Kept at the Hospital on Coronavirus Fears, Now Facing Large Medical Bills

By Sarah Kliff from NYT The Upshot https://nyti.ms/2wZLhzm

Taliban and U.S. Strike Deal to Withdraw American Troops From Afghanistan

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Washington State Declares Emergency Amid Coronavirus Death, Illnesses at Nursing Facility

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Trump Makes Us Ill

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They Recovered From the Coronavirus. Were They Infected Again?

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Joe Coulombe, Who Founded Trader Joe’s, Dies at 89

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Winning South Carolina, Biden Makes Case Against Sanders: ‘Win Big or Lose’

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Tom Steyer ends presidential campaign after Biden wins South Carolina primary

02/29/20 6:20 PM

The Pied Pipers of the Dirtbag Left Want to Lead Everyone to Bernie Sanders

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Into the Wild: Why tourists are risking their lives to visit a bus

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2I6LBhV

US election: Is this the best way to pick Trump's challenger?

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2uI7qS3

War of words as Nigerian English gets Oxford recognition

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/3ag2fHX

Setomaa: The Estonia-Russia border tearing apart an ancient people

The Setos' ancestral home straddles Estonia's border with Russia and has become difficult to cross.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2I9rf7W

Your pictures on the theme of 'railways'

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/3aeaN27

Nathaniel Taylor, ‘Sanford and Son’ Actor, Is Dead at 80

By The Associated Press from NYT Obituaries https://nyti.ms/2TpKgrL

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Biden wins South Carolina Democratic primary, Fox News projects, in crucial boost to campaign after early losses

02/29/20 4:01 PM

South Carolina primary: Joe Biden projected to win

It comes as a major boost to the former vice-president's flagging presidential campaign.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/38hmeVy

Berlin International Film Festival: Iranian film about executions wins top prize

Director Mohammad Rasoulof is banned from leaving Iran and filmed There Is No Evil in secret.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2wRCRtE

Afghan conflict: What will Taliban do after signing US deal?

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2VwK8ti

Syria war: Turkey says thousands of migrants have crossed to EU

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2TnLi7P

Snake eats towel: A vet explains her strangest day at work

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/3a9L7nc

Three die in dry-ice incident at Moscow pool party

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2wSNigx

Coronavirus: Trump calls criticism Democrat 'hoax'

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/32APpS4

Coronavirus: South Korea sees its largest rise in coronavirus cases

The country has almost 600 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 2,931.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/386L5ej

He Drove Her to the Hospital. She Gave Him the Coronavirus.

By Hannah Beech from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2vqcfzG

Freeman Dyson, Math Genius Turned Visionary Technologist, Dies at 96

By George Johnson from NYT Science https://nyti.ms/2Ii7POl

Iran Vice President Is One of 7 Officials to Contract Coronavirus

By Farnaz Fassihi and Rick Gladstone from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2wUXrcF

Fish oil supplements offer 'little or no benefit' against cancer

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/3893ozB

Slovakia election: Double murder haunts voters

The murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée convulsed Slovak politics.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2PyN0lC

Free transport in Luxembourg, but what's the cost?

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2I7TeVv

The boss who put everyone on 70K

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2PAYdSN

Bernie Sanders Can Beat Trump. Here’s the Math.

By Steve Phillips from NYT Opinion https://nyti.ms/32Bs56z

Delhi riots: Muslim women recall horror of Molotov cocktails and arson

Religious violence in the Indian capital has left thousands staring at a bleak future.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/32BU3iy

Syria war: Refugees eye Europe as Turkey hits breaking point

Turkey says it is no longer preventing Syrians from leaving for Europe - and the refugees want to move.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/32yTFBE

Five reasons why Canada's 'shutdown' is a big deal

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2voxG40

Kizito Mihigo: The Rwandan gospel singer who died in a police cell

Rwandan genocide survivor Kizito Mihigo, hailed as a national talent, was later accused of treason.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2TqgZNF

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

CDC: 2nd coronavirus case due to 'community spread' confirmed in California

02/28/20 4:57 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert

Fox News Breaking News Alert

President Trump holds a rally in North Charleston, S.C., 24 hours before the polls close in the state's Democratic primary. Watc

02/28/20 4:09 PM

Walkout as Polanksi wins 'best director' at Césars

The Polish-French director is wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in the 1970s.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2vooDjy

Leap Year: What it's like being born on 29 February?

People around the world tell us what it's like being born on 29 February.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/32AzlQh

Latvia railway: Why I love living in an old train station

Milda Romanova's home is an old rail station, and at 88 she still loves all things trains.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/32A6sDO

Coronavirus Live Updates: Second Unexplained Case Found in California, This Time in Santa Clara County

By Unknown Author from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2Vyqdua

Parents in Japan and Hong Kong struggle as schools shut

Hong Kong and Japan have shut schools as the coronavirus spread worsens leaving parents stuck at home.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/3agusyx

Airstrike Hits Turkish Forces in Syria, Raising Fears of Escalation

By Carlotta Gall from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2uB1lGQ

Japan Shocks Parents by Moving to Close All Schools Over Coronavirus

By Motoko Rich, Ben Dooley and Makiko Inoue from NYT World https://nyti.ms/3adArnK

The Leopard Cub With the Lioness Mom

By Cara Giaimo from NYT Science https://nyti.ms/32A7uzI

The Case for Elizabeth Warren

By Michelle Goldberg from NYT Opinion https://nyti.ms/3cfhmTM

Trump Has a Problem as the Coronavirus Threatens the U.S.: His Credibility

By Annie Karni, Michael Crowley and Maggie Haberman from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2T6L7yB

New world news from Time: Hong Kong Newspaper Owner Arrested on Charges of Unlawful Assembly and Intimidation

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been arrested on suspicion of participating in an unlawful assembly last year and intimidating a reporter in 2017.

