foreignpolicy--2020-03-11--It’s Time to Cancel the U.S. Presidential Campaign as We Know It

It ’ s Time to Cancel the U.S. Presidential Campaign as We Know It Let ’ s get serious , America .
It ’ s time to ask , during a time of plague , whether—and if so , in what form—democracy can continue as usual .
The answer is likely to be disappointing .
For the first time in the country ’ s history , the United States must contemplate canceling the Democratic and Republican national conventions and campaign rallies , and give serious consideration to arranging ways of organizing election day that don ’ t require in-person voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tuesday voting on March 3 .
Democrats voted in 14 states in their presidential primaries , with some states showing record turnouts and long voting lines .
California voting turnout was especially robust .
The following day , the state saw its first COVID-19 death and Gov .
Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency across California , as evidence surfaced of community transmission in several counties .
But the dangers of the election campaign aren ’ t just a matter of voting .
American democracy is built one handshake at a time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kisses and photogenic hugs .
Democrat front-runners former Vice President Joseph Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders are inveterate shakers and huggers , making contact with more would-be voters in an hour than most people might in a month of social encounters .
A candidate ’ s hands can be a vector , taking the virus from one eager citizen to the next , and the next , and so on .
That ’ s been demonstrated by the aftereffects of this year ’ s Conservative Political Action Conference .
On Feb. 29 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19,000 people gathered inside Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor , Maryland , and met with many adoring followers , shaking hands , hugging and kissing many .
Trump had assured the crowd that “ everything is really under control , ” and his administration ’ s response to the outbreak was “ given very good grades , like an A-plus-plus-plus ” from experts .
But unknown to him , the coronavirus was in the room , and it wasn ’ t deterred by his rhetoric .
On March 7 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prevention ( CDC ) confirmed that an attendee from New Jersey tested positive for the coronavirus .
The sponsoring American Conservative Union assured the nation that the infected individual had no contact with Trump or Pence ( although American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp told the Washington Post he met with the patient , and shortly thereafter shook Trump ’ s hand on the stage ) .
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz , however , issued a statement that he was quarantining himself , no longer appearing on Capitol Hill .
At the CPAC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patient from New Jersey .
“ Last night , I was informed that 10 days ago at CPAC I briefly interacted with an individual who is currently symptomatic and has tested positive for COVID-19 .
That interaction consisted of a brief conversation and a handshake , ” Cruz ’ s statement read .
Knowing other Republican leaders might need to follow suit , CPAC issued its own statement : “ Our children , spouses , extended family , and friends attended CPAC .
During this time , we need to remain calm , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and support each other .
We send this message in that spirit.
” Over the next two days , four more members of Congress who had contact with the CPAC patient also quarantined themselves .
One of them , Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida , had previously mocked fears of COVID-19 during an emergency budget session by appearing on the House floor wearing a gas mask .
Another of the self-quarantined , Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia , informed the White House that he had shaken the president ’ s hand after meeting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ general anxiety in the Senate , as more than two-thirds of its members are at higher risk for coronavirus illness due to their over-60 ages .
After a March 9 press conference in which questions arose about the president ’ s and vice president ’ s possible exposure to the coronavirus at CPAC , White House officials told reporters that neither leader had been tested for infection .
CPAC has become a regular part of the U.S. political calendar , but nobody can argue that it ’ s indispensable .
The same is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presidential campaigns , including rallies , rope lines , and baby-kissing .
There ’ s no good reason not to immediately suspend all such nonessential conventions of U.S. democracy—starting with the party conventions themselves .
This should be a no-brainer for Republicans .
The Republican convention scheduled for August 24-27 in Charlotte , North Carolina , features a virtually uncontested candidate , and will constitute a nationally televised megarally for the president .
If canceled due to the epidemic , its absence would not affect the Republican Party ’ s selection of Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in canceling their convention would be greater for Democrats than for the Republicans .
Many political observers believe that the race between Biden and Sanders will be so tight that their July 13-16 convention in Milwaukee will fail to have a clear winner on the first delegate vote , turning into a brokered convention—the party ’ s first in nearly 70 years .
To win the party ’ s candidacy either Biden or Sanders must win more than 50 percent of delegates ’ votes .
Even if one of the two men arrives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be the clear victor on a first delegate vote , Democrats need a love fest full of glad-handing , in-your-face negotiating , and baby-hugging to unify the party and rally its TV-watching troops .
If the epidemic forces cancellation of the Milwaukee gathering , the party ’ s candidate may be at a distinct disadvantage going into the general election against Trump and his base of loyal support .
Yet the political system should note that such sacrifices are not unprecedented .
On Nov. 5 , 1918 , the United States held midterm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I .
The Spanish influenza was raging across the United States , claiming huge death tolls in most of the nation ’ s large cities and striking terror across the country .
Politicians abandoned most campaigning rituals , such as rallies and speaking tours .
( Because it was not a presidential election year , the convention-cancellation question wasn ’ t raised in 1918 . )
Voter turnout was merely 40 percent , well below the usual for the era .
Yet no one thought to question the legitimacy of the outcome .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ with democratic politics amid an epidemic can distort election outcomes .
In 1976 incumbent President Gerald Ford ran against Democrat Jimmy Carter amid fears of a so-called swine flu .
Two of the most famous virologists of the day , polio vaccine inventors Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin , agreed with the CDC that a new form of influenza had emerged that might be as deadly as the 1918 pandemic .
In haste , vaccines were manufactured , and a month before the general election mass immunization commenced .
Some batches of vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the entire swine flu issue turned into a fiasco as influenza failed to hit the nation , and hundreds of people complained of lasting damage to their health from the vaccines .
The threat of swine flu didn ’ t prompt any changes in the democratic process—conventions , rallies , or voting—but it may have contributed to Ford ’ s loss nevertheless .
Iran offers an especially chilling cautionary tale .
Its first identified cases were seen in hospitals in early February , and two deaths were announced on Feb. 19 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , nationwide celebrations of the Iranian revolution on Feb. 11 and national elections on Feb. 21 .
Both events involved massive crowds , and New Yorker writer Robin Wright quoted a local health-policy expert as saying , “ It was the political decision that led to this outbreak in Iran.
” Epidemiologists estimate that around the time crowds lined up to vote , Iran already had more than 18,000 COVID-19 cases .
Today about 10 percent of Iran ’ s parliamentarians are infected , several officials in the ayatollah ’ s ruling circle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus , and the country has the third-largest epidemic in the world , after China and Italy .
While Iranian officials may not have recognized the scale of their COVID-19 crisis when the Feb. 11 celebrations took place , they certainly knew the elections 10 days later posed a hazard of expanding their epidemic .
What would a U.S. presidential election look like without crowded polling stations , boisterous mass rallies , raucous conventions , and their days of side parties , glad-handing , and baby-kissing ?
It ’ s time we found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaigns are standing in the way .
The Trump campaign so far insists that no changes in either rallies or the Republican convention will be made , regardless of the epidemic .
Many of his supporters , including members of the American Christian Union , continue to attend very large evangelical gatherings and believe that the arrival of COVID-19 is biblically predicted , and their faith will protect them .
Some are marketing what look like rock-band tour T-shirts saying , “ COVID-19 Media Hype Pandemic World Tour 2020 .
Mainstream Media : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Neither the Biden nor Sanders campaigns have at this writing issued statements regarding the epidemic ’ s impact on their future plans .
The Secret Service is detailed to protect the president , vice president , top White House officials and presidential candidates ( if requested ) from real and present dangers to their survivals , whether at the hands of a would-be assassin or a crashing car .
To date , it has not issued coronavirus-specific policies for the campaign .
But the facts are clear : There is no easy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infection , as COVID-19 can be carried and spread by people who have no outwardly measurable symptoms or fever .
Putting six feet of open space between the candidates and their crowds might eliminate the direct risks that Biden , Sanders , and Trump face—both as recipients and vectors of infection—but do nothing to mitigate dangers for the assemblage .
But even if the campaigns were themselves amenable to change , the cultural resistance would be vast .
So much of U.S. politics is about the optics of enormous rallies , featuring cheering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Rolling Thunder tours and handshakes to social distancing and YouTube microspeeches would likely suck the energy out of the presidential election , with unpredictable effects on the outcome .
It ’ s sensible to move the campaign heavily into online formats .
New forms of digital advertising and minivideo productions might generate some public interest , although the failure of the heavily financed , TV-rich Michael Bloomberg campaign demonstrates the limits of such outreach .
Actual voting can , and should , proceed with heavy emphasis on mailed ballots .
To the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ great attention should be paid to social distancing—keeping all citizens three feet apart from each other in line and inside the voting area .
Get-out-the-vote campaigns—whether through door-knocking or canvassing shopping malls—should also entail proper social distancing .
( The same is true of the U.S. Census , which is a vital component of future congressional mapping , and is set to commence on April 1 . )
We are “ in uncharted territory , ” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on March 2nd .
