Japan's PM sets mark for days in office amid health concerns

August 24, 2020

TOKYO (AP) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday became Japan's longest-serving leader in terms of consecutive days in office, but there was little fanfare, as he visited a hospital for another checkup amid concerns about his health.

Abe marked his 2,799th consecutive day in office since returning to leadership in late 2012 for a second term, surpassing the previous record set by Eisaku Sato, his great-uncle, who served 2,798 straight days from 1964 to 1972.

Abe, who turns 66 next month, became Japan's longest-serving prime minister last November, combining his earlier one-year term. His first term ended abruptly 13 years ago because of health problems, fueling concerns about his current condition. The prime minister made a hospital visit for the second week in a row on Monday.

Abe later told reporters that he revisited the hospital “to get detailed results from last week's checkup and have additional examination.” “I'm making sure I'm in good health, and I plan to keep working hard,” Abe said, adding that he will explain his health later.

Abe has acknowledged having ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and said the condition has been under control. He has not made clear if it is related to his recent health issues or hospital visits.

A week ago, Abe spent more than seven hours at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo for what officials said was an additional checkup because he didn't have enough time during an earlier visit in June. Last week's hospital visit triggered a flurry of speculation in the Japanese media about the possibility that his health was declining.

Top officials from Abe's Cabinet and the ruling party, including Finance Minister Taro Aso, said publicly that Abe was overworked and badly needed rest. Media members covering the prime minister's office said Abe looked tired and was moving slower than usual.

During the past week, he has spent only a few hours a day in his office, only in the afternoon. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, at a regular news conference earlier Monday, brushed off worries about Abe's health. “I see him every day, but I haven't noticed anything different," he said.

Asked if Abe will be able serve another year until his current term ends in September 2021, Suga said the prime minister is undergoing additional health exams to make sure he will be able to do so. His heath concerns have added to speculation on how much longer Abe may stay in office. His support ratings have plunged to their lowest levels due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its severe impact on the economy, on top of a slew of political scandals.

Abe, since his return to office in 2012, has led his ruling bloc to six national election victories in the absence of viable liberal-center contenders and expanded his influence both in parliament and among bureaucrats, despite criticisms of autocracy.

Abe has also steadily bolstered Japan's defense capability and allowed the Japanese Self-Defense Force to do more for its close ally the United States by stretching the interpretation of the pacifist constitution.

His cherished goal of revising the constitution is still unmet, although he has stepped up his efforts to do so before his term ends. Abe and his right-wing supporters have long seen the U.S.-drafted war-renouncing constitution as a legacy of Japan’s World War II defeat and humiliation during U.S. occupation.

The end of his scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability and long-term policies.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

Opponents have said Abe’s time in office has led to cronyism, autocracy and has caused more damage than benefit to democracy. Takashi Mikuriya, a University of Tokyo politics professor, told the Asahi newspaper that Abe has raised Japan's profile in the international community, but has made more of an impression by working on policies than actually achieving them.

“His legacy is the fact that his (rule) lasted this long, rather than details of his achievements," he said.

European economic rebound slows as virus cases rise

August 21, 2020

LONDON (AP) — The European economy's rebound from the coronavirus recession appears to have slowed in August as a resurgence in new confirmed contagions across the region makes businesses, shoppers and travelers more cautious.

An indicator of business activity published Friday by research firm IHS Markit fell back to a level that suggests the economy is barely growing after a relatively strong burst in July, when many countries had phased out the restrictions on public life that were imposed in the spring to contain the pandemic.

Coronavirus contagions are rising rapidly in many European countries, even if deaths remain at a relatively low level. That has made some consumers more cautious. Europe's busiest airline, Ryanair, said this week it was cutting back further on the number of flights as demand remains low.

That suggests the European economy, which had been expected to bounce back from recession more forcefully than the United States, could take longer to heal. “The path taken will likely depend in large part on how successfully COVID-19 can be suppressed and whether companies and their customers alike can gain the confidence necessary to support growth,” said Andrew Harker, economics director at IHS Markit.

The so-called purchasing managers' index, which is based on a survey of 5,000 companies across the 19-country eurozone, dropped to 51.6 points in August from 54.9 in July. The 50-mark separates economic contraction from growth.

