Vox: All Posts by Conor Murrayhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2020-07-31T13:30:00-04:00https://www.vox.com/authors/conor-murray/rss2020-07-31T13:30:00-04:002020-07-31T13:30:00-04:00Is pulling US troops from Germany really a “gift to Russia”?
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<figcaption>US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend the G20 Osaka Summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28, 2019. | Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>This week’s Worldly episode discusses the consequences of Trump’s plan to pull 12,000 troops from Germany.</p> <p id="B17aSc">In yet another controversial decision, the Trump administration announced Wednesday that the United States is moving forward with plans to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-troop-withdrawal-germany/2020/07/29/f5d23982-d19f-11ea-af07-1d058ca137ae_story.html">pull 12,000 US troops out of Germany</a>.</p>
<p id="cddkWS">This would relocate about 5,600 troops to Italy and Belgium, with the rest returning to the United States to conduct rotational deployments to Europe, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-troop-withdrawal-germany/2020/07/29/f5d23982-d19f-11ea-af07-1d058ca137ae_story.html">Washington Post</a>. The Pentagon says the plan is intended to strengthen NATO and deter Russia. But Trump — whose <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/politics/us-troops-germany-criticism/index.html">explanation</a> has contradicted his own defense officials — says it’s because Germany is taking advantage of the US by not paying enough for its own defense.</p>
<p id="8hk0sn">On this week’s episode of <a href="https://www.vox.com/worldly"><em>Worldly</em></a>, Vox’s weekly international podcast, senior foreign editor Jennifer Williams and international security and defense reporter Alex Ward discuss the merits of the arguments put forth by the Trump administration and what this might mean for the future of the United States’ relations with Europe.</p>
<p id="cK6pj8">The plan has been extensively criticized by politicians and defense experts from all over the political spectrum. Sen. Mitt Romney slammed the plan as a “gift to Russia,” and <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/509682-lawmakers-torch-trump-plan-to-pull-11900-troops-from-germany">Sen. Bob Menendez said</a> that “champagne must be flowing freely this evening at the Kremlin.”</p>
<p id="y1i1AS">Critics say the plan won’t deter Russia; it’ll do the opposite. The countries where the troops are being immediately relocated, Italy and Belgium, aren’t facing serious threats of Russian aggression. Moreover, Trump’s relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-spite-germany-plan-11596064244">already souring</a>, so critics also fear US-German relations could take a further turn for the worse.</p>
<p id="LyWywo">And it could <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/509558-us-to-pull-nearly-12000-troops-from-germany-costing-billions">cost US taxpayers</a> billions of dollars, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. </p>
<p id="xUN3Ub">Shortly after a similar force realignment, when President Barack Obama withdrew some US combat brigades from Germany in 2012 and 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-spite-germany-plan-11596064244">invaded Ukraine</a> in 2014.</p>
<p id="368JUO">But there will still be <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/pentagon-announces-11900-troops-moved-germany-200729133125564.html">24,000 troops in Germany</a> after the removal (which could take years), and it’s unclear if Putin will interpret the move as the “gift” US lawmakers accuse the plan of being.</p>
<p id="evtXfQ">To hear more about why the Trump administration is pulling troops from Germany and the potential consequences, listen to the full episode of <em>Worldly</em>, which you can stream below.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/7/31/21349621/trump-pentagon-germany-russia-putinConor Murray2020-07-30T17:10:00-04:002020-07-30T17:10:00-04:00Australia just had its worst day of coronavirus. Yet health experts remain optimistic.
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<figcaption>A portable sign with instructions to social distance is seen in on July 29 in Sydney, Australia. | Jenny Evans/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Epidemiologists have faith that mask mandates and lockdowns will help manage the country’s second wave.</p> <p id="dnNDch">In a once-in-a-century move (literally, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/10/21317918/australia-melbourne-victoria-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown">the last time was 1919</a>), Australia completely sealed off a popular state border to help curb a second wave of <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19</a> and instituted a six-week lockdown in the Melbourne area. </p>
<p id="5xJxbU">That was a few weeks ago. Since then, cases have continued to climb, and leading politicians have suggested that the <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/coronavirus/extended-lockdown-victoria-covid-19/">lockdowns could be extended</a>. </p>
<p id="lUvajV">But despite the national anxiety, several public health experts told me they’re optimistic that the government’s policies will cause cases to fall in the coming days. They told me the situation is not quite as bad as it may seem, and would have been much worse without government intervention.</p>
<p id="MBlmiK">Australia, without question, crushed its first coronavirus outbreak. From April through June, the number of new cases per day rarely exceeded 20, down from the 300 to 400 cases seen per day in March. But in July, cases began to spike again, causing an outbreak that has quickly outpaced the first.</p>
<p id="zWLzPe">To help control the current outbreak, the government closed down the border between the states of Victoria, the hardest-hit area, and New South Wales on July 8, and imposed a <a href="https://www.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-restrictions-victoria">six-week lockdown</a> in Melbourne. But on Thursday, three weeks into lockdown, Victoria reported an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53589817">all-time high</a> of 723 new cases and 13 deaths. </p>
<p id="cz5ZTj">The BBC reports that the high is a 36 percent increase from the previous peak — which was reported on Monday. Before Thursday’s huge spike, the case numbers had dipped on Tuesday and Wednesday.</p>
<p id="mHtbg9">To be clear, experts told me it could be much worse, and it’s a promising sign that cases haven’t risen exponentially, which could have been possible with a highly infectious disease like Covid-19.</p>
<p id="VM354X">And to put it in some global perspective, even Australia’s second wave is almost nothing compared to many other countries, most notably the United States and its more than <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">4.4 million cases</a>. Or even to most of the individual US states. States with flattened curves — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/new-jersey-coronavirus-cases.html">New Jersey, for example</a> — are seeing case numbers comparable to Australia’s, lingering within the realm of about 300 to 500 new cases every day. So the “highs” Australia is seeing right now are basically what some of America’s more well-off states are seeing on a good day.</p>
<p id="J3FLW1">Despite the promising signs, though, there are still hundreds of people contracting Covid-19 every day in Australia, and the second major outbreak of infections has, in terms of numbers, quickly surpassed the first. </p>
<p id="mth2js">Masks have been mandatory in Melbourne <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=melbourne+mask+mandate&oq=melbourne+mask&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0j69i57j0l5.1463j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">since last week</a>, and they will be <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-victoria-masks-to-be-made-mandatory-across-regional-areas/55fb98a4-28c8-4518-a3d1-d06481c5723f">mandatory everywhere in Victoria</a> on August 2, so the effects of that policy on case numbers may not be known for weeks. Mandatory masking could be crucial for controlling the virus. </p>
<p id="mzFm8H">To defeat the outbreak, some health experts told me they think the country should employ a more forceful, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53274085">New Zealand-type approach</a>, but some told me they are optimistic that cases will begin to fall soon anyway.</p>
<h3 id="Fkq2IJ">A brief history of Australia’s initial coronavirus success</h3>
<p id="tCcTgL"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/10/21317918/australia-melbourne-victoria-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown">Three weeks ago</a>, I talked to some epidemiologists about how Australia managed to control its first coronavirus outbreak. There were a few key reasons — most importantly, the government took the pandemic seriously from the beginning and listened to the advice of health officials.</p>
<p id="J2Offe">Australia first tackled the virus with a ban on travelers from high-risk areas in February, as most cases from the first outbreak were travelers returning to Australia. That, and Australia’s lack of land borders with other countries, made it easier to identify who was infected or at risk.</p>
<p id="ZFX156">Australia’s borders were closed to non-citizens on March 19, and later that month, public gathering places like movie theaters, bars, and schools were closed and social distancing rules were imposed.</p>
<p id="LOIcCH">The country’s biggest misstep with the first outbreak, University of South Australia biostatistics professor Adrian Esterman told me, was the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/cruise-ship-infamous-for-triggering-virus-surge-leaves-australia">docking of a cruise ship</a> in March with infected passengers on board. Hundreds of cases could be traced back to the Ruby Princess cruise ship, where passengers that were clearly sick left the ship without being tested, dispersing around the country.</p>
<p id="Ixl7jZ">The government’s proactive policies largely worked, and the numbers of new cases plunged to around 10 to 20 cases per day in April. Reopening <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/australia/australia-coronavirus-reopen-intl-hnk/index.html">began in May</a>, with the intent of safely reopening the economy fully by July.</p>
