When Donald Trump begrudged federal aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and for California during its deadly 2018 wildfires, and blamed those places for those natural disasters, even Republicans were shocked.None could recall a president publicly complaining about the federal disaster relief role, or expressing resentment towards the victims.It was possible at the time to see Trump’s conduct as exceptional, to write it down to narrow political resentments or racism. But now, with the coronavirus emergency hitting every state simultaneously, a fuller picture is on display.“All I want them to do, very simple, I want them to be appreciative,” Trump has said of state governors.And: “It’s a two-way street. They have to treat us well, also.”And: “Frankly they were, many of the states, they were totally unprepared for this. So we had to go into the federal stockpile, but we’re not an ordering clerk. They have to have for themselves.”Clashes between presidents and states are nothing new. But according to government theorists, public affairs experts and political analysts, Trump’s rattling of the federalist compact, by which the 50 states are both autonomous and bound in a national union, is unprecedented in modern times.“You’ve redefined the role of state governors,” said David Super, a professor at Georgetown Law. “Governors must grovel to the president. Governor [Gavin] Newsom [of California], Governor Andrew Cuomo [of New York] have understood that, and they’re doing it. Governor [Gretchen] Whitmer has largely refused, and Michigan is going through hell as a result.“These governors are more like provincial chiefs under this system, and if we want to restore federalism in this country we will have to make some very dramatic changes after this is over. If we don’t, federalism is dead.”Experts voice concern that the fight between states over medical equipment that has broken out in the vacuum of federal leadership could make it harder for states to reach agreement later about how to reopen the economy. They warn that patchwork state plans for absentee voting and voting by mail in November could undermine the legitimacy of the presidential election.In some cases they question what it will mean, once the coronavirus crisis has passed, to call the states autonomous, or for that matter to call them “united”.If Trump tears up the parts of the federalist system he does not like, said political analyst Lincoln Mitchell, other parts that conservatives like a lot, such as the electoral college and the US Senate, could grow harder to defend.That could be especially true, Mitchell, said, if the conservative majority on the US supreme court repeats its intervention of last week, when it blocked extended voting in Wisconsin in spite of the pandemic. Likewise if the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, like Hillary Clinton before him, wins the popular vote but loses in the electoral college.“It is not inconceivable that Joe Biden could win this election by seven points in the popular vote and still lose the electoral college,” Mitchell said. “If that happens for the second time in a row, that is a crisis of governance – not a crisis of democracy, because it’s not a democratic system really – but a crisis of governance and a crisis of legitimacy.”Super has coined the term “flippant federalism” to characterize how the White House is treating the governors. He referred to reports of incidents in which the federal government has intercepted ventilators and other equipment acquired by the states, which Trump appears to be handing out on a political patronage basis.“On the one hand, they’re telling the states they’re on their own,” said Super. “On the other, they’re seizing the supplies that the states get on their own.”Martin O’Malley, a former governor of Maryland and presidential candidate, has coined a different term: “Darwinian federalism”.“His [Trump’s] behavior is not in keeping with the office of president,” O’Malley told the Guardian in an email. “The notion that governors have to bow down and praise him in order for their citizens to receive federal disaster assistance is contrary to the very nature of a republic.”But Keith Whittington, a professor of politics at Princeton University specializing in constitutional theory, said Trump was correct in his assertion that states have traditionally been responsible for handling public health crises.“It looks unusual relative to other countries that we are relying so heavily on state and local officials,” he said, “but that has been the American tradition.”A national public health crisis is a rare occurrence, Whittington said, adding that statements by Trump and Jared Kushner were “really strange”.In his sole public appearance during the crisis, the presidential son-in-law said: “The notion of the federal stockpile was, it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”Whittington replied: “The national stockpiles are designed precisely in order to make them available to those who need them in moments of crisis. The attitude of this administration, and certainly Jared Kushner’s particular remarks on this, are pretty surprising and ultimately not very helpful.”The story of the United States is a long one. Elasticity is built into the system. Looking ahead, everyone sees something different.“I’d be surprised if what we’re seeing now results in a substantial permanent change in the relationship between the states and the federal government,” Whittington said.Super said a drainage of power from the states, if it comes to that, would produce a more empowered federal government.“The old argument against so-called big government is that states could do it,” Super said. “We’re here proving that they can’t.“We’re also proving that whatever people once believed about the importance of states, they don’t believe it any more, and that federal politicians will pay lip service to federalism but show states no respect at all when it matters the most.”In Mitchell’s view, other leaders of the conservative movement are unlike Trump, because they see practical value in shared economic prosperity and shared defense, and because they believe in the story that winds it all together: the story of America.“They seem to be concerned enough that the United States of America survive in some form, whereas I don’t really get that sense with Trump,” Mitchell said. “Donald Trump’s goal is to keep him and the six people he cares about rich and out of jail. There’s nothing really beyond that that’s motivating him in a bigger picture.“That’s not a good foundation on which to build a functioning country, let alone a functioning democracy.” Topics Coronavirus outbreak US politics Andrew Cuomo news

Tokyo Olympic organisers have been forced to confront rumours the coronavirus outbreak could lead to the cancellation of the Games, less than six months before they are due to open.The rising death toll in China from the virus, which has infected 17 people in Japan – including cases of human-to-human transmission – sparked claims online that the Olympics, which will be held from 24 July to 9 August, would be cancelled.False rumours that the 2020 Games would fall victim to the virus gained traction on social media after Deutsche Presse-Agentur, a German news outlet, ran a story about discussions between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) that concluded that the outbreak “may have a significant impact on the Games”.The story, which was picked up by the Japanese-language Buzzap! portal site, generated at least 50,000 tweets under the hashtag “Tokyo Olympics Cancelled”.In response, Tokyo Olympic organisers insisted they were “not considering” cancelling the Olympics and Paralympics. “We will work closely with the IOC and other concerned bodies to draw any countermeasures whenever necessary,” they said.The IOC said it had been in contact with the WHO about the coronavirus, which has spread to more than 20 countries, prompting travel restrictions and the suspension of China services by several airlines.“Countermeasures against infectious diseases constitute an important part of Tokyo 2020’s plans to host a safe and secure Games,” the IOC said in a statement. “Tokyo 2020 will continue to collaborate with all relevant organisations which carefully monitor any incidence of infectious diseases and will review any countermeasures.”Earlier this week, Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, suggested that failure to contain the outbreak could affect the Games.“With only 177 days to go and our preparations accelerating, we must firmly tackle the new coronavirus to contain it, or we are going to regret it,” she said on Wednesday during a meeting with municipal leaders. “I will do the utmost to contain this new problem as we cooperate closely with all of you.”The coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 259 people – all in China – has already disrupted Olympic qualifying tournaments that were due to take place in the country this month.The women’s football has been relocated to Australia and women’s basketball to Serbia, while boxing qualifiers for the Asia-Oceania region, which had been due to take place in Wuhan, have been moved to Jordan.The world indoor track and field championships, which were to have been held in Nanjing in mid-March, were postponed for a year.About 11,000 athletes – including a large contingent from China – are expected to compete in Tokyo. Demand for the 7.8m tickets is high, with applications exceeding supply by at least 10 times. Around 4.5m tickets have been distributed domestically via a lottery.Several athletes skipped the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, citing fears over the Zika virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites. However, there were no confirmed cases of Zika connected to the Rio Games.The Associated Press contributed to this report Topics Coronavirus outbreak Japan Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 Asia Pacific Infectious diseases Olympic Games news

FILE PHOTO: PG&E works on power lines to repair damage caused by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, U.S. November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo(Reuters) - A California regulator has asked PG&E Corp for governance and oversight changes to its reorganization plan, while proposing about $2 billion in penalties for the San-Francisco based utility’s role in causing the devastating 2017 and 2018 wildfires in California. The proposal “will require PG&E to modify its governance structure, submit to an enhanced oversight and enforcement process if it fails to improve safety, and create local operating regions,” the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said late on Monday. PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January last year, citing potential liabilities exceeding $30 billion from major wildfires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018. It must exit bankruptcy by June 30 to take part in a state-backed wildfire fund that would help reduce the threat to utilities from wildfires. Under CPUC Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen’s proposed $1.94 billion penalty, an earlier $200 million fine would be “permanently suspended” to ensure that the payment did not reduce PG&E’s funds to meet wildfire victims’ claims. Both proposals will be voted on next month, CPUC said. PG&E said in a statement that it would respond within 10 days about the proposed fine. As for the reorganization plan, the company said it would need time to review the regulator’s suggestions but added that it remained on track to getting its plan confirmed by June 30. A U.S. bankruptcy judge in December approved PG&E’s $13.5 billion settlement with victims of the deadly California wildfires. Last month, the company had announced some new commitments in its reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy to meet concerns raised earlier by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens and Richard ChangOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