He ’ s right—but not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our entire political process .
The United States has already struggled with cyberdisruption of its elections , trolls posting phony campaign material , and violent threats against journalists at political rallies .
Now Americans face a virus that threatens to undermine their most sacred constitutional process .
And the virus won ’ t wait for primary elections to proceed , conventions to gather , or November ballots to be cast , and it could well exploit those events , spreading as wildly in the United States as it did after Iran ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t afford to follow the ayatollah ’ s example , holding national elections as its epidemic soars .
The government can ’ t tell the people to avoid public gatherings , work from home , stay away from school , all the while holding gigantic political rallies and conventions .
We must swiftly abandon the old way of garnering voters , and invent a new , less contagious one .
Time is not on our side .

Let’s get serious, America. It’s time to ask, during a time of plague, whether—and if so, in what form—democracy can continue as usual. The answer is likely to be disappointing. For the first time in the country’s history, the United States must contemplate canceling the Democratic and Republican national conventions and campaign rallies, and give serious consideration to arranging ways of organizing election day that don’t require in-person voting.
Let’s get serious, America. It’s time to ask, during a time of plague, whether—and if so, in what form—democracy can continue as usual. The answer is likely to be disappointing. For the first time in the country’s history, the United States must contemplate canceling the Democratic and Republican national conventions and campaign rallies, and give serious consideration to arranging ways of organizing election day that don’t require in-person voting.
Consider the apparent fallout from Super Tuesday voting on March 3. Democrats voted in 14 states in their presidential primaries, with some states showing record turnouts and long voting lines. California voting turnout was especially robust. The following day, the state saw its first COVID-19 death and Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency across California, as evidence surfaced of community transmission in several counties.
But the dangers of the election campaign aren’t just a matter of voting. American democracy is built one handshake at a time, along with selfie poses, baby kisses and photogenic hugs. Democrat front-runners former Vice President Joseph Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders are inveterate shakers and huggers, making contact with more would-be voters in an hour than most people might in a month of social encounters. A candidate’s hands can be a vector, taking the virus from one eager citizen to the next, and the next, and so on.
That’s been demonstrated by the aftereffects of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. On Feb. 29, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to about 19,000 people gathered inside Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, and met with many adoring followers, shaking hands, hugging and kissing many. Trump had assured the crowd that “everything is really under control,” and his administration’s response to the outbreak was “given very good grades, like an A-plus-plus-plus” from experts.
[Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak: Get daily updates on the pandemic and learn how it’s affecting countries around the world.]
But unknown to him, the coronavirus was in the room, and it wasn’t deterred by his rhetoric. On March 7, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that an attendee from New Jersey tested positive for the coronavirus. The sponsoring American Conservative Union assured the nation that the infected individual had no contact with Trump or Pence (although American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp told the Washington Post he met with the patient, and shortly thereafter shook Trump’s hand on the stage). Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, however, issued a statement that he was quarantining himself, no longer appearing on Capitol Hill. At the CPAC gathering he shook hands with the COVID-19 patient from New Jersey. “Last night, I was informed that 10 days ago at CPAC I briefly interacted with an individual who is currently symptomatic and has tested positive for COVID-19. That interaction consisted of a brief conversation and a handshake,” Cruz’s statement read. Knowing other Republican leaders might need to follow suit, CPAC issued its own statement: “Our children, spouses, extended family, and friends attended CPAC. During this time, we need to remain calm, listen to our health care professionals, and support each other. We send this message in that spirit.”
Over the next two days, four more members of Congress who had contact with the CPAC patient also quarantined themselves. One of them, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, had previously mocked fears of COVID-19 during an emergency budget session by appearing on the House floor wearing a gas mask. Another of the self-quarantined, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, informed the White House that he had shaken the president’s hand after meeting with the CPAC patient. There is general anxiety in the Senate, as more than two-thirds of its members are at higher risk for coronavirus illness due to their over-60 ages. After a March 9 press conference in which questions arose about the president’s and vice president’s possible exposure to the coronavirus at CPAC, White House officials told reporters that neither leader had been tested for infection.
CPAC has become a regular part of the U.S. political calendar, but nobody can argue that it’s indispensable. The same is true of many other traditions of U.S. presidential campaigns, including rallies, rope lines, and baby-kissing. There’s no good reason not to immediately suspend all such nonessential conventions of U.S. democracy—starting with the party conventions themselves. This should be a no-brainer for Republicans. The Republican convention scheduled for August 24-27 in Charlotte, North Carolina, features a virtually uncontested candidate, and will constitute a nationally televised megarally for the president. If canceled due to the epidemic, its absence would not affect the Republican Party’s selection of Trump as its candidate.
Listen Now: Don't Touch Your Face A new podcast from Foreign Policy covering all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic Learn More
The sacrifice involved in canceling their convention would be greater for Democrats than for the Republicans. Many political observers believe that the race between Biden and Sanders will be so tight that their July 13-16 convention in Milwaukee will fail to have a clear winner on the first delegate vote, turning into a brokered convention—the party’s first in nearly 70 years. To win the party’s candidacy either Biden or Sanders must win more than 50 percent of delegates’ votes. Even if one of the two men arrives in Milwaukee having won enough primaries to be the clear victor on a first delegate vote, Democrats need a love fest full of glad-handing, in-your-face negotiating, and baby-hugging to unify the party and rally its TV-watching troops. If the epidemic forces cancellation of the Milwaukee gathering, the party’s candidate may be at a distinct disadvantage going into the general election against Trump and his base of loyal support.
Yet the political system should note that such sacrifices are not unprecedented. On Nov. 5, 1918, the United States held midterm elections for congressional seats during World War I. The Spanish influenza was raging across the United States, claiming huge death tolls in most of the nation’s large cities and striking terror across the country. Politicians abandoned most campaigning rituals, such as rallies and speaking tours. (Because it was not a presidential election year, the convention-cancellation question wasn’t raised in 1918.) Voter turnout was merely 40 percent, well below the usual for the era. Yet no one thought to question the legitimacy of the outcome.
History also shows that proceeding as normal with democratic politics amid an epidemic can distort election outcomes. In 1976 incumbent President Gerald Ford ran against Democrat Jimmy Carter amid fears of a so-called swine flu. Two of the most famous virologists of the day, polio vaccine inventors Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, agreed with the CDC that a new form of influenza had emerged that might be as deadly as the 1918 pandemic. In haste, vaccines were manufactured, and a month before the general election mass immunization commenced. Some batches of vaccine caused side effects and were withdrawn, and the entire swine flu issue turned into a fiasco as influenza failed to hit the nation, and hundreds of people complained of lasting damage to their health from the vaccines. The threat of swine flu didn’t prompt any changes in the democratic process—conventions, rallies, or voting—but it may have contributed to Ford’s loss nevertheless.
Iran offers an especially chilling cautionary tale. Its first identified cases were seen in hospitals in early February, and two deaths were announced on Feb. 19. But the government proceeded with the robust, nationwide celebrations of the Iranian revolution on Feb. 11 and national elections on Feb. 21. Both events involved massive crowds, and New Yorker writer Robin Wright quoted a local health-policy expert as saying, “It was the political decision that led to this outbreak in Iran.” Epidemiologists estimate that around the time crowds lined up to vote, Iran already had more than 18,000 COVID-19 cases. Today about 10 percent of Iran’s parliamentarians are infected, several officials in the ayatollah’s ruling circle are sick or have died of the coronavirus, and the country has the third-largest epidemic in the world, after China and Italy. While Iranian officials may not have recognized the scale of their COVID-19 crisis when the Feb. 11 celebrations took place, they certainly knew the elections 10 days later posed a hazard of expanding their epidemic.
What would a U.S. presidential election look like without crowded polling stations, boisterous mass rallies, raucous conventions, and their days of side parties, glad-handing, and baby-kissing? It’s time we found out, but for now the presidential campaigns are standing in the way. The Trump campaign so far insists that no changes in either rallies or the Republican convention will be made, regardless of the epidemic. Many of his supporters, including members of the American Christian Union, continue to attend very large evangelical gatherings and believe that the arrival of COVID-19 is biblically predicted, and their faith will protect them. Some are marketing what look like rock-band tour T-shirts saying, “COVID-19 Media Hype Pandemic World Tour 2020. Mainstream Media: Keeping you scared with propaganda since 1987.”
Neither the Biden nor Sanders campaigns have at this writing issued statements regarding the epidemic’s impact on their future plans. The Secret Service is detailed to protect the president, vice president, top White House officials and presidential candidates (if requested) from real and present dangers to their survivals, whether at the hands of a would-be assassin or a crashing car. To date, it has not issued coronavirus-specific policies for the campaign. But the facts are clear: There is no easy way to screen would-be rally attendees for infection, as COVID-19 can be carried and spread by people who have no outwardly measurable symptoms or fever. Putting six feet of open space between the candidates and their crowds might eliminate the direct risks that Biden, Sanders, and Trump face—both as recipients and vectors of infection—but do nothing to mitigate dangers for the assemblage.