The survey found that companies are cutting jobs for a sixth consecutive month, though not by as much as in April, with layoffs biggest in the manufacturing sector. A significant weakening in European business would be a blow to the global economy as the region had been one of the most successful in getting the pandemic under control. The European economy is forecast to recover more rapidly from recession than the United States, which hasn't yet managed to significantly reduce its first wave of contagions.

The eurozone economy shrank by a devastating 12.1% in the April-June period from the previous quarter but other indicators have pointed to a return to growth — from retail sales to manufacturing. The unemployment rate has held steady thanks to massive aid from governments to keep redundant workers on company payrolls. Some of that aid will phase out or be reduced in coming months, meaning job losses are likely to pile up.

Florian Hense, economist at Berenberg Bank, expects there to not be a repeat of the severe first wave of contagions and restrictions on business. But the uncertainty means the economy will take time to regain strength and won't get back quickly to where it was before the pandemic.

“Governments should seriously consider to prolong, or at least phase out only slowly, furlough schemes that end this autumn,” Hense said. “Otherwise the hit to employment and income could trigger a double-dip recession.”

Malta, once nearly virus-free, sees COVID-19 resurgence

August 21, 2020

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — During the first four months of Europe’s coronavirus outbreak, the Mediterranean island nation of Malta recorded just 673 infections. By mid-July, it had all but eliminated COVID-19 with only three active cases.

Yet in the last six weeks, Malta’s confirmed caseload has more than doubled. Malta is now considered an at-risk destination by some European countries, which have imposed travel warnings or testing requirements on anyone who goes there.

It’s quite a reversal of fortunes for Malta, which on Friday registered its first death since May. Earlier this week, the government closed nightclubs again, limited gatherings to 15 people and mandated mask-wearing in public places indoors with a 100-euro ($117) fine for offenders, all in a bid to radically change course.

“All these measures are based on the principle of social distancing. We felt that they had to be strengthened in several areas,” Malta’s public health chief, Charmaine Gauci, said in announcing the new rules.

While Malta’s numbers are still small — the country only has 500,000 people — and pale in comparison to bigger European countries that were hard hit in the spring, its infection curve is following that of Greece and Cyprus. Those southern Mediterranean countries also managed to limit infections early on with lockdowns, but are seeing surges now in part due to summer travel.

In all, Malta recorded 673 cases between March 7-July 7, but in the last six weeks the number of registered infections more than doubled to 1,546. In all, 10 people have died. The infections exclude more than 100 migrants who tested positive after being rescued by the Maltese army and were placed in quarantine. Another 118 migrants rescued by Malta on Thursday and quarantined will be tested Saturday.

Malta reopened its airport and ports on July 15, three months after shutting them down. But its more recent surge in cases came mostly from group activities that were allowed to resume after Malta eased its lockdown.

Parties, re-opened nightclubs and band marches for traditional Maltese religious feasts were mostly responsible for new infections, authorities say. Thanks to Malta’s new designation as a virus hotspot, residents and tourists leaving Malta now have to be tested to enter Italy and Greece, or be placed in quarantine upon arrival in Britain and Norway. Other nations are recommending against unnecessary travel to Malta.

Schools are set to reopen Sept. 28, but teachers’ unions have warned that might not be possible unless strict protocols are in place. The Maltese government has opened new testing centers to meet with the growing demand, carrying out up to 3,000 tests every day, some 50% more tests than during the first wave.

And yet amid the surge, Malta on Friday welcomed the first cruise ship since it reopened its ports. The MSC Grandiosa, which left Genoa on Sunday, entered Grand Harbor in what is being billed as the first Mediterranean cruise ship voyage after Europe's coronavirus lockdown.

'Let's roll': London's Heathrow urges testing at UK airports

August 19, 2020

LONDON (AP) — London's Heathrow Airport, the U.K.'s busiest, unveiled a new coronavirus testing facility Wednesday that it says could halve the length of time people have to stay at home after arriving from countries on the British government’s quarantine list.

The government said it wasn't ready to give its backing to the facility but insisted that it was working with airports on how a new testing regime can reduce the 14-day quarantine period that travelers face when arriving from more than 100 countries, including France, Spain and the United States.

