Before the coronavirus outbreak, a Beijing technology company was already working to integrate autonomous vehicles into daily life in China. They produced pint-sized sidewalk sweepers and delivery robots, but there is now a demand to repurpose the technology to take the place of workers who are staying home in the hopes of containing the virus. Matt Dibble reports.
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Month: March 2020
Fred “Curly” Neal, the dribbling wizard who entertained millions with the Harlem Globetrotters for parts of three decades, has died. He was 77. The Globetrotters said Neal died in his home outside of Houston on Thursday morning. “We have lost one of the most genuine human beings the world has ever known,” Globetrotters general manager Jeff Munn said in a statement on Twitter. “Curly’s basketball skill was unrivaled by most, and his warm heart and huge smile brought joy to families worldwide.” Neal played for the Globetrotters from 1963-85, appearing in more than 6,000 games in 97 countries for the exhibition team known for its combination of comedy and athleticism. He became one of five Globetrotters to have his jersey retired when his No. 22 was lifted to the rafters during a special ceremony at Madison Square Garden in 2008. ‘Crowd favorite’Neal was a crowd favorite with his trademark shaved head, infectious smile and ability to dribble circles around would-be defenders. He was a key player during the Globetrotters’ most popular era in the ’70s and ’80s, appearing on TV shows and specials like “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Love Boat” and “Gilligan’s Island.” Neal and the Globetrotters also appeared in numerous TV commercials, episodes of “Scooby-Doo” and had their own cartoon series. “Hard to express how much joy Curly Neal brought to my life growing up. RIP to a legend,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr tweeted. ‘Ambassador of Goodwill’Neal was a star high school player in Greensboro, North Carolina, and led Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association title after averaging 23 points per game as a senior. He was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in a 2008 class that included North Carolina coach Roy Williams. Neal also was inducted into the Globetrotters’ Legends ring in 1993 and continued to make appearances for them as an “Ambassador of Goodwill.”
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The Louvre is closed tight, but visitors can still see its most popular masterpieces — including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa — without being sandwiched between selfie-snapping tourists.
The Berlin Philharmonic is similarly shuttered, but classical music buffs can relive Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, under chief conductor Kirill Petrenko’s baton. The Berlin Philharmonic’s website announcing its temporary closure and offering free online concerts. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)And anyone stuck at home and longing for some exercise can log into the Dutch National Ballet’s dance class on YouTube.As the coronavirus forces Europe’s cultural institutions under lockdown, artistic expression is nonetheless thriving — online and free of charge.From a virtual tour of the Gustav Klimt paintings at Austria’s Belvedere Museum to chamber music livestreamed by the Bavarian State Opera to rock, jazz and amateur balcony concerts in Italy, the offerings amount to a massive, movable feast.Yet even as the pandemic indirectly opens new opportunities for creative expression and expansion of audiences, it is delivering a financial tsunami to the industry. “For a lot of museums, it’s a very sad moment. And for private museums, it’s an economic tragedy, because they can’t sell tickets,” and in many cases, they can’t access public emergency funds, said David Vuillaume, executive board chairman of the Berlin-based Network of European Museum Organizations. More than entertainment But Vuillaume also points to a raft of museums now promoting online visits, thanks to technology as ubiquitous as a smartphone.“Right now, visiting a museum online is entertainment for those with time on their hands,” he said. “But I think art can really help people to go further, to think about very important values for the community and society.” The Paris Philharmonic is seeing new audiences joining its online concerts under France’s lockdown. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)In the French capital, the Paris Philharmonie has joined European counterparts in rebroadcasting some of its greatest concerts. “A concert is different than just going online to find music. You really feel the atmosphere and the tension. It’s an activity families can share,” said Hugues de Saint Simon, the Philharmonie’s secretary-general. The philharmonic has seen new audiences accessing the virtual concerts, “and when they come to Paris, they may go to a real concert,” he added.Still, the lockdowns are devastating Europe’s cultural industry, despite a smattering of financial lifelines to date. French cinemas across the country are shut because of coronavirus. (Lisa Bryant/VOA) The Italian government, for instance, approved $143 million in emergency aid for the country’s film and TV sector. In France, Culture Minister Franck Riester, who contracted coronavirus, announced an initial $24 million for culture.Industry members say such sums are a small fraction of what will be needed, although the size of the impact will depend on how long the lockdowns and the pandemic last.“It’s going to be tough,” said de Saint Simon. “The major point for us is what to do so artists are not too fragilized.”The Philharmonie has reimbursed audiences for canceled concerts, but compensation for guest orchestras and others is unclear. Most events cannot be rescheduled; the next season already is planned out.And while the French government promises to cover losses, “we’re not sure exactly how and when,” de Saint Simon said. Coronavirus has shut down Europe’s cultural institutions like this Paris cinema, but audiences are finding a raft of offerings online. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)Financial hit Vuillaume of the European museums network said he also was worried about the financial hit, especially on freelance workers.“It could be very hard for them in the coming weeks,” he said.For Paris-based actress and dancer Claire Tran, France’s lockdown that started mid-March came as a shock. It caught her wrapping up final rehearsals for a lyrical opera at the Champs-Elysees Theater. Hours later, she got notice the show was off.“I honestly did not imagine for a second that we would shut down,” she said. “I was hoping we would do the show in front of fewer people, but it would go on.”Tran has been promised full compensation, but friends working at smaller, less prestigious venues may not get paid for canceled performances.Her homebound colleagues are now powering up computers and smartphones to express themselves. “The principle is solidarity,” Tran noted. “They’re offering classes and artistic pieces on social media and Zoom for free, because nobody is making money right now. There’s a good spirit in all of this.”