But even if the campaigns were themselves amenable to change, the cultural resistance would be vast. So much of U.S. politics is about the optics of enormous rallies, featuring cheering fans, in rock-concertlike atmospheres. Moving from Rolling Thunder tours and handshakes to social distancing and YouTube microspeeches would likely suck the energy out of the presidential election, with unpredictable effects on the outcome. It’s sensible to move the campaign heavily into online formats. New forms of digital advertising and minivideo productions might generate some public interest, although the failure of the heavily financed, TV-rich Michael Bloomberg campaign demonstrates the limits of such outreach.
Actual voting can, and should, proceed with heavy emphasis on mailed ballots. To the extent that in-person polling is unavoidable, great attention should be paid to social distancing—keeping all citizens three feet apart from each other in line and inside the voting area. Get-out-the-vote campaigns—whether through door-knocking or canvassing shopping malls—should also entail proper social distancing. (The same is true of the U.S. Census, which is a vital component of future congressional mapping, and is set to commence on April 1.)
We are “in uncharted territory,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on March 2nd. He’s right—but not only as concerns COVID-19, but also our entire political process. The United States has already struggled with cyberdisruption of its elections, trolls posting phony campaign material, and violent threats against journalists at political rallies. Now Americans face a virus that threatens to undermine their most sacred constitutional process. And the virus won’t wait for primary elections to proceed, conventions to gather, or November ballots to be cast, and it could well exploit those events, spreading as wildly in the United States as it did after Iran’s elections.
The United States can’t afford to follow the ayatollah’s example, holding national elections as its epidemic soars. The government can’t tell the people to avoid public gatherings, work from home, stay away from school, all the while holding gigantic political rallies and conventions. We must swiftly abandon the old way of garnering voters, and invent a new, less contagious one. Time is not on our side.


foreignpolicy--2020-03-11--How Japan Rode a Tsunami to Equality

How Japan Rode a Tsunami to Equality

MINAMISANRIKU , Japan—When Tamiko Abe arrived in this fishing port on Japan ’ s northeast coastline , 35 years ago , the first thing that struck her was the beauty of the Pacific Ocean .
Her hometown of Yonezawa , about a three-hour drive inland , is famous for its cherry tree orchards , but is landlocked ; Abe , newly married to a fisherman whose family ran a seafood cultivation business , had never seen anything quite like the sparkling expanse of water , which quickly became a constant in her life .
Abe spent the next few decades @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is customary for women in Minamisanriku , and raising her three children .
In her spare time , though , she would often help her husband farm fresh oysters , scallops and wakame—edible seaweed—occasionally packaging the products and selling them to friends and relatives .
On the afternoon of March 11 , 2011 , Abe was working by the shoreline when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck 80 kilometers off the coast of the region of Tohoku , where Minamisanriku is located .
It was the most powerful quake ever recorded in Japan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its axis .
Abe hurried home , but soon heard a neighbor shouting , ‘ Run !
’ She turned , and in the distance saw her beloved ocean swelling with dark , menacing waves .
As she struggled towards higher ground , an elderly lady was overtaken by the tsunami as she watched , helpless to do anything .
Minamisanriku suffered some of the worst destruction of any place along Japan ’ s eastern coast .
More than 600 people were killed .
Minamisanriku suffered some of the worst destruction of any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
More than 600 people were killed as freezing harbor water bulldozed concrete seawalls and flattened residential areas .
The town center , which sat in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides , was almost completely washed away .
Like the majority of the town ’ s residents , Abe ’ s loss in the 3/11 disaster was incalculable .
Her father-in-law was among the dead , her house was destroyed , and factories used by her husband ’ s fishing business were damaged .
As with most women in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would contribute to the recovery effort in a predominantly domestic way—in her case , by supporting her husband as he attempted to rebuild his company .
But today , Abe runs a successful seafood packaging business of her own , “ Tamiko ’ s Ocean Pack , ” selling goods from the area in stores around Tohoku and online .
As if in defiance of her fear , the spot she chose for her shop sits high on a rocky cliff overlooking an emerald green inlet on Shizugawa Bay .
Since 2013 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Abe ’ s “ womenomics ” strategy , the Japanese government has introduced a variety of initiatives aimed at increasing the number of women in the work place , with the goal of countering the effects of Japan ’ s rapidly-shrinking labor force—predicted to be 20 percent smaller by 2040—and its declining birth rates .
As a result , in 2018 Japan ’ s female labor participation rate was a record-high 71.3 percent , up from 65 percent in 2013 , according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lowest-ever ranking in the World Economic Forum ’ s annual gender equality index , placing 121st out of 153 countries .
Cultural attitudes towards working women have been slow to change , the wage gap between men and women is significant—24.5 percent according to the OECD—and only around half of mothers return to work after having their first child .
“ I had no experience , no know-how for business , only a passion to do something .
I just wanted to create jobs based on women ’ s needs.
” Female entrepreneurs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country where job stability is highly valued and risk-taking is generally frowned upon .
Abe credits the women she met in a temporary housing center with inspiring her to overcome the paralysis she felt after 3/11 and pushing her to try something new .
Many of them , stuck in the shelter all day while their children went to school , told her they were envious that she had skills , gained from years of packaging seafood as a hobby , that she could harness to start a viable business .
International volunteers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secure a bank loan and learn how to use a computer .
In 2013 , she hired her first employee ; she now has a staff of three women , two of whom are mothers .
“ I had no experience , no know-how for business , only a passion to do something .
I just wanted to create jobs based on women ’ s needs , ” she said .
“ For women—especially while raising a child— [ working ] is very difficult.
” Of the local community leaders responsible for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 96-97 percent were male .
“ They didn ’ t have much concern with gender issues—they wanted to control everything in their own way , ” said Yumiko Tanaka , vice-president of the Japan Women ’ s Network for Disaster Risk Reduction ( JWNDRR ) , which was set up after 3/11 to advocate for the incorporation of gender perspectives into laws and policies around disaster prevention and recovery .
Women ’ s unique needs and concerns tended not to be taken into account by those running the shelters , the Japanese government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the first place—uncommon in a region where women have historically been reluctant to raise their voices against authority figures .
The survey reported higher rates of insomnia and an overall greater impact on mental health for women in the evacuation centers .
Women were more likely to report a lack of privacy , a shortage of toilets and an inability to take baths .
Sanitary napkins , underwear in the right size and formula for babies were hard to come by .
Requests for privacy screens were rejected , Tanaka added : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change their clothes , they could not sleep safely , but those opinions were ignored.
” Nine years on , scant evidence remains of the devastation wrought upon the town of Minamisanriku .
New highways and seawalls line the coast , a permanent shopping hub has been rebuilt for residents , and work is ongoing to elevate the town center from its previous location in the valley to 10 meters higher in the surrounding hills .
But 3/11 has left a different kind of mark on Tohoku , one of the more conservative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a catalyzing effect for women who are no longer satisfied with status quo gender dynamics .
But 3/11 has left a different kind of mark on Tohoku , one of the more conservative regions of Japan : it has had a catalyzing effect for women who are no longer satisfied with status quo gender dynamics .
Though female labor force participation in Tohoku ’ s largest prefectures is similar to the national figure , as in other rural areas across Japan , women are often pressured to leave their jobs or switch to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Many feel unable to speak out in public against policies they might not agree with , wary of the Japanese proverb that “ the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
” “ Women have been taught to simply endure gender inequality as a ‘ traditional ’ fact of the family , ” said Jackie Steele , a Canadian political scientist and long-time Japan resident who experienced the earthquake first-hand and researches disaster policy from a feminist perspective .
But after 3/11 , “ they no longer take life for granted , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hierarchies telling them that their voice , and women ’ s voices , do not matter.
” In her capacity as a gender advisor for Women ’ s Eye ( WE ) , a non-profit organization that aims to promote female empowerment in Tohoku , Steele has witnessed how loss and devastation have opened up a window of opportunity for new actors like Abe to come forward .
WE , established in 2011 , has provided training and mentorship for over 100 aspiring female leaders through its “ Grassroots Academy ” program @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is an outlier in that she had a job before 3/11 , working as a public servant at a city hall in the region .
But she suffered from the punishing culture of overwork that is common across Japan , and longed to do something more meaningful with her days .
While Mizuno escaped the disaster by fleeing to the rooftop of her office building , many of her colleagues didn ’ t survive .
Her in-laws , too , perished in the tsunami .
The experience—and the arrival of her first child—ultimately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open a bread shop .
“ I knew if I kept working [ at city hall ] , I would sacrifice everything for my job .
But then I thought , if I started my own business , I could manage my business and take care of my family as well , ” she said .