The arrest was confirmed by Mark Simon, the group director for Lai’s company, Next Digital Ltd., which publishes the Apple Daily newspaper. Two former pro-democracy lawmakers and activists, Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were also arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly Friday, he said.

“This is ridiculous,” Simon said by phone. Lai was being held in a police station in Kowloon and was waiting to see his lawyer, he said.

The Police Public Relations Branch didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. The moves were earlier reported by local media including Now TV and Cable TV.

Lee Chuk Yan is 63, Yeung Sum, 72, and Jimmy Lai 71.

“These men are not in anyway a flight risk. They need to be processed quickly and out of that police station as quickly as possible.” – Mark Simon

— Mark Simon (@HKMarkSimon) February 28, 2020

The arrests come amid a lull in protest activity following more than six months of nearly non-stop demonstrations in the former British colony and as the city battles the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. The Hong Kong police have been going through footage and trying to track down around 300 protesters and suspects, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported Jan 29.

The arrests also follow Beijing’s appointment of new hard-line officials responsible for overseeing Hong Kong. Earlier this month, China tapped Xia Baolong, the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, as director of the Hong Kong & Macau Affairs Office.

Beijing also appointed Luo Huining — a cadre known for executing President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign — as head of China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong. Simon, the Next Digital group director, said Lai’s arrest probably stemmed from the Liaison Office’s desire to show it was taking action.

Lai has long championed the city’s pro-democracy movement and has been labeled a traitor by the Chinese government.

Around 10 police officers arrived at Lai’s home in Ho Man Tin in Kowloon at around 7:30 a.m. Friday, according to local newspaper Oriental Daily News. He was arrested in relation to the criminal intimidation of the newspaper’s reporter in 2017 and for unlawful assembly on Aug. 31 last year, the Oriental Daily said, citing unidentified people.

The Oriental Daily had long sought to have Lai prosecuted over the 2017 incident, Simon said.

Jimmy Lai: Pro-democracy media tycoon arrested

The 71-year-old multi-millionaire is the founder of Apple Daily, a critic of the Hong Kong government.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/3cixJir

New world news from Time: Coronavirus Patient’s Pet Dog Tests Positive for ‘Low Level’ of Virus

The pet dog of a coronavirus patient in Hong Kong has been found to have a “low level” of the virus, the Hong Kong government said early Friday.

The dog tested “weak positive” for the coronavirus, the city’s agricultural and fisheries department said in a statement, without giving further details. Officials will carry out further tests to confirm whether the dog has really been infected with the disease, or if it was a result of environmental contamination of its mouth and nose.

Much is still not known about the virus that is spreading around the world after emerging in central China late last year. It is thought to have transferred to humans from bats and has been shown to spread in a number of ways, but the Hong Kong agricultural department said it doesn’t have evidence that pet animals can be infected, or be a source of infection to people.

If confirmed, the dog would be the first case of a pet catching the coronavirus amid a global outbreak that’s now infected more than 82,000 people and claimed more than 2,800 lives.

The dog is being quarantined at an animal facility, the Hong Kong government said. The department strongly advised that pets of confirmed virus patients also be put under quarantine.

Coronavirus: Shares face worst week since global financial crisis

Asian stock markets continue falling, as the coronavirus spreads across the globe.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2I1jZuP

Plans for first US 'safe injection site' derailed again

The addiction management method used in Europe and Canada has met determined opposition in the US.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2I6guTy

U.S. Health Workers Responding to Coronavirus Lacked Training and Protective Gear, Whistle-Blower Says

By Emily Cochrane, Noah Weiland and Margot Sanger-Katz from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/32wN5LQ

A Royal Instagram Mystery

By Caity Weaver from NYT Style https://nyti.ms/2PsApAk

Scientists detect biggest explosion since Big Bang

The blast in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster left a cavity 15 times bigger than our Milky Way galaxy.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/388lLoe

The crisis forcing mothers to give away their babies

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/39iWU2o

How making a violin brought these two together

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from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2PuyD1N

Afghanistan conflict: US-Taliban deal raises hope for peace

A long-awaited accord between the US and the Taliban is greeted cautiously by a war-weary population.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2vmFDXz

Greta Thunberg: Who is the teenage climate change activist?

The Swedish teenager started a climate change protest that grew into a global movement of millions.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2rzk57W

Protecting whales from the noise people make in the ocean

Oil drilling and construction is creating a din for sealife - new tech is hoping to turn the volume down.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2T6Thai

Philippines volcano: Residents allowed to visit island

Philippines residents briefly allowed to return to homes near the Taal volcano find haunting scenes.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/399iTsH

Leap years and why we need them

It's a leap year which means there's an extra day in the calendar - 29 February 2020. But why do we need it?

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2Tlsoyr

Coronavirus: On the front line in Wuhan

The BBC speaks to a Chinese doctor who has been on the front line of fighting Coronavirus in Wuhan.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/388eeFY

Burst water main leaves drivers stranded

Flooding in Houston led to cars being submerged and people having to take refuge on their roofs.

from BBC News - World https://bbc.in/2Vv2mvk

New top story from Time: Army of 100,000 Chinese Ducks Ready to Fight Locust Plague

A troop of special Chinese ducks is waiting to be deployed to neighboring Pakistan to fight a swarm of crop-eating pests that threaten regional food security.

At least 100,000 ducks are expected to be sent to Pakistan as early as the second half of this year to combat a desert locust outbreak, according to Lu Lizhi, a senior researcher with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The ducks are “biological weapons” and can be more effective than pesticide, said Lu, who is in charge of the project in tandem with a university in Pakistan.

“One duck is able to eat more than 200 locusts a day,” Lu said in a telephone interview on Thursday, citing results of experiments to test the ducks’ searching and predation capabilities.

A trial will start in China’s western region of Xinjiang later this year before the ducks are sent to Pakistan, Lu said.