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Baseball stadiums across the U.S. were uncharacteristically empty and silent Thursday — no cheers, no beers, no jeers for the umpires. The coronavirus outbreak forced Major League Baseball to cancel the springtime tradition of Opening Day, when teams play the first of what are supposed to be 162 games for the right to go to the World Series in October. The 30 big league teams canceled the last two weeks of spring training and originally pushed opening day from March 26 until April 9. But with social distancing, nationwide lockdowns and no clear sign the coronavirus outbreak will ease anytime soon, baseball has postponed the 2020 season indefinitely, at a cost of what is likely to be billions of dollars. “Our primary concern isn’t preparing for the baseball season,” Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto told reporters. “It’s making sure we stay as healthy as we can and that we’re doing our part in a public health crisis to not spread this thing any further than it already has or will.” The bars from the closed gate cast long shadows into Coors Field, the home of MLB’s Colorado Rockies, as a stay-at-home order takes effect to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, March 26, 2020, in Denver.Baseball officials have been considering a number of ways to salvage the season if and when it gets under way, including shortened games and more double-headers to play as complete a season as possible. They could also extend games into October, meaning the World Series could be played in winterlike temperatures or perhaps a neutral site in a warmer city. “As soon we can go, we all want to go play baseball,” Baltimore Orioles general manager Mike Elias said. “I think it will mean a lot to the country when we’re back playing baseball again, too. So the sooner the better.” And not just for fans and players — the sooner the better for stadium workers who take tickets, sell food and souvenirs, and maintain the parks. Each of the 30 teams has committed $1 million to cover the lost wages for stadium workers, but that will not help the restaurants, hotels, food vendors and parking lots in surrounding neighborhoods. For now, fans have to grill their own hot dogs, pour their own beer, pop their own corn and be content with replays of classic games many teams are offering online until the words “play ball” ring out again.
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A restaurant in Vietnam has created a way for its customers to “take a bite” out of the coronavirus that has disrupted much of the world — by serving burgers designed to look like the actual virus.Hanoi pizza shop owner and chef Hoang Tung said he wanted to make something that would make people happy when they came to eat in his restaurant. So he fashioned a hamburger bun with characteristic bumps and protrusions resembling those found on the microscopic virus itself, then added herbal powders to give it a greenish tinge and baked it. Meat and garnishes complete the corona burger.Burger buns shaped like a coronavirus are seen prior to being baked at a restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 25, 2020.Tung said that since he introduced the burger Monday, he has sold about 50 a day, and that it seems to make his customers happy. Customers have said that eating a burger shaped like the virus makes them feel like they have somehow beaten it.The French news agency AFP said Hanoi residents seeking to try the burger would soon have to take it home to try it. As part of their fight against the virus, Vietnamese officials have ordered all entertainment businesses, including bars and restaurants, to close Saturday, allowing only takeout service. They have also banned all gatherings of more than 20 people.
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Neil Diamond posts a fireside rendition of “Sweet Caroline” with its familiar lyrics tweaked to say, “Hands … washing hands.” A news anchor asks when social distancing will end because “my husband keeps trying to get into the house.” And a sign outside a neighborhood church reads: “Had not planned on giving up quite this much for Lent.”
Are we allowed to chuckle yet? We’d better, psychologists and humorists say. Laughter can be the best medicine, they argue, so long as it’s within the bounds of good taste. And in a crisis, it can be a powerful coping mechanism.
“It’s more than just medicine. It’s survival,” said Erica Rhodes, a Los Angeles comedian.
“Even during the Holocaust, people told jokes,” Rhodes said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “Laughter is a symbol of hope, and it becomes one of our greatest needs of life, right up there with toilet paper. It’s a physical need people have. You can’t underestimate how it heals people and gives them hope.”
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
Those are scary words and scary prospects. But history has shown that its heaviest moments are often leavened by using humor and laughter as conscious choices — ways to cope when other things aren’t working as expected.
“There’s so much fear and horror out there. All the hand washing in the world isn’t going to clear up your head,” said Loretta LaRoche, a suburban Boston stress management consultant who’s using humor to help people defuse the anxiety the pandemic has wrought.
“Some people will say this is not a time for laughter. The bottom line is, there is always a time for laughter,” LaRoche said. “We have 60,000 thoughts a day and many of them are very disturbing. Laughter helps the brain relax.”
That explains why social media feeds are peppered with coronavirus-themed memes, cartoons and amusing personal anecdotes.
Here’s Diamond posting a video of himself singing “Sweet Caroline” with the lyrics altered to say: “Hands … washing hands … don’t touch me … I won’t touch you.”
There’s Fox News anchor Julie Banderas tweeting: “How long is this social distancing supposed to last? My husband keeps trying to get into the house.”
And over here, see novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, sharing a photo of herself eating lunch in her wedding dress after her kids asked her to wear it “and I couldn’t think of a reason not to.”
For centuries, laughter in tough times has been cathartic, said Wayne Maxwell, a Canadian psychologist who has done extensive research on “gallows humor.” The term originated in medieval Britain, where hangings took place in parks near pubs and patrons told jokes at the victims’ expense.
“Even in some of the writings of ancient Egypt, there are descriptions of military personnel returning from the front lines and using humor to cope,” said Maxwell, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
But, he warns, there exists a kind of comedy continuum: While humor can helpfully lighten things up, too much laughter and flippancy can signal a person is trying to escape from reality.
There are also questions of taste. No one wants to poke fun at medical misery or death. Quarantining and social distancing, though, are fair game, and self-deprecating humor is almost always safe — though LaRoche cautions that humor, like beauty, is always in the eye of the beholder.
“It all depends on how your brain functions,” she said. “Give yourself permission to find humor. It’s almost like a spiritual practice, finding ways to laugh at yourself.”
For those millions of parents struggling to work from home and teach their housebound children, she’s preaching to the choir. Witness this widely shared meme: a photo of an elderly, white-haired woman with the caption: “Here’s Sue. 31 years old, home schooling her kids for the last 5 days. Great job Sue. Keep it up.”
Michael Knight, a 29-year-old musician and a caseworker for people with mental disabilities, has been breaking the tension by posting memes like: “They said a mask and gloves were enough to go to the grocery store. They lied. Everyone else had clothes on.”
“It helps me decompress,” said Knight, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. “It kind of offsets the paralyzing effects of the bogeyman that is the pandemic.”
Rhodes, who’s out more than $30,000 after three festivals and her first taped special were canceled, is trying to see the humor in her own predicament.
She recently posted iPhone video of herself pretending to work a nonexistent crowd on an outdoor stage she happened upon during a walk. “How’s everyone not doing?” she cracks.
