Your workplace has banned travel because of the coronavirus. Now what?

As coronavirus spreads globally and cases rise in the United States, private businesses are assessing their level of risk. No one wants one of their employees to bring the contagious new illness into the workplace and cause dozens of infections. In addition to health officials’ warnings to avoid countries hit hard by the virus, several companies have implemented travel restrictions: Amazon and Twitter, among other major corporations, have asked their employees to postpone nonessential business travel. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Other companies are halting travel to specific countries, while some are asking employees to cancel personal trips. It might be frustrating to have to change your plans. It could be even more unnerving if your employer says you can’t return to the office for 14 days — the suspected maximum amount of time before an infected person shows symptoms — if you travel to a highly infected area. You probably do have to abide by your employer’s travel guidelines if you have an at-will employment agreement and want to keep your job, according to New York-based employment lawyer Davida Perry. Most people have this type of arrangement, which means the company can fire you for any reason, including for refusing to cancel your vacation. If you’re covered by a union or have an individual contract with your employer, you have additional protections. The specific safeguards depend on your agreement, said Washington-based employment lawyer Heidi Burakiewicz. State and local employment laws also come into play, Burakiewicz said, so anyone thinking about canceling travel should discuss their circumstances with an attorney. Consultations often are free. An important caveat to all of this: No matter what the rules are, companies can’t enforce them in a discriminatory way. Travel restrictions have to be applied evenly across the board and can’t target members of any specific group, Perry and Burakiewicz said. Perry and Burakiewicz said the bad news is that, absent specific guidelines in a contract or a collective bargaining agreement, your employer has no obligation to compensate you if you are told to cancel a trip. The good news is that your airline, hotel or cruise line might be willing to waive cancellation or rebooking fees because of the public health crisis. Of course, employers could always perform an act of goodwill. Howard Markel, a University of Michigan professor who wrote a book about an 1892 epidemic, said companies


Washington state asked the U.S. stockpile for coronavirus masks. The response raises concerns.

and Human Services in charge of coordinating materials for the stockpile announced Thursday that Washington state would receive more masks. “A second shipment is arriving today,” Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary of health for preparedness and response, told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. The state will be getting the remainder of its request. Washington’s experience highlights one of the country’s biggest gaps in preparedness for battling the respiratory virus that causes the disease known as covid-19. The United States has about 1 percent of the 3.5 billion respirators that experts estimate the health-care system needs a year to fight a severe influenza pandemic. That translates to 12 million N95 respirators and 30 million surgical masks, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has said. An additional 5 million N95 respirators may be expired, he has said. Underfunded public health departments and budget-conscious health systems don’t keep large volumes of masks and other supplies in reserve for the possibility of a pandemic. Since the coronavirus outbreak, major U.S. hospital systems have been burning through their supplies of N95s, in part because federal protocols call for them to be thrown out after a single use in required practice sessions, health-care leaders have said. Some hospitals have just a week’s inventory of the tightfitting N95 face masks, which filter out 95 percent of all airborne particles. State and local officials rely on the federal stockpile for public health emergencies. But the federal government has not maintained the more than 1,000 items at the fullest levels in the stockpile. Biodefense experts blame bureaucracy and a lack of funding. Experts have also disagreed on the best way to replenish items because many supplies, including masks, have limited shelf lives. N95 masks last between five to six years, experts say. The outbreak has focused new attention on some of the critical shortages. “Who is in control of the stockpile?” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, asked Kadlec on Thursday. Ultimately, it’s Azar, Kadlec said. Kadlec, whose office is supposed to coordinate stockpile inventory and purchases among several governmental agencies, said some people have been “fixated by what we can buy, what we can afford to buy, rather than what we need.” Johnson said Congress needs to review the existing inventory and how much should be spent, and acknowledged it will require legislation and appropriation. Biodefense


New Special Operations network will serve as security backbone in Afghanistan ahead of U.S. withdrawal

KABUL — A new network of Special Operations forces will serve as the backbone of a smaller U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, hunting Islamic State fighters as the United States withdraws and providing firepower against the Taliban if a peace agreement with the group crumbles, military officials said. The network was established as Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, prepared to shrink the number of U.S. troops last summer while the Trump administration negotiated a U.S. troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban. The idea was to improve coordination between coalition and Afghan forces in a way that would still be possible if the number of U.S. service members shrinks, relying on WhatsApp to share information. The force is designed to “withstand any change in policy, whatever that may be, or a change in any conditions on the ground,” said a senior U.S. military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operations. The force will work with coalition partners, “but the core of it will obviously be U.S.,” the official said. The network, which has not previously been disclosed to the public, was detailed to The Washington Post as military officials seek to reassure U.S. and Afghan citizens that the United States can still provide security in coming months. The initial version is expected to withstand any cuts as the U.S. military shrinks from about 12,000 service members to 8,600 over the span of 135 days under the terms of a deal reached with the Taliban on Feb. 29. U.S. officials did not reveal how many people the network includes, but the senior military official said it is built to function with a few thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan or fewer. The deal, negotiated for more than a year, calls for the United States to withdraw all its service members within 14 months if the Taliban meets certain requirements, including beginning negotiations with the Afghan government to end the war and ensuring that Afghan soil is not used to plot or carry out attacks against the United States or its allies. But U.S. officials have described the timeline as “aspirational,” citing concerns about whether the Taliban will follow through on its obligations. The U.S. withdrawal will be “conditions-based,” the officials have said, repeatedly declining to offer specifics. On Wednesday, the uncertainty was underscored by 43 Taliban attacks and a U.S.


Health care workers worry about coronavirus protection

When Jenny Managhebi comes home to her husband and two children these days, she wonders about the people she treated at UC Davis Medical Center — the ones who coughed and the ones who sneezed. Ever since a patient with covid-19 was brought to the Sacramento hospital Feb. 19, Managhebi, who has been a cardiology nurse for 13 years, has grown concerned about catching the coronavirus, which causes the disease, and spreading it to other patients. She worries about whether she should still be volunteering in her 6-year-old’s classroom. She worries about whether she is adequately protected. “Our job is to go and take care of people when they’re sick. I’m willing to take care of anyone. That's why we got into this line of work,” she said. But if too many health-care workers get sick, “we aren’t going to have a shot at fighting this thing.” In widespread outbreaks of infectious disease, health-care workers are almost always hit hard. During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2009, the Ebola crisis in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, and the early stages of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, caregivers were more likely than other groups to become infected. Many became severely ill or died. The health-care system already has shortages of some critical personnel. As caregivers become infected or face isolation at home, maintaining the labor pool is one of the most important tasks that hospitals and nursing homes will confront in coming weeks, experts said, along with having the face masks, moon suits and other gear needed to protect them. “Equipment is only as useful as the people you have to use it,” said Julie Fischer, who studies ways to protect front-line health-care workers for Georgetown University Medical Center. “Every system is about people.” Already, the damage a single infection can do to a hospital staff has become alarmingly evident. The woman now being treated at UC Davis first showed up at a small community hospital in nearby Vacaville on Feb. 15, unknowingly exposing staff members to the coronavirus. After the virus was diagnosed, 93 health-care workers who had contact with her were placed in home isolation. About 34 began to show symptoms and were tested for the virus. Three tested positive. NorthBay Healthcare, which operates the hospital, brought in workers from another of its facilities to fill in and paused nonessential services. In Bronxville, N.Y.,


Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian diplomat who led the United Nations, dies at 100

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the soft-spoken Peruvian diplomat who led the United Nations as its fifth secretary general through bitter confrontation with the U.S. Congress during the Reagan administration to a period of unprecedented peacemaking that coincided with the end of the Cold War, died March 4 at his home in Lima. He was 100. Peru’s Foreign Ministry, which announced the death, did not disclose a cause. Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar, who served as U.N. secretary general from 1982 to 1991, was a practitioner of quiet diplomacy. He gained a reputation in his first term as a competent yet bland bureaucrat who appeared powerless to stem the tide of conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Falkland Islands. He caught his stride after his 1986 reelection, overseeing a succession of peace deals in Central America, Africa and the Persian Gulf. “If I want to be effective, I have to be discreet,” he said in his acceptance speech that defined his tenure. “I am not running for the Nobel Prize.” The U.N. peacekeepers did win the Nobel Peace Prize under Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar’s tenure in 1988. But his most enduring legacy remains his quiet efforts to coax the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members — including Cold War superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union — to work quietly together to forge a peace deal ending the Iran-Iraq war, a conflict that cost more than 1 million lives. The Cold War’s demise led to an era of intense U.N. activism, and Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar seized on the thaw to pursue peace agreements in places such as El Salvador, and to help shape postwar settlements in Namibia and Cambodia. Ironically, the “new world order” Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar assiduously promoted culminated with a U.N.-sanctioned, U.S.-led military conflict against Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. It was a conflict he sought unsuccessfully to avert. “Pérez de Cuéllar took an organization that had almost self-destructed and become irrelevant, and found a role for it that no one expected,” said the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who served as President Gerald R. Ford’s U.N. ambassador. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar de la Guerra was born in Lima on Jan. 19, 1920. He was 4 when his father, a wealthy businessman, died, and he continued his education in Catholic schools. He graduated with a law degree from Catholic University in Lima and


