The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process.U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated technical aspects of the companies’ proposals to run the $10 billion computing project.The filing doesn’t address Amazon’s broader argument that the bidding was improperly influenced by President Donald Trump’s dislike of Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns The Washington Post, a news outlet with which Trump has often clashed.Amazon Web Services is a market leader in providing cloud computing services and had long been considered a leading candidate to run the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, known as JEDI. The project will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to improve communications with soldiers on the battlefield and use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.Amazon sued the Pentagon after Microsoft won the contract in October. Work on the project has been halted as the lawsuit proceeds.The judge who is presiding over the bid protest in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims said earlier this month that Amazon’s challenge likely had merit on some technical grounds involving pricing.The Pentagon is asking her for 120 days to reconsider “certain aspects” of its decision. Amazon said in a statement it is pleased the government is taking correction action if it “fully insulates the re-evaluation from political influence and corrects the many issues affecting the initial flawed award.”Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said one possible outcome is that the Pentagon could end up splitting the award between Microsoft and Amazon, or with other vendors. That would move the project forward and get it out of the courts, he said.
 
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Pakistani authorities arrested a media mogul on corruption charges Thursday, in a decades-old case his representatives said was motivated by a desire to retaliate following the broadcast of several investigative programs.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman—editor-in-chief of the Jang Group, which includes some of Pakistan’s biggest newspapers and the Geo television network—over a land transaction dating back to 1986, accusing him of scoring illegal concessions in the purchase of plots in Lahore.

In a statement, Geo denied the allegations against Rehman, saying all taxes and legal requirements pertaining to the property purchase had been fulfilled.

Geo said the NAB only arrested Rehman because of investigative pieces his channels had conducted into the bureau.

Over the past 18 months the NAB has “sent our reporters, producers and editors—directly and indirectly—over a dozen threatening notices,” the statement read, adding that the bureau had said it would shut down “our channels… due to our reporting and our programs about NAB.”

“In its defense, NAB has in writing said it is a constitutionally protected institution that can’t be criticized,” the statement continued.

Pakistani media have been subjected to growing censorship and pressure following the election of Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2018.

The NAB was founded in 2000 by then military ruler Pervez Musharraf to go after corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businesspeople.

However, it came under fire after Khan was elected, with leading opposition parties accusing it of being used for political ends.

In recent years the space for dissent has shrunk further in Pakistan, with the government announcing a crackdown on social networks, and traditional media houses decrying pressure from authorities that they say has resulted in widespread self-censorship.

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Officials in Pakistan Thursday said the number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 21, noting that eight of them were imported from Syria.

The World Health Organization has declared the global outbreak a pandemic.  

Pakistan, with a population of more than 200 million people, confirmed its first case more than two weeks ago but has not reported any fatalities.

State Minister of Health Zafar Mirza said all of the confirmed cases of COVID-19 are related to outbreaks in countries such as Syria, Iran, Iraq and China.“

A majority of the infections are in their initial stages, and we are hopeful the patients will recover from the disease,” he said.  

Mirza noted that there have been no local transmissions of the virus in Pakistan, saying federal authorities, together with provincial governments, are taking all possible measures to prevent it from spreading.

At least three of the patients are said to have arrived from London via Dubai.

Pakistani officials said 14 of the coronavirus cases, including those linked to Syria, arrived in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province and the country’s largest city.  

A provincial government spokesman said Thursday that two of the patients have recovered, while the rest remain under observation in isolation wards.

Murtaza Wahab, an adviser to the chief minister, also announced that the remaining matches of an ongoing national cricket competition, which involved international players, will now take place in Karachi without spectators to prevent the spread of the virus. Education institutions in Sindh have already been closed.  

Syria denies virus presence

For their part, Syrian officials have reportedly denied the presence of the coronavirus in the country, saying several dozen suspected cases have tested negative.  “

There are no coronavirus cases in Syria so far,” Health Minister Nizar Yaziji reportedly told Syrian media on Tuesday.

Pakistan shuts borders
 
Pakistan has closed its border with neighboring Iran, and air links remain suspended with Iran, one of the worst hit by the virus across the globe. Iranian officials reported Thursday the nationwide death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 429, while the number of infected people surpassed 10,000.  

Pakistan has also closed its overland border with China and cut air links to the country known as the epicenter of the coronavirus, where the first case was detected in December before the infection surfaced in other nations.