Over the past few weeks, British tourists have faced travel chaos after the government took countries off its safe list at very short notice. The travel advice to the two most visited countries, Spain and France, changed at short notice, for example, prompting many travelers to seek to return to the U.K. swiftly in order to avoid the mandatory quarantine period.

As well as throwing into turmoil the vacation plans of many British families, the sudden changes have rocked the travel industry, which is trying to salvage something from the summer following weeks of lockdown.

There is growing speculation that Croatia and Greece, two other hugely popular vacation destinations for British families during the summer, could be added to the quarantine list in the coming days, a change that would further disrupt children's planned return to school at the start of September.

“Testing will not only avoid the ‘quarantine roulette’ that so many passengers faced in Spain and France, it will also open up flights to key trading partners such as the U.S., Canada and Singapore," Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said.

The new facility has been set up by aviation services company Collinson and logistics firm Swissport at Heathrow’s Terminal 2. They say more than 13,000 swab tests will be available to passengers each day, with results “within hours.” It is proposed that arrivals will then take a second test at home and will be able to leave their 14-day quarantine early if they pass both. Similar double-testing regimes are used elsewhere in Europe, including Germany.

“All we need now is government buy-in that those with negative tests will be released early from quarantine," said Richard Cawthra, chief commercial officer at Swissport. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he understood the inconvenience of the quarantine period and insisted that the government was doing what it can to mitigate the period people have to stay at home on their arrival in the U.K. Hancock said a ramp-up in testing in the coming months via a saliva test that would lead to more or less instant results would help.

“This moonshot to have testing ubiquitous and available to reopen all sorts of things, to reduce the burden of the quarantine arrangements, which nobody wants to have in place, to allow us to reopen parts of the economy, that is an incredibly important project within government right now," Hancock told BBC radio.

He refused to be drawn on when population-wide testing would potentially be in place in a country that has recorded more than 41,000 coronavirus-related deaths, Europe’s highest. “We’re ramping it up over the remainder of this year," he said. “I’m not going to put a firm deadline on it.”

He also said that further insights about the virus' prevalence within England will emerge from a wider infection survey from the Office for National Statistics. The statistics agency will increase the number of people it tests under the survey from 28,000 every two weeks to 150,000 by October.

“This will allow us to further narrow down the areas potentially affected by local outbreaks and continue our fight to curb the spread ahead of winter," he said. “The data and insight gathered will help inform our national, regional and local responses to the pandemic, allowing this nation to get back to the things we love doing.”

Alcohol rules again loosen as Dubai seeks economic recovery

August 19, 2020

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai again has loosened laws governing alcohol sales and possession of liquor as the sheikhdom tries to claw its way out of an economic depression worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outbreak of the virus exacerbated the already-gathering economic storm engulfing the emirate, which has seen mass layoffs thin the ranks of its foreign workforce and empty homes even amid slight signs of recovery. Even now, experts warn the sheikhdom's crucial real-estate market is on track to hit record lows seen in the 2009 Great Recession.

“It’s been a challenging year and there’s no hiding from that for any business — particularly those in the hospitality industry,” Mike Glen, managing director for the United Arab Emirates and Oman for alcohol distributor Maritime and Mercantile International, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.

Alcohol sales have long served as a major barometer of the economy of Dubai, a top travel destination in the UAE, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates. Ice-cold bottles of beer tempt tourists on hotel beaches, while decadent Champagne-soaked brunches draw well-to-do crowds of expatriate residents.

The sales also serve as a major tax revenue source for Dubai’s Al Maktoum ruling family. In Dubai, alcohol sales in general reflect the confidence of buyers in their own finances and in turn, the economy. Pre-pandemic, those sales already showed the trouble Dubai faced amid falling global energy prices and a weakening real estate market. Dubai also postponed its Expo 2020, or world’s fair, to next year, another major blow.

Overall sales of alcohol by volume fell sharply in 2019 to 128.79 million liters (34 million gallons), down some 3.5% from 133.42 million liters (35.2 million gallons) sold the year before, according to statistics from Euromonitor. The 2019 sales are down nearly 9% from 2017, which saw 141.51 million liters (37.3 million gallons) sold.