As NCAA develops coronavirus plan, two schools cancel road games

With its high-profile basketball tournaments starting in less than two weeks, the NCAA is establishing contingency plans in case those tournaments are affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, at least two Division I schools have canceled road games because of the outbreak. “The NCAA is committed to conducting its championships and events in a safe and responsible manner,” Donald Remy, the NCAA’s chief operating officer, said in a Tuesday statement. “Today we are planning to conduct our championships as planned, however, we are evaluating the covid-19 situation daily and will make decisions accordingly.” Ten people in Washington state have died of the coronavirus, all of them in the general vicinity of Seattle. Spokane, nearly 300 miles to the east, is scheduled to host first- and second-round games of the men’s NCAA tournament March 19 and 21. Neither that city nor its surrounding area have had any confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the Spokesman-Review. On Wednesday, the University of Missouri-Kansas City announced its men’s basketball team would not play its road game this week at Seattle University because of coronavirus concerns. “Based on the current developments involving the coronavirus in Seattle, it is imperative for us to be proactive in regards to the safety of our student-athletes and men’s basketball program," Athletics Director Brandon Martin said in a statement. On Tuesday, Chicago State had announced that its men’s basketball team would not travel for regularly scheduled games at Seattle University and Utah Valley University, citing the “health and well-being of the campus community.” The school’s women’s team will not host two games against Seattle or Utah Valley. The games were believed to be the first major U.S. sporting events canceled because of the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press. In a statement, Seattle University said it respected the decisions of Chicago State and UMKC and understands their concerns. It said single-game ticket holders would get full refunds from the canceled games. “There has been no recommendation to suspend campus operations, including athletic contests, or restrict travel in the United States at this time," the school said. The canceled games in Seattle officially will be considered “no-contest” under NCAA rules. However, the WAC will count the canceled games as Seattle and Utah Valley victories for standing and tournament seeding purposes. Chicago State also said it will evaluate whether to allow its men’s and women’s basketball teams — which have a combined five


Everyday objects and the coronavirus

Cellphones and keyboards, credit cards and cash, subway straps and car doors — it’s hard to imagine a 21st-century life without them. But it turns out that these props to modern existence, objects that we often take for granted, can also be carriers of the coronavirus. How big is the risk? When it comes to the newest version of coronavirus, the one that causes the disease covid-19, it’s still too early to know. But in a study earlier this year, researchers who reviewed more than 20 published papers on previous coronaviruses, such as those that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), found that they can survive on metal, paper and glass for up to nine days. | (That’s at room temperature; temperatures above 86 degrees shortened that time). That’s longer than the typical life span of flu viruses, which remain infectious on surfaces for about 48 hours. And in their findings, the researchers warned of the risk of people catching the virus in health care settings especially, by touching surfaces where it has recently landed and then touching their faces. But it’s still far more likely for the virus to spread by person-to-person contact. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus typically spreads among people within about a six-foot radius. A person with covid-19 spreads viral particles through coughing or sneezing, and those particles land on the mouths or noses of people nearby. Wiping down surfaces with common household cleansers will get rid of lingering viruses. So will alcohol-based hand sanitizer. In its coronavirus guidance, the CDC recommends daily cleaning of high-touch surfaces including countertops, doorknobs, keyboards and bathroom fixtures with household cleaning sprays or wipes.


Spinal cord injury patients can imagine resuming many activities because of new technologies

close enough to pick up the activity of individual neurons. The first approach is like listening to a concert while standing across the street from the concert hall, Ajiboye said. You might be able to hear some music, but it would be hard to discern the tune. The Miami approach — reading brain waves from under the skull — is like standing in the lobby of the theater, where you can make out the music, but not individual instruments. And the third approach is like sitting on the stage, where you can pick out the notes an instrument plays. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, Ajiboye said. And all of the devices will have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration before they can be used outside of a research setting, so they are years from being publicly available. All three approaches share three big challenges, said Jennifer Collinger, a biomedical engineer and assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh: ●Making the technology more robust so people can do more of the activities they want and gain more independence. ●Shrinking the systems without losing effectiveness, to make them more portable and less intrusive. ●Bringing the technology out of the lab to make it more useful and usable in everyday life. The advantage of using a simple EEG to read brain waves from outside the body is clear: no need for brain surgery. But it’s nearly impossible to get any precision from EEG readings, Ajiboye said, so it’s unlikely to support many movements. In May 2019, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg received a $19 million federal grant to hopefully improve on this noninvasive type of brain-computer interface, using light and ultrasound, perhaps in conjunction with EEG. Ajiboye’s own approach — similar to Miami’s — uses recording technologies with electrodes that penetrate the brain, he said. In 2017, his team showed that by implanting electrodes shallowly in the brain and inside paralyzed arm muscles, they were able to get a 53-year-old volunteer with paralysis to reach out, grasp and hold an object, feed himself and bring a cup to his face. Miami’s innovation is that there’s no need to plug Aldana in. The brain wave reading technology in his head can “speak” remotely to a computer, meaning it should be easier to get him out of the lab and into the outside world. The third approach, which puts the


The U.S. is screening travelers from China and Iran, but why not from Italy and South Korea?

The Trump administration moved quickly to implement enhanced screening of travelers from China and Iran, funneling them through 11 U.S. airports. But with significant numbers of coronavirus cases now being diagnosed in Italy and South Korea, some have wondered why passengers coming to the United States from those countries are not also being screened for the virus. Administration officials said those travelers are going through extra screening, but those checks are being done before they even board their flights to the United States At an industry event sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week, David E. Short, deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, said the Trump administration has agreements in place with South Korea and Italy to screen passengers before they leave those countries. Screening those travelers once they landed in the United States was determined “not to be the most effective response,” Short said. “Instead, what’s happening in those countries is a very enhanced level of pre-departure screening of passengers.” In the case of South Korea, travelers go through three temperature checks. They are thermal-screened when they arrive at the airport and then again when they pass through airport security. They are also required to fill out a health questionnaire and are examined by trained medical professionals, Short said. A similar process is also being followed in Italy. Short said as cases develop in other countries the administration may put similar protocols in place, but the approach will be tailored to the situation.


Trump’s luck is turning against him

is just a different kind of lucky. Fair point. Biden’s wrestling match with the English language has not gone well this campaign season, and many of the party leaders who have rushed to endorse him are afraid that his excellent victory speech in South Carolina was a fluke — like an eager Labradoodle jumping up on a piano and accidentally banging out a few bars of Chopin. But Biden is not the only reason to think the president’s luck might be turning. Along comes covid-19, the nasty little coronavirus that threatens to knock the wind out of Trump’s robust economy. First, what covid-19 isn’t: This is not the Andromeda strain. It’s not going to kill us all. For most people who get it, the symptoms are no worse than the other crud that creeps through the human population each flu season. But it is a very serious matter. Chinese authorities aren’t known for their frivolity. They didn’t shut down a major city and blockade an entire province over the common cold. The Federal Reserve Board didn’t order an emergency cut in interest rates just to fight the sniffles. The global organization of health-care information experts didn’t cancel its annual meeting for the first time in 58 years over nothing. Covid-19 is a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease for which we have no vaccine and, until recently, no good tests. The only way to fight such an outbreak — as China has demonstrated — is to keep people apart. Covid-19 has a slow incubation period, so you have to separate people for a long time: 14 days. Commerce brings people together. So commerce and coronavirus don’t mix. At the sight of this particular black swan, Trump’s beautiful, perfect stock market has lost roughly 4,000 points — and that’s before the World Health Organization called on governments everywhere to pull out “all the stops.” Let’s assume those stops resemble the ones already pulled in East Asia. Travel stops. Industry stops. Entertainment stops. Dining out stops. Tourism stops. Eventually, the virus stops. But the economic damage is done. The authoritative Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted week that covid-19 will cut global growth in half if the virus spreads beyond East Asia. Since then, it has spread. Trump’s going to need a new campaign script. And this one won’t be called “Mr. Lucky.” david.vondrehle@washpost.com Read more from David Von Drehle’s archive.