Islamabad has also shut a major southwestern border crossing with Afghanistan. Afghan officials have confirmed seven cases of the coronavirus, linking them to the Iranian outbreak.

Punjab declares emergency  

On Thursday, the most populous Pakistani province of Punjab declared a medical emergency across the region, saying the precautionary step was related to the coronavirus outbreak. No confirmed cases have been detected in the province.

Provincial Health Minister Yasmin Rashid told reporters in the capital of Lahore that the government has also stepped up vigilance at international airports in Punjab.

The Maryland-based Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the virus using data compiled by the World Health Organization and U.S. and Chinese national health organizations, says more than 127,000 people worldwide were infected by COVID-19 as of Thursday. More than 4,700 of them died, while approximately 68,000 have recovered.

Most of the fatalities and infections occurred in China, where authorities have reported a significant decline in new cases in the past few days.

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Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are to deliver separate addresses on the coronavirus on Thursday, less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump spoke to the nation from the Oval Office about a public health crisis he’d previously downplayed.

Biden aides pitch his speech, to be delivered from the former vice president’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, as a demonstration of how he might conduct himself as president in response to a severe challenge, while contrasting himself with a Republican president he has lambasted as erratic and incompetent.

The event also allows Biden to juxtapose his style and approach with that of Sanders, his last remaining rival for the Democratic nomination. The Vermont senator will give his own speech two hours later in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont.

Biden now leads Sanders by more than 150 delegates after winning four more state primaries Tuesday, with Washington state still being counted. And his advantage could expand considerably next Tuesday when the delegate-rich states of Florida, Illinois and Ohio hold primaries.

For Biden, the ideal will be to give voters a practical example of one of his core arguments: that he’d be ready on Inauguration Day to handle whatever trials reach the Oval Office. In some ways, the dynamics recall the financial crisis that mushroomed late in the summer of 2008. The meltdown further damaged outgoing President George W. Bush and his Republican Party, dealing GOP nominee John McCain a new setback and granting a wider opening for Democratic nominee Barack Obama and his running mate, Biden. But that unfolded weeks before the election — Biden must keep making his case for nearly eight months.

Biden and Sanders have both canceled public events ahead of next Tuesday’s primaries, yielding to public health officers and elected officials who are discouraging large campaign rallies. The pair will meet in a debate Sunday night on CNN, without a live audience.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Sanders is 78. Biden is 77.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Regardless of how Biden handles the moment, the coronavirus outbreak comes at a political juncture for him.

He’s solidified his position as the prohibitive favorite for his party’s nomination, but Sanders has made clear he’s not ready to abandon his campaign, and many of the senator’s supporters on the progressive left aren’t enthusiastic about embracing Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer. That slice of the Democratic coalition likely isn’t enough to derail Biden’s nomination, but it could complicate his efforts in a general election campaign, just as it did for Hillary Clinton in 2016 after she defeated Sanders but lost to Trump in November.

Projecting leadership on a grave public health matter could be a boon with the middle of the electorate, especially independents and moderate Republicans wary of Trump. But it won’t necessarily corral Sanders supporters who also will play key roles in deciding battleground-state outcomes in November.

For his part, Trump said Thursday he’s “very happy to run against” Biden.

“One of the reasons I ran for president was because of Joe and the job they did,” Trump said, referring to Biden’s time as Obama’s vice president. “It’s maybe the way it should be.”

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Sporting events around the world are being significantly impacted by the potentially deadly coronavirus.

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that perhaps the summer Olympics in Tokyo in July should be delayed for a year, although Japanese officials have rejected the idea in recent days as unnecessary.

Yoshiro Mori, the president of the organizing committee and a former prime minister, said, “This isn’t the time for negative, pessimistic or second thoughts. Everyone is looking forward to it, so we have to deliver. Of course, I know there are people who are sick, and some are quarantining themselves, but we can’t just stop the whole thing.”

The Tokyo Marathon earlier this month was restricted to elite runners.

La Liga, the top men’s professional football division in Spain, suspended its next two match days because of the coronavirus outbreak after one of Real Madrid’s basketball players tested positive.

Next week’s world figure skating championships in Montreal were canceled on Wednesday.

In the U.S., the BNP Paribas Open, a major tennis tournament, was called off in California this week.

The National Basketball Association suspended its season on Wednesday after one of its players, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, tested positive for coronavirus just days after he made fun of the illness and touched the microphones of reporters who were interviewing him. Later, a second Jazz player, Donovan Mitchell, reportedly tested positive for the illness.