(Reuters) - Qassem Soleimani’s role in a political crisis in Iran highlights the influence of the leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, who has acquired celebrity status at home after being largely invisible for years. FILE PHOTO: A portrait of Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani is held up during a demonstration in Baghdad, March 31, 2015. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File PhotoThe resignation of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week was quickly rejected by President Hassan Rouhani, but a week on, tension over Zarif’s absence from meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that Soleimani attended is still evident. Soleimani’s Quds Force, tasked with carrying out operations beyond Iran’s borders, shored up support for Assad when he looked close to defeat in the civil war raging since 2011 and also helped militiamen defeat Islamic State in Iraq. Its successes have made Soleimani instrumental to the steady spreading of Iranian influence in the Middle East, which the United States and Tehran’s regional foes Saudi Arabia and Israel have struggled to keep in check. Khamenei made Soleimani head of the Quds Force in 1998, a position in which he kept a low profile for years while he strengthened Iran’s ties with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad’s government, and Shi’ite militia groups in Iraq. In the past few years, he has acquired a more public persona, with fighters and commanders in Iraq and Syria posting images on social media of him on the battlefield, his beard and hair always impeccably trimmed. “Soleimani is an operational leader. He’s not a man working in an office. He goes to the front to inspect the troops and see the fighting,” said an Iraqi former senior official who asked not to be identified discussing security issues. An Iraqi militia released a music video in 2014 praising Soleimani’s efforts in fighting Islamic State, and state media have run multiple accounts of his role in military victories. “His chain of command is only the Supreme Leader. He needs money, gets money. Needs munitions, gets munitions. Needs materiel, gets materiel,” the Iraqi former official said. After Zarif tendered his resignation, Soleimani issued a rare statement. There had been a “bureaucratic” mistake rather than any intention to exclude Zarif, it said, describing the minister as the main person in charge of foreign policy and backed by Khamenei. But on Tuesday, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported that the foreign ministry had not been informed throughout Assad’s trip, citing ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, saying Zarif’s aim with his resignation was to restore Iran’s diplomatic system to its rightful place. The row is an unusually public display of tension between the Guards, who play a key role in politics in the Islamic Republic, and moderate government officials who favor reconciliation with the West 40 years after Iran’s 1979 revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Shah. A regional official with knowledge of Iranian affairs said the foreign ministry and the Quds Force had conflicts of opinion over Syria. The release on Monday of a closed-door speech last year by Khamenei highlighted another ongoing split - over Iran’s agreement with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. The speech voiced doubt about the government’s overtures to Europe to try to shore up the deal after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out. A major-general, Soleimani is also in charge of intelligence gathering and covert military operations carried out by the Quds Force and last summer he publicly challenged Trump. “I’m telling you Mr. Trump the gambler, I’m telling you, know that we are close to you in that place you don’t think we are,” said Soleimani, wagging an admonishing finger. “You will start the war but we will end it,” he said, with a checkered keffiya draped across the shoulders of his olive uniform. Softly-spoken, Soleimani came from humble beginnings, born into an agricultural family in the town of Rabor in southeast Iran on March 11, 1957. At 13, he traveled to the town of Kerman and got a construction job to help his father pay back loans, according to a first person account from Soleimani posted by Defa Press, a site focused on the history of Iran’s eight year war with Iraq. When the revolution to oust the Shah began in 1978, Soleimani was working for the municipal water department in Kerman and organized demonstrations against the monarch. He volunteered for the Revolutionary Guards and, after war with Iraq broke out in 1980, quickly rose through the ranks and went on to battle drug smugglers on the border with Afghanistan. “Soleimani is a great listener. He does not impose himself. But he always gets what he wants,” said another Iraqi official, adding that he can be intimidating. At the height of the civil war between Sunni and Shi’ite militants in Iraq in 2007, the U.S. military accused the Quds Force of supplying improvised explosive devices to Shi’ite militants which led to the death of many American soldiers. Soleimani played such a pivotal role in Iraq’s security through various militia groups that General David Petraeus, the overall head of U.S. forces in Iraq, sent messages to him through Iraqi officials, according to diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks. After a referendum on independence in the Kurdish north in 2017, Soleimani issued a warning to Kurdish leaders which led to a withdrawal of fighters from contested areas and allowed central government forces to reassert their control. He was arguably even more influential in Syria. His visit to Moscow in the summer of 2015 was the first step in planning for a Russian military intervention that reshaped the Syrian war and forged a new Iranian-Russian alliance in support of Assad. His activities have made him a repeated target of the U.S. Treasury: Soleimani has been sanctioned by the United States for the Quds Force’s support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other armed groups, for his role in Syria’s crackdown against protesters and his alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Soleimani’s success in advancing Iran’s agenda has also put him in the crosshairs of regional foes Saudi Arabia and Israel. Top Saudi intelligence officials looked into the possibility of assassinating Soleimani in 2017, according to a report in the New York Times late last year. A Saudi government spokesman declined to comment, the Times reported, but Israeli military officials have publicly discussed the possibility of targeting him. Editing by Michael Georgy and Philippa FletcherOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has extended the country’s state emergency until the end of the month, amid warnings that relaxing physical distancing advice too soon could flood already crowded hospitals with coronavirus patients.Abe declared a month-long state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures on 7 April, enabling local governors to request that people avoid unnecessary trips outside and that non-essential businesses close.The measures have since been expanded nationwide, but they are far less restrictive than those introduced in the US and parts of Europe, with no fines or other penalties for those who do not comply.The restrictions were due to end on Wednesday – the end of a series of public holidays known as Golden Week – but Abe said at a press conference on Monday they would remain in place in all regions until 31 May. He called on people to adopt “new lifestyles” based around physical distancing, adding that the extension was “designed for us to prepare for the next step and put an end to the state of emergency”.His decision came after after government experts had warned that the number of new infections had not fallen enough to warrant a relaxation of social distancing measures, adding that a second wave of cases could put intolerable pressure on hospitals.The government is expected to urge residents in 13 high-risk prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, to continue cutting person-to-person contact by 80% and exercise other strict social distancing measures.In prefectures that have recorded relatively few cases, restrictions on business operations and small gatherings will be relaxed, but residents will still be asked not to travel outside their home regions. Bars and nightclubs will be asked to remain shut.Museums, libraries, parks and other facilities are likely to be allowed to reopen provided preventive measures are in place. Local leaders have voiced concern that infections could spread if people stop practising physical distancing and start moving around again. The number of people to have contracted coronavirus in Japan stood at 15,789 on Sunday, according to the public broadcaster NHK, with 549 deaths. The figures include 712 infections and 13 deaths linked to the Diamond Princess cruise liner, which was quarantined in Yokohama, near Tokyo, in February.The number of daily cases in Tokyo appears to have stabilised since a peak of 201 on 17 April. Japan, though, has been criticised for conducting a comparatively low number of Covid-19 tests – 1.3 per 1,000 people, compared with 12 in South Korea and 18 in the US, according to figures compiled by Our World in Data.It has generally been testing only those showing consistent symptoms of the virus in an attempt to relieve pressure on hospitals, but that approach has made it more difficult to identify, trace and isolate people who may be asymptomatic or who are displaying only mild symptoms.The Golden Week holidays have given an indication of how seriously Tokyoites are taking requests to voluntarily reduce contact with other people. While some central parts of the capital have been almost empty, suburban shopping areas, parks and out-of-town beaches are still busy. Some pachinko parlours have remained open, despite local authorities’ threats to name them publicly.According to a recent survey by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, three-quarters of Japanese said they were going out less than usual, but only just over half felt they were reaching Abe’s target of reducing contact with other people by 80%.“The message coming from the government is rather mild, apparently trying to convey the need to stay home while prioritising the economy,” said Naoya Sekiya, a professor at Tokyo University who specialises in social psychology and risk communications. “Since people lack a shared sense of crisis, instead of staying home they’re hoping for the best and assuming they won’t get infected.”Concern is mounting about the damage the outbreak is inflicting on the world’s third-biggest economy, which was heading for recession even before the crisis. Foreign tourism, a key component of Abe’s economic policy, has plummeted by as much as 90%, while the virus’s global spread has forced the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Topics Japan Coronavirus outbreak Asia Pacific Infectious diseases Shinzō Abe news

