under threat from Iran but sources familiar with those internal briefings do not remember the number four ever being specified, and they certainly do not recall any imminent danger to those embassies.

When administration officials briefed Trump, they mentioned possible targets for Iranian retribution; they were not discussing intel on what anyone in the regime was actively plotting against U.S. interests, the sources noted.

However, the moment he heard the word “embassies,” Trump immediately chimed in, interrupting the meeting to grill his briefers on that issue, according to one U.S. official. From there, he began to treat this possible threat as a near-certain danger. Trump received another intelligence briefing shortly before his interview with Fox’s Laura Ingraham Jan. 10 where he repeated the claim that Iran probably would have attacked four embassies. 

When the president started publicly trotting out his claims of “four embassies,” national-security aides were dumbfounded. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Trump’s “four embassies” talking point clashed with intelligence assessments from Trump’s own officials. CNN also reported that security officials at the State Department weren’t even notified of an imminent danger to any specific set of four American embassies.

“The president seized on a small part of what he’d heard in private briefings, exaggerated that aspect of the intelligence, then began sharing the inflated intel during his post-Soleimani victory lap.”

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper himself admitted during an interview on the CBS Sunday show Face the Nation that while “the president said that he believed that it probably could have been attacks against additional embassies,” Esper personally “didn’t see [a specific piece of evidence] with regard to four embassies.”

Esper added, “What I’m saying is I shared the president’s view that probably, my expectation is they were going to go after our embassies.”

At that point, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad had of course already been stormed by an Iranian-supported militia, but that was prior to Soleimani’s death.

Senior Trump administration officials have canceled several of their past scheduled briefings with Congress on specific threats to U.S. embassies pre-Soleimani strike. Briefers were also supposed to delve into more detail about what exactly U.S. intelligence said prior to the strike. The administration has held two briefings so far with both the House and the Senate, but sessions left lawmakers frustrated and overwhelmingly uninformed. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rescheduled his briefing on the embassy threats with the House Foreign Affairs committee for next week.

But people close to Trump say his embassy fixation lies in his obsession with avoiding the kind of catastrophes that befell his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush. President Trump, who has long bashed Obama for the 2012 Benghazi attack and Bush for the Hurricane Katrina response, is particularly concerned with opening himself up to accusations of having suffered “Trump’s Benghazi” or “Trump’s Katrina,” according to two sources who’ve spoken to the president about this. 

“Multiple times I’ve heard him talk about how you don’t want a Katrina moment,” said a former senior White House official. “You can’t do anything about what weather is going to do, but you can certainly manage the response and the optics of what you’re doing in addition to the substance of what you’re doing.”

With Trump’s shambolic, even scandalous, handling of the response and relief efforts to the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico, this president seems to have already had his “Katrina.” He is, however, determined not to experience a direct parallel to Benghazi. Indeed, on New Year’s Eve, the president took to Twitter to enthusiastically brand the embassy attack that occurred on his watch “The Anti-Benghazi!” 

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2020-01-21 07:34:00Z
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Prince Harry, Meghan had “no other option” than to split from royal family - CBS This Morning

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2020-01-20 12:58:01Z
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What We Know About China’s New Coronavirus - The New York Times

HONG KONG — A mysterious new respiratory virus that emerged in central China has killed at least three people and sickened around 200 others, raising concerns about a deadly outbreak in the midst of the country’s busiest travel period of the year.

On Monday, the authorities reported that new cases had been detected for the first time in Beijing and the southern city of Shenzhen, both hundreds of miles from the city of Wuhan, where the virus first appeared. Cases have also been reported in Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

Here is what we know about the virus, where it has been found, how it is spreading and what precautions are being taken:

The virus emerged in the city of Wuhan.

The government of Wuhan, a city in central China, first confirmed on Dec. 31 that hospitals in the city were treating dozens of patients for pneumonia with an unknown cause.

Many of the cases were connected to the Huanan Seafood Market, which also sold live poultry and exotic animal meats. Considered a likely source of the virus, the market was closed and disinfected.

The health commission in Wuhan said on Sunday that the illness had also appeared in people who had not been exposed to the market, raising the possibility that the virus could be present elsewhere in the city.

Local officials have pledged to handle the outbreak with transparency. But the memory of how China initially covered up the extent of a deadly SARS outbreak that infected more than 8,000 people in 2002 and 2003 has not completely faded. Although flu experts have said the Chinese government is trying to be more transparent now, many in China remain skeptical.

Over the weekend, the number of reported cases more than tripled to about 200, mostly in Wuhan. One more person in the city died, bringing the total death toll to three, while nine others remained critically ill, the city’s health commission said. Twenty-five people have recovered.

On Monday, two new cases were reported in Beijing and one in Shenzhen, the first cases outside Wuhan.

The World Health Organization said the spike in reported cases was the result of increased searching and testing of respiratory illnesses.

Cases have been reported outside China.

The authorities in Thailand detected the new coronavirus last week in two Chinese women who had flown from Wuhan to Bangkok on separate trips. The government said the women, aged 74 and 61, were in good condition.