Amid the lockdown, Dubai’s two major alcohol distributors began legal home deliveries of alcohol for the first time in hopes of boosting the sales. Now, the city-state has changed the very system granting permission to residents to legally purchase alcohol.

By law, non-Muslim residents are supposed to carry red plastic cards issued by the Dubai police that permit them to purchase, transport and consume beer, wine and liquor. Otherwise, they can face fines and arrest — even though the sheikhdom's vast network of bars, nightclubs and lounges never ask to see the permit.

Those red cards now have been replaced with a black card and a simplified application process only requiring an Emirati national ID card. An application no longer requires an employer’s permission. Previously, employers could block non-Muslims from obtaining a card even if an employee qualified for it — which happened for some expats working for Emirati companies whose owners had religious objections to alcohol.

Purchase restrictions based on salaries also have been eased. Previously, residents would get around those restrictions by traveling to five of the other seven sheikhdoms that make up the UAE. Sharjah, the UAE's seventh emirate that borders Dubai to the north, outlaws alcohol, as do the nearby nations of Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The new card system comes as Dubai also now allows tourists and visitors to buy alcohol from distributors simply by using their passports, closing a loophole that made visiting imbibers unable to get a permit subject to arrest for possessing alcohol.

The UAE as a whole still faces the challenge of the coronavirus — with some 64,000 confirmed cases and 360 deaths. But Dubai has been aggressively advertising itself as reopened to tourism and now appears set to host Indian Premier League cricket, beginning in September.

There have been signs of a tentative and slight recovery starting to take hold. In July, Dubai's non-oil sector saw its first improvement in five months, according to a monthly survey by IHS Markit and Emirates NBD bank. But that appeared driven by deep cuts in price discounts, particularly in travel and tourism, the report said.

“The recovery in activity has not been sufficient to prevent firms continuing to lay off workers as they seek to reduce costs,” wrote Khatija Haque, the head of research and chief economist at Emirates NBD.

Those layoffs struck Emirates, the flagship of Dubai's state investment firm, particularly hard with thousands of employees fired. That's not counting all the other businesses large and small through the city similarly hurt by the virus — particularly in its bubble-or-bust real estate market.

Dubai's biggest private real estate company, DAMAC, which operates President Donald Trump's eponymous golf club in the UAE, just reported a net loss of $105 million for the first half of 2020. The company's chairman, Hussain Sajwani, blamed the pandemic for the poor results.

“Resulting travel restrictions impacted the economy and the real estate sector, and we will see a difficult market for the coming 18 to 24 months,” Sajwani said. Meanwhile, the mass layoffs have seen a noticeable number of for-rent and sales signs in front of homes and apartments across the city. The Dubai firm Property Monitor said in a report this week that real estate prices likely will set new record lows by the end of the third quarter of this year.

Rental listings have risen by 11% in Dubai as over 45,000 new residential units have entered the already soft market, according to REIDIN Data and Analytics, which tracks the market. Another 120,000 units are expected to come into the market in the next two years, further pushing down prices, REIDIN said.

Both sales and rental prices have dropped about a third since a market high in 2014, when Dubai announced it would be hosting the Expo. The “current pandemic, coupled with oversupply in the market and reduced occupancy levels, caused and increase in the rate of decline of prices for both apartment and villas especially in the second quarter,” said Ozan Demir, the director of operations and research at REIDIN.

France mandating masks at all workplaces as virus reawakens

August 18, 2020

PARIS (AP) — France is now mandating masks in all workplaces, from the Paris business district to factories in the provinces, as it tries to contain growing virus infections but avoid shutting down the economy.

Tuesday’s announcement by the Labor Ministry makes France one of relatively few countries in the world that’s universally requiring workers to wear masks on the job, though they’re routinely worn in many Asian countries and increasingly required in public places beyond.

The move came after France’s daily infection count jumped past 3,000 over the weekend, for the first time since May, and as the number of virus patients in hospitals, intensive care units and nursing homes is starting to inch up again. France currently has among the highest infection rates in Europe, and already requires masks in public indoor spaces like restaurants and in many areas outdoors.

As of Sept. 1, masks will also be required in all shared, enclosed work spaces, including open-plan or shared offices, corridors, meeting rooms, and changing rooms, according to the new government rules. They can only be removed when someone is alone in an individual office.

