Showing posts with label State Department. Show all posts

Monday, February 17, 2020

U.S. flies 338 Americans home from cruise ship, including 14 with coronavirus

February 18, 2020 06H27 GMT/ZULU

by Suzanne Gould and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Washington

More than 300 Americans who had been stuck on a cruise ship affected by the coronavirus were back in the United States on Monday, flown to U.S. military bases for two more weeks of quarantine after spending the previous 14 days docked in Japan.

A chartered evacuation aircraft operated by Kalitta Air waits for U.S. passengers who have chosen to leave the Diamond Princess cruise ship, to fly back to the United States, at Haneda airport in Japan February 17, 2020. Courtesy of Philip and Gay Courter/via REUTERS.

Among those repatriated on a pair of U.S.-chartered jets were 14 people who tested positive for the fast-spreading virus, seven on each plane. The Diamond Princess cruise ship held by far the largest cluster of cases outside China, with more than 400 people infected out of some 3,700 on board.

The coronavirus outbreak has killed 1,770 people in China and five elsewhere, with Chinese officials reporting another 2,048 cases on Monday, raising the total to 70,548.

Washington previously flew hundreds of Americans from China to military bases in the United States, and then arranged to bring back the 338 cruise ship passengers once their 14-day quarantines on board had expired.

Another 60 Americans remained in Japan for monitoring, State Department officials said.

A further 200 U.S. citizens were stuck in Cambodia, among them 92 still on board another cruise ship, the Westerdam, that was also affected by the virus.

The Diamond Princess was ordered to stay under quarantine at Yokohama port on Feb. 3 after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man, who was on board from Jan. 20 to Jan. 25, developed the virus.

U.S. officials previously pledged to keep infected Americans in Japan for treatment. But they said they were forced to change plans after the passengers disembarked and were on their way to the airport when Japanese officials informed them that 14 of those in transit had tested positive.

“It was only when they were loaded onto these buses that we were made aware these positive results had come back from the government of Japan,” Dr. William Walters, a senior medical official for the State Department, told a news briefing.

“They were then taken off the bus, moved into the aircraft and that dedicated isolation area, which was the safest place for them to get away from the rest of the passengers and give us time to make decisions,” Walters said.

The infected passengers were isolated in specialized containment areas aboard the two chartered jets. They were exposed to other passengers for about 40 minutes during the bus ride.

“We removed them from the buses as soon as those buses came to a stop on the tarmac and it was safe to do so,” Walters said.

One of those planes landed at Travis Air Force Base in California on Sunday night.

A few hours later, the other plane landed on Monday morning at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, where news video showed a ground crew in anticontamination suits climbing the stairs to the plane in the predawn fog. Passengers later descended wearing surgical masks.

The 14 passengers who had tested positive were immediately moved to a separate facility in Omaha, Nebraska, officials said.

Like other repatriated Americans, the remaining passengers will be quarantined on the bases for 14 days.

Previously, more than 40 Americans on the Diamond Princess had tested positive, and U.S. health officials said they would remain in Japan for treatment.

Before the arrival of the sickened passengers from the cruise, U.S. officials had reported 15 cases in seven states, most of them travelers who had returned from China but also three who had been evacuated on other U.S.-chartered planes repatriating Americans.

Friday, November 22, 2019

BREAKING: Trump impeachment inquiry: Released records reveal Pompeo-Giuliani contacts

Media captionThis week's impeachment hearings in three minutes

by Susan Riddell and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Washington

The US State Department has released records relating to the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine.

Documents were released to the ethics watchdog American Oversight after a freedom of information request.

They mention contacts between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mr Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, American Oversight said.

US ties with Ukraine are at the centre of an impeachment investigation against Mr Trump.

Mr Giuliani has been accused of trying to discredit former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch while running a shadow US foreign policy on Ukraine. There have been questions over what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knew.

"We can see why Mike Pompeo has refused to release this information to Congress. It reveals a clear paper trail from Rudy Giuliani to the Oval Office to Secretary Pompeo to facilitate Giuliani's smear campaign against a US ambassador," said American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers in a statement.

"This is just the first round of disclosures. The evidence is only going to get worse for the administration as its stonewall strategy collapses in the face of court orders."

Mr Evers said the release of the documents showed that there was no legal basis for the Trump administration to withhold records from Congress.

"That conclusively shows that the administration is engaged in obstruction of justice," he said.

"The president and his allies should ask themselves if impeachment for obstruction is worth it if the strategy isn't even going to be effective."

Media captionMr Giuliani is alleged to have sought to dig up dirt on Democrat candidate Joe Biden

The US president is accused of withholding US military aid to pressure Ukraine into investigating a domestic political rival.

At the heart of the inquiry is a phone call on 25 July this year between Mr Trump and Ukraine's newly elected president.

On the call, Mr Trump urged his counterpart to look into unsubstantiated corruption claims against Democratic White House contender Joe Biden.

Mr Giuliani has been central in pushing those allegations. He has been subpoenaed for documents by impeachment investigators but has previously said he won't co-operate with Democrats.

Mr Trump's critics say this alleged political pressure on a vulnerable US ally amounted to abuse of power. The president strongly denies any wrongdoing.