TOKYO–On Tuesday at a 7 p.m. press conference, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures. The long-awaited measure was taken in response to a dramatic increase in the official number of novel coronavirus infections. Up until March 24, when the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed until next year, Japan’s government had given the impression that everything was under control. Even the decision to put off the Games was cast as the result of foreign Olympic committees announcing they would not attend during the pandemic that was touching, well, other countries. Then on March 25, a day after the announcement, Tokyo counted 41 confirmed cases of the virus, more than double its previous high of 17 cases. The same day, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike held a press conference warning that the city was at a critical phase. She said that it might see an explosion in the number of infections if it failed to act. She used the word “lockdown” as if it came out of the blue and asked everyone to refrain from leaving their homes—for that weekend. The numbers nationwide kept rising. “In order to make it appear that the city was taking control of the coronavirus, Tokyo made the number of patients look smaller,” former Prime Minister Yukio Hatayama tweeted caustically on March 25. “The coronavirus has spread while they waited. [For Governor Koike] it was the Olympics first, not Tokyo’s residents.”No one is denying there is a problem now, just two weeks after the Olympic announcement. As of early April 9, Japan has conducted 61,498 tests for the virus, and confirmed 4,877 cases. There have been 94 deaths.But while Tokyo, Osaka and other prefectures are planning what they call a “soft lockdown” to stop the spread of the virus, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is planning to engage in a software lockdown of criticism about Japan’s handling of the coronavirus. “The Abe government has approached this crisis first and foremost as an economic crisis and a government public relations crisis, rather than an epidemiological crisis.”— Koichi Nakano, professor of Japanese politics, Sophia UniversityAccording to an article in the newspaper Mainichi published April 7, the ministry has been given a budget to combat the plague of foreign criticism directed at Japan’s government.The newly approved project will use artificial intelligence (AI) to investigate and analyze posts made from overseas on Twitter and other social networking sites. After proper analysis of tweets and posts made in the U.S., Saudi Arabia and other G20 countries, MOFA will then make counter-arguments against what it considers misinformation. The article notes without a hint of irony, “[The ministry] took into account the wave of criticism about Japan’s handling of the epidemic aboard the Diamond Princess [cruise ship].” Both inside and outside Japan, the handling of the quarantine on the ship was regarded as an unmitigated disaster. Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases at Kobe University, was so horrified by the complete chaos he saw on the ship when he visited, that he blew the whistle. He later said he had felt safer during an Ebola virus breakout. If there seems to be a misapprehension about Japan, the Japanese government will dispatch “correct information” to those writing about it. The ministry reportedly is planning to launch an offensive as soon as possible. The foreign ministry's plans were leaked to the press after Yoshihide Suga, the cabinet spokesman of the Abe regime, expressed his disappointment with a statement that had come from the U.S. embassy in Japan. On April 3, the embassy issued an uncharacteristically blunt health alert sent to American citizens by email. It was then picked up by local media:As compared to the number of positive cases and hospitalizations in the United States and Europe, the number of reported COVID-19 cases in Japan remains relatively low. The Japanese Government’s decision to not test broadly makes it difficult to accurately assess the COVID-19 prevalence rate. While we have confidence in Japan’s health care system today, we believe a significant increase in COVID-19 cases makes it difficult to predict how the system will be functioning in the coming weeks. In the event of a spike in cases, U.S. citizens with pre-existing medical conditions may not be able to receive the medical care they have grown accustomed to in Japan prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.U.S. citizens were urged to go home quickly, even though many would argue that even if the hospitals here run into difficulty, you might still be better off in a country like Japan with national health care. In any event, the Japanese media jumped on the missive to voice the truth they normally dare not speak: The Abe administration has deliberately kept testing suppressed and no one has any idea of how widespread coronavirus infection might really be.“We have painstakingly and politely explained to the United States.”— Yoshihide Suga, the cabinet spokesman of the Abe governmentAgain, the Diamond Princess example is instructive, since it took place at a time when Tokyo still harbored ambitions to hold the Olympics this year. Not only did the government’s quarantine fail, it then failed to test 23 passengers before letting them leave the ship and in the end, let infected passengers return home by public transport, spreading the disease. Japanese medical workers and Ministry of Health officials who had been doing quarantine work were not tested for the virus, and returned to work, infecting others. The Ministry of Health initially refused to test them saying, “if we found more people testing positive, it would interfere with work.” At the time, apparently for diplomatic reasons, the U.S. embassy also was reluctant to test its own employees who had been in contact with sick passengers. But it’s obviously reconsidered such deference to Japanese government sensibilities.Cabinet spokesman Suga, in his press conference on April 6, claimed that, “Japan is following the World Health Organization guidelines and solidly dealing with the matter. [The U.S.] pointed out the number of PCR tests [which determine if someone is infected or not] are few, but the number of dead are not that many.” That is true, although without proper testing cause of death is difficult to ascribe. Suga added, “We have painstakingly and politely explained to the United States [the situation] via diplomatic routes.” No one asked him about the posting from the German Embassy in Tokyo on March 24, which came before the U.S. alert and the same day the Olympics were postponed. Germany noted tactfully that the risk of infection in Japan could not be assessed seriously and that “it should be assumed that there are a high number of unreported infections due to the small number of tests carried out.” Depending on how you want to translate “nicht seriös” which can mean “untruthful, mendacious,” you might even uncharitably feel that Germany accused Japan of lying. In the future, it should be assumed that AI will quickly find these mistaken statements by the clueless barbarians staffing foreign embassies. The system will then alert the Japanese government, so it can communicate the correct information to them seamlessly. Koichi Nakano, a professor of Japanese politics at Sophia University, considers the AI program conceived by MOFA to be emblematic of Japan’s shoddy handling of the coronavirus epidemic. “The Abe government has approached this crisis first and foremost as an economic crisis and a government public relations crisis, rather than an epidemiological crisis,” said Nakano. “The fact that Yasutoshi Nishimura, the Economic Revitalization Minister was made the Minister of Coronavirus Countermeasures is very telling. They are far more concerned about rescuing what is left of Abenomics [the fiscal policies of the Abe administration] than public health.”Nakano suggests that AI might be better used to combat the coronavirus by collecting information and analyzing it. Of course, that would be wonderful, if it happened, because only Japanese officials have the data and they aren’t releasing it. Commentators and analysts suspect that Japan’s actual number of infected and dead may be hidden in the pneumonia statistics. The policy of the government has been to treat symptoms rather than test for the virus, so if patients are treated for pneumonia and get better they aren’t counted among the COVID-19 infections. If they die, autopsies are rarely performed, so the deaths are not linked to the coronavirus either. Pneumonia statistics aren’t being released to the public. Other basic information is kept from the public without any explanation. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a COVID-19 web page and seems to be promoting transparency by putting out the daily number of the infected. However, it won’t tell you how many people asked to be tested or how many people were actually tested; basic data is lacking so that the numbers have no context. The same is true of the statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. There seems to be no interest in getting an indication of the prevalence of the virus in Japanese society. Even after months to prepare, the central government and Tokyo appear so unready for a lockdown that it seems likely to fail. Japan should know that artificial intelligence is great for censorship but you need actual intelligence to combat a coronavirus epidemic. Real intelligence, both the practical kind and the analytical kind—as in data— seems to be sorely lacking in the Japanese government right now.