U.S. orders halt to Chinese acquisition

spokesman Frank X. Shaw downplayed the ruling, saying it focused on a single technical factor. Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday’s ruling. Campbell-Smith has not yet ruled on Amazon’s contention that Trump interfered personally in the bidding process, and the opinion published Friday did not mention the president by name. The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, better known as JEDI, calls for a powerful cloud computing system through which military agencies can harness data centers operated by a commercial tech company. —Aaron Gregg TECHNOLOGY President Trump ordered the Chinese acquisition of a hotel property management software company reversed on national security grounds. Trump ordered Beijing Shiji Information Technology to unwind its 2018 acquisition of StayNTouch, the White House said in a statement on Friday. Trump said there was “credible evidence” the Chinese company “might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order marked the third time Trump has blocked a foreign takeover of a U.S. firm while citing concerns about national security. The administration has ramped up scrutiny of Chinese acquisitions of U.S. businesses over risks to national security. The panel that reviews foreign investments in U.S. firms, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, has thwarted a number of Chinese deals, especially for technology companies. — Bloomberg News biotechnology A Stanford University professor and stem cell pioneer is poised to receive a $191 million windfall from the sale of the immunotherapy biotech firm he co-founded. Irv Weissman, 80, owns 4.2 percent of Forty Seven Inc., which Gilead Sciences agreed to buy for about $4.9 billion, a remarkable amount considering the company’s market value was less than $250 million just five months ago. Forty Seven is named for a molecule found on healthy and cancerous cells that emits a “don’t eat me” signal that allows cells to go undetected by the immune system. Working in their Stanford lab, Weissman, fellow founder Ravindra Majeti and Siddhartha Jaiswal identified the role of CD47 proteins in the progression of cancer stem cells into a more malignant form. “The whole system is set up to be able to look at dangerous cells and eat them,” Weissman said in a phone interview. CD47 can interfere with that, allowing cancer to spiral if ignored by the body’s defenses. — Bloomberg News Also in Business More than 250 — From news services


Yeshiva, in an NCAA tournament venue kept empty by coronavirus, beats WPI and sundown

BALTIMORE — What an eccentric Friday at majestic Johns Hopkins: the sounds that would be inaudible had fans been allowed in the gym, the oddity of one side facing the basketball deadline of the final buzzer but also the broader deadline of Shabbat, the shuttering of the facility between games to disinfect it. At one point in the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament lid-lifter between Yeshiva University of New York and Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Massachusetts, a WPI player finished a free throw, headed back downcourt and barked some NC-17 words. A ref heard it from all the way yonder, and why not, given the scrimmage-style desolation of 1,100-seat Goldfarb Gym, with Johns Hopkins having closed Friday’s game to the public as a precaution against the coronavirus amid a state of emergency declaration issued Thursday by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. After the technical foul was called, any of the mere 30 or so spectators, all present for work reasons in the plastic bleachers, could have heard the discourse between WPI Coach Chris Bartley and the ref. Audible, as well, were the phony groans shooters make trying to coax the official into calling a foul. And then, during a timeout with 7:30 remaining and mighty Yeshiva (28-1) ahead by 25 on the way to its 28th straight win, the speakers blared Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” and as the timeout ended and the players returned, one side of the gym rang with a cluster of Yeshiva players on the bench rapping the old, familiar lyrics. Even among esprits de corps, the Maccabees have quite an esprit. The foremost sounds during their 102-78 win came from their bench imploring defense and providing loud shot-clock updates, of which senior Simcha Halpert said, “I think we made a concerted effort, our bench mob, as we call it.” Their path to their program’s highest pinnacle featured some hard hills of distraction they handled with aplomb. Their Orthodox Jewish school, located along the Harlem River in the part of Manhattan that narrows to a sliver, closed Wednesday after a student tested positive for the coronavirus. The Baltimore-area hotel they reserved up and canceled them, forcing them elsewhere, and Coach Elliot Steinmetz used the word “discrimination” to the Associated Press. As if that weren’t a tricky enough way to seek a program’s first NCAA tournament win in its second appearance, Friday brought a sort of tip-off tango. The


U.S. coronavirus fatality rate could be lower than global rate so far

2 percent or 3,” he said. “It’s going to be totally a reflection of the at-risk population. What are the underlying risk factors? Obesity? Smoking? Over 60 percent of Americans have an underlying health problem that could contribute to a poor outcome with this event.” China has a higher case fatality rate than South Korea, where, as of Thursday, 35 people had died among 6,088 cases — a rate of 0.57 percent. Germany has reported 262 cases but zero deaths. A new study suggests the virus has split into two strains and a less aggressive strain is now more prevalent than a deadlier one. But that is a preliminary report and not confirmed. The report said reviews of 103 samples of the virus showed two distinct strains, which the authors name the L and the S strains. They hypothesized that the more aggressive L strain sickened people to the point that they sought medical treatment or other interventions. That would have made it less likely to spread. A less aggressive strain, the S type, could have circulated more easily over time among people who continued about their daily lives. Jeffery Taubenberger, a virologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he would have to see “a lot more convincing data before I would begin to think that hypothesis was supported.” He said the study did not contain enough data showing a clear link between the different strains and different medical outcomes. But animal viruses do mutate soon after they enter a new species, such as human beings, he said: “Certain adaptations are necessary. It’s likely that change will occur early on in the pandemic.” Taubenberger is an expert on influenza pandemics, including the 1918 Spanish Flu, the worst in history. Estimates of the fatality rate of Spanish Flu are impeded by a lack of data on how many people were infected. But Taubenberger said a plausible estimate is a 1.1 percent case fatality rate in the United States and 4.6 percent globally. In 1957, the influenza pandemic probably had a U.S. fatality rate of about 0.07, he said. Asked to appraise the current coronavirus epidemic, he said, “Right now, to me, it looks like it’s sort of on par with an influenza pandemic in its impact. Obviously we hope it’s not going to be a 1918-like impact. It’s something we definitely need to take seriously.” joel.achenbach@washpost.com erica.werner@washpost.com


Galaxy Cruise, a citizen science project, seeks volunteers to help classify images of ‘galactic interactions’

Atop the Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, the Subaru Telescope captures faint images of some of the most dramatic events in the universe: galactic interactions. Galaxies containing billions of stars, solar systems and massive amounts of gas and dust merge and even collide, triggering star formation and changing shape. It’s not quite as simple as a kind of galactic car crash. Think of it as more of a dance: Two close galaxies are drawn together through gravitational attraction. As they get closer and closer, they start to disturb one another’s gravitational fields, changing shapes as they either pass one another or merge. Hyper Suprime-Cam Researchers want to learn more about galaxy interactions, which they think cause galaxies to evolve. Without the public, it could take much longer to figure out how that evolution works. One day, researchers could teach artificial intelligence to analyze images like the ones taken by Hyper Suprime-Cam, but AIs don’t yet have the properly classified samples of faint galleries needed to train them. Galaxy Cruise Participants earn a “boarding pass” with basic training on galaxy types, then visit a variety of galactic regions and classify galaxies through multiple-choice questions that help them describe what they see. Along the way, they earn stamps in a virtual passport. Researchers will eventually analyze the data and publish the results. Want aboard? Visit bit.ly/galaxycruise to get started.


New coronavirus cluster, including 3 from Md., linked to Nile River cruise ship popular with tourists

on the last day of their isolation, officials said. Other people who had come into contact with the vessel and the workers have also been quarantined, the officials added, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Egypt reached 15. A WHO epidemiologist said Friday that while the tests showed the virus was present in the workers’ bodies, none of them evinced symptoms, suggesting they had not readily passed the virus to many others. “We know that is possible, but we do not believe that is a major driver of transmission,” Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters in Geneva. “If we look at the actual epidemics and how these epidemics are unfolding, if they were a major driver of transmission, it would have caused much larger numbers of cases.” The 12 workers have been transferred to an isolation facility in a hospital for treatment. The cruise ship was named River A and was towed to an area 12 miles away from Luxor, according to the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram, which cited security sources. The vessels that cruise the Nile range in capacity, with some carrying as many as 150 passengers. The trip between Aswan and Luxor takes two to four nights, with the vessels stopping along the way for sightseeing. The announcement of the new cases increased the number of confirmed infections in Egypt fivefold. Before Friday, the Arab world’s most populous nation, with more than 100 million people, had declared only three cases since the virus surfaced last year in China. The first, a Chinese national, recovered. The other two, a Canadian oil worker and an Egyptian who had returned from Serbia, are receiving treatment. There have been growing concerns among Egyptians, on the streets, in dinner conversation and on social media, about a lack of official transparency. There are suspicious that the spread of the coronavirus could be larger than what the government has revealed so far. Egypt has not closed schools, halted Friday prayers or stopped other large gatherings of people to limit the spread of the virus. The coronavirus outbreak is hitting the Middle East just as Egypt’s tourism — the country’s biggest earner of foreign currency — is showing signs of rebounding from political upheaval and terrorist attacks in recent years. Cruising on the Nile has become a bucket-list item for travelers. Many itineraries are sold out for the coming summer season, according to industry reports. sudarsan.raghavan@washpost.com


University of Washington switches to virtual classes after staff member tests positive for coronavirus

The University of Washington will not hold in-person classes or exams for the remainder of the quarter, the first large university to take such a step in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The campuses remain open, with dorms, dining halls, hospitals and clinics operating. Seattle University also announced Friday that it would rely on virtual classes for the rest of the winter quarter, and Lake Washington Institute of Technology near Seattle announced it was moving to remote operations until March 20. “People are feeling very relieved,” said Kelty Pierce, a senior and the president of the Associated Students of the University of Washington. “This is something that people have been asking for all week.” The move to virtual classes — for at least the rest of the month — was a dramatic shift by university leaders in the response to the threat and probably is a sign of changes to come at other schools as they contend with a rapidly changing global situation. Colleges throughout the nation have been bracing for the possibility of an influx of cases as the coronavirus spreads. As the Seattle region began reporting some of the first cases of infection — and the first death — in the United States last week, many University of Washington students and others worried they would not be safe in classrooms at the large public university, which has more than 55,000 students at three campuses. An online petition calling for the university to be closed had more than 26,000 digital signatures Friday. Earlier this week, several cases of the infection were confirmed among people connected with other colleges. When a student tested positive for the virus, Yeshiva University in New York canceled classes at its Washington Heights and Midtown campuses until after March 10. On Friday, Yeshiva’s president announced that a rabbi who teaches two classes had tested positive but did not have symptoms. In Maryland, where three cases were confirmed Thursday, the leader of the public university system announced Friday that he was directing schools to verify they could switch to online operations quickly if needed and to reduce, when possible, large gatherings. Jay A. Perman, chancellor of the University of Maryland system, emphasized in a statement that he was not shutting down classes and offices or issuing a mandate to cancel events. “I am advising that we be smart, and apply our best judgment to a situation