<p id="8XfDON">To date, Australia has <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">recorded</a> 16,303 confirmed coronavirus cases and 190 deaths.</p>
<h3 id="2ClxoA">Why Australia’s second outbreak is different</h3>
<p id="xbgqOG">The big difference between this current outbreak and the March outbreak is that the current spread of the virus is driven mainly by community transmission, Hassan Vally, a professor of public health at La Trobe University in Melbourne, told me. </p>
<p id="yPaNEx"><a href="https://abc17news.com/news/coronavirus/2020/03/24/what-is-community-transmission-of-covid-19-health-officials-explain-why-social-distancing-can-stop-that-type-of-spread/">Community transmission</a> occurs when people who haven’t been overseas recently or who haven’t been in close contact with confirmed positive cases are infected, so the cause of infection is unclear.</p>
<p id="kuBOPH">It’s suspected that this outbreak began because of management <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53259356">failures at quarantine hotels</a>, where people who fly into Australia must stay for two weeks under mandatory quarantine. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53259356">The BBC reports</a> that improperly trained private security forces are facing the blame, including allegations of rule-breaking — like sharing cigarette lighters and having sex with quarantined travelers.</p>
<p id="RCTujN">From the hotels, the virus spread to low-income communities with large immigrant populations in Melbourne, Esterman told me. He said the government also didn’t spend enough time communicating with these non-English-speaking communities about the importance of mask-wearing and social distancing, leaving them vulnerable.</p>
<p id="sr5xHX">Community transmission is also having a devastating impact on nursing homes. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/29/a-foreseeable-catastrophe-how-covid-19-swept-through-victorias-nursing-homes">The Guardian reports</a> that as of Tuesday, 80 of Victoria’s 400 private nursing homes are facing outbreaks, with a total of 764 active cases among residents and staff. </p>
<p id="lu0ozv">“This second surge is totally different,” Vally said. “This is mainly true community transmission, and this is a much more difficult and serious and challenging situation. It’s going to take a lot more work to bring it under control, which is why we’re back in lockdown.”</p>
<h3 id="fz2hQe">What can be done, and why the rising case numbers aren’t cause for alarm</h3>
<p id="4Vya49">At first glance, the fact that new infections just hit an all-time high for Australia may be unsettling. And, of course, hundreds of people contracting Covid-19 every day is not a good thing. But experts told me the border closure and lockdowns have been effective in stabilizing Australia’s case numbers.</p>
<p id="aihgz3">“If we go back to the very earliest conversations about Covid, the discussion was all about flattening the curve. And that’s kind of what we’re seeing, is that the curve has gone flat,” Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist at the University of Wollongong, told me. “It’s not increasing or decreasing. It’s just the same number of cases every day.”</p>
<p id="2wp4dT">“<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/10/21171481/coronavirus-us-cases-quarantine-cancellation">Flattening the curve</a>” refers to slowing the rate of infection so health care systems’ capacity doesn’t become overwhelmed.</p>
<p id="b4a0wr">Meyerowitz-Katz also told me that daily case counts are a misleading metric because of delays in recording test results and the random variation of who gets tested and when. So although Australia’s cases spiked Thursday, that doesn’t mean it’s an accurate picture of the extent of the outbreak.</p>
<p id="vkpTB3">In fact, the days between Monday’s spike — which was, at the time, a national record — and Thursday’s peak saw a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/the-latest-south-africa-nearing-half-million-virus-cases/571928162/">marked decrease</a> in the number of new cases, as Victoria reported 295 new coronavirus diagnoses on Wednesday. Vally told me he is optimistic that cases will continue to come down over the next few days and weeks as the lockdowns continue and the effects of the mask mandates become known.</p>
<p id="qvAaQv">Esterman told me that if the government wants to bring the case numbers in Victoria down to the numbers seen in other Australian states, which are largely unaffected by the current outbreak, more restrictions on businesses should be implemented.</p>
<p id="vbDkl9">“I’m optimistic that the situation in Melbourne will improve slightly, but I can’t see going back down to where all the other states and territories are, unless they go into what we call stage four restrictions, which is basically what New Zealand did, and that is all places of employment are shut, apart from essential services like supermarkets, health services, etc.,” Esterman told me.</p>
<p id="vWmybR"><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-15/stage-4-restrictions-coronavirus-victoria-scenario/12454984">Stage four restrictions</a> would likely involve compulsory mask-wearing (which is already in place in the Melbourne area and will soon be implemented across Victoria) and a stricter definition of which businesses are allowed to open. </p>
<p id="USX5L0">“If they did that for just a couple of weeks, it would really control it,” Esterman said.</p>
<p id="5xUGPs">He also said that mask-wearing should be encouraged in the Sydney area to prevent a major outbreak there, since cases in New South Wales — the state Sydney is in — are <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/high-alert-another-19-new-cases-of-covid19-diagnosed-in-nsw/news-story/aa144ec6ecb9de938c789c804db4b8a4">lingering in the teens</a> and could, he said, easily explode.</p>
<p id="TUdSDh">The resurgence in Melbourne shows that the coronavirus is relentless, and, as Vally told me, it can exploit any opportunity it can get ahold of to start spreading again. And until there is a vaccine, controlling it will continue to be a worldwide challenge.</p>
<p id="x6OIDg">“What’s happening in Melbourne could equally happen in any other place in Australia, and obviously it can happen and it is happening in other places around the world where they’ve pretty much felt they’ve got things under control,” Vally said. “This is going to be the world we live in for the next many months, until, hopefully, we find a vaccine.”</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/7/30/21347047/australia-victoria-melbourne-coronavirus-covid-19Conor Murray2020-07-24T13:30:00-04:002020-07-24T13:30:00-04:00China is systematically detaining Uighurs — and the world isn’t doing enough about it
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<figcaption>A Uighur man walks in Kashgar, China, on June 30. | David Liu/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>This week’s Worldly episode discusses the muted global response to China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims.</p> <p id="qu528q">In China’s Xinjiang province, Uighur Muslims are being detained and held in what are effectively <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/15/uighur-genocide-xinjiang-china-surveillance-sterilization/">concentration camps</a>, where they’re subjected to human rights abuses, including torture, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-uighur-group-oppression-labour-camps-us-sanctions-human-rights-abuse-a9634396.html">forced sterilization</a>, and brainwashing. </p>
<p id="qBZJGj">But no one seems to be doing much about it at the international level.</p>
<p id="gwoqJP">On this week’s episode of <a href="https://www.vox.com/worldly">Worldly</a>, Vox’s weekly international podcast, senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp, international security and defense reporter Alex Ward, and senior foreign editor Jennifer Williams discuss why the international response to the Uighur crisis has been muted — and why it deserves much more attention and action.</p>
<p id="fCSCOw">The Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic minority group that share <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037">cultural and ethnic similarities</a> with Central Asian nations. An estimated 11 million Uighurs live in Xinjiang — but as many as 1 million Uighurs are being held in these camps.</p>
<p id="dhxrGZ"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-45474279">In the camps</a>, Uighurs are reportedly facing mass sterilization, forced labor, sexual assault, and intense surveillance. They are also said to be forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and to criticize or renounce their Muslim faith.</p>
<p id="lCbDyQ">But China denies that abuses are occurring in what they euphemistically call “re-education camps.” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-45474279">China’s position</a> is that the Uighurs are receiving “vocational training” to learn about Chinese history and culture, with the goal of fending off terrorism from Uighur separatist movements.<strong> </strong></p>
<p id="atnD4m"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/19/chinas-uk-ambassador-denies-abuse-of-uighurs-despite-fresh-drone-footage">Earlier this week</a>, China’s ambassador to the UK, when confronted with drone footage of what appears to be blindfolded Uighurs being led to a camp, again denied that the Uighurs are facing abuses and claimed that Uighurs live harmoniously with other ethnic groups.</p>
<p id="Uy1JlV">Despite these reports of human rights abuses being committed against the Uighurs, international responses to the crisis have lacked urgency. The UK government has <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-uighur-group-oppression-labour-camps-us-sanctions-human-rights-abuse-a9634396.html">spoken out</a> against the abuses and the US has imposed sanctions on China, but widespread action has been absent, including from Muslim-majority countries (like Iran, which is currently finalizing a $400 billion <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/07/china-iran-deal-trump-economy-security-jcpoa-conflict.html">economic and security deal</a> with China).</p>
<p id="JG69Mz">To hear more about why China is detaining the Uighur people and what the international community should be doing about it, listen to the full episode of <em>Worldly</em>, which you can stream below. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/7/24/21337172/china-detaining-uighur-muslims-worldly-podcastConor Murray2020-07-23T13:50:00-04:002020-07-23T13:50:00-04:00Israel’s anti-Netanyahu protests, explained
