Author: CensorBiz

Hundreds of people have marched in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, calling for the cancellation of Sunday’s local and parliamentary elections in favor of a transition ending long-serving president Paul Biya’s regime The protesters say only a transition will lay the foundation for democracy. The government has again insisted that the elections must be held Sunday.These are the voices of at least 500 men, women and youths dressed in black, singing as they march through the streets of Cameroon’s capital Yaounde Friday. They sang that Cameroon needs a political transition to end President Paul Biya’s 38 years in power, not the local and parliamentary elections the government is organizing on Sunday.Fifty-eight political parties including the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement some old opposition political parties, such as the Social Democratic Front, Cameroonian Democratic Union, Movement for the Defense of the Republic and the National Union for Democracy and Progress are taking part in both elections are. All of them say they are going into Parliament to enact laws that can solve the crisis Cameroon is facing.Among the leaders of the protest is Kah Walla, president of the Cameroon Peoples Party and former presidential candidate. She says Biya’s dictatorial regime has rigged the system and can never be ousted in an election.Kah Walla says she is certain that if the elections take place, Biya’s Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement party will still have a majority that is loyal to the long-serving leader.”We are not going to have a parliament that would be able to do any better than the outgoing parliament has done nor mayors who will be able to do any better,” Walla said. “Yes to political transition. We need an end to this regime, we need reforms of institutions including the electoral system and then we can talk about elections.”Kah Walla said she was calling on all Cameroonians to join protests for a transition because it was unfortunate that since Biya   became president of Cameroon 38 years ago, he has been deaf to calls for electoral reforms the opposition has been clamoring for.The protests were organized by Stand Up For Cameroon, a movement launched by five opposition political parties, including Union of Cameroon People-Manidem and the Cameroon Renaissance Movement of Maurice Kamto, who claims he won the October 2018 presidential election and that his victory was stolen by Biya.Stand Up for Cameroon says its objective is to create for a genuine political transition in Cameroon.Minister of Communication and government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi says Biya enjoys legitimacy after a landslide victory, with 71% of the vote in the 2018 presidential poll, with Maurice Kamto in a distant second with 14%.Sadi says the elections must take place as planned and that any person who wants to disrupt it will be arrested.”It is suprising that some leaders of political parties are today putting forth various considerations either to boycott the elections or to simply demand their postponement,” Sadi said. “A vast majority of Cameroonians are also legitimately and impatiently aspiring to take part in the twin elections whose importance is secret to no one.”None of the protesters were arrested in the march that apparently suprised the government and the police.Opposition parties have always complained of widespread irregularities, insecurity and low turnout in Cameroon’s elections.They say Biya who has been in power for over 40 years, seven as prime minister and 38 as president, uses his party’s parliamentary majority to rule Cameroon with a iron fist.Separatist fighters have also vowed that the elections will not take place in the English-speaking regions, and imposed a travel ban in the Northwest and Southwest regions. Civilians are fleeing the English-speaking regions, where there have been battles between the military and rebels. The civilians say they do not believe the government will be able to protect them.Cameroon says polls will be opened on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Vote counting starts immediately afterward.(( Moki Edwin Kindzeka for VOA news, Yaounde., Cameroon ))   
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Netflix Inc will storm into Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony boasting more nominations than any other movie distributor, but can the streaming service finally take home the film industry’s most coveted prize?Netflix’s Mafia epic “The Irishman” has a shot at the best picture Oscar, according to awards experts, but faces tough competition from Warner Bros’ World War One drama “1917,” Sony Corp’s Quentin Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and South Korean genre-bending movie “Parasite” from privately held company Neon.Winning the best picture statuette for the first time would burnish Netflix’s reputation in the film business and give it new bragging rights in the increasingly competitive fight for streaming video viewers.The decades-spanning “Irishman,” playing in theaters and streaming on Netflix, features an A-list creative team of previous Oscar winners. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, and was among the company’s most expensive films to date with a production budget of roughly $160 million. Critics raved after the film was released in November.Whether it is named the year’s best picture is up to the roughly 8,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.Experts surveyed by awards website Gold Derby as of Monday favored “1917,” giving it 11-2 odds to win, while “Irishman” stood at 17-2.“Irishman” landed few of the top awards from groups such as the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild of America, the usual tipoffs to the best picture favorites.“The fact they have not won any of the major precursor awards is notable,” said Scott Feinberg, awards columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. “This doesn’t mean they won’t be competitive in other categories.”Netflix scored 24 nominations overall, including for “Klaus” and “I Lost My Body” in the animated feature category, and two feature-length documentaries.And stars of Netflix films are competing in the acting contests. Laura Dern is considered a front-runner for her supporting role in the streaming service’s movie “Marriage Story,” a divorce drama also in the best picture race. Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins were nominated leading actor and supporting actor respectively for Netflix’s biographical film “The Two Popes.”Netflix began releasing original movies in 2015 and has been working to build a library of prestige films alongside its dozens of comedies, thrillers and action flicks. The company now debuts more films per year than any Hollywood studio.But the digital video pioneer clashed with theater owners by insisting that its films stream at the same time, or a few weeks after, their big-screen debuts. Major theater chains refused to show Netflix films, including “Irishman.”Last year, Netflix’s “Roma” won Oscars for director, cinematography and foreign-language film but not best picture. The movie had stirred a debate about whether a film seen mostly via streaming should even qualify for an Academy Award, a controversy that have might influenced voters at the time.Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief creative officer, said he believes academy members have moved past that issue.“It is hard to sit here with 24 Academy Award nominations across feature films, animated films, documentary films, short documentary films, and say there is any bias against streaming,” Sarandos said in an interview.“We are really thrilled that the academy recognized the quality of the work just for quality of the work.”