Airlines, travel and cruise industries hurt by coronavirus could get tax relief from White House

booked months in advance, it’s hard to predict how many people will cancel summer plans, said Mike Driscoll, editor in chief of Cruise Week. Fewer Americans take cruises to Asia compared with Europe or elsewhere, so the long-term impact on the industry depends heavily on where the outbreak takes hold. “The potential is so worrisome for the cruise business,” Driscoll said. “It depends on what happens in the Caribbean. It depends on what happens in Mexico.” Debra Adams, 57, is counting down to April 19, the start of her 27-day cruise across the Atlantic and through Europe. She regularly checks for bulletins from Princess Cruises that may threaten her trip, but she says she and her 81-year-old father are determined to go. Adams said she sees no reason to sit at home and worry when she has this “opportunity to live.” “Right before we get off the ship, my dad and I spend a day in Paris,” she said. “It’s going to be amazing. I’m going to go until they tell me I can’t.” Glenn Wilcox has been fielding questions by anxious callers looking to rearrange European vacations or finagle flights to avoid certain airports. His company, Wilcox Travel, books trips for leisure travelers and humanitarian aid groups. Wilcox estimates that future bookings are down 20 to 30 percent compared with last year. “We’ve had constant questions,” he said. “It’s a hard thing. What I’m telling folks is that we can only go off of what travel restrictions there are.” As people cancel flights, they ditch hotel reservations, too. Marriott said in an earnings call that revenue from bookings in China plunged in February. Hilton estimates that coronavirus will affect its bottom line by as much as $50 million if the outbreak lasts several months. And Hyatt said its hotels in Singapore, Bali and Japan saw bookings fall as Chinese travelers stayed home. At San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the city’s largest convention and exhibition complex, at least seven groups — including Facebook and IBM — have canceled or rescheduled for total economic losses of roughly $138 million, according to Laurie Armstrong Gossy of the San Francisco Travel Association. Airport hotels in particular are seeing a dip in bookings, said Jan Freitag, senior vice president of lodging insights at the data firm STR, especially those with a lot of international traffic. And there’s some indication that people are canceling weekend bookings,


Simone Manuel, a surprise at Rio Olympics, could be a full-blown star at the Tokyo Games

is essential for a sprinter. The short races are decided by the slightest of margins. At the world championships last year, Manuel won the 50-meter race by 0.02 seconds and the 100 by 0.39. That sliver of time can be earned in training. Squats and box jumps lead to explosiveness off the starting block, for example, and Meehan said Manuel is also a stronger swimmer once she hits the water. “From a big-picture perspective, I’ve just never seen her better,” he said. “I’m really excited at what she’s doing.” Like Ledecky, Manuel cut her college swimming career short and turned professional in 2018. She graduated from Stanford last spring and has been able to focus solely on her training in the year leading into Tokyo. “People think I already made the Olympic team,” she said with a laugh. “I talk to them, and they’re like, ‘Oh, congrats,’ just because I won a gold medal four years ago. It’s like, no, I still have to go through the process — and it’s not easy. USA is so stacked. “But I think my progression over the four years has allowed me to have more support and more fans who are obviously looking for me to win. So in that sense, that external pressure is definitely present.” Manuel made a splash in Rio but could be an ever bigger star in Tokyo. She only has gotten faster since the NBC cameras made her an overnight sensation four years ago. She posted a career-best time in the 50 (23.97) at the world championships in 2017 and then dropped her fastest 100 time (52.04) at the same meet two years later. “Ever since Rio, I feel like I have new goals,” she said. “So I’ve been working towards those and progressing in the sport. So hopefully this year it culminates in me swimming faster than ever.” More Olympics coverage: Katie Ledecky’s dominating mile in Des Moines could be preview of this summer in Tokyo At U.S. marathon trials, Galen Rupp wins to qualify for fourth Olympics; Aliphine Tuliamuk takes women’s race Sally Jenkins: Larry Nassar victims want accountability. Olympic officials offered cash and veiled threats. As Olympics concerns mount amid spreading coronavirus, IOC says ‘the Games will go ahead’ Chinese swimmer Sun Yang banned for eight years after court finds he violated doping protocols Pita Taufatofua, the shirtless Tongan flag-bearer, qualifies for third straight Olympics


NASA shows it’s lost confidence in Boeing’s ability to police its own work on Starliner space capsule

In the days and weeks after Boeing’s test flight of its new spacecraft went awry, the company and NASA went to great lengths to highlight the positives of the mission — how, as NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine had said, “a lot of things went right.” More than two months after the test mission was cut short by what Boeing and NASA now acknowledge were potentially catastrophic software errors, the space agency is being far more blunt about the poor performance of one of its most trusted contractors and dictating the steps Boeing must take to fix the serious problems that have been uncovered. In a call with reporters Friday, NASA officials said an independent investigation of the marred test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has produced 61 corrective actions and identified 49 gaps in Boeing’s testing procedures. A decision on whether Boeing will be allowed to proceed with flying astronauts or have to redo the test mission without humans on board may be months away, they said. “We could have lost a spacecraft twice during this mission,” said Doug Loverro, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and mission operations. “So clearly this was a close call.” Boeing, along with another company, SpaceX, is under contract to build a spacecraft to fly NASA’s astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the space agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA hasn’t had the ability to fly astronauts since the space shuttle was retired in 2011 and has faced delays and setbacks in its attempt to fly humans again from U.S. soil. Given that lives are on the line, Loverro added: “I want to make sure everybody understands that we at NASA are talking this very seriously. … And we’re going to make sure that at the end of the day, we can fly astronauts safely on Starliner.” The test of Boeing’s Starliner ran into trouble almost from the moment it was hoisted into space shortly before Christmas. The spacecraft’s internal clock was off by 11 hours, a significant software problem that went undiscovered because Boeing’s preflight testing was cut short and used a faulty computer simulator. While Starliner was in flight, Boeing uncovered another software problem that should have been unearthed by testing on the ground — one that could have caused the service module to crash into the crew module before the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere. “It’s important to remember we


Coronavirus patients had ‘concerning’ interactions at shiva, Pa. event

was working to contact everyone who attended the gathering and to check them for symptoms of illness. A “small number of people” who were at the gathering and experienced flu-like symptoms have tested negative for covid-19, the school district said. The 14-day incubation period ends Monday. Another of the Montgomery County residents who tested positive went to The Village at Rockville on Feb. 28 to pay a condolence call to the family of a former resident of the retirement community. The man’s grandson said between 70 and 100 people attended the event, which in Jewish tradition is known as sitting shiva. Most were family and friends who do not live at the complex, which marketing director Allison Combs said houses about 300 people split among independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing homes. Hogan called the interactions “concerning” and said anyone who was at the shiva should contact health officials and watch for symptoms. Under powers granted by a state of emergency Hogan declared Thursday, the state ordered health insurers to waive all costs for patient testing, which so far has been done by the state lab. Maryland has 1,000 testing kits and expects another shipment next week, when several private lab companies will be cleared to test. The search for potential cases involves “a lot of phone calls and left messages and ‘please call me back,’ ” said Assistant Maryland Health Secretary Jinlene Chan. She said health workers in Montgomery County, a suburb of about 1 million people just outside the District, were doing most of the legwork. So far, no one identified as potentially exposed has displayed symptoms that warrant testing, Chan said. No one from the retirement community has been identified for testing. Hogan said residents and staff should take their temperatures regularly and observe other precautions to quickly identify any possible infections. “This is exactly what our state has been actively preparing for many weeks,” Hogan said. “I want to again assure Marylanders that all levels of government are working together in response to this threat to public health.” The individual who tested positive for covid-19 and attended the shiva was a friend of a family member, said the grandson, who asked not to be named to protect his family’s privacy. After learning about the possible exposure, the grandson called a phone number provided by the state and was told he did not need to be


Coronavirus fears rise in Senegal as thousands travel for religious festivals

DAKAR, Senegal — Confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Senegal have jumped from zero to four in recent days, the most in a sub-Saharan African country, raising fears that upcoming religious festivals could fuel a wider outbreak. Hundreds of thousands of people plan to travel through Senegal this month on pilgrimages as global health officials urge against large gatherings. The risk of spread is “very, very high,” said Ousmane Faye, the chief virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, “because of all the traffic we have from Europe, from China, from all over.” The World Health Organization’s Africa arm advised keeping a “social distance” of at least three feet, warning that outbreaks could “overwhelm” dozens of nations continentwide. China, where the new coronavirus was first detected, remains the hardest-hit country, with more than 80,000 infections and over 3,000 deaths. South Korea and Italy are also battling rampant transmission, with 6,000 and 3,000 cases of infection, respectively. In sub-Saharan Africa, as of Friday morning, Nigeria, South Africa and Cameroon had all reported one case. Anxiety that is roiling life abroad has erupted on the continent’s westernmost point. Hand sanitizer and bleach are vanishing from shelves, and hundreds of people have received orders to stay in self-imposed quarantine. The Basketball Africa League postponed the start of its inaugural season, which was to take place next week in the seaside capital, and Youssou Ndour, whom Rolling Stone once called the “most famous singer alive” in Senegal, canceled his shows. Senegalese President Macky Sall met with more than 60 imams Thursday at the Islamic Institute of Dakar, where they discussed the coronavirus, but officials stopped short of halting religious gatherings, saying they would closely monitor the threat. Only in the event of an emergency would authorities suspend the religious observances, which are seen as deeply private affairs, said Oumar Diene, the secretary general of the National Association of Imams and Ulama of Senegal, a Muslim leaders network. “But we are not there yet,” he said. The government, however, banned public celebrations of International Women’s Day planned for this weekend. Medical workers have expressed concern that pilgrimages could heighten exposure among the most vulnerable: people outside the realm of big-city resources, in areas where medical facilities tend to lack isolation rooms, respiratory equipment and reliable electricity. Senegalese officials say ambulances are ready to pick up and test anyone with symptoms of covid-19, the respiratory