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<figcaption>A protester wearing a face mask holds a sign during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, on July 22, 2020. | Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Between the prime minister’s corruption trial and coronavirus failure, Israelis are calling on him to resign.</p> <p id="0mE7gT">For the past several weeks, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who is facing several political crises — resign.</p>
<p id="NtucIW">Over the past month, Israel’s second <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">coronavirus</a> wave has spiraled far out of the government’s control. The country’s economy is tanking, and about a quarter of the workforce is <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/06/17/number-of-unemployed-job-seekers-drops-to-23-5/">unemployed</a>. Netanyahu’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-coronavirus-outbreak-balloons-netanyahus-approval-rating-slides/">approval ratings are falling</a>, fast. </p>
<p id="NObTXd">Oh, and he’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21111500/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-corruption-trump-peace-plan">currently on trial for three corruption charges</a>.</p>
<p id="QsUAF0">Israel also had an unprecedented three legislative elections in just the past year, each one drawing an inconclusive result. A deal was finally reached after the March election to establish a coalition government between Netanyahu’s party and that of his political rival, Benny Gantz — but the coalition has been criticized since the beginning as being too big and too expensive.</p>
<p id="dReZq8">Last week, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/15/21326028/israel-netanyahu-coronavirus-covid-19">I wrote that Netanyahu is in an impossible situation</a>, forced to balance reviving the Israeli economy while simultaneously suppressing the second wave of coronavirus cases and rebuilding public favorability. </p>
<p id="OPzRiz">He still has all of that to manage, but the sustained protests against him are sure to make that job even harder.</p>
<h3 id="0qtJoM">What the protests look like</h3>
<p id="x513P3">Israelis have been taking to the streets for weeks, protesting Netanyahu and his government for some, or all, of the problems manifesting under his watch. Not everyone is necessarily protesting for the same reason, but many are demanding his resignation. </p>
<p id="u5wZY1">“The demonstrations really took off over the past two weeks or so due to the economic situation, which is a result of the pandemic and the government’s mishandling of the second wave, which some demonstrators tie all the way back to Netanyahu himself and his ongoing legal difficulties,” Neri Zilber, a Tel Aviv-based journalist and adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, told me.</p>
<p id="ZYnkfZ">Protesters have often clashed with police forces, who have been <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/protester-if-he-had-used-a-little-more-force-i-would-have-suffocated-635976">criticized</a> after videos showing police using excessive force against protesters circulated on social media. At least 34 people were <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/fresh-clashes-as-thousands-protest-against-netanyahu-10-arrested/">arrested</a> in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, where protesters demonstrated outside the Israeli parliament and Netanyahu’s home. Police used water cannons to disperse the crowds.</p>
<p id="rameiG">Dozens of protesters <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-protests-in-jerusalem-against-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-arrests-topless-woman-menorah/">chained themselves together</a> on Wednesday morning and blocked the entrance to the Israeli parliament, but police quickly broke up the demonstration.</p>
<p id="rIXMy1">Zilber told me that many of the protesters are young people who have been hit especially hard by job losses because of the pandemic. “Young people have to ask themselves what kind of future [they] have in this country. So an economic crisis, coupled with a lack of faith in the political class, given all their missteps of recent months, also add into that,” Zilber said.</p>
<h3 id="QQ4MKy">Netanyahu’s current government has been controversial since the beginning</h3>
<p id="p3qSPG">Netanyahu has been prime minister for 11 straight years (and 14 years total), but his most recent election was messy, to say the least.</p>
<p id="yWKQGL">Under Israel’s parliamentary system, parties with similar political leanings form coalitions to achieve a majority of seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. That didn’t happen in any of the three elections held over the past year, which is why new elections kept being held.</p>
<p id="NM5p70"><a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/3/4/21161281/israel-election-results-2020-netanyahu-gantz-march">In March</a>, Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right-wing parties won 58 of 120 total seats, while Gantz’s Blue and White party and center, left, and Arab parties won a total of<strong> </strong>55 seats, leaving both potential coalitions unable to claim a majority.</p>
<p id="y00dyQ">Gantz and Netanyahu are political rivals, and Gantz originally vowed to form a government that excluded Netanyahu. But as the pandemic threatened to plunge the world into crisis, Gantz <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-unity-govt-needed-now-im-waiting-for-netanyahu-to-ok-negotiations/">agreed to form an emergency coalition</a> with his political opponent. </p>
<p id="EcP3NS">After weeks of negotiations, the terms were finalized in late April: Netanyahu and Gantz would rotate terms as prime minister, with Netanyahu starting off and Gantz taking over after 18 months. The government was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52699156">sworn in</a> on May 17.</p>
<p id="cx9Gva">But the coalition government — and Netanyahu’s reelection as prime minister — has not been very well-received.</p>
<p id="2Nbwmd">Yael Aronoff, the Serling chair in Israel Studies at Michigan State University, told me that since Israel is a parliamentary democracy with several major political parties, Netanyahu only averages about 25 to 30 percent of the vote in each election — so there’s “always an underlying critique of him from many directions for many reasons and an exasperation with him on many fronts.”</p>
<p id="opmiM8">The government coalition in particular has been <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israels-largest-ever-government-over-the-top-excessive-and-indulgent-628374">lambasted by critics</a> since day one for its large size and steep cost, and for Netanyahu’s initial insistence on addressing issues other than the pandemic, like annexing the West Bank (<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/13/21317900/israel-west-bank-annexation-palestine-netanyahu-trump">which ended up not happening</a>).</p>
<p id="k7oBp6">The government is set to <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rJpUbOauI">cost Israeli taxpayers</a> 900 million shekels ($254 million in US dollars) over the next three years. The taxpayer money will fund personal offices, salaries, and other benefits — even things like personal drivers and vehicles — for Israeli ministers. </p>
<p id="iFpRxV">The cost is significantly higher for this government in particular because 36 ministers and 16 deputy ministers are seated in the cabinet, compared to the last government’s 21 to 23 ministers. Aronoff told me the heavy cost is especially frustrating for Israelis who are suffering from the economic crisis.</p>
<p id="x0YeLA">“A lot of people were angry with the bloated government that was established, that was seated in May, and the waste of money with that,” Zilber said. “A lot of people were angry at the fact that the government took its eye off the ball and was dealing with things like annexation or tax breaks for the prime minister or <a href="https://apnews.com/8e0479ea534139e46dc0df2349b95ba3">attacks on the judicial system</a>.”</p>
<p id="SQHDI8">Netanyahu’s incentive to attack his own judicial system stems from his ongoing corruption trial, which began in May. He was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21111500/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-corruption-trump-peace-plan">indicted</a> on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in January, all of which he denies. </p>
<p id="QUJQQf">Yohanan Plesner, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute and a former member of Israel’s Knesset, told me that Netanyahu’s trial has sparked public distrust of the prime minister and fear that he is engaged in conflicts of interest or has ulterior motives as Israel’s leader — and that’s only been exacerbated by his pandemic mismanagement.</p>
<p id="tSqZoZ">“Until the coronavirus crisis erupted, it was mainly those Israelis who thought it was inconceivable to have a minister who simultaneously is a defendant in a criminal court case [who were protesting],” Plesner said. “Now a whole new group of Israelis feel the [coronavirus] crisis is [being] poorly run.”</p>
<h3 id="DdbRLm">How Netanyahu mismanaged the coronavirus</h3>
<p id="9Ngj1q">Before the coronavirus pandemic spun out of control, Israel seemed to have managed it well. To his credit, Netanyahu made the correct moves at the beginning and was able to suppress the first coronavirus wave in the spring.</p>
<p id="GZGt1e">Before the outbreak had even hit Israel, the government acted quickly, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-suspends-all-flights-from-china-isolates-arrivals-over-coronavirus-outbreak-1.8472297">suspending flights from China</a> in January and from <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bans-foreigners-coming-from-east-asian-countries-over-virus-fears/">additional East Asian countries</a> in February. On March 18, travel to Israel was <a href="https://il.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/#:~:text=On%20March%2018%2C%20the%20Government,lives%20are%20based%20in%20Israel.">completely blocked off</a> to all noncitizens. </p>