"Duck troops" gather at the border to face locust swarms pic.twitter.com/1J4r3dmmJk

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) February 19, 2020

Swarms of desert locusts have been spreading through countries from eastern Africa to South Asia, destroying crops and pastures at a voracious pace. The pest plague, together with unseasonal rain and a scourge of low quality seeds, has hit major crops in Pakistan’s largest producing regions, weighing on its already fragile economy. And it has also migrated into India.

It will be crucial for China, which shares a land border with Pakistan and India, to prevent an invasion. However, China does have some shield in the form of the Himalaya mountains that stand as a barrier between the Indian subcontinent and the Plateau of Tibet.

A group of Chinese agricultural experts visited Pakistan this week to help control the locust outbreaks as the plague moves eastwards, according to a report posted on the website of China’s consulate-general in Karachi.

To gauge how serious a locust attack can be, look to Africa. The cost of fighting desert locusts in the continent’s east has doubled to $128 million, with more countries being affected each day, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said. The situation remains extremely alarming in the Horn of Africa, while there has been a significant movement of swarms over the Arabian Peninsula that reached both sides of the Persian Gulf, the FAO said in its latest locust watch report.

New world news from Time: There Aren’t Enough Medical Masks to Fight Coronavirus. Here’s Why It’s Not Going to Get Better Anytime Soon

If you’re worried about the coronavirus and are having trouble getting hold of medical masks, these numbers will explain why: China is the world’s largest producer of them, with a reported daily capacity of 20 million pieces, but by the estimate of its manufacturers domestic demand alone is around 50 to 60 million per day.

No wonder you can’t find medical masks at your local pharmacy.

Some experts doubt the effectiveness of such masks for stopping transmission of the virus, officially named COVID-19. U.S. health officials say the bug spreads mostly between people who are in close contact with each other, and from respiratory droplets when an infected person sneezes or coughs.

“A surgical mask might provide some protection, but it’s going to be very modest,” William Shaffner, a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University says.

But that hasn’t put a damper on demand. The scale of the epidemic in China—where the virus originated and where almost 78,500 people are now infected—and the continued spread of the coronavirus globally has driven shortages across the globe.

Retailers on multiple continents are running out of masks, and prices for a box of masks on online retailers like Amazon have surged to hundreds of dollars. On Monday, aerial footage captured a line hundreds of people long in the city of Daegu, South Korea, where an outbreak is growing, waiting to buy them. On the same day, an industrial equipment store in Italy, where more than 370 people are confirmed to be infected, sold more than 500 masks—of the kind used in factories and on building sites—in the first 30 minutes it was open.

Chinese demand is outpacing supply

Chinese mask makers were only operating at 76 per cent capacity in mid-Feb. according to Chinese officials, which puts daily production at around five million pieces fewer than the 20 million maximum. The country’s output of N95 respirators, which are often worn by medical workers for additional protection, is even lower, at 200,000 a day, given the more complex technology and materials required to make them.

Demand in China could even be higher that what its mask makers estimate. Chaun Powell, vice president of strategic supplier engagement at North Carolina-based healthcare company Premier Inc., tells TIME that China’s need might exceed 400 million medical masks every day, if each workplace provides multiple masks per employee per shift.

To meet the shortfall, some Chinese companies in unrelated industries have started making masks. Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s iPhones in China, has switched some of its production to masks; the company aims to produce two million units a day by the end of the month. Others, like an auto-maker in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, are making masks too.

Unable to produce enough of the protective gear to meet its own demand, Beijing has also been sourcing medical masks from overseas. Indonesian officials said at the beginning of February that China had placed “large orders” for Indonesian-made masks, equating to as much as three months of production, and Vietnam has exported huge quantities of masks to China. There are reports that Chinese traders have started sourcing supplies in markets as far away as Kenya and Tanzania.

Shortages are being felt across the world

Meanwhile, pharmacies from Germany to Canada to Italy and the U.K. are all low on medical mask supplies, according to posts circulating on social media.

In a post on Twitter, a journalist for Agence France-Presse said that the only pharmacy in central London she could find stocking face masks was selling them for approximately $3.25 a piece.

A central London pharmacy is charging £2.50 for one surgical mask (everywhere else is sold out) #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/NWjeqr7klp

— Katie Forster (@katieforster) February 6, 2020

Stores in the U.S., from Knoxville, Tennessee to New York City are also facing a dearth of the product. One medical supply company in Dublin, Ireland said it was struggling to find a supply of masks at a reasonable cost. And dentists in the U.K. and Australia say that with so much of their supply originally sourced from China, they now are facing a desperate shortage.

Withers Dental in Toowoomba, a city of 137,000 in Australia’s Queensland state, about 80 miles outside of Brisbane, tells TIME that they are among those affected.

“It’s extremely difficult, a lot of our regular suppliers have now put limits on the number of boxes we can buy,” says Anna Yarrow, the practice manager. “We’re limited to about two to three boxes a week, which is nowhere near enough to get us through our normal day of patients.”

Yarrow says that the practice has a back up supply of masks, which they’re relying on now.

“We’re trying every day single day with our suppliers and new suppliers to see what we can manage to get,” she says. “We’re just really hoping everything settles down and gets back to normal.”

Mike Bowen, an executive vice president and partner at the Texas-based mask maker Prestige Ameritech, says that he’s now receiving calls from people across the world who want to buy medical masks from his company, even though American-made masks tend to be more expensive than those produced elsewhere.

“I’m getting hundreds of calls every single day from people wanting to buy products from me because they can’t get them anywhere else,” he says. “You name a country, I’ve heard from them.”

Bowen, who is also the spokesman of the Secure Mask Supply Association, an organization that aims to ensure a sufficient supply of masks in a health crisis, tells TIME that he’s been trying to raise awareness of China’s global dominance in the supply chain for years.