“The best material comes from a place that’s very truthful and somewhat dark,” Rhodes said.
Her prediction: When life eventually edges back to normal, “Saturday Night Live” and the latest Netflix standup specials will be powered by quarantine humor.
“Just a month ago, who would have appreciated being given a roll of toilet paper?” she said. “I mean, the whole world is upside down.”
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A Virginia man is doing his part to help medical workers caring for people with COVID-19. Jeremy Filko is using his 3-D printer to create plastic mask shields for doctors, nurses and other first responders. Due to a shortage, some medical workers are being asked to reuse their N95 medical face masks, which are usually discarded after one use. “Everybody heard about the huge shortages,” Filko says. “So, I wanted to help them have a higher probability of not having a mask get soiled.” WATCH VIDEO:Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Jeremy Filko of Virginia uses his 3D printer to produce mask shields for health workers. (Photo courtesy of Jeremy Filko)Filko says 114 other people across the country who also have 3-D printers, have joined him in the effort to make the mask shields. “And that is probably the single most warming thing, is reaffirming my belief — which I’ve struggled with in the past — that people really want to come together,” Filko says. “There’s a lot more that holds us together than pulls us apart.”
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Rubber glove makers in Malaysia, the world’s top supplier of medical gloves, are warning of a global shortage owing to the government’s partial lockdown of the country, just as coronavirus-driven demand is soaring worldwide.Malaysia meets more than half of global demand for the gloves.The country, however, has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, at 1,796. It issued a “movement control order” March 18 and extended it Wednesday through April 14 in hopes of slowing its infection rate. International and domestic travel is restricted, and nonessential businesses have been ordered closed.The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association said March 25 that with the lockdown’s orders that factories operate with no more than half their usual workforce, even with extra overtime, “there could be a chronic shortage of medical gloves in the battle to contain and suppress the COVID-19 coronavirus worldwide.”Association president Denis Low said the factory owners were lobbying the International Trade and Industry Ministry to let them return to full capacity and would meet with ministry officials March 26.”We have to operate fully simply because we need to take care of Malaysia, firstly, and we need to take care of the world. We are the largest producer and we feel it is … our duty to save humanity, and we are going to do that,” he told VOA.Low said the association’s roughly 200 factories churned out 187 billion gloves last year and were expecting the coronavirus outbreak to swell demand by 20% or more. While some factories were compensating for the staffing cuts by speeding up the production process, he estimated that typical daily production numbers were still down 20% to 30%.He disputed a claim that some factories were breaking the government’s order to cut staff by 50%.Andy Hall, a labor rights activist with extensive experience in Malaysia, told VOA that he had spoken with workers at some of the country’s glove factories March 25 who said that most of their colleagues were back on the job already.”I wouldn’t know about that,” Low said of the claim.”We have to abide by the government instructions. If they say it’s 50% less [staff], then we will have 50% less staff working. In fact, I believe a lot of our members are practicing that now for the moment,” he said.Soldiers in face masks maintain a checkpoint in Putrajaya, Malaysia, March 22, 2020. Malaysian government issued a movement order to the public starting from March 18 until March 31 to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.Matthew Griffith, an epidemiologist for the World Health Organization’s regional office in Manila, said a rubber glove shortage would add to the challenges health care workers face in sourcing supplies to fight the coronavirus.”It’s just one more difficulty for all of us. We’ve had difficulties getting masks, we’ve had difficulties getting reagents and extraction kits for laboratory testing, and so now we’re going to have more difficulty getting gloves,” he said.”We do need these things. We do need to protect our health care workers. So you can imagine if health care workers run out of gloves and run out of masks and goggles, pretty soon they get sick. And then if they’re sick, they’re out of the hospitals, they’re out of the health care facilities, and we have a pretty dire situation on our hands.”The U.S., at least, is boosting its own rubber glove supplies by lifting an import ban on one of Malaysia’s main producers, WRP Asia Pacific.The U.S. government banned the company’s imports in October over concerns that its factory was using forced labor. It said Tuesday it had lifted the so-called withhold release order the day before “based on recent information … showing the company is no longer producing the rubber gloves under forced labor conditions.”WRP exported $80 million worth of rubber gloves to the U.S. in 2018 and was the first Southeast Asian company to be hit with a withhold release order by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.Reports of human trafficking and labor abuse among Malaysia’s many migrant workers, who make up the bulk of the local rubber glove industry’s workforce, have been rife for years.Hall said conditions have gradually improved but added that debt bondage linked to exorbitant recruitment fees reaching thousands of dollars remains common at WRP and elsewhere. He disputed the U.S. claim that the company is free of forced labor because many of its employees still owe large sums to the recruitment agencies that landed them the jobs.He said he nonetheless supported the U.S. decision to lift the ban because WRP had promised to use future sales to reimburse its workers for past recruitment fees. However, he said the timing of the decision was “surely a political and practical decision” to help shore up U.S. rubber glove supplies amid the coronavirus outbreak and expressed worry that Malaysia’s many buyers in the West and elsewhere may start to ease the labor rights controls in their supply chains to meet growing demands.”In a crisis, migrants are often left behind, and people cite the emergency first, protection and social compliance later,” he said.Neither Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Ministry nor U.S. Customs and Border Protection replied to requests for comment.
