Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly addresses reporters March 17, 2020, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (Associated Press)
A Republican-led panel of Kansas
legislative leaders on Wednesday overturned an executive order by the
state’s Democrat governor that called for attendance limits on church
services and funerals amid the coronavirus pandemic. GOP members of the state’s Legislative Coordinating Council, composed of House and Senate leaders, asserted that first-term Gov. Laura Kelly had overstepped her authority by issuing the order, so they blocked it in a 5-2 vote along party lines. “It
appears to be out of line, extreme and clearly in violation, a blatant
violation, of our fundamental rights,” Senate president Susan Wagle, a
Republican from Wichita, told the Topeka Capital-Journal. Kelly
had announced Tuesday that church services and funerals would no longer
be exempted from a state order limiting gatherings to 10 people, the
newspaper reported. In addition to the lawmakers’ vote, state
Attorney General Derek Schmidt issued a memo Wednesday, advising police
in Kansas not to enforce Kelly’s order, arguing that while the order
contained what appeared to be sound public health advice it also seemed a
violation of rights guaranteed under the state’s Constitution. “Because
no Kansan should be threatened with fine or imprisonment, arrested or
prosecuted for performing or attending church or other religious
services, law enforcement officers are advised to ... avoid engaging in
criminal enforcement of its limitations on religious facilities,
services or activities,” Schmidt wrote in the memo, according to the
Capital-Journal. At an afternoon news conference, Kelly denounced
the lawmakers’ action as “shockingly irresponsible” and said it would
likely cost some Kansans their lives. She said her legal counsel would
examine the possibility of a court challenge, the Wichita Eagle
reported. “There are real life consequences to the partisan games Republicans played today,” Kelly said, according to the Eagle.
Kelly also spoke out against Schmidt for issuing the memo to police.
“I
was so deeply troubled to learn that our attorney general has decided
to launch a bizarre, confusing and overtly political attack at such a
moment of tragedy and that Republican legislative leaders have chosen to
follow suit with a shockingly irresponsible decision that will put
every Kansas life at risk,” Kelly said, according to the Capital-Journal. Schmist responded to Kelly's remarks in a statement. "I
am confident Kansans of faith can be trusted to follow ... important
advice without their government threatening criminal sanctions for
disobedience," he wrote.
"I
am confident Kansans of faith can be trusted to follow ... important
advice without their government threatening criminal sanctions for
disobedience." — Derek Schmidt, Kansas attorney general
The
actions by the governor and lawmakers came as confirmed coronavirus
cases in the state surpassed the 1,000 mark and deaths increased to 38,
the Eagle reported. At
least three clusters of infections in the state have been traced to
church gatherings and health officials fear Easter services this coming
Sunday could cause even more infections, the Eagle reported. Governors
in 44 states have called for limits on church gatherings similar to
what Kelly called for, according to the Capital-Journal.
Attorney General William Barr told "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday that he was disappointed over the partisan attacks leveled against President Trump during the coronavirus pandemic and blasted reporters for waging a "jihad" to discredit the effectiveness of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. "It's
very disappointing because I think the president went out at the
beginning of [the coronavirus pandemic] and really was statesmanlike,
trying to bring people together, working with all the governors," Barr
said. "Keeping his patience as he as he got these snarky, gotcha
questions from the White House media pool and the stridency of the
partisan attacks on him has gotten higher and higher." Barr's
criticism toward the media sharpened when he addressed the coverage of
hydroxychloroquine and its possible role in the fight against the
coronavirus. He said before the president mentioned the drug, the media
was fair in its coverage but as soon as Trump mentioned it, "the media
has been on a jihad to discredit the drug," Barr said. "It's quite
strange." Host Laura Ingraham asked Barr about the possibility of
extending the shutdown and its impact on the country. Barr said a
depression would make the health care system "weaker." "We cannot
keep for a long period of time our economy shut down just on the public
health thing. It means less cancer. Cancer researchers or at home. A lot
of the disease reaches researchers who will save lives in the future.
