Category: zerohedge

In case a global viral pandemic wasn’t enough of a concern, on Saturday Saudi Arabia launched a global oil price war, when Aramco announced unprecedented discounts on Brent shipments to clients around the globe, with Bloomberg later reporting that the OPEC nation was set to flood the world with excess production potentially to as much as a record 12 million barrels a day, which in a world where oil demand has cratered due to China’s economy remaining paralyzed due to the pandemic, assures that when Brent reopens for trading tonight it will be in freefall, tumbling into the $30s if not lower as OPEC is no more and every producer now scrambles to undercut everyone else in price, unleashing another deflationary massacre and forcing central banks to pull another market-supporting rabbit out of their hat.

Until they do, however, traders in the Middle East where markets have already reopened, decided to sell first and ask questions later, as stocks cratered ahead of the first official oil price prints, which will come after what was already the biggest one day drop in Brent since 2008 on Friday after news that the OPEC+ alliance had fractured. And now oil will have a Saudi oil price war to deal with, prompting some to speculate that the price oil could drop into the high teens, if not lower.

Kuwait led the sell-off, halting trading of the biggest and most liquid shares after its index tumbled 10% and bringing its losses this year to 18%, while every stock index in the region plunged. Dubai’s DFM General Index and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index clocked up the sharpest drop for a session since the 2008 financial crisis.

And, as we noted last night when we pointed out that Aramco’s IPO top-ticked the market in both Brent and global investor stupidity…

… oil giant Saudi Aramco fell below its IPO price for the first time, plunging down over 9% to a record low of SAR30.00.

Elsewhere, Dubai’s DFM General Index and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index all posted the biggest one-day drops since the 2008 financial crisis.

Bank shares were hit the hardest: in Riyadh, Al Rajhi Bank finished 7% lower. Emirates NBD PJSC, Dubai’s biggest bank, fell 9.6%, while First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC and National Bank of Kuwait SAKP ended 6.7% and 9.3% lower, respectively.

Some more details from Bloomberg:

• Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index was back to the level of November 2017, before its inclusion in the emerging-market gauges compiled by MSCI Inc. and FTSE Russell.
• Dubai’s DFM General Index finished 7.9% lower, with real estate bellwether Emaar Properties down 9.7% to the lowest since 2012.
• Kuwait’s main index extended losses this year to 18%, compared with a 32% gain in 2019 that was the best performance in the region.
• Indexes in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and Israel all traded below a technical threshold that indicated they were oversold.

Commenting on the bloodbath, Mohammed Ali Yasin, chief strategy officer at Al Dhabi Capital said that mideast markets “are finding it difficult to cope with all these variables that have been happening over the past 10 days. That’s why we see this panic-selling across the board taking certain markets to lows not seen even during the financial crisis.”

“The sharp decline in oil prices is becoming a bigger concern for regional investors amid adverse global headlines,” said Iyad Abu Hweij, managing partner at Allied Investment Partners in Dubai, who expects “heightened anxiety” to persist in markets.

Meanwhile, ahead of Monday’s US open, UK spreadbetting service IG was indicating Dow futures to be down more than 500 points, as last week’s violent selloff was set to return with a bang and as traders hoped that the Fed would make another emergency announcement later on Sunday to help ease the pain.

The drastic new measures announced yesterday in Rome’s draft decree to contain Europe’s worst novel coronavirus outbreak have now been put into practice: Italians awakened on Sunday to conditions that haven’t been seen in the country since the partisans in Giulino di Mezzegra, a small village in the Italian north that is now under quarantine, executed Mussolini.

With the quarantine imposing strict rules governing who can and can’t leave the area, anyone living in Lombardy and 14 other central and northern provinces will need special permission to travel. Milan and Venice, two of the largest cities in the country, which is also Europe’s third-largest economy with a total population of roughly 60 million – are both affected.

Overall, some 16 million Italians will be impacted by the strict quarantines – roughly 25% of the Italian population.