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A new spacecraft built jointly by U.S. and European space agencies is ready for a blazing journey to the sun to capture an unprecedented view of its two poles, an angle that could help researchers understand how the star’s vast bubble of magnetic energy affects Earth.The Solar Orbiter spacecraft will lift off from a Florida launch pad Sunday at 11:03 p.m. EST (0400 GMT Monday) and autonomously unfold an array of solar panels and antennas before carrying on toward the sun for a 10-year mission mapping its polar regions.Mapping the sun’s poles could allow scientists for the first time to observe the concentrated source of solar wind — a stream of plasma and charged particles that beam outward and sustains the solar system’s protective outer bubble that breathes in and out in harmony with the solar wind.European Space Agency Solar Orbiter Project Manager Cesar Garcia listens as Airbus Defense and Space Solar Orbiter Project Manager Ian Walters discusses the agency’s science mission to the sun, Feb. 7, 2020, at Kennedy Space Center.“Where did that plasma, the solar wind come from? At any one point, the majority of it during our solar cycle comes from the polar regions we’ve never imaged,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the head of NASA’s science directorate.A suite of 10 instruments, including six telescopes, are intricately tucked behind a protective heat shield that can withstand temperatures of nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit as the spacecraft reaches 26 million miles from the sun.Using a gravity assist from Earth and Venus, the orbiter will sling itself closer to the sun and eventually sync with its rotation, once every 25 days, when the probe reaches its closest point, and opens up a cluster of tiny windows on the heat shield to capture and surveil how the surface of the sun changes over time.The fruits of the mission will inform how NASA can protect its astronauts from the radiation whizzing around the cosmos, which can cause DNA damage and changes in gene expression.Scientists will also learn how space weather wreaks havoc on satellites and electronics on and around Earth.Launched in 2018, the Parker Solar Probe will journey closer to the sun than any other human-made object, 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km), and find out how the sun churns space weather in our solar system.
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Suicides in the active-duty Air Force surged last year to the highest total in at least three decades, even as the other military services saw their numbers stabilize or decline, according to officials and unpublished preliminary data.The reasons for the Air Force increase are not fully understood, coming after years of effort by all of the military services to counter a problem that seems to defy solution and that parallels increases in suicide in the U.S. civilian population.84 Air Force suicidesAccording to preliminary figures, the Air Force had 84 suicides among active-duty members last year, up from 60 the year before. The jump followed five years of relative stability, with the service’s yearly totals fluctuating between 60 and 64. Official figures won’t be published until later this year and could vary slightly from preliminary data.Air Force officials, who confirmed the 2019 total, said they knew of no higher number in recent years. Data and studies previously published by the Pentagon and Air Force show that 64 suicides in 2015 had been the highest total for the Air Force in this century. A 2009 Air Force study said suicides between 1990 and 2004 averaged 42 a year and never exceeded 62.“Suicide is a difficult national problem without easily identifiable solutions that has the full attention of leadership,” Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, said in a statement. He said the Air Force is focused on immediate, midterm and long-range solutions to a problem faced throughout the military.Suicide risk factors are often thought to include stress related to deployment to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013 concluded, based on an assessment of current and former military personnel over a seven-year period, that combat experience and other deployment-related factors were not associated with increased risk of suicide. Instead the study’s results pointed to numerous other factors, including being male, engaging in heavy or binge drinking, and bipolar disorder.Suicides across the servicesAlthough only the Air Force saw a major increase last year, all the services have struggled with higher suicides since about 2005-2006, which coincided with a cycle of exceptionally stressful deployments to Iraq for the Army and Marine Corps. The Pentagon encourages service members and veterans in need of help to contact the Military Crisis Line.The Navy last year saw its active-duty suicides rise by four, to 72, and the Marine Corps total dropped by 10, to 47. All the 2019 numbers include confirmed and suspected suicides and are subject to revision based on further medical review. It is not uncommon for a service’s total to get adjusted up or down after further review, but any changes are slight.The Army declined to reveal its 2019 preliminary total, but The Associated Press determined it was little changed from the previous year’s 139. The Army’s figure is typically the highest in the military because it is by far the biggest service, with about 480,000 soldiers on active duty this year, compared with about 332,000 in the Air Force.The Air Force in the mid-1990s pioneered a suicide prevention program that was seen as effective, and at various times since the U.S. became entangled in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan the other services have seen troubling increases in their suicide numbers. The Marine Corps, for example, saw its numbers jump from 37 to 57 between 2016 and 2018.Progress soughtMaj. Craig W. Thomas, a Marine Corps spokesman, said the Marines want further progress after recording 10 fewer active-duty suicides last year. He said unit leaders are encouraged to speak openly with their Marines about stress, mental wellness and suicide.“When leaders and mental health programs and resources acknowledge that ‘everybody struggles with life, trauma, shame, guilt and uncertainty,’ it helps make asking for assistance more acceptable,” Thomas said.Last year, the Air Force went public with its concerns as it saw its suicide numbers rising. Last summer, Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, ordered a “resilience tactical pause” across the force to foster open discussion within the service about suicide prevention. In a July 31 letter, he wrote: “Hopeful to hopeless. What is going on? It is our job to find out.”Answers are elusive, but the Air Force says the Goldfein “pause” jump-started an effort to promote “connectedness” among airmen.The military, whose population is generally younger and more fit than America as a whole, is quick to note that suicide is a problem throughout society. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1999 through 2017, the nation’s suicide rates increased for both men and women, with bigger percentage increases occurring after 2006.
