Ready to Deliver Counting the Dead and Some Governments’ Efforts to Underplay Their Outbreaks

stripes.com Volume 79, No. 6 ©SS 2020 MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK Children in MIDEAST Spain relish outdoor hour BY JOSEPH WILSON AND GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain — Shrieks of joy rang out in the streets of Spain as children were allowed to go outside and play Sun- day for first time in six weeks, while peo- ple in Italy and France were eager to hear their leaders’ plans for easing some of the world’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns. “This is wonderful! I can’t believe it has been six weeks,” Susana Sabate, a mother of 3-year-old twin boys, said in Barcelona. “My boys are very active. Today when they saw the front door and we gave them their scooters, they were thrilled.” Wary of igniting new infection flare-ups, nations have been taking divergent paths on how and when to reopen their econo- mies after weeks at a standstill. The official death toll from the virus topped 200,000 worldwide, with 2.9 million confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Those figures understate the enormity of the crisis, because of limited testing, differences in Ready to deliver counting the dead and some governments’ efforts to underplay their outbreaks. SEE OUTDOOR ON PAGE 7 US gunships prepared to make good on Trump’s warning to Iran BY TONY CAPACCIO ‘ I have instructed the United States Navy to Bloomberg News shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian WASHINGTON — Even before Pres- ident Donald Trump’s vow to “shoot gunboats if they harass our ships at sea. ’ down” Iranian speedboats if they ha- President Donald Trump rass American ships in international Tuesday morning on Twitter waters, the U.S. Navy was bolstering its ability to call in AC-130 gunships and any and all Iranian gunboats if they ha- 1,000 small boats that was growing. In Apache attack helicopters to defend its presence in the Persian Gulf. rass our ships at sea.” early January 2017 a U.S. Navy guided- A practice run for the new tactics on Going back to the Obama adminis- missile naval destroyer fired warning April 15 drew 11 gunboats from Iran’s tration, Revolutionary Guard members shots at four Iranian rapid-attack craft Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in small but agile speedboats have ha- in the Strait of Hormuz. that crossed the bows and sterns of rassed U.S. ships, but the encounters While attention has turned on the lat- American vessels at close range. And usually have ended with warnings est confrontation at sea between Iran that prompted Trump’s tweet on April from the Americans to back off. As far and the U.S. — and on Trump’s vow to 22 saying he’d “instructed the United back as 2007, the Office of Naval Intel- States Navy to shoot down and destroy ligence estimated Iran had a fleet of SEE DELIVER ON PAGE 6 EMILIO MORENATTI/AP The U.S Navy has bolstered its ability to call in AC-130 gunships like the one pictured to “essentially strafe” Iranian Brothers sit near the beach in Barcelona, Revolutionary Guard Corps’ small, agile gunboats, part of an effort to show U.S. forces can go on the offensive against Spain, Sunday, as children under 14 Iranian small boats, rather than simply defending against them. years old were allowed to take limited walks with a parent for up to one hour, ERICA ENGBLOM/U.S. Air Force ending six weeks of compete seclusion. MILITARY PACIFIC FACES Army moving forward Mystery surrounding Country music star with plans for summer location of N. Korean Church preaches troop rotations leader deepens safety in video Page 3 Page 5 Page 16 NBA players will get access to team facilities in some areas » Back page PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Monday, April 27, 2020 BUSINESS/WEATHER EXCHANGE RATES Military rates Switzerland (Franc)............................ 0.9744 Boeing ends deal, angering Brazilian jet maker Euro costs (April 27) ............................ $1.05 Thailand (Baht) .....................................32.43 Dollar buys (April 27) .......................€0.9036 Turkey (Lira) .........................................6.9789 British pound (April 27) .......................$1.20 (Military exchange rates are those Associated Press tions laid out by the deal, in which factured false claims as a pretext Japanese yen (April 27) .....................105.00 available to customers at military banking South Korean won (April 27) ........ 1,204.00 Boeing would have held a major- to seek to avoid its commitments Commercial rates facilities in the country of issuance CHICAGO — Boeing an- for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Bahrain (Dinar) ....................................0.3781 ity ownership. The companies to close the transaction and pay Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For nounced Saturday that it ter- British pound .....................................