The most salient details of the Italian quarantine are as follows: In the quarantine region, weddings and funerals have been suspended, as well as religious and cultural events. Cinemas, night clubs, gyms, swimming pools, museums and ski resorts have been closed. Restaurants and cafes in the quarantined zones can open between 06:00 and 18:00 but customers must sit at least 1m (3ft) apart. People have been told to stay at home as much as possible, the BBC reports.

Those who willingly decide to break the quarantine could face three months in jail.

Restrictions apply to all of the Lombardy region, which includes many of Italy’s largest cities and most economically important provinces. According to Turkey’s Anadolou News Agency, along with Lombardy, the quarantine includes the cities of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro e Urbino, Alessandria, Asti, Novara, Verbano Cusio Ossola, Vercelli, Padova, Treviso and Venice.

PM Giuseppe Conte said sports matches will be held without crowds, and that schools in all quarantined locations will be on break until April 3.

In a tweet retweeted by Conte, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros congratulated the Italian government for imposing “extraordinary measures”, and specifically praised Italian President Sergio Mattarrella for his boldness in getting the draft decree adopted into law.

Of course, while these measures are undoubtedly bold, they’re coming rather late in the game. Italy has confirmed 233 deaths connected to the outbreak, most of them in Lombardy, but cases and deaths have been confirmed across the country now, including a US Navy serviceman in Naples. 5,061 cases have been confirmed across Italy.

Wow from Italian data 10% of cases admitted to ICU… pic.twitter.com/FSWx2xG8oY

— FxMacro (@fxmacro) March 5, 2020

In the Vatican, which confirmed its first case the other day, Pope Francis delivered his first live-streamed Sunday prayer to avoid the usual crowds forming. The Pope said he was “close through prayer” with those suffering from the epidemic. The Pope is also just recovering from a relatively serious ‘indisposition’ that officials said was definitely not the coronavirus (the pontiff was reportedly tested).

Over in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of NIAID and the CDC’s point man on the outbreak, delivered some appropriately severe comments in a statement to the press delivered early Sunday.

The celebrated epidemiologist warned the public that they should avoid public gatherings because the virus’s seemingly rapid spread within communities on the West Coast is “not encouraging.”

• FAUCI SAYS SCOPE OF CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IN UNITED STATES ‘NOT ENCOURAGING’ BECAUSE OF SPREAD WITHIN COMMUNITIES
• NIAID HEAD ANTHONY FAUCI SAYS U.S. NEEDS TO LOOK AT CANCELLING EVENTS WITH LARGE GATHERINGS OF PEOPLE IF COMMUNITY SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS INCREASES.

The Washington Post reports, citing a tweet from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), that the Grand Princess passengers are expected to be quarantined at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, where evacuees from the Diamond Princess and Wuhan have been quarantined.

Meanwhile, hours after announcing the District’s first coronavirus case, the DC Department of Health said Sunday that it was investigating whether members of a Georgetown church were exposed to the deadly virus.

In Albany, Gov. Cuomo said that NY and NYC wanted to avoid the quarantines imposed in Italy and China, but he would shut down NYC schools if he really felt it necessary.

• CUOMO: WANTS TO AVOID MASSIVE QUARANTIES USED IN CHINA, ITALY
• CUOMO” `IF WE NEED TO CLOSE SCHOOLS, WE WILL CLOSE SCHOOLS’
• CUOMO SAYS NO REASON NOW TO CLOSE DOWN MASS TRANSIT IN CITY
• NEW YORK GOV ANDREW CUOMO COMMENTS ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL

NY Gov Andrew Cuomo just told Fox News “worse than the virus right now is the fear pandemic” & “the fear is more dangerous than the virus.”

This is a trope ppl repeat that sounds insightful — but is it true? Undue fear is dumb, yes, but the virus is killing people — is the fear?

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) March 8, 2020

In a tweet sent early Sunday, President Trump defended the US response to the virus, praised VP Mike Pence (but notably not HHS Secretary Azar, and insisted that the “Fake News” media was deliberately trying to make him look bad.

