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Airlines try ultra-cheap fares to get the world flying again

InternationalJan 10. 2021A member of the cabin crew wearing a protective face ask checks cabin seating ahead of the flight on-board a passenger aircraft operated by Wizz Air Holdings at Liszt Ferenc airport in Budapest, Hungary, on May 25, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Akos Stiller.

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Christopher Jasper, Charlotte Ryan, Justin Bachman, Will Davies

The nightmare year of 2020 brought the airline industry’s first decade of sustained profitability to a shuddering halt. The coronavirus pandemic tore through in a tumultuous, unprecedented way — leaving carriers in a deep hole, along with a constellation of aerospace manufacturers, airports and leasing firms.

2021 is shaping up to be a transition year for an enterprise that takes passengers on the equivalent of 208 million annual trips around the globe. At best, the path ahead will be bumpy, with progress toward a return to travel dependent on the pace of vaccine roll-outs, access to capital, government policies and the unpredictability of a virus that’s not yet fully understood. Still, there will be leaps, including the first commercial flights to near-space.

Travelers arrive at a Deutsche Lufthansa covid-19 testing center before boarding a flight at Munich Airport on Nov. 12, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Michaela Handrek-Rehle.

Here are some developments to look for over the next 12 months.

– Fare wars: Airline traffic won’t see a major boost until vaccines saturate populations enough to stamp down infection rates. Even then, it may take effort to get some people back on planes. In Europe, that’ll mean fares as low as 9.99 euros ($12.33), according to Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary. The Irish discounter on Thursday slashed its schedule through March, underscoring the uncertainties still clouding the industry outlook.

Other ideas being floated to entice travelers are free hotel stays, 2-for-1 deals and complimentary travel insurance. Travel-pass promotions from carriers such as China Eastern Airlines Corp., which is offering unlimited flights for a single price, have proved popular, while online agents show ultra-cheap trips in China for the Lunar New Year holiday next month. The key question is how long it’ll take to wean customers off those incentives.

An upturn in leisure and family travel should hit most regions by around midyear. More lucrative business traffic is likely to trail as companies resist sending people out on the road. John Grant, chief analyst at flight-bookings specialist OAG, says it won’t be a recovery until enticements are no longer needed and carriers can manage routes for profit.

– Cash quest; Airlines raised record amounts of money in 2020. More will be required in 2021. Stock sales and debt conversions will take on a greater importance as companies try to restore balance sheets to health. Governments, which ponied up $220 billion in state aid last year according to Moody’s, will continue to play a role. France and the Netherlands, the largest shareholders in Air France-KLM, are in negotiations to inject billions of euros more, while converting part of the 10.4 billion euros already loaned into hybrid debt.

Carriers like EasyJet are likely to raise more equity, while cash burn remains a concern, according to Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. Some airlines are in more desperate straits. Norwegian Air Shuttle’s court-supervised restructuring plan relies on attracting new investment and would largely drop its well-known trans-Atlantic business to focus on regional services.

Creditors of bankrupt Thai Airways International are due to consider a rehabilitation plan in February. AirAsia X, the Malaysian long-distance carrier, and Thailand’s Nok Airlines are also due to present plans in coming months. U.S. airlines will receive $15 billion in federal aid to help pay workers through March 31, on top of $25 billion in similar help provided during 2020. The U.S. Treasury Department has made billions more available in the form of loans.

A member of flight crew sits next to social distancing signs at London’s Heathrow Airport on Dec. 19, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chris Ratcliffe.

– Airline shakeout: Dozens of airlines have disappeared or filed for bankruptcy since the pandemic began. More are on life support, in danger of getting swallowed by stronger players. In Germany, Deutsche Lufthansa is taking straight aim at holiday specialist Condor by adding routes to sunny spots like Zanzibar and Corfu. Condor, once a Lufthansa unit that in 2019 survived the failure of then-parent Thomas Cook, could make a tempting target.

However, natural consolidators like Lufthansa that accepted bailouts may be prevented from making purchases under terms of state aid packages. In India, Tata Sons bought out struggling partner AirAsia Group Bhd.’s stake in a local joint venture. State-owned Air India is another potential target, possibly through Vistara, Tata’s venture with Singapore Airlines. Air India’s buyer would “definitely need to make it a lot leaner,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Teo says.

– Space trips: After years of work and premature predictions, the first “ordinary” space adventurers are poised to take flight in 2021 with billionaire Richard Branson inaugurating commercial suborbital rides at Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. The company has told investors its spacecraft will carry Branson from New Mexico in the first quarter and then commence services with a group of about 600 early customers who have paid as much as $250,000 a ticket.

Branson’s venture could see competition from Jeff Bezos, who’s developing Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable rocket for suborbital rides. In October, the company performed its seventh test flight from Van Horn, Texas. It plans “a couple” more before humans fly. A third outfit, Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is set to fly a four-person private crew for Axiom Space Inc. late in the year. The group will have a 10-day stint aboard the International Space Station as part of NASA’s efforts to spur commercial enterprise in low-earth orbit.

– Wide-body woes: While interest is starting to pick up for smaller jetliners, the market for twin-aisle aircraft from Airbus and Boeing is “beyond grim,” said aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia. Sales were depressed before the outbreak, and a surplus of used models will crimp demand for years.

With long-distance travel on hold, Airbus and Boeing have seen higher retirement rates for their biggest planes within airline fleets and a dearth of new orders. And there’s not much sign of encouragement. Boeing is fighting to hold on to orders for the largest plane on the market, its 777-9, which is two years behind schedule. Analysts see more production-rate cuts ahead for the better-selling Boeing 787 — which is also beset by production snafus — and the Airbus A350.

Output of the less-popular A330 could go down to one a month, according to Agency Partners analyst Sash Tusa. The plane has struggled to attact orders despite a reengined version, with biggest customer AirAsia X’s financial troubles the latest blow. Still, analysts predict the program will limp on at lower rates rather than being scrapped.

– Weaker links: Major airlines packed into ever smaller destinations as the boom in air travel hit its zenith in 2019. Now, they’re dropping newly unprofitable routes to stem losses. Fewer flights, smaller planes and reduced big-city connections are eating into the economies of some tourism-dependent locations. A portion of the pullback could last indefinitely, according to OAG’s Grant.

Particularly vulnerable are longer routes that were still in their developmental phase. From late March, British Airways will permanently axe 13 long-haul destinations across North America, the Middle East, South Africa and Asia. Cathay Pacific will cease services to seven global locations as losses mount. Cities such as Manchester, England, are vulnerable to weaker links to key markets like China, while flights from Beijing to Lisbon, Barcelona and even Madrid could come under pressure as airlines re-evaluate. Large Middle Eastern carriers like Emirates and Qatar Airways, which thrive on whisking passengers across the world, aren’t likely to fill the gaps, according to Grant. He says they’re serving as many destinations as they can, given a dearth of connecting traffic. “It’s more about getting back to pre-Covid capacity and demand levels.”

– Startup hustle: While launching an airline into the teeth of the industry’s worst-ever downturn might seem reckless, there is some logic. Financing remains cheap, and the pandemic has created a huge fleet of grounded jetliners, many owned by leasing firms desperate to find new operators. Planemakers are also seeking buyers for brand-new aircraft following order cancellations — Boeing’s 737 Max in particular as the model returns from a 20-month grounding.