Workers in Japan and South Korea rarely call in sick. In coronavirus fight, that’s a big problem.

health officials in Japan and South Korea, it’s a battle against both the virus that causes covid-19 and entrenched views on work. “Japan has a work culture where covid-19 would be more prevalent compared to other countries,” said Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College, London. So it’s hardly surprising that media reports are already emerging of Japanese men and women who carried on working even after they developed symptoms, and passed on coronavirus to their colleagues or customers. There’s the male surgeon in Wakayama who developed a fever at the end of January, but kept seeing patients for three days while taking medicine to lower his temperature before finally developing pneumonia-like symptoms. At least four other people at the surgeon’s hospital also caught the virus, including another doctor, who also kept seeing patients for days after developing a cough and a fever. There’s the businessman who took a Shinkansen bullet train on a business trip after coming down with a fever, and the lunch lady at an elementary school who continued to deliver food to classrooms even after developing a sore throat. Both were later found to have covid-19. “In some workplaces, people are expected to come into work even if they are sick,” said Rochelle Kopp of Japan Intercultural Consulting, a training and consulting firm focusing on Japanese business. “In other cases,” she added, “nobody may be telling them they have to come in when they are sick, but they do so anyway due to a sense of responsibility, a desire not to use vacation days or general macho-ness.” In South Korea, it’s a similar story. Put simply, experts say, there is no point in canceling public events and gatherings and closing schools if sick people continue to commute in packed subway trains and show up at work. “South Korea’s corporate culture — that deems working while sick a virtue — pushes ill employees to show up at the office,” said Choi Eun-hwa, professor of pediatrics at Seoul National University College of Medicine. “This absolutely needs to change under the current epidemic.” Choi was a member of a panel of medical experts who met South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month and told him employees should be allowed to take paid sick leave or work from home to prevent the virus spreading. In Japan, the government has encouraged companies to allow “telework” or


As concerns over coronavirus rise, airlines, Amtrak waives fees for travel changes; transit systems step up cleaning

rail cars more often. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday announced new cleaning protocols, including daily disinfecting of turnstiles, MetroCard and ticket vending machines and handrails. The agency said it would be disinfecting trains and buses every three days. Transit systems have also been pushing alerts to riders, urging “good transit hygiene.” In response to the growing concerns, some airlines also say they are enhancing cleaning between flights and taking other steps to reduce the spread of germs on board. Alaska Airlines said Monday that flight attendants may wear gloves during beverage service and will stop refilling single-use beverage cups, including in the first-class area. They also will suspend warm towel service in first class and discontinue on board recycling for two weeks. “We’re encouraging guests to travel with hand sanitizer or anti-bacterial wipes out of an abundance of caution,” Alaska Airlines said in a news release. “Wipes can be used to clean armrests and tray tables.” U.S. airlines have for weeks been reducing service and offering fee waivers to travelers headed to Asia and other parts of the world affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Once centered in China, the disease caused by the virus, covid-19, has spread worldwide despite travel restrictions, and the global death toll has passed 3,000. In the United States, the virus death toll has reached six. JetBlue said last week it was suspending change and cancellation fees to give customers “peace of mind” during what it called an “uncertain time.” “While authorities have not issued any travel restrictions to the locations we fly, we want to give our customers some peace of mind that we are ready to support them should the situation change,” said Joanna Geraghty, president and chief operating officer at JetBlue. “We are working directly with health and security officials as well as industry leaders for updates and best practices.” Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Saturday reiterated that the risk of coronavirus in the United States remains low even as news spread over the weekend of the first deaths in the country and more cases on the West Coast. Delta announced Monday that it is temporarily suspending daily flights between New York and Milan as a result of the rapid spread of the virus in Italy. Passengers affected by this change will be able to rebook their travel on flights after April


No dent in D.C. tourism from coronavirus outbreak — so far

technician visiting the African American history museum with her son. “The only concern was travel on the plane,” said Bethany Waters, 44, of Bowler, Wis. Waters, who works for an insurance company, came to the District with her fiancee, who was in town for business. They toured the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument and several museums, including the National Gallery of Art. She said she views the outbreak as something like the regular flu, but worse. “I see somebody coughing, and I don’t go near,” she said. They packed face masks for their flight but so far haven’t used them. Jason Parker, an IT technician who visits the art museum about twice a month, usually to view the Renaissance exhibits, said he couldn’t see any difference from the usual attendance, though he found himself watching people’s body language more closely. He said he’s trying to read whether other people feel healthy. He also said he thinks about not touching hand rails and other things he can do to avoid contracting the illness. “It crosses my mind that I need to wash my hands more,” said Parker, 42, of Cheverly, Md. Brenda Connors came to the District with her two daughters despite advice from her parents to stay home in Beaver Falls, Pa. She’s using hand sanitizer more than she used to. “I would say I wouldn’t go on a cruise, either. Even flying is a little nerve-racking,” Connors said. “I feel, as long as you’re not going abroad, it’s not that big a deal,” said her daughter, Marissa Connors, 22, a student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. “I haven’t really thought about it,” said her other daughter, Danielle Connors, 19, a student at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. Danielle said some of her classmates felt the impact after the university canceled all study abroad as a precaution. “There’s a level of concern no matter what, but not to the point we would feel uncomfortable traveling,” said Shelly Struthers, a tourist from Terre Haute, Ind. “I pretty much put my faith in God.” Struthers was strolling the National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Mammals with her husband and wearing a ball cap that said “#blessed.” She said the only sign of an outbreak were the few people she saw wearing masks. “From what I heard, the masks don’t really work, but it makes them feel better,” she said.


Olympic gymnastics qualifying, already complicated, further muddled by coronavirus

add a wild-card spot for an additional gymnast, but those results don’t count toward the country’s points total for Olympic qualification. Sam Mikulak and Shane Wiskus (wild card) will represent the United States in the men’s competition. During the U.S. women’s campaign to earn this Olympic spot, Simone Biles, the 2016 Olympic champion, is expected to represent the United States at the Tokyo event. Fellow U.S. Olympic hopefuls Sunisa Lee (Stuttgart) and Grace McCallum (Birmingham) are on the rosters for the other two events. Hurd said the virus has not affected her preparation, apart from keeping hand sanitizer in her bag. Chinese gymnasts were forced to withdraw from a competition with Olympic qualification implications last month in Melbourne because of the Australian government’s travel restrictions. Some Chinese gymnasts, including Zhang Jin and Hu Xuwei, who will compete Saturday, reportedly had been training in Doha, Qatar, to avoid similar complications with future meets. Giorgia Villa of Italy, one of the countries with thousands of confirmed cases, will compete Saturday and was at Friday’s training session. Russian gymnasts Nikita Nagornyy and Lilia Akhaimova will not compete at the American Cup this weekend in Milwaukee. Nagornyy won the men’s all-around at the 2019 world championships and would have been a favorite to win the American Cup. The 2020 qualification process is far more complex than in previous Olympics. There are many paths to earning Olympic spots, which means the process involves far more competitions that affect qualification, heightening logistical challenges posed by the coronavirus and the uncertainty surrounding it. “The fast-changing situation related to the covid-19 outbreak is a challenge for the International Gymnastics Federation as well as all sports governing bodies,” the sport’s international organization said in a statement Thursday. “The FIG is continuously monitoring the evolution of the situation closely with the host federations of upcoming events.” The United States and 11 other countries have qualified four-member teams to the Tokyo Olympics, a change from 2016 when teams had five members. But federations can earn up to two additional individual Olympic spots through a process that involves these World Cup meets. There are eight meets, beginning in November 2018 and ending this month, in which gymnasts can earn points for how well they finish on each apparatus. The gymnast’s best three results count in the final rankings. The winners for each event earn an Olympic spot for themselves, limited to one


The gutsy — possibly crazy — scientists who risked death testing vaccines on themselves