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, has lifted the country’s state of emergency after a marked fall in new coronavirus cases in Tokyo and other hard-hit regions that were still subject to the measure.Abe declared the state of emergency in Tokyo and several other areas on 7 April before quickly expanding it nationwide. After lifting the restrictions in most areas earlier this month, he said on Monday that new infections had slowed enough to justify an easing of restrictions on businesses, bars and restaurants throughout the country, adding that hospitals were treating far fewer patients than at the height of the outbreak.But he urged people to remain vigilant and adopt a “new lifestyle” based around avoidance of the “three Cs” – confined and crowded spaces, and close human contact – to prevent a second wave of infections.“Even after the lifting of the state of emergency, we are going to have to live with the coronavirus around us,” he said at a televised press conference. “If we lower our guard, the infection will spread rapidly. This is the most scary aspect of this virus. So we need to remain vigilant while at the same time reviving the economy.”Despite criticism of the government’s initial response to the outbreak, Japan appears to have contained the virus through a combination of cluster tracing, the closure of public places, bans on mass gatherings such as sports events, and a communal effort to avoid the three Cs.People largely observed the advice, with most of Tokyo’s notoriously crowded streets falling quiet. The number of new infections across the country has fallen from a peak of about 700 a day to a few dozen.The country has reported a cumulative total of approximately 17,200 infections and 853 deaths, out of a global death toll of more than 340,000. Those figures include more than 700 cases and 13 deaths linked to the Diamond Princess cruise liner, which was quarantined in Yokohama in February.Japan did not impose the kind of lockdown seen in Britain and other parts of Europe, but encouraged companies to allow employees to work remotely and bars, restaurants and other small business to close or restrict opening hours. People were asked to avoid unnecessary outings, but there were no fines or other penalties for non-compliance.“We did not enforce restrictions with punitive measures, but we have been able to bring the outbreak under control in just a month and a half,” Abe said. “I would like to say that we were able to show the strength of the Japanese model.”The state of emergency was lifted in most of the country earlier this month as new infections fell, but kept in place in Tokyo – where more than 5,000 people have been infected and 247 died – and four other prefectures: nearby Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, and the northernmost main island of Hokkaido.Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, last week said the capital was in the “final stretch” of its battle with the virus, adding that by exercising caution people would, over time, be able to “reclaim the lives we had before”.Concern that a sharp rise in cases in April could place unbearable strain on medical services have eased, with about a fifth of hospital beds secured for Covid-19 patients currently in use, according to the health minister, Katsunobu Katō.In the first phase, schools, gyms, libraries and museums will reopen, while restaurants will be asked to close at 10pm rather than the current 8pm. The professional baseball season will start on 19 June, but without spectators. Subsequent stages would allow theatres, cinemas and theme parks to reopen.Government experts will assess the situation every three weeks, with a gradual easing of requests to stay at home and avoid large crowds. People will be urged not to travel between prefectures until the middle of next month and to continue to wear masks and observe physical distancing.Pressure to move out of the state of emergency has built since recent data showed Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy, slipped into recession in the last quarter for the first time in four and a half years. In response, the government is expected to pass a second supplementary budget to support struggling households and businesses. Topics Japan Coronavirus outbreak Asia Pacific

SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than 150 Australians arrived home on Thursday to begin two weeks of quarantine after finally leaving a cruise ship docked in Japan on which more than 600 people had contracted a new coronavirus. Since Feb. 3, the Diamond Princess, owned by Carnival Corp, has been quarantined at Yokohama, south of the capital, Tokyo, with 220 Australian holidaymakers among the 3,700 aboard initially. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 170 Australians were evacuated to the northern port city of Darwin, with 47 left in Japan after either getting infected or deciding to wait out the rest of their quarantine on the ship. “The continuing coronavirus infections in mainland China make it necessary to continue the travel restrictions on foreign nationals entering Australia for a further week to 29 February,” Morrison said in a statement. The Australians coming home from Japan were all screened on arrival at a quarantine facility in Howard Springs, said Di Stephens, a health official in the Northern Territory. “There were six people off that plane identified as having minor sniffles and sore throat that we have separated completely,” Stephens told reporters in Darwin. Swabs would be taken in the afternoon from the six, who went straight into isolation, she added. Earlier, television images showed a Qantas Airways plane chartered to evacuate the Australians arriving in Darwin just before 10:00 a.m. (2300 GMT). All 170 evacuees were required to be symptom-free when checked by Japanese health officials before they boarded, although Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has said some might still have the virus. Since Feb. 1, Australia has barred entry to those arriving directly from mainland China, except for citizens and permanent residents, citing a need to stop the spread of the flu-like virus that emerged in China late last year. On Monday, China’s ambassador to Australia criticized the curbs as “harsh” and an “overreaction”. Morrison has said Canberra would be guided by medical advice, despite growing pressure on the economy. The epidemic could shave 0.2 percentage points off economic growth in the year’s first quarter, Australia’s top central banker said this month. China is Australia’s largest trading partner and a major source of tourists and fee-paying students. Reporting by Colin Packham; Additional reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Clarence FernandezOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

closeVideoPassengers disembark coronavirus cruise ship in Japan but blocked from immediate return to USAmerican passengers of the Diamond Princess received a letter from the embassy in Tokyo informing them that they will not be permitted back to the U.S. for an additional 14 days; Jonathan Serrie reports.Two passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship docked off Yokohama, Japan, have died of coronavirus, Japan's health ministry said Thursday.The Japanese man and woman, both in their 80s, reportedly had existing chronic diseases. They were the first among the ship’s passengers to die from the disease, officials said.Both passengers were removed from the ship last week and hospitalized.Japan now has three coronavirus-related deaths.The 621 confirmed coronavirus cases among the cruise ship’s 3,711 passengers represent the largest outbreak outside China. The Diamond Princess has been under a two-week quarantine since Feb. 5."COVID-19 is not 100 percent known, and a lot of people got infected on the Diamond Princess. Taking those factors into consideration, we believe taking extra caution will contribute to preventing the risk of future infections," Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said of passengers allowed to leave the ship after testing negative for the virus. He urged them to stay home for two weeks.Hundreds of Americans on the ship were evacuated by the State Department on Sunday and Monday, including several who tested positive for the virus but showed no symptoms. They are being quarantined for another 14 days at military bases in California and Texas, except for some who were removed to hospitals, including 13 moved to a quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Health Center.The Japanese government started removing passengers from the ship this week and by Wednesday at least 500 were off the ship.As of Wednesday evening, more than 75,700 have been infected and 2,128 have died. Of those, 16,465 have recovered, according to Worldometers.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

TOKYO -- Japan reported more than 500 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus for the first time Thursday, the latest in a sudden spike in infections since the Tokyo Olympics were postponed till next year. Before the Games were pushed back, Japan appeared to have its outbreak largely under control. Despite the global pandemic, organizers maintained they were forging ahead with preparations for the 2020 Summer Olympics to kick off in Tokyo on July 24, and they encouraged athletes to do the same. Then on March 24, amid mounting calls to delay or cancel the Olympics, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the International Olympic Committee announced that the upcoming Games would be held a year later due to the worldwide health crisis. On that day, Japan had reported just 1,140 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled at the time by Johns Hopkins University. As of Thursday night, that tally was up to around 5,500, not including the 712 cases linked to the Diamond Princess cruise ship that docked in Tokyo earlier this year, according to figures published by Japan's national broadcaster NHK. By prefecture, Tokyo tops the list of infections with over 1,500. Over 100 people in Japan have died from the disease so far, including 11 from the cruise ship, according to NHK. There has been a threefold increase in deaths since the Tokyo Games were postponed. The sharp rise in cases and deaths has prompted speculations that Japan had previously understated the scope of its outbreak. Several Japanese citizens, whom ABC News spoke to on the streets of Tokyo, said they believe the government was trying to keep the numbers low so that the Olympics would take place as scheduled. However, a doctor in Tokyo who talked to ABC News on condition of anonymity said he didn't believe there to be a cover-up but rather that red tape has kept testing to a minimum to prevent hospitals from overcrowding. ABC News has reached out for comment from the Japanese government. The Japanese government has maintained publicly that their strategy all along has been to target clusters of cases rather than conduct mass testing, which officials say has kept Japan from the brink so far. Officials link the recent increase in infections to people coming into the country from abroad. The Japanese government has also admitted that infection routes cannot be traced in a rising number of cases. The prime minister, however, has pledged to ramp up testing. Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases declined ABC News' request for access to videotape its laboratory activities and COVID-19 testing, citing security concerns and biohazard risks. An administrator at the public health center for Tokyo's Shinjuku ward who only gave his name as Aria told ABC News they're getting calls from a rising number of residents who want to be tested for COVID-19. "We’re receiving over 200 [calls] per day," Aria said. "Concern among the people is on the rise. Our people answering phones can’t get a break." Abe on Tuesday declared a monthlong state of emergency -- but not a lockdown -- for Tokyo and six other prefectures to stem the spread of the deadly virus in the world's third-largest economy. The Japanese government does not have the legal authority to enforce the kinds of lockdowns seen across Europe, where fines and other penalties have been imposed. So instead, officials have asked the public to practice "jishuku" or self-restraint by voluntarily heeding their calls to stay home and close businesses. "What this means is that the Japanese people are required to voluntarily follow the government, without the latter providing incentives or compensations in return to the people and, importantly, without taking responsibility for what is in real terms government orders," Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, told ABC News. "So the containment policies are made by the government, but their costs are borne by the people who 'voluntarily' restrain themselves." Nakano said Japan's unique approach to combatting the virus is a disjointed combination of two things: the absence of political interest and leadership on the one hand, and the bureaucratic denial and risky experiment on the other. "The Japanese ruling elite form a class of their own, out of touch with the reality of the daily life and concern of the people. They are preoccupied with the Olympics and have prioritized the resume of what remains of Abenomics over serious countermeasures against the spread of the virus," Nakano told ABC News, referring to the economic policies enacted by Abe at the outset of his second term. "In the absence of clear and firm political leadership, the bureaucrats and public health experts who are left to devise the government policies continue to refuse to face up to the magnitude of the outbreak and have also committed Japan to a 'unique' and highly-risky approach that is based on a certain 'cluster infection' theory." Nakano said the hypothesis was that the virus outbreak could be combatted through a narrow focus on clusters of infection, while ignoring the infections that do not result in clusters. "If the theory worked and if people voluntarily bore the cost of social distancing," he noted, "then the state would have enough medical resources to treat the severely ill patients, according to this approach." The problem unfolding now is that the theory failed and the Japanese government did nothing to enhance state capacity to cope with an eventual explosion in the number of severely ill patients, according to Nakano. "[The government] has consistently, grossly under-tested," he said. "And as a result, to date, there is no data to base judgment on the scope and speed of the infection." Reporting by Anthony Trotter in Tokyo, Japan. Writing and additional reporting by Morgan Winsor in London, United Kingdom.

