The continuing spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 is raising major concerns of a pandemic, while health authorities are cautioning against such fears, although they admit the window of opportunity keeps narrowing.
The virus is now spreading more quickly in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world than China, where the virus first emerged in the central city of Wuhan at the end of last year. The number of new infections in China was for the first time overtaken by fresh cases elsewhere, with Italy, Iran and South Korea emerging as new hot spots for COVID-19. The disease has also been detected for the first time in Estonia, Denmark, Georgia, Brazil, Pakistan, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Romania and Algeria.
The impact of COVID-19 on business and the world economy is raising major concerns, especially with the reports on its impact on the Chinese economy, the world’s second largest, especially in the manufacturing sector.
China’s President Xi Jinping warned at the weekend that the coronavirus would have a “relatively big impact on the economy and society”. Adding that it would be short-term and controllable, Xi said the government would step up efforts to cushion the blow. The country has taken a number of measures in recent weeks to prop up its economy.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, has said on Sunday the global lender of last resort was ready to provide additional support, particularly to poorer countries by way of grants and debt relief, the “Guardian” reported.
Speaking at a G20 meeting of finance leaders and central bank chiefs, she said the IMF assumed the impact would be relatively minor and short lived, although she warned that the continued spread of the virus could have dire consequences, and that: “Global cooperation is essential to the containment of the Covid-19 and its economic impact, particularly if the outbreak turns out to be more persistent and widespread.”
More than 76,000 people in 27 countries have been infected by the new strain of coronavirus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the turn of the year. More than 2,200 people have died.
Air Transport is an area gravely affected by the virus spread. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade body for the global airline industry, warned last week that falling passenger demand would cost the airline industry $29.3bn in lost revenues this year, with global air travel expected to fall for the first time in more than a decade.
Analysts have also warned that transport groups, hospitality chains, airlines, luxury goods makers and retailers will be among those hardest hit by the coronavirus as Chinese consumers stay away from the shops and travellers put off holiday plans.
There are also concerns for global supply chains as Chinese factories remain closed. Jaguar Land Rover warned last week it could run out of car parts at its British factories by next week. The car manufacturer admitted it had been bringing in parts from China to the UK in suitcases.
Apple also warned of a possible iPhone supply shortages because of the closure of its Chinese factories. While this may benefit the main rival Samsung, the virus spread in South Korea could have its impact in this brand too.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has suggested that the risk of a coronavirus pandemic is likely and is alerting the public to begin preparing for community spread in the United States. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director declared: “It's not a question of if. It's a question of when and how many people will be infected.” The city of San Francisco has declared a state of emergency this week even without confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the area.
President Trump has named Vice President Mike Pence to be in charge of the coronavirus prevention and control of its spread.
India: Deadly violence
The situation in India has moved to a situation of continuing increased violence, with the death toll at the time of writing standing at 32 in the violence that has rocked northeast Delhi since Sunday. The riots come from clashes between Hindus and Muslims, arising from the protests during the past few months against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which Muslims say is against them.
Mosques and other places of importance to Muslims have been attacked and set ablaze, and clashes between Hindus and Muslims are taking place, in what is seen as the worst religious violence in decades, which began the same day that President Trump arrived on his two-day state visit.
The rising violence moved the international focus largely away from the US President Trump’s visit to the realities of racial/religion politics in India, and affected the politics of the BJP and Prime Minister Modi, as well as the presidential politics in the USA.
President Donald Trump’s official visit to India early this week had much publicity with huge crowds at public rallies and much formality such as visits to the Mahatma Gandhi memorial and the Taj Mahal, but had very little achievements on the larger issues of trade, commerce and wider economic relations. Trump addressed an audience of more than 100,000 in Ahmedabad, and the roads were lined by thousands as the motorcade passed by, but other developments in the national capital Delhi showed increasing communal-religious violence that took the focus away from the Trump-Modi contact. There was no trade deal between India and the US despite propaganda about such an agreement, especially for Indian agricultural products, medical devices and motorbikes. President Trump did announce India’s agreement to purchase US$ 3 million worth of military equipment, including attack helicopters, and cooperation in fighting terrorism and securing 5G networks in telecommunications.
As the violence continued PM Modi tweeted: “Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times. It is important... calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest”.
The media and independent observers state the current violence is the result of the largely pro-Hindu policies of the Narendra Modi - BJP - led government, with its policies on the Muslim dominated areas of Jammu-Kashmir, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Persons, which are largely seen as anti-Muslim.
The Delhi High Court has taken note of the alleged hate speeches made by BJP leaders, questioned the conduct of Delhi Police and directed it to register FIRs against those who made the speeches, saying “this city has seen enough violence” and “let it not repeat 1984” when anti-Sikh riots claimed over 2,700 lives in Delhi alone. There is also a rising dispute about the transfer of a Justice from the Delhi High Court this week. He was a judge critical of official action in dealing with the spreading violence. Opposition Congress Secretary, Priyanka Gandhi said, “The midnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar isn’t shocking given the current dispensation, but it is certainly sad and shameful. Millions of Indians have faith in a resilient and upright judiciary, the government’s attempts to muzzle justice and break their faith are deplorable.”
