Category: World

Washington: Former president Barack Obama has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it an “absolute chaotic disaster”. In a leaked web call Friday night with former members of his administration, Obama also said the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia probe, endangers the rule of law in the US.

In the audio, first obtained by Yahoo News, Obama urges former staffers to join him in rallying behind Joe Biden as he prepares to take on Trump in the November presidential election. The United States by far leads the world in the number of coronavirus infections, at nearly 1.3 million, and deaths, with more than 77,000.

Trump has been criticized as essentially abdicating any leadership role in guiding the country through one of its worst crises in a century, leaving states on their own to grapple with the pandemic and even bid against each other to obtain critical medical equipment on the open market or abroad. Critics say Trump, after first downplaying the threat posed by the virus, squandered precious time in February as the pathogen spread in America and his administration did little to stock up on testing kits and other medical gear or to develop a cohesive national strategy.

With an eye to re-election, the president has also been blasted as putting his own political interests before human life by aggressively pushing states to reopen their devastated economies without a clear blueprint for how to do it safely. “What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy – that has become a stronger impulse in American life,” Obama told his former staffers.

“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty,” Obama said. “It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset – of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ – when that mindset is operationalized in our government,” he said.

Obama said that the dropping of charges against Flynn was ominous. “That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic – not just institutional norms – but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” he said. Obama endorsed Biden’s candidacy last month and has said he would be deeply involved in his campaign against Trump. He told the Obama Alumni Association: “I am hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do.”

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump’s response to the coronavirus “has been unprecedented” and has saved American lives. She harked back to the Ukraine inquiry launched by Democrats in the US House of Representatives last year that led to House passage of articles of impeachment against Trump. The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump early this year.

“While Democrats were pursuing a sham witch hunt against President Trump, President Trump was shutting down travel from China. While Democrats encouraged mass gatherings, President Trump was deploying PPE, ventilators, and testing across the country,” she said.

– Agencies

European countries outscore America when it comes to providing benefits in times of crisis

AP

The COVID-19 pandemic is straining social safety nets across the globe — and underlining sharp differences in approach between wealthy societies such as the United States and Europe. In Europe, the collapse in business activity is triggering wage support programmes that are keeping millions on the job, for now. In contrast, in the United States more than 33.5 million people have applied for jobless benefits and the unemployment rate has soared to 14.7%.

That is a pattern seen in earlier economic downturns, particularly the global financial crisis and the Great Recession. Europe depends on existing programmes kicking in that pump money into people’s pockets. The U.S., on the other hand, relies on Congress taking action by passing emergency stimulus programs, as it did in 2009 under President Barack Obama, and the recent rescue package under President Donald Trump.

Budget policy

Economist Andre Sapir, a senior fellow at the Bruegel research institute in Brussels, said budget policy in the U.S. plays partly the role that Europe’s welfare system plays because the American welfare system is less generous and a recession can be much harsher on workers.

In downturns, U.S. employees can lose their health insurance if they lose their job and there’s also a greater risk of losing one’s home through foreclosure. On the other hand, Europeans typically pay higher taxes, meaning they earn less in the good times. “In the U.S. you need to keep pumping money into the economy so that people continue to be employed, because it is through being employed that they are protected,” said Mr. Sapir.

The U.S. tends to rank below average on measures of social support among the 37 countries of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, whose members are mostly developed democracies. The U.S. came last in people living in relative poverty, meaning living on half the median income or less, with 17.8%. Countries like Iceland, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Finland have less than 6%.

Unemployment benefits

Americans on unemployment were collecting an average of about $372 weekly before the coronavirus struck. By comparison, Germany’s jobless benefit pays 60% of previous salary for a year. France provides up to 75% of the previous average daily wage for up to two years. Unemployment benefits in France are on average €1,200 ($1,320) per month.

And there’s Europe’s short-hours programmes, which pay most of worker salaries if companies put them on shorter hours through a temporary disruption. More than 10 million workers are being paid that way in Germany and about 12 million in France, helping hold eurozone unemployment to only a 0.1 percentage point increase in March over February, to 7.4%.

Nearly half of Americans receive health insurance through their employers, while another 34% get benefits through the government programs Medicare and Medicaid. In Europe, universal health coverage is the rule, generally funded by payroll or other taxes.

Europe’s more generous social safety nets come at a cost, largely paid through taxes levied on workers and employers. In the U.S., Social Security contributions amounted to 6% of GDP in 2018, according to the OECD. In France it was almost three times higher, at 16% of annual GDP, while in Germany it was just over 14%.

When the earth is under lockdown, it’s other citizens (Animals) have taken the responsibility of keeping things in order.

