Author: CensorBiz

Federal investigators took the unusual step of wiretapping a retired supervisor in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami office as part of an inquiry into whether sensitive case information was leaked to attorneys for suspected drug traffickers in Colombia, current and former law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.The inquiry comes amid a string of DEA scandals and has sent a chill through South Florida’s close-knit, fiercely competitive narco-defense circles because of former supervisor Manny Recio’s strong ties to federal law enforcement and private-sector lawyers.The FBI wiretapped Recio for at least three months last year while he worked in his post-retirement job as a private investigator for defense lawyers — an extraordinary step requiring approval from a federal judge and the highest levels of the Justice Department. Agents also seized and searched his cellphone.Federal prosecutors in New York declined to comment, but three former and one current law enforcement official familiar with the investigation say it is focused on the flow of information between the DEA and Miami lawyers who represent alleged narcotraffickers and money launderers from Colombia. Among those lawyers is Luis Guerra, who contracted Recio as an investigator shortly after he retired from the DEA in 2018.The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, said the probe is focused on Recio’s interaction with defense lawyers and agents he worked with at the DEA, including Special Agent John Costanzo, whose phone was similarly searched.Phil Reizenstein, a Miami lawyer representing Recio, said he was told late last year by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan that the former DEA agent was not a target of a criminal investigation nor had a grand jury been summoned to investigate him.“I have reviewed Manny’s work on cases and found it to be impeccable, and I have no concerns that he did anything that was close to being illegal,” Reizenstein said. “He devoted his career to the DEA. He has held himself to the highest standards and the same law-abiding ideals in his private work.”Guerra and Costanzo declined to comment.So-called Title III wiretaps require approval from a federal judge for each 30-day period they’re in use. The technique is considered highly intrusive and requires probable cause that a federal crime has been — or is about to be — committed.“They’re relatively rare,” said Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor in New York. “Wiretaps are reserved for when other investigative techniques have been tried and failed, or it’s unlikely anything else would work.”Prosecutors recently began notifying third parties that their communications were intercepted between July and October during the “electronic surveillance” of Recio’s cellphone. The AP obtained a copy of one such notification.Recio, described by former colleagues as soft-spoken and personable, finished his more than two decades with the DEA as an assistant special agent in charge of the DEA’s Miami field division, specializing in cases involving illicit finances. Immediately after retiring, he launched a Miami-based business called Global Legal Consulting, which according to its website provides private investigations, anti-money laundering solutions and other legal services.Such potentially lucrative work is governed by federal laws restricting the role former agents may play in the private sector — so-called revolving door rules that prohibit them from trying to influence their former colleagues with respect to cases they worked or oversaw.Derek Maltz, a retired agent who once headed the DEA’s Special Operations Division, said those rules are in place in part because in the often shady world of narco defense attorneys and abundantly-wealthy clients from Colombia, Mexico and elsewhere who think they can use their influence to cut deals with prosecutors like they were able to do back home.“For these guys it’s all about the juice,” Maltz said. “Having access is a powerful selling point.”Federal prosecutors have been clamping down on attorneys who cross the ethical line. Nelson Alfaro, a Miami attorney known for representing drug traffickers, pleaded guilty in December to trying to trick federal authorities into reducing a client’s prison sentence based on a $80,000 scheme he concocted to offer “third-party cooperation” to the FBI.Also last year, Dallas attorney Jaime Balagia was convicted of trying to shake down three Colombian clients for about $1.5 million with the promise he could bribe U.S. officials to drop or reduce cocaine trafficking charges.The latest investigation comes amid a period of turmoil within the DEA, which has seen repeated cases of criminal misconduct involving its own federal agents.Recio once supervised highly-sensitive money laundering investigations involving Jose Irizarry, a former standout DEA agent in the Miami office who was indicted last month on charges he conspired to launder money with a Colombian drug cartel he was supposed to be fighting and spent lavishly on luxury sports cars and Tiffany jewelry.The Irizarry charges came just one week after another former DEA agent was sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in a decade-long drug conspiracy.
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Ugandan poet Stella Nyanzi was released in February after spending over a year in prison for a post she made on Facebook that insulted President Yoweri Museveni.  Defiant, Nyanzi used her time behind bars to write a book and is inspiring others to use poetry to express their political opinions.  But as Halima Athumani reports from Kampala, Uganda’s public prosecutor plans to appeal her acquittal. 