We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus. We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2020

We can’t help but wonder: Does this “plan” involve mass Italy- and/or China-style quarantines?

Elsewhere, in the UK, health officials confirmed another batch of cases, bringing the national total between the four kingdoms to 273. Among them, a student at Oxford University, the first case at the school.

As we reported last night, South America recorded its first coronavirus death, a 64-year-old Argentinian man, meanwhile, in Australia, a man in his 80s died, marking the country’s third death from the virus.

In Malaysia, which has been one of the more successful countries at combating the outbreak, officials banned all cruise ships from landing (taking a page out of President Trump’s book).

Of course, even as President Trump said he would prefer to leave the passengers on the Grand Princess offshore indefinitely (he doesn’t need his ‘numbers’ to double, as he said the other day), the US doesn’t have that luxury considering most of them are American citizens.

The Netherlands reports 77 new cases of coronavirus and 2 new deaths, raising total to 265 cases and 3 dead. German Health Minister Jens Spahn advised all events with more than 1,000 participants to be cancelled.

Iran on Sunday reported 49 deaths and more than 700 new cases of the virus, according to health authorities. As the worst outbreak outside China intensifies, the regime has urged citizens to stay home and avoid travel between cities, while many of Iran’s neighbors have closed their borders to Iranian citizens.

According to WaPo, the new cases bring the official death toll in Iran to 194, with a total number of confirmed cases climbing to 6,566 infections.

The new cases bring the official death toll in Iran to 194, with a total of 6,566 infections, according to the Health Ministry.

The outbreak is one of the largest outside China, where it is believed the virus originated.

In New York, as the number of confirmed cases passes 100, an Uber driver living in the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway has reportedly been hospitalized with the virus. As one reporter noted.

Lmao my life in a tweet https://t.co/xna4xrmdzN

— Lauren Tara LaCapra (@LaurenLaCapra) March 7, 2020

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has become the latest former presidential candidate to endorse former president Joe Biden in his bid for the White House – saying on Sunday that she would do “everything in my power” to help the former VP win.

“There is no one better prepared than Joe to steer our nation through these turbulent times, and restore truth, honor, and decency to the Oval Office,” said Harris, adding “He is kind and endlessly caring, and he truly listens to the American people.”

Recorded 7 days ago, with hostage-tape production values, Harris frames endorsement of Biden in terms of civil rights–same subject she attacked him on during campaign. https://t.co/mg8FbOCMal

— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 8, 2020

She’s certainly come a long way, after feigning outrage over Biden’s praise of segregationist Democrat Senators.

Kamala Harris blasts Joe Biden for praising racist Democrat segregationist Senators

Biden looks like he is about to cry

The crowd erupts in cheers pic.twitter.com/Exhn4xciAD

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 28, 2019

Was it all just an act? Of course it was.

Remember when the gullible, brain-dead media believed that she was sincerely outraged about Joe Biden’s comments on busing from the 70s https://t.co/iQBg36gh4u

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 8, 2020

Harris, who withdrew from the 2020 race in December, joins Sen. Amy Klobuchar, (D-MN), former South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, ex-New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, Rep. Tim Ryan, (D-OH), former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, and former Maryland congressman John Delaney in endorsing Biden, according to Fox News.

Rumors have begun to circulate that Harris will be Biden’s pick for VP. He’s going to need all the help he can get.

Brutal pic.twitter.com/KxdiuhCaQ3

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 8, 2020

Covid-19 has become a significant headache for the global air travel industry, according to a new report from Jefferies. In fact, it is about to become the biggest shock for airlines on record as global air traffic is expected to dive 8.9% this year as the global viral pandemic paralyzes transportation routes across the globe.

In its reported cited by Bloomberg, Jefferies said that the latest demand shock to hit the airline industry is the largest drop in data that goes back to 1978, and it even dwarfs the impact seen during the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. “It’s unprecedented,” said Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu.