<p id="xX3fRd">Israel reported its <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-confirms-first-coronavirus-case-as-cruise-ship-returnee-diagnosed/">first coronavirus case</a> on February 21, and within days, the country mandated a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-issues-travel-warnings-for-south-korea-japan-over-virus-outbreak/">14-day quarantine</a> for travelers returning from Japan and South Korea; mandatory quarantines were extended to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51809818">all returning travelers</a> on March 9.</p>
<p id="IHZZH3">In mid-March, as hundreds of people were testing positive daily, Israel’s population of nearly 9 million (think the size of New Jersey) entered a <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/israel-national-lockdown-coronavirus-palestinian-laborers.html">near-complete lockdown</a>, with most businesses and public gathering places forced to close. Israelis were also urged to stay home unless absolutely necessary.</p>
<p id="2NCyxU">By May, daily numbers of new cases were down to the low double digits — but some severe missteps reversed the pandemic’s course in Israel.</p>
<p id="eYlFWy">By April 1, when the economy was still on lockdown, Israel’s <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/The-number-of-unemployed-in-Israel-tops-1-million-for-the-first-time-623151">unemployment rate jumped</a> from 4 percent before the outbreak to 24.4 percent. Between the economic crisis and the successful management of the first Covid-19 outbreak, the government faced pressure from Israelis to reopen the economy, Zilber told me.</p>
<p id="En5B7R">Schools reopened, and soon after, more than 1,300 students and 600 staff members became infected and 125 schools and 258 kindergartens temporarily shut their doors, according to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/israelis-fear-schools-reopened-too-soon-as-covid-19-cases-climb-11594760001">Wall Street Journal</a>.</p>
<p id="ohq38e">Another failure was that the Israeli government didn’t take the time it had when the outbreak was controlled to develop a reliable testing and contact tracing infrastructure. Contact tracing, which helps identify who may have come in contact with a Covid-19 carrier and thus may be at risk of contracting the virus, has <a href="https://theconversation.com/contact-tracing-is-working-around-the-world-heres-what-the-uk-needs-to-do-to-succeed-too-140293">helped countries</a> like South Korea and Australia contain their respective outbreaks.</p>
<p id="mhO8Yk">Netanyahu delegated most coronavirus decision-making to himself and frequently appeared on primetime television to communicate with the Israelis in hope of winning a political victory by handling the pandemic himself, but that plan ended up backfiring with the aggressive resurgence in cases, Plesner told me.</p>
<p id="2F1fS4">“The single most important decision that he refrained from taking was an appointment of a sort of professional figure to manage the crisis,” Plesner said.</p>
<h3 id="sKD4gW">What this means for Netanyahu</h3>
<p id="hO1OPi">Netanyahu’s problems pose a serious political challenge for him, and, experts say, reveal his weaknesses as a leader.</p>
<p id="Otgyjd">Netanyahu wanted to win the war against the coronavirus by himself, according to Plesner, because his motivations are usually political, even in times of crisis management. Aronoff said that Netanyahu is also highly suspicious of people, including his own advisers.</p>
<p id="b5lpL8">He’s also dealing with a severe lack of trust in the government among the Israeli people. An <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/public-trust-in-netanyahu-to-beat-virus-has-declined-dramatically-poll-finds/">Israel Democracy Institute study</a> published last week found that just 29.5 percent of Israelis trust Netanyahu to manage the coronavirus crisis — down from a high of 57.5 percent in early April. </p>
<p id="EED2YL">Respondents were also asked to choose from a selection of six words to describe how they felt about the government’s coronavirus management. The most popular responses: “angry,” “disappointed,” and “alienated.”</p>
<p id="MOg30n">Several experts I talked to said that right now, Netanyahu’s main concerns, aside from controlling the pandemic, are remaining in power and staying out of jail. </p>
<p id="pOtYCi">“I think the biggest factor in determining his political future will be the outcome of the trial,” Mira Sucharov, an Israeli politics expert and political science professor at Carleton University, told me.</p>
<p id="wfxOIH">Some experts told me that political deadlock in the current government may mean a fourth election could be on the horizon, and whether that happens before or after the conclusion of his trial could be important.</p>
<p id="gLzXbM">The Knesset is tasked with passing a budget by August 22, which is currently being <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-political-chaos-looms-as-israel-s-deadline-for-passing-a-budget-nears-1.9008390">hampered by political disagreements</a> between Netanyahu and Gantz. Aronoff told me that Netanyahu may capitalize on a failed budget to trigger another election in the hope of winning to prevent Gantz, who is scheduled to begin his rotation as prime minister in November 2021, from taking over.</p>
<p id="roQ7rW">Plesner told me an election will be triggered within 90 days of the budget deadline if it is not met, which would be the fourth election within a two-year period. He said that could be good for Netanyahu, since the calling of witnesses in his trial won’t <a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/pm-lawyer-i-dont-know-if-i-will-stick-with-case-judge-then-why-are-we-here-635560">begin until January 2021</a>, but he could be hurt by his damaged popularity and the mass protests regardless.</p>
<p id="XN79yR">“I think in this kind of situation where he’s on trial during a pandemic, the economy’s going down, there are demonstrations across the country against him, and even internally in the Likud now, rival leaders feel emboldened to challenge him, he’ll certainly be lashing out even more and his suspicious nature will be heightened even more,” Aronoff said. “So we’ll see whether he’s able to maneuver politically as he usually is.”</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/7/23/21334598/israel-netanyahu-protests-coronavirus-economy-trialConor Murray2020-07-17T14:50:00-04:002020-07-17T14:50:00-04:00Why Israel hasn’t annexed the West Bank
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<figcaption>Demonstrators wear masks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz as they protest against the Israeli government’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank on June 23, 2020 in Tel Aviv. | Amir Levy/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>This week’s Worldly episode explores why Israel backed down and what that means for the two-state solution.</p> <p id="Qy0VZj">All eyes were on Israel on July 1, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was set to annex parts of the West Bank — but then, well, nothing happened.</p>
<p id="iEn4Ac">On this week’s episode of <a href="https://www.vox.com/worldly"><em>Worldly</em></a>, Vox’s weekly international podcast, senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp, international security and defense reporter Alex Ward, and senior foreign editor Jennifer Williams discuss what happened — or rather, why nothing happened — and what it all means for the future of the long-sought “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080094/what-are-the-two-state-solution-and-the-one-state-solution">two-state solution</a>” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. </p>
<p id="g6I6OL">Netanyahu’s plan to annex approximately 30 percent of the West Bank would have dramatically altered the situation in the Israeli-occupied territory, which is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians as well as around <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080034/west-bank-israel-palestinians">500,000 Jewish settlers</a>. </p>
<p id="CNeyES">And, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/13/21317900/israel-west-bank-annexation-palestine-netanyahu-trump">Vox’s Jen Kirby explains</a>, it would have upended years of consensus about the two-state framework, historically supported by the United States and the international community. Under that plan, the vast bulk of the West Bank would eventually, as part of a final peace deal between the two sides, be transferred to the Palestinians to form the core of an independent state of Palestine. </p>
<p id="POQz05">But peace talks have stalled for years, and there is no deal anywhere on the horizon. So the Israeli right has been pushing for Netanyahu’s government to just go ahead and unilaterally annex significant portions of the West Bank that it wants to keep, making them officially part of Israel proper, regardless of what the Palestinians think about it.</p>
<p id="wo12kr">Netanyahu promised to follow through on a plan to do just that on July 1, but then everything seemed to go wrong (for him).</p>
<p id="OZ4t2M">Not only is Netanyahu currently on trial for corruption charges, but Israel is also facing a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/15/21326028/israel-netanyahu-coronavirus-covid-19">massive coronavirus resurgence</a> that has quickly outpaced the first outbreak. Benny Gantz, who is due to serve as the next prime minister, is urging Netanyahu to address the relentless second wave first.</p>
<p id="fXD0pJ">Possibly more consequential is the swift international condemnation of Israel’s annexation plan — the United Nations says it’s illegal, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson penned an op-ed against the plan. Even the United States hesitated to support the move, despite it being a direct result of the Trump administration’s “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21083615/trump-peace-plan-map-netanyahu-israel-palestine">peace plan</a>.”</p>
<p id="JG69Mz">To hear more about all the factors that led to Netanyahu’s sudden reversal, how US politics plays into this, and what it all means for the future of the two-state solution, listen to the full episode of <em>Worldly</em>, which you can stream below. </p>
<div id="0UBrAK"><iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/1nALX95IPTMzhvHYPH6M5L" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe></div>