A second person has died in China from a new, pneumonia-like virus, local officials have announced.They say the death was recorded in the eastern city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began in December.Meanwhile, Japan confirmed its first case of the virus - the second country outside China after Thailand to do so.The disease has been identified as a coronavirus, which can cause illnesses ranging from common colds to the potentially deadly Sars.The new virus has infected dozens of people, and many cases have been linked to a fish market in Wuhan. The market was closed on 1 January. China scientists 'find cause' of mystery illness Mystery Chinese virus: How worried should we be? Sars - severe acute respiratory syndrome - killed more than 700 people around the world during an outbreak in 2002-03, after originating in China.In total, it infected more than 8,000 people in 26 countries. China has been free of Sars since May 2004.Unconfirmed reports on social media say the latest victim was 69 years old.The Japanese authorities say the man in his 30s recently travelled to Wuhan.They say he lives near Tokyo, without identifying him. Local media say he is a Chinese national.It is not yet clear whether the virus can be transmitted between humans.Earlier this week, a woman in Thailand became the first person outside China diagnosed with the virus.The woman - who has not been named - was quarantined after landing in Bangkok from Wuhan.

To stop the virus spreading, Japan called a nationwide state of emergency, which closed businesses including internet cafes, forcing their inhabitants to seek refuge elsewhere. The Japanese authorities are providing emergency housing to support those living in internet cafes, but the pandemic measures have exposed a problem that goes back decades. Although Tokyo has a reputation as a prosperous, high-tech city, it also has a community of 5,126 homeless people, according to figures released by the Tokyo metropolitan government in 2019. Of those, 4,000 are internet cafe refugees, while more than 1,000are unemployed and live under bridges and in cardboard boxes and tents in parks and along river banks. Charity groups believe the numbers could be much higher.A man relaxes in his private booth where he will spend the night, in one of Tokyo's many 24-hour internet cafes, which provide the capital's homeless with a roof over their heads.Japan is offering sex workers financial aid. But they say it's not enough to survive the coronavirus pandemic"People started using (internet cafes) as cheap alternatives to hotels. From there it gradually morphed into a sort of slightly exotic homeless shelter," said Tom Gill, a social anthropologist at Meiji Gakuin University.Open around the clock, many internet, manga and video-booth cafes across Japan provide showers, coin laundries, a cafe and most importantly -- private booths with reclining chairs that can be rented on an hourly, daily or overnight rate, to sleep in. Thin wooden partitions separate the cubicles and a long, narrow corridor divides one line of cubicles from another.Prices vary from place to place, but 12 hours in a private booth can cost between 1,800 ($17) to 2,000 ($19) yen on weekdays, and as much as 3,000 yen ($28) on the weekends and on public holidays. There are so many internet cafes in Tokyo that anyone can find a place to sleep on most nights. Over the past decades, Japan has seen a dramatic increase in part-time and temp workers like Takahashi -- due in part to the partial legalization of temporary and contract work in1986and full legalization in 1999.In 2019, Japan had 22 million part-time and temp workers, compared to 17 million in 2011, according to Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.Some of these workers don't have jobs every day and are often paid the minimum wage -- which is $9 per hourin Tokyo, compared to$7per hour in the US and$11per hour in the UK. Such workers found it harder to afford stable housing. In Japan, renters need to pay landlords upfront costs that include a deposit, key money and at least three months' rent in advance.A customer wearing a protective mask enters an internet cafe at night in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, April 12, 2020. TTakahashi used to work as a day laborer in a shipbuilding yard in Hiroshima. But he made his way to Tokyo last November when he heard wages were better in the capital. The minimum wage in Tokyo is 958 yen ($9) per hour, compared to 818 yen ($8) in Hiroshima,accordingto the Japan external trade organization.At the beginning, he found construction jobs in the capital. With his day's wages, he opted to stay in different manga internet cafes, where he could browse through comic books after work. Japanese mayor says men should grocery shop during pandemic as women 'take a longer time'As many as 15,000 people stay in these internet cafes a night in Tokyo -- many are tired Japanese businessmen who have gone out drinking after work and missed the last train home. But others, like Takahashi, can't afford a home.Takahashi didn't mind if the cafes were crowded. He rented a private booth that he accessed with a key card and kept to himself. He kept all his belongings in a rucksack, so he could move easily from cafe to cafe. But everything changed when the pandemic hit.The company he worked for went bankrupt. Takahashi heard of an internet cafe in Yoyogi park that only charged 200 yen ($2) for 12 hours and moved there. But when that place shut, he had nowhere else to turn. Internet cafe refugees have existed since the 1990s, but people don't think about them when the economy was stable, as they weren't sleeping on the streets, said Gill. The coronavirus pandemic, however, "brutally exposed what is usually a concealed part of the Japanese economy," he added. On April 30, Hatanaka Kazuo, a spokesperson for the Tokyo metropolitan government, said the city's authorities will provide internet cafe refugees with a room in a business hotel until May 6, when the country's state of emergency is scheduled to end. That period, he said, could be extended if the state of emergency doesn't lift.Katsuya Asao, 54, prepares to rest at a shelter provided by Kanagawa prefecture for those who used to stay at internet cafes, which were asked to close due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak state of emergency.To qualify, people need to present an internet cafe membership card or bring receipts to prove they have been living in internet cafes. Each Tokyo ward has an information counter where internet cafe refugees can seek advice. Before April 21, internet cafe refugees needed to have proof they'd lived in Tokyo for 6 months. On April 22, Tokyo scrapped that rule.Since the declaration of the state of emergency in Tokyo on April 7, close to 700 people have moved into business hotel rooms provided by the local government. South of Tokyo in Yokohama city, officials have converted a martial arts hall into a shelter with small, private cubicles that have drapes to give privacy and respect social distancing rules. Many internet cafe refugees were unaware of the help available as Tokyo officials had not widely publicized the scheme, according to Ren Onishi, the chairman of Moyai, the charity.A man arrives to have to sleep at a shelter provided by Kanagawa prefecture for people who used to stay in internet cafes.Earlier in April, Moyai launched a petition asking to use the athlete's villages for next year's Tokyo Olympics as a shelter for internet cafe refugees and the homeless. The petition has garnered53,000signatures so far.Homeless people in Japan are often blamed for their situation, said Onishi. He hopes that the light the pandemic has thrown on the plight of the homeless and irregular workers in Japan might be a catalyst for change.But given the social stigma around homelessness in Japan, many are too ashamed to seek help. Internet cafes give them basic shelter and anonymity. They ask few questions and accept cash payment up front. JUST WATCHEDJapan's Shinzo Abe promotes anti-flu drug to treat virusReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHJapan's Shinzo Abe promotes anti-flu drug to treat virus 02:39"The anonymity is an advantage, if you don't want your family, or your company to know where you are living, or if you are on the run from the law or loan sharks," added Gill. The disproportionally high number of men living in internet cafes is also due to conservative attitudes in Japan, Gill said.Men with no obvious illnesses or injuries are generally blamed for ending up homeless, he said, suggesting that Japanese officials are more likely to have sympathy for women in the same situation and offer them more support.With no clear end in sight for the pandemic, Takahashi hopes he will be able to find a job so he can save enough money to travel from Shinjuku to Hiroshima, where he can stay with friends. Takahashi thought he wouldn't qualify for a place in one of Tokyo's business hotels as his home address was in Hiroshima, and he didn't have the necessary paperwork. "I'm try to endure these circumstances by thinking of it as a life experience," he said.