We noted last week that more than 200,000 flights across the world had been canceled as the virus crossed into pandemic status. At the same time, retail outlets at airports around the globe reported a significant drop in foot traffic, resulting in a collapse in sales at duty-free shops.

In a separate report by Moodie Davitt Report, a travel retail-intelligence service provider, they said this is the “the greatest crisis the travel retail sector has faced, worse than [severe acute respiratory syndrome], the two Gulf wars or various financial crises.”

“That’s largely driven by the fact that the Chinese traveler has become the epicenter of the sector over recent years and many retailers are worryingly reliant on them.”

Plunging air traffic has also meant a plunge in jet fuel demand. Singapore jet fuel prices have fallen 30% since the start of 2020 and contributed to a 50% collapse in jet fuel crack spreads, now at 2009 lows. 

And to show you how the airline industry has gone bust. Airports across the world are deserted:

What to make of the virus and the economy? Here’s O’Hare airport in Chicago tonight at 7pm rush hour … pic.twitter.com/OzYNWoWLxa

— Evan Feigenbaum (@EvanFeigenbaum) March 3, 2020

Dubai AirPort empty #coronavirusus pic.twitter.com/lAcAteZMvg

— Ali (@Ali71349739) March 4, 2020

I’ve never seen London Heathrow airport so empty. #Heathrow pic.twitter.com/CqXIqAXE7Y

— Maria Ramos (@MariaRamosUK) March 6, 2020

Saturday afternoon, Melbourne airport. Pretty much empty. pic.twitter.com/TAssXbjMVj

— Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) March 7, 2020

Disgraced movie moguel and #MeToo posterboy Harvey Weinstein is awaiting what will in all likelihood be a de facto life sentence for the nearly 70-year-old mogul, whose health has allegedly deteriorated significantly following his epic fall from grace, going from one of the most powerful men in Hollywood to a federal inmate in the span of three years.

As the world waits to see what Weinstein’s sentence will be, New York prosecutors on Friday filed a letter to judge James Burke in advance of Weinstein’s March 11 sentencing arguing that he should be held accountable for a “lifetime of abuse” in which he “trapped women into his exclusive control and assaulted or attempted to assault them.”

Weinstein should be punished not only for the crimes detailed during his trial, but for 36 other alleged cases of sexual harassment and assault, workplace abuse and even physically assaulting a reporter that have become part of the public record.

#HarveyWeinstein: state prosecutors just filed a sentencing letter on what they think Justice James Burke should consider when determining Harvey Weinstein’s sentence and that includes any prior bad acts that go beyond the allegations in their case. It’s an 11-page letter. pic.twitter.com/zwMw8jZ6Pv

— Marta Dhanis (@MartaDhanis) March 6, 2020

The 11-page letter was penned by Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, who presided over the prosecution during Weinstein’s trial, where he was found guilty on two of the four charges. Though he evaded the most serious charge of predatory sexual assault, he will still likely face a decades-long sentence.

In the letter, Illuzzi-Orbon delivers a devastating account of the longtime Democratic donor’s vicious sexually-tinged crimes. “Throughout his entire adult professional life, Weinstein has displayed a staggering lack of empathy, treating others with disdain and inhumanity. He has consistently advanced his own sordid desires and fixations over the well-being of others,” she wrote.

Most of the letter is a stunningly long itemization of Weinstein’s alleged misconduct, drawing on a two-year investigation out of the New York district attorney’s office. She breaks the shocking litany up into three categories: “sexual assault and harassment,” “bad acts and behavior in the work environment” and “other bad acts.”

The trial evidence, the testimony of the six accusers who took the stand, and the additional allegations depict a person who has spent his entire adult life preying on women and those weaker than him.

Illuzzi-Orbon asked Judge Burke to “impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, his total lack of remorse for the harm he has caused, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in further criminal conduct.”

Weinstein was convicted Feb. 24 of third-degree rape and first-degree sexual assault involving two women. The recommended sentencing range is five to 25 years – which means it’s still possible that he could get off with a light enough sentence allowing him to spend his final years outside a jail cell.