“I’ve been very public about a prediction that one day China is going to have a pandemic and we’re not going to have masks over here,” he says. “And now it’s kind of happening.”

He says that about half of the U.S. supply of face masks comes from China, with Mexico another big supplier, but he’s seen less product available from China in recent weeks as the country grapples with the outbreak at home.

Powell, of Premier Inc., says that although China has not formally announced any embargoes on exports of personal protective equipment, he believes that no such gear has shipped out of China since mid-January. Other places, like Thailand, Taiwan and India have also restricted exports of masks to protect their domestic supply.

In Hong Kong, some have taken matters into their own hands. One film director imported a machine from India with which he hopes to begin manufacturing masks to sell online, and a Hong Kong property developer has announced plans to set up a factory capable of producing 200,000 masks a day.

Medical workers are facing supply shortages

Most seriously, the shortages are hitting medical workers—even those directly treating coronavirus patients.

In early February, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the fight against coronavirus was being hampered by “widespread inappropriate use” of protective gear by those who are not front line medical staff, and he cautioned against stockpiling masks.

“Demand is up to 100 times higher than normal, and prices are up to 20 times higher,” he said. “Global stocks of masks and respirators are now insufficient to meet the needs of WHO and our partners.”

U.S. hospitals are closely watching their mask supplies. According to the initial findings of a survey of more than 4,000 hospitals Premier Inc. ran in conjunction with the U.S. CDC and FDA, most hospitals have more than a week of inventory, but are managing and rationing mask usage to prevent shortages. Powell says that the demand for N95 masks by the U.S. healthcare system is estimated to be somewhere between 25 million and 40 million each year.

“I’m getting calls from large hospitals that used to not even answer my phone calls,” Prestige Ameritech’s Bowen says.

On Tuesday, U.S. health officials said that Americans should prepare for the the coronavirus to begin spreading locally. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reportedly told Congress Tuesday that the U.S. has far fewer medical masks than it would need in the case of a major outbreak in the country. The country has a stockpile of about 30 million N95 masks, but might need as many as 300 million during the outbreak, he said.

Bowen says that he hopes the crisis is a wake up call for U.S. hospitals who have been purchasing masks from overseas suppliers.

“What’s the difference between a Chinese mask and an American-made mask?” he asks. “Well, the main difference is [American-made masks are] here, and they’ll be available when China has a pandemic.”

China’s Rover Finds Layers of Surprise Under Moon’s Far Side

By Kenneth Chang from NYT Science https://nyti.ms/2uCWg0Q

New top story from Time: There Aren’t Enough Medical Masks to Fight Coronavirus. Here’s Why It’s Not Going to Get Better Anytime Soon

If you’re worried about the coronavirus and are having trouble getting hold of medical masks, these numbers will explain why: China is the world’s largest producer of them, with a reported daily capacity of 20 million pieces, but by the estimate of its manufacturers domestic demand alone is around 50 to 60 million per day.

No wonder you can’t find medical masks at your local pharmacy.

Some experts doubt the effectiveness of such masks for stopping transmission of the virus, officially named COVID-19. U.S. health officials say the bug spreads mostly between people who are in close contact with each other, and from respiratory droplets when an infected person sneezes or coughs.

“A surgical mask might provide some protection, but it’s going to be very modest,” William Shaffner, a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University says.

But that hasn’t put a damper on demand. The scale of the epidemic in China—where the virus originated and where almost 78,500 people are now infected—and the continued spread of the coronavirus globally has driven shortages across the globe.

Retailers on multiple continents are running out of masks, and prices for a box of masks on online retailers like Amazon have surged to hundreds of dollars. On Monday, aerial footage captured a line hundreds of people long in the city of Daegu, South Korea, where an outbreak is growing, waiting to buy them. On the same day, an industrial equipment store in Italy, where more than 370 people are confirmed to be infected, sold more than 500 masks—of the kind used in factories and on building sites—in the first 30 minutes it was open.

Chinese demand is outpacing supply

Chinese mask makers were only operating at 76 per cent capacity in mid-Feb. according to Chinese officials, which puts daily production at around five million pieces fewer than the 20 million maximum. The country’s output of N95 respirators, which are often worn by medical workers for additional protection, is even lower, at 200,000 a day, given the more complex technology and materials required to make them.

Demand in China could even be higher that what its mask makers estimate. Chaun Powell, vice president of strategic supplier engagement at North Carolina-based healthcare company Premier Inc., tells TIME that China’s need might exceed 400 million medical masks every day, if each workplace provides multiple masks per employee per shift.

To meet the shortfall, some Chinese companies in unrelated industries have started making masks. Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s iPhones in China, has switched some of its production to masks; the company aims to produce two million units a day by the end of the month. Others, like an auto-maker in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, are making masks too.

Unable to produce enough of the protective gear to meet its own demand, Beijing has also been sourcing medical masks from overseas. Indonesian officials said at the beginning of February that China had placed “large orders” for Indonesian-made masks, equating to as much as three months of production, and Vietnam has exported huge quantities of masks to China. There are reports that Chinese traders have started sourcing supplies in markets as far away as Kenya and Tanzania.

Shortages are being felt across the world

Meanwhile, pharmacies from Germany to Canada to Italy and the U.K. are all low on medical mask supplies, according to posts circulating on social media.

In a post on Twitter, a journalist for Agence France-Presse said that the only pharmacy in central London she could find stocking face masks was selling them for approximately $3.25 a piece.

A central London pharmacy is charging £2.50 for one surgical mask (everywhere else is sold out) #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/NWjeqr7klp

— Katie Forster (@katieforster) February 6, 2020

Stores in the U.S., from Knoxville, Tennessee to New York City are also facing a dearth of the product. One medical supply company in Dublin, Ireland said it was struggling to find a supply of masks at a reasonable cost. And dentists in the U.K. and Australia say that with so much of their supply originally sourced from China, they now are facing a desperate shortage.