That's being held in abeyance," Barr said. "The money that goes into
these institutions, whether philanthropic sources or government sources,
is going to be reduced. We will have a weaker health care system if we
go into a deep depression. So it just measured it in lives. The cure
cannot be worse than the disease." The
attorney general lamented the loss of family businesses during the
shutdown, saying after the 30-day period the U.S. needs "find a way" to
allow businesses to adapt. "But when you think of everything else,
generations of families who have built up businesses for generations in
this country and recent immigrants who have built up businesses,
snuffed out. Small businesses that may not be able to come back," Barr
said. "If this goes on too long. So we have to find after the 30-day
period, we have to find a way of allowing businesses to adapt to this
situation and figure out how they can best get started."
U.S. equity futures are pointing to a higher open on Thursday on optimism that the coronavirus pandemic may be peaking. The major futures indexes are indicating a gain of 0.4 percent. One item of economic data that could dictate the trading direction would be the weekly jobless claim number being released Thursday morning. 5.25
million Americans are expected to have filed for first-time
unemployment benefits last week according to economists surveyed by
Refinitiv. That’s on top of the 9.955 million claims filed in the prior
two-week period. And note the huge range for claims: 2.5 million to
9.295 million. Recent
upward swings in markets have dwarfed declines amid signs that deaths
and infections may be nearing a peak or plateau in some of the world’s
hardest-hit areas. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious
diseases expert, raised hopes when he said the White House is working on
plans to eventually reopen the country. President Trump later said it
“will be sooner rather than later.”
On
Wednesday, the S&P 500 climbed 3.4 percent, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average also rose 3.4 percent and the Nasdaq added 2.6
percent. In Asia on Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.1 percent
after the central bank governor said the economy faces “extremely high”
uncertainty over the likely impact of the pandemic.
But elsewhere in Asia, markets were mostly higher. Hong Kong’s
Hang Seng added 1.4 percent and China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.4
percent. In Europe, London's FTSE added 1.3 percent, Germany's DAX rose 1.3 percent and France's CAC gained 0.9 percent. And
a meeting of oil producers planned for Thursday has raised hopes energy
companies might get some relief in the form of production cuts to help
support crude prices amid collapsing demand. Benchmark U.S. crude
oil rose $1.15 to $26.21 per barrel in electronic trading on the New
York Mercantile Exchange early Thursday. It gained $1.46, or 6.2
percent, to settle at $25.09 a barrel on Wednesday, recovering some of
its 9.4 percent slide from the day before. Brent crude oil, the
international standard, rose $1.02 to $33.92 per barrel. It gained 97
cents, or 3 percent, to $32.84 a barrel in London. Nearly
1.5 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed around the world,
with more than 432,000 of them in the United States. More than 88,000
people have died from the virus, while nearly 330,000 have recovered,
according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Vice President Mike Pence told "Hannity"
Wednesday night that the U.S. will ask "tough questions" of the World
Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic
after the global health agency's director warned President Trump and
other world leaders against "politicizing" the outbreak. "This
is a president who believes in accountability, and the American
taxpayers provide tens of millions of dollars to the World Health
Organization," Pence said. "And as the president said yesterday, I
suspect we will continue to do that, but that doesn't mean that at the
right time in the future we aren't going to ask the tough questions
about how the World Health Organization could have been so wrong. "Literally
at the time President Trump stood up the coronavirus task force in
January and suspended all travel from China, just days before that, the
World Health Organization was continuing to diminish the threat of the
coronavirus and its impact in China," Pence added. "We'll get to the
answers of that and we'll create accountability, just like the American
people would want us to do." Trump
has accused the WHO of being "very China-centric" and claimed they
"really blew it" in their initial response to the pandemic. On Tuesday,
Trump initially told reporters that the U.S. was "going to put a hold on
the money sent to the WHO," but walked back that statement when
questioned, saying only that he was “going to look into” cutting off
funding to the agency. In response, WHO Director Dr. Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday: "“If you don’t want many
more body bags you refrain from politicizing it – please quarantine
politicizing COVID." Pence also addressed the progress of the
outbreak in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana, saying that
the number of new cases showed "evidence of the beginning of a
stabilization, which is a great credit to the people of all [those]
states." However,
the vice president added that "we need every American to continue to do
their part" to observe the federal government's coronavirus guidelines,
saying such action "will hasten the day that we put the coronavirus in
the past. But it's going to take all of us to do it, and the good news
is ... all evidence suggests that the American people are doing just
that. They know our future is in our hands, and as we put the
president's coronavirus guidelines into practice, we'll get there ...