00206BBA156C200306150808 by Zerohedge on Scribd

Jussie Smollett’s career may be over, but his legal troubles have just been renewed for another season.

On Friday, the Illinois Supreme Court rejected the former “Empire” star’s request to throw out charges accusing him of staging a racist hate crime hoax in Chicago, after Cook County special prosecutor Dan Webb slapped him with a six-count indictment last month.

Smollett’s lawyers had filed an emergency petition claiming that Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Toomin overstepped his authority and erred when appointed Webb to investigate the case, according to Fox News. The State Supreme Court did not elaborate on why they rejected Smollett’s arguments.

Smollett. 37, was initially accused by Cook County prosecutors of falsely reporting to police that the alleged phony attack was real. Sixteen counts of disorderly conduct originally filed against him were dismissed and Toomin found Smollett’s first prosecution was invalid.

After another investigation by special prosecutor Dan Webb, six counts of the same charges we filed against Smollett, to which he pleaded not guilty last week.

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that two masked men attacked him as he was walking home in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2019. He said they made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing, and that at least one of his attackers was a white man who told him he was in “MAGA country,” a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” –Fox News

As we noted in Feburary, Smollett – whose sisters worked for President Obama, was originally slapped with a 16-count indictment for lying to the police, however the Cook County State Attorney’s office suddenly dropped the charges after  Michelle Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen, pressured Chicago’s top prosecutor, Kim Foxx, to transfer the case to the FBI. When that wasn’t done, Foxx’s office decided not to pursue the case. 

Explaining their decision to drop the case, Foxx’s office said: “After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollet’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition & appropriate resolution.”

And now it’s back on… Seems like things are just heating up for Jussie in ‘MAGA country.’

While Federal officials are investigating a Seattle-area nursing home for a Covid-19 outbreak, local officials have started building several “quarantine villages” in the Seattle–Tacoma metropolitan area. 

Seattle appears to be the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the US, with 39 confirmed cases and ten deaths. Many of the deaths have been situated at a nursing home in Kirkland, a suburb east of Seattle.

Virus fears prompted Washington’s Secretary of State and Department of Health on Tuesday to inform the public that everyone who votes during the presidential primary by mail-in ballot to use “alternative methods” in sealing the envelope that holds the ballot instead of using their tongue. 

The tweet said: “As recommended by @WADeptHealth, please use alternative methods to seal your ballot return envelopes, such as a wet sponge or cloth.”

As recommended by @WADeptHealth, please use alternative methods to seal your ballot return envelopes, such as a wet sponge or cloth.

Washington’s Presidential Primary is March 10. Use a ballot drop box to return your ballot by 8 p.m. Election Day. #waelex pic.twitter.com/UOk8Ld4Z3m

— WA Secretary of State (@secstatewa) March 3, 2020

A catchy slogan was attached to the tweet that reads: “Whether healthy or sick, please don’t lick!

And here is how Twitter responded: 

Too late

— Gregg Weber (@TangentSpeak) March 3, 2020

Now you tell me after I dropped it off! Too late.

— Sharon (@Sharon05695803) March 4, 2020

I always just use scotch tape. I never lick envelopes — who knows what’s on there?

— JoJo Zawawi (@jojozawawi) March 3, 2020

Ummm I voted already and licked

— HollieJoy STILL WANTS A WOMAN PRES (@HollieJoyJoy) March 4, 2020

sorry, I licked it ,and voted Trump too

— Michael Cole (@Michael73220252) March 4, 2020

Lebanon announced Saturday it will default on its Eurobond debt for the first time in its history. The protest-racked country has seen a recent change in government, banks opened for merely about half of the past few months, strict controls on hard currency withdrawals and transfers abroad amid a liquidity crisis, a plummeting Lebanese Lira since October, a run on dollars, and crushing public debt which has lately blown up to nearly 170% of its gross domestic product (now about $89.5 billion).