Withers Dental in Toowoomba, a city of 137,000 in Australia’s Queensland state, about 80 miles outside of Brisbane, tells TIME that they are among those affected.

“It’s extremely difficult, a lot of our regular suppliers have now put limits on the number of boxes we can buy,” says Anna Yarrow, the practice manager. “We’re limited to about two to three boxes a week, which is nowhere near enough to get us through our normal day of patients.”

Yarrow says that the practice has a back up supply of masks, which they’re relying on now.

“We’re trying every day single day with our suppliers and new suppliers to see what we can manage to get,” she says. “We’re just really hoping everything settles down and gets back to normal.”

Mike Bowen, an executive vice president and partner at the Texas-based mask maker Prestige Ameritech, says that he’s now receiving calls from people across the world who want to buy medical masks from his company, even though American-made masks tend to be more expensive than those produced elsewhere.

“I’m getting hundreds of calls every single day from people wanting to buy products from me because they can’t get them anywhere else,” he says. “You name a country, I’ve heard from them.”

Bowen, who is also the spokesman of the Secure Mask Supply Association, an organization that aims to ensure a sufficient supply of masks in a health crisis, tells TIME that he’s been trying to raise awareness of China’s global dominance in the supply chain for years.

“I’ve been very public about a prediction that one day China is going to have a pandemic and we’re not going to have masks over here,” he says. “And now it’s kind of happening.”

He says that about half of the U.S. supply of face masks comes from China, with Mexico another big supplier, but he’s seen less product available from China in recent weeks as the country grapples with the outbreak at home.

Powell, of Premier Inc., says that although China has not formally announced any embargoes on exports of personal protective equipment, he believes that no such gear has shipped out of China since mid-January. Other places, like Thailand, Taiwan and India have also restricted exports of masks to protect their domestic supply.

In Hong Kong, some have taken matters into their own hands. One film director imported a machine from India with which he hopes to begin manufacturing masks to sell online, and a Hong Kong property developer has announced plans to set up a factory capable of producing 200,000 masks a day.

Medical workers are facing supply shortages

Most seriously, the shortages are hitting medical workers—even those directly treating coronavirus patients.

In early February, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the fight against coronavirus was being hampered by “widespread inappropriate use” of protective gear by those who are not front line medical staff, and he cautioned against stockpiling masks.

“Demand is up to 100 times higher than normal, and prices are up to 20 times higher,” he said. “Global stocks of masks and respirators are now insufficient to meet the needs of WHO and our partners.”

U.S. hospitals are closely watching their mask supplies. According to the initial findings of a survey of more than 4,000 hospitals Premier Inc. ran in conjunction with the U.S. CDC and FDA, most hospitals have more than a week of inventory, but are managing and rationing mask usage to prevent shortages. Powell says that the demand for N95 masks by the U.S. healthcare system is estimated to be somewhere between 25 million and 40 million each year.

“I’m getting calls from large hospitals that used to not even answer my phone calls,” Prestige Ameritech’s Bowen says.

On Tuesday, U.S. health officials said that Americans should prepare for the the coronavirus to begin spreading locally. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reportedly told Congress Tuesday that the U.S. has far fewer medical masks than it would need in the case of a major outbreak in the country. The country has a stockpile of about 30 million N95 masks, but might need as many as 300 million during the outbreak, he said.

Bowen says that he hopes the crisis is a wake up call for U.S. hospitals who have been purchasing masks from overseas suppliers.

“What’s the difference between a Chinese mask and an American-made mask?” he asks. “Well, the main difference is [American-made masks are] here, and they’ll be available when China has a pandemic.”

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New world news from Time: Saudi Arabia Suspends Pilgrimages to Mecca and Other Holy Sites in Effort to Stop Coronavirus

Saudi Arabia temporarily halted religious visits that include stops in Mecca and Medina, which draw millions of people a year as the Islamic world’s holiest cities, to help prevent the spread of coronavirus into the country.

Tourism visa-holders from countries with reported coronavirus infections will also be denied entry, the Saudi embassy in Washington said in an emailed statement, without naming any countries. The steps are temporary and subject to continuous evaluation, according to the statement.

The government is acting to block the deadly virus as neighboring countries including Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates have flagged dozens of cases. No infections had been reported by Saudi Arabian authorities as of Wednesday.

The kingdom is also suspending entry by citizens from Gulf States traveling under their national IDs, as well as travel by Saudis to the Gulf States. Saudis abroad who want to return or Gulf citizens in Saudi Arabia who wish to leave may do so, according to the statement.

Mecca, birthplace of the Prophet Mohammad, is home to Islam’s holiest shrine inside the Grand Mosque. Medina is where Islam’s founder is buried.

New top story from Time: Appointing Pence to Lead Response, Trump Scrambles to Contain Fallout From Coronavirus Threat to U.S.

President Donald Trump knows that presidents are ruthlessly judged for fumbling a crisis. President George W. Bush was widely ridiculed for saying “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” to Michael Brown who headed the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. Trump himself called the botched 2013 rollout of the enrollment website for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act a “total disaster.” In 2014, he said President Obama should be “ashamed” for not blocking flights from Africa during an Ebola outbreak.

As Trump left India to return to Washington earlier this week, the President was furious at seeing the markets tank in response to the spread of the coronavirus — and the warning by his own Centers for Disease Control that Americans should brace themselves.

So on Wednesday, Trump decided to get ahead of the story, calling a rare primetime press conference in the White House Briefing Room. His staff scrambled to put it together. “He was pissed over in India” and felt like his administration was “getting killed” in the press and by the markets about its handling of the coronavirus, says a White House official.

In the hour before Trump walked out to meet the press, he told public health staff he would announce that he was putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the coronavirus response, calling on Pence’s experience as the governor of Indiana handling the response to health crises in that state. “It was a game time decision,” the official said.