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The new coronavirus can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for as long as two to three days, tests by U.S. government and other scientists have found.Their work, published Wednesday, suggests that the virus can spread through the air as well as from touching things that were contaminated by others who have it, in addition to direct person-to-person contact.Since emerging in China late last year, the new virus has infected more than 120,000 people worldwide and caused more than 4,300 deaths — far more than the 2003 SARS outbreak caused by a genetically similar virus.For this study, researchers used a nebulizer device to put samples of the new virus into the air, imitating what might happen if an infected person coughed or made the virus airborne some other way.The found that viable virus could be detected up to three hours later in the air, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.Similar results were obtained from tests they did on the virus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, so differences in durability of the virus do not account for how much more widely the new one has spread, researchers say.The tests were done by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, with funding from the U.S. government and the National Science Foundation.The findings have not been reviewed by other scientists yet and were posted on a site where researchers can quickly share their work before publication.“It’s a solid piece of work that answers questions people have been asking,” and shows the value and importance of the hygiene advice that public health officials have been stressing, said Julie Fischer, a microbiology professor at Georgetown University.“What we need to be doing is washing our hands, being aware that people who are infected may be contaminating surfaces,” and keeping hands away from the face, she said.
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The Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, has approved the third and final reading of a bill containing constitutional amendments that will allow President Vladimir Putin to run for a fifth presidential term in 2024.A total of 383 lawmakers voted for the bill on Wednesday, with 43 abstaining and no votes against.State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told journalists earlier that about 390 amendments were proposed by Putin and a special working group on the changes.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks a session prior to voting for constitutional amendments at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, March 10, 2020.One of the amendments approved by the State Duma will set Putin’s previous presidential terms back to zero, giving him the right to run for a new term in 2024 after his current second sequential presidential term ends. This raises the possibility that he could stay in power until 2036 if he wins in 2024 and then gets reelected six years later.The constitutional changes must be approved by the Constitutional Court and will be considered legally approved if more than half of the country’s voters support it.A referendum on the issue has been scheduled for April 22.
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Australia has expanded its coronavirus travel ban to include Italy.  Restrictions are already in place for foreign nationals arriving from China, Iran and South Korea.FILE – China Eastern Airlines flight crew wear protective masks on arrival at Sydney International Airport in Sydney, Australia, Jan. 23, 2020. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett/via Reuters)Australian officials say travel from four countries into Australia is now restricted because of the COVID-19 outbreak.Foreign nationals who have been in Italy, mainland China, Iran and South Korea will not be allowed into Australia for 14 days from the time they left those countries.  Australian citizens and permanent residents will be able to return home, but will need to isolate themselves for two weeks.FILE – People wearing face masks walk on Bourke Street after cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Jan. 29, 2020.With more than 10,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, Italy’s outbreak is now the largest outside mainland China.  The entire country has been placed under quarantine restrictions.“The situation in Italy is now commensurate with the other countries where we have previously had travel bans put in place, and so we will be extending that travel ban to Italy now,” said Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. “Effectively though I think it is important not to overstate this.  I mean, Italy itself has effectively put itself into lockdown.”The new directive comes as the government announces a $1.5 billion government health package aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.  Specialist fever clinics will be set up and people worried about the virus will be able to  consult doctors over video calls.A public health campaign will soon be launched to better inform Australians about the disease.  It will explain how to limit the spread of COVID-19 through hygiene measures, what to do if symptoms develop and where to seek help.   It follows complaints from some doctors about a lack of consistent official information around how to handle people with symptoms of the disease.There are now more than 130 cases of coronavirus across Australia.  So far, three people have died.   
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Stock markets in Asia were mixed Wednesday, after a day of rebound from a market plunge on worries over the oil market and a coronavirus outbreak.Japan’s Nikkei Index was down 1.5% in afternoon trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and China’s Shanghai Index were about even.U.S. futures pointed to losses when markets open there Wednesday.Tuesday brought huge gains in the United States, with the three major indexes — the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and  NASDAQ  — all closing up 5%.Volatility has consumed markets around the world amid the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 114,000 people and killed more than 4,000 people.