For a year , she trained in an industrial kitchen set up by WE for women wanting to hone their baking skills .
With the life insurance money her husband received after his parents ’ deaths , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up for entrepreneurs after 3/11 , Mizuno bought the necessary equipment and rented a space not far from home .
After opening the shop last September , it took some time for her and her husband to settle into a rhythm of sharing household duties , she said , but she has felt supported by both him and elderly members of her community , for whom a working mother is still something of a marvel .
Breadmaking has become her ikigai—her purpose—and her way of giving back while bringing better balance to her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their own lives , women in Tohoku have seized the chance to play a more active role in promoting social change post 3/11—no small feat in a landscape dominated by male decision-makers .
Along with re-assessing the trajectory of their own lives , women in Tohoku have seized the chance to play a more active role in promoting social change post 3/11—no small feat in a landscape dominated by male decision-makers .
A year after the disaster , of 751 members of municipal committees tasked with reconstruction throughout the region , 84 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no female members at all .
Only heads of households—almost always the senior male in the family—were invited to official consultations and given public subsidies for recovery .
“ There ’ s a disconnect fundamentally in the way that policy and local bureaucrats , all the way up to national bureaucrats , don ’ t see [ young women ] , don ’ t know they exist , don ’ t understand their problems , don ’ t use taxpayer dollars to support any of the pain points that they experience on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , now , post-disaster , ” said Steele .
Plans for the many towns in Tohoku that needed to be relocated to higher ground , for example , were usually “ not very gender or disability-friendly , ” said JWNDRR ’ s Tanaka .
But when the city of Kitakami was being rebuilt , women ’ s groups came together to propose their own design ideas to the local government : slopes instead of stairs for better accessibility ; low-rise buildings instead of high-rise buildings , clustered together for families to be able @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lots of communal space designed with mothers and children , the elderly and the disabled in mind .
Encouraged by their example , local officials in the fishing village of Jusanhama held a women ’ s only meeting where residents could feel free to voice their concerns .
Though the women in Kitakami were successful , this sort of involvement is still rare .
But Steele pointed out that at a time when aging , rural communities are in danger of dying out ( in Minamisanriku , for example , the population has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disaster to 12,691 as of December 2019 ) , an infusion of new female talent and leadership in local government and businesses could hold the key to Tohoku ’ s revitalization .
While young men in Tohoku , particularly first-born sons , generally inherit their father or grandfather ’ s property and vocation , Steele explained , young women are expected to marry into their partner ’ s familial line , often , like Abe , leaving one area for another .
In a way , this gives women more flexibility when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start a family in disaster-affected areas or pursue professional opportunities in larger cities like Tokyo and Osaka , or even abroad , instead .
Steele would like to see a “ womenomics ” strategy for Tohoku to create more rewarding jobs for those who ’ d prefer to stay put .
“ That is what will make the future of those communities demographically viable , ” she said .
At the national level , a concerted push by JWNDRR in the months following 3/11 succeeded in ensuring that language on gender equality was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Reconstruction , which stated that “ women ’ s participation will be promoted in all aspects of the reconstruction process.
” The network ’ s lobbying also resulted in an increased proportion of women on prefectural disaster management councils—15.7 percent as of 2018 , up from 3.6 percent in 2011 .
Internationally , Tanaka is heartened by a shift in how governments and NGOs have responded following several natural disasters that have occurred since 3/11 .
Privacy screens were readily available in shelters after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gender-friendly guidelines and developed manuals on how to set up emergency centers through a gender and diversity lens .
After Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013 and the Gorkha earthquake in Nepal in 2015 , Tanaka said , reconstruction funding was targeted at ‘ softer ’ areas , such as women ’ s livelihood recovery , in addition to the usual ‘ harder ’ areas , such as infrastructure .
Gender perspectives were also included in a renewed international framework on disaster risk reduction ( DRR ) adopted by the Third @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which was held in Tohoku in 2015 .
Still , much work remains for groups like Tanaka ’ s when it comes to better integrating gender and diversity into emergency preparedness and response—something that will only become more important in an age of increased climate disasters around the world .
And while she is encouraged by Tohoku ’ s budding female entrepreneurs , she cautions that more support will be needed if the region ’ s small businesses are to continue flourishing in the future .
“ After the disaster , I started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This job gives me joy , so that makes me feel stronger.
” In Abe ’ s view , though , something has fundamentally shifted in how men in Tohoku regard her and other female entrepreneurs .
“ At first , men looked down on us , thinking ‘ that ’ s not going to last.
’ But after seven years , my business is still going on , ” she said .
Doubt and discomfort have been replaced by acceptance and approval .
And it ’ s not just men ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The tsunami changed my life , 180 degrees , ” Abe added .
“ Before the disaster , I was the kind of person to do what my husband or father-in-law told me to do .
I was just a follower .
After the disaster , I started to think and act for myself .
This job gives me joy , so that makes me feel stronger.
” “ This is a really small business in a rural area on the edge of Minamisanriku , but I still really want to make this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job—and that ’ s what I ’ m doing .
”

MINAMISANRIKU, Japan—When Tamiko Abe arrived in this fishing port on Japan’s northeast coastline, 35 years ago, the first thing that struck her was the beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Her hometown of Yonezawa, about a three-hour drive inland, is famous for its cherry tree orchards, but is landlocked; Abe, newly married to a fisherman whose family ran a seafood cultivation business, had never seen anything quite like the sparkling expanse of water, which quickly became a constant in her life.
MINAMISANRIKU, Japan—When Tamiko Abe arrived in this fishing port on Japan’s northeast coastline, 35 years ago, the first thing that struck her was the beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Her hometown of Yonezawa, about a three-hour drive inland, is famous for its cherry tree orchards, but is landlocked; Abe, newly married to a fisherman whose family ran a seafood cultivation business, had never seen anything quite like the sparkling expanse of water, which quickly became a constant in her life.
Abe spent the next few decades taking care of household duties, as is customary for women in Minamisanriku, and raising her three children. In her spare time, though, she would often help her husband farm fresh oysters, scallops and wakame—edible seaweed—occasionally packaging the products and selling them to friends and relatives.
On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, Abe was working by the shoreline when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck 80 kilometers off the coast of the region of Tohoku, where Minamisanriku is located. It was the most powerful quake ever recorded in Japan, one that would tilt the earth off its axis. Abe hurried home, but soon heard a neighbor shouting, ‘Run!’ She turned, and in the distance saw her beloved ocean swelling with dark, menacing waves. As she struggled towards higher ground, an elderly lady was overtaken by the tsunami as she watched, helpless to do anything.
Minamisanriku suffered some of the worst destruction of any place along Japan’s eastern coast. More than 600 people were killed.
Minamisanriku suffered some of the worst destruction of any place along Japan’s eastern coast. More than 600 people were killed as freezing harbor water bulldozed concrete seawalls and flattened residential areas. The town center, which sat in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, was almost completely washed away.
Like the majority of the town’s residents, Abe’s loss in the 3/11 disaster was incalculable. Her father-in-law was among the dead, her house was destroyed, and factories used by her husband’s fishing business were damaged. As with most women in the region, the expectation was that Abe would contribute to the recovery effort in a predominantly domestic way—in her case, by supporting her husband as he attempted to rebuild his company.
But today, Abe runs a successful seafood packaging business of her own, “Tamiko’s Ocean Pack,” selling goods from the area in stores around Tohoku and online. As if in defiance of her fear, the spot she chose for her shop sits high on a rocky cliff overlooking an emerald green inlet on Shizugawa Bay.
Since 2013, as part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “womenomics” strategy, the Japanese government has introduced a variety of initiatives aimed at increasing the number of women in the work place, with the goal of countering the effects of Japan’s rapidly-shrinking labor force—predicted to be 20 percent smaller by 2040—and its declining birth rates. As a result, in 2018 Japan’s female labor participation rate was a record-high 71.3 percent, up from 65 percent in 2013, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
But in 2019 Japan received its lowest-ever ranking in the World Economic Forum’s annual gender equality index, placing 121st out of 153 countries. Cultural attitudes towards working women have been slow to change, the wage gap between men and women is significant—24.5 percent according to the OECD—and only around half of mothers return to work after having their first child.
“I had no experience, no know-how for business, only a passion to do something. I just wanted to create jobs based on women’s needs.”
Female entrepreneurs like Abe remain a rarity in a country where job stability is highly valued and risk-taking is generally frowned upon. Abe credits the women she met in a temporary housing center with inspiring her to overcome the paralysis she felt after 3/11 and pushing her to try something new. Many of them, stuck in the shelter all day while their children went to school, told her they were envious that she had skills, gained from years of packaging seafood as a hobby, that she could harness to start a viable business. International volunteers helped her apply for a grant, secure a bank loan and learn how to use a computer. In 2013, she hired her first employee; she now has a staff of three women, two of whom are mothers.