And during the 57-minute press conference, the President downplayed the risk the virus poses, contradicting his own public health officials. “The risk to the American people remains very low,” Trump said. “We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here. We’re ready to adapt and we’re ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads — if it spreads.”

The decision to appoint Pence and the impromptu briefing seemed to be an acknowledgement by Trump that the threat of the coronavirus poses a critical challenge to his presidency. It comes as he is seeking re-election and has been flexing his power, emboldened at having survived impeachment and the Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation. His approval ratings — while still averaging below 50% — have ticked up slightly. He’s launched a purge of career officials he believes are disloyal to him. He’s called for two Supreme Court justices to recuse themselves from cases involving him, and publicly pressured the Justice Department to ease up on prosecuting his friend Roger Stone and slammed the federal judge handling the case.

A serious outbreak of coronavirus in the United States would not only derail that momentum, it would put him under unprecedented scrutiny. The series of erratic moves he has made not only challenge long-standing democratic norms, they could be dangerous at a time when the public, facing an emerging public health crisis, is looking for a steady hand in the White House, says Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University. “This is one of those moments where the chaos from the administration and the disinformation has real consequences,” Zelizer said. “It matters that the public trusts what the president says.”

Trump knows the stakes are high, which is why he was walking a narrow line during the Wednesday briefing between offering the concrete action of appointing Pence and trying to tamp down the alarm he felt the CDC had unnecessarily whipped up by urging schools, hospitals and state and local officials to prepare for the coronavirus. He continued to express optimism that the virus could be contained and won’t infect many more people inside the U.S.

That is not a view shared by Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), who joined him in the briefing room. When Trump restricted travel to the U.S. by non-citizens who had recently visited China, limited flights and called for quarantining Americans who had recently traveled Wuhan Province, the epicenter of the virus, the administration managed to delay, but not stop, the spread of coronavirus inside the U.S., Schuchat said.

“Our aggressive containment strategy here in the United States has been working and is responsible for the low levels of cases that we have so far. However, we do expect more cases,” Schuchat told reporters during the briefing.

Within an hour of President Trump ending the press conference, the Centers for Disease Control announced that a new case of coronavirus had been confirmed in northern California, bringing the total number of known cases in the U.S. to 60. Officials don’t know how the person in California contracted the virus. “At this time, the patient’s exposure is unknown,” the CDC wrote in a statement. “It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States. Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown.”

That leaves Trump in an uncomfortable spot. Pence will lead his first coronavirus task force meeting at Health and Human Services headquarters on Thursday, says a senior administration official. White House officials are considering bringing Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who has been the U.S. global aids coordinator and U.S. special representative for global health diplomacy at the State Department since 2014, into the National Security Council to help coordinate the response. But as more cases mount, Trump will have to come to terms with the fact that it’s his crisis now, and he’ll own the outcome.

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New world news from Time: Communal Violence Over India’s Citizenship Law Leaves 13 Dead as Trump and Modi Talk

(NEW DELHI) — Hindus carrying pickaxes and iron rods hurled rocks at Muslims protesting a new citizenship law Tuesday on a second day of deadly clashes that cast a shadow over President Donald Trump’s visit to India. Thirteen people have been killed and scores injured.

After his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump told reporters he had heard about the violence but did not discuss it with Modi.

Black smoke rose into the sky over northeastern New Delhi after Hindu protesters set fruit and vegetable shops and a Muslim shrine on fire, witnesses said.

Sunil Kumar, medical director of the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, said Wednesday the death toll in the violence stood at 13.

In addition to the deaths, at least 186 people — 56 police officers and 130 protesters — have been injured in the clashes since Monday, said Anil Kumar, a New Delhi police spokesman.

Authorities shut schools in the violence-hit areas.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported said police have arrested one person and detained 20 people for questioning for alleged involvement in the violence.

Television images showed streets littered with mangled remains of vehicles, rocks and burnt tires int he worst hit areas of Chand Bagh, Bhajanpura, Gokulpuri, Maujpur, Kardampuri and Jaffrabad which witnesses pitched battles between the rival groups who also hurled petrol bombs and opened fire on Monday and Tuesday.

India has been rocked by violence since Parliament approved a new citizenship law in December that provides fast-track naturalization for some foreign-born religious minorities but not Muslims. Critics have said the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test.

Trump declined to comment on the new law.

“I don’t want to discuss that. I want to leave that to India and hopefully they’re going to make the right decision for the people,” he said.

The group of protesting Hindus shouted praise for Hindu gods and goddesses. Police fired tear gas to disperse them and a group of rival Muslims. The two groups retreated to the opposite sides of a highway.

Also Tuesday, protesters in several other areas of northeastern New Delhi defied orders prohibiting the assembly of more than five people, throwing stones and setting several shops and vehicles on fire, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details. Some homes were attacked with rocks.

Television images showed the streets in the violence-hit areas littered with mangled remains of vehicles, bricks and burnt tyres, mute testimony to the violence and bloodshed that took on a communal taint on Monday.

Police characterized the situation as tense but under control. Police and paramilitary forces sent reinforcements to quell the clashes.

During Monday’s protests, police fired tear gas and used canes as they charged protesters in several areas of New Delhi. The rival groups hurled rocks at each other and set houses, shops, vehicles and a gasoline pump on fire. Police closed two metro stations.

One police officer was killed in the violence after he was hit by rocks, police officer Anuj Kumar said. Eleven other officers were injured by rocks as they tried to separate rival groups, police said.

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New top story from Time: Communal Violence Over India’s Citizenship Law Leaves 13 Dead as Trump and Modi Talk

(NEW DELHI) — Hindus carrying pickaxes and iron rods hurled rocks at Muslims protesting a new citizenship law Tuesday on a second day of deadly clashes that cast a shadow over President Donald Trump’s visit to India. Thirteen people have been killed and scores injured.