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A U.S. citizen in Wuhan, China, has died from the new coronavirus, officials at the American Embassy in Beijing said Saturday.The embassy said that the 60-year old American died Feb. 6 in Wuhan. A Japanese citizen is also reported to have died in Wuhan of viral pneumonia, likely caused by the coronavirus, although that has not been confirmed.The United States says it offering up to $100 million to China and other countries affected by the deadly coronavirus to combat its spread, as the death toll rises in China to 722.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement Friday.“This commitment – along with the hundreds of millions generously donated by the American private sector – demonstrates strong U.S. leadership in response to the outbreak,” he said.Trump praises XiEarlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to combat the coronavirus as Xi faced mounting domestic criticism following the virus-related death of a physician who issued an early warning about the outbreak.After a Friday telephone conversation with Xi, Trump praised China’s response and said Xi was leading “what will be a very successful operation.” Trump then continued to applaud Xi on Twitter, describing him as “strong, sharp and powerfully focused.””Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!” Trump added. Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) A man wearing a face mask attends a vigil for Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, in Hong Kong, Feb. 7, 2020.However, Li was widely praised by many, including by China Center for Disease Control chief scientist Zeng Guang.”A hero who released information about Wuhan’s epidemic in the early stage, Dr. Li Wenliang is immortal,” Zeng wrote on the Sina Weibo microblog page.  The ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily wrote on Twitter, “We deeply mourn the death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang … After all-effort rescue, Li passed away.”In response to the uproar in China over the government’s treatment of Li, the Communist Party announced Friday it would send a team to Wuhan — the epicenter of the outbreak — to “fully investigate relevant issues raised by the public.”WATCH: Efforts Intensify to Halt Coronavirus’ SpreadSorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
The World Health Organization says it is too early to confirm one Chinese official’s belief that the outbreak is about to peak.There are about 150 confirmed cases in at least 23 other countries, including one death in the Philippines — the first outside of China — and one death in Hong Kong.Cruise shipsForty-one new cases were confirmed by Japan aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, moored off Japan, raising the total to 61. The 3,700 passengers, who are confined aboard this ship, face a 14-day quarantine. Fourteen days is the virus’ incubation period.Masked passengers stand outside on the balcony of the cruise ship Diamond Princess anchored at Yokohama Port in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Feb. 7, 2020.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said foreign passengers on another ship carrying about 2,000 people will not be allowed to enter Japan. Abe said virus-infected passengers may be on board, while the operator of Holland America’s Westerdam denied anyone was infected. The ship is currently near Ishigaki, an island of Okinawa.About 3,600 passengers are stuck aboard another ship remains off the Hong Kong coast, with three cases on board.Hong Kong has shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the Chinese mainland after more than 2,000 medical workers walked off the job earlier this week. The city announced it would quarantine arrivals from mainland China beginning Saturday. Taiwan announced Thursday it was banning all international cruise ships from docking at the island.  A U.S. State Department-charted plane carrying Americans who evacuated from Wuhan landed Friday morning at a military base in Southern California. A second chartered plane with Americans on board was scheduled to arrive at a military base in Northern California later Friday. The returning Americans are being quarantined for 14 days and watched for signs of the illness.The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency and is appealing for $675 million to fight the virus.WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday the world is experiencing a “chronic shortage of personal protective equipment, such as masks and gowns.” Ghebreyesus said he was searching for potential solutions.
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Even as the novel coronavirus continues to spread to more countries around the world, U.S. officials say the risk of infection to Americans remains low.“Our assessment of the immediate risk to the American public from the virus remains the same as last week. … The immediate risk to the American public is low at this time,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at a joint briefing on Friday by President Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force.Azar is leading the federal coronavirus response that is composed of top officials from the White House, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, State Department and Department of Homeland and Security.Currently, 12 cases of the virus are reported in the United States in Wisconsin, California, Arizona, Massachusetts, Washington and Illinois.Last week, the Trump administration declared the novel coronavirus a public health emergency. It announced a presidential proclamation, suspending entry for non-U.S. citizens who had recently visited China and quarantining Americans who visited China’s Hubei province in the last 14 days.While health experts doubt the effectiveness of the travel restrictions in keeping the virus at bay, officials explained the measures would slow the spread of the disease. “I think many public health officials would agree that although it’s not perfect, it could delay (the spread). And what we needed was the delay to essentially prepare better, also to get a better feel of where this is going,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said.Officials at the briefing also explained the rigorous screening efforts underway at the ports of entry.Carrying some 240 American diplomats and citizens, a Boeing 747 aircraft sits on the tarmac in Anchorage, Jan. 28, 2020. Chartered by the U.S. government, the plane flew from Wuhan, China, the source of the coronavirus outbreak.All flights to the U.S. from China are funneled to 11 major airports.Joel Szabat, acting under secretary for policy at the Transportation Department, said, “This involves over 1,000 daily flights inbound to the U.S., being carried by over 400 air carriers, from 288 airports worldwide.”At these 11 airports, passengers who recently visited China are subject to a three-layer screening, first by the Office of the Field Operations, then by medical personnel, and, lastly, by officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The multilayer system that we’ve put out has got us in a mode of containment,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said.The U.S. also has offered to send experts to Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus, but China has yet to respond. Azar said Washington is optimistic they will accept the medical help.“Primarily, our activities would be to learn more about the nature of this virus with our expertise,” he said, adding that virologists, drug development experts and epidemiologists would be part of the team.The State Department Friday also announced $100 million in aid to China and other impacted countries, to contain and combat the coronavirus. The U.S. has already delivered 18 tons of medical supplies, including masks, gowns and respirators to Wuhan.The number of people infected worldwide rose to more than 31,400 and the death toll to nearly 640.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies this week celebrated his acquittal by the Senate on two articles of impeachment, marking the conclusion of a saga that deepened partisan divisions in the country for months. Trump’s supporters say now the president can get back to work on his 2020 campaign pledge to “keep America great,” while critics warn that Trump’s acquittal sets a dangerous precedent that will invite future presidents to abuse their power with impunity. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