“I had no experience, no know-how for business, only a passion to do something. I just wanted to create jobs based on women’s needs,” she said. “For women—especially while raising a child—[working] is very difficult.”
According to a survey by Japan’s Cabinet Office looking at the experience of people in Tohoku’s three hardest hit prefectures, women were disproportionately affected by the disaster.
Of the local community leaders responsible for the design and operation of evacuation shelters, 96-97 percent were male. “They didn’t have much concern with gender issues—they wanted to control everything in their own way,” said Yumiko Tanaka, vice-president of the Japan Women’s Network for Disaster Risk Reduction (JWNDRR), which was set up after 3/11 to advocate for the incorporation of gender perspectives into laws and policies around disaster prevention and recovery.
Women’s unique needs and concerns tended not to be taken into account by those running the shelters, the Japanese government found, if they were even expressed in the first place—uncommon in a region where women have historically been reluctant to raise their voices against authority figures.
The survey reported higher rates of insomnia and an overall greater impact on mental health for women in the evacuation centers. Women were more likely to report a lack of privacy, a shortage of toilets and an inability to take baths. Sanitary napkins, underwear in the right size and formula for babies were hard to come by. Requests for privacy screens were rejected, Tanaka added: “Women were complaining they could not change their clothes, they could not sleep safely, but those opinions were ignored.”
Nine years on, scant evidence remains of the devastation wrought upon the town of Minamisanriku. New highways and seawalls line the coast, a permanent shopping hub has been rebuilt for residents, and work is ongoing to elevate the town center from its previous location in the valley to 10 meters higher in the surrounding hills.
But 3/11 has left a different kind of mark on Tohoku, one of the more conservative regions of Japan: it has had a catalyzing effect for women who are no longer satisfied with status quo gender dynamics.
But 3/11 has left a different kind of mark on Tohoku, one of the more conservative regions of Japan: it has had a catalyzing effect for women who are no longer satisfied with status quo gender dynamics. Though female labor force participation in Tohoku’s largest prefectures is similar to the national figure, as in other rural areas across Japan, women are often pressured to leave their jobs or switch to part-time work once they become pregnant. Many feel unable to speak out in public against policies they might not agree with, wary of the Japanese proverb that “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”
“Women have been taught to simply endure gender inequality as a ‘traditional’ fact of the family,” said Jackie Steele, a Canadian political scientist and long-time Japan resident who experienced the earthquake first-hand and researches disaster policy from a feminist perspective. But after 3/11, “they no longer take life for granted, and have begun to openly question and challenge the hierarchies telling them that their voice, and women’s voices, do not matter.”
In her capacity as a gender advisor for Women’s Eye (WE), a non-profit organization that aims to promote female empowerment in Tohoku, Steele has witnessed how loss and devastation have opened up a window of opportunity for new actors like Abe to come forward.
WE, established in 2011, has provided training and mentorship for over 100 aspiring female leaders through its “Grassroots Academy” program. One participant, Izumi Mizuno, is an outlier in that she had a job before 3/11, working as a public servant at a city hall in the region. But she suffered from the punishing culture of overwork that is common across Japan, and longed to do something more meaningful with her days.
While Mizuno escaped the disaster by fleeing to the rooftop of her office building, many of her colleagues didn’t survive. Her in-laws, too, perished in the tsunami. The experience—and the arrival of her first child—ultimately inspired her to quit her job and open a bread shop.
“I knew if I kept working [at city hall], I would sacrifice everything for my job. But then I thought, if I started my own business, I could manage my business and take care of my family as well,” she said.
For a year, she trained in an industrial kitchen set up by WE for women wanting to hone their baking skills. With the life insurance money her husband received after his parents’ deaths, as well as a city grant set up for entrepreneurs after 3/11, Mizuno bought the necessary equipment and rented a space not far from home. After opening the shop last September, it took some time for her and her husband to settle into a rhythm of sharing household duties, she said, but she has felt supported by both him and elderly members of her community, for whom a working mother is still something of a marvel. Breadmaking has become her ikigai—her purpose—and her way of giving back while bringing better balance to her life.
Along with re-assessing the trajectory of their own lives, women in Tohoku have seized the chance to play a more active role in promoting social change post 3/11—no small feat in a landscape dominated by male decision-makers.
Along with re-assessing the trajectory of their own lives, women in Tohoku have seized the chance to play a more active role in promoting social change post 3/11—no small feat in a landscape dominated by male decision-makers. A year after the disaster, of 751 members of municipal committees tasked with reconstruction throughout the region, 84 were women, and nine committees had no female members at all. Only heads of households—almost always the senior male in the family—were invited to official consultations and given public subsidies for recovery.
“There’s a disconnect fundamentally in the way that policy and local bureaucrats, all the way up to national bureaucrats, don’t see [young women], don’t know they exist, don’t understand their problems, don’t use taxpayer dollars to support any of the pain points that they experience on a routine basis, be it pre-disaster or, now, post-disaster,” said Steele.
Plans for the many towns in Tohoku that needed to be relocated to higher ground, for example, were usually “not very gender or disability-friendly,” said JWNDRR’s Tanaka. But when the city of Kitakami was being rebuilt, women’s groups came together to propose their own design ideas to the local government: slopes instead of stairs for better accessibility; low-rise buildings instead of high-rise buildings, clustered together for families to be able to watch out for one another; lots of communal space designed with mothers and children, the elderly and the disabled in mind. Encouraged by their example, local officials in the fishing village of Jusanhama held a women’s only meeting where residents could feel free to voice their concerns.
Though the women in Kitakami were successful, this sort of involvement is still rare. But Steele pointed out that at a time when aging, rural communities are in danger of dying out (in Minamisanriku, for example, the population has fallen from 17,666 people just before the disaster to 12,691 as of December 2019), an infusion of new female talent and leadership in local government and businesses could hold the key to Tohoku’s revitalization.
While young men in Tohoku, particularly first-born sons, generally inherit their father or grandfather’s property and vocation, Steele explained, young women are expected to marry into their partner’s familial line, often, like Abe, leaving one area for another. In a way, this gives women more flexibility when it comes to deciding whether to stay and start a family in disaster-affected areas or pursue professional opportunities in larger cities like Tokyo and Osaka, or even abroad, instead. Steele would like to see a “womenomics” strategy for Tohoku to create more rewarding jobs for those who’d prefer to stay put. “That is what will make the future of those communities demographically viable,” she said.
On top of the grassroots activism by women in Tohoku, intensive lobbying efforts led by JWNDRR’s president, Akiko Domoto—the former governor of Chiba, a suburb of Tokyo—have similarly moved the dial when it comes to women’s involvement in disaster prevention and recovery.
At the national level, a concerted push by JWNDRR in the months following 3/11 succeeded in ensuring that language on gender equality was included in Japan’s Basic Guidelines for Reconstruction, which stated that “women’s participation will be promoted in all aspects of the reconstruction process.” The network’s lobbying also resulted in an increased proportion of women on prefectural disaster management councils—15.7 percent as of 2018, up from 3.6 percent in 2011.
Internationally, Tanaka is heartened by a shift in how governments and NGOs have responded following several natural disasters that have occurred since 3/11. Privacy screens were readily available in shelters after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan, for example, and various cities have adopted gender-friendly guidelines and developed manuals on how to set up emergency centers through a gender and diversity lens.
After Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013 and the Gorkha earthquake in Nepal in 2015, Tanaka said, reconstruction funding was targeted at ‘softer’ areas, such as women’s livelihood recovery, in addition to the usual ‘harder’ areas, such as infrastructure. Gender perspectives were also included in a renewed international framework on disaster risk reduction (DRR) adopted by the Third United Nations World Conference on DRR, which was held in Tohoku in 2015.
Still, much work remains for groups like Tanaka’s when it comes to better integrating gender and diversity into emergency preparedness and response—something that will only become more important in an age of increased climate disasters around the world. And while she is encouraged by Tohoku’s budding female entrepreneurs, she cautions that more support will be needed if the region’s small businesses are to continue flourishing in the future.
“After the disaster, I started to think and act for myself. This job gives me joy, so that makes me feel stronger.”
In Abe’s view, though, something has fundamentally shifted in how men in Tohoku regard her and other female entrepreneurs. “At first, men looked down on us, thinking ‘that’s not going to last.’ But after seven years, my business is still going on,” she said. Doubt and discomfort have been replaced by acceptance and approval.
And it’s not just men’s attitudes that have been transformed.
“The tsunami changed my life, 180 degrees,” Abe added. “Before the disaster, I was the kind of person to do what my husband or father-in-law told me to do. I was just a follower. After the disaster, I started to think and act for myself. This job gives me joy, so that makes me feel stronger.”
“This is a really small business in a rural area on the edge of Minamisanriku, but I still really want to make this a place for employees to enjoy their job—and that’s what I’m doing.”