$1.2332 had “productive but ultimately Embraer the U.S. $4.2 billion nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., Canada (Dollar) ...................................1.4080 minated an agreement to join purchasing British pounds in Germany), unsuccessful negotiations” about purchase price. China (Yuan) ........................................ 7.0771 check with your local military banking forces with Embraer, prompting Denmark (Krone) ................................6.9065 the unsatisfied conditions, which “We believe Boeing has en- facility. Commercial rates are interbank an angry response from the Bra- Egypt (Pound) ....................................15.7903 was “deeply disappointing,” said gaged in a systematic pattern of Euro .........................................$1.0797/0.9262 rates provided for reference when buying zilian jet maker, which threat- Marc Allen, Boeing’s president of delay and repeated violations of Hong Kong (Dollar) .............................7.7504 currency. All figures are foreign currencies ened to seek damages. They had Hungary (Forint) .................................329.33 to one dollar, except for the British pound, Embraer partnership and group the MTA (master transaction Israel (Shekel) .....................................3.5132 which is represented in dollars-to-pound, planned to work on Embraer’s operations. agreement), because of its unwill- Japan (Yen) ........................................... 107.53 and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.) commercial aviation business Embraer issued a statement ingness to complete the transac- Kuwait (Dinar) ..................................... 0.3107 INTEREST RATES and to develop new markets for Norway (Krone) .................................10.6476 saying that it “believes strongly tion in light of its own financial Philippines (Peso)................................. 50.79 Prime rate ................................................3.25 its C-390 Millennium aircraft. that Boeing has wrongfully ter- condition and 737 Max and other Poland (Zloty) ..........................................4.20 Discount rate ..........................................0.25 Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ...........................3.7608 Federal funds market rate ...................0.05 Boeing ended the agreement minated” the mutual transaction business and reputational prob- Singapore (Dollar) ..............................1.4255 3-month bill ............................................. 0.11 after Embraer did not meet condi- agreement and “that it has manu- lems,” it added. South Korea (Won) ......................... 1,233.55 30-year bond ........................................... 1.18 WEATHER OUTLOOK MONDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST MONDAY IN EUROPE TUESDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 50/38 Kabul 72/46 Seoul 62/38 Baghdad 82/59 Kandahar 94/56 Osan Tokyo Mildenhall/ Drawsko 62/39 55/45 Lakenheath Pomorskie Busan 54/46 61/44 62/45 Iwakuni 59/50 Kuwait Bahrain Zagan Sasebo City 88/79 Brussels 61/41 Guam 84/69 66/44 Ramstein 60/50 83/79 Lajes, 66/44 Riyadh Doha Azores Stuttgart Pápa 88/68 92/77 62/58 67/53 64/45 Aviano/ Vicenza 63/50 Naples 65/52 Okinawa Morón 69/64 62/52 Sigonella Rota 71/53 The weather is provided by the Djibouti Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 88/81 63/58 63/57 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. T O D A Y IN STRIPES American Roundup ..... 15 Classified .................. 13 Comics ...................... 18 Crossword ................. 18 Faces ........................ 16 Opinion ..................... 17 Sports .................. 20-24 Monday, April 27, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 3 MILITARY Army announces plans for summer troop rotations BY JOHN VANDIVER Stars and Stripes ‘ We have trained STUTTGART, Germany — The for many months PHOTOS BY KYLE COPE/U.S. Air Force Army is moving forward with to prepare to serve An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, gets a plans for summer troop rotations water salute Thursday after completing 10,000 flight hours. The F-16 was the first in Europe, and only to Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan in Europe and we the second in the U.S. Air Force’s inventory, to cross the 10,000 flight-hour mark. even as the military grapples with the disruptive effects of the are excited to work global coronavirus pandemic, the directly with our service announced Thursday. F-16 jet at Spangdahlem first in The announcement came allies. ’ days after the Pentagon issued Maj. Gen. Jeffery Broadwater the latest version of a sweeping 1st Cavalry Division commander Europe to hit 10,000 flight hours stop-movement order, aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus among troops. The latest BY JENNIFER H. SVAN order, which is scheduled to last

Load more