Amidst the political rivalry getting sharper as the violence continues in Delhi, the situation has also impacted electoral politics in the US. There has been considerable criticism of Donald Trump’s responses to the situation in India from political opponents among Democrats. The strongest comes from the current leader among Democratic rivals to Trump in the coming presidential polls -- Senator Bernie Sanders.
He has strongly criticised Trump for lack of interest in the violence in India during his visit, when Trump said: “As far as the individual attacks, I heard about it, but I didn't discuss that with him (Modi). That's up to India.” Sanders has since tweeted: “Over 200 million Muslims call India home. Widespread anti-Muslim mob violence has killed at least 27 and injured many more. Trump responds by saying ‘That's up to India'. This is a failure of leadership on human rights.”
UK - EU rivalry
The emerging rivalry between the UK and the European Union shows an increase as the trade talks between the two are due to begin after the UK’s exit from the EU. The UK has warned the EU it will walk away from trade talks in June unless there is a “broad outline” of a deal. Minister Michael Gove told MPs the UK wanted to strike a “comprehensive free trade agreement” in 10 months. But the government would not accept any alignment with EU laws as the EU is demanding, with Mr. Gove adding: “We will not trade away our sovereignty.”
The EU has already set out its priorities ahead of the formal start of the talks next week. The UK Government’s documents outlining priorities for the talks says: The UK “will not negotiate any arrangements in which the UK does not have control of its own laws and political life”, its aim is for a trading relationship with the EU similar to the ones the 27-nation bloc has with Canada, Japan and South Korea: There will be no jurisdiction for EU law or the European Court of Justice in the UK: The UK will rely on World Trade Organisation rules under an arrangement with the EU similar to Australia's if progress on a comprehensive deal cannot be made, and, a separate agreement on fisheries is needed, to reflect the fact that “the UK will be an independent coastal state at the end of 2020”. The EU's negotiating document indicated that the UK could be expected to keep aligned with changes to EU rules covering state subsidies for industry, environmental standards and workers’ rights in future.
Any trade agreement “should uphold common high standards, and corresponding high standards over time with Union standards as a reference point”, it added.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told BBC News: “The whole objective of doing what we're doing is so the UK can do things differently and better.”
He added: “All we want is mutual recognition of each other's high standards and access to each other's markets.... “We wouldn't ask the EU to follow every particular in UK legislation so it doesn't make any sense for them to make the same requirement of us and that's where we are.”
The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said Brussels is prepared to give the UK “super-preferential access” to the EU market of 450 million people.
But he said the UK has to accept alignment with EU rules as they develop to ensure fair competition with EU states, effectively ruling out a Canada-style deal. “The UK says that it wants Canada. But the problem with that is that the UK is not Canada,” Mr. Barnier said at an event at the European Parliament on Wednesday. “This is because of Britain's proximity to the EU and the much larger trade volumes it has with the EU than with Canada.”
Michael Gove, the minister in charge of delivering Brexit, hit back in his statement to MPs, saying: “Geography is no reason to undermine democracy...”We will not be seeking to dynamically align with EU rules on EU terms governed by EU laws and EU institutions.”
Hosni Mubarak - exit
The death of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (91), marks the end of one of the longest serving leaders whose exit during the Arab spring protests in 2011, saw a major change in the Arab and Middle Eastern politics. His rule in Egypt and later removal showed the tumultuous politics that has been part of Arab and Middle East reality in recent decades.
Back in 1981, when he became president, after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, he was the ruler of the Arab world’s most populous country. He had been a hard-working and low-profile vice-president who operated mostly behind the scenes. Mubarak, a vice-president, was also injured in the assassination attack at a military parade in Cairo. Eight days later he was sworn in as President.
Mubarak inherited a deeply unpopular regime, propped up by the hated secret police. But he had two important advantages: there was no serious challenger for the presidency and, unlike his impulsive predecessor, he was steady and cautious by nature.
Meanwhile, Mubarak had vague talk of moves towards democracy, and obtained three successive election “victories”. The technique was simple: he was nominated in parliament by his own National Democratic party and then ratified as president in referendums in which he was unopposed.
He continued to obtain US support and gained economic assistance from the US, and much publicity of so-called democratic reforms. He spent much on military equipment, warplanes, helicopters, tanks and other military hardware, which got him continued military support. Following the Tahrir Square protests and his decision to step down, in May 2011 Mubarak was ordered to stand trial. In June 2012 he was sentenced to life imprisonment shortly before the election victory of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi was overthrown in 2013 by Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, another military man. Dogged by ill-health, Mubarak was acquitted on the killing charges and released from military hospital custody in March 2017. In 2018 his sons were arrested for alleged stock market manipulation, but acquitted just days before his death.
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