Months after claiming that the FBI needed Apple’s assistance to unlock a suspected terrorist’s iPhones, Attorney General Bill Barr announced on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) managed to unlock the phones on its own. In a statement that could serve as a harbinger of government-mandated privacy invasions to come, Barr harshly criticized Apple and called for a “legislative solution” to its obstinance.“Thanks to the great work of the FBI — and no thanks to Apple — we were able to unlock Alshamrani’s phones,” Barr said in a press release.The phones belonged to Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who killed three people on a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, in December. During its investigation into Alshamrani’s possible links to terrorist groups, the FBI uncovered two locked iPhones. As it did in 2016 during the investigation of another person with possible terrorist ties, the Department of Justice demanded that Apple unlock the phones for them. Apple has repeatedly said that it does not currently have the ability to unlock passcode-protected phones and that creating a backdoor that would allow the company to access locked devices would compromise the security and privacy on which its customers rely. In this most recent case, Apple was not able to unlock the phones, although the company said that it gave the FBI access to any and all information related to Alshamrani that it had, including iCloud backups of Alshamrani’s phones.“The false claims made about our company are an excuse to weaken encryption and other security measures that protect millions of users and our national security,” Apple said in a statement to Recode. “It is because we take our responsibility to national security so seriously that we do not believe in the creation of a backdoor — one which will make every device vulnerable to bad actors who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers.”Apple added, “There is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys, and the American people do not have to choose between weakening encryption and effective investigations.”While stating that the information uncovered by unlocking the phones proved valuable to the investigation and showed that Alshamrani did indeed have links to al-Qaeda, Barr stressed that Apple’s refusal to change its business practices cost precious time and money.“If not for our FBI’s ingenuity, some luck, and hours upon hours of time and resources, this information would have remained undiscovered,” Barr said. “The bottom line: Our national security cannot remain in the hands of big corporations who put dollars over lawful access and public safety. The time has come for a legislative solution.” Barr raising the legislative solution specter is well-timed. A bipartisan bill called the EARN IT Act, which would essentially force platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and even end-to-end encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal to give the government a backdoor to any and all customer information is currently making its way through the Senate. There’s also the bill reauthorizing the Patriot Act, for which a painfully close Senate vote defeated an attempt to exclude web search history and browser information from warrantless surveillance by the FBI. The bill, once resolved by the House and Senate, will go to President Trump’s desk to sign.Forcing Apple to create a backdoor would perhaps make investigations easier and quicker for the FBI, but it’s not absolutely necessary to conduct investigations. The FBI didn’t say how it was able to gain access to the phones, but the agency clearly didn’t need Apple’s help to do so. This has been the case in past investigations as well. The Department of Justice is asking a company to change its business practices and create a vulnerability in millions of its customers’ devices for what amounts to a shortcut.“Every time there’s a traumatic event requiring investigation into digital devices, the Justice Department loudly claims that it needs backdoors to encryption, and then quietly announces it actually found a way to access information without threatening the security and privacy of the entire world,” ACLU senior staff attorney Brett Max Kaufman said in a statement to Recode. “The boy who cried wolf has nothing on the agency that cried encryption.”Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. 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SAN FRANCISCO -- A U.S. judge ripped into Pacific Gas & Electric on Wednesday, saying its executives have put greed before safety and telling officials from the utility blamed for catastrophic California wildfires to plan to add at least 1,100 more tree trimmers to cut the risk of even more blazes. “I am going to do everything I can to protect this state from more death and destruction from this convicted felon," U.S. District Judge William Alsup said of PG&E. He delivered the harsh rebuke of the nation's largest utility during a court hearing to review how well PG&E has complied with the terms of a five-year criminal probation imposed after its natural gas lines blew up a San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood and killed eight people in 2010. The utility was convicted of six felony counts of falsifying records and safety violations in 2016. Alsup blasted PG&E for its abysmal track record since its probation began in January 2017. In that time, PG&E's aging power lines have been blamed for igniting a series of wildfires that killed nearly 130 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The aftermath saddled PG&E with more than $50 billion in potential liabilities, driving the San Francisco company into bankruptcy 13 months ago. The judge told PG&E that he believes the fires could have been prevented had it upgraded and maintained its electrical system instead of funneling billions of dollars into shareholder dividends and executive bonuses. “PG&E poses a threat to the safety of the people of Northern California because you are so far behind," Alsup said. PG&E lawyer Kevin Orsini assured the judge that the company has "fundamentally changed" since hiring a new CEO, Bill Johnson, and overhauling its board of directors last April. After scolding the utility for its neglect, Alsup complimented its new management team for deliberately turning off power to as many as 2 million people last fall to prevent wildfires during hot, windy weather. Although the outages infuriated and inconvenienced people, the judge said he believes they may have prevented dozens more potentially deadly fires. “They deserve some credit (for the outages) and having the courage to do it in the face of all the criticism,” Alsup said. As another firefighting measure, Alsup said he plans to order PG&E to expand its tree-trimming force from roughly 5,400 contractors to 6,500 to help prevent vegetation from falling onto its power lines and igniting. Alsup did not set a timeline for adding tree trimmers, giving PG&E until March 2 to provide more information about logistical challenges in doing so. The judge's harsh words came a day after the head of the California Public Utilities Commission proposed a new enforcement process that could allow the regulatory agency to revoke PG&E's license if it failed to comply. “I am very concerned about PG&E’s pattern of safety-related failures,” commission President Marybel Batjer wrote Tuesday. Batjer's words largely echoed those of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appointed her last year. Since December, Newsom has tried to pressure PG&E into taking more radical steps to change its culture and reduce its debt when it comes out of bankruptcy so it can afford to invest an estimated $40 billion into upgrading its decaying electrical grid during the next decade. Newsom and Batjer have unusual leverage over PG&E because the company needs California to approve its reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy by June 30 so it can qualify for coverage from a wildfire insurance fund created by the state last summer. Noting his ability to crack down on PG&E will end with its probation in 23 months, Alsup urged Newsom to take a hard look at whether the utility should remain part of a for-profit company that faces continual pressure from investors to boost its stock price by making more money. “We are in a critical chapter,” Alsup said. Newsom has threatened to lead an government-backed attempt to take over PG&E unless it bends to his demands, which include replacing the company's entire 14-member board, including Johnson. PG&E has promised to reshuffle at least part of its board and is in talks with Newsom's representatives about other possible concessions. But the company is committed to remaining a for-profit company, a point it punctuated this week when it released five-year projections that it would earn nearly $2.4 billion in 2024 — the most in its history. The company has lost $14.5 billion in the past two years as it deals with the devastation from wildfires.

TOKYO—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted a state of emergency in much of Japan outside of the capital and credited voluntary restrictions for bringing down new coronavirus infections sharply.A nationwide state of emergency that started in April was lifted in 39 of the nation’s 47 prefectures, not including Tokyo and Osaka. A full end to the decree may come as soon as May 21, Mr. Abe said.“Today...