Incumbents have cut capacity and thousands of jobs, providing would-be rivals with a glut of experienced staff, while high debt levels limit their ability to fight back. Among projects underway, Cyrus Capital aims to revive Britain’s Flybe after buying the brand from administrators, while newly founded Emerald Airlines has won a contract to provide regional flights for Ireland’s Aer Lingus. Oslo-based Flyr, set to launch in coming months, wants to pick up traffic from Norwegian, and the founders of PT Lion Mentari Airlines are said to be planning a startup in Indonesia.

In North America, Canada’s Flair Airlines aims to expand from three jets to 50 under a new brand and management, while in Miami, Global Crossing Airlines, flying as GlobalX, plans to operate charter flights to Latin America. South African lessor Global Airways helped launch discounter Lift on Dec. 10 with its own surplus jets, indicating a possible new direction for finance firms stuck with idled planes.

– Brave new world: Just as long security lines, removing your shoes and limits on liquids have colored the post 9/11 experience of air travel, Covid is likely to herald continued use of masks, social distancing and apps for passenger records. “When we look back on this in five or 10 years, it’s going to be a catalyst for many changes,” says John Strickland of airline advisory firm JLS Consulting.

Customers are likely to demand airlines maintain their current high levels of hygiene, which could impact profitability. One major change that’s becoming part of the landscape is the introduction of pre-departure covid tests. Carriers had pushed for the step as a way to encourage travel, but had little success until the detection of a new strain of the virus in Britain forced governments into a rethink.

France and other European nations demanded screening for all U.K. passengers, while carriers including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. made checks mandatory for U.S.-bound flights – a policy the U.S. is itself considering for flights coming in from abroad. Separately, many airlines have eliminated change fees, and refunds could get easier after cash-strapped carriers held on to revenue for canceled flights, prompting an outcry. Improvements to processes for boarding and check-in are also likely to become permanent.

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U.K. experiment to combat covid variant

InternationalJan 10. 2021

By The Washington Post · William Booth

LONDON – Faced with soaring hospitalizations and deaths, Britain is launching a daring campaign to combat a ferociously infectious variant of the coronavirus by spacing the first and second doses of approved vaccines out over months instead of weeks.

The full vaccine deployment plan will be published by the government Monday, but the difficult decision to alter the recommended vaccination schedules will apply to the entire population, including the elderly and health-care workers.

Without enough doses immediately available, public health officials are betting that crucial second injections of two approved vaccines can be pushed back from their recommended waiting intervals – 21 days for Pfizer and 28 days for AstraZeneca – to 84 days for both.

The government’s science advisers say there is little choice, given the explosion in cases, even as they acknowledge that delaying the second dose involves risk. Clinical trials did not test the efficacy of the vaccines when administered on such an elongated schedule.

When Britain first proposed a three-month wait between doses, scientists in the United States, Europe and at the World Health Organization sounded dubious.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier this week said it would be “premature” and “not rooted solidly in the available evidence” to change the way the two authorized vaccines are administered.

On Friday, a spokesman for President-elect Joe Biden said the incoming administration will release nearly every available dose of vaccine in the United States after Biden takes office Jan. 20 to get supplies quickly out to the states. The move marks a switch from the current policy of holding back half to ensure second doses are available to those who have received a first dose.

The spokesman did not say the plan, to be spelled out in detail next week, will entail delays in people getting their second doses.

Limited data suggests a single shot of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines affords some protection against disease. For example, the first jab of the Pfizer vaccine was 52% effective in the three-week interval before people received the booster shot. Similar results were described for the Moderna vaccine, which British regulators approved for emergency use Friday.

But it is not known how long the protection lasts.

Britain’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, said earlier that a 12-week interval between doses will mean individuals might be less protected from the virus, but society overall will see more people vaccinated more quickly. That is the essential trade-off.

Hancock stressed that a single dose should protect most from the severe symptoms of covid-19 that send patients to overstretched hospitals and ICUs.

British scientists have largely supported the plan, acknowledging that the country faces a race between vaccines and the virus.

“It is safest and most cautious to use the vaccines in the exact conditions reflecting the trials,” said Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “However, this will never be possible in the real world, and the question is how much moving outside the exact conditions is acceptable.”

On Friday, the WHO offered interim guidance that partially backed Britain’s approach, saying the period between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine can be up to six weeks instead of the three weeks recommended.

WHO experts noted many countries are facing a crisis.

“Countries experiencing exceptional epidemiological circumstances may consider delaying for a short period the administration of the second dose as a pragmatic approach to maximizing the number of individuals benefiting from a first dose while vaccine supply continues to increase,” its guidance said.

Britain is being hammered by a third wave of covid-19, driven by a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus. The country is under another national lockdown.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Friday said that the new variant is raging “out of control” and that hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed.

More than 1 in 20 people in some parts of the capital city are infected, Khan said. In England overall, 1 in 50 are infected.

One respiratory physician wrote in the Guardian that London hospitals are rationing access to oxygen, with doctors having to decide who can be saved.

“This is a national challenge like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson at briefing Thursday, when he announced that the British military has been given the job of coordinating the delivery of millions of doses.

Britain has so far given 1.5 million people the Pfizer vaccine, alongside the first doses of the newly approved AstraZeneca-Oxford shot, in an early rollout Johnson hailed as the most advanced in Europe. The Moderna vaccine won’t be available in Britain until spring.

By mid-February, the government aims to have vaccinated the 15 million people in the top four priority groups, which include all those over 70 years old along with all residents of nursing homes, front-line medical and care workers, and those with extremely serious medical conditions. Health officials say 88 percent of covid deaths have occurred among the over-70 cohort.

Nilay Shah, head of the department of chemical engineering at Imperial College London, told The Washington Post, “The aim is just about achievable, but everything needs to go right every single day.”

Shah said the new campaign will require Britain to quickly ramp up to administering 300,000 doses a day, seven days a week, over 50 days.

Britons have watched in despair in past months as the government fell short of its promises: producing record numbers of emergency ventilators but after they were needed; struggling in the early months of the pandemic to get protective gear to front-line medical workers who were donning garbage bags instead; and repeatedly promising, but never delivering, a “world-beating” cellphone app to alert users when they have had close contact with an infected person.

The prime minister, too, has been accused of delaying decisions until events overtake him. On Sunday, he promised schools would reopen Monday. On Monday, he closed them again.

By the end of next week, Johnson said, the new campaign will be underway at 1,000 sites operated by general practitioners; at 223 hospitals and 200 pharmacies; and at seven mass vaccination centers located in sports stadiums and convention halls.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service, the country’s publicly funded health-care system, said 80,000 workers and volunteers – including doctors and nurses brought out of retirement – will be deployed.

Stevens said the NHS is also “unashamedly tapping into armed forces” to provide logistics.

Brig. Phil Prosser, who in the past was charged with getting troops and equipment onto the battlefield, said “a vaccine program of this size has not done before.”

He compared the logistical challenge to “setting up a major supermarket chain in a month.”

In Britain, much of the blame for the surge in cases has been ascribed to the new variant of the virus, which research suggests is at least 30% to 70% more infectious.