Meanwhile, college athletic officials in the U.S. decreed that the annual 68-team major college basketball tournament set to start next week, a three-week event watched by thousands of fans across the country, would still be played, but without any fans watching in person. The officials said the players’ family members and school administrators could attend the games, but otherwise arena seats would be kept empty.

Meanwhile, several collegiate league tournaments scheduled this week leading up to the national tournament were called off even after preliminary games had been played.
In Seattle, Washington, on the country’s West Coast, authorities have banned the local baseball team, the Mariners, from playing its season-opening games in two weeks at their home stadium. Instead, the games could be played hundreds of kilometers away at the team’s spring training site in the state of Arizona in a much smaller stadium.

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Fears are growing that disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic will strangle U.S. economic growth and send the country into a recession. VOA’s Brian Padden reports that the White House is considering a range of short-term measures to ease the financial strain on affected businesses and workers, but economists warn that the more the virus spreads, the greater the economic impact will be and the longer it may take to recover.

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U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) plans to increase U.S. military presence in the Western Hemisphere while taking on funding cuts to partner security programs that help Latin American partners counter drug cartels.

In written testimony Wednesday, SOUTHCOM commander Admiral Craig Faller said the U.S. “only enabled the successful interdiction of about 9% of known drug movement” recently in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Faller told the House Armed Services Committee that he’d need significant assets to drastically improve that number, including dozens of ships.

“Recognizing these complex challenges in our neighborhood, we will see an increase in U.S. military presence in the hemisphere,” Faller said, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon after the briefing.

Partners vital

The increase, which is coinciding with a Pentagon review of the command, will include more ships, aircraft and forces, said Faller, who declined to discuss numbers.

But the increase will not be enough to fully counter the threats, which is “why it’s so important to get partners in the game,” Faller added.

Last year, half of U.S. drug interdictions in the region were enabled by local partner forces, according to SOUTHCOM.

The need for more partner nation participation comes as the latest Pentagon budget slashes SOUTHCOM’s partner security program funds by about 20%.

“That reduction will mean we’ll have to make some choices and have to defund some programs … that have increased our partners’ ability to do things like counternarcotics,” Faller said Wednesday.

He added that the increased military presence would help the U.S. offset short-term losses to security cooperation program funding. But he acknowledged that “there might be some areas where we’ll take risks as we look in the future.”

Georgian scolds administration

The Pentagon’s failure to prioritize the geographic command responsible for counternarcotics operations south of the United States has hurt Americans, Republican Representative Austin Scott of Georgia said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on national security challenges in the Western Hemisphere.

“All of the additional money we’ve given [to defense] has been transferred to other priorities and not to the priority that is resulting in more deaths than any other area,” Scott said, adding that the U.S. saw tens of thousands die last year from drug overdoses.

Scott scolded administration officials for giving the command “what’s left over” in intelligence and surveillance abilities after fulfilling other regions’ needs.

SOUTHCOM’s budget for this year is $1.2 billion, which is 1/14th of what was spent in Afghanistan alone.
 

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Two Americans and a coalition servicemember are dead, and a dozen more wounded, after a barrage of rockets slammed into a military base north of Baghdad.

According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, the attack was carried out by militants operating a modified truck to launch rockets at Camp Taji.

A U.S. official told VOA the truck managed to fire about 30 rockets, 18 of which hit the base.

U.S. Central Command spokesman, Capt. Bill Urban confirmed to VOA that two U.S. servicemembers, along with another member of the U.S.-led coalition, were killed.

Media reports said the third servicemember was from Britain.

Twelve more people, including both U.S. and coalition troops and a contractor were injured.

U.S. military officials said it was too early to assign blame for the attack and that the investigation was still ongoing.

Iraqi military officials were the first to share word of the rocket attack, tweeting that only ten rockets had hit Camp Taji while sharing photos of the abandoned truck, which was found nearby.

سقوط عشرة صواريخ كاتيوشا داخل معسكر التاجي بدون خسائر , تم العثور على عجلة نوع كيا بنكو تحمل منصة صواريخ فيها ثلاث صواريخ متبقية جنوب منطقة الراشدية. pic.twitter.com/onxirvQgTs

— خلية الإعلام الأمني?? (@SecMedCell) March 11, 2020

The early report also said no one had been killed or injured.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have periodically shelled bases housing U.S. troops.

