NATION NATION MUSIC FBI questioned FedEx Riots, protests hit Swift’s ‘Fearless’ shooter last year after several cities after stand a bonanza ‘suicide by cop’ threat police shootings for longtime fans Page 6 Page 7 Page 12 Sharks’ Marleau on cusp of breaking Howe’s games mark ›› NHL, Page 24 stripes.com Volume 79 Edition 258B ©SS 2021 CONTINGENCY EDITION SUNDAY,APRIL 18, 2021 Free to Deployed Areas AFGHANISTAN US drawdown could require short-term rise in troop levels BY CAITLIN M. KENNEY Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON — More Amer- ican troops could deploy to Af- ghanistan in the coming months to help with U.S. withdrawal efforts from the country, Pentagon’s chief spokesman said Friday. “It is not out of the realm of the possible that for a INSIDE short period of time, there will Biden have to be some ad- ditional enabling taking capabilities added to Afghanistan to risk by help affect a safe, pulling orderly and delib- erately planned troops drawdown of every- Page 4 body by the presi- A worker goes to pick up a coffin outside Paris. dent's deadline by France passed the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID-19 deaths early September,” John Kirby last week, with the worldwide death toll topping 3 million on Saturday. said during a news briefing. RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH/AP President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced he had de- cided to withdraw the 2,500 or so VIRUS OUTBREAK U.S. troops in Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that led to the invasion of the country. The with- drawal was originally supposed to happen by May 1 as laid out in peace agreement with the Tali- Global death toll ban, but Biden had previously said meeting that deadline would difficult. Preliminary plans had already been written for the May with- drawal, Kirby said. Those plans will now need to be updated and passes 3 million could possibly include logisticians and engineers as the U.S. needed when leaving Iraq in 2011, and se- Worldwide vaccination campaign struggling to meet needs as crisis deepens curity forces to protect withdraw- Associated Press The number of lives lost, as compiled by icantly higher because of possible government ing troops, he said. RIO DE JANEIRO — The global death toll Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the concealment and the many cases overlooked in “We've seen [the Taliban] from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Vene- the early stages of the outbreak that began in threats, and it would be impru- million people Saturday amid repeated set- zuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal. It is Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. dent for us not to take those backs in the worldwide vaccination campaign bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equiva- When the world back in January passed the and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, lent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined. SEE RISE ON PAGE 4 India and France. And the true number is believed to be signif- SEE TOLL ON PAGE 9 PAGE 2 • STARS AND STRIPES • Sunday, April 18, 2021 BUSINESS/WEATHER S&P 500 marks its 4th weekly gain in a row EXCHANGE RATES Military rates South Korea (Won) 1116.07 Associated Press stocks, which have been prone to er in the month, when the 10-year Switzerland (Franc) 0.9198 Euro costs (April 19) $1.17 Thailand (Baht) 31.21 Stocks added to their recent pull back when bond yields move note traded at a yield of 1.75%. Dollar buys (April 19) 0.8132 Turkey (NewLira) 8.0734 British pound (April 19) $1.34 gains Friday, driving the S&P 500 higher. Rising bond yields tend to “There’s sort of a churning with Japanese yen (April 19) 106.00 (Military exchange rates are those available and Dow Jones Industrial Aver- make shares in technology com- regard to interest rates and in the South Korean won (April 19) 1092.00 to customers at military banking facilities in the Commercial rates country of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger­ age to new highs. panies that have had a strong run- market itself,” said Tom Martin, many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Bahrain(Dinar) 0.3770 For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur­ The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, led by up over the past year look too ex- senior portfolio manager with Britain (Pound) 1.3793 chasing British pounds in Germany), check with Canada (Dollar) 1.2516 your local military banking facility. Commercial gains in companies that rely di- pensive. Crude oil prices slipped, Globalt Investments. China(Yuan) 6.5208 rates are interbank