In 1875, high up in the Andes mountains, hundreds of Peruvian railroad workers began coming down with a strange fever, which was followed by severe joint pain and then death. As the body count soared, alarm set in across the country. Desperate to explain the origins of this strange new malady, a Peruvian medical society announced a contest. A 26-year-old medical student named Daniel Carrión entered. Scientists in Peru had a hunch the fever was connected to verruga peruana, also known as Peruvian warts. But they struggled to prove a link. To Carrión, whose father was a well-known physician, there was a simple solution. If someone injected him with tissue from a wart on one of the sick patients and then he got sick, then voilà! Problem solved — there’s the connection. But there was another problem: Those who got the fever generally died. Carrión was undeterred. “Once he made the decision that experimentation on a human was necessary, he must have asked himself: On whom?” wrote Lawrence K. Altman, a physician and New York Times reporter in his history of self-experimentation in medicine. “Carrión answered that question in the only way his conscience would allow: Myself.” He got the fever. And he died. Altman’s book is titled “Who Goes First?” It’s a question that’s been asked throughout history when scientists have been confronted with a grave new malady such as the novel coronavirus now setting off alarm around the world. In the race to discover how disease spreads and what treatments might stop it, someone has to be tested first. That someone is often the doctor in the white coat. Jonas Salk tested the polio vaccine — which contained a nonliving form of the virus — on himself and his children before giving it to strangers. In 1986, Daniel Zagury, a French immunologist, appointed himself to be the first person dosed with an experimental AIDS vaccine. A 2012 study identified 465 episodes of doctors’ self-experiments, with 140 of them related to dangerous infectious diseases. Eight self-experiments resulted in death, including physicians and scientists trying to curtail outbreaks of plague, typhus, cholera and yellow fever. What would posses someone to, say, drink a hearty soup infused with cholera bacteria, as Max Joseph Pettenkofer did in 1892? “Historically, self experimentation was an important part of the scientific process, allowing medical advances that would have been hard to achieve otherwise,” wrote two


Congress wants accountability for Khashoggi. Trump breaks the law to stop them.

THE TRUMP administration has repeatedly defied the law in resisting efforts by Congress to enforce accountability for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The latest instance came last month, when the administration responded — a month late — to a requirement in last year’s defense authorization act for an unclassified report identifying anyone implicated in “the directing, ordering or tampering of evidence” in the case of Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist who was dismembered by an official hit team in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. The unclassified report delivered to Senate and House committees on Feb. 20 by the office of the director of national intelligence consisted of an assertion that it would not provide any unclassified information. An ODNI statement said it could not do so without “jeopardizing sources and methods” of intelligence — a response that flew in the face of the administration’s own previous public identification and sanctioning of individuals it said were responsible for Khashoggi’s murder. The real reason for the failure to comply was evident in the classified annex that accompanied the report. U.S. officials told The Post’s Ellen Nakashima that the annex confirmed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a direct role in the killing. That finding had previously been briefed to Congress by CIA Director Gina Haspel, and it was the conclusion of a public report by a U.N. investigation last year. But it has never been publicly confirmed by the administration, which continues to describe the Saudi ruler as a trusted ally. The administration’s stonewalling flouts legal requirements in more than one respect. The State Department is required by human rights legislation to sanction foreign actors who have been credibly identified as responsible for human rights crimes. ODNI has now acknowledged — albeit in a classified context — that the crown prince was involved in a particularly heinous crime, the premeditated butchering of a journalist who was a U.S. permanent resident. Yet rather than follow the law, the Trump administration continues to cover for the Saudi strongman, whose offenses also have included the torture and imprisonment of women’s rights activists and medical doctor Walid Fitaihi, a U.S. citizen. At least there is some congressional pushback. Last week, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking Democrat Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) sent a letter to the acting director of intelligence, Richard Grenell, asking him to reconsider


Two detained Saudi princes reportedly being held in villas, allowed to call families

the princes contacted family members on Saturday and told them that they were being held not in prisons but in private royal villas. Ahmed asked relatives to send him his “bisht,” a robe worn for official engagements, prompting the person to speculate that he might soon make a public appearance, perhaps under duress. At least two other princes — Mohammed bin Nayef’s brother Nawaf and Ahmed’s son Nayef — were also detained in what appeared to be a bid to intimidate the highest echelons of the royal family. As many as 15 senior princes might have received summonses to the palace for interrogation, according to a list of names circulating among people with connections to the Saudi court. Rumors flew that the princes were plotting a coup, that the 84-year-old king had died or was dying. But no evidence has surfaced to substantiate them. Another person who is close to the royal court stressed that the arrests did not signal any disruption. “It was due to an accumulation of behaviors, and the leadership lost patience with them,” he said. “There’s no transition or any drama.” The person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not specify what the behaviors were. The arrests were consistent with Mohammed’s authoritarian style since he became the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in 2017, taking on most of the day-to-day running of the government from his father and embarking on a crackdown against critics and rivals. His purges have ensnared a wide range of people: journalists; clerics; women campaigning for the right to drive; and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by Saudi state agents, according to the CIA and a U.N. inquiry. Mohammed bin Nayef served as crown prince and was in line to be the next king before Mohammed and his father ousted him in a palace coup in 2017. Ahmed, the king’s younger brother, could be seen as a more natural heir to the throne than Mohammed, because the line of succession historically passed from brother to brother among the sons of the kingdom’s founder, King Saud. But Saudi kings have reserved the right to designate their successor by naming a crown prince. Salman anointed his son Mohammed as his heir after ousting Mohammed bin Nayef in 2017. Locking up two princes of such senior rank “sends a message


On the Nile, American tourists are among those quarantined on ship hit by coronavirus

there’s no assurance we won’t get sick at some point,” said Amy Khamissian, 65, a paralegal from Miami. On Saturday, Egypt’s health minister announced that 19 of the foreigners aboard tested positive, along with 14 more Egyptians believed to be crew members. Eleven of the Egyptians later tested negative after a second test, said Hala Zayed, the minister. Before Saturday, Egypt had 15 confirmed cases of the virus, but many Egyptians are concerned the numbers are far greater. The government has a long history of obscuring information considered damaging to Egypt’s image and tourism-driven economy. Khamissian and another Miami resident, Javier Parodi, 35, a building inspector, were told they tested negative on Saturday night, hours after they had been instructed to stay in their cabins. Their guide, they said, had told them that one American in their group had tested positive. “Everything was normal, and now things are taking a turn to the not-so-normal,” Parodi said. A spokesman for Egypt’s Health Ministry declined to comment on the presence of quarantined Americans or other foreign nationals on the ship. A U.S. Embassy official in Cairo did not respond to a request for comment. The embassy on Saturday tweeted a statement that read: “The Embassy has been informed that there are U.S. citizens on a Nile Cruise ship on which 12 crew members tested positive for the coronavirus. The Embassy is working to provide consular services and assistance, in coordination with the Egyptian government.” On Thursday, Maryland’s governor said that three travelers from Montgomery County tested positive for the virus after returning to the United States from a trip on the same cruise. On Feb. 28, a Taiwanese American who had been on the same vessel tested positive once back in Taiwan. As many as 28 tourists, from the United States, Greece, France and Canada, have tested positive for the virus after visiting Egypt in recent weeks. Some of them were on Nile cruises, but it’s unclear whether they were all related to the Asara. The case of the Taiwanese American triggered the inspection of the crew of the Asara. She had traveled on the ship between late January and Feb. 1 and apparently passed on the virus to crew members, Egyptian Health Ministry and World Health Organization officials said. It now appears likely that the infected crew, or at least some members, continued working on the vessel in February, until the


Four prominent Saudi royals arrested in apparent bid by crown prince to consolidate power

Four senior princes including two of the most prominent members of the Saudi royal family have been detained in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, a move that could be designed to further strengthen the position of the kingdom’s de facto ruler, according to two people close to Saudi leadership. Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, an uncle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and one of his cousins, Mohammed bin Nayef, were taken into custody Friday morning, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss highly sensitive internal Saudi matters. The princes were charged with treason, a serious accusation for which they could receive the death penalty. Mohammed bin Nayef was replaced as crown prince and heir to the throne in 2017 when King Salman elevated one of his sons, Mohammed bin Salman, to the role and gave him wide authority to effectively run the kingdom. Mohammed bin Nayef had earlier served as the country’s interior minister, developing a close working relationship with U.S. security officials. Both the arrested men could claim a more senior place in the line of succession to Mohammed and were seen as potential rivals to the throne. The Saudi authorities subsequently detained two close relatives of the senior princes. The brother of Mohammed bin Nayef, Nawaf bin Nayef, was detained on Friday in the hours following his father’s arrest. On Saturday, the son of Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, Nayef bin Ahmed, was also detained, said the person familiar with the arrests. It was unclear whether they had been taken into custody or placed under house arrest. The two princes had returned together from a hunting trip late Thursday when they received a call summoning them to meet the crown prince at 7 a.m. Friday at the royal palace, said one of the people who had been briefed on the events by members of the royal family. When they arrived, they were taken into custody, according to the account. The arrests come at a sensitive time for the kingdom, with oil prices plummeting and Mohammed’s decision to halt visits to Mecca in response to the coronavirus outbreak stoking discontent. The arrests were first reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The royal family also has faced international criticism over the October 2018 murder of Washington Post contributing columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi. The United Nations blamed what it called an “extrajudicial