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Russian leader Vladimir Putin threw his weight behind proposals to amend Russia’s current constitutional cap on presidential term limits — a move that opens the door to Putin, 67, staying in power far beyond the end of his current and, in theory, final term in 2024.Under the proposed changes, which Putin insisted would need backing by an upcoming nationwide referendum, as well as the approval of Russia’s Constitutional Court, the Russian leader would be eligible to run for two more terms in office, possibly extending his 20-year Kremlin rule through 2036.“The proposal to remove restrictions for any person, including the incumbent president … would be possible, but on one condition: if the Constitutional Court gives an official ruling that such an amendment would not contradict the principles and norms of the constitution,” Putin said in addressing the proposal before lawmakers in the Duma on Tuesday.Putin framed the move as injecting stability into Russia’s uncertain political future — in effect, suggesting that by staying in power, he could lead Russia toward a day when change in power through elections would be possible.”I am certain that a time would come when the supreme presidential power in Russia would not be so personified, will not be tied to a certain single person,” Putin said.“We are done with revolutions in Russia,” he added.A legendary cosmonaut, a new mission?The proposed constitutional reforms were the latest in a series of moves that appear to provide Putin with options as he confronts the end of his fourth and final term in office.Indeed, the announcement came as lawmakers in the Duma debated additional constitutional reforms first proposed by Putin amid a surprise government shakeup last January. Those proposals included a newly empowered parliament, prime minister’s post and Security Council — all measures that suggested Putin was envisioning a possible new role from which to wield influence beyond the end of his presidency.Yet today’s announcement signaled that at least some in the Kremlin had united around a simpler plan: Putin would stay right where he is.The roll out was highly choreographed.First, lawmaker Valentina Tereshkova, a legendary Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space, took to the Duma lectern, to say that lawmakers’ recent constitutional debates had failed to take into account Russians’ true wishes: that Putin remain in power.Moreover, Tereshkova said impending new changes to the constitution afforded the president the right to “reset to zero” the number of terms already served.Next, Vyachaslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, informed journalists that Putin had heard the news and was on his way to the Duma to address the idea.Soon, Putin was before lawmakers agreeing that the “return to zero” option was indeed possible, provided it passed muster during a national vote scheduled for an April 22 referendum and received the subsequent backing of the Constitutional Court.The Duma quickly approved the measure.Opposition replyKremlin critics had few, if any, illusions of the road ahead.“The fact that Putin was never going to leave — we’ve always known. That he didn’t make any clever moves, and instead stupidly just took another term — now that’s a bit of a surprise,” Leonid Volkov, chief strategist of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, wrote in a post to Facebook.“The current constitution guarantees that I can definitely participate in presidential elections, and that Putin definitely cannot,” Navalny said in a tweet, noting the Kremlin had banned him from participating in elections despite rulings to the contrary by the European Court for Human Rights.Как интересно получается.Действующая конституция гарантирует, что я точно могу участвовать в президентских выборах, а Путин – точно не может.На практике же, я выиграл два суда в ЕСПЧ и всё равно не могу.А Путин был у власти 20 лет, но всё равно пойдёт на первый срок.— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 10, 2020″Yet Putin has been in power for 20 years and all the same is headed for his first term,” Navalny said, in taking a swipe at the “return to zero” argument.While members of the opposition pushed for supporters to protest the move, the calls were immediately hamstrung by another crisis: the coronavirus.Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people were banned until at least April 10 over fears of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Yet government critics were quick to question the timing of the decision, with many noting that tens of thousands had taken to the streets in 2012, when Putin stretched constitutional norms to return to the Kremlin for a third term in office.For the time being, critics were left to take part in smaller protests against Putin’s new power move, with a reported 100 people taking part in rotating single-picket demonstrations in order to not run afoul of Russia’s punitive freedom of assembly laws.Cue the jokes onlineSocial media churned with grim jokes on the news, parodying a week that, in addition to Putin’s announcement and concerns over coronavirus, saw the ruble collapse amid an oil pricing war with Saudi Arabia.“You read the news about the government coup, and in fear you want to hug somebody,” wrote one Facebook user. “Then you remember about coronavirus. And you think, better instead to head to see a therapist. And then you remember about the value of the ruble.”“Due to the quarantine, they’ve forbidden Putin to leave his post,” photojournalist Dave Frenkel jokes in a post on Twitter.Из-за карантина Путину запретят покидать президентский пост— Dave Frenkel (@merr1k) March 10, 2020“Putin said that he’s not against zeroing out his presidential terms,” Russian blogger Ruslan Usachev wrote in another tweet. “Now, all those who were born under President Putin, have a chance to die under President Putin.”Indeed, should Putin remain healthy and retain public support, Russians faced the prospect of Putin remaining in power well into his 80s.Yet the Russian leader said his country’s ultimate goal was to get to a place where “people in power can be changed regularly,” an argument that some political observers suspected was tightly bound to Putin’s own political reign.“I hope that by 2036, (Putin) will somehow convince the population that democracy is better than a dictatorship,” Vladimir Inozemtsev, director of the Center for Post-Industrial Society Studies, in a blog post dripping with sarcasm.“Learning quicker, it seems, is unlikely to happen,” Inozemtsev said.