Jim Naismith, professor of structural biology at the University of Oxford, told science journalists, “It is not really possible to overstate how serious this new strain is.”

He warned, “If we fail to reduce the spread of the new strain, then we are likely to overwhelm the NHS.”

There is no evidence at this point that the mutated virus increases disease severity, nor is it anticipated that the new variant will soon affect vaccine effectiveness, though it is also true that viruses change over time and vaccines often need to be tweaked to keep up.

The Pfizer vaccine works against a key mutation found in fast-spreading coronavirus variants first discovered in the Britain and South Africa and are now spreading across the globe.

That finding bolsters many scientists’ expectations that the immune response triggered by vaccines will be broad enough to counter the highly contagious mutations. The research, led by scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch, was published Thursday but is not yet peer-reviewed.

More experiments and direct tests of both variants in the next few weeks will bring greater clarity, scientists said. British scientists will also monitor the efficacy of the new dose regime.

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Missing Indonesia passenger plane feared to have crashed after take-off from Jakarta

InternationalJan 09. 2021

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja Indonesia Correspondent The Straits Times

JAKARTA – A Sriwijaya Air flight carrying 56 passengers and six crew members is feared to have crashed as it lost contact on Saturday (Jan 9) afternoon after taking off from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

The SJ-182 flight’s last contact with the aviation tower was at around 2.40pm Jakarta time (3.40pm Singapore time) as the Boeing 737-500 flew en route to Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

Sriwijaya said in a statement that it is “keeping contact with various relevant parties to get more detailed info on  SJ-182 flight, Jakarta – Pontianak”.

“The management is having communications and investigating this and will immediately issue further statement when we get information,” the statement added.

“We heard a big boom around 2pm,” Jakarta-based Elshinta radio reported, citing a resident of Lancang island, part of the Thousand Islands district north of Jakarta.

“We all first thought it was thunder because rain was pouring,” the radio cited a resident identified as Mr Naki.

Mr Mustakin, another resident of the Thousand Islands district, told Elshinta radio he heard two explosions. 

Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas said at a press briefing on Saturday night that the focus of the search is between Laki island and Lancang island.

It added that it has not received a distress signal transmitted from the plane’s ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter).

“Search operations will continue 24 hours a day, focusing on the area where debris probably belonging to the plane were found. We are trying to find the exact coordinate,” Basarnas deputy chief, Major General Bambang Suyo Aji, told reporters.

Broadcaster Kompas TV quoted local fishermen as saying they had found debris near the islands, but it could not be immediately confirmed as having belonged to the missing jet.

The plane is a Boeing 737-500 series which first flew in May 1994, according to Flightradar. It is not a 737 Max, the Boeing model involved in two major crashes in recent years. A Boeing 737 MAX operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed off Jakarta in late 2018, killing all 189 passengers and crew.

The Sriwijaya aircraft had lost more than 3,000m in altitude in less than a minute, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.com.

Among the 56 passengers are seven children and three infants. There are two pilots and four cabin crew on board.

Sriwijaya Air was established in 2003. The private airline, which had more than half of its fleet grounded, had hopes to gradually resume full operations, after it secured maintenance services from national carrier Garuda.

On Oct 1, Sriwijaya Air and national carrier Garuda renewed their management cooperation agreement that will allow the former to send its aircraft for maintenance at Garuda’s subsidiary Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) AeroAsia.

Sriwijaya Air operates flights within Indonesia and to China, Malaysia and Timor Leste.

Missing Indonesia passenger plane feared to have crashed after take-off from Jakarta

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North Korea’s Kim calls U.S. ‘our biggest enemy,’ says its hostile policies never change

InternationalJan 09. 2021

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un

By The Washington Post, Simon Denyer

TOKYO – North Korea leader Kim Jong Un called the United States “our biggest enemy,” and said Washington’s hostile policy toward his country won’t change whoever is in the White House, state media reported on Saturday.

Kim, speaking at a rare ruling party congress, also called for North Korea to continue to expand its nuclear arsenal and long-range missile, although he said North Korea would not “misuse” its nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was threatened, the Korea Central News Agency reported.

“Our foreign political activities ought to be focused and directed on subduing and defeating the United States, our biggest enemy, and the main obstacle to our revolutionary developments,” Kim said Friday. “No matter who is in power in the U.S., the true nature of the U.S. and its fundamental policies towards North Korea never change.”

President-elect Joe Biden called Kim a “thug” during the election campaign, and North Korean state media last year called him a “rabid dog” who needs to be put down.

In October, North Korea displayed a huge, new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a military parade in Pyongyang, although the weapon has yet to be tested.

Some experts worry that Kim might greet the incoming U.S. leader with a long-range missile test, in order to get his attention, while others argue there could be a window of opportunity for the two sides to explore diplomacy.

But Friday’s speech is a reminder that North Korea is not about to give up its nuclear arsenal.

“There is no more foolish and dangerous act than not reinforcing our own forces while clearly seeing development of state-of-the-art weapons of our enemies,” Kim said.

“The reality is that we need to tirelessly strengthen our national defense capabilities in order to deter military threats from the U.S. and achieve peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.”

Indeed, Kim called for expanding the country’s nuclear arsenal, including “preemptive” and “retaliatory” strike capabilities, so that its warheads can “accurately hit and extinguish arbitrary strategic targets” within 15,000 km (9,320 miles), a range that would comfortably include Washington.

Kim vowed to develop solid-fuel ICBMs that can be launched from land and sea. He called for more research and development into advanced military equipment, including spy satellites, hypersonic weapons and reconnaissance drones, and said research had nearly been completed on a nuclear submarine.

“We ought to augment our nuclear technology and further develop the nuclear weapons to be lighter and smaller … while continue producing tactical nuclear weapons and super-large nuclear warheads,” he said.

Kim said the key to better relations with the United States was for Washington to withdraw its hostile policy, while also stressing the need for North Korea to expand a coalition with “anti-imperialist and independent forces.”

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FBI probing whether rioters intended to harm lawmakers

InternationalJan 09. 2021A Trump supporter outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday after others swarmed and invaded the building in a protest supporting the president’s claim that the Nov. 3 election was rigged against him. Washington Post photo by Matt McClain

By The Washington Post, Devlin Barrett, Spencer S. Hsu and Matt Zapotosky

WASHINGTON – FBI agents are trying to determine whether some who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday intended to do more than cause havoc and disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, and they are sifting through evidence to see whether anyone wanted to kill or capture lawmakers or their staffers, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Dozens have been arrested, and Friday, officials announced charges against an Arkansas man photographed in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office chair with a foot on her desk. But investigators also are working to determine the motivations and larger goals, if any, of those who had weapons or other gear suggesting they planned to do physical harm.

Some rioters, for instance, were photographed carrying zip ties, a plastic version of handcuffs, and one man was arrested allegedly carrying a pistol on the Capitol grounds.

“We’re not looking at this as a grand conspiracy, but we are interested in learning what people would do with things like zip ties,” said a law enforcement official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

No photos or videos that have surfaced so far suggest any of the individuals with zip ties tried to take hostages. One possibility being pursued by investigators is that some who burst into the building may be current or former law enforcement officers, or current and former military personnel, people familiar with the investigation said.