<p id="zc9lUk">And subscribe to <em>Worldly</em> on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/worldly/id1248862589?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLmZlZWRidXJuZXIuY29tL3ZveHdvcmxkbHk%3D">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2ChhfoVUC3abZJn9geRvQn?si=7gtzHf12TbGk2cn5OrtW0w">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vox/worldly">Stitcher</a>, or wherever you listen to podcasts. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/worldly/2020/7/17/21328433/israel-palestine-west-bank-annexation-netanyahu-worldly-podcastConor Murray2020-07-15T17:50:00-04:002020-07-15T17:50:00-04:00Israel’s second coronavirus wave is threatening Netanyahu’s hold on power
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<figcaption>Protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, rally in front of his residence in Jerusalem, Israel, on July 14. | Amir Levy/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The public is losing faith in the prime minister’s ability to manage the pandemic and economic crisis.</p> <p id="hIrRG8">Two months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was confident — probably a little too much — in Israel’s management of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">coronavirus</a> crisis. </p>
<p id="cz097A">The numbers of new Covid-19 cases had plummeted to the low double digits per day in May — a far cry from late March, when hundreds of new cases were being reported every day. In the midst of Israel’s success, Netanyahu <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israelis-angry-at-netanyahu-over-new-outbreak-economic-pain/2020/07/10/d3ad5e4e-c27d-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html">announced</a> on May 26<strong> </strong>that Israel would finally begin to reopen. </p>
<p id="ydPGMd">“We want to make your lives easier, to allow you to go out and get some air, to go back to routine as much as possible,” Netanyahu said (and later <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1265395862353649666">tweeted</a>). “So, first of all, enjoy yourselves.”</p>
<p id="utMOXj">So businesses reopened, kids went back to school, people gathered for weddings — life seemed to be heading toward the normalcy and economic recovery people craved. The problem? Israel wasn’t ready to reopen — and definitely not so quickly, according to public health experts.</p>
<p id="R9IfuU">Just look at how many cases Israel is recording per day now: It’s easily more than twice as many as were reported during the first peak in late March and early April — more than 1,000 cases have been logged every day for the past week. To date, Israel has <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">recorded</a> a total of 42,813 cases and 375 deaths.</p>
<p id="swlgOp">Now, Netanyahu faces a set of problems he almost certainly didn’t anticipate when he reopened Israel in May. With the pandemic hitting new highs, he has to limit the spread of the virus while keeping the damaged economy afloat and rebuilding his credibility among the Israeli people, which has plummeted since cases spiked and the economy crumbled.</p>
<p id="buiaqS">“There’s a major decline in public trust, both in Netanyahu himself and in other health authorities and economic decision-makers,” Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, told me. “This clash, I think, is the most dangerous thing.”</p>
<h3 id="HyJOxb">How Israel managed the first outbreak</h3>
<p id="R7PJuJ">To its credit, Israel made the right moves at the beginning. Shwartz Altshuler told me that Israel is often successful in managing short-term emergencies, which is why the government was able to initially limit the spread of the coronavirus. </p>
<p id="UjnG2b">Where the government struggles, Shwartz Altshuler said, is with long-term planning — like reopening gradually and safely while keeping case numbers down.</p>
<p id="RprHUl">Before the outbreak had even hit Israel, the government acted quickly, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-suspends-all-flights-from-china-isolates-arrivals-over-coronavirus-outbreak-1.8472297">suspending flights from China</a> in January and from <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-bans-foreigners-coming-from-east-asian-countries-over-virus-fears/">additional East Asian countries</a> in February. On March 18, travel to Israel was <a href="https://il.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/#:~:text=On%20March%2018%2C%20the%20Government,lives%20are%20based%20in%20Israel.">completely blocked off</a> to all non-citizens.</p>
<p id="z7YC5e">Israel reported its <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-confirms-first-coronavirus-case-as-cruise-ship-returnee-diagnosed/">first coronavirus case</a> on February 21: a woman who flew home to Israel from Japan after being quarantined on a cruise ship. Within days, Israel mandated a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-issues-travel-warnings-for-south-korea-japan-over-virus-outbreak/">14-day quarantine</a> for travelers returning from Japan and South Korea; mandatory quarantines were extended to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51809818">all returning travelers</a> on March 9.</p>
<p id="1WVBuK">In mid-March, as hundreds of people were testing positive daily, Israel’s population of nearly 9 million (think the size of New Jersey) entered a <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/israel-national-lockdown-coronavirus-palestinian-laborers.html">near-complete lockdown</a>, with most businesses and public gathering places forced to close. Israelis were also urged to stay home unless absolutely necessary.</p>
<p id="d90qJi">Ran Nir-Paz, an infectious disease expert and doctor at Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center, told me that the lockdown was critical for bringing down the number of new infections, and the Israeli people largely complied with the measure.</p>
<p id="TOyLGA">By May, daily numbers of new cases were down to the low double digits. </p>
<p id="BG1vsh">But as the Israeli government looked forward to reopening the economy, Nir-Paz said that a few serious missteps reversed the progress that Israel had made toward <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/10/21171481/coronavirus-us-cases-quarantine-cancellation">flattening their curve</a>.</p>
<h3 id="wq49ZD">Israel’s coronavirus success soon became a grave mismanagement</h3>
<p id="2gp3FQ">The coronavirus decimated the global economy, and Israel is no exception. By April 1 — when the economy was still on lockdown — <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/The-number-of-unemployed-in-Israel-tops-1-million-for-the-first-time-623151">Israel’s unemployment rate</a> jumped from 4 percent before the outbreak to 24.4 percent.</p>
<p id="MDDK5j">Between the economic crisis and the successful management of the first Covid-19 outbreak, the government faced pressure from the Israeli people to reopen the economy, Neri Zilber, a Tel Aviv-based journalist and adjunct fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, told me.</p>
<p id="MCGrRq">Zilber said that the message from Netanyahu’s administration was that Israel had defeated the coronavirus. So the government rushed to reopen, and the Israeli people took Netanyahu at his word that the worst of the pandemic was over.</p>
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<img alt="New daily cases have passed 1,400." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NtOcZwaTJERvA1Zvjma4JMPOhE4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20086081/coronavirus_data_explorer__2_.png">
<cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&country=~ISR&casesMetric=true&dailyFreq=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc" target="_blank">Our World in Data</a></cite>
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<p id="AeSerZ">The government reopened the economy almost completely within a two-week period, Nir-Paz told me, which really wasn’t gradual at all. </p>
<p id="xD4FPp">One especially controversial move was to reopen schools without restrictions — which led to new coronavirus outbreaks, infecting more than 1,300 students and 600 staff members, according to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/israelis-fear-schools-reopened-too-soon-as-covid-19-cases-climb-11594760001">Wall Street Journal</a>. The Journal also reported that there was little enforcement of rules requiring masks to be worn in public.</p>
<p id="sJRI4e">Schools are now being <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/03/868507524/israel-orders-schools-to-close-when-covid-19-cases-are-discovered">directed to close</a> if they face outbreaks. Since May, 125 schools and 258 kindergartens have temporarily shut their doors, the Wall Street Journal reported. </p>
<p id="c6dPrK">The rapid reopening of the economy, and the government’s promises that the pandemic had been mostly eliminated, caused people to feel comfortable going about their normal lives again when they should have been more cautious, Shwartz Altshuler told me.</p>
<p id="5qi95Y">Another failure was that the Israeli government didn’t take the time they had, when the outbreak was controlled, to develop a reliable testing and contact-tracing infrastructure. Contact tracing, which helps identify who may have come in contact with a Covid-19 carrier and thus may be at risk of contracting the virus, <a href="https://theconversation.com/contact-tracing-is-working-around-the-world-heres-what-the-uk-needs-to-do-to-succeed-too-140293">has helped countries</a> like South Korea and Australia contain their respective outbreaks.</p>
<p id="U1dwI9">“They basically squandered the time that they had rightfully earned during and after the first wave, and never actually set up the proper infrastructure to handle a second wave,” Zilber told me. “So you have something like two or three dozen nurses trying to handle an entire country’s contact tracing.”</p>
<p id="PPRKoc">To try to control the new outbreak, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-israel-imposes-lockdowns-1504-new-cases-reported-in-past-24-hours/">localized lockdowns</a> in neighborhoods and cities bearing the brunt of the new wave of infections are being imposed — but the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-hold-3rd-straight-night-of-protests-in-jerusalem-against-lockdown/">lockdowns are sparking protests</a> from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who allege that their communities are being unfairly targeted. The Times of Israel reported that after police announced plans to step up enforcement of social distancing guidelines, ultra-Orthodox news sites and social media accounts shared videos showing police disproportionately targeting ultra-Orthodox communities. </p>
<h3 id="CagjUG">Netanyahu faces a serious political test</h3>
<p id="JfiHnT">The coronavirus pandemic upended the world at the same time that Israel was dealing with its own political strife. </p>