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WATCH: As the coronavirus spreads around the world, health officials are urging people not to go to work if they are sick. But for many U.S. workers, staying home means they will not get paid, and that’s a luxury they cannot afford.COVID-19 has U.S. lawmakers considering new measures so workers don’t have to work while sick.VOA’s Steve Baragona takes a look at the issue of paid sick leave.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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Avoid large crowds and places where there can be close contact with people is one way to avoid the coronavirus, health authorities say — and sports leagues across the globe are taking such advice very seriously.Italy, which has the Europe’s worst outbreak, has canceled all sports events until at least the first week in April — a major blow to the country’s ribald football (soccer) fans and players.Football matches in Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Slovenia — among other countries — will go on as scheduled, but in empty stadiums, while some games have been scrapped altogether.The Summer Olympic torch will be lit in Tokyo without spectators for the first time in nearly 40 years.Tennis tournaments, golf opens, paralympic rowing, cycling, and weightlifting are among the other events that have either been postponed or cancelled.Four U.S. major leagues — baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer — have so far declined barring fans from their games.Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James said last week he would refuse to play in an empty arena, saying there’s no real point in playing without fans.But Tuesday, he appeared to back away from his earlier comments, saying he would be disappointed if no one could watch him play, but would do whatever is best for the safety of the players. 
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The Justice Department must give Congress secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, giving the House a significant win in a separation-of-powers clash with the Trump administration.The three-judge panel said in a 2-1 opinion that the House Judiciary Committee’s need for the material in its investigations of President Donald Trump outweighed the Justice Department’s interests in keeping the testimony secret. The opinion authorizes access to information that Democrats have sought since the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation, giving lawmakers previously-undisclosed details from the two-year Russia probe.Writing for the majority, Judge Judith Rogers said that because Mueller himself “stopped short” of reaching conclusions about Trump’s conduct to avoid stepping on the House’s impeachment power, the committee had established that it could not make a final determination about Trump’s conduct without access to the underlying grand jury material.“The Committee’s request for the grand jury materials in the Mueller Report is directly linked to its need to evaluate the conclusions reached and not reached by the Special Counsel,” wrote Rogers, a Clinton appointee.Judge Thomas Griffith issued a separate concurring opinion. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented, suggesting that the need for the testimony could have waned after Trump’s acquittal at a Senate impeachment trial last month.“After all, the Committee sought these materials preliminary to an impeachment proceeding and the Senate impeachment trial has concluded. Why is this controversy not moot?” Rao wrote.It is unclear when the materials might actually be turned over. The Trump administration can ask the full appeals court to rehear the case, and can appeal to the Supreme Court.The ruling softens the blow of a loss the House endured two weeks ago when judges on the same court said they would not force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress. The split decisions leave neither the administration nor Congress with a clear upper hand in an ongoing inter-branch dispute.The ruling is a major win for Democrats who have fought the Justice Department for nearly a year, but it’s unclear what the House will actually do with the material. Lawyers for the Democrats have said the grand jury material could potentially be used for additional articles of impeachment, though the Senate impeachment trial over the president’s interactions with Ukraine ended weeks ago in an acquittal.The case is one of several disputes between the Trump administration and Congress that courts have grappled with in recent months.The two sides had been similarly at odds on the question of whether McGahn could be forced to testify about Trump’s behavior during the Russia investigation. The appeals court ruled in a recent 2-1 decision that judges had no role to play in that dispute and dismissed the case.Mueller issued a 448-page report last April that detailed multiple interactions between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia and that examined several episodes involving the president for potential obstruction of justice. Mueller said his team did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Kremlin to tip the election, though pointedly noted that he could exonerate the president for obstruction.Portions of the report were blacked out, including grand jury testimony and material that Mueller said could harm ongoing investigations or infringe on the privacy of third parties.Grand jury testimony is typically treated as secret, in part to protect the privacy of people who are not charged or are considered peripheral to a criminal investigation. But several exceptions allow for the material to be turned over, including if it is in connection with a judicial proceeding.The House argued that the impeachment inquiry met that definition, and it sought copies of testimony referenced in Mueller’s report. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with the House last October in ordering that the material be turned over.The Justice Department appealed that decision, with lawyers arguing that the material sought by the House had no relevance to the impeachment inquiry and that the House already had ample information about the investigation.Several dozen witnesses appeared before Mueller’s grand jury, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.   