Some who participated in the larger pro-Trump protest this week do work in law enforcement.

Chris West, the sheriff of Canadian County in Oklahoma, for example, held a news conference Friday to dispute that he was the person pictured on social media who claimed he was inside the Capitol, according to a Fox affiliate there. West told reporters that though he did come to rally in the District of Columbia as an “individual” and Donald Trump supporter, he never set foot in the Capitol building and thought he was walking from Liberty Square in the direction of the Capitol when the violence began.

A sheriff in Bexar County, Texas, meanwhile, told reporters that one of his lieutenants – Roxanne Mathai – was under investigation after her Facebook posts appeared to show she was at the Capitol, according to a local ABC station. Mathai has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Many of the initial charges have been for unlawful entry, but authorities also found suspected pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, and they arrested the owner of a truck they said was spotted nearby with 11 molotov cocktails inside. The FBI is still searching for the person who left the suspected pipe bombs.

Adding to the investigation’s urgency, Twitter on Friday noted that plans for future armed protests have begun circulating online, including a proposed second attack on the U.S. Capitol and assaults on other state government buildings Jan. 17. Officials cautioned that there may be a variety of motives among those who broke into Congress, and they said that a key part of their investigation is determining whether any individuals or groups had planned in advance or were coordinating in the moment to commit violence against individual politicians. Others may simply have been caught up in the moment and committed rash, unplanned crimes, officials said.

Fresh in investigators minds is the group of men charged last year in Michigan – self-styled militia members – who are accused of plotting to kidnap that state’s governor and allegedly discussed storming their state capitol and taking lawmakers hostage. That case, however, was investigated surreptitiously for months during the planning stages, and the men were arrested before they carried out any abduction or attack. They have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. Now, the FBI is tasked with trying to discern the motives of people who have already stormed the halls of Congress.

Justice Department and FBI officials insisted Friday that they are throwing every available resource at the case, which involves hundreds of potential suspects, though the initial focus is on a smaller number of individuals who burst into the seat of the national legislature, interrupting a joint session of Congress, leaving lawmakers and staffers cowering in fear.

The attack on Congress, in which Capitol police were quickly overrun, has shaken officials throughout the federal government, and the FBI has agents in all 56 field offices nationwide pursuing leads.

“Just because you’ve left the D.C. region, you can still expect a knock on the door if we find out you were part of criminal activity in the Capitol,” said Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Former law enforcement officials said investigators would spend the coming days and weeks combing through social media, searching the phones and email accounts of suspects and taking other steps to determine whether the attack was coordinated. There are numerous social media posts indicating that people had talked in advance about storming the building.

“This is why you do investigations before you charge anybody,” said Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and FBI official. “Did some number of them, maybe not all, did some number of them have an agreement that the law forbids?”

Rosenberg said it will take time for investigators to determine whether there were broader conspiracies. “Even though people act in concert, it doesn’t necessarily mean they conspired,” he said. “You could have 300 people with 100 separate conspiratorial agreements of three people each, or you could have a single conspiracy with 300.”

One person was fatally shot by Capitol police during the violence. Three others suffered medical problems that day and died. And overnight Thursday into Friday, a Capitol police officer who collapsed shortly after confronting the invading crowd died of unspecified injuries.

Acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen extended condolences to the Capitol Police and the family of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of injuries sustained during the rioting, saying, “The Department of Justice will spare no resources in investigating and holding accountable those responsible.”

David Laufman, a former federal prosecutor who was a senior Justice Department official during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said Wednesday’s mayhem was uniquely scarring for the country.

“This is the greatest threat to our national security since Sept. 11, and a more dangerous, insidious threat, because unlike the attack on Sept. 11, our very democracy is now at stake,” Laufman said. “And there can be no higher priority for the Department of Justice and the FBI than to surge investigative efforts to hold accountable everyone who was responsible for the attack on the U.S. Capitol, including any individuals who incited that attack.”

Laufman said that it was “fair to say that the intentions of every individual among the horde that invaded the Capitol like Visigoths were not uniform.”

“But it does appear, based on what’s in the public record now, that some held malignant intention to do harm to elected representatives, to the physical embodiment of our democracy, to derail the formalization of President-elect Biden’s election,” he said. “And it will take investigative work to parse out who was responsible for what and who held what intentions.”

Officials announced Friday that a recently elected state lawmaker from West Virginia, Derrick Evans, was charged with unlawfully entering restricted grounds after allegedly live-streaming a video of himself on his Facebook page.

“Bring the tear gas. We don’t care,” Evans is heard yelling. “We’re taking this country back, whether you like it or not. Today’s a test run. We’re taking this country back.”

A lawyer for Evans, John Bryan, has maintained that Evans is innocent, that he was not part of the violent mob that damaged the Capitol Building and that he had been exercising his First Amendment rights.

Prosecutors also announced that Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 70, of Falkville, Ala., was charged Thursday on one federal and one local count of possessing an unregistered or unlicensed firearm, and was the registered owner of a red GMC pickup truck with Alabama plates parked near the Capitol in which officers allegedly found 11 molotov cocktails and an M4 carbine assault rifle.

Prosecutor Kenneth Kohl said police also found Coffman carrying two handguns. Federal agents discovered the truck while investigating suspected pipe bombs near the Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill and its Democratic counterpart, Kohl said.

Kohl said that though the truck was investigated because of the suspected or “perceived pipe bombs,” Coffman was not charged in connection with those possible devices but with allegedly possessing the other weapons and destructive devices in his truck or on his person.

At an initial court appearance Thursday in Washington, Coffman did not enter a plea and was ordered held pending a hearing next week. In response to a U.S. magistrate’s questions over whether he wanted a court-appointed attorney, Coffman said he had earned a high school equivalency degree in the U.S. military after dropping out in the eighth grade to work on a farm.

The developments came as investigators described a sprawling inquiry that could take months. District police said they have received about 17,000 tips from the public after posting images of people of interest in the rioting. The FBI also has been inundated with leads after posting more than 40 photographs asking for assistance identifying people.

But the Justice Department also appeared to step back from remarks Thursday by Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who said President Trump’s own remarks before Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol could be investigated.

Asked about incendiary statements made by the president and other speakers at Trump’s rally shortly before a mob of his supporters breached security at the Capitol and wreaked havoc inside, Sherwin said: “Yes, we are looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building, but . . . were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role in this. We will look at every actor and all criminal charges.”

On Friday, asked about the possibility that Trump or other onstage speakers could face charges of inciting violence, Kohl clarified, “We don’t expect any charges of that nature.”

Afterward, Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi elaborated, “Our focus is on the events at the Capitol. As of now, we have not charged anyone with incitement or insurrection. This is an extremely complex and ongoing investigation, and we will continue to follow the facts and the law.”

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House Democrats move rapidly toward impeaching Trump a second time

InternationalJan 09. 2021The day after hundreds of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Md.) said that Vice President Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office or she will begin impeachment proceedings against the president. She is seen during a Jan. 7 news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Melina Mara

By The Washington Post · Mike DeBonis · NATIONAL, POLITICS, CONGRESS, WHITEHOUSE 

WASHINGTON – A growing corps of House Democrats, furious over the invasion of the Capitol on Wednesday by a mob inspired and encouraged by President Donald Trump, is pushing to rapidly impeach the president a second time – hoping to force Trump from office even a few days early rather than allow him to leave on his own terms.