One such attack by the Kataib Hezbollah militia this past December killed a U.S. contractor at a base near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.  The U.S. responded with a series of retaliatory strikes.

Several reports from Syrian state media and social media accounts claimed airstrikes late Wednesday hit a series of targets in Syria, near the border with Iraq, possibly targeting Iranian-backed militias.  
 

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Stock markets in Asia were mixed Wednesday, after a day of rebound from a market plunge on worries over the oil market and a coronavirus outbreak.

Japan’s Nikkei Index was down 1.5% in afternoon trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and China’s Shanghai Index were about even.

U.S. futures pointed to losses when markets open there Wednesday.

Tuesday brought huge gains in the United States, with the three major indexes — the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and  NASDAQ  — all closing up 5%.

Volatility has consumed markets around the world amid the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 114,000 people and killed more than 4,000 people.

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Russian leader Vladimir Putin threw his weight behind proposals to amend Russia’s current constitutional cap on presidential term limits — a move that opens the door to Putin, 67, staying in power far beyond the end of his current and, in theory, final term in 2024.

Under the proposed changes, which Putin insisted would need backing by an upcoming nationwide referendum, as well as the approval of Russia’s Constitutional Court, the Russian leader would be eligible to run for two more terms in office, possibly extending his 20-year Kremlin rule through 2036.

“The proposal to remove restrictions for any person, including the incumbent president … would be possible, but on one condition: if the Constitutional Court gives an official ruling that such an amendment would not contradict the principles and norms of the constitution,” Putin said in addressing the proposal before lawmakers in the Duma on Tuesday.

Putin framed the move as injecting stability into Russia’s uncertain political future — in effect, suggesting that by staying in power, he could lead Russia toward a day when change in power through elections would be possible.

“I am certain that a time would come when the supreme presidential power in Russia would not be so personified, will not be tied to a certain single person,” Putin said.

“We are done with revolutions in Russia,” he added.

A legendary cosmonaut, a new mission?

The proposed constitutional reforms were the latest in a series of moves that appear to provide Putin with options as he confronts the end of his fourth and final term in office.

Indeed, the announcement came as lawmakers in the Duma debated additional constitutional reforms first proposed by Putin amid a surprise government shakeup last January. 

Russian Prime Minister Resigns as Putin Hints at Constitutional Reforms

Putin’s proposal appears to preserve influence over the country when his current and final presidential term ends in 2024

Those proposals included a newly empowered parliament, prime minister’s post and Security Council — all measures that suggested Putin was envisioning a possible new role from which to wield influence beyond the end of his presidency.

Key to Russia’s Political Shakeup? Putin is Here to Stay

Constitutional reforms and a new prime minister pave the way

Yet today’s announcement signaled that at least some in the Kremlin had united around a simpler plan: Putin would stay right where he is.

The roll out was highly choreographed.

First, lawmaker Valentina Tereshkova, a legendary Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space, took to the Duma lectern, to say that lawmakers’ recent constitutional debates had failed to take into account Russians’ true wishes: that Putin remain in power.

Moreover, Tereshkova said impending new changes to the constitution afforded the president the right to “reset to zero” the number of terms already served.

Next, Vyachaslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, informed journalists that Putin had heard the news and was on his way to the Duma to address the idea.

Soon, Putin was before lawmakers agreeing that the “return to zero” option was indeed possible, provided it passed muster during a national vote scheduled for an April 22 referendum and received the subsequent backing of the Constitutional Court.

The Duma quickly approved the measure.

Opposition reply

Kremlin critics had few, if any, illusions of the road ahead.

“The fact that Putin was never going to leave — we’ve always known. That he didn’t make any clever moves, and instead stupidly just took another term — now that’s a bit of a surprise,” Leonid Volkov, chief strategist of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, wrote in a post to Facebook.

“The current constitution guarantees that I can definitely participate in presidential elections, and that Putin definitely cannot,” Navalny said in a tweet, noting the Kremlin had banned him from participating in elections despite rulings to the contrary by the European Court for Human Rights.

Как интересно получается.
Действующая конституция гарантирует, что я точно могу участвовать в президентских выборах, а Путин – точно не может.
На практике же, я выиграл два суда в ЕСПЧ и всё равно не могу.
А Путин был у власти 20 лет, но всё равно пойдёт на первый срок.

— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 10, 2020

“Yet Putin has been in power for 20 years and all the same is headed for his first term,” Navalny said, in taking a swipe at the “return to zero” argument.