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The coronavirus has shut down movie theaters and postponed movie releases in the two largest film markets in the world, the U.S. and China.The film industry in the two countries has become more closely tied in recent years, and the economic impact of the coronavirus in one country will be felt in the other as well.“China’s and the U.S.’ film industries are very closely entwined,” said Aynne Kokas, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of “Hollywood Made in China”.Moviegoers in China are the fastest growing in the world, especially when high-tech movie theaters have opened in third- and fourth-tier cities. Hollywood wants a piece of it.“Hollywood studios are increasingly making their films for the consideration of the Chinese market,” Kokas said.A Hollywood filming in Beverly Hills before California issued the order for people to stay at home. It was a common sight in Los Angeles but not any more due to the pandemic. (Elizabeth Lee/VOA)One film, “Mulan”, with Chinese actors, was one anticipated film that Disney had hoped would make a big splash in China. However, the coronavirus has put on hold the movie’s premiere in China and the U.S.Besides Hollywood collaborating with China, there have also been co-productions and Chinese companies investing in Hollywood films such upcoming film, “Top Gun: Maverick” slated to be released in June.“What we’re seeing is an increase in Chinese investment in Hollywood studio films. So, companies you may have heard of like Ali Baba or Tencent are actually investing in films,” said Kokas.The shutting down of theaters and productions in both countries will have far reaching economic implications. Kokas expects to “see a pullback of outbound capital investment from the Chinese government” which will likely limit Chinese investment in Hollywood.Actress Yifei Liu, right, and Director Niki Caro, left, pose for photographers upon arrival at the European Premiere of ‘Mulan’ at a central London cinema, March 12, 2020.The political tension between both countries is another factor.China is expelling journalists from The Washington Post, New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The announcement came after the White House, earlier in March, limited the number of Chinese citizens who can work in the United States for five state-run Chinese news organizations.In the midst of growing political animosity and economic impact caused by the closing of theaters, some studios in both countries are looking at streaming as an alternative to salvage their financial losses.China’s Huanxi Media has made its tent-pole movie “Lost in Russia’ online for free.Universal will release “Trolls World Tour” to video-on-demand.Justin Timberlake attends a photo-call for the movie ‘Trolls World Tour’ in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 17, 2020.Universal is also making movies that are currently supposed to be in theaters such as “Invisible Man” available for rent on streaming services.“You can’t do that. It’s not sustainable over the long term to do that. It’s not good for theaters, and it’s not good for the studios either, because theatrical is really where the money has been,” said University of Southern California Political Science and International Relations professor and China film industry expert, Stanley Rosen.However, after a long period of closed theaters and fears of getting sick may alter consumer behavior.“Will people actually go back to movie theaters? We’ve already seen an overall softening of movie theater attendance because there are so many in-home entertainment options.” Kokas continued, “my sense is that we may be seeing an overarching shift in certain consumer behaviors.”“I’ve looked at surveys posted on the Chinese Internet. Some large-scale surveys of thousands of people from 70 different cities and over 50% say they’re reluctant to go back to the theaters. People in the survey have said that “I’m very happy to be at home just to stream things.” It’s a wake-up call, and I think it will accelerate the importance of streaming,” Rosen said.What this means to the bottom line of film industries in China and the U.S. will depend on how long life is put to a screeching halt.With a backlog of films put on hold in China, even when Chinese theaters open again across the country, Hollywood would have a tough time trying to enter the market.“Hollywood is going to have a tough time competing particularly in this U.S. China relationship situation where China is going to want to promote their own films and not promote Hollywood films. That’s another thing that’s really hurt Hollywood,” said Rosen.
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The coronavirus pandemic has shut down movie theaters and caused movie releases to be postponed in the U.S. and China, the two largest film markets in the world. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has details on how the pandemic is affecting moviegoers and movie producers in both countries.
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In Uganda, authorities have confirmed five new cases of COVID-19, among them an eight-month-old baby and two Chinese nationals who left their quarantine. Ugandan officials are trying to raise awareness of the coronavirus, including one well-known opposition lawmaker who, not surprisingly, issued his warning in song.Legislator and musician Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, is attempting to spread awareness of the deadly coronavirus.His musical message: everyone is a potential victim, everyone is a potential solution, and do not underestimate the danger. Like a majority of Ugandans and others around the world, Wine is staying indoors with his family and he tells VOA, it’s not easy.“Well, like everybody else, am struggling, laughs,” said Kyagulanyi. “Because it’s not very easy to have kids home when you’re not earning especially in our Uganda where it is mainly from hand to mouth. But we try to manage under the circumstances.”In the last two weeks, President Yoweri Museveni has addressed the nation four times through the national broadcaster, urging people to stay indoors, keep social distance and wash their hands to keep the virus at bay.Wine tells VOA, this is the time especially for musicians like him to use their talents for humanity.“We must use all the tools that we have to communicate,” said Kyagulanyi. “Music is a very powerful means of communication and it’s not only communication but it also deals with matters of stress with different people out there who are confined, who are self-quarantined.”A general view shows St. Paul’s Cathederal in Namirembe hill, amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kampala, Uganda, March 22, 2020.Uganda has so far registered 14 cases of COVID-19. Most of them had traveled recently.Dr. Henry Mwebesa, the director of general health services in the Ministry of Health, said the cases include a 63-year-old man who traveled from Germany and a 57-year-old man dealing in the salt trade at the Uganda-South Sudan border.“The third case is actually an eight-month-old baby, a Ugandan, whose father travelled from Kisumu in Kenya about a week earlier,” said Mwebesa. “The two other cases were two Chinese who traveled from Guangzhou and Linyang who have been currently under quarantine. They are part of six Chinese, I think somehow they escaped out of quarantine and tried to cross to DRC via Zombo district.”To date, a total of 2,261 travelers, including Ugandans, have been identified as potential risks and are under quarantine.All of Uganda’s first eight COVID-19 case patients are reported to be in stable condition.Meanwhile, Bobi Wine reminds Ugandans to be aware of the danger.“The Coronavirus is sweeping over mankind, everybody must be alert. It’s a global pandemic we cannot afford to ignore you better watch for yourself. Yes man, this is Bobi Wine himself. Watch out for the coronavirus, you can be a very important in stopping the spread of the coronavirus,” he sings.For now, as more Ugandans adapt to their new, isolated lifestyles, they at least have a song that gives them courage to hold on.
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The State Department has advised against all international travel because of the coronavirus, but that didn’t stop Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from flying to Afghanistan this week.
Gyms across the nation’s capital are shuttered, but Sen. Rand Paul, an eye doctor, still managed a workout at the Senate on Sunday morning as he awaited the results of a coronavirus test. It came back positive.
The guidance against shaking hands? That hasn’t always applied to President Donald Trump, whose penchant for pressing the flesh continued even after public health officials in his administration were warning that such bodily contact could facilitate the spread of the contagious virus. Practice social distancing? Daily White House briefings involve Trump and other senior officials crowded around a podium.