In Japan, a Chinese man who returned from Wuhan on Jan. 6 was also confirmed to have the disease. He was discharged after five days in a hospital.

South Korea confirmed its first case of the coronavirus on Monday in a 35-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan who arrived on Sunday at Incheon International Airport, which served Seoul.

The woman was found with a fever, muscle pain and other symptoms while going through customs and was immediately quarantined for tests, said Jung Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The woman was traveling with five other people intending to spend the Lunar New Year holidays in South Korea and Japan, Ms. Jung said. South Korean officials were running tests anyone who was believed to have come in contact with the woman in the plane, she said.

Officials have implemented precautionary measures.

In Hong Kong, the government initiated a disease response plan after the first cases were reported in Wuhan. Dozens of people were hospitalized after returning to Hong Kong from mainland China, but none were found to have been infected with the new virus.

Five people who traveled from Wuhan to Zhejiang, a coastal Chinese province south of Shanghai, are being treated for fever but have not been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, the health authorities there said.

The mayor of Shanghai said Monday that the city was monitoring cases of potential infections, but did not say that any had been confirmed.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, the authorities have started imposing temperature screening procedures at the airport and at train and bus stations. The city also said it would also crack down on the illegal trading of wild animals.

It doesn’t appear to spread easily between humans.

Researchers in China identified the mysterious pneumonialike illness in early January as a new coronavirus. Experts said it does not appear to be readily spread by humans, but cautioned that more research was necessary.

Coronaviruses are named after the spikes that protrude from their membranes, like the sun’s corona. Such viruses cause several illnesses of the respiratory tract, ranging from the common cold to severe diseases like SARS.

According to the World Health Organization, common signs of infection include fever, cough, and respiratory difficulties like shortness of breath. Serious cases can lead to pneumonia, kidney failure and even death.

Animals appear to be the most likely source.

The W.H.O. says animals appear to be the most likely primary source of the outbreak, though it is still not known which animals are responsible.

Past outbreaks of similar illnesses, like SARS, were believed to have emerged from markets where people and live animals were in regular contact.

The organization says it is possible that the virus could spread between people who are in close contact, but it was unclear whether the disease could spread easily between humans.

To prevent the spread of respiratory infections, the W.H.O. recommends that people wash their hands regularly, cover their mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing, and avoid direct contact with farm or wild animals.

The health authorities in Hong Kong have also advised residents traveling outside the city not to touch live animals, not to eat wild animals, and to avoid markets selling fresh meat and live poultry.

Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea. Albee Zhang contributed research from Beijing.

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2020-01-20 10:59:00Z
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Prince Harry Reveals Heartbreaking Reason for Exit From Royal Family: There Was 'No Other Option' for a 'Peaceful Life' - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Prince Harry has a lot to get off his chest, setting the record straight about all of the rumors surrounding his and Meghan Markle’s exit from the royal family. In an emotional speech given at the dinner for supporters of Sentebale in London, Prince Harry opened up how he and his wife felt their decision was the only option for them to move forward to achieve a peaceful life.

Prince Harrry | Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

Prince Harry shares the heartbreaking reason for Megxit

During the dinner event, Prince Harry gave a speech that touched upon the reasons why he and Markle felt they had no other option but to leave their royal duties behind.

Prince Harry started his speech by noting, “I must say that I can only imagine what you may have heard, or perhaps read, over the past few weeks. So, I want you to hear the truth from me. As much as I can share, not as a prince or a duke, but as Harry, the same person that many of you have watched grow up over the past 35 years, but now with a clearer perspective.”

Prince Harry acknowledged that “the U.K. is my home and a place that I love,” something “that will never change.” He further shared that he’s “grown up feeling supported by so many of you, and I watched as you welcomed Meghan with open arms, as you saw the love and happiness that I had hoped for all my life.”

Prince Harry discussed the challenges they’ve faced

Prince Harry went on to share “the woman I chose as my wife upholds the same values as I do… And she’s the same woman I fell in love with. We both do everything we can to fly the flag and carry out our roles for this country with pride.”

He continued: “Once Meghan and I were married, we were excited, we were hopeful and we were here to serve… The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I haven’t always gotten it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option.”

View this post on Instagram

“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages. This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity. We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge and all relevant parties. Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.” – The Duke and Duchess of Sussex For more information, please visit sussexroyal.com (link in bio) Image © PA

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Jan 8, 2020 at 10:33am PST

The Sussexes can no longer support the queen

Prince Harry shared that he and Markle are “not walking away from you,” explaining that they had hoped to “continue serving the queen, the commonwealth and my military associations but without public funding.” That desire could not be fulfilled, Prince Harry noted, sharing, “I’ve accepted this knowing it doesn’t change who I am or how committed I am, but I hope it helps you understand what it had come to, that I would step my family back from all I have ever known to take a step forward into what I hope can be a more peaceful life.”

Prince Harry shared how “it is a great honor to serve my country and the queen,” and went on to express his gratitude for those who “took me under your wing” after his mother died.