[and] we will continue to save lives and we will reach that day much
sooner than people thought in the beginning of this outbreak."
NEW
YORK (AP) — As New York City faced one of its darkest days with the
death toll from the coronavirus surging past 4,000 — more than the
number killed on 9/11 — the Chinese city where the global pandemic began
lifted its final restrictions on movement Wednesday as deaths there
plummeted.
The tale of two cities came as the coronavirus crisis continued to strain health care systems from Europe to North America, roil global stock markets,
and strand international travelers behind closed borders. In Britain,
Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in intensive care, the first major
world leader confirmed to have COVID-19.
Despite
the staggering death toll in America’s largest city, authorities in New
York were optimistic that the outbreak might finally be easing, as has
been seen in other global hot spots such as Italy and Spain and before
that, China. Health officials, however, warned people not to let their
guard down.
The
virus toll in New York City is now more than 1,000 deaths higher than
that of the deadliest terro attack on U.S. soil, which killed 2,753
people in the city and 2,977 overall.
After recording more than 500 deaths a day since late last week, New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
“Behind
every one of those numbers is an individual. There’s a family, there’s a
mother, there’s a father, there’s a sister, there’s a brother. So a lot
of pain again today for many New Yorkers,” Cuomo said.
In
an encouraging sign, the governor said hospital admissions and the
number of people receiving breathing tubes are dropping. And the death
toll itself is a “lagging indicator,” reflecting people who had been
hospitalized before this week, he said.
But he warned that gains are dependent on people continuing to practice social distancing.
“It still depends on what we do, and what we do will affect those numbers,” he said.
In
Wuhan — the Chinese city of 11 million that was the first in the world
to go on lockdown — tens of thousands of people streamed out of town by
plane and train alone as harsh restrictions on movement were finally
lifted. Citizens waved flags and the city staged a light show with skyscrapers and bridges radiating animated images of health workers aiding patients.
Restrictions
in the city where most of China’s more than 82,000 virus cases and over
3,300 deaths were reported have been gradually eased in recent weeks as
the number of new cases steadily declined. The government reported no
new cases Wednesday, though there have been questions about the veracity
of China’s count.
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“I
haven’t been outside for more than 70 days,” said an emotional Tong
Zhengkun, who was watching the display. Residents in his apartment
complex had contracted the virus so they couldn’t go out even to buy
groceries, which neighborhood workers delivered.
“Being indoors for so long drove me crazy,” he said.
In
London, the 55-year-old Johnson was in stable condition and conscious
at a hospital, where he was receiving oxygen but was not on a
ventilator, officials said. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was
designated to run the country in the meantime.
“I’m confident he’ll pull through because if there’s one thing I know about this prime minister, he’s a fighter,” Raab said.
Deaths in Britain reached nearly 6,200, after a one-day increase of almost 800.
In France, the number of dead climbed to more than 10,300, said Jerome Salomon, national health director.
“We are in the epidemic’s ascendant stage,” he said. “We have not yet reached the peak.”
In
other European hot spots, authorities saw signs that the outbreak was
turning a corner, based on slowdowns in new deaths and hospitalizations.
In
Spain, new deaths Tuesday rose to 743 and infections climbed by 5,400
after five days of declines, but the increases were believed to reflect a
weekend backlog. Authorities said they were confident in the downward
trend.