Even as the country has largely hunkered down, heeding the guidance of health experts and the directives of state leaders, some powerful people in Washington have defied preventative measures aimed at curbing the spread. Their business-as-usual actions are at odds with the restrictions everyday Americans find themselves under — and with the government’s own messaging.
Some human behavior experts say the “do as I say, not as I do”‘ ethos seemingly on display is common among powerful officials, who may be inclined to think rules for the general public don’t apply to them in the same way or who can easily disassociate their own actions from what they say is best for others.
“When we have high power, we think of ourselves as exceptional as if the rules don’t apply to us,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who has researched behavior and decision-making. “We’re much more prone to do what we want because we don’t feel constrained in the way that less powerful people do.”
In Pompeo’s case, the State Department says the unannounced trip — coming amid a near-global travel shutdown — was necessary and urgent because of political turmoil in Afghanistan that U.S. officials fear could threaten a recent U.S.-Taliban peace deal that calls for American troop withdrawals. Pompeo left Kabul on Monday without being able to secure a power-sharing deal.
People traveling with Pompeo had their temperatures taken and were given small plastic bags containing a face mask, hand sanitizer, bleach wipes and mini-disposable thermometers. A State Department medical official told reporters that Pompeo and his staff would not be quarantining themselves because Afghanistan is not considered a high-risk country for the virus and because Pompeo’s movements on the trip were controlled.
But some of the behavior by other officials has drawn rebukes.
Asked in a Science Magazine interview about Trump shaking hands, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he tells White House staff that “we should not be doing that. Not only that — we should be physically separating a bit more on those press conferences.”
Several senators, meanwhile, scolded Paul for refusing to self-quarantine after he’d been tested, with the doctor overseeing the government’s coronavirus response suggesting the Kentucky Republican’s actions fell short of model “personal responsibility.” More than two dozen senators are in their 70s and 80s, putting them at high risk if exposed.
Still, despite risk to senators and the fact that gyms across the country have been closed as a precaution, Paul and other senators were able to continue going to the Senate gym, using a keypad for access.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in an interview with Newsy that Paul’s actions were “irresponsible” and that senators in general have been acting as if they were somehow immune to getting sick. He cited what he said was a “photo opp” for senators held over the weekend.
“I think that senators must think that they’re invincible,” Brown said.
Paul, a proud civil libertarian, said he had thought it “highly unlikely” he was sick before getting the test results and had no symptoms of the illness. He said he did not have contact with anyone who tested positive for the virus or was sick. He was at the Senate gym Sunday morning, though Paul’s staff says he left the Capitol as soon as he received the results.
Asked about Paul, Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said people can spread the virus while being asymptomatic, so social distancing is imperative. She noted that she herself stayed home over the weekend when she felt ill. She took a coronavirus test that came back negative.
“These are the kinds of things that we have to do for one another. This is the personal responsibility that I’m talking about that we all have to practice,” Birx said.
Trump raised eyebrows among public health specialists when he methodically shook the hands of retail and health industry specialists at a Rose Garden news conference two weeks ago. He acknowledged Monday that shaking hands has been a hard habit for him to break, having become accustomed as president to doing so with “literally thousands of people a week.”
Even now, he stands close to other officials at daily White House briefings, including Vice President Mike Pence. By contrast, Defense Secretary Mark Esper began separating from his deputy this month as a precaution.
Itzhak Yanovitzky, a Rutgers University communications professor, said senior officials or people in positions of power frequently separate their public behavior from their private, especially if they think they have greater control over their circumstances compared to strangers. Doctors, for instance, may not always follow their own recommendations to their patients if they think they have better control over their illnesses.
In times of crisis, most people look to health experts as the ultimate authority, Yanovitzky said in an email. But for the segment of the population already disinclined to take the risk seriously, inconsistencies between what people say and do risk undermining the recommendations and mandates of the public health community, he said.
“The problem,” said Schweitzer, the Wharton professor, “is that the mixed messages sow confusion, and it seems disorganized, undisciplined, chaotic.”
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Neighbors on British street this week pulled together to help an eight-year-old girl celebrate her birthday after coronavirus lockdown regulations left her stuck in her house. The entire street in a Southhampton neighborhood Wednesday sang “Happy Birthday” out their windows for the girl — named “Sophia” — who stood outside her home in tears as she listened. Cell phone video of the serenade was shared heavily on social media in Britain. The British government Monday banned gatherings of more than two people — unless they’re from the same household — and told everyone apart from essential workers to leave home only to buy food and medicines or to exercise.
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A U.S. cybersecurity firm said Wednesday it has detected a surge in new cyberspying by a suspected Chinese group dating back to late January, when coronavirus was starting to spread outside China.
FireEye Inc. said in a report it had spotted a spike in activity from a hacking group it dubs “APT41” that began on Jan. 20 and targeted more than 75 of its customers, from manufacturers and media companies to healthcare organizations and nonprofits.
There were “multiple possible explanations” for the spike in activity, said FireEye Security Architect Christopher Glyer, pointing to long-simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade and more recent clashes over the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 17,000 people since late last year.
The report said it was “one of the broadest campaigns by a Chinese cyber espionage actor we have observed in recent years.”
FireEye declined to identify the affected customers. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not directly address FireEye’s allegations but said in a statement that China was “a victim of cybercrime and cyberattack.” The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined comment.
FireEye said in its report that APT41 abused recently disclosed flaws in software developed by Cisco, Citrix and others to try to break into scores of companies’ networks in the United States, Canada, Britain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and more than a dozen other countries.
Cisco said in an email it had fixed the vulnerability and it was aware of attempts to exploit it, a sentiment echoed by Citrix, which said it had worked with FireEye to help identify “potential compromises.”
Others have also spotted a recent uptick in cyber-espionage activity linked to Beijing.
Matt Webster, a researcher with Secureworks – Dell Technologies’ cybersecurity arm – said in an email that his team had also seen evidence of increased activity from Chinese hacking groups “over the last few weeks.”
In particular, he said his team had recently spotted new digital infrastructure associated with APT41 – which Secureworks dubs “Bronze Atlas.”
Tying hacking campaigns to any specific country or entity is often fraught with uncertainty, but FireEye said it had assessed “with moderate confidence” that APT41 was composed of Chinese government contractors.