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U.S. President Donald Trump says the highest-ranking member of the country’s legislative branch, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “broke the law” when she shredded a copy of the State of the Union speech he delivered to Congress.The president told reporters Friday that Pelosi’s act, which was caught on camera just after Trump completed his address late Tuesday, was “disrespectful to our country, and actually very illegal.”A Florida congressman of Trump’s Republican party, Matt Gaetz, has filed an ethics complaint against Pelosi, accusing her of potentially violating federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2071).The regulation prohibits the destruction of government records, but it only applies to documents that have been “filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States.”‘Brilliant’ or ‘tasteless'”That’s really a law about preserving official documents, such as the official copy that would make it to the National Archives,” said Ajay Mehrotra, executive director and research professor at the American Bar Foundation “I don’t think what Pelosi had was an official document.”The made-for-meme moment was “brilliant political theater” by a rival of Trump, but not a violation of any law, Mehrotra told VOA.Others see it differently, contending that defacing even a non-official reproduced copy of the State of the Union speech could technically violate the law.”I think it’s a legitimate question,” said Aaron Coleman, associate professor and chair of the Department of History and Political Science at the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky.If Trump “sought to pursue this as a legal matter that would call into question the nature of a speech given by a U.S. president,” he added.”I think this is going to be a non-issue when it comes to any legality,” said Coleman. “It’s hard to imagine given all the other real serious issues that the president and Congress would have to face that tax dollars would be devoted to it.”Legalities aside, the political science professor said, “It’s incredibly tasteless and tactless what she did.”Impeachment outcomeTension between Trump and Democratic lawmakers has escalated since the House, controlled by the opposition Democratic party, impeached the president late last year.The Senate, controlled by the Republicans, on Wednesday did not reach the two-thirds majority vote needed to remove Trump from office, rejecting both articles of impeachment delivered by the House.Senators, acting as jurors, all voted along party lines, except for Republican Mitt Romney of Utah, who agreed with Democrats that the president abused the power of his office.Romney, however, did not vote in favor of the second article of impeachment accusing the president of obstructing Congress.Trump is only the third president in U.S. history to have faced an impeachment trial.
 
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Terror groups in Africa are getting more ambitious, increasingly mustering the resources and expertise to make their presence felt across the region with an eye toward wreaking havoc even further afield.Intelligence assessments from the United States, Western nations and other United Nations member states point to a variety of factors, ranging from a small but critical influx of foreign fighters from Iraq and Syria to the growing profitability of drugs and weapons trafficking.  FILE – U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend watches during a tour north of Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 8, 2017.But sharp differences are emerging about the scope and nature of the threat, with U.S. officials alone publicly raising concerns that some of the African-based terrorists may be able to reach into Europe and the U.S. itself.”The violent extremist organizations that are on the continent, both in the east and in the west, some of those groups threaten the American homeland today,” General Stephen Townsend, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, told U.S. lawmakers during a recent hearing.”Some of them will potentially be a threat in future,” he added, warning, “we cannot take pressure off.”Al-Shabab: ‘Our biggest target today is the Americans’U.S. concerns have been spurred most recently by last month’s deadly attack on the Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya, carried out by the Somali-based, al-Qaida affiliated terror group al-Shabab.The attackers, U.S. officials said, demonstrated a surprising capability, overrunning the airfield’s defenses. In the end, three Americans were dead while six aircraft lay in ruins.U.S. forces in Kenya “were not as prepared there, at Manda Bay, as we needed to be,” Townsend admitted.U.S. officials also point to al-Shabab’s own statements, the group’s reclusive leader Abu Ubaidah declaring this past November that, “Our biggest target today is the Americans.”Regional or global threat?But top counterterrorism officials outside of the U.S., while concerned, are not yet convinced that rhetoric or the ability to overrun an air base indicate al-Shabab or other terror groups in Africa are ready to flex their muscles on the global stage.”In view of its increasing strength and the growing level of complexity of its recent operations, it appears possible that al-Shabab could conduct attacks, including on Western targets, in Eastern Africa,” a European Union security official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the intelligence. “However, we currently have no specific indications that these groups would focus on mounting attacks in the West itself.”It is an assessment shared, for now, by top United Nations terrorism officials.”At the moment, there’s no evidence of a present threat outside the immediate region,” according to Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the United Nations’ Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which tracks terror groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.FILE – An image distributed by al-Shabab after the attack on a military base in Kenya shows Somalia’s al-Shabab militant group’s flag, said to be at the Manda Bay Airfield in Manda, Lamu, Kenya, Jan. 5, 2020.International counterterrorism officials contend groups like al-Shabab remain focused on their home territories. And while they appear increasingly willing to take on Western targets, like the U.S. forces in Kenya or French troops stationed in Mali, the primary goal is to destabilize or collapse the region’s fragile governments.They also say there is also no evidence to suggest al-Shabab or the IS-linked groups are seeking to recruit and direct Westerners to carry out attacks in their home countries.Officials admit, however, all of this could change.”We should never be complacent about the external threat posed by armed extremist groups,” the EU security official said. “[Islamic State] may instruct its affiliates in other parts of the world to plan attacks in Europe.”
   
As an example of the potential threat, some counterterror officials point to a case involving a suspected al-Qaida terrorist that spanned Africa and East Asia.