While members of the opposition pushed for supporters to protest the move, the calls were immediately hamstrung by another crisis: the coronavirus.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people were banned until at least April 10 over fears of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. 

Yet government critics were quick to question the timing of the decision, with many noting that tens of thousands had taken to the streets in 2012, when Putin stretched constitutional norms to return to the Kremlin for a third term in office.

For the time being, critics were left to take part in smaller protests against Putin’s new power move, with a reported 100 people taking part in rotating single-picket demonstrations in order to not run afoul of Russia’s punitive freedom of assembly laws.

Cue the jokes online

Social media churned with grim jokes on the news, parodying a week that, in addition to Putin’s announcement and concerns over coronavirus, saw the ruble collapse amid an oil pricing war with Saudi Arabia.

“You read the news about the government coup, and in fear you want to hug somebody,” wrote one Facebook user. “Then you remember about coronavirus. And you think, better instead to head to see a therapist. And then you remember about the value of the ruble.”

“Due to the quarantine, they’ve forbidden Putin to leave his post,” photojournalist Dave Frenkel jokes in a post on Twitter.

Из-за карантина Путину запретят покидать президентский пост

— Dave Frenkel (@merr1k) March 10, 2020

“Putin said that he’s not against zeroing out his presidential terms,” Russian blogger Ruslan Usachev wrote in another tweet. “Now, all those who were born under President Putin, have a chance to die under President Putin.”

Indeed, should Putin remain healthy and retain public support, Russians faced the prospect of Putin remaining in power well into his 80s.

Yet the Russian leader said his country’s ultimate goal was to get to a place where “people in power can be changed regularly,” an argument that some political observers suspected was tightly bound to Putin’s own political reign.

“I hope that by 2036, (Putin) will somehow convince the population that democracy is better than a dictatorship,” Vladimir Inozemtsev, director of the Center for Post-Industrial Society Studies, in a blog post dripping with sarcasm.

“Learning quicker, it seems, is unlikely to happen,” Inozemtsev said.

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Coronavirus is most dangerous to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Since the first fatalities in the US originated from a nursing facility in the state of Washington, there is deep concern among health experts, patients and their families that eldercare facilities are especially vulnerable.  VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.

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President Donald Trump is meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday to discuss a payroll tax cut as part of efforts to provide “substantial relief” to  businesses and individuals who suffer financially as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We’re also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they’re not could ever miss a paycheck to be working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies so that they don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault,” Trump told reporters on Monday evening in the White House briefing room.

With stock prices plunging Monday amid an oil price war and the coronavirus crisis, Trump met with his economic advisers, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who presented him with policy options to counter the quickly emerging threats to the economy.   

“The economy will be in very good shape a year from now,” predicted Mnuchin, who took questions from reporters, alongside Vice President Mike Pence, after a brief appearance by Trump in the press briefing room.

Trump announced a news conference would be held at the White House on Tuesday that will focus on economic measures.

The U.S. travel industry, which annually generates more than $1.6 trillion in economic output and is expected to suffer substantially because of the coronavirus outbreak, is one key area of the administration’s relief efforts.

“We’re also working with the industries including the airline industry, the cruise ship industry, which obviously will be hit,” said Trump.   

The United States “will use all our tools” to fight the effects of the coronavirus, said Mnuchin, who announced that the White House will hold a meeting later in the week with bank officials.

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived more than 2,000 points during Monday morning trading, Trump, via Twitter, blamed the market drop on Saudi Arabia and Russia arguing over the price and flow of oil.

“That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop,” he wrote.  

Saudi Arabia and Russia are arguing over the price and flow of oil. That, and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020

But, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is causing the uncertainty in the markets.

“I think that what is happening there is a reflection of lack of confidence, and so we would hope that what is coming out of the White House will be more consistent with what the health advisers are putting forth,” Pelosi said.  “We would hope that rather than name-calling, (Trump) would be again joining with his health care professionals who are advising him and the rest of us in a well-coordinated government agenda.”

Pence, at the briefing, did not directly answer a reporter’s question as to whether the fall in stock prices in any way resulted from a perception that the White House’s response to the coronavirus crisis lacked leadership and foresight. “

I really do believe that the American people can see that this president is putting the health of the American people first,” said the vice president.  

The Dow closed off nearly 7.8%, recording its largest-ever single-day point drop of 2,013.76.

The number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus, which originated in China, is more than 650, including at least 26 deaths.     

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