foreignpolicy--2020-03-11--Israel’s War Footing Against the Coronavirus

TEL AVIV , Israel—Israel has taken some of the farthest-reaching measures of any country in the world to slow the advance of the new coronavirus , but health officials believe Israelis remain vulnerable due to funding shortages and other issues .
In some ways , the Israeli response has resembled a tactic favored by its military : preemptive actions , disproportionate in scale .
On Monday , the government announced all arrivals would be required to self-quarantine for two weeks , a directive that will affect hundreds of thousands of people and level a blow to the economy .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taxed hospital system from being overwhelmed , but it prompted criticism that the government may be overreacting , unnecessarily crimping freedom of movement and sowing panic .
“ They took every step to make sure that introduction into Israel is delayed for as long as possible .
The purpose for this delay is similar to delaying the first battle of a war , ” said Eyal Leshem , the director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at the Sheba Medical Center .
“ You let your army prepare the resources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And every week is critical.
” Indeed , one of Israel ’ s main advantages until now has been its relative physical isolation—Ben Gurion Airport is the main umbilical cord to the outside world—along with a centralized , universal health care system and a population accustomed to being on high alert .
There had been one notable exception to Israel ’ s proactive posture : For days , the government held off on adopting recommendations from bureaucrats to impose limits on travelers from the United States for fear of labeling its most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
According to the local media , the government decided to widen the restrictions to all travelers from abroad rather than take a step that might embarrass the Trump administration .
And even though the organizers of the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention in Washington , D.C. , announced that participants had been diagnosed with the virus , Israel hasn ’ t required attendees to self-quarantine back home .
“ As COVID-19 spreads , medical professionals are growing increasingly worried about political intervention that isn ’ t necessarily for the public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ liberal Haaretz newspaper in an editorial on Monday .
Still , Israel must deal with serious vulnerabilities in handing the pandemic : The public health system in the occupied West Bank is less equipped to treat the 2.7 million Palestinians who live there .
Israel is also walking a thin line because its health system is relatively under-equipped compared to those of other developed countries .
So far , Israel has been relatively successful : The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country stood at 58 as of Tuesday .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been reported among Palestinians .
“ When you try and prevent something , sometimes you overreact , ” Leshem said .
“ In hindsight , we are now at a point that ’ s very different from the U.S. or Italy .
Because we behaved as an island country—we restricted travel , and quarantined people that came in from outbreak countries—we now still have two or three weeks to prepare for the outbreak.
” The government has called off events with more than 5,000 participants , instructed tens of thousands of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care professionals to remain in the country for the next three months .
Once it ’ s clear the coronavirus is being transmitted among individuals inside the country ( rather than from people who brought it with them from abroad ) , officials say they plan to impose additional social distancing policies .
On Monday , Israel ’ s transportation ministry published a ban on public bus passengers from standing or riding in seats behind the driver .
Public health officials say their objective has been to limit the peak caseload of critical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ longer period of time .
“ That way , at the peak of the epidemic , fewer patients will have to be treated in hospitals and ICUs , ” said Itamar Grotto , the associate director-general of Israel ’ s Health Ministry .
“ This is why we are trying to perform very aggressive containment efforts.
” Not everyone agrees with the government ’ s approach .
Rivka Carmi , a health sciences professor and former president of Ben-Gurion University , told Israel public radio that the measures have contributed to a public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ international affairs commentator on Channel 12 television news complained last month that the virus isn ’ t more dangerous than the flu and that Israeli health officials “ galloped too fast ” in shutting down travel .
The extreme measures will come at a cost to the economy .
The travel restrictions are expected to wipe out the annual wave of tourism for the Jewish holiday of Passover .
On Monday , Israel ’ s benchmark stock index lost 7.35 percent of its value .
And there ’ s concern that El Al @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go bankrupt without a government bailout .
Israeli experts say that once the majority of the cases are transmitted domestically , the effectiveness of the strict entry rules will diminish .
“ These kinds of measures can only be applied for a limited time .
They can exact a social and economic price , ” said Nadav Davidovitch , the director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University .
“ The line between an alert and panic can be very thin.
” Factors beyond the immediate response have played to Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s socialized medical system allows for patients to get examined for free and ensures that companies pay employees for time out of the office due to coronavirus quarantines .
Israel ’ s publicly backed health care providers use digital patient records that allow for relatively easy sharing of case data .
Another advantage in pandemic preparedness : Israel is accustomed to operating on war footing , with public servants and institutions easily adapting to what is known in the country as “ an emergency routine.
” “ Israel is one of the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because of our atmosphere here , ” Davidovitch said .
“ We are much more used to moving from normalcy to a state of emergency , something which is difficult for many countries.
” Despite the country ’ s relative isolation , the proximity to Palestinian areas in the West Bank—where the medical facilities run by the autonomous Palestinian Authority initially lacked the lab infrastructure to perform coronavirus testing—could increase the spread of the virus .
Last week , the West Bank city of Bethlehem recorded its first virus carriers after it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who had recently visited .
In an effort to help Palestinians respond to the outbreak , Israeli hospitals have trained Palestinian medical workers and analyzed coronavirus tests of Palestinian patients in the West Bank .
Israel ’ s defense ministry is reportedly mulling a complete closure on Palestinian areas .
Though there is substantially more separation with the Gaza Strip , small groups of people do move back and forth into Israel .
In a densely packed territory of 2 million people sorely lacking in health infrastructure , the spread of the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the military commentator for Haaretz , reported that Israeli officials are deeply worried about a potential outbreak in Gaza , noting that many in the international community reject the Israeli line that it has no responsibility for the situation there .
Israeli withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but continues to wield control at the borders and over its air and sea .
It has maintained a strict cordon on the territory for years .
Inside Israel , there is little margin for error in case of a stress on the country ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relatively efficient single-payer insurance system , the infrastructure is underfunded .
The country ’ s hospital bed occupancy is already near 100 percent , and the number of nurses per capita is well below the average for the developed world .
If hundreds of people get the virus in Israel , the country could face the same shortages that are now wracking areas of northern Italy , said Dikla Aharon , a health reporter for Israel ’ s Kan public radio and television .
“ That can happen here , and it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she said .
“ At the end of the day , when you look at a system with near 100 percent occupancy , and a shortage of doctors , that ’ s something you can ’ t solve in a day .
”

TEL AVIV, Israel—Israel has taken some of the farthest-reaching measures of any country in the world to slow the advance of the new coronavirus, but health officials believe Israelis remain vulnerable due to funding shortages and other issues.
TEL AVIV, Israel—Israel has taken some of the farthest-reaching measures of any country in the world to slow the advance of the new coronavirus, but health officials believe Israelis remain vulnerable due to funding shortages and other issues.
In some ways, the Israeli response has resembled a tactic favored by its military: preemptive actions, disproportionate in scale.
On Monday, the government announced all arrivals would be required to self-quarantine for two weeks, a directive that will affect hundreds of thousands of people and level a blow to the economy.
The decision was aimed at preventing an already taxed hospital system from being overwhelmed, but it prompted criticism that the government may be overreacting, unnecessarily crimping freedom of movement and sowing panic.
“They took every step to make sure that introduction into Israel is delayed for as long as possible. The purpose for this delay is similar to delaying the first battle of a war,” said Eyal Leshem, the director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at the Sheba Medical Center. “You let your army prepare the resources to combat this outbreak once it hits. And every week is critical.”
Indeed, one of Israel’s main advantages until now has been its relative physical isolation—Ben Gurion Airport is the main umbilical cord to the outside world—along with a centralized, universal health care system and a population accustomed to being on high alert.
There had been one notable exception to Israel’s proactive posture: For days, the government held off on adopting recommendations from bureaucrats to impose limits on travelers from the United States for fear of labeling its most important ally as a public health risk.
According to the local media, the government decided to widen the restrictions to all travelers from abroad rather than take a step that might embarrass the Trump administration.
And even though the organizers of the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention in Washington, D.C., announced that participants had been diagnosed with the virus, Israel hasn’t required attendees to self-quarantine back home.
“As COVID-19 spreads, medical professionals are growing increasingly worried about political intervention that isn’t necessarily for the public’s benefit,” warned the liberal Haaretz newspaper in an editorial on Monday.
Still, Israel must deal with serious vulnerabilities in handing the pandemic: The public health system in the occupied West Bank is less equipped to treat the 2.7 million Palestinians who live there. Israel is also walking a thin line because its health system is relatively under-equipped compared to those of other developed countries.
So far, Israel has been relatively successful: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country stood at 58 as of Tuesday. In the West Bank, some 29 cases have been reported among Palestinians.
“When you try and prevent something, sometimes you overreact,” Leshem said. “In hindsight, we are now at a point that’s very different from the U.S. or Italy. Because we behaved as an island country—we restricted travel, and quarantined people that came in from outbreak countries—we now still have two or three weeks to prepare for the outbreak.”