How doctors treat the sickest coronavirus patients

fatalities. Of the 52 people included in the sample, 32 died in the 28-day span of the study, revealing a death rate of 61 percent. Most died within seven days of being admitted to the ICU. For comparison, mortality rates generally ranging between 30 and 40 percent are observed for patients who are sickened by ordinary seasonal flu and are fighting pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in ICUs. Specialists outside of China applaud the treatment given by the Chinese doctors to their patients in the study, saying that similar levels of care would be found in American and European critical care units. Like the doctors in China before them, health-care workers in South Korea and Italy are seeing their ICUs filling with critically sick patients. In Lodi, in northern Italy, one infectious-disease doctor told The Washington Post that coronavirus had hit “like a tsunami” at his hospital, where more than 100 out of 120 people admitted with the virus also developed pneumonia. Clinicians and researchers interviewed by The Post, all of whom had read the Lancet study by Xiaobo Yang and his colleagues, said they could only imagine — reading between the lines in the dry clinical data presented in the seven-page paper — what those ICUs were like. “They had an explosion of cases in China that overwhelmed hospitals,” said Kristina Crothers, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington. “Those doctors were making heroic efforts to keep their patients alive,” said James Chalmers, a clinical professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland. “They were doing everything they could.” There are no targeted therapeutics or vaccines for the new virus — and so doctors and nurses in the ICUs are left to administer drugs and oxygen to keep patients alive long enough for their bodies to fight the infection and repair lungs ravaged by pneumonia. As the virus attacks the lungs, it becomes harder and harder for patients to get enough oxygen into their bloodstream to support their kidneys, liver and heart. In the worst cases in the Wuhan ICU, the viral pneumonia led to acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, a life-threatening inflammation in the lungs. Of the 52 patients with pneumonia, most had to be given supplemental oxygen — 37 were put on mechanical ventilators. Recently, the WHO sent a team


At American Cup gymnastics, Morgan Hurd and Kayla DiCello go 1-2

MILWAUKEE — Nearly six months ago, Morgan Hurd headed home to Delaware disappointed and mentally drained after the U.S. gymnastics team’s world championships selection camp. She hadn’t earned a spot, even though she won the all-around at the 2017 world championships and represented her country again the following year. This time, there was a fall on the bars and a mistake on the floor. The pool of gymnasts was deep, and Hurd was left home when the team traveled to Stuttgart, Germany. Hurd, 18, returned to competition here at the American Cup with something to prove in this Olympic year. Her performance at Fiserv Forum served as an important first step toward earning a spot on the 2020 Olympic team. She won the meet with an all-around score of 55.832, cruising through the four events without any significant issues. “I think she felt ignored not making the world team last fall,” said Tom Forster, the U.S. high-performance director. “You never know how the athletes are going to handle that. Some, they get really sad and it kind of crumbles their self-confidence. Others get mad and do something about it.” Kayla DiCello of Boyds, Md., finished second in her senior international debut, only seven-tenths of a point behind Hurd, giving the Americans a one-two finish in a field with 10 athletes from other countries. DiCello, 16, had previously only competed as a junior elite, but her strong showing is a big step in her push toward Tokyo. This competition began a four-meet series through which the United States can earn an individual Olympic spot in addition to the four-member team. The three countries with the most points, awarded based on finishes at each of these all-around World Cup meets, receive an Olympic spot. DiCello competed as a wild-card entry, allowed for host countries, so her finish didn’t count toward this qualification process. With Hurd winning the American Cup and top-caliber gymnasts expected to compete at the next three World Cup events — Simone Biles (Tokyo), Sunisa Lee (Stuttgart) and Grace McCallum (Birmingham, England) — the United States will almost certainly win an Olympic spot. Jade Carey has nearly clinched the other individual spot through a different qualification route, so the U.S. women should have the maximum contingent of six gymnasts in Tokyo. But apart from Carey, the other gymnasts who compete in Tokyo will be selected by a committee based on


Ethiopian investigators blame design flaws for Boeing 737 Max crash a year ago

to avert disaster caused by a faulty MCAS system has been a theme underlying commentary from U.S. officials and others as the investigations have continued. Investigators in both Indonesia and Ethiopia think that MCAS, acting on erroneous data from a malfunctioning angle-of-attack sensor, repeatedly pushed the planes’ noses down as pilots, who were unaware of the system, struggled to regain control. Under congressional questioning last year, Daniel K. Elwell, a top FAA official, said the Ethiopian pilots “didn’t adhere” to an emergency directive issued by the FAA in November 2018 and failed to control the plane's speed as needed. He said aviation crashes always have “three or four or five links in the chain, any one of which, if it hadn't gone wrong, the plane would have survived.” Some Republicans in Congress have questioned the skills and training of Ethiopian and other international pilots, while other observers have dismissed suggestions that U.S. pilots would have been able to prevent the crash. At a congressional hearing last year, Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III said it was “unlikely” other crews would have performed differently. Safety experts said the crashes did point to weaknesses in how “human factors” are considered in complex technical and automated environments. In a report last year, the NTSB said Boeing did not sufficiently consider the effect that a cacophony of alarms shaking, clacking and lighting up throughout the cockpit would have on pilots struggling to prevent disaster caused by an MCAS malfunction. The safety agency said the FAA should require Boeing to perform a more rigorous analysis of how warning systems might overwhelm pilots, echoing the Ethiopian authorities’ call in their interim report for the FAA to better consider potential hazards. Ethiopian authorities also recommended that training simulators “need to be capable of simulating” the type of incident that led MCAS to misfire. The NTSB said Monday that it would “continue to assist the [Ethiopian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau] as they work toward a comprehensive final report.” The two Max crashes killed a total of 346 people and led to renewed scrutiny of the FAA’s process for certifying the jetliner, the newest version of a plane that began operating in the late 1960s. Boeing has been working on changes to the Max, including software fixes to MCAS and an updated pilot training program, to win approval from the FAA to return the plane to service, which the


Israel announces that anyone coming from abroad must be self-quarantined for 14 days

dozen cases have been reported in the occupied West Bank, and Israel is working with the governing Palestinian Authority to stem the outbreak there. Officials announced a range of ramped-up measures to combat the widening outbreak, including plans to close crossings from Jordan, bar noncitizens from the emerging infection zone of Egypt and reduce movement to and from the West Bank. The imposition of quarantine for all arriving international passengers came after several days of confused messages from the government. Critics said the decision to adopt the isolation requirement for everyone arriving from abroad was taken to avoid singling out American travelers and angering President Trump. Israel already mandates quarantine for anyone arriving from several countries with significant outbreaks, including Italy, Japan and South Korea. Over the weekend, officials of Israel’s Health Ministry were reportedly preparing to add to that list travelers coming from New York, California and Washington state, the centers of the growing U.S. outbreak. But local media outlets, citing sources within the Health Ministry, reported that Netanyahu objected to those recommendations out of fear they would anger Trump. Netanyahu, who is in the middle of trying to form a governing coalition after last week’s election, spoke on the phone Sunday with Vice President Pence, the coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus response program. Thousands of Americans and Israelis fly the air routes between the two countries. Dozens of Israelis attended the recent annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, where at least three attendees later tested positive for the virus. Health officials said Monday that Israelis who returned from the conference after Thursday would be required to self-isolate. Israel has been aggressive in confining the potentially exposed in their homes. As many as 80,000 Israelis are in isolation, including thousands who had to vote last week in special biohazard polling places. The military said more than 1,200 service members were in quarantine. In the neighboring West Bank, infections have mostly been reported around Bethlehem, which has been sealed off for almost a week. That outbreak is centered on the Angel Hotel, where a Greek tourist who later tested positive for the virus had stayed. A group of American evangelical Christians from Alabama has been stranded in the hotel for almost a week. Israel and the Palestinian Authority have reportedly been working closely on expanding coronavirus testing in the territories, along with other control


Why the International Criminal Court will investigate possible U.S. war crimes — even if the Trump administration says it can’t

Judges in the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court on Thursday authorized Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to open an investigation into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. This is a big milestone in international criminal justice — for the first time in history, U.S. leaders, armed forces and intelligence personnel may face a trial in an international court for crimes perpetrated in the context of the nation’s wars abroad. In April, the Pre-Trial Chamber rejected Bensouda’s first request for an investigation. On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the Appeals Chamber’s overturning of the decision, calling the ICC “an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body.” What are the alleged abuses? How does the ICC have jurisdiction over the United States? What will ordinary U.S. citizens make of an ICC investigation? My research explains how U.S. citizens are more supportive of the ICC than the Trump administration’s rhetoric suggests. In 2006, the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) opened a preliminary examination into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Afghan conflict since 2003 — the year Afghanistan became a member of the ICC. The OTP examined allegations of abuses by both anti-government and pro-government forces, including the Taliban, the Afghan National Security Forces, the United States, armed forces and the CIA. The OTP says the information it gathered indicates, among other allegations, that U.S. interrogation techniques used in Afghanistan — involving “torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape” — amount to war crimes. The United States is not a member of the ICC. However, the treaty that created the court, the Rome Statute, allows it to investigate citizens of nonmember states if the alleged crimes occurred on the territory of a member state. Once Afghanistan ratified the Rome Statute and joined the ICC in 2003, U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan came under the court’s jurisdiction. In November 2017 — after more than a decade of gathering evidence — the prosecutor requested authorization to open a full investigation, arguing there was “a reasonable basis to believe” U.S. military and intelligence personnel committed war crimes. A year and a half later, in April 2019, the Pre-Trial Chamber unanimously rejected the request. The judges agreed the request was in the ICC’s jurisdiction and admissible before the ICC. However, they claimed the investigation would probably not be successful and, therefore, it would not


Power Up: Coronavirus hasn’t stopped 2020 candidates from hosting rallies. That may change.