<p id="4hom5L">First of all, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/28/21111500/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-corruption-trump-peace-plan">Netanyahu was indicted</a> for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in January, all of which he denies. His <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51868737">trial started</a> in May.</p>
<p id="Xmuzua">Israel was also forced to tackle the beginning of the pandemic without an officially formed government. In March, right at the beginning of the pandemic, Israel held its third election of the past year — which delivered the third consecutive inconclusive result.</p>
<p id="ufpFCJ">As Vox’s Zack Beauchamp <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/3/4/21161281/israel-election-results-2020-netanyahu-gantz-march">explained</a> in March, neither Netanyahu nor his political rival, Benny Gantz, was able to achieve a parliamentary majority, which requires control of 61 of 120 legislative seats. Netanyahu’s Likud and other right-wing parties won 58 seats, while Gantz’s Blue and White party and center, left, and Arab parties won 55 seats, leaving both potential coalitions unable to claim a majority.</p>
<p id="PxcjpX">Neither of the two previous elections — which were held in April and September 2019 — produced a majority, which Shwartz Altshuler told me was unprecedented in Israeli history.</p>
<p id="fSAto2">Gantz originally vowed to form a government that excluded Netanyahu. But as the pandemic threatened to plunge the world into crisis, Gantz <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-unity-govt-needed-now-im-waiting-for-netanyahu-to-ok-negotiations/">agreed to form an emergency coalition</a> with his political opponent. After weeks of negotiations, the terms were finalized in late April: Netanyahu and Gantz would rotate terms as prime minister, with Netanyahu starting off and Gantz taking over after 18 months. The government was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52699156">sworn in</a> on May 17. </p>
<p id="kJx2e4">Some Israeli critics have argued that Netanyahu <a href="https://apnews.com/9023e2a54c5d5b6b28969292cd55aeba">exploited the coronavirus crisis</a> to keep himself in power. </p>
<p id="11dYaE">“He used Covid-19, I would say, as an excuse to call his rivals and tell them we need to have some kind of an emergency government, and they got convinced by this theory,” Shwartz Altshuler said. </p>
<p id="rtPs7I">So Netanyahu had to tackle the pandemic with an unstable government that <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israels-largest-ever-government-over-the-top-excessive-and-indulgent-628374">critics have already lambasted</a> as too bloated and unnecessarily expensive. To make matters worse, Netanyahu reportedly delegated most coronavirus policy decision-making to himself, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-has-hijacked-israel-s-coronavirus-response-health-experts-say-1.8700250">without consulting public health experts</a> (which sounds strikingly similar to the United States’ approach, which <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/15/us-reports-record-67400-single-day-spike-of-new-coronavirus-cases.html">clearly isn’t working</a>).</p>
<p id="bYcY8N">And Netanyahu himself hasn’t set a proper example for the Israeli people. After urging Israelis to refrain from celebrating Passover with family they don’t live with, he apparently <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-denies-violating-coronavirus-regulations-when-photographed-with-son-1.8754841">violated his own rules</a> by <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-holding-passover-seder-with-his-son-leads-to-criticism/">celebrating with his son</a>, whom he doesn’t live with, prompting criticism from many Israelis who’d refrained from gathering on the holiday.</p>
<p id="GSeual">The botched reopening of the Israeli economy now puts Netanyahu at a crossroads. With the economy heavily damaged and coronavirus cases dramatically rising, reimposing a large-scale shutdown would devastate the economy — Ha’aretz, an Israeli newspaper, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-worst-of-israel-s-economic-fallout-from-coronavirus-is-yet-to-come-1.8957466">reported</a> that the worst economic fallout has yet to come. </p>
<p id="QZeqhJ">But at the same time, the government needs to control the virus, and Shwartz Altshuler told me that the volume of new cases could threaten to overwhelm the hospital system.</p>
<p id="b5lpL8">This time, Netanyahu faces a roadblock he didn’t exactly encounter with the first wave: he has to deal with a severe lack of trust in the government among the Israeli people. An <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/public-trust-in-netanyahu-to-beat-virus-has-declined-dramatically-poll-finds/">Israel Democracy Institute study</a> published on Tuesday found that just 29.5 percent of Israelis trust Netanyahu to manage the coronavirus crisis — down from a high of 57.5 percent in early April. </p>
<p id="EED2YL">Respondents were also asked to choose from a selection of six words to describe how they felt about the government’s coronavirus management. The most popular responses: “angry,” “disappointed,” and “alienated.”</p>
<p id="KK8cFY">Thousands of angry Israelis <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53378442">protested in Tel Aviv</a> on Saturday, demanding that the government distribute promised aid to small businesses. And on Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators outside of his Jerusalem residence <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/resign-protesters-jerusalem-call-pm-removal-200714190337012.html">demanded that Netanyahu resign</a> because of his pandemic mismanagement and corruption charges.</p>
<p id="E5fyuT">Netanyahu has also had to sideline other major political issues facing Israel, including the planned annexation of parts of the West Bank. As Vox’s Jen Kirby <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/13/21317900/israel-west-bank-annexation-palestine-netanyahu-trump">explained</a> earlier this week, plans have stalled due to the pandemic and hesitations — or outright condemnations — from other countries and the United Nations.</p>
<p id="5MhoBq">Netanyahu is in an impossible situation, politically, and whether he can lead Israel through a pandemic, revitalize the economy, and rebuild his credibility — all at the same time — remains to be seen.</p>
<p id="snz7Zp">“Coronavirus, for all its faults, exposes each country’s dysfunction,” Zilber told me. “For the person who’s been leading the country for 11 straight years, politics oftentimes comes first, and there’s no real urgency on the part of the political class to actually put the public’s interest first.”</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/7/15/21326028/israel-netanyahu-coronavirus-covid-19Conor Murray2020-07-10T15:20:00-04:002020-07-10T15:20:00-04:00Australia was a coronavirus success story. Now, an outbreak is prompting new lockdowns.
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<figcaption>Members of Victoria Police perform checks at a road block on the Calder Highway just before Gisborne on July 09, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. | Darrian Traynor/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Hundreds of new cases in the Melbourne area have prompted lockdowns and border closures.</p> <p id="hIm9Io">Australia initially contained its coronavirus outbreak so well that there were <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">several days in May</a> in which the entire country’s daily number of new cases was in just the single digits, and the country began to reopen. But thanks to a new outbreak, the daily numbers are back in the hundreds — and once again, shutdowns are starting.</p>
<p id="FTN0U2">To contain the new resurgence, Australia on Wednesday closed the border separating Victoria and New South Wales, restricting nearly all travel between the two states. The border was closed to contain an outbreak in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, and the surrounding metropolitan area, where hundreds of new cases have been reported over the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53303317">past several weeks</a>.</p>
<p id="mm9vEE">Australia’s management of the pandemic has been a huge <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/asia/australia-coronavirus-success-intl-hnk/index.html">success</a> — the country not only <a href="https://www.adventhealth.com/blog/covid-19-what-does-it-really-mean-flatten-curve">flattened</a> its curve but “crushed” it, as University of South Australia biostatistics professor Adrian Esterman told me. </p>
<p id="YVz1Za">But epidemiologists told me that worldwide, even places with low numbers of new cases will still be susceptible to resurgences until a vaccine is available — so new case numbers, in Australia and elsewhere, will continue to fluctuate.</p>
<p id="O0YGjV">“You’ll have surges where everyone has to go into lockdown and then cases will go down. Then you can start doing normal things again, then the cases will go up, then you’ll have to go into lockdown again,” Raina MacIntyre, head of the Biosecurity Research Program at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales, told me.</p>
<p id="tW3nsm">“It’ll be intermittent periods of epidemic and inter-epidemic periods and intermittent lockdowns to manage the situation until we have a vaccine,” MacIntyre said.</p>
<h3 id="s2Qvvq">How Australia managed to control the pandemic</h3>
<p id="3riwWK">Australia has done a great job controlling the pandemic, experts told me. But you really don’t need experts to tell you that — just look at the country’s total number of cases. </p>
<p id="aRolie">Only <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">slightly more than 9,300 people</a> in Australia have been diagnosed with Covid-19 to date, and about 100 people have died as of July 10, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. To put that in perspective, Peru and Chile have <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/">comparable population sizes</a> to Australia’s — but <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">each has reported over 300,000 coronavirus cases</a>, with thousands of deaths<strong> </strong>as of the same date.</p>