The government has called off events with more than 5,000 participants, instructed tens of thousands of people to self-quarantine, and required all health care professionals to remain in the country for the next three months.
Once it’s clear the coronavirus is being transmitted among individuals inside the country (rather than from people who brought it with them from abroad), officials say they plan to impose additional social distancing policies. On Monday, Israel’s transportation ministry published a ban on public bus passengers from standing or riding in seats behind the driver.
Public health officials say their objective has been to limit the peak caseload of critical patients and spread it out over a longer period of time.
“That way, at the peak of the epidemic, fewer patients will have to be treated in hospitals and ICUs,” said Itamar Grotto, the associate director-general of Israel’s Health Ministry. “This is why we are trying to perform very aggressive containment efforts.”
Not everyone agrees with the government’s approach. Rivka Carmi, a health sciences professor and former president of Ben-Gurion University, told Israel public radio that the measures have contributed to a public “panic.” Arad Nir, an international affairs commentator on Channel 12 television news complained last month that the virus isn’t more dangerous than the flu and that Israeli health officials “galloped too fast” in shutting down travel.
The extreme measures will come at a cost to the economy. The travel restrictions are expected to wipe out the annual wave of tourism for the Jewish holiday of Passover. On Monday, Israel’s benchmark stock index lost 7.35 percent of its value. And there’s concern that El Al Airlines, the national carrier, could go bankrupt without a government bailout.
Israeli experts say that once the majority of the cases are transmitted domestically, the effectiveness of the strict entry rules will diminish.
“These kinds of measures can only be applied for a limited time. They can exact a social and economic price,” said Nadav Davidovitch, the director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University. “The line between an alert and panic can be very thin.”
Factors beyond the immediate response have played to Israel’s advantage: The country’s socialized medical system allows for patients to get examined for free and ensures that companies pay employees for time out of the office due to coronavirus quarantines. Israel’s publicly backed health care providers use digital patient records that allow for relatively easy sharing of case data.
Another advantage in pandemic preparedness: Israel is accustomed to operating on war footing, with public servants and institutions easily adapting to what is known in the country as “an emergency routine.”
“Israel is one of the most up-to-date countries in terms of emergency preparedness because of our atmosphere here,” Davidovitch said. “We are much more used to moving from normalcy to a state of emergency, something which is difficult for many countries.”
Despite the country’s relative isolation, the proximity to Palestinian areas in the West Bank—where the medical facilities run by the autonomous Palestinian Authority initially lacked the lab infrastructure to perform coronavirus testing—could increase the spread of the virus.
Last week, the West Bank city of Bethlehem recorded its first virus carriers after it was discovered among a group of Greek tourists who had recently visited. In an effort to help Palestinians respond to the outbreak, Israeli hospitals have trained Palestinian medical workers and analyzed coronavirus tests of Palestinian patients in the West Bank. Israel’s defense ministry is reportedly mulling a complete closure on Palestinian areas.
Though there is substantially more separation with the Gaza Strip, small groups of people do move back and forth into Israel. In a densely packed territory of 2 million people sorely lacking in health infrastructure, the spread of the virus there could be disastrous. Amos Harel, the military commentator for Haaretz, reported that Israeli officials are deeply worried about a potential outbreak in Gaza, noting that many in the international community reject the Israeli line that it has no responsibility for the situation there.
Israeli withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but continues to wield control at the borders and over its air and sea. It has maintained a strict cordon on the territory for years.
Inside Israel, there is little margin for error in case of a stress on the country’s public health system. Despite a relatively efficient single-payer insurance system, the infrastructure is underfunded. The country’s hospital bed occupancy is already near 100 percent, and the number of nurses per capita is well below the average for the developed world.
If hundreds of people get the virus in Israel, the country could face the same shortages that are now wracking areas of northern Italy, said Dikla Aharon, a health reporter for Israel’s Kan public radio and television.
“That can happen here, and it’s going to be a disaster,” she said. “At the end of the day, when you look at a system with near 100 percent occupancy, and a shortage of doctors, that’s something you can’t solve in a day.”


foreignpolicy--2020-03-11--Russia Paves Way For President Putin Until 2036

Russia Paves Way For President Putin Until 2036 Here is today ’ s Foreign Policy brief : Russia paves way for Putin to stay on as president , Britain slashes interest rates as U.S. President Trump attacks the Fed and weighs an economic stimulus , and the latest on the coronavirus .
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On Tuesday , Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would approve newly-proposed changes to the Russian constitution that would allow him to remain in power until 2036 .
Under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ required to step down when his term ends in 2024 , and speculation was rife about what Putin would do next .
Valentina Tereshkova , a member of parliament for the ruling United Russia party , proposed the surprise constitutional amendment that would reset Putin ’ s presidential term count to zero .
Is it all a done deal ?
As Reid Standish reports in Foreign Policy , the decision “ has not eliminated ambiguity about the Kremlin ’ s course of action .
Rather , the dramatic move is widely seen as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the Russian leader.
” Notably , Putin was not definitive as to whether he would continue as president , telling Russia ’ s parliament , “ I ’ m sure that together , we will do many more great things , at least until 2024 .
Then , we will see.
” What happens next ?
In approving of the amendment proposal , Putin said that any such move would need to be voted on in a public referendum .
Andrea Kendall-Taylor , a Russia expert the Center for a New American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. National Intelligence Council , said that a vote , floated for April 22 , would come at an opportune time for the measure to pass .
“ There ’ s now less time for the opposition to organize against it .
You also have the confluence of the coronavirus outbreak , which makes it easier for authorities to ban mass gatherings , ” she said .
U.S. stocks rebound as Trump weighs stimulus .
The S & P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average both rose by just under 5 percent in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plunge of nearly 8 percent .
The gains came as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would take “ major steps ” to stimulate the economy , including a payroll tax cut .
On Twitter , President Trump pressured the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates , calling it “ pathetic ” and saying competing nations have as much as a “ two point advantage ” over the United States at present .
Interests rates cut in Britain .
On Wednesday morning , the Bank of England announced an emergency interest rate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 0.25 percent , a record low for Britain .
The cut is the first since August 2016 , when rates briefly declined to 0.25 percent before being raised back to 0.5 percent a few months later .
The bank ’ s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously in favor of the move on Tuesday , along with other relief measures for small businesses .
Foreign Policy ’ s Keith Johnson reports on the limits of economic remedies in tackling the impacts of the coronavirus .
Big Tuesday Results .
Joe Biden continued his quest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nominee for president with a strong showing in six states .
Biden took the top prize , Michigan , defeating his rival Sen. Bernie Sanders by a margin of 53 percent to 37 percent according to preliminary results .
Italy continues its attempts to contain the outbreak at home .
Meanwhile , Austria and Slovenia have closed their borders with the country , but those of France and Switzerland remain open .
Yesterday , Italy ’ s Deputy Finance Minister Laura Castelli confirmed that mortgage payments would be temporarily frozen for individuals and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the coronavirus outbreak jumped 36 percent from 366 to 463 , making it the worst-hit country after China .
Japan ’ s government announced $ 4 billion in spending to mitigate the economic effects of coronavirus and improve medical facilities .
Finance Minister Taro Aso said the funds would come from an existing budget reserve and not from any extra budget .
According to the Wall Street Journal , the measures include offering emergency zero-interest loans of $ 1,900 to support the newly unemployed and others facing hardship .
South Korea has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus for the fourth consecutive day .
The country still has 7,513 confirmed cases but has managed to slow the outbreak with aggressive measures , such as free testing and setting up drive-through rapid testing stations .
British Health Minister Nadine Dorries has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating at home .
Her diagnosis has prompted worries about the virus spreading in Parliament and at Downing Street , where Dorries attended a reception with Prime Minister Boris Johnson a few days ago .
Although some have called for shutting down Parliament as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intention of doing so .
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a visit to Wuhan , the capital of Hubei province , where the outbreak began and the vast majority of coronavirus-related deaths have occurred .
His appearance on Tuesday was a show of confidence in China ’ s ability to handle the outbreak , and comes after Chinese officials reported on Monday that only 17 new cases were reported in Hubei .
As the virus epicenter , mainland China has been worst hit by the coronavirus outbreak , with over 80,000 confirmed cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus whistleblowers .
As China celebrates the decline in cases , it is also stepping up censorship of whistleblowers calling attention to Beijing ’ s botched early response to the disease .
Ai Fen , Wuhan Central Hospital ’ s director of emergency medicine , gave an interview to the Chinese magazine Renwu , chronicling how she discovered one of the first confirmed cases after seeing lab test results on Dec. 30 and shared a photo of the results with colleagues—and how she was subsequently reprimanded for spreading rumors .
“ If I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I would not have cared about the reprimand .
I would have fucking talked about it to whoever , wherever I could , ” she said in the interview , which has now been erased from the Chinese internet .
Readers have scrambled to preserve it through screenshots and transliteration into emojis , morse code , and pinyin .