Removing Trump by constitutional means is a tall order for the 12 days remaining in his presidency, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has not made a formal determination to move forward with a second impeachment, even as she consulted Friday with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about curbing Trump’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. 

“With great respect, our deliberations will continue,” Pelosi said in a statement Friday evening that laid out several options including impeachment. She expressed hope that Trump would “immediately resign” instead.

President-elect Joe Biden declined to say Friday whether he supported Trump’s impeachment, giving space for the effort in the House to proceed: “I’m focused on the virus, on the vaccine and economic growth. What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide.”

Outrage over Wednesday’s events grew to a fever pitch Friday, making it difficult for Pelosi to ignore. But rushing into an impeachment proceeding could have serious ramifications for the opening weeks of the Biden administration – prompting a Senate trial that could prevent Cabinet nominees from being confirmed for weeks.

That is the point being subtly made in a fresh memo from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who sent a document to GOP senators that outlines how a potential Senate trial would work for Trump – proceedings that would all but certainly occur after he leaves the White House. 

In the memo, obtained by The Washington Post, McConnell’s office notes that the Senate will not reconvene for substantive business until Jan. 19, which means the earliest possible date that impeachment trial proceedings can begin in the Senate is the day before Biden is inaugurated.

Although the Senate will hold two pro forma sessions next week, on Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, it is barred from conducting any kind of business during those days – including “beginning to act on received articles of impeachment from the House” – without agreement from all 100 senators. With a cadre of Trump-allied senators in the Republican conference, that unanimous consent is highly unlikely.

In effect, that makes the matter of an impeachment trial an issue that will need to be taken up by incoming Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in the first days of the Biden presidency. McConnell and Schumer have not spoken about any impeachment proceedings, aides said. 

Pelosi and Schumer spoke Friday afternoon with Biden, but an account of the call provided by the Biden transition did not mention a discussion of impeachment. Aides to Pelosi and Schumer declined to comment on the confab.

Multiple House Democratic members and aides, however, said they hoped an impeachment vote could be scheduled by early next week. Virtually all of them said it was a matter of civic obligation.

“We have a great sense of unity that we have a moral obligation to act,” said Rep. Daniel Kildee of Michigan, a Democratic deputy whip. “If we can shave any number of days of the threat this president represents off the calendar, we will have done public good, but there’s also another important aspect of this. . . . It would be a more accurate view of history if this president suffered the ultimate penalty for his crimes against his country, no matter how many days are removed from his tenure.”

Trump acknowledged Thursday that there will be a new administration Jan. 20 but has not shown any indication that he will resign before then.

Pelosi said Friday in a letter to Democratic lawmakers: “If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action.” She did not specify what that action would be. 

In the letter, she also described speaking to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, “to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.” She further described Trump as “unhinged” and said lawmakers “must do everything that we can” to protect the nation from him.

The top House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, warned Democrats against proceeding: “Impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more,” he said in a statement, adding that he had reached out to Biden to speak about how “to lower the temperature and unite the country to solve America’s challenges.”

The White House also spoke out. “A politically motivated impeachment against a President with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country,” said spokesman Judd Deere.

One key Senate Democrat also warned against proceeding with impeachment – saying that he preferred that Trump resign or be removed through the 25th Amendment, out of concern that an impeachment trial could hamstring the Biden administration.

“We have to put our government together quickly – that’s the most important thing we should do,” said Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va. “We don’t need any more political theater.”

In a three-and-a-half-hour conference call with Democratic lawmakers Friday in which the vast majority of those who spoke signaled support for impeachment, Pelosi did not tip her hand further about next steps, according to participants who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private call.

But other top Democrats were more forthright about proceeding quickly with impeachment, and some lawmakers said Friday that an impeachment vote could come together as soon as Monday or Tuesday if the decision is made to move forward.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said on the call that Trump “must be held accountable for his actions,” calling the Wednesday riot “an attack on the caucus, the Congress, the country and the Constitution that was incited and facilitated by Donald Trump.” Jeffries had called for Trump’s immediate impeachment in a tweet Thursday.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said in an MSNBC interview after the conference call Friday that “the sentiment of the caucus is moving toward impeachment: The American people have seen enough, and they are ready for us to do the job of impeaching this man.”

In a signal of the deep support for further action, more than 60 House Democrats signed a letter late Thursday asking top Democratic leaders to reconvene the House as soon as possible to “show the American people that Congress is continuing to meet its responsibilities in the face of extraordinary threats” and take action, including a possible impeachment. 

“We are the only branch of government that is capable of governing this country and led by sane and competent people,” reads the letter, led by Reps. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. “Going home and staying home until the eve of President Biden’s inauguration should not be an option.”

Two draft articles of impeachment have been circulated among House Democrats that cite Trump’s incitement of the mob and his delayed decision to encourage it to disperse as high crimes and misdemeanors necessitating removal.

One four-page draft that had 131 co-sponsors as of noon Friday impeaches Trump on the grounds of “Incitement of Insurrection” and accuses him of having “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government.” 

“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government,” it reads. “He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., an author of that draft, said it was “unthinkable” that Congress would treat Wednesday’s events as just “one more unfortunate faux pas by the president.”

“We just suffered the most massive, violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol in American history since the War of 1812,” he said. “He has counseled and invited an attack on the Congress of the United States itself.”

No Republican House members have indicated that they would back impeachment. One, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., has called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump. Others have suggested that they would welcome Trump’s resignation or his removal under those circumstances.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., told “CBS This Morning” on Friday that he would “consider” any impeachment articles forwarded by the House. 

“He swore an oath to the American people to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” Sasse said. “He acted against that. What he did was wicked.”

While House Democrats could impeach Trump in the House on their own, removing him would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate – meaning 17 Republicans would have to join with the 50 Democrats that will be seated once Sens.-elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are certified as the winners of last Tuesday’s Georgia runoffs. 

Senate impeachment trials are governed by an intricate and lengthy set of procedures that could be difficult to waive. Trump’s first impeachment trial, which concluded in February, lasted 20 days.

Trump could still be impeached after he leaves office, most constitutional scholars say, which would have the effect of barring him from the presidency again. But there is a political barrier to proceeding with a Senate trial: the impending inauguration of Biden, and his need to rapidly confirm a Cabinet.

A lengthy impeachment trial could obstruct efforts to staff Biden’s administration and prepare to govern amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as well as dire circumstances abroad, including a simmering threat from Iran. 

At a news conference Friday, Biden suggested those concerns were on his mind even as he chose not to dissuade lawmakers from impeaching Trump.

Were it six months from the end of Trump’s term, Biden said, “we should be moving everything to get him out of office – impeaching him again, trying to invoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took.” 

“But I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and get our agenda moving as quickly as we can,” he said.

The House could have other options to take action in the coming days. Raskin has written a bill to create a commission on presidential disabilities to prepare for action under the 25th Amendment, and other House Democrats have called for censure of GOP lawmakers for inciting violence.

“We need every tool in our constitutional tool kit on the table to deal with the crisis,” Raskin said. “I believe we should work on parallel tracks to defend the government and the people of the United States.”