FireEye’s head of analysis, John Hultquist, said the surge was surprising because hacking activity attributed to China has generally become more focused.
“This broad action is a departure from that norm,” he said.
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South Korea, which has been among the best in the world at coronavirus testing, has agreed to provide the United States with badly needed test kits. Seoul says U.S. President Donald Trump asked South Korea for the coronavirus help on Tuesday. As VOA’s Bill Gallo reports, Trump’s request comes at a tense moment in U.S.-South Korea relations.
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Hand sanitizer is one of the products Americans have been stockpiling during the coronavirus outbreak and that’s left many store shelves empty of the product. That shortage is prompting companies like a small distillery in Falls Church, Virginia, to find creative ways to help.Instead of producing whiskey, gin or vodka, Falls Church Distillers is busy making high-alcohol-content hand sanitizers. “We’ve pivoted into making sanitization,” says Michael Paluzzi, founder of Falls Church Distillers. “It’s the same type of process we’re using the same whiskeys, our base spirits, that we would use to make a lot of our other products.” Falls Church Distillers outside of Washington, D.C., is producing high-alcohol-content hand sanitizer to help keep up with high demand.But production depends on access to raw materials. “We’re producing about 300 gallons of sanitizer right now,” Paluzzi says. “We could easily do that every day if we could get the supplies. We can only get supplies every couple of [days, every] three days, because there’s not many truckers on the road.” Distillery workers say they’re happy to shift their business model because it helps the local community while also keeping them employed. “I went on Amazon just to look at what was available on Amazon and it looks like people are ripping everyone off,” says employee Kallie Stavros. “So it’s nice to just kind of help the local community and still have a job. Actually, I feel really lucky right now.” Locals appreciate the effort. “Well I know he’d probably like to be making something other than sanitizer here,” says customer Matthew Quinn, “but now this is a great idea that, you know, to fill a void in the marketplace and to have small businesses set up and work together to get this done.” Falls Church Distillers founder Michael Paluzzi (left) with employee Kallie Stavros, making hand sanitizer rather than their usual alcoholic drink products.Paluzzi says it is essential to boost people’s morale and not take advantage of their fears by gouging prices.”The price right now is important to us,” he says. “That was a very, very important thing to us — to not gouge. You’re seeing people buy up toilet paper or hand sanitizer, and then trying to charge exorbitant prices for that. That is part of what we were battling here, plus the need, and plus the reasonableness of fulfilling that need.” How long the company’s new direction might last is up in the air.“This will keep us busy for a while I am sure,” says Stavros. “As long as there is a need for the hand sanitizer, more than likely for the next few months — the ways it is looking like — we will be here.” Falls Church Distillers is currently selling its sanitizers for $29 a gallon which, according to Paluzzi, is nearly half of the market price. The company also promises to set aside 5,000 ounces in 5-ounce bottles to give away for free. “I think all of us are trying to do what we can,” says customer Quinn. “I think seeing small businesses step up and provide this type of service is fantastic.”
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Terrence McNally, one of America’s great playwrights whose prolific career included winning Tony Awards for the plays “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Master Class” and the musicals “Ragtime” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” has died of complications from the coronavirus. He was 81.McNally died Tuesday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, according to representative Matt Polk. McNally was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic inflammatory lung disease.His plays and musicals explored how people connect — or fail to. With wit and thoughtfulness, he tackled the strains in families, war and relationships and probed the spark and costs of creativity. He was an openly gay writer who wrote about homophobia, love and AIDS.”I like to work with people who are a lot more talented and smarter than me, who make fewer mistakes than I do, and who can call me out when I do something lazy,” he told LA Stage Times in 2013. “A lot of people stop learning in life, and that’s their tragedy.”McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” about two married couples who spend a weekend on Fire Island, was a landmark play about AIDS. His play “The Ritz” became one of the first plays with unapologetic gay characters to reach a mainstream audience.McNally also explored gay themes in the book for the musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” for which he won his first Tony Award. His play “Love! Valour! Compassion!” earned him another Tony Award for its portrayal of eight gay men facing issues of fidelity, love and happiness.”Theater changes hearts, that secret place where we all truly live,” he said at the 2019 Tony Awards, where he accepted a lifetime achievement award. “The world needs artists more than ever to remind us what truth and beauty and kindness really are.”F. Murray Abraham, the Oscar-winner who appeared on Broadway in “The Ritz” said of McNally: “His plays are a pleasure to do, but what he says is important, too. And he’s like a fountain he keeps on writing and writing and writing.”Tributes poured in online from Broadway figures, including from fellow playwrights Paula Vogel, who called McNally “the soul of kindness” and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who called McNally “a giant in our world, who straddled plays and musicals deftly.” Actor Conrad Ricamora describe McNally as “the most kind, brilliant person to work with” and talk show host James Corden tweeted: “He was an absolute gentleman and his commitment to the theater was unwavering. He will be missed by so many of us.”Composer Tom Kitt, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Next to Normal,” told The Associated Press he considers McNally “irreplaceable.” “Terrence was an extraordinary man and a brilliant artist,” Kitt said. “He’s a true giant in our art form, and he will be missed and we are lucky that we had him and had his art for as long as we did.”In 2018 McNally was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He won four Tonys and an Emmy. New York University gave him an honorary doctorate in 2019.Andrew D. Hamilton, president of New York University, told the crowd that day that McNally put a “unique stamp on American drama by probing the urgent need for connection that resonates at the core of human experience.”Some of his Broadway musical adaptations include “The Full Monty,” adapted from the British film and scored by David Yazbek; “Catch Me if You Can,” based on the Steven Spielberg film, and scored by composer Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman; and “Ragtime,” the musical based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, which won four Tony Awards. In 2017, his musical reworking of the film “Anastasia” landed on Broadway.His 2014 Broadway play “Mothers and Sons” — revisiting McNally’s 1990 TV movie “Andre’s Mother,” which won him an Emmy Award — explores the relationship between a mother and her dead son’s former gay partner. His “It’s Only a Play” was a valentine to theater-making. His “The Visit” was a meditation on revenge.McNally was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, listening to radio broadcasts of “The Green Hornet” and the Metropolitan Opera. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1960 with a degree in English.McNally was at the Actors Studio when he was hired by novelist John Steinbeck to be a tutor and guardian to his sons. One of McNally’s earliest theater attempts was writing the book for a musical adaptation of Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” which was called “Here’s Where I Belong” and lasted only a single performance on Broadway in 1968.McNally’s first Broadway play “And Things That Go Bump in the Night” didn’t fare much better in 1965. His absurdist, symbolic melodrama about good and evil confounded critics. Newsday called it “ugly, perverted, tasteless.” It closed in less than three weeks. He was 24.He rebounded with the 1969 off-Broadway hit “Next,” a two-character comedy about a reluctant draftee reporting for an Army physical. A string of successes followed, including “Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?” (1971), “The Tubs” (1974), “Bad Habits” (1974) and “The Ritz” (1975), a farce set in a gay bathhouse that ran more than a year on Broadway and became McNally’s first produced screenplay.His breakout, “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” about a romance between a waitress and short order cook, was later adapted into a film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was revived on Broadway in 2019 starring Audra McDonald.He collaborated three times with legendary composer John Kander and lyricist Freb Ebb — on “The Rink,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “The Visit.” Chita Rivera starred in all three.His love of opera informed his works “Golden Age,” “The Lisbon Traviata” and “Master Class,” which explored the life of opera diva Maria Callas. He also contributed to opera as a librettist — “The Food of Love” in 1999 with music by Robert Beaser, “Dead Man Walking” in 2000 with music by Jake Heggie, and 2015’s “Great Scott” with Heggie.McNally sometimes was controversial, especially with his play “Corpus Christi,” which depicts a modern-day Jesus as a homosexual. The Manhattan Theater Club, the first company to consider staging it, received death threats and temporarily canceled the production before enjoying a successful run.When picking up his “Ragtime” Tony Award, McNally thanked the theater community for its outcry. “You came together when I was in trouble. It was a time of oppression. You came together overnight. Our voices were heard, and we won.” Holding his Tony high, he said, “So this is for freedom. Thank you.”McNally and his partner, Thomas Kirdahy, married in Vermont in 2003, and again in Washington, D.C., in 2010.
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The Michael Jackson estate is donating $300,000 to help entertainment industry workers on Broadway, the music business and in Las Vegas who have been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.
The estate announced Wednesday that it will give $100,000 apiece to Broadway Cares, the food bank Three Square in Nevada and MusiCares, because all three areas have been good to the estate and to Jackson. “This virus, this pandemic affects all of us obviously, so we wanted to start in our own communities,” John Branca, the estate’s co-executor, told The Associated Press. “This is personal for us.”
A Jackson-themed Broadway show, “MJ The Musical” is scheduled to start previews in July, though like the rest of Broadway it is currently on hold amid the coronavirus shutdown. No announcements have been made on postponing the show, and the estate and producers are taking a wait-and-see approach, Branca said.
“Michael Jackson ONE,” the long-running Jackson-based Cirque du Soleil show at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, where Jackson lived late in his life, is also on hold indefinitely.
“Las Vegas has been very good to Michael,” Branca said.
The estate’s donation there will provide 300,000 meals to the needy, and help to maintain the supplies of the food bank Three Square, the estate said.
In New York, the estate says it is donating to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund, and will give the rest to MusiCares, the charitable branch of the Recording Academy that helps those in the music industry who are economically struggling.
The estate says the donations are inspired by the constant charitable work of Jackson himself.
“Michael was extremely generous both of his time and his money in his life, and it’s in his music too,” Branca said. “We look to Michael for leadership and inspiration. We’re doing what Michael would have been doing.”
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
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Britain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for the coronavirus. A statement Wednesday said he “has been displaying mild symptoms” but is otherwise in good health. His wife, Camilla, tested negative for the virus. The couple is in self-isolation at a home in Scotland.
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With the death toll soaring past 300,000 this year and a quarter of humanity now infected, the pandemic shows no signs of abating as it spreads invisibly throughout vulnerable communities. Yet unlike the novel coronavirus, this disease is preventable, curable and centuries-old: tuberculosis. On the occasion of Staff inspect medical equipments at an emergency hospital set up amid the new coronavirus outbreak in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 23, 2020.As of Tuesday 1100 GMT, there had been more than 386,350 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 16,961 of which have proved fatal. World governments have taken unprecedented peacetime measures to try to slow the spread. Several European nations have announced country-wide lock downs as well as massive economic stimuli and financial support for businesses and workers. Grania Brigden, TB director at The tuberculosis union, told AFP that testing capacity was crucial in tackling both diseases. “With TB we’ve struggled with research and development investment to get good, accurate diagnostic tools and better treatment but actually we are there now,” she said. “It goes to show that where there is political will things can happen and unfortunately in TB the political will has always been an issue.” Several countries on the frontline of the TB war are seeing their treatment and testing services disrupted by COVID-19, further straining healthcare systems as the pandemic spreads. Ventilators lie at the New York City Emergency Management Warehouse before being shipped out for distribution due to concerns over the rapid spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, March 24, 2020.COVID-19 is already affecting supply chains of all medicines and most equipment used to treat other infectious diseases such as face masks and antibiotics. There is in particular growing concern among the global health community that COVID-19 could especially hit regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where healthcare systems are woefully under equipped to deal with a spike in cases. “People affected by TB, HIV and other infectious diseases as well as prisoners, migrants and people living in poverty will be at greater risk of reduced access to healthcare,” The Union said in a statement. Of the 4,400 people who die every day from TB, at least 200 of those are children. While COVID-19 does not appear to cause serious symptoms in children, they are thought to be significant spreaders of the disease to older people. Brigden said that while TB in children was largely ignored by health responders, they went on to learn several lessons on disease control from them. “We understand that focusing on children is a key area,” she said. “I hope that what comes out of this is the understanding that global health is important and that we need to protect vulnerable and at-risk people outside our own bubbles.”