Prime Minister Hassan Diab confirmed in public statements the bond payment of $1.2 billion due on Monday will not be paid: “The debt has become bigger than Lebanon can bear, and bigger than the ability of the Lebanese to meet interest payments,” he said in a televised address. “We are paying the price for the mistakes of the past years. Must we bequeath them to our children?” 

The broader crisis is being widely described as the worst and most potentially destabilizing disaster since the 1975-90 civil war. It also means that the country’s bond which mature on Monday and which last traded at a price of 57 cents on the dollar (or roughly 8000% YTM) won’t be repaid.

Local banks, which own some of the Eurobonds set to mature on March 9, have long argued against a default. But clients also fear the continued rapid depletion of their savings. Diab, appearing to respond not only to the people in the streets but to criticisms from the West centered on the Mediterranean nation’s decades of state corruption, pledged to continue negotiations to restructure the country’s debt “with all creditors… in a manner consistent with the national interest.”

“How can we pay creditors abroad when the Lebanese cannot get their money from their bank accounts?” Diab questioned, referencing controversial emergency measures banks have enacted since the start of the year, which in most places has limited account holders to withdrawing a mere $200 total a week. The Lebanese had “lived a dream that was a delusion as though things were just fine, while Lebanon was drowning in more debt,” he said further.

The domestic divide on the first ever default, which didn’t even occur during the civil war period, is further described as follows: 

According to Marwan Barakat, head of research at Bank Audi, Lebanese banks owned $12.7bn of the country’s outstanding $30bn Eurobonds as of the end of January.

The central bank held $5.7bn and the remainder was owned by foreign creditors, he said.

According to local media reports, Lebanese banks have recently sold a chunk of their Eurobonds to foreign lenders.

Anti-government demonstrators who have remained on the streets since October have lobbied against repayment, fearing a depletion of reserves could further limit access to their savings.

In one of the more deeply alarming moments of his speech, Diab — who’s only been prime minister since January after the former government stepped down — cited World Bank figures forecasting that over 40% of the population could soon enter poverty. And Monday’s default, it will be even sooner.

Stretching back to last year, massive and sometimes violent intermittent anti-corruption protests have at times brought major cities to a stand-still, as the enraged public has consistently accused the national and commercial banks of “theft” while the bankers desperately attempted to defend against a massive run on the dollar and lack of confidence in the local currently.  

All of this of course also comes as ill-prepared Beirut health officials deal with coronavirus, given there’s been at least 15 confirmed cases since late February.

“Whether it’s coronavirus, or any disease, or any problem, the government isn’t prepared to deal with anything,” a real estate broker told Reuters this week. It will be remarkable how often that complaint is repeated when addressing countless other governments around the globe.

The latest alarming twist in the ‘Grand Princess’ saga is that the 71-year-old former passenger who died in California’s Placer County may have already been infected with the virus when he boarded, meaning that the virus may have been circulating in northern California as early as late January.

It’s certainly a disturbing discovery as officials in California and Washington State have stumbled upon an alarming rash of potentially infected individuals many of whom have been unable to secure a test, even though federal officials said Saturday that tests are being shipped.

Though, as USA Today points out, this is only a theory at this point; investigators stressed that nothing has been confirmed. That would also seriously undermine the Trump Administration’s response, as President Trump has at times seemed dismissive of the threat posed by the virus, something that Democrats are already exploiting for political points, even as the administration is “catching up” – in the words of former FDA director Dr. Scott Gottlieb.

However, “if true, it could mean there was so-called community spread of the virus in California earlier than authorities have previously disclosed,” one official said.

During a conference call with reporters on Saturday evening, Carnival Corp Chief Medical Officer Grant Tarling said the man boarded the ship in San Francisco on Feb. 11, when it set sail for Mexico.

Tarling said the man sought medical treatment from the ship’s medical center on Feb. 20, when he reported symptoms of an “acute respiratory illness” for about a week.