Pelosi on Thursday did not raise the disruption a Senate trial could cause but said that impeachment represented “the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus and the American people.”

“My phone is exploding with impeach, impeach, impeach,” she said. “The president must be held accountable again.”

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Twitter bans permanently Trump’s account, citing risk of further violence

InternationalJan 09. 2021

By The Washington Post · Nitasha Tiku, Tony Romm, Craig Timberg · NATIONAL, TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, WHITEHOUSE, MEDIA 

Twitter on Friday banned President Donald Trump from its site, a punishment for his role in inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol this week, robbing him of the megaphone he used to communicate directly with more than 88 million supporters and critics.

The move amounted to a historic rebuke for a president who had used the social-networking site to fuel his rise to political prominence. Twitter has been Trump’s primary communication tool to push policies, drive news cycles, fire officials, dispense falsehoods, savage opponents and praise allies. It also means his tweets disappeared from Twitter, removing the catalog of his thoughts except for those preserved by researchers and other documentarians.

A defiant Trump lashed out in response late Friday, accusing Twitter in a statement of having “coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left” to remove his account. He threatened regulation, promised a “big announcement” to come and said he is looking “at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future!” The official account for the presidency, @POTUS, also tweeted that message, although the posts were quickly taken down by Twitter.

Twitter had resisted taking action against Trump for years, even as critics called on the company to suspend him, arguing that a world leader should be able to speak to his or her citizens unfettered. But Trump’s escalating tweets casting doubt on the 2020 election – and the riot at the U.S. Capitol his comments helped inspire – led the company to reverse course.

Twitter specifically raised the potential that Trump’s recent tweets could mobilize his supporters to commit acts of violence around President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, an analysis that experts saw as a major expansion in the company’s approach to moderating harmful content online.

The move was especially remarkable for a company that once called itself “the free speech wing of the free speech party.” Many observers noted that this most aggressive enforcement action in Twitter’s history came in the week that political power shifted decisively in Washington, toward Democrats who long have demanded greater policing of hate speech and violent talk on social media – and away from a president and party who long had made effective use of the more free-wheeling policies of the past.

“It took blood and glass in the halls of Congress – and a change in the political winds – for the most powerful tech companies in the world to recognize, at the last possible moment, the profound threat of Donald Trump,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a longtime critic of tech company policies.

Twitter cited two Trump tweets. One stated that the 75 million who voted for him were “American Patriots” who will “not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” He then announced he would not go to Biden’s swearing-in ceremony later this month.

In a blog post, the company argued the two messages violated its glorification of violence policy since they “could inspire others to replicate violent acts” that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. According to Twitter, his second tweet could be read by followers as an encouragement to commit violence during the inauguration, which “would be a ‘safe,’ target as he will not be attending.”

In doing so, Twitter joined Facebook in punishing the president in the waning hours of his first term. Facebook said Thursday its suspension is indefinite, lasting at least the next two weeks, citing a similar belief that the risks are “simply too great” at a moment of transition for the country. Both tech giants previously joined Google-owned YouTube in removing or limiting access to Trump’s posts, including a video he shared earlier this week that once against advanced widely disproved falsehoods about the validity of the 2020 vote.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Trump appeared to try to defy Twitter’s ban at one point by using @POTUS.

“We will not be SILENCED!” the president later charged in a statement.

Twitter’s punishment is the harshest judgment the site has at its disposal. It appeared to be the first time the company had ever taken such an action since instituting a broad policy around world leaders last year, illustrating the slow shift in Silicon Valley as the country’s most popular, prominent platforms grew more comfortable in taking on Trump.

Facebook, for example, had its first of many furious internal debates over how to handle Trump in December 2015, when as a presidential candidate he posted a video in which he said he wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. Many employees called it obvious hate speech, but top executives chose to defer, by creating an exemption for content they deemed “newsworthy.”

The challenges kept coming as Trump’s presidency and rhetoric brought mainstream attention right-wing ideas once considered beyond the fringe of appropriate political rhetoric. A particularly explosive flash point for both Twitter and Facebook came in May, when Trump made a social media post calling protesters after the killing of unarmed Black motorist George Floyd “THUGS.” Even then, though, Twitter opted to label Trump’s tweet as harmful and hide it from public view – and Facebook petitioned for Trump to change his tone in private. Neither suspended his account indefinitely.

But a shift within Silicon Valley began as the coronavirus swept through the world last winter, and the stakes of the rampant lies and misinformation on social media platforms were underscored by a rising body count as Trump and others denied the severity of the pandemic. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others all took action against viral falsehoods that were clearly contrary to science. Not long after, they dramatically stiffened policies against conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, and the rise of dangerous armed groups, such as the Boogaloo, born of largely unrestricted online worlds.

As the national election approached last fall, disinformation researchers, Democrats and civil rights activists demanded tougher action from tech companies whose platforms hosted and spread falsehoods. They gained some traction, but at a time when Trump and other Republicans were loudly claiming that they were being discriminated against by Silicon Valley, critics said it was not nearly enough.

Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, a civil rights group that has been pushing social media companies to police Trump’s behavior more aggressively, fretted on Friday that it took so long for Twitter and its peers to act given the president’s past missteps – and their potential to have touched off real-world violence.

“But kicking him off of Twitter, so he can’t spread disinformation and incite the public, is huge,” he said. “This is way too late, but I do not underestimate or undersell the significance of what this means moving forward without him having a direct line to reach an audience any time that he wanted to.”

Twitter said it delivered its final banishment out of a concern that Trump’s tweets essentially amounted to a “glorification of violence.” The company said his stated intention to skip the inauguration essentially served as “further confirmation that the election was not legitimate.” And Twitter found Trump’s rallying cry to his supporters served as “encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts”- partly because the president made clear he would not be in attendance personally.

In considering how his supporters might read and interpret his messages, Twitter also potentially opened the door for the company to take a more aggressive approach on other content, including tweets from political leaders in the future experts said.

“That’s a standard that’s never existed,” said Alex Stamos, a former Facebook chief security officer, now head of Stanford Internet Observatory, a disinformation research group. “The ‘impact’ standard has never existed.”

Stamos added that Twitter’s action – and Facebook’s recent enforcement efforts – meant that “the right-wing social media ecosystem in America has been shattered.”

The move comes amid a wave of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and Twitter’s own employees, who demanded in a letter written this week that the company’s leaders permanently suspend Trump’s account. In an internal letter addressed to chief executive Jack Dorsey and his top executives viewed by The Washington Post, roughly 350 Twitter employees requested an investigation into the past several years of corporate actions that led to Twitter’s role in the insurrection.

“Despite our efforts to serve the public conversation, as Trump’s megaphone, we helped fuel the deadly events of January 6th,” the employees wrote. “We request an investigation into how our public policy decisions led to the amplification of serious anti-democratic threats. We must learn from our mistakes in order to avoid causing future harm.”

“We play an unprecedented role in civil society and the world’s eyes are upon us. Our decisions this week will cement our place in history, for better or worse,” the employees added.

In a statement, Twitter spokesperson Brandon Borrman wrote, “Twitter encourages an open dialogue between our leadership and employees, and we welcome our employees expressing their thoughts and concerns in whichever manner feels right to them.”