Good Monday morning. This is your daily reminder to wash your hands for 20 seconds. Tips, comments, recipes? Reach out and Breaking: FEAR AND CORONAVIRUS ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: The 2020 race has finally winnowed. But coronavirus It's on The comments show the dueling pressures on the trail: And while Trump, for his part, has brushed off concerns about coronavirus and insisted as recently as Saturday that “we'll have tremendous rallies,” our colleagues our colleagues Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey and Juliet Eilperin report that “changes to Trump’s travel schedule are also being contemplated, after public health officials warned that elderly Americans should reconsider flying on airplanes and avoid large crowds.” But public health officials have escalated warnings: “If you are an elderly person with an underlying condition, if you get infected, the risk of getting into trouble is considerable,” Potential close calls at political events: There's growing concern in the White House about Trump's own exposure: THE WEEK AHEAD IN TRAVEL: But Trump's travel continues for now. The Republican Jewish Coalition is holding its annual leadership You are reading the Power Up newsletter. PAST THE POINT OF CONTAINMENT: It might be only a matter of time before the federal response shifts and candidates are forced to cancel. But Gottlieb suggested that more aggressive measures to mitigate the outbreak that Trump has been reticent to implement might be necessary. He said policymakers should give state and local governments economic support so they can take more aggressive steps to limit people's exposure. WHITE HOUSE AND FED FIGHT OVER RESPONSE: The Federal Reserve and the White House appear to disagree about the severity of the potential hit the coronavirus will inflict on the U.S. economy – and what to do in response, The West Wing itself is divided about how to respond: WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COVID-19: The markets seemed primed for another terrible week: There are nine total cases in the Washington area as of Sunday: What governments are doing abroad: Worth a read: MEXICO'S DAY WITHOUT WOMEN: Protests marking international women's day took place around the world:


As more virus cases trace their origins to Egypt, questions rise over government measures

skepticism among the public when it comes to fully trusting official statements regarding the coronavirus in Egypt,” said Mohamed Ashraf, 33, an orthopedic specialist. “Some of the patients I have seen suspect that the cases are much more than those the government has announced.” The government can largely blame itself for the public’s skepticism. Under President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, information is closely controlled and truth is manipulated, even sacrificed, if it damages the country’s image or all-important economic engine. When a bomb brought down a Russian passenger plane departing the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheik in 2015, killing all 224 people aboard, the government initially denied that terrorists were responsible, even as Western intelligence agencies corroborated the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility. The following year, Egypt blamed a bomb when an EgyptAir plane traveling from Paris crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 people aboard, and obstructed the official probe. But French investigators determined that technical failures brought down the plane. Amid the coronavirus crisis, other countries in the region have grown worried about Egypt because of its dependence on tourism. Millions of Egyptians work in neighboring nations and in the Persian Gulf region, traveling back and forth. In recent days, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia have placed restrictions on visitors from Egypt. Saudi Arabia requires that Egyptian workers entering the kingdom have a certificate from Egypt showing they had tested negative for the coronavirus. Under pressure, the Egyptian government on Monday night announced the cancellation of all large public events, including opera performances, as well as restrictions on the movement of large groups of people between provinces. For ordinary Egyptians, such measures, while welcome, have come late. “I did not see any awareness campaigns on TV on how people should deal with the virus,” said Amani Moussa, 28, a painter. “I was buying something from the market yesterday, and the seller was using his teeth to actually hold the bag in which he collected my vegetables. So people are not careful.” Ashraf, the orthopedic specialist, said that “most people are truly upset that the schools have not been suspended yet, because they see other countries have done so.” But what he is most concerned about are the crumbling government facilities. The vast majority of them, he said, “lack good ventilation systems, and these places could turn into a ticking bomb if the virus spreads.” sudarsan.raghavan@washpost.com


The markets are sending a message about coronavirus: The recession risk is real

a hit. It might not be a full out recession, but we’re moving closer to that,” said economist Claudia Sahm, one of the leading experts on recessions. The market drop right now is ugly. There are even concerns the financial market “plumbing” is breaking down, meaning banks can’t get access to all the short-term credit they would typically like. But the Federal Reserve and other regulators have a pretty good playbook from 2008 on how to fix the financial plumbing, at least in the short term. The bigger threat: There was already concern that airlines, hotels, cruise lines and other companies in the tourism business were getting hammered. Photos of nearly empty airplanes are easy to find on social media. There have been a lot of cancellations and, even more problematic, not many bookings for future trips. Travel companies clearly don’t have much cash coming in right now and they can only hold on for so long. Hiring freezes have occurred as flights have been reduced. Now U.S. energy companies are also on the danger list if oil prices remain this low for a while. The big concern is that these companies will start to institute layoffs — or even shut the business entirely, triggering wider pain for workers, a range of small businesses, and even key cities. As people lose jobs and low-wage workers are forced to stay home because of the coronavirus and they don’t get paid, they will struggle to pay their bills. Around 40 percent of Americans said they were having trouble paying their bills before covid-19 hit, and many of them will be under even more pressure. Much has been said about America’s lack of uniform paid sick leave, which means a sizable portion of the population doesn’t have much of an immediate safety net if they aren’t at work. Consumer spending powers 70 percent of the U.S. economy. As people lose their paychecks or simply grow fearful of losing their income pay, they rein in their spending. That can start a very quick downward cascade. Less-affluent households will struggle to buy the basics. Middle-class Americans start saving and cooking at home instead of going out to restaurants. They start running around the block instead of going to the gym. They start purchasing cheaper products instead of “luxury” items. And they typically stop buying big items like washers and dryers, cars, furniture and homes. What


The Daily 202: Bernie Sanders sharpens his pitch to women, as moms in Michigan vacillate between him and Biden

and continued until just moments before the ceremonies.” Zalmay Khalilzad “is expected to be closely involved when representatives from the Taliban, the Afghan government and Afghan society sit down as early as this week to begin mapping out a future governing structure and finding consensus on divisive issues such as the role of Islam and women’s rights,” Missy Ryan and John Hudson report. “Already there are signs of trouble. Afghan and Taliban leaders are disputing the terms of Khalilzad’s initial deal, and the militants have launched a series of deadly attacks. The format, objectives and even precise location of the next negotiations remain a mystery. ‘This is his biggest challenge,’ said Carter Malkasian, a former Pentagon official who took part in some of the talks Khalilzad conducted with militant leaders over the past two years … Looming over the negotiations is officials’ hazy understanding of what Trump wants and will tolerate. While the president has consistently voiced his desire to get U.S. troops out of the country, it is less clear how he will define American interests in what is likely to be a protracted effort to shape Afghanistan’s future.” “South Korea’s national security director, defense minister and spy chief held an emergency video conference and agreed the North Korean action were not helpful to efforts to establish a peace on the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korea’s presidential Blue House,” the AP reports. “Two senior princes detained in a crackdown against potential rivals of Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince are being held in private villas and have been allowed to call their families, according to a person with ties to the royal family,” Liz Sly, Ellen Nakashima and Kareem Fahim report. “The detention on Friday of [King Salman’s] younger brother, Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, and one of his nephews, Mohammed bin Nayef, sparked rumors that Salman’s health might have deteriorated, prompting the bold move by [the Crown Prince], the king’s son and heir, against some of the most senior members of the royal family. … The princes have in the past been considered possible heirs to the crown. … The person said the princes contacted family members on Saturday and told them that they were being held not in prisons but in private royal villas. Ahmed asked relatives to send him his ‘bisht,’ a robe worn for official engagements, prompting the person to speculate that he might soon make a


Governments step up coronavirus response as U.S. cases top 500

Governments intensified their efforts Sunday to combat the global spread of the novel coronavirus, as Saudi Arabia followed Italy in enacting new travel restrictions, Iran suspended flights to Europe, and the United States, where the number of cases topped 500, warned citizens against cruise travel. Uncertainty continued to permeate the response effort, however, amid muddled directives from the Trump administration and reports of some patients unable to access testing. A virus-stricken cruise ship made its way to California to dock — only for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to decline to discuss the details of the federal response plan during a national television interview. The Department of Health and Human Services said later Sunday that the Grand Princess cruise ship’s more than 3,500 passengers, at least 21 of whom have tested positive for the coronavirus, will be quarantined in California, Texas and Georgia. Some White House officials privately believe the number of U.S. cases will double — or more — in the next 48 hours. At least 21 people have died. Officials in Washington said Sunday the city’s first confirmed case is the Rev. Timothy Cole, rector of Christ Church Georgetown. Cole has been hospitalized since Thursday and is in stable condition, officials said. A church spokesman said Cole was present for three services last Sunday attended by 550 people. Virginia announced a second case on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the Washington area to nine. As the number of cases rises nationwide, public health officials are getting a better sense of the scale of the crisis, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday. The outlook, he said, is worrisome. “Unfortunately, that better sense is not encouraging, because we’re seeing community spread,” Fauci said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He echoed the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for older people and those with underlying health conditions to refrain from traveling by cruise ship or air. “If you’re a person with an underlying condition . . . particularly an elderly person with an underlying condition, you need to think twice about getting on a plane, on a long trip — and not only think twice, just don’t get on a cruise ship,” he said. The State Department on Sunday afternoon went one step further than Fauci, issuing a statement recommending that