TOKYO (AP) — As an extraordinary two-week quarantine of a cruise ship ends Wednesday in Japan, many scientists say it was a failed experiment: The ship seemed to serve as an incubator for the new virus from China instead of an isolation facility meant to prevent the worsening of an outbreak. Since the virus was identified late last year in central China, it has sickened tens of thousands of people and killed more than 1,800. As of Tuesday, 542 cases of the virus, known as COVID-19, have been identified among the 3,711 quarantined passengers and crew, making the ship the site of the most infections outside of China. The Diamond Princess cruise ship is also the only place where health officials have seen the disease spread efficiently beyond China. The question now is: Why? ASSOCIATED PRESS Two buses leave a port where the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship is docked in Yokohama on Saturday, Feb. 15. The Japanese government has repeatedly defended the effectiveness of the quarantine. But some experts suggest it may have been less than rigorous. In a possible sign of lax quarantine protocols, three Japanese health officials who helped in the quarantine checks on the ship were also infected. “There are sometimes environments in which disease can spread in a more efficient way,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program. Ryan said cruise ships in particular were known to occasionally accelerate spread. “It’s an unfortunate event occurring on the ship and we trust that the authorities in Japan and the governments who are taking back people will be able to follow up those individuals in the appropriate way,” he said. Japan’s health minister, Katsunobu Kato, told reporters Tuesday that all passengers who remained on the cruise ship have had samples taken and that those who tested negative would start getting off the vessel beginning Wednesday, when their required 14-day quarantine is scheduled to end. ASSOCIATED PRESS A passenger stands on the balcony of the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess on Sunday, Feb. 9. “They all want to go home as early as possible, and we hope to assist them so that everyone can get home smoothly,” Kato said. The process is expected to take until Friday because of the large number of people involved. “Obviously the quarantine hasn’t worked, and this ship has now become a source of infection,” said Dr. Nathalie MacDermott, an outbreak expert at King’s College London. She said the exact mechanism of the virus’ spread was unknown. Although scientists believe the disease is spread mostly by droplets — when people cough or sneeze — it’s possible there are other ways of transmission. “We need to understand how the quarantine measures on board were implemented, what the air filtration on board is like, how the cabins are connected and how waste products are disposed of,” MacDermott said. “There could also be another mode of transmission we’re not familiar with,” she said, noting the possibility of environmental spread and the importance of “deep-cleaning” the entire ship to prevent people from touching contaminated surfaces. ASSOCIATED PRESS Medical workers in protective suits lead a passenger who tested positive for a new coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship on Wednesday, Feb. 5. During the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS, a related virus, more than 300 people were infected through a defective sewage system in a Hong Kong housing estate. MacDermott said it was possible there was a similar issue aboard the Diamond Princess. “There’s no reason this (quarantine) should not have worked if it had been done properly,” she said. Cruise ships have often been struck by outbreaks of diseases like norovirus, which can spread quickly in the close quarters of a boat and among elderly passengers with weaker immune systems. But MacDermott said it would be highly unusual for an entire boat to be quarantined. “They might quarantine the people affected in their rooms until they’re 48 hours clear of symptoms, but certainly not all passengers,” she said. Some passengers on the Diamond Princess described the ship as a “floating prison” but were allowed to walk on the decks every day while wearing a mask and were told to keep their distance from others. “I suspect people were not as isolated from other people as we would have thought,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in England. He said the continued spread of the virus could be due to compliance problems. ASSOCIATED PRESS Japanese health officials are conducting extensive medical checks on all 3,700 passengers and crew of the cruise ship that returned to Japan after one passenger tested positive for the new coronavirus. “It’s difficult to enforce a quarantine in a ship environment and I’m absolutely sure there were some passengers who think they’re not going to let anyone tell them what they can and cannot do,” he said. He suggested that if the passengers had been quarantined on land, having more space might have allowed for better infection control procedures. But he acknowledged that attempting to quarantine more than 3,700 people was logistically challenging. Hunter said it was “a huge disappointment” that the quarantine hadn’t curbed the spread of the virus and that it was unfortunate some passengers returning to their home countries would now face a second period of isolation. “Given how the virus has continued to spread, we have to presume everyone leaving the ship is potentially infected, and therefore they have to go through another two-week quarantine period,” he said. “Not to do so would be reckless.” Japanese health officials say a 14-day quarantine on the ship is adequate, noting that all but one of more than 500 Japanese returnees from the epicenter of the virus in China who initially tested negative were found to be virus-free at the end of their 14-day quarantine. ASSOCIATED PRESS This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, orange, emerging from the surface of cells, green, cultured in the lab. Those officials also defended precautions taken on the ship. About 1,000 crew members were told to wear surgical masks, wash their hands, use disinfectant sprays and stop operations at restaurants, bars and other entertainment areas after Feb. 5, when the first group of 10 infections was reported and the start of the 14-day quarantine was announced. Passengers were instructed to stay in their cabins and not walk around or contact other passengers. Those in windowless cabins could go out on the deck for about an hour each day. The quarantine was largely for passengers because crew members kept sharing double rooms and continued to serve guests by delivering food, letters, towels and amenities, and entering passenger cabins for cleaning. Crew members also ate in groups in a crew mess hall. “Unlike passengers, crew members share their rooms, they share food, and that’s why some of them are infected even after the quarantine started,” said Shigeru Omi, a former regional director for the World Health Organization. ASSOCIATED PRESS Patients infected with the coronavirus take rest at a temporary hospital converted from the Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province on Feb. 17. Omi said quarantine is one of the measures considered effective early on. But the virus has already made its way into local communities across Japan, where untraceable cases have been popping up, he said. At this stage, “the spreading of the virus will be inevitable, and that’s why quarantine is out of the question,” Omi said. He said the focus now should shift from border control to preventing the spread in local communities. Other scientists said that passengers should have been removed from the ship from the beginning. “Boats are notorious places for being incubators for viruses,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the New York University School of Medicine. “It’s only morally justified to keep people on the boat if there are no other options.” Caplan said that a second quarantine was warranted, but that officials had done a poor job of explaining what would happen if their original plan failed. “It’s never good to lose your civil liberties and your rights of movement, but two more weeks of quarantine is not an undue burden if you’re trying to protect spread of a disease,” he said. ___ Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report. RELATED... Virus Claims Life Of Hospital Director In Hard-Hit Wuhan Apple Warns China Virus Will Cut iPhone Production, Sales 14 People Evacuated To U.S. From Japan Test Positive For Coronavirus Sen. 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Two passengers who were onboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise liner have died after being diagnosed with Covid-19, Japan’s health ministry said on Thursday.The victims – the first people connected to the ship to have died – were an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman, both of whom had pre-existing medical conditions, the public broadcaster NHK said, adding that the man had been hospitalised on 11 February and the woman the following day.On Thursday, China reported a steep drop in infections in Hubei province, after changing how it classifies confirmed cases. Hubei, the centre of the outbreak, reported 349 new infections, compared to 1,693 the day before, and the lowest increase since 25 January. There were 394 confirmed new infections across the country, marking the largest drop in almost a month.Across China, authorities reported 114 new deaths as of the end of Wednesday, bringing the total number of officially reported deaths in the country to 2,118.In South Korea, the city of Daegu was placed on high alert after the number of infections centred around the congregation of a “cult” church soared to 38. It is believed that a 61-year-old woman who worships at the controversial Shincheonji Church of Jesus has infected 37 others, a cluster that now accounts for almost half of the country’s 82 cases.Daegu’s mayor said the city was facing an “unprecedented crisis” and ordered the closure of public libraries and kindergartens, while soldiers at Korean and US military bases in the area were confined to barracks. News of the Diamond Princess deaths came as Japanese officials defended the decision to keep all 3,700 passengers and crew on the ship for more than two weeks in an attempt to contain the outbreak.More than 620 passengers on the Diamond Princess have tested positive since the ship went into lockdown in Yokohama on 5 February, two days after it was confirmed that a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong late last month had tested positive.But the day before they were confined to their cabins, ship events continued, including dances, quizzes and an exercise class, even as passengers were undergoing health checks.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Japan’s efforts “may not have been sufficient to prevent transmission among individuals on the ship.”In response, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo released an analysis it said shows that a large portion of infections occurred before the quarantine began, and that secondary transmissions – those that occurred in the past 14 days – were confined mainly to crew members, government officials and health workers not subject to the same restrictions as the passengers.Most of the infected passengers developed symptoms between 6to 9 February, the institute said, while most crew members first showed symptoms from 10 February onwards.While passengers were confined to their cabins, apart from brief, restricted periods on deck, members of the ship’s staff continued to prepare meals and perform other work duties, thereby allowing the virus to spread to colleagues and passengers.“The virus was most likely spread not through coughs and sneezes, but from the food trays an infected crew member carried to the passengers,” Shigeru Sakurai, an Iwate Medical University professor, who inspected the situation onboard last week, told the Kyodo news agency.Conditions on the ship prompted Kentaro Iwata, a specialist in infectious diseases at Kobe University hospital, to condemn disease control measures as “chaotic” and “completely inadequate” in a YouTube video that attracted more than 1 million views.On Thursday, Iwata told reporters he had removed the video after his concerns were addressed by health officials onboard the Diamond Princess, including a strict separation between “clean” and “dirty” areas of the vessel.But he defended his criticisms, and repeated his concern that passengers leaving the ship this week should be placed in “soft quarantine” in case they start to develop symptoms, even though they have tested negative.“The risk is reduced, but there is still a risk,” he told reporters. “People leaving [the ship] should be monitored for at least 14 days and placed in soft isolation, for example, in case they show symptoms.“I haven’t changed my view in terms of the risk of secondary infection onboard. They kept 3,700 people in a box for 14 days, so there was the potential for the virus to spread. Control measures have to be thorough, professional and complete, but I didn’t see that.”In a statement on Thursday, the health ministry defended its measures on the ship, including those designed to prevent transmissions among crew members, such as requiring them to wear mask and gloves while working, washing their hands regularly and eating meals a certain distance from one another.The ministry said it had conducted “consultations on appropriate infection control in the ship” with experts and taken a range of measures.“Unfortunately, cases of infection have emerged, but we have to the extent possible taken appropriate steps to prevent serious cases,” the health minister, Katsunobu Kato, said. “We’ve been doing our best in the circumstances.”While Japanese passengers made their way home on public transport, those from other countries prepared to return on chartered flights.A plane carrying more than 150 Australians landed in Darwin – where they face a further 14 days of quarantine – on Thursday morning, while Indonesia said it was to repatriate 74 nationals onboard the Diamond PrincessThe British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said that about 70 Britons onboard would be flown home on Friday. The US and South Korea have also evacuated their nationals. Other countries, including Canada, have said they will fly passengers home and quarantine them on arrival. In Hong Kong, 106 passengers from the Diamond Princess arrived on Thursday and were sent to a quarantine facility where they will be kept for 14 days.South Korea reported a spike in infections on Thursday, with 23 new cases linked to a church congregation, up from 14 on Wednesday, in what health officials called a “super-spreading event”. A 61-year-old woman known as “Patient 31” is suspected of passing the disease to others who attended religious services at a church in the central city of Daegu.With Lily Kuo Topics Japan Coronavirus outbreak Asia Pacific news