He shared: “You looked after me for so long, but the media is a powerful force. And my hope is one day our collective support for each other can be more powerful, because this is so much bigger than just us.”

The Sussexes have a “life of service” ahead of them

Prince Harry further called it a “privilege to serve you” and explained, “we will continue to lead a life of service.” Prince Harry also shared his respect for the queen, noting: “I will always have the utmost respect for my grandmother, my commander in chief, and I’m incredibly grateful to her and the rest of my family for the support they have shown Meghan and I over the last few months.”

In closing, he shared: “We are taking a leap of faith, so thank you for giving me the courage to take this next step. “

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2020-01-20 09:55:39Z
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Prince Harry: ‘No other option’ but to cut royal ties - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland

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1. Prince Harry: ‘No other option’ but to cut royal ties  WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
2. Prince Harry expresses 'great sadness' following news he and Meghan are no longer working members of royal family  CNN
3. Opinion: Harry and Meghan are out. Why couldn't the palace make this work?  Los Angeles Times
4. Queen Elizabeth attends church after royal family negotiations end  ABC News
5. Prince Harry speaks out on royal exit: 'I want you to hear the truth from me'  Yahoo Lifestyle
6. View full coverage on Google News

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2020-01-20 08:13:00Z
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China confirms some 140 new cases of Sars-like virus ahead of peak travel season - CNBC

Health authorities in China on Monday confirmed nearly 140 new cases of a mysterious pneumonia-like virus, which has killed three people so far.

It comes as the country's peak holiday travel season kicks off ahead of the Lunar New Year, sparking concerns over the spread of the viral strain and its possible impact on economic growth.

"It's highly likely we'll see this virus spread given that it appears there's some form of human-to-human transmission and given the scale of travel in the lead-up to Chinese New Year," said Alexandra Phelan, faculty research instructor in the microbiology and immunology department at Georgetown University.

"Looking further on, I think we're likely to have cases around China and also there will likely be cases in other countries as people travel," Phelan told CNBC on Monday.

While the Sars-virus first emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late December, the 139 new cases that appeared over the weekend in China showed new cases in the capital of Beijing in the north of the country, as well as in the southern city of Shenzhen, Reuters reported. This brings the total to more than 200 confirmed cases from the new coronavirus strain. Three of them have died.

Impact on travelers

Hundreds of millions of Chinese travelers are expected to travel both domestically and internationally as Lunar New Year starts this Saturday, igniting fears of a further spread of the virus and kindling memories of the fatal Sars pandemic in 2002 and 2003 that killed nearly 800 globally.

The Sars pandemic — also caused by a coronavirus — cost the global economy tens of billions of dollars.

On Monday, South Korea confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus in a Chinese woman who flew to Incheon International Airport from Wuhan.

Two cases have also been reported in Thailand and one in Japan. They involved two Chinese from Wuhan and a resident in Japan who had travel history to the city — where the virus is linked to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting that the virus had jumped from animals to humans, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its website.

However, some of the patients have not had exposure to the animal markets, "suggesting that some limited person-to-person spread is occurring," the CDC said Friday.

Airport authorities around the world have already stepped up health screening of travelers at their borders to pick up suspected cases. Measures include temperature screening.

However, as symptoms from the new Wuhan coronavirus infection are similar to that of other respiratory conditions, there will be "a lot" of travelers who would be wrongly picked up alongside, Phelan said.

"They can be a useful opportunity to provide people with information if they do feel sick ... but most of the time, border screening is actually a very expensive, not particularly effective way of actually preventing the spread of disease," said Phelan.

Impact on China's economy

While the nature and severity of the new coronavirus is still under investigation, it could pose a major risk to Asia Pacific economies, experts said.

"Human-to-human transmission will be (the) tipping point, and mass movements in China during CNY (Chinese New Year) may be an unwelcomed accelerant," said Vishnu Varathan, Asia head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank.

The 2003 Sars crisis created a severe negative impact on GDP growth for the Chinese economy and also hit the economies of a number of Southeast Asian nations.

Rajiv Biswas

Asia Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit

In particular, the "fear factor" posed by the uncertainties that come with the new coronavirus could send economic activity grinding down rapidly and "hijack signs of bottoming/recovery in economic activity," Varathan said in an email to CNBC.

On Monday, shares of Chinese drugmakers and face mask-makers soared amid rising concerns over the outbreak.

Recent data out of China have suggested some bottoming out of the country's economy that was hit due to its bitter trade war with the U.S.

"The 2003 Sars crisis created a severe negative impact on GDP growth for the Chinese economy and also hit the economies of a number of Southeast Asian nations, including Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam," said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit. There could also be a ripple effect elsewhere, he added.

"Since the 2003 Sars crisis, China's international tourism has boomed, so the risks of a global Sars-like virus epidemic spreading globally have become even more severe," Biswas said.

Sectors that are particularly vulnerable include retail, food and beverage, conferences, special events — such as the 2020 summer Olympics taking place in Tokyo — and aviation, said Biswas.

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2020-01-20 07:09:00Z
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