  
In July 2019, authorities arrested a Kenyan national, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, who was taking flying lessons in the Philippines and who was looking to get expedited certification as a pilot.Philippine police said Abdullah had been a member of al-Qaida since 2012, though they refused to release additional details.”The very fact that that was even happening suggests an intelligence at work in al-Shabab that is at least looking at those more ambitious international ambitions,” said the U.N.’s Fitton-Brown. “It would be right to continue to monitor it.”Threat capabilitiesAl-Shabab is also no stranger to looking at aviation as a potential target, having claimed responsibility for a bombing that brought down a FILE – A gaping hole is visible in the side of a plane operated by Daallo Airlines as it sits on the runway of the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 2, 2016.”It is very likely that they would have continued to try to develop this external attack capability and could likely leverage expertise from elsewhere in the al-Qaida network to do so,” said Emily Estelle, with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.”There is clearly concern,” added Colin Clarke, a senior fellow at the Soufan Center, a global security research group.Al-Shabab “has improved its ability to build devastating bombs, as evidenced by some of the spectacular attacks the group has launched since late 2017,” he said.Rise of African-based terror groupsMaking matters more complicated are the number of African terror groups that seem to be on the rise.According to the U.S. and U.N. member states, al-Qaida affiliated Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, has emerged as a key threat in West Africa.Boasting up to 2,000 fighters, mostly based out of Mali, JNIM has been building its financial reserves by taxing smugglers looking for safe passage through Mali. And, increasingly, the group has been displacing government agencies, providing critical services through its own “non-profit” organizations.There are also growing concerns about the Islamic State affiliate in West Africa, known as IS in the Greater Sahara or ISGS.Intelligence officials say the group maintains a stronghold in the tri-border area between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Its fighters, also, have not been afraid to take on U.S. forces, killing four Americans and five Nigeriens while attacking a patrol in Tongo Tongo, Niger, in October 2017.Global responseSome countries are recognizing the rising threat and responding.France, which has taken the lead among Western countries in combating terrorism in the Sahel, recently committed to sending another 600 troops to the region.The goal, according to a statement by French Defense Minister Florence Parly, is to “step up pressure” on ISGS, which she described as “an elusive, asymmetrical enemy.”Other countries are also mobilizing more troops to fight the terror threats in the Sahel, France saying it has already gotten commitments from Chad and the Czech Republic, and that it expects more nations to increase their commitments as well.But some analysts warn Africa’s terror groups are unlikely to back down because while European countries talk of adding forces, talk in the U.S. has focused on further reducing the American military footprint – or as U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has described it, “right-sizing” the Pentagon’s force posture.”It is a re-balancing, it is a right-sizing, if you will” @EsperDoD says of reviewing US force posture in #Africa & elsewhere”In some cases we will increase. In some cases we won’t change. In some cases we will decrease”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) January 30, 2020″They (terror groups) are aware of the U.S. discussion on whether to withdraw troops from Africa,” said Emily Estelle, with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.”We need to consider that al-Qaida and its affiliates are attempting to manipulate the U.S. policy response,” she added. “This could be an attempt to push the U.S. toward withdrawing troops from West Africa entirely, which would allow al-Qaida’s affiliate JNIM to keep solidifying its influence there. The al-Shabab attacks likely have a similar goal for East Africa.”
 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party grappled Friday with the fallout from a state governor’s election with both its support and votes from a far-right party, vowing not to work “directly or indirectly” with the far-right.The election of Thomas Kemmerich as governor of the eastern state of Thuringia shook German politics and highlighted tensions in Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union.Kemmerich’s election was only possible thanks to a maneuver by the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD. When the state legislature voted to pick a governor Wednesday, the party threw its support behind Kemmerich in an apparent bid for mainstream respectability.Kemmerich’s acceptance of its votes appalled left-leaning parties and many in his own center-right camp. Merkel called his election “inexcusable.” The politician from the small pro-business Free Democrats announced the day after he was picked as governor that he planned to step down.Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as Christian Democratic Union leader in 2018, gathered the party leadership in Berlin for a crisis meeting Friday.Kramp-Karrenbauer had struggled to impose her authority since taking over the party’s leadership and emerged weakened after CDU’s regional lawmakers ignored a recommendation from Berlin not to back Kemmerich.The debacle also highlighted the dilemma of a party that long said it would not ally with either AfD or the Left Party of Thuringia state’s popular previous governor, Bodo Ramelow. The Christian Democrats shun the Left Party as a descendant of East Germany’s ruling communists.A small faction in the CDU has advocated a more relaxed approach to AfD, which is at its strongest and most extreme in the east. There also has been disagreement on how to deal with the Left Party.Participants at Friday’s party meeting agreed unanimously that “for the CDU in Germany and the CDU in Thuringia, it is still the case that there will be no cooperation with AfD, either directly or indirectly,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said.She said her party is ready for “constructive cooperation” in finding a solution to the mess in Thuringia, but won’t elect a governor from the Left Party or one who depends on AfD votes.Kramp-Karrenbauer called on center-left parties to present a candidate “who doesn’t divide the state.” If no solution can be found, she said, “new elections are inevitable.” The last state election took place in October.A poll published Friday suggested that CDU support could collapse in a new vote in Thuringia.The events this week also have revived tensions in Merkel’s national coalition with the center-left Social Democrats. Coalition leaders are to meet Saturday.
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Russian authorities have added more than 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses to a register of extremists and terrorists, the organization said in a statement Friday.The latest move in a crackdown on the religious group effectively cuts the believers off from the country’s financial system, because being on list leads to one’s bank accounts being frozen and to severe restrictions on any financial transactions.Russia officially banned Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2017 and declared the group an extremist organization. The Kremlin has actively used vaguely worded extremism laws to crack down on opposition activists and religious minorities.Since then, hundreds of members have been subjected to raids, arrests and prosecution. Twenty-four members of the organization have been convicted, nine of whom have been sentenced to prison, and more than 300 people are currently under criminal investigation.Most of the blacklisted believers have not been convicted yet but are under investigation, the Jehovah’s Witnesses said.Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses world headquarters in the United States, said Friday that Russian authorities are “vilifying Jehovah’s Witnesses, crippling them from caring for their basic needs.”“Clearly, Russia has effectively reinstated its darkest period of history by relentlessly persecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses, as did its intolerant Soviet predecessors,” Lopes said.Thousands on registerThe register, available on the website of Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial intelligence agency, currently contains more than 9,500 names. It doesn’t state a person’s affiliation with an organization. The Associated Press was able to identify at least two dozen Jehovah’s Witnesses on the list.Rosfinmonitoring officials would neither confirm nor deny blacklisting Jehovah’s Witnesses to The Associated Press, saying that they add people to the register based on the information law enforcement provides them.The crackdown on members of the group continues despite a promise by Russian President Vladimir Putin to look into “this complete nonsense.”“Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, too, so I don’t quite understand why persecute them,” Putin said at a meeting with the Presidential Council for Human Rights in 2018.