After his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump told reporters he had heard about the violence but did not discuss it with Modi.

Black smoke rose into the sky over northeastern New Delhi after Hindu protesters set fruit and vegetable shops and a Muslim shrine on fire, witnesses said.

Sunil Kumar, medical director of the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, said Wednesday the death toll in the violence stood at 13.

In addition to the deaths, at least 186 people — 56 police officers and 130 protesters — have been injured in the clashes since Monday, said Anil Kumar, a New Delhi police spokesman.

Authorities shut schools in the violence-hit areas.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported said police have arrested one person and detained 20 people for questioning for alleged involvement in the violence.

Television images showed streets littered with mangled remains of vehicles, rocks and burnt tires int he worst hit areas of Chand Bagh, Bhajanpura, Gokulpuri, Maujpur, Kardampuri and Jaffrabad which witnesses pitched battles between the rival groups who also hurled petrol bombs and opened fire on Monday and Tuesday.

India has been rocked by violence since Parliament approved a new citizenship law in December that provides fast-track naturalization for some foreign-born religious minorities but not Muslims. Critics have said the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test.

Trump declined to comment on the new law.

“I don’t want to discuss that. I want to leave that to India and hopefully they’re going to make the right decision for the people,” he said.

The group of protesting Hindus shouted praise for Hindu gods and goddesses. Police fired tear gas to disperse them and a group of rival Muslims. The two groups retreated to the opposite sides of a highway.

Also Tuesday, protesters in several other areas of northeastern New Delhi defied orders prohibiting the assembly of more than five people, throwing stones and setting several shops and vehicles on fire, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose details. Some homes were attacked with rocks.

Television images showed the streets in the violence-hit areas littered with mangled remains of vehicles, bricks and burnt tyres, mute testimony to the violence and bloodshed that took on a communal taint on Monday.

Police characterized the situation as tense but under control. Police and paramilitary forces sent reinforcements to quell the clashes.

During Monday’s protests, police fired tear gas and used canes as they charged protesters in several areas of New Delhi. The rival groups hurled rocks at each other and set houses, shops, vehicles and a gasoline pump on fire. Police closed two metro stations.

One police officer was killed in the violence after he was hit by rocks, police officer Anuj Kumar said. Eleven other officers were injured by rocks as they tried to separate rival groups, police said.

New world news from Time: Buddhist Monk and Famed Dissident Thich Quang Do Dies at Age 91

(HANOI, Vietnam) — Thich Quang Do, a Buddhist monk who became the public face of religious dissent in Vietnam while the Communist government kept him in prison or under house arrest for more than 20 years, has died at age 91.

Do, who died Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City, was the highest leader of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which has constantly tangled with the government over issues of religious freedom and human rights.

He suffered for many years from diabetes, a heart condition and high blood pressure, said the International Buddhist Information Bureau in Paris, which speaks for the outlawed church and announced the death.

Do was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and received several awards for his activism, including the Rafto Prize for Human Rights and the Hellman/Hammett award, which the New York-based group Human Rights Watch gives to writers for courage in the face of political persecution.

“People are very afraid of the government … Only I dare to say what I want to say. That is why they are afraid of me,” Do told The Associated Press in a rare 2003 interview.

Even as Vietnam has embraced economic liberalization and free markets, its political system remains firmly under the control of the Communist government.

Do said that freedom, democracy and human rights “are more important than economic development” and without them “we cannot make any progress in the real sense.”

He had been under near-constant surveillance for years at his home in Ho Chi Minh City, the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, where according to his supporters he organized microcredit programs and flood relief campaigns while coordinating provincial committees of his outlawed church.

According to the International Buddhist Information Bureau, he had been deprived of all means of communicating independently for the past year after he moved to the city’s Tu Hieu Pagoda, after being sent out of Thanh Minh Zen Monastery and briefly living in northern Vietnam.

“The people who looked after him confiscated his cellphone and prevented his personal assistant from visiting him,” the Paris-based support group said in an email.

Buddhism is the primary religion among fast-growing Vietnam’s 98 million people, although there are also millions of Christians. The government has become more tolerant of public worship in recent years, but allows only a handful of officially approved religious groups.

Do was born Dang Phuc Tue in northern Thai Binh province on Nov. 27, 1928. His defiance of repressive governments predates the 1975 Communist takeover of U.S.-backed South Vietnam and the former Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. He was first imprisoned in 1963 under Catholic leader Ngo Dinh Diem, and after Vietnam was reunified he protested against its ruling Communists.

After his 1977 arrest on charges of “undermining national solidarity” and conducting “anti-revolutionary activities,” Do endured nearly two years of solitary confinement in a roughly three-by-six-foot prison cell, gazing through a window the size of his hand until international pressure forced his release, his supporters say.

In 1981, the government created the Communist Party-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Church and forced Do into internal exile in northern Thai Binh province. Do was later offered the leadership of the official church, his supporters say, but he refused and in 1992 fled to Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1995, he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges that included sending two faxes to overseas Buddhists accusing the government of obstructing a church-sponsored flood relief mission. International pressure led to his early release in 1998, but he was again placed under house arrest in 2001.

Although Do was officially freed two years later, a 2005 report by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention cited an unnamed source as saying restrictions on Do were “equivalent to detention.”

Over the years Vietnam denied accusations that it placed Do and a former leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the late Thich Huyen Quang, under house arrest. They “lead normal lives” at their respective monasteries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in 2005.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent group established by the U.S. Congress, called Do’s death “an incredible loss for the people of Vietnam.”

“With his quiet strength and grace, he fought for decades to preserve and promote religious freedom in Vietnam,” Commissioner Anurima Bhargava said in a statement issued by the group.