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An Egyptian court Tuesday sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer and former lawmaker to a year in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated.The judge in Cairo’s misdemeanors court found Zyad el-Elaimy guilty of “deliberately spreading fake news.” He was also fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds (around $1,270).El-Elaimy has appealed the ruling and will remain in detention until a hearing on April 7. He also faces charges in a separate case of conspiring with an outlawed group to commit crimes, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has banned as a terrorist organization. Police arrested el-Elaimy over those accusations last summer after he met with political parties and opposition lawmakers to hash out how to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections.A vocal critic of el-Sissi’s government, el-Elaimy is a leading activist in the secular Egyptian Social Democratic Party. He served as a member of parliament after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat President Hosni Mubarak.The global rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned Tuesday’s decision as the latest sign of “the Egyptian authorities’ total intolerance” of dissent.“The unfounded charges of which Zyad has been convicted stem solely from the peaceful expression of his opinion and his peaceful political activities,” said Philip Luther, the group’s research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa.El-Sissi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on political opposition, silencing critics and jailing thousands. Many languish for months in pre-trial detention.“Still, the cup remains half-full,” el-Elaimy’s mother, Ekram Yousef, wrote on Facebook. Tuesday’s open court session allowed el-Elaimy’s friends to catch their first glimpse of him in eight months.“It was an opportunity … to make sure they did not forget him, and to await the day that he is freed,” she said. 
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When Javier Parodi returned from a tour of Egypt’s famed ancient tombs in the southern city of Luxor last week, he was unnerved to see that the cruise ship that brought him there wasn’t where he left it.The hulking MS Asara, carrying some 150 American, French and Indian passengers, was the lone ship docked on the opposite bank of the Nile, isolated from the line of tourist-packed vessels over concern that its passengers had been exposed to the new coronavirus.Parodi, 35, then found himself confined for days on board the Asara, where 12 Egyptian crew members had just contracted the virus. The Nile cruiser has become the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Egypt’s crown jewel of tourism.When passengers learned about the cases reported from their ship, Parodi said confusion quickly struck.“Some of the worst thoughts go through your head,” said Parodi, who is traveling with his cousin and mother from Miami. Both of his family members are in their late 60s and have underlying respiratory conditions, which make them particularly vulnerable if infected by the virus. “Those crew members were the ones serving our food and cleaning our sheets.”After local doctors took blood samples and mouth swabs from all on board, Parodi watched out of his cabin window as dozens of his fellow passengers, who had tested positive for the virus, were flown by military aircraft to a quarantine unit on Egypt’s north coast. None of them had shown symptoms.“It was pure panic,” he said. “Like when you get in a car accident and can’t even write down the license plate number you’re so overwhelmed and nervous.”Egypt’s sudden declaration of 45 new coronavirus cases from the single ship, a drastic spike from its previous countrywide record of three, sparked fears the disease was far more widely spread in the Arab world’s most populous country than the government had detected.The Asara first came under concern when a Taiwanese-American woman who took the cruise in late February was confirmed with the virus after returning home. Since then, at least 21 Americans who returned to the U.S. after taking Nile cruises in late February or early March — apparently on the Asara — have been confirmed with the virus. Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control refuted the claim that the Taiwanese-American woman was the source of the virus on the ship, asserting she was infected by an Egyptian tour guide who was the first to show symptoms.Parodi and his family flew to Egypt when it had the lowest rate in the region, joking they “would be better off over there than in the U.S.”By Tuesday, the Health Ministry had reported 59 cases. A 60-year-old German tourist from another Nile cruise died late Sunday, marking the country’s first and only fatality so far. In response, the government has put a temporary ban on large public gatherings but taken few other precautionary measures, unlike elsewhere in the Middle East, where schools have shut down. The Antiquities Ministry proudly announced that “thousands of tourists proceeded with their normal itineraries” to Luxor’s ancient temples throughout the day.What bothered Parodi most was the absence of clear information. First, a doctor told passengers they would fly home after their first tests came back negative. Now, they’ve been instructed to wait to be tested a second time, and have no sense of when that will be.“No one seems to understand what’s going on,” he said, adding that one local taxi driver mistakenly walked on the boat and now is stranded in a two-week quarantine with the rest of them.Within days, their Egyptian tour guide went from explaining mummification practices to quarantine rules: don’t leave your cabin unless you must, stand one meter apart, wear masks and wash your hands with extra soap.Parodi and his family are whiling away their time by scrolling through their phones and watching the film “Fast and Furious,” which is airing on repeat on one of the ship’s few available TV channels. The local crew, wearing masks and gloves, drops off meals in plastic bags three times a day.“It’s really nothing like what you’re told Egypt is going to be like,” he said.