<p id="4TjPtz">The Australian government took the pandemic seriously from the beginning and, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/09/coronavirus-live-updates-us/">unlike in the United States</a>, government officials listened to the advice of public health experts, Esterman told me. Esterman also said the vast majority of the public complied with social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines — again, unlike in the US, where masks are seen by some as an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/29/face-masks-us-politics-coronavirus">attack on individual liberty</a>.</p>
<p id="EREai9">Australia first tackled the virus with a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/asia/australia-coronavirus-success-intl-hnk/index.html">ban on travelers</a> from high-risk areas in February. MacIntyre told me that most cases from the first outbreak were travelers returning to Australia. That, and Australia’s lack of land borders with other countries, made it easier to identify who was infected or at risk.</p>
<p id="K2E4pK">Australia’s borders were closed to non-citizens on March 19, and later that month public gathering places like movie theaters, bars, and schools were closed and social distancing rules were imposed. Testing has also been widely available — more than <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-victorian-outbreak-a-warning-for-everybody/40be87db-533a-44ec-8d15-d47cee54f100">2.6 million people</a> of Australia’s population of 25 million have been tested as of last week.</p>
<p id="woqOy7">The country’s biggest misstep, Esterman told me, was the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/cruise-ship-infamous-for-triggering-virus-surge-leaves-australia">docking of a cruise ship</a> in March with infected passengers on board. Hundreds of cases could be traced back to the Ruby Princess cruise ship, where passengers that were clearly sick left the ship without being tested, dispersing around the country.</p>
<p id="t7prtN">Reopening <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/08/australia/australia-coronavirus-reopen-intl-hnk/index.html">began in May</a>, with the intent of safely reopening the economy fully by July.</p>
<p id="nqQaxe">In the US, the coronavirus is <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/racial-disparities-coronavirus-political-divide-353226">disproportionately impacting</a> Black, Latinx, and Native American communities. But in Australia, although institutional <a href="https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-12-151">racism against Indigenous populations in health care</a> is pervasive, Esterman said there were not significant racial disparities in Covid-19 infection rates during the initial outbreak because not many people were infected in the first place.</p>
<p id="xmkhM0">“There were basically too few cases for there to be any differentiation,” Esterman said.</p>
<p id="2eShvm">But the new Melbourne-area outbreak is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/world/australia/melbourne-coronavirus-outbreak.html">largely affecting immigrant communities</a>. This outbreak began because of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53259356">failures at quarantine hotels</a>, where people who fly into Australia must stay for two weeks under mandatory quarantine. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53259356">The BBC reports</a> that improperly trained private security forces are facing the blame, including allegations of rule-breaking — like sharing cigarette lighters and having sex with quarantined travelers.</p>
<p id="HFPMjZ">From the hotels, the virus spread to low-income communities with large immigrant populations in Melbourne, Esterman told me. He said the government also didn’t spend enough time communicating with these non-English-speaking communities about the importance of mask-wearing and social distancing, leaving them vulnerable.</p>
<p id="MkmdDC">Victoria logged a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/australian-state-records-record-288-coronavirus-cases-71708671">record-high 288 new cases</a> on Friday. That’s the state’s highest number since the 212 new cases reported on March 28, during the peak of the first outbreak. <a href="https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-update">3,379 cases</a> have been reported in Victoria to date.</p>
<p id="7l9WS6">“These are unsustainably high numbers of new cases,” Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/melbourne-lockdown-coronavirus-australia-covid-19-pandemic/2020/07/07/38ff2934-c018-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html">told reporters</a> on Tuesday. “It’s clear we are on the cusp of our second wave — and we cannot let this virus cut through our communities.”</p>
<h3 id="5wnbTZ">Lockdowns are being reimposed<strong> </strong>to contain the new outbreaks</h3>
<p id="lWBvtu">Now, metropolitan Melbourne residents are in a <a href="https://www.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-restrictions-victoria">six-week lockdown</a>, which began Wednesday, with limited exceptions for leaving home or traveling outside the metropolitan area.</p>
<p id="jMbpNx">The Victoria-New South Wales border was closed Tuesday for the first time in 101 years — the last closure was an <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-border-closures-nsw-victoria-history-spanish-flu-pandemic-1919/c153c897-e916-4f05-b499-afa400642b97">attempt to contain the Spanish flu</a> in 1919, which killed 15,000 Australians. </p>
<p id="y2JkHY">People who cross the border, which is guarded by New South Wales police and military personnel, will face large fines; 14-day <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/06/nsw-victoria-border-closure-when-does-it-start-and-are-there-exemptions#_=_">permits are available</a> for a few exceptions, and emergency service and law enforcement workers as well as people seeking medical care are free to cross. </p>
<p id="c8KPsK">People in the metropolitan Melbourne area aren’t eligible for permits except in extreme circumstances, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p id="RFaM3i">MacIntyre told me that the decision to close the border was made once daily new cases hit triple digits. Previously, affected suburbs and apartment buildings were locked down, but case numbers continued to rise, MacIntyre said.</p>
<p id="dCBagM">The border closure is meant to prevent people from bringing Covid-19 from areas with a high number of cases into unaffected areas, Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician and emerging leader in biosecurity fellow at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told me. Kuppalli compared the Australian border closure to stay-at-home orders and quarantine mandates in the US, which are also intended to limit travel. </p>
<p id="KEsDT1">More than 50,000 people <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/08/hours-long-queues-as-more-than-50000-cross-nsw-victoria-border-after-covid-19-closure">crossed</a> the border into New South Wales on Wednesday but were forced to wait for hours due to delays with the online permit system. One person has already been arrested for attempting to cross the border without a valid permit or exemption, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p id="Ry71Lk">Esterman said the fact that people can get a permit and cross the border at all could be dangerous.</p>
<p id="ro9Ulc">“If you live in Victoria and work in South Australia, they will let you through,” he said. “How is that helpful in trying to stop it from spreading from other states?” </p>
<h3 id="qCQzbd">Areas that controlled the spread of the virus will continue to see outbreaks</h3>
<p id="ACCgjq">Australia’s new outbreak and the reimplementation of strict prevention measures show that areas that have limited the spread of the virus aren’t immune to spikes in Covid-19 cases once economies reopen and lockdown policies are lifted.</p>
<p id="at1JvR">“I think there’s always going to be a risk of resurgence until there is a vaccine, and the decision of when to initially reopen the economy and initially reopen society can be guided by best practices and evidence,” Gregory Tasian, an associate professor of urology and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, told me.</p>
<p id="kI3xb9">South Korea also contained its virus outbreak well but then faced spikes in new cases, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21254451/south-korea-nightclub-outbreak-coronavirus-infections-reopening-dangers">one linked to nightclub reopenings</a>. Officials <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/6/22/21299025/south-korea-second-wave-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic">declared in June</a> that the greater Seoul area is facing a second wave.</p>
<p id="lLt0M1">Tasian said areas that meet criteria for reopening should effectively communicate universal masking and implement social-distancing guidelines in the workplace to decrease the overall transmission.</p>
<p id="zkWTHk">But the United States is in a completely different situation than countries like Australia and South Korea, which have both managed to flatten their country’s curve of Covid-19 cases, Tasian said. The Northeast, which was once the US’s epicenter, has been able to control the pandemic, but cases in the South and West are on the rise.</p>
<p id="tCdYu1">“The US never got out of the first wave,” MacIntyre told me. “So opening up is going to be extremely dangerous. It is guaranteed it’s going to result in another big surge of cases.”</p>
<p id="XifwZz">Tasian said that to ideally manage the pandemic, the US should implement nationwide policies, like masking and social distancing, and policies targeted to areas seeing spikes in cases — but that widespread testing is necessary to know which areas are facing larger outbreaks.</p>
<p id="3h3uik">Even if the US manages to<strong> </strong>slow the spread of the coronavirus nationwide — which doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon, as cases have just <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/world/coronavirus-updates.html">topped 3 million</a> and a record-breaking nearly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/world/coronavirus-updates.html">60,000 cases</a> were reported Thursday — it’s clear that we’ll be seeing outbreaks until we finally have a vaccine.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/7/10/21317918/australia-melbourne-victoria-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdownConor Murray2020-06-22T14:40:00-04:002020-06-22T14:40:00-04:00South Korea was a model for how to control the coronavirus. Now, it faces a second wave.