Twitter on Wednesday initially labeled Trump’s tweets about the election as disputed. But a subsequent video from the president – calling for calm while continuing to peddle disinformation – prompted the company to step up its enforcement actions. Twitter ultimately locked the president out of his account for the first time, requiring him to delete his offending tweets – then wait 12 hours – in order to regain access. That came Thursday morning, and Trump issued his first public comments on the site later that night. Twitter said it would suspend Trump permanently if he continues to break its rules, putting users at risk.

The letter is addressed to “Staff,” company lingo for C-suite executives who report directly to Dorsey, including Vijaya Gadde, who leads the company’s legal, policy, and trust and safety divisions. During a virtual meeting on Friday afternoon, Dorsey and Gadde shared their thoughts on Twitter’s response, according to an employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

After Twitter’s first-ever blockade of Trump’s account, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday morning that Facebook would also escalate its response to Trump. For the first time, Zuckerberg said Trump would be blocked from posting to his Facebook and Instagram accounts “for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”

Zuckerberg’s response also followed internal pressure, including questions from employees posted on an internal message board.

Twitter’s move did cause unease in one quarter: Researchers have long complained that when the company suspends a user, valuable records of online conversations essentially vanish into thin air, making it nearly impossible to later reconstruct them – something particularly consequential when a platform is the primary means of communication for a U.S. president.

“It has implications from a historical point of view,” said Darren Linvill, lead researcher for the Clemson University Media Forensics Hub. “If you are the national conversation, they just sucked a big part of the national conversation away.”

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Amsterdam wants to restrict tourists from its marijuana shops

InternationalJan 08. 2021Customers wait to enter a coffee shop to purchase marijuana ahead of a new lockdown in Amsterdam on Dec. 14, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Peter Boer. Photo by: Peter Boer — Bloomberg Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

By Syndication The Washington Post, Bloomberg · Ellen Proper 

In an effort to clean up its image, Amsterdam aims to restrict a key tourist attraction: its coffee shops.

Only Dutch residents would be allowed to enter the cannabis-dealing outlets under a proposal by Mayor Femke Halsema. The plan, backed by local police and prosecutors, is aimed at tackling the flow of hard drugs and organized crime linked to the marijuana trade.

“The cannabis market is too big and overheated,” Halsema said in emailed comments. “I want to shrink the cannabis market and make it manageable. The residence condition is far-reaching, but I see no alternative.”

Halsema submitted the plan to the Amsterdam council on Friday, kicking off a political debate, including discussions over a transitional agreement with shop owners. She expects the policy to go into force next year at the earliest.

The initiative is the latest move by Amsterdam to actively reduce the flow of visitors and improve the quality of life for residents. Crowds have flocked to the city since cheaper flights made its historic center a popular weekend destination.

Before coronavirus lockdowns, its renowned red-light district, marijuana shops and picturesque canals attracted over 1 million visitors a month — more than its permanent population.

“Coffee shops, especially in the center, largely run on tourists,” Halsema said. “The increase in tourism has only increased demand” and attracted hard-drug criminality in the process.

While the tourism standstill from the pandemic has hit the city’s budget, Amsterdam’s first female mayor is determined to reshape the sector once the crisis eases. Being shutout of the freewheeling marijuana trade could turn off a large number of revelers.

A trip to a coffee shop was a “very important” reason for 57% of foreign visitors to the area that includes the red-light district, according to research commissioned by the city’s government.

Amsterdam is home to 166 coffee shops, and most wouldn’t be needed if the plan were in effect. Local cannabis demand would support only 68, according to the government study.

Similar restrictions have already been applied in Maastricht and Den Bosch, which reacted to coffee shops getting overloaded by visitors from Germany, France and Belgium. The efforts are underpinned by a 2013 Dutch law aimed at favoring the local cannabis market and reducing drug tourism.

Halsema says she expects support from the business community, with many entrepreneurs in the city center no longer in favor of Amsterdam’s reputation for unrestricted access to sex and drugs.

“We can be an open, hospitable and tolerant city, but also a city that makes life difficult for criminals and slows down mass tourism,” she said.

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UNESCO nod first step to protecting crafts

InternationalJan 08. 2021Techniques to restore thatched roofs are one of the 17 skills approved for addition to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.MUST CREDIT: Japan News-Yomiuri Photo by: Japan News-Yomiuri — Japan News-Yomiuri

By Syndication The Washington Post, The Japan News-Yomiuri · Yasuo Hayakawa, Masafumi Taga 

Traditional Japanese craftsmanship used in wooden architecture has been approved for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list by an intergovernmental committee of the Paris-based international body.

The committee approved the registration of “traditional skills, techniques and knowledge for the conservation and transmission of wooden architecture in Japan” at an online meeting last month.

The government and related organizations intend to promote Japanese craftsmanship worldwide, but there are still many tasks to be tackled when it comes to handing down skills and expertise.

The UNESCO registration covers 17 types of skills related to the preservation, repair and decoration of historical wooden structures. The government selected the 17 from a list of “chosen preservation skills” necessary for the conservation and repair of cultural properties and recommended that they be registered on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

In approving the registration, the UNESCO panel recognized skilled craftspeople’s fostering of successors and the activities of preservation organizations in conserving cultural assets, including timber-framed structures, of which the prime example is Horyuji temple in Nara Prefecture, the oldest wooden building in the world.

The panel emphasized that the registration is significant because it is in line with sustainable development.

Behind the government’s aim for registration was a sense of crisis over the passing down of technical skills. Wooden structures that require conservation are primarily national treasures and important cultural properties, and their repair cycles are said to come at intervals of several decades or every few hundred years. This fiscal year, there have been about 180 government-financed repair projects for such treasures and assets.

If skills are not passed on, it may affect the conservation of traditional buildings. These skills were predominantly used in the construction and maintenance of general housing, but demand has decreased due to the spread of modern construction methods, causing a serious shortage of craftspeople who belong to the 14 organizations responsible for passing down such techniques.

In the city of Ninohe, Iwate Prefecture, which is an urushi lacquer production center, there were reportedly about 200 craftsmen in the period immediately after World War II who specialized in harvesting the unrefined sap of lacquer trees. But the number of such tappers has declined to 30 today. In Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, there are only 20 craftsmen in the association for the preservation of the traditional technique used to produce entsuke gold leaf 10,000 times thinner than a millimeter.

The Association for Conservation of National Treasures in the city of Kyoto has 12 member companies and the number of craftspeople is barely holding at about 130. The ACNT is an assembly of experts involved in repairing artwork on paper sliding doors and walls. It takes 10 years for such skills to be fully acquired. But it is said that the member companies cannot afford to hire and foster craftspeople because they face financial difficulties.

The selected conservation skills, which include the 17 types registered on the UNESCO list, have already received government support for projects such as training successors. The registration does not mean that international conservation measures will be taken and is unlikely to lead to boosting consumption and attracting customers, unlike washoku Japanese cuisine and traditional performing arts like kabuki and noh, which have already earned Intangible Cultural Heritage status.

In fiscal 2019, the Cultural Affairs Agency launched a support program for intangible cultural properties. An official said the agency wants to “take advantage of the UNESCO registration to accelerate the momentum for conservation by promoting the spread of information.”