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President Donald Trump is meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday to discuss a payroll tax cut as part of efforts to provide “substantial relief” to  businesses and individuals who suffer financially as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.”We’re also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they’re not could ever miss a paycheck to be working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies so that they don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault,” Trump told reporters on Monday evening in the White House briefing room.With stock prices plunging Monday amid an oil price war and the coronavirus crisis, Trump met with his economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who presented him with policy options to counter the quickly emerging threats to the economy.   “The economy will be in very good shape a year from now,” predicted Mnuchin, who took questions from reporters, alongside Vice President Mike Pence, after a brief appearance by Trump in the press briefing room.Trump announced a news conference would be held at the White House on Tuesday that will focus on economic measures.The U.S. travel industry, which annually generates more than $1.6 trillion in economic output and is expected to suffer substantially because of the coronavirus outbreak, is one key area of the administration’s relief efforts.”We’re also working with the industries including the airline industry, the cruise ship industry, which obviously will be hit,” said Trump.   The United States “will use all our tools” to fight the effects of the coronavirus, said Mnuchin, who announced that the White House will hold a meeting later in the week with bank officials.As the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived more than 2,000 points during Monday morning trading, Trump, via Twitter, blamed the market drop on Saudi Arabia and Russia arguing over the price and flow of oil.”That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop,” he wrote.  Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020But, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is causing the uncertainty in the markets.”I think that what is happening there is a reflection of lack of confidence, and so we would hope that what is coming out of the White House will be more consistent with what the health advisers are putting forth,” Pelosi said.  “We would hope that rather than name-calling, (Trump) would be again joining with his health care professionals who are advising him and the rest of us in a well-coordinated government agenda.”Pence, at the briefing, did not directly answer a reporter’s question as to whether the fall in stock prices in any way resulted from a perception that the White House’s response to the coronavirus crisis lacked leadership and foresight. “I really do believe that the American people can see that this president is putting the health of the American people first,” said the vice president.  The Dow closed off nearly 7.8%, recording its largest-ever single-day point drop of 2,013.76.The number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus, which originated in China, is more than 650, including at least 26 deaths.      
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U.S. President Donald Trump will not be coming to Moscow for Victory Day celebrations on May 9, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
Russia has repeatedly invited Trump to visit Moscow on the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II — the nation’s most important holiday. Trump said last year he appreciated the invitation, but wasn’t sure if he could go as the celebration falls “right in the middle of political season.”
 “Via diplomatic channels, we have received information that the [U.S.] president will not be coming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, adding that it remains unclear who will represent the U.S. on the Victory Day in Moscow.
Peskov didn’t give a reason for Trump’s refusal to come.
In an interview with the state-run Tass news agency, a part of which was released Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it would be “a mistake” for world leaders not to attend the Victory Day celebrations this year.
“I think that, concerning former members of the anti-Hitler alliance, the right thing to do would be to attend [our event], from both a domestic political stance and a moral one,” Putin said. “We look forward to seeing them and we will be glad if they come. If not, well, that’s their choice. But I think that would be a mistake for them.”  
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With the Grand Princess cruise ship in the Port of Oakland, people flocked to welcome the passengers and snap photos of what has become the symbol of the COVID-19 virus in the U.S. How people are responding to the virus varies person to person, but the cruise ship’s presence highlights a truth in the U.S. – that the virus is disrupting normal life. Michelle Quinn reports.
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The death toll from coronavirus in Italy is mounting as nearly a quarter of the country’s population starts the week under travel and other restrictions. In the United States, the number of cases is surging – spreading to 34 states – with 22 people having died from the illness.  In China, a different picture, with workers slowly returning to their offices as the number of new coronavirus cases declines. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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