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New world news from Time: Opera Star Placido Domingo’s Apology Prompts New Accuser to Step Forward

(SAN FRANCISCO) — The words “I am truly sorry” have not been uttered often in the #MeToo era. So when soprano Luz del Alba Rubio woke up Tuesday to see an apology from opera superstar Placido Domingo, she was in shock.

“I felt like we have conquered Goliath. Now we don’t have to be scared to speak out,” said Rubio, who stepped forward Tuesday to add her voice to the women accusing the legendary tenor of sexual harassment and abuse of power.

Domingo’s statement came after the U.S. union that represents much of the opera world said its investigators found the opera star and former general director at Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera had behaved inappropriately over the course of two decades.

“I have taken time over the last several months to reflect on the allegations that various colleagues of mine have made against me,” Domingo said in a statement issued in connection with the findings. “I respect that these women finally felt comfortable enough to speak out, and I want them to know that I am truly sorry for the hurt that I caused them. I accept full responsibility for my actions, and I have grown from this experience.”

The words marked a stunning reversal from the opera superstar’s initial statements, tinged with disbelief at the accusations reported last year by The Associated Press that he sexually harassed multiple women.

“I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual,” he said in August.

In September, when the AP reported on more accusations, Domingo called the claims “riddled with inconsistencies and, as with the first story, in many ways, simply incorrect.”

The full results of the investigation by the American Guild of Musical Artists investigation have not been made public, but people familiar with the findings told the AP that investigators found 27 people who said they were sexually harassed or witnessed inappropriate behavior by Domingo.

As with the accusations made to the AP, the investigation found that the allegations included unsolicited physical touching that ranged from kisses on the mouth to groping, late-night phone calls in which Domingo asked women to come to his residence, and inviting women to go out with him socially with such persistence that some felt they were being stalked, the people familiar with the findings said.

The investigation, conducted by lawyers from the firm Cozen O’Conner, found the accusations to be credible and showed a clear pattern of abuse of power by Domingo that spanned the 1990s and 2000s, according to the people familiar with its contents who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to publicly disclose the findings.

Rubio said Domingo’s apology was deeply appreciated, but also called it clearly the work of lawyers and lacking in conviction.

“Before, he was a denier. Then, he was a victim. Now, he is looking for redemption,” said Rubio, a soprano from Uruguay. “If he means it, if he is really sorry, I would ask him to apologize to us, face to face. There have been women suffering for 20 years. He should ask for our forgiveness.”

Rubio said she was in her 20s and singing in Rome in 1999 when Domingo heard her and asked her to come to Washington Opera, where he was artistic director.

She was excited to land roles in three operas, but said Domingo began calling her constantly, often late at night, and was uncomfortably affectionate, constantly kissing her too close to her lips and touching her. But he was her childhood idol and the industry’s power broker, so when he invited her to his apartment one night to review a video of her singing, she accepted. He began kissing her, she said, and she pushed him away, telling him, “Maestro, I cannot do this. I am not that kind of person.” After that, she said she was never again hired to work at Washington Opera and roles he had promised her never materialized.

Singers Patricia Wulf and Angela Turner Wilson, two accusers who related accounts in AP’s earlier stories, expressed mixed emotions about Domingo’s new statement.

“I sincerely appreciate his apology. I really do,” said Wulf, a mezzo-soprano. But she also called on AGMA to stand with his accusers and expel Domingo from its membership.

In a joint statement, Wulf and Wilson said, “An expulsion from the union would signal that the industry is learning from its mistakes and that sexual harassment and abuse — perpetrated by industry complicity — will not be tolerated in the future.”

Wulf has described repeated, unwanted propositions by Domingo when she sang with him at Washington Opera in 1998. Wilson, a soprano, said that after weeks of pursuing her, Domingo forcefully grabbed her bare breast under her robe in a backstage room at Washington Opera in 1999.

Wulf noted that coming a day after the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, Domingo’s apology and admission highlighted the gradations of harassment that can exist in the workplace — particularly in the entertainment industry.

She and others said they were terrified of being blacklisted or killing their careers if they reported him or rebuffed his advances.

Domingo, 79, addressed that fear in his statement Tuesday.

“I understand now that some women may have feared expressing themselves honestly because of a concern that their careers would be adversely affected if they did so. While that was never my intention, no one should ever be made to feel that way,” he said. “I am committed to affecting positive change in the opera industry so that no one else has to have that same experience. It is my fervent wish that the result will be a safer place to work for all in the opera industry, and I hope that my example in moving forward will encourage others to follow.”

In a brief statement, the union said the inquiry found Domingo “engaged in inappropriate activity, ranging from flirtation to sexual advances, in and outside of the workplace.” Asked for additional details, spokeswoman Alicia Cook said AGMA did not plan to release the report.

An internal email sent Tuesday to AGMA’s Board of Governors that was viewed by the AP said the union had quietly been negotiating a settlement deal of $500,000 with Domingo in exchange for a promise not to disclose details of the investigation, but that the deal fell apart after the findings were leaked to AP.

Domingo’s spokeswoman Nancy Seltzer disputed that account. “Our discussions with the union are ongoing. Nothing is off the table.”

Sexual harassment attorney Debra Katz, who represents Wilson and Wulf, called on AGMA to make the findings of its investigation public.

“It is an outrage that they are not issuing this report,” she said, adding “he is saying he’s learned. What has he learned? Has he learned that hitting on women and groping is not OK? This apology is too little and way too late.”

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New world news from Time: China Sentences Swedish Bookseller to 10 Years in Prison

(BEIJING) — A court in eastern China announced Tuesday that it has sentenced Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swedish citizen, to 10 years in prison.

The Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court convicted Gui of “illegally providing intelligence overseas,” the court said in a statement published online.

For years, Gui sold gossipy books about Chinese leaders in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. He first disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand.

After Gui was released into house arrest in Ningbo, the eastern Chinese city where he was born, police detained him once again in 2018 while he was in the company of two Swedish diplomats with whom he was traveling to Beijing.