In
Italy, the hardest-hit country of all with over 17,000 deaths,
authorities appealed to people ahead of Easter weekend not to lower
their guard and to abide by a lockdown now in its fifth week, even as
new cases dropped to a level not seen since the early weeks of the
outbreak.
On
Wall Stock street Tuesday, a strong rally propelled by signs that the
outbreak may be leveling off evaporated after the price of crude oil
suddenly fell. Stocks ended the day slightly lower. Asian markets
followed mostly lower Wednesday.
Across
the U.S., the death toll topped 12,900, with nearly 400,000 confirmed
infections. Some of the deadliest hot spots were Detroit, New Orleans
and the New York metropolitan area, which includes parts of Long Island,
New Jersey and Connecticut.
In Wisconsin, after a legal battle that reached the Supreme Court, voters were asked to ignore a stay-at-home order to participate in its presidential primary.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump threatened to freeze U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, saying the international group had “missed the call” on the pandemic.
Trump
said the international group had “called it wrong” on the virus and
that the organization was “very China-centric” in its approach,
suggesting that the WHO had gone along with Beijing’s efforts months ago
to minimize the severity of the outbreak.
The virus continued to affect global travel, and cruise ships in particular. More than half of the 217 people
on a ship off Uruguay’s coast tested positive for the coronavirus. The
Australian operator of the Greg Mortimer ship said no one had symptoms
and it was working to disembark the crew and passengers — many from
Australia, Europe and the U.S. — and arrange their return home.
Worldwide,
about 1.4 million people have been confirmed infected and more than
82,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true
numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing,
different rules for counting the dead and deliberate underreporting by
some governments.
For
most people, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever
and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can
cause pneumonia. About 300,000 people have recovered worldwide, by Johns
Hopkins’ count.
___
Blake reported from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.
The major futures indexes are indicating a decline of 0.2 percent when trading begins on Wednesday. Tuesday's
rally on Wall Street suddenly vanished in a market dominated by sharp
swings responding to the ups and downs of the news about the coronavirus pandemic.
The
S&P 500 dipped 0.2 percent to 2,659.41 after erasing a surge of 3.5
percent earlier in the day. The market’s gains faded as the price of
U.S. crude oil abruptly flipped from a gain to a steep loss of more than
9 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 percent
to 22,653.86, giving up an earlier gain of 937 points. The Nasdaq
composite dropped 3 percent to 7,887.26. Benchmark
U.S. crude oil surged 5 percent or $1.17 to $24.80 a barrel. Brent
crude, the international standard, gained 62 cents to $32.46. In
European markets, London's FTSE fell 1.7 percent, Germany's DAX traded
0.9 percent lower and France's CAC dropped 1.8 percent. In Asia on
Wednesday, Japan's Nikkei rose 2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell
1.2 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.2 percent. Japan's
state of emergency kicked in, focused on seven urban areas, including
Tokyo, with strong government requests for people to stay home and
restaurants and stores to close for a month. However, there were scant
signs of any change in behavior during the morning rush hour. Experts say more deaths are on the way due to COVID-19, which has already claimed at least 82,000 lives around the world. The U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases with more than 398,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. More
economic misery is also on the horizon. Economists expect a report on
Thursday to show that 5 million Americans applied for unemployment
benefits last week as layoffs sweep the country. That would bring the
total to nearly 15 million over the past three weeks. Analysts also expect big companies in upcoming weeks to report their worst quarter of profit declines in more than a decade.The Associated Press contributed to this article.