The national association in Kyoto for the preservation of techniques for roofing at shrines, temples and other facilities began to foster more craftspeople in 1974 after receiving government subsidies.

The number of craftspeople with expertise in cypress bark roofing, shingling and thatching had declined to critically low levels, but the association managed to expand it to about 170. The number of young craftspeople has been rising as a result of aggressive public relations activities. An association official hopes that the UNESCO registration will “provide further momentum.”

The Amanosan Cultural Heritages Research Institute in Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture, which is a member of the Shrine and Temple Architectural Decoration Heritage Skill Association in Kyoto, successfully produced nikawa animal glue in 2012 after conducting repeated studies on the constituents of animal hides and other materials. This was prompted by a shortage of traditional nikawa adhesives used for the conservation and repair of buildings. The institute has been expanding its sales channels of the glue to entities within the same trade and foreign countries. “[Nikawa] is an indispensable material for conservation and repair techniques. But there is a limit to what can be done singlehandedly,” the representative director of the institute said, emphasizing the need for government support.

Karoku Miwa, head of Japan Conservation Project, who is also former executive director of the Kyushu National Museum, proposed making cultural property restoration a profession in which craftspeople can play an active role.

Restoration of the Daigokuden hall at the site of Heijokyo Palace remains in the city of Nara was completed by the Cultural Affairs Agency in 2010. The hall is in the style of the ancient Nara period. If historical timber-framed structures can be restored with traditional craftsmanship and materials, it will become possible to maintain skills and for craftspeople to promote their abilities. “In addition to continued assistance and the development of techniques to produce materials in short supply, it is necessary to provide opportunities for craftsmen to display their skills in various forms,” Miwa said.

To help preserve traditional techniques, the government has been striving to secure the materials needed to produce and maintain traditional crafts.

One thing that proved successful in recent years is a project to expand forests capable of ensuring a stable supply of timber, lacquer and rushes, which are necessary materials for the repair of cultural properties.

Started in fiscal 2006, the project was prompted by a considerable delay in the restoration of the five-story pagoda of Murouji temple in the city of Uda, Nara Prefecture, due to a shortage of cypress bark for roofing when the national treasure was damaged by a typhoon in 1998.

The number of designated forests, which initially stood at eight, has now increased to more than 80. These forests are used also to train craftspeople for cypress bark harvesting and lacquer tapping.

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Storming of Capitol was textbook potential covid-19 superspreader, experts say

InternationalJan 08. 2021Supporters of President Trump stand outside the east side of the Capitol. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Marissa J. Lang Photo by: Marissa J. Lang — The Washington Post

By The Washington Post · Paulina Villegas, Rachel Chason, Hannah Knowles 

Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol did not just overshadow one of the deadliest days of the coronavirus pandemic – it could have contributed to the crisis as a textbook potential superspreader, health experts warn.

Thousands of Trump supporters dismissive of the virus’s threat packed together with few face coverings – shouting, jostling and forcing their way indoors to halt certification of the election results, many converging from out of town at the president’s urging. Police rushed hundreds of members of Congress to crowded quarters where legislators say some of their colleagues refused to wear masks as well.

“This was in some many ways an extraordinarily dangerous event yesterday, not only from the security aspects but from the public health aspects, and there will be a fair amount of disease that comes from it,” said Eric Toner, senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Experts said that resulting infections will be near-impossible to track, with massive crowds fanning out around the country and few rioters detained and identified. They also wondered if even a significant number of cases would register in a nation overwhelmed by covid-19. As Americans shared their shock and anger at the Capitol breach Thursday, the United States reported more than 132,000 people currently hospitalized with the virus and more than 4,000 covid-19 deaths, the highest single-day tally yet.

“It is a very real possibility that this will lead to a major outbreak but one that we may or may not be able to recognize,” said Toner. “All the cases to likely derive from this event will likely be lost in the huge number of cases we have in the country right now.”

Trump devotees who flocked to the capital this week said they were unconcerned by the virus, belittling common precautions known to slow its spread and echoing the president’s dismissive attitude toward rising case counts. Trump had encouraged them to gather in defiance of his election loss: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” he tweeted last month. “Be there, will be wild!”

Mike Hebert, 73, drove two days from Kansas to participate. Marching toward the Capitol Wednesday with an American flag, he said he did not feel the need to wear a face covering.

“I am as scared of the virus as I am of a butterfly,” said Herbert, adding that he is a veteran who was shot twice in Vietnam.

Sisters Courtney and Haley Stone left New York at 11 p.m. to make it to the Capitol by morning so they could quietly counterprotest, draped in Biden gear. “Do you want a mask? I have one,” Haley, 22, asked a Trump supporter, only to be rebuffed.

“Oh, you believe in the mask hoax?” the woman replied.

Health experts predicted Wednesday’s events will contribute to an ongoing case surge in the greater Washington region. The average number of daily new infections in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia reached a record high Thursday, and current covid-19 hospitalizations in the District have risen 19 percent in the past week.

They also noted differences with other large gatherings such as Black Lives Matter protests. Fewer people wore masks during the Capitol protests and riot, they said, and crowds were indoors.

“If you wanted to organize an event to maximize the spread of covid it would be difficult to find one better than the one we witnessed yesterday,” said Jonathan Fielding, a professor at the schools of Public Health and Medicine at UCLA.

“You have the drivers of spreading at a time when we are bearing the heaviest burden of this terrible virus and terrible pandemic,” he said.

Calling in to CBS News Wednesday, Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild (D) described her evacuation to a “crowded” undisclosed location with 300 to 400 other people.

“It’s what I would call a covid superspreader event,” she said. “About half the people in the room are not wearing masks, even though they’ve been offered surgical masks. They’ve refused to wear them.”

She did not identify the lawmakers forgoing face coverings beyond saying they were Republicans, including some freshmen. The Committee on House Administration says it is a “critical necessity” to mask up while indoors at the Capitol, and the District has a strict mask mandate.

“It’s certainly exactly the kind of situation that we’ve been told by the medical doctors not to be in,” Wild said.

“We weren’t even allowed to get together with our families for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” she said, “and now we’re in a room with people who are flaunting the rules.”

At least one member of Congress has tested positive since the mob spurred an hours-long lockdown. Newly elected Kansas Rep. Jacob LaTurner (R) tested positive for the coronavirus late Wednesday evening, according to a statement posted on his Twitter account. It said he is not experiencing symptoms.

“LaTurner is following the advice of the House physician and CDC guidelines and, therefore, does not plan to return to the House floor for votes until he is cleared to do so,” the statement said.

Luke Letlow, a 41-year-old congressman-elect from Louisiana, died of covid-19 last month.

Any infections among members of Congress and their staff will be far easier to contact-trace than those among rioters, said Angela Rasmussen, an affiliate at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University.

“It certainly would have been easier if they were detained by Capitol police and identified, but testing suspects may be something to consider as law enforcement begins to identify them,” Rasmussen said in an email.

She noted that some may try to evade identification and criminal charges, and said she is deeply concerned for the households and communities they might expose.

“I think really rigorous contact tracing of people who are not identified as being present on Capitol grounds will not be possible,” she said.

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The Washington Post’s Avi Selk and Rebecca Tan contributed to this report.