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The first batch of 88 nurses from India arrived in the UAE to help the country’s stretched healthcare professionals amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gulf nation that has crossed 17,000, according to media reports.

The nurses, who are from Aster DM Healthcare hospitals in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be put under quarantine for 14 days after which they will be assigned to various field hospitals as per requirement, the Khaleej Times reported.

(PTI)

Thick black fumes were seen billowing from the Umm Ramool area earlier this morning, with early reports saying a warehouse had caught fire.

The Dubai Civil Defence were quick to respond to the emergency and contain the fire.

Light black smoke can still be seen in the area.

According to last reports the raging fire in Dubai has now been contained.

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AFP

The United States recorded 1,635 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 77,178, according to the latest real-time tally Friday reported by Johns Hopkins University.

The country — hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of the number of fatalities — has now confirmed a total of 12,83,829 cases, the Baltimore-based school reported.

Ivanka Trump’s personal assistant has tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, making her the third White House staff member to be infected from COVID-19, a media report said on Saturday.

The assistant, who works in a personal capacity for U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter, has not been around her in several weeks, the CNN reported.

She has been teleworking for nearly two months and was tested out of caution, the report quoted a source as saying.

She was not symptomatic. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner both tested negative on Friday, the person familiar with the matter told the U.S. news channel. The development comes a day after President Trump confirmed that Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller had tested positive for the coronavirus.

PTI

A military aide of Mr. Trump, whom officials described as a personal valet, tested positive for coronavirus

PTI

After his military aide tested positive for coronavirus, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would undergo the COVID-19 test every day.

A military aide of Mr. Trump, whom officials described as a personal valet, tested positive for coronavirus. The President said he had very little contact with him.

“I have had very little contact, personal contact, with this gentleman. I know who he is. Good person. But I have had very little contact. (Vice President) Mike (Pence) has had very little contact with him. But Mike was tested and I was tested. We were both tested,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House.

Responding to questions, Mr. Trump said he, the Vice President and other staff of the White House would be tested for coronavirus every day.

“I just had a test. In fact, I had one yesterday and one today, and it is negative. Mike just had a test and it is negative,” he said.

“But they do the tests and it just shows you that the fallacy — it is what I have been saying — testing is not a perfect art. No matter what you do, testing is not a perfect art. So we test once a week. Now we are going to go testing once a day. But even when you test once a day, somebody could — something happens where they catch something,” the President said.

The 27-nation EU economy is predicted to contract by 7.5 per cent this year, before growing by about 6 per cent in 2021

PTI

The European Union predicted Wednesday “a recession of historic proportions this year” due to the impact of the coronavirus with a drop in output of more than 7 per cent, as it released its first official forecast of the damage the pandemic is inflicting on the bloc’s economy.

The 27-nation EU economy is predicted to contract by 7.5 per cent this year, before growing by about 6 per cent in 2021.

The group of 19 nations using the euro as their currency will see a record decline of 7.75 per cent this year, and grow by 6.25 per cent in 2021, the European Commission said in its Spring economic forecast.

“Europe is experiencing an economic shock without precedent since the Great Depression,” EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement.

More than 1.1 million people have contracted the virus across Europe and over 137,000 have died, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Unclear outbreak data, low testing rates and the strain on health care systems mean the true scale of the pandemic is much greater.

With the spread slowing in most European countries, people are cautiously venturing out from confinement and gradually returning to work, but strict health measures remain in place amid concern of a second wave of outbreaks and any return to something like normal life is at least months away.

The pandemic has hurt consumer spending, industrial output, investment, trade, capital flows and supply chains. It has also hit jobs.

The unemployment rate across the 27-nation EU is forecast to rise from 6.7 per cent in 2019 to 9 per cent in 2020 but then fall to around 8 per cent in 2021, the commission said.

While the virus hit every member country, the extent of the damage it ultimately inflicts will depend on the evolution of the disease in each of them, the resilience of their economies and what policies they put in place to respond.

Gentiloni said that the depth of the recession and the strength of recovery will be uneven across the world’s biggest trading bloc.

Much will depend, he said, on the speed at which lockdowns can be lifted, the importance of services like tourism in each economy and by each country’s financial resources.

Such divergence poses a threat to the single market and the euro area – yet it can be mitigated through decisive, joint European action.

How quickly things can change.

On February 13, the commission had predicted a path of steady, moderate growth this year and next of 1.2 per cent.

At that time, uncertainty over U.S. trade policy and a Brexit trade deal plus tensions in Latin America and the Middle East were the main threats.

The coronavirus outbreak in China was noted at the time as a new downside risk but the commission’s assumption less than three months ago was that the outbreak peaks in the first quarter, with relatively limited global spillovers.