In a video posted last week, a mob of monkeys runs around a city plaza in Thailand. Something gets thrown in the macaques’ midst and they break into a giant brawl.This horde of animals lives in Lopburi, home of the country’s Phra Prang Sam Yot monkey temple. The macaques, which are usually fed by tourists visiting the city, are finding a new scarcity because of the coronavirus. And they’re not alone. Large populations of wild animals are sustained almost entirely on treats handed out by tourists in a variety of Asian countries. But over the past few weeks, the flow of tourists has been reduced to a trickle as a result of quarantines, travel restrictions and a general reduction in visitors put in place to stop the spread of the illness.Now, for better or worse, thousands of animals are being forced to fend for themselves.Although fights between the macaques of Lopburi are not uncommon, a brawl of the magnitude shown in that video suggests that resources are scarce, said Asmita Sengupta, an ecologist at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment in Bangalore, India, who studies the effects of humans feeding macaques, which remain wild animals even if they live in close quarters with people.“The fall in tourist numbers because of Covid-19 may have indeed brought about a shortage of food supply for them,” she said. That shows that feeding the monkeys “can have detrimental effects. Once they get used to being fed by humans, they become habituated to humans and even display hyper-aggression if they are not given food.”The number of tourists from China, Thailand’s biggest source of tourists, fell 85 percent last month, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. And it isn’t the only country where the steep reduction in visitors could be affecting some wildlife.ImageSika deer have been seen roaming the streets of Nara, Japan, as the number of tourists to Nara Park, where they usually live and are fed, has plummeted.Credit...Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty ImagesIn Nara Park, a popular Japanese attraction, tourists line up year-round to feed and take selfies with the park’s large population of sika deer. For only $1.85, visitors can buy a stack of rice crackers to feed the deer, some of which have been trained to bow on command.Over 1,000 deer currently occupy the 1,240-acre park, and they rarely venture outside of its boundaries. However, in the weeks since the Japanese government implemented travel restrictions and began quarantining visitors from China and South Korea, the park has become devoid of tourists and its deer have begun wandering into the city in search of food.In photos and videos posted on Twitter and Weibo, herds of 10 to 15 deer can be seen trotting through city streets and subway stations, dodging traffic and eating people’s potted plants.Although these deer are protected under Japanese law, they face myriad dangers when they roam outside of the park, including being struck by cars or dying from ingesting plastic bags.While some residents of Nara might feel that they should start feeding the deer, that may not be prudent, said Christopher Schell, an urban ecologist at the University of Washington in Tacoma. “The best thing we can do for these animals is to leave them alone,” Dr. Schell said. When people feed wildlife in urban environments, they inadvertently create high densities of animals in places that would otherwise be unable to support them.Whether the recent decline in tourism across Asia will reduce the numbers of deer in Nara or macaques in Lopburi remains to be seen. But Dr. Schell remains optimistic.“Most animals living in urban environments already have flexible diets, so chances are good that a lot of these animals are going to be OK,” he said.

A university in Japan has held a graduation ceremony for students using avatar robots remotely controlled by graduating students from their homes. The avatar robots, dubbed 'Newme,' by developer ANA Holdings, were dressed in graduation caps and gowns for the ceremony, complete with tablets projecting the graduates' faces. Business Breakthrough (BBT) University in Tokyo said it hoped the approach could be used as a model for other schools wishing to avoid large gatherings amid the pandemic. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency for the capital Tokyo and six other prefectures, for a period of about one month Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage

Every so often, our vague awareness of our vulnerability as a species crystallises around a specific threat. At first, we note with unconcern a handful of cases of a new illness, somewhere far away. Soon it begins to spread. The deaths mount. We start to wonder whether we are being complacent rather than sensible, and whether we are living through the early montage in a disaster movie, in which families bicker over breakfast as news reports on the killer virus play unnoticed in the background. Could this be a new pandemic which will sweep the globe killing tens of millions, as Spanish flu once did?The story of the new coronavirus, first reported in Wuhan, China, last month, now seems to be reaching the point where public indifference tips into worry and even fear. It causes pneumonia; Beijing says six people have died and 300 have been infected as it has spread. On Monday, officials confirmed that there was human-to-human transmission. Sales of face masks have soared. Cases have been reported in Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere, though all confirmed incidents involve patients who had been in China. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting.Two other factors fuel the anxieties. The first is that the lunar new year is fast approaching; hundreds of millions of people in China will travel home to celebrate with their families this weekend. The second is China’s handling of the major outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003. Officials covered up the problem for months; it took a courageous doctor to expose its scale. Medical experts believe that some of the 800 deaths worldwide might have been averted had China provided more timely information.China still tightly controls news and social media, suppressing information it considers damaging. Imperial College London researchers estimate that a far higher number of people than reported – around 1,700 – may be affected. Some hospitals may not be testing patients, though it may also be that some patients are not seeking medical treatment. Yet Beijing has responded far more swiftly and strongly than in 2003, and offered much more information. President Xi Jinping has stressed the need for the outbreak to be dealt with and the Chinese political body responsible for law and order has warned officials that those who hide or delay reporting cases “will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity”.Too little information is available to draw firm conclusions about this virus, and its dangers should not be discounted. Its cost has already been felt by the young, the elderly and those with existing medical issues, and there is concern that it could mutate into something worse. But so far, it has not been shown to be as transmissible as Sars, nor to have as high a death rate as Middle East respiratory syndrome, and health experts say China and south-east Asia have much stronger surveillance and reporting procedures following Sars and other epidemics. Meanwhile, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, far less equipped to handle it, remains a serious public health concern, yet garners little attention.Sounding the alarm unnecessarily has dangers of its own. People may fail to pay heed next time, or may overreact this time: tight movement restrictions can be the very thing to make people feel they should flee. Equally, muting discussions can backfire, especially in a world where information, or unfounded rumours, can be shared so quickly. It is essential that Chinese authorities at all levels are open about this outbreak, as well as assiduous in tackling it.The rest of us should watch closely too. New outbreaks are worrying, but give us opportunities to improve our preparation for the next threat, be that through increased spending on research, or an understanding that communication is as essential to disease control as handwashing and vaccines.