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JAMMU, INDIA — Indian authorities have arrested two former top elected officials of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir under a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without trial, officials said Friday.Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were arrested as their 6-month-old detention ended Thursday, a top civil administrator and top police officers said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.Mufti and Abdullah were among thousands of people detained when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of semi-autonomy and statehood, downgrading them into two federal territories last August.Since, they had been held under house arrest under a preventive custody law that allows authorities to detain people who might commit offenses for up to six months.Past statements citedOn Thursday, Modi gave an indication of their arrest when he said in Parliament that the two leaders had in the past made statements that could incite unrest in the region.Modi cited Mehbooba Mufti accusing India of cheating Kashmir last summer. He said Omar Abdullah had remarked that ending Kashmir’s autonomy would cause an earthquake that would separate Kashmir from India, though there is no indication Abdullah made any such statement.“Some people here complain some leaders have been incarcerated. Mehbooba Mufti said, ‘Kashmir made a mistake by joining India.’ Are you justifying such kind of speech?” Modi said in Parliament.Pro-India politiciansOmar Abdullah’s father, Farooq Abdullah, was the first pro-India politician arrested under the Public Safety Act, under which rights activists say more than 20,000 Kashmiris have been detained in the last two decades. They are considered pro-India as they never supported Muslim-majority Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan.They are the top leaders of the National Conference, the party that has governed the Indian-controlled Kashmir for decades since India and Pakistan won independence from British colonialists in 1947 and soon began fighting over control over Kashmir, a Himalayan region spread over both countries. Farooq Abdullah, also a former top elected official of Jammu and Kashmir, is an 82-year-old member of India’s Parliament.Mufti, 60, heads the People’s Democratic Party, which was a coalition partner of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the region for nearly two years after the 2016 state elections. Mufti headed the coalition government.Two former state lawmakers and party leaders, Ali Mohammed Sagar of the NC and Sartaj Madani of the PDP, also were detained under the controversial Public Security Act on Wednesday.’Lawless law’Amnesty International has called the Public Safety Act a “lawless law,” and rights groups say India has used it to stifle dissent and circumvent the criminal justice system, undermining accountability, transparency and respect for human rights.On Friday, the main opposition Congress party slammed the government’s decision.“Shocked and devastated by the cruel invocation of the Public Safety Act against Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and others,” said P. Chidambaram, a top party leader.“Detention without charges is the worst abomination in a democracy. When unjust laws are passed or unjust laws are invoked, what option do the people have than to protest peacefully?” Chidambaram tweeted.
 
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With a Feb. 22 deadline fast approaching for South Sudan’s rival leaders to form a unity government, there is still no agreement on how many states the country will have or their boundaries.The chief mediator in talks aimed at ending the stalemate chaired a six-hour consultative meeting on the matter Wednesday, but there was no breakthrough.FILE – Henry Odwar, who is now the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO) deputy chairman, poses for a photograph in Juba, Oct. 10, 2012.Henry Odwar, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO) deputy chairman, told reporters late Wednesday it was “disheartening” that the parties “hit another brick wall.”Information Minister Michael Makuei, one of the government’s representatives on the National Pre-Transitional Committee, said despite the parties’ failure to resolve all outstanding issues, the Kiir administration is not prepared to extend the pretransitional period yet again.“We are saying there is no more extension. We are saying on the 21st of February, which will be the last day of 100 days, the government will be declared, and they will take oath on the 22nd. And if they don’t take part, that will be the time we will respond, not now,” Makuei told VOA’s “South Sudan in Focus” program.Arbitration proposedLast month, a regional committee proposed that the parties move ahead with forming a unity government by the deadline, and leave it to an arbitration committee to later resolve the long-standing dispute over the number of states and their boundaries. President Salva Kiir unilaterally increased the number of states twice from the original 10 states to the current 32.Early on, the government accepted the arbitration proposal. But Wednesday, Makuei said the Kiir administration proposed instead that the issue be resolved in a referendum vote, after the unity government is formed this month.FILE – Michael Makuei, South Sudanese information minister, attends a press conference in Addis Ababa, Jan. 5, 2014.“Arbitration is a court whose decision is final and binding and not subject to appeals,” Makuei told VOA. “So, it is even stronger than the ordinary court. So, as a government, we object to the arbitration process, and we said let us stick to the provision of the agreement.”For its part, the SPLM-IO said it welcomes arbitration to resolve the dispute. But Odwar said the arbitration committee would have to settle the number of states and boundaries issue before the parties form a unity government.He said if the stalemate over the number of states is not resolved and security arrangements are not completed before the deadline, the SPLM-IO will not be part of any new government.“Together with the security arrangements, these are the barest minimum. Without these issues being resolved, we in the opposition, I-O, we will not come into government. I repeat — if by the 22nd as Makuei said established a government of national unity, we will not be part of it,” Odwar told VOA.African UnionThe chief mediator at the talks, South Africa’s Deputy President David Mabuza, said his committee is referring the matter to an African Union summit scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this weekend, but acknowledges that’s not a lot of time.“Our feeling is that it is too short a time. If we want to do a thorough job, probably we need to consult further. We must consult IGAD. We must consult the C5. We must consult the AU. Fortunately, they have a summit this weekend. We are going to table the proposal here, and beyond that, we come back and give then the feedback,” Mabuza told South Sudan in Focus.  The C5 refers to the five countries that are the guarantors to the revitalized peace agreement — Algeria, Chad, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa.Sudan and South SudanKiir and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar were expected to meet on the sidelines of an African Union summit this weekend to further discuss the matter. Makuei said he is not sure that is going to happen.“The president will only be going for the meeting of IGAD and the general assembly of the AU. He is not going to meet anybody. He has been meeting all the leaders of the opposition here,” Makuei said.IGAD is the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a trade bloc.Kiir and Machar have held several face-to-face meetings in Juba since the deadline to form a unity government was postponed by 100 days. But they have always come up short on reaching a deal.EU warningUnder the terms of the existing agreement, the parties have a little more than two weeks to complete security arrangements and resolve the states and boundaries issue in order to form a unity government by the deadline.Last week, the European Union warned the body will soon be compelled to review its policies toward dealing with the parties to the agreement should they fail to work out their differences.In a tweet earlier this week, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, warned the government and other parties, “We can no longer stand by at the indescribable cruelty of the violence that belligerents continue to inflict on a population that has suffered far too much for too long.”He said more sanctions could be coming against those who block the peace process.A 5½-year conflict in South Sudan was sparked by a power struggle between Kiir and Machar. According to the U.N., the conflict killed hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese and forced millions to flee their homes.