What is driving the coronavirus panic ?
Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Jonathan Tepperman lays out the three overarching reasons why this crisis is different .
South African court clears Ramaphosa .
The high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Cyril Ramaphosa after he stood accused of misleading parliament over a $ 34,000 campaign contribution from the CEO of a local company .
It ’ s a rare boost for Ramaphosa , who is presiding over a recession in South Africa and whose leadership of the ruling African National Congress is in question ahead of a July party conference , where his internal opponents may seek to recall him .
Turkey Patriot deal .
Turkish officials said that the United States is open to renewing a deal on Patriot missile systems as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fighter jet program in return for Turkey backing out of its air defense deal with Russia .
The deal appears to hinge on whether the United States will agree to terms on joint production and knowledge transfer .
If no deal is made with the United States , Turkey plans to activate its Russian-made S-400 systems next month .
Irish rivals seek coalition .
Four weeks after the Irish general election delivered a stalemate , long-standing rivals Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have announced they are entering talks to form a government .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be the first time the two parties would share power in Ireland ’ s history .
It ’ s also likely to be a weak coalition , as both parties combined do not have enough seats for a majority .
When two protesters were killed in Hong Kong , it made headlines around the world .
Over 600 people have been killed over the past five months in ongoing anti-government protests in Iraq , and it has barely scratched the surface of the news cycle .
The journalist and illustrator Andrew North reports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iraq ’ s post-Saddam Hussein generation is facing down tear gas and gunfire as they call for new elections , an end to U.S. and Iranian interference , and a way to overcome the ethnic and religious divides that have driven the country ’ s politics .
–Amy Mackinnon In France , the mayor of the small town of Landerneau that played host to a gathering of 3,500 people dressed as Smurfs over the weekend has defended of the event , which had come under fire over fears it could spread the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ … it was the chance to say that we are alive , ” Mayor Patrick Leclerc told AFP .
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Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Russia paves way for Putin to stay on as president, Britain slashes interest rates as U.S. President Trump attacks the Fed and weighs an economic stimulus, and the latest on the coronavirus .
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Russia paves way for Putin to stay on as president, Britain slashes interest rates as U.S. President Trump attacks the Fed and weighs an economic stimulus, and the latest on the coronavirus.
If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.
President Putin Forever?
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would approve newly-proposed changes to the Russian constitution that would allow him to remain in power until 2036. Under the current constitution, Putin would be required to step down when his term ends in 2024, and speculation was rife about what Putin would do next.
Valentina Tereshkova, a member of parliament for the ruling United Russia party, proposed the surprise constitutional amendment that would reset Putin’s presidential term count to zero.
Is it all a done deal? As Reid Standish reports in Foreign Policy, the decision “has not eliminated ambiguity about the Kremlin’s course of action. Rather, the dramatic move is widely seen as part of an effort to create options for the Russian leader.” Notably, Putin was not definitive as to whether he would continue as president, telling Russia’s parliament, “I’m sure that together, we will do many more great things, at least until 2024. Then, we will see.”
What happens next? In approving of the amendment proposal, Putin said that any such move would need to be voted on in a public referendum. Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a Russia expert the Center for a New American Security and former intelligence officer at the U.S. National Intelligence Council, said that a vote, floated for April 22, would come at an opportune time for the measure to pass. “There’s now less time for the opposition to organize against it. You also have the confluence of the coronavirus outbreak, which makes it easier for authorities to ban mass gatherings,” she said.
What We’re Following Today
U.S. stocks rebound as Trump weighs stimulus. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average both rose by just under 5 percent in a late rally after Monday’s plunge of nearly 8 percent. The gains came as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would take “major steps” to stimulate the economy, including a payroll tax cut. On Twitter, President Trump pressured the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, calling it “pathetic” and saying competing nations have as much as a “two point advantage” over the United States at present.
Interests rates cut in Britain. On Wednesday morning, the Bank of England announced an emergency interest rate cut of 0.5 percent—from 0.75 percent to 0.25 percent, a record low for Britain. The cut is the first since August 2016, when rates briefly declined to 0.25 percent before being raised back to 0.5 percent a few months later. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously in favor of the move on Tuesday, along with other relief measures for small businesses.
Foreign Policy’s Keith Johnson reports on the limits of economic remedies in tackling the impacts of the coronavirus.
Big Tuesday Results. Joe Biden continued his quest to become the Democratic party’s nominee for president with a strong showing in six states. Biden took the top prize, Michigan, defeating his rival Sen. Bernie Sanders by a margin of 53 percent to 37 percent according to preliminary results.
Coronavirus Updates
Italy continues its attempts to contain the outbreak at home. Meanwhile, Austria and Slovenia have closed their borders with the country, but those of France and Switzerland remain open. Yesterday, Italy’s Deputy Finance Minister Laura Castelli confirmed that mortgage payments would be temporarily frozen for individuals and households. Italy’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak jumped 36 percent from 366 to 463, making it the worst-hit country after China.
Japan’s government announced $4 billion in spending to mitigate the economic effects of coronavirus and improve medical facilities. Finance Minister Taro Aso said the funds would come from an existing budget reserve and not from any extra budget. According to the Wall Street Journal, the measures include offering emergency zero-interest loans of $1,900 to support the newly unemployed and others facing hardship.
South Korea has seen a decrease in reported cases of coronavirus for the fourth consecutive day. The country still has 7,513 confirmed cases but has managed to slow the outbreak with aggressive measures, such as free testing and setting up drive-through rapid testing stations.
British Health Minister Nadine Dorries has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating at home. Her diagnosis has prompted worries about the virus spreading in Parliament and at Downing Street, where Dorries attended a reception with Prime Minister Boris Johnson a few days ago. Although some have called for shutting down Parliament as a precaution, Johnson has shown no intention of doing so.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a visit to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, where the outbreak began and the vast majority of coronavirus-related deaths have occurred. His appearance on Tuesday was a show of confidence in China’s ability to handle the outbreak, and comes after Chinese officials reported on Monday that only 17 new cases were reported in Hubei. As the virus epicenter, mainland China has been worst hit by the coronavirus outbreak, with over 80,000 confirmed cases so far.
Beijing continues to censor coronavirus whistleblowers. As China celebrates the decline in cases, it is also stepping up censorship of whistleblowers calling attention to Beijing’s botched early response to the disease. Ai Fen, Wuhan Central Hospital’s director of emergency medicine, gave an interview to the Chinese magazine Renwu, chronicling how she discovered one of the first confirmed cases after seeing lab test results on Dec. 30 and shared a photo of the results with colleagues—and how she was subsequently reprimanded for spreading rumors.
“If I had known what was to happen, I would not have cared about the reprimand. I would have fucking talked about it to whoever, wherever I could,” she said in the interview, which has now been erased from the Chinese internet. Readers have scrambled to preserve it through screenshots and transliteration into emojis, morse code, and pinyin.
What is driving the coronavirus panic? Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Jonathan Tepperman lays out the three overarching reasons why this crisis is different.
Keep an Eye On
South African court clears Ramaphosa. The high court in Pretoria has cleared South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after he stood accused of misleading parliament over a $34,000 campaign contribution from the CEO of a local company. It’s a rare boost for Ramaphosa, who is presiding over a recession in South Africa and whose leadership of the ruling African National Congress is in question ahead of a July party conference, where his internal opponents may seek to recall him.
Turkey Patriot deal. Turkish officials said that the United States is open to renewing a deal on Patriot missile systems as well as returning Turkey to the F-35 fighter jet program in return for Turkey backing out of its air defense deal with Russia. The deal appears to hinge on whether the United States will agree to terms on joint production and knowledge transfer. If no deal is made with the United States, Turkey plans to activate its Russian-made S-400 systems next month.
Irish rivals seek coalition. Four weeks after the Irish general election delivered a stalemate, long-standing rivals Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have announced they are entering talks to form a government. If talks are successful, it would be the first time the two parties would share power in Ireland’s history. It’s also likely to be a weak coalition, as both parties combined do not have enough seats for a majority.
Foreign Policy Recommends
When two protesters were killed in Hong Kong, it made headlines around the world. Over 600 people have been killed over the past five months in ongoing anti-government protests in Iraq, and it has barely scratched the surface of the news cycle. The journalist and illustrator Andrew North reports from Baghdad for Tortoise Media about how Iraq’s post-Saddam Hussein generation is facing down tear gas and gunfire as they call for new elections, an end to U.S. and Iranian interference, and a way to overcome the ethnic and religious divides that have driven the country’s politics. –Amy Mackinnon
Odds and Ends
In France, the mayor of the small town of Landerneau that played host to a gathering of 3,500 people dressed as Smurfs over the weekend has defended of the event, which had come under fire over fears it could spread the coronavirus. “We must not stop living … it was the chance to say that we are alive,” Mayor Patrick Leclerc told AFP.
That’s it for today.
For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.