U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, fired back at Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, accusing the former U.S. secretary of state of once again using the coronavirus outbreak to score political points against President Trump. On
Monday, Clinton retweeted a Washington Post story that was critical of
Trump and said the U.S. was “beset by denial and dysfunction as the
coronavirus raged.” Clinton’s Twitter message quoted from the Post
article: “It took 70 days for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a
distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a
lethal force poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens.” HILLARY CLINTON UNDER FIRE FOR JOKE ABOUT US LEADING IN VIRUS CASES: TRUMP 'DID PROMISE AMERICA FIRST' Then Clinton added a message for her followers. “Replace this man in November,” she wrote, referring to the president. But
Crenshaw responded to Clinton, noting President Trump “restricted
travel in January & saved lives” while Clinton and the Democrats
“celebrated his impeachment.” “Denial?” Crenshaw wrote. “From the
man who restricted travel in January & saved lives, while your party
celebrated his impeachment? “You may be confusing him with the
Washington Post, telling America to get a grip. That COVID19 wasn’t
scary, & that we should be wary of an aggressive govt response.” Crenshaw then provided headlines from three Post articles, from January and February. “Get
a grippe, America. The flu is a much bigger threat than coronavirus,
for now,” read a Post story from Feb. 1, written by a Post staffer. “How
our brains make coronavirus seem scarier than it is,” read another Post
story, from Jan. 31, written by a guest commenter from Harvard
University. “Why we should be wary of an aggressive government
response to coronavirus,” read the third headline, from a Feb. 3 Post
article co-authored by two academics from Northwestern University. Capping
off his Twitter message, Crenshaw posted a Nancy Pelosi message from
Jan. 15, in which the speaker is seen handing commemorative pens to
fellow Democrats on the day she signed two articles of impeachment after
the Democrat-led House voted against the president on charges of abuse
of power and obstruction of Congress. (The Senate later acquitted Trump
of both charges in an impeachment trial.) Crenshaw previously
called out Clinton last month, after she retweeted a New York Times
article announcing the U.S. had become the global leader in coronavirus
cases. “He did promised ‘America First,’” Clinton wrote, referring to the president. “Delete
your account,” Crenshaw answered. “This isn’t the time. This can’t be
the new normal, where American tragedy is applauded for the sake of
political opportunism.”
President Trump
slammed the World Health Organization (WHO) for its "China-centric"
views Tuesday, adding that the global health agency's projections and
pronouncements about the coronavirus pandemic has been routinely wrong. In an interview with Fox News' "Hannity,"
Trump said that the WHO had "strongly recommended" against America
restricting travel from China, one of their earliest flawed
pronouncements. "The World Health [Organization] -- very
China-centric as I say -- basically everything was very positive
for China," Trump told host Sean Hannity. "Don't close your borders,
they strongly recommended ... That would've been a disaster, that
would've been a total disaster. "And literally, they called every
shot wrong," the president added. "They didn't want to say where
[coronavirus] came from. For many years, we've been funding the World
Health Organization." The
president noted that while the U.S. financial contribution to the WHO
dwarfs that of China, the United Nations entity seems to be very
concerned about its relationship with Beijing.. "We're going to
look at it now because I think every step that they made, everything
that they said was wrong and always in favor of China," he said. "And
'keep it open, don't close the borders'. I didn't listen to them, and
I did what I wanted to do, and it was a good move. "So it's one of
those things where we are the one that is the primary funder so we are
going to take a very strong look at that." U.S. taxpayers contributed $513 million to the WHO in 2017, up from $341 million the prior year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. WHO
Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus had claimed Trump's move to
restrict travel from China at the end of January would create "fear and stigma with little health benefit." Trump
also spoke Tuesday about his relationships with state governors during
the pandemic, reserving particular praise for Democrats Andrew Cuomo of
New York and Phil Murphy of New Jersey "I'm
a diplomat, too," Trump remarked. "Since I've become president, I have
to view things a little bit differently. Andrew, I've known him a long
time. He has a hard time getting the words out 'Thank you, you did a
great job,' but he's been pretty good over the last week or so." Trump
also praised the work of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in Louisiana
and Gavin Newsom in California, while declining to name which governors
he thought may have done a poor job handling the contagion. "We'll back the people where they have bad governors."