Since the virus has an incubation of roughly five to six days for the first symptoms to emerge, it’s reasonable to suspect that he picked it up before boarding, meaning it was likely acquired in Cali then brought on board the ship. 

“We believe this case was community acquired in California and brought on the ship,” Tarling said.

Interestingly, Placer County health officials are disputing the company’s claim: They’re insisting he probably picked up the virus aboard the cruise.

“The Placer County health officer, however, disputed Tarling’s statement and said the passenger probably contracted the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease while on the cruise.”

Is this just the latest example of authorities refusing to accept the true gravity of the situation?

Authored by John Stossel via Townhall.com,

South Carolina mom Debra Harrell worked at McDonald’s.

She couldn’t afford day care for Regina, her 9-year-old daughter, so she took her to work.

But Regina was bored at McDonald’s.

One day, she asked if she could just play in the neighborhood park instead.

“I felt safe there,” tells me in my new video, “because I was with my friends and their parents.”

“She had her cellphone, a pocketbook with money in it,” says Debra.

“She had everything she needed.”

Regina was happy. Debra was happy.

But one parent asked Regina where her mom was, and then called the police. Officers went to McDonald’s and arrested Debra.

In jail, they berated her.

“You can’t leave a child who is 9 years old in the park by herself!” said one officer. “What if some sex offender came by?”

People interviewed by the media were also outraged.

“What if a man came and just snatched her?” asked one.

“This day and time, you never know who’s around!” said another.

But what are they talking about?

Crime in America is way down, half what it was in the ’90s. Reports of missing children are also down.

If kids are kidnapped or molested, it’s almost always by a relative or an acquaintance, not by a stranger in a park.

Nevertheless, prosecutors charged Debra Harrell with “willful abandonment of a child,” a crime that carries up to a 10-year sentence.

They also took Regina away from her mom — for two weeks.

“I would cry as night because I was really scared,” Regina told me. “I didn’t know where I was, or what was going on.”

Fortunately, attorney Robert Phillips took Debra’s case for free. He didn’t like the way police and media portrayed her.

“Here was this black female that society gives a hard time. ‘Welfare queens, living at home, not getting a job!’ Well, that’s what she was doing,” he said.

“She was out working, trying the best she could to take care of her child. And now we’re beating her up because we didn’t like the way she took care of her child.”

The cops said that Harrell should have sent her daughter to day care. But even if she could have afforded it, it’s not clear that day care is safer.

“We found 42 incidents of sexual molestations, rapes in day cares,” said Phillips.

“We couldn’t find (in South Carolina in the last 20 years) a single abduction in a park.”

Philips blames people in my business for scaring people about the wrong things.

“The media has brought up this ‘stranger danger’ to where, if you’re not under the protective wings of mom and dad 24/7, then you’re exposing your child to some unknown danger.”

That has frightened police and child welfare workers into taking absurd steps when parents leave children alone.

In Maryland, police accused parents of child neglect for letting their kids roam around their neighborhood.

In Kentucky, after police reported a mom who left her kids in the car while she dashed into a store, child welfare workers strip-searched the kids to make sure they weren’t being abused.

This doesn’t protect kids. It mostly scares parents into depriving their kids of chances to learn.

“When you don’t let them spread their wings, that’s when they get in trouble!” says Debra.

She was fortunate that her case got enough attention that even Nikki Haley, then South Carolina’s governor, asked that Regina be given back to her mom.

Prosecutors finally dropped the child abandonment charge.

It’s just not right that when stranger kidnappings are increasingly rare, police and child welfare workers are more eager to punish parents who let kids play on their own.

“A Utah law guarantees that giving kids some reasonable independence isn’t ‘neglect,'” says Lenore Skenazy, of the nonprofit Let Grow, “More states need this!”

Of course, some parents are so neglectful that government should intervene.

But as lawyer Phillips put it, they should intervene “only if you are subjecting your child to a real harm. We should not have unreasonable intrusions by the government telling us every little detail how to raise our children.”