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Cu3UuYxAS11Y2a-C7AN3Zp_1SIQ=/147x0:3974x2870/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66966909/1219295903.jpg.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Medical workers in protective gear collect a sample from a person at a coronavirus testing station in Seoul, South Korea, on June 11, 2020. | Chris Jung/NurPhoto via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>A holiday weekend in May has been linked to small outbreaks in the Seoul area. </p> <p id="NNvUM2">After an aggressive — and mostly successful — push to limit the spread of the coronavirus, South Korean health officials have announced that the greater Seoul area is experiencing a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53135626">second wave</a> as the number of infections rises. </p>
<p id="TqNR0C">The number of new cases flatlined in late April due to a nationwide contact tracing and testing effort. But relaxed social distancing guidelines have triggered a series of small, but concerning, outbreaks — like one in May linked to a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21254451/south-korea-nightclub-outbreak-coronavirus-infections-reopening-dangers">29-year-old man</a> who tested positive for Covid-19 days after partying at Seoul nightclubs with more than 7,000 people.</p>
<p id="n9IKz5">Jung Eun-kyeong, the director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200622000240">confirmed Monday</a> that the rise in cases is likely linked to increased socializing over a May holiday weekend and could continue to spread unless South Koreans engage in social distancing.</p>
<p id="jPVnPr">“As long as close contact amongst people continues to take place, the coronavirus trends in and around Seoul have the makings of the next big wave,” she said.</p>
<p id="TKMaK4">Officials announced 17 new cases on Monday, which is down from the 48 and 67 new cases reported the two days prior. Although these double-digit numbers are small compared to countries bearing the brunt of the pandemic, they’re unmistakably higher than the single-digit numbers South Korea was reporting in late April and early May. </p>
<p id="VQZeqM">In response to the recent spikes, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said he would <a href="https://world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_view.htm?lang=e&Seq_Code=154306">resume stricter social distancing</a> guidelines if the city sees an average of 30 new cases for three days, or if hospital occupancy reaches 70 percent. The city of Daejeon — which is south of the capital — announced Monday it would ban gatherings in public places like museums and libraries, according to the BBC.</p>
<h3 id="awybKK">Before the second wave, South Korea flattened their curve</h3>
<p id="Z2dNct">South Korea was one of the <a href="https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/updated-timeline-coronavirus">first countries</a> to experience a serious outbreak of the coronavirus. The first case was reported on January 20, and the number of new cases <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-south-korea-controlled-its-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-4">peaked</a> on February 29, when more than 900 new cases were diagnosed in a 24-hour period.</p>
<p id="xrBuPo">But the outbreak was quickly managed by widespread testing and contact tracing initiatives, which allowed the country to avoid implementing large-scale lockdowns like the United States.</p>
<p id="2DCkil">In addition to drive-through and walk-up testing, South Korean officials <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-south-korea-controlled-its-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-4">communicated</a> information about new spikes and social distancing protocols through emergency text messages. Smartphone apps also helped South Koreans receive preliminary diagnoses via telemedicine.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="New daily coronavirus cases in South Korea rose somewhat in May and have not gone back down." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3E8f1E0Rd6heY4T-jg_sGXrwazg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20047191/coronavirus_data_explorer.png">
<cite>Our World in Data</cite>
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<p id="godhZY">The government also used phone tracking, credit card records, surveillance video, and personal interviews to conduct <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/coronavirus-south-korea-tracking-apps/2020/03/13/2bed568e-5fac-11ea-ac50-18701e14e06d_story.html">contact tracing</a> to alert people who may have interacted with a carrier of the virus.</p>
<p id="D1BDF4">Things appeared to be as normal as they could be during a pandemic — on April 15, South Koreans could <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/4/17/21221786/coronavirus-south-korea-election-voting-covid-19-pandemic-democracy">vote</a> in elections in person as long as they had a face mask and gloves, and in early May, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/05/03/south-korea-to-ease-social-distancing-rules.html">social distancing restrictions</a> were eased.</p>
<p id="34i5MB">To date, South Korea has <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">recorded</a> more than 12,400 cases and 280 deaths — far less than the United States and Brazil, which lead in positive cases with more than 2 million and 1 million, respectively.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/world/2020/6/22/21299025/south-korea-second-wave-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemicConor Murray2020-06-18T10:55:16-04:002020-06-18T10:55:16-04:00The president of Honduras is the latest world leader to test positive for the coronavirus
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<figcaption>Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández speaks during a press conference to confirm the first two cases of Covid-19 in the country at the Permanent Emergency Operations Center in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on March 11, 2020. | Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The coronavirus is surging in Latin America. Now, the Honduran president is hospitalized.</p> <p id="SckqSt">Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández is the latest world leader to test positive for <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19</a>. He was hospitalized with pneumonia on Wednesday, one day after he announced his coronavirus diagnosis.</p>
<p id="muX5VA">Hernández is in good condition and is receiving intravenous medicine, a Honduran health agency spokesperson <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/honduras-president-hospitalized-covid-19-latin-america-becomes-virus-epicenter-n1231349">said Wednesday</a>. Doctors recommended he be hospitalized after diagnosing him with pneumonia after taking x-rays and lab work.</p>
<p id="iigkRk">In a televised address on Tuesday night, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/world/americas/honduras-president-coronavirus.html">Hernández announced</a> that he began feeling sick over the weekend and received his diagnosis the next day. His wife, first lady Ana García de Hernández, and two presidential aides also tested positive.</p>
<p id="FAwls2">Hernández, who is 51 years old, said he will continue to lead the country while in self-isolation, adding that he feels “enough strength and energy to continue forward and beat this pandemic.” The first lady, who is currently asymptomatic, is also self-isolating.</p>
<p id="Zw2iGo">A <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/americas/honduras-president-coronavirus-intl/index.html">statement from his office</a> said that Hernández had “at all times maintained the preventive measures recommended by the health authorities,” but that “the nature of his job made staying completely isolated from others impossible,” according to CNN. The statement also urged Hondurans to continue taking preventative measures like social distancing and wearing masks.</p>
<p id="g4bnnv">Hernández has led Honduras since 2014 — and since then, he’s been a subject of widespread controversy. He has affirmed his commitment to fighting drug trafficking — but his brother was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/world/americas/honduras-president-brother-drug-trafficking.html">convicted</a> for that exact crime in October, and Hernández has been <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/accusations-honduras-president/">accused</a> of being an accomplice. </p>
<p id="xOQvqK">Hernández also narrowly won a second term in 2017 in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote">controversial election</a> in which both candidates declared themselves the winner after a long and contentious vote count. US President Donald Trump backed Hernández’s victory despite protests in Honduras and calls from American politicians for new elections.</p>
<p id="SvqYz2">Hernández’s diagnosis comes as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/world/coronavirus-us-usa.html">coronavirus cases surge</a> in Latin America, leading the World Health Organization to declare the region the new <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/869053446/latin-america-becomes-a-new-epicenter-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic">epicenter</a> of the pandemic.</p>
<p id="GWGOW7">Honduras has reported nearly 10,000 total <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_10">cases</a> and more than 300 deaths, and despite concerns about the capacity of the country’s health care system, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/06/08/world/americas/08reuters-health-coronavirus-honduras-economy.html">businesses began reopening</a> last week. Hernández claimed that the economy could no longer handle being shut down after businesses closed and a curfew was issued in mid-March.</p>
<p id="UcNnd9">Brazil has borne the brunt of the pandemic in Latin America, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/17/879038308/brazil-reports-big-surge-in-coronavirus-infections">reporting</a> nearly 35,000 new cases within a 24-hour period on Tuesday. Brazil, which is approaching 1 million total cases, ranks second to the United States in total number of cases.</p>
<h3 id="wDFm3V">Hernández is the latest in a series of world leaders to test positive</h3>
<p id="QJUqmy">Hernández is the <a href="https://burgeronreport.com/the-weather-world-president-of-honduras-tests-positive-for-coronavirus/">first leader</a> in Latin America to test positive for Covid-19, but several other political figures around the world have fought their own battles with the virus. </p>
<p id="P0R0JN">In March, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21196747/boris-johnson-coronavirus-uk-prime-minister-positive">British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced</a> that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus. Initially, Johnson continued to work while in self-isolation, but his condition <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/world/europe/boris-johnson-coronavirus.html">worsened</a>, and he was admitted to the hospital and spent three nights in the intensive care unit. After receiving oxygen treatment in the ICU, Johnson was discharged from the hospital on April 12.</p>
<p id="7VoR3P">The coronavirus has also ravaged the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-corridors-power-which-world-leaders-have-covid-19/">Iranian government</a>, with at least 24 members of Parliament reporting positive diagnoses, including two deaths. Russian Prime Minister <a href="https://www.india.com/news/world/russian-pm-mikhail-mishustin-resumes-work-after-covid-19-recovery-4033984/">Mikhail Mishustin</a> and Armenian Prime Minister <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/world/armenian-pm-nikol-pashinyan-says-he-has-recovered-from-covid-19-2659403.html">Nikol Pashinyan</a> have both tested positive and recovered.</p>
<p id="iJOYn9">Hernández’s wife is also not the first spouse of a head of state to test positive. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the <a href="https://apnews.com/8e5e24ffc4fb4ec2319ecc4a62415331">wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau</a>, contracted Covid-19 in March and recovered later that month following a self-isolation period. The Ukrainian government announced yesterday that Olena Zelenska, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/ukraine-presidents-wife-hospitalized-with-moderate-coronavirus/">wife of president Volodymyr Zelensky</a>, was hospitalized after contracting the virus.</p>
https://www.vox.com/world/2020/6/17/21294280/honduras-president-coronavirus-positive-covid-19-latin-america-pandemicConor Murray