“The latest scientific knowledge about the possible risk of transmission of the virus via aerosols leads us to adopt a general principle of the systematic wearing of masks in indoor, shared workspaces,” said Laurent Pietraszewski, secretary of state for worker health.

About a quarter of the 1,013 virus clusters that have emerged since France ended its strict virus lockdown in May were traced to workplaces, according to the national health agency. Family vacation gatherings, dance parties and other summer events have also led to outbreaks, raising new concern in a country that has already seen more than 30,000 virus-related deaths.

Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne said the new measures are needed to ensure “the protection of workers’ health and the continuity of our economic activity.” She and Pietraszewski met with unions Tuesday before announcing the rules.

Unions have pushed for more virus protections, and workers at the Louvre Museum, Amazon France and other sites walked off the job earlier this year out of concern that their employers weren’t doing enough to protect them.

The requirements will come into effect Sept. 1, when workers around France come back from summer holidays, after details of how to impose and enforce them are worked out with unions and the High Council on Public Health.

Some workers are reluctant to wear a mask all day, particularly in professions that require heavy physical activity or phone discussions where masks can make it complicated to communicate. And employers worry about how to enforce eventual mask requirements and provide enough masks.

Already France has seen scattered incidents of violence by people refusing to don masks, and the government sent riot police to the Marseille region Tuesday to enforce new outdoor mask requirements at farmers' markets and several neighborhoods.

The French government is also recommending — but not requiring — that employees work from home if they can, and advises that individual lodging be used for itinerant workers instead of collective housing.

Many governments encourage masks at work but don’t require them everywhere. Among the few countries that mandate them are India and the Philippines, but enforcement varies.

Bar owners on Greek island angry over virus restrictions

August 16, 2020

MYKONOS, Greece (AP) — Wary of a rise in daily coronavirus cases that threatens to undo its relative success in containing the pandemic so far, the Greek government is imposing local restrictions on businesses, especially those that cater to big crowds, and business owners on the island of Mykonos don't like it one bit.

“You can’t take a unilateral decision and shut down the island the following day, at midnight,” bar owner Stavros Grimplas told The Associated Press of the government edict on Aug. 10, imposing a midnight closing time on bars, cafes, clubs and restaurants from Aug. 11 until Aug. 23.

“Everyone has come (to Mykonos) to eat their food, to entertain themselves, swim in the sea. At this moment, we are fooling them. We told them ‘come to Greece’ and Greece has shut down," a clearly frustrated Grimplas continued.

When Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis officially declared the tourist season open on June 13, he had said that “there is no risk-free approach.” Back then, there were 3,112 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 183 deaths. As of Saturday, the total cases were at 6,858, with most of the new ones coming in August, and 226 deaths.

Mykonos is a textbook case of crowds coming together. Off-season, the small island is home to 10,000. In the summer, it welcomes over 2 million visitors who are attracted by its reputation for the high life and a hedonistic lifestyle.

This summer, there will be nowhere near the same number. For one, cruises, which account for about a third of visitors, aren't happening. But people on the island say that hotels are at about 70% capacity, an unheard of number compared to other Greek tourist destinations.

On Saturday afternoon, beaches were quite crowded. After the midnight closing time, large crowds of people were milling around in the town center, many with beers they had bought from a kiosk. When similar restrictions were first imposed on the island of Poros, near Athens, visitors left in droves. But not in Mykonos.

Businesses are opening earlier to compensate. Owners have signed an angry letter accusing the government of wanting “to render us mere spectators of the destruction of our businesses.” They also demanded to know the data that prompted that decision and asked why the government is not stopping the “illegal parties ... that will blow up the pandemic.”

The parties are held in isolated villas around the island. Invitation is strictly word-of-mouth and tickets are sold at 150 euros (about $180) at a minimum and up to 1,000 (nearly $1,200) for VIP parties, island residents say.

The government says it won't back down from the measures and has indeed extended them to much of the country. From Monday, the midnight closing hours extend to the capital, Athens. And there have been more fines and even arrests for flaunting the rules. A parish priest was arrested in Athens on Saturday for calling on his flock, on Facebook, not to wear masks at Mass on Sunday.

Demetris Nellas reported from Athens. Thanassis Stavrakis contributed to this report from Mykonos.