 
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Many U.S. companies are collectively holding their breath wondering if Chinese factories will open Monday. China extended the Lunar New Year holiday because of the outbreak of the coronavirus, highlighting again how China is the world’s manufacturing capital. Michelle Quinn reports from San Francisco.
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The number of coronavirus cases reported in Indonesia and Thailand is well below what scientists would expect, given how closely connected the countries are to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. That raises concerns that the virus may be spreading undetected in those countries, potentially adding fuel to the epidemic that has so far killed over 600 people and sickened over 31,000.   “Indonesia has reported zero cases, and you would expect to have seen several already,” said epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, co-author of a Immigration officers wearing protective suits prepare immigration for Thai nationals evacuated from China’s Wuhan province, the center of the coronavirus epidemic, at the U-Tapao airport in Rayong province, Thailand, Feb. 4, 2020.Going undetected?Health systems in Indonesia and Thailand may not be catching cases, Lipsitch said, which could create problems for the rest of the world.  “Undetected cases in any country will potentially seed epidemics in those countries,” he added, which can spread beyond their borders. Lipsitch’s group’s research is one of FILE – Students line up to sanitize their hands to avoid the contact of coronavirus before their morning class at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 28, 2020.Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia are screening travelers from China at the border.   “Indonesia is doing what is possible to be prepared for and defend against the novel coronavirus,” the World Health Organization’s Indonesia representative, Dr. Navaratnasamy Paranietharan, told the Sydney Morning Herald.However, he added, “there is still more work to do in the areas of surveillance and active case detection.” ‘Beef things up’These countries are not the only places with shortcomings in their public health systems, said epidemiologist Art Reingold at the University of California-Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “I wouldn’t want people to think everyone else is doing a great job. We need to beef things up in a lot of places,” he added, and not just in the developing world. “We think we’re doing a good job,” he said. “People think they’re doing a good job in France or whatever, but I don’t think we can afford to make that assumption.” While some countries start to cut connections with China in hopes of keeping out the disease, Mores said, those measures may not help if the virus is spreading under the radar in countries that don’t. “There’s certainly plenty of places, especially in the developing world, that are not going to be able to shut down their economies because of this coronavirus outbreak,” he said. “And the danger there is that those countries are even more susceptible” because of weaker public health systems.   And that puts the world at risk, Mores added. 
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President Donald Trump highlighted his efforts to promote religious freedom at home and abroad during an unusually raucous appearance before the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.“To protect faith communities, I have taken historic action to defend religious liberty, including the constitutional right to pray in public schools,” he told the crowd of 3,000 faith leaders who were primarily Christians.Trump was referring to the federal guidance announced Jan. 16  that public schools must certify they allow students to engage in voluntary prayers. He also reminded the crowd about his promise to end the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches from endorsing or opposing political candidates.“Today, we proudly proclaim that faith is alive and well and thriving in America. And we’re going to keep it that way,” he said.Both parties host eventFounded in 1953 by President Dwight Eisenhower, the prayer breakfast is hosted by lawmakers of both parties and is meant to promote unity and stress the importance of prayer and faith.Trump — who was acquitted by the Senate of two impeachment charges on Wednesday — vented against Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the only Senate Republican to vote for conviction on one of the charges,  and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the effort in the House to impeach the president.Without specifically naming him, Trump said of Romney, a Mormon, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.”Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of Calif., listens as President Donald Trump speaks at the 68th annual National Prayer Breakfast, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington.As for Pelosi, who once said that she prays for Trump, the president commented, “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so. So many people have been hurt, and we can’t let that go.”The co-sponsors of the breakfast, Rep. John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, and Rep. Thomas Suozzi, a New York Democrat, announced the theme of this year’s breakfast as “religious persecution.” Trump also expressed his resolve to fight against religious persecutions around the world.“We are standing up for persecuted Christians and religious minorities all around the world like nobody has ever done. … Yesterday, our administration launched the International Freedom Alliance, the first-ever alliance devoted to promoting religious liberty,” he said.IRF AllianceOn the eve of the National Prayer Breakfast, the Trump administration launched the IRF Alliance, which the State Department described as “the first time in history an international coalition has come together at a national leadership level to push the issue of religious freedom forward around the world.”  Plans to start the IRF Alliance was first mentioned by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a religious freedom ministerial in Washington last July and then announced by Trump at the U.N. General Assembly in September.Some 27 countries joined the alliance, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, The Gambia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Togo, Ukraine and the U.S.The alliance members will focus on combating blasphemy laws, the use of technology in religious oppression, and persecuting people who convert to another religion. They are also considering the possibilities of using sanctions to punish the religious persecutors.Rights groups welcome attention Religious and human rights groups are welcoming the move as focusing global attention on religious freedom.“This initiative highlights the growing restrictions on individual freedom to practice the faith of one’s choosing, or to not have faith. The alliance can help show societies how to create systems and practices that allow people freedom of conscience,” David Curry told VOA. Curry is the CEO of Open Doors USA, a prominent Christian persecution watchdog.Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, explained the IRF Alliance is the result of years of international consultations.“There could be a misperception that this is the U.S. pushing religious freedom down the throats of other countries, but this is not the case. This is an initiative from the International Religious Freedom Roundtable that existed for years,” King said. He added that the alliance is an important tool with the potential to “move the needle” and will work best as part of a broader effort that involves “carrots and sticks.”However, there are concerns over the makeup of the IRF Alliance, which includes members that have questionable human rights records.“Bulgaria and some others have reprehensible records on human rights and religious freedom,” King noted.Critics say the Trump administration’s expanded travel ban announced last week also undermines U.S. efforts in promoting religious freedom.“The main obstacle to the U.S. role in this alliance is simply that the administration of President Donald Trump has implemented the tragic travel ban that has effected majority Muslim countries, in addition to new countries such as Myanmar,” said Philippe Nassif, Middle East and North Africa advocacy director for Amnesty International.”So, how can the U.S. be taken seriously when Rohyinga Muslims from Myanmar, or Sudanese Christians, or other persecuted groups are unable to enter the U.S. due to this ban?”
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With more than 50 million people on lockdown, economists warn China’s efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak are reverberating through the global economy.For two weeks major airlines have either scaled back or outright cancelled service to China, and many global retailers, including coffee chain Starbucks and furniture giant Ikea, have announced that they are temporarily closing outlets there. Yum brands, the owner of well-known fast food chains including KFC and Pizza Hut, said that it had been forced to close nearly a third of its stores in the country.The impact is now growing outside China. This week, Hyundai Motor Company announced that it had been forced to suspend production at its plants in South Korea because parts made in China were no longer available. Nintendo announced that shipments of its popular Switch gaming platform would be delayed, and luxury brands including Estee Lauder, Coach, and Kate Spade have warned that the outbreak may have a significant negative effect on sales.Apart from company statements, there is little data available to assess the immediate impact of the virus on global trade. But among experts, there is no doubt that the economic fallout from the situation will be noticeable and potentially severe.GDP drop expected“When trade slows in China, that obviously means less income for other countries, and it will slow them down as well,” said economist Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “In other words, their growth rates are not independent of the Chinese growth rate.”Hufbauer said that a conservative estimate impact of the coronavirus epidemic on China alone might be to cut its annual growth rate by a percentage point. “I will be surprised if it is greater than 5%,” he said, citing a figure about a percentage point lower than the Chinese government’s official forecast released prior to the outbreak.While one percent may sound trivial, in an economy the size of China’s it represents about $153 billion in lost economic output over a full year, according to International Monetary Fund data.He added that without the aggressive measures the Chinese government has implemented to boost the economy, including immediate monetary stimulus and promised fiscal stimulus, the damage might be even greater.It is difficult to directly translate a slowdown in China into precise effects on other countries, but it is clear that an extended period of low productivity there will have impacts around the globe.About 17% of Chinese exports are considered “intermediate” goods, according to World Bank data, meaning that they are inputs that other manufacturers use to produce their finished goods. This includes electronic components, auto parts, steel, and more. In the U.S. alone, businesses purchased $37.3 billion in intermediate goods from China in 2018.Lunar New Year creates economic bufferFrom a global economic standpoint, the timing of the coronavirus outbreak had some advantages. The Chinese economy typically slows down dramatically during the lunar new year holidays. That annual lull is already included in companies’ expectations for supply chain performance, so the current disruption in manufacturing is causing less of a disturbance than it might otherwise have.“In an ideal economic calendar, China would still be on break until Feb 10th, which is when the New Year period ends,” said Rui Zhong, a program associate with the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center, a Washington, DC think tank. “So we won’t know for sure the impacts until a few weeks from now. Manufacturing facilities around Wenzhou, one of the harder-hit areas, might impact small consumer goods and electronics as it enters a quarantine period.”Zhong added, “As for global reverberations, supply chains for assembly in China and business travel slowdowns may impact the speed at which commercial activity is conducted until the coronavirus is adequately contained.”Peter Bolstorff, the executive vice president for corporate development with the Association for Supply Chain Management, agreed that “domestic Chinese businesses are just at the start” of the outbreak’s impact. However, he said, global companies are already looking for ways to avoid the expected disruption in China. Some, he said, may stand to profit by being better prepared than their competitors.Trade war may have prepared US businesses“We’ve had plenty of supply chain disruption in the last five years, and people are actually getting skilled at [thinking] about risk events and probabilities and starting to plan around them,” he said. “So, what I would predict in the future is, coming out of this particular disruption, organizations that have prepared for risk, are going to gain market share over those that did not.”Ironically, he pointed out, the damaging trade war between the United States and China, brought on by President Trump’s imposition of large tariffs on Chinese goods, may have served to inoculate many U.S. businesses against the impact of a major supply chain disruption focused in China.With the status of U.S.-China trade relations in doubt over the first years of the Trump administration, many U.S. businesses began to shift production and seek suppliers in other countries. To the extent that many of these, including Vietnam and Thailand, are less affected by the coronavirus than China, companies that rely on production there instead of China will suffer fewer disruptions. 
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