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Women live longer than men across the world and scientists have by and large linked the sex differences in longevity with biological foundation to survival. A new study of wild mammals has found considerable differences in life span and aging in various mammalian species. Among humans, women’s life span is almost 8% on average longer than men’s life span. But among wild mammals, females in 60% of the studied species have, on average, 18.6% longer lifespans. The ratio is considerably different for different groups of mammals. An international team of scientists led by Jean-François Lemaître, from the University Lyonin France, collected information on age-related mortality for 134 populations of 101 wild mammalian species. “It was surprising to observe that this gender gap in lifespan often exceeds the one observed in humans and is, at the same time, extremely variable across species,” said Lemaître. “For example, lionesses live at least 50% longer in the wild than male lions,” said Tamás Székely, from the University of Bath, one of the authors of the study. “We previously thought this was mostly due to sexual selection – because males fight with each other to overtake a pride and thus have access to females, however our data do not support this,“ said Székely. Scientists have found that even though females consistently live longer than males, the risk of mortality does not increase more rapidly in males than in females across species. Therefore, they say, there must be other, more complex factors at play, such as environmental conditions in which the animals live and sex-specific growth, survival and reproduction through the history of the species. For example, the authors of the study say, roaming males could be exposed to more environmental pathogens. This was noticed in three populations of the bighorn sheep. The magnitude of the lifespan gap could also be shaped by local environmental conditions with a trade-off between reproduction and survival. In some species, males allocate more resources to sexual competition and reproduction, which, scientists say, could lead to bigger sex differences in lifespans. “Another possible explanation for the sex difference is that female survival increases when males provide some or all of the parental care,“ said Székely. “Giving birth and caring for young becomes a significant health cost for females and so this cost is reduced if both parents work together to bring up their offspring.” In order to measure the extent to which biological differences between the sexes affect life expectancy, scientists plan to compare the data on wild mammals with the data on mammals kept in the zoo, where they do not have to fight with predators or compete for food and mates. Scientists hope the findings will contribute to better understanding of what affects human longevity. In the past 200 years, the average life expectancy of humans has more than doubled due to improved living conditions and advances in medicine. Yet women continue to live longer than men, suggesting the biological differences also have a role. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the average American man will live to age 76, while the average woman in America will live to age 81. Women can also expect to be healthier than men in their senior years. Experts shave said the gap is due to a combination of biological and social differences. Men’s hormone testosterone is linked to a decrease in their immune system and risk of cardiovascular diseases as they age. It is also linked to risky behavior: smoking, drinking and unhealthy eating habits. If diagnosed, men are less likely than women to follow doctor’s advice. Statistics show that men are more likely to take life-threatening risks and to die in car accidents, or gun fights. Authors of the new study say the differences between male and female longevity are shaped by complex interactions between local environmental conditions and sex-specific reproductive biology. They say that more research is likely to provide “innovative insights into the evolutionary roots and physiology underlying aging in both sexes.”
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They are known as “Little White Snails,” self-driving street sweepers that for several years cleaned up parks and other public places across China. Kids liked them. Now the 4-foot-high sweepers are keeping humans safe. After the outbreak in China, over 200 Little White Snails were enlisted to fight the spread of the virus. They have been deployed to hospitals in China to clean and disinfect, said Mike Jellen, chief commercial officer, at Velodyne Lidar, the U.S. company that works with Idriverplus, the maker of the sweepers. “They’re spraying vast amounts of disinfectant,” said Jellen. An army of snailsBefore the coronavirus outbreak, Idriverplus was working to get autonomous vehicles into Chinese daily life. They saw the pint-sized sweepers and their delivery robots as an inroad to gaining acceptance in the society, said Shuhao Huo, a vice president at Idriverplus, at an event in California last year. “Because autonomous driving technology is a new technology, in this size, maybe people can accept it easier,” he said. The machines navigate using a combination of pre-programmed maps and real-time sensing including Lidar, which sends and receives light pulses to create a 3-D scan of the ever-changing surroundings.Protecting health care workersIdriverplus robots also deliver meals and medical supplies, reducing human interaction and the risk of exposure.Throughout the world, robots, easily disinfected and virus-free, are being prepared to take on some of the tasks of health care workers. Idriverplus is helping to develop a mobile robotic arm that can take throat cultures and check respiration. As the world fights the pandemic, the quest to save lives is increasingly bringing robots and humans in closer contact.
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The global coronavirus outbreak keeps many of us at home and away from the things we enjoy. Sporting leagues around the world have postponed or canceled live competitions, and on Tuesday, the biggest event of them all, the summer Olympics, announced the Tokyo Games will be postponed to 2021. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports.
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The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be postponed until next year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Tuesday. Although the International Olympic Committee had said it would spend up to a month debating the matter, the decision to postpone became inevitable after several countries said they would not send athletes if the Games were held this summer. “The IOC president and the prime minister of Japan have concluded that the Games must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020, but not later that summer 2021 to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games, and the international community,” the IOC and the Japanese organizing committee said in a joint statement Tuesday. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talks to journalists in Tokyo, March 24, 2020.Both committees say they made their decision after consulting with the World Health Organization. Abe and the IOC had said that canceling the Games had always been out of the question. “The Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present,” the IOC said. Abe told reporters in Tokyo that when the Games finally gets under way, it will prove that “humanity had beat the coronavirus.” The Summer Games were to have opened July 24. Team USA, which represents triathlon and duathlon Olympic contenders, tweeted its thanks to the Tokyo organizers for what it says is “all you have done for a great Olympic and Paralympic Games. We wish you all the best as you keep your communities safe and offer our cooperation and support as you prepare to host the world.” A man takes pictures of the Olympic Flame during a ceremony in Fukushima City, Japan, March 24, 2020.The Olympics have been canceled three times since the modern Games began in 1896. They were scrapped in 1916 during World War I and in 1940 and 1944 during World War II. The Games have been boycotted, propagandized by Nazi Germany, and attacked by terrorists, but have never before been postponed. Japanese organizers said Tuesday they are also postponing the Olympic torch relay that was supposed to start Thursday. The flame arrived in Japan from its traditional lighting in Greece on March 12. It was supposed to have traveled around Japan, to be used to light the flame at the opening ceremonies in Tokyo.The torch will remain in Fukushima until the Games are firmly rescheduled.
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