rates provided for reference Denmark (Krone) 6.2087 rectly on consumer spending, weighing down energy compa- The S&P 500 rose 15.05 points to Egypt (Pound) 15.6799 when buying currency. All figures are foreign health care stocks and banks, nies. 4,185.47. The Dow gained 164.68 Euro 0.8348 currencies to one dollar, except for the British Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7721 pound, which is represented in dollars­to­ which benefited from higher Bond yields rose broadly after points, or 0.5% to 34,200.67. The Hungary (Forint) 301.57 pound, and the euro, which is dollars­to­euro.) Israel (Shekel) 3.2775 Treasury yields. The benchmark falling earlier in the week. The S&P and Dow also hit all-time Japan (Yen) 108.87 INTEREST RATES index notched its fourth straight yield of the 10-year Treasury note highs on Thursday. The technolo- Kuwait(Dinar) 0.3015 Norway (Krone) 8.3786 Prime rate 3.25 weekly gain. rose to 1.59% from 1.53% late gy-heavy Nasdaq inched up 13.58 Philippines (Peso) 48.38 Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75 Poland (Zloty) 3.80 Federal funds market rate 0.09 The gains were tempered by Thursday. Still, bond yields are points, or 0.1%, to 14,052.34 after Saudi Arab (Riyal) 3.7510 3­month bill 0.02 modest declines in technology down from the highs they hit earli- recovering from an early slide. Singapore (Dollar) 1.3344 30­year bond 2.21 WEATHER OUTLOOK SUNDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY IN EUROPE MONDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 61/43 Kabul Seoul 67/44 66/42 Baghdad 93/78 Tokyo Drawsko Osan Kandahar Mildenhall/ 68/48 67/44 88/59 Pomorskie Busan Lakenheath 59/40 71/50 52/33 Iwakuni Kuwait City Bahrain 72/43 Brussels Zagan Sasebo 97/76 74/64 Ramstein 56/41 66/48 Guam 56/38 55/37 86/78 Riyadh Lajes, 93/69 Doha Azores Stuttgart 93/75 67/58 68/37 Pápa Aviano/ 53/42 Vicenza 59/41 Naples 58/47 Okinawa Morón 70/64 75/50 Sigonella Rota 65/48 The weather is provided by the Djibouti 69/56 Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 88/80 74/57 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. TODAY IN STRIPES American Roundup ...... 11 Books .......................... 14 Comics .........................15 Crossword ................... 15 Music ..................... 12-13 Opinion ........................ 17 Sports .................... 19-24 Sunday, April 18, 2021 • STARS AND STRIPES • PAGE 3 MILITARY Army revising policy on sex-crime cases BY ROSE L. THAYER Randon, the Army’s assistant dep- mented at Fort Hood, III Corps and prevention to rebuilding trust be- try Division at Fort Carson, Colo., Stars and Stripes uty chief of staff for military intelli- Army Forces Command, known as tween soldiers and leaders to im- the 1st Armored Division at Fort AUSTIN, Texas — A report of gence and one of three leaders of FORSCOM. proving the program designed to Bliss, Texas, and the 1st Infantry sexual harassment from a soldier the People First Task Force. The Army created the commit- respond to sexual assault and ha- Division at Fort Riley, Kan. under Army Forces Command The Army announced the policy tee to review Fort Hood’s com- rassment so soldiers can trust it. However, units and bases out- now will be investigated by an offi- change alongside 20 others made mand climate and culture and the The Army’s SHARP program, side of this purview are not im- cer outside of that soldier’s bri- since the Fort Hood Independent Sexual Harassment/Assault Re- which was created in 2008 and im- mune to the problems identified by gade, according to a new policy Review Committee released a re- sponse and Prevention program plemented in 2012, will be com- the Fort Hood review committee. from the command. port Dec. 8 about the Texas Army last year after the disappearance pletely restructured under the task Members of the training staff at More so, the Army plans to im- base. The report included 70 rec- and death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen. force, said Randon, an Army civil- Fort Sill, Okla., which falls under plement the change servicewide as ommendations to improve the The 20-year-old soldier was killed ian for 35 years. Army Training and Doctrine Com- a way to stabilize its sexual assault command climate and culture at in an arms room by a fellow soldier Other recommendations imple- mand, were suspended earlier this and harassment response program Fort Hood and the entire Army. nearly one year ago. Her family has mented to address sexual assault month for allegations that they while also creating a complete The People First Task Force was said she was sexually harassed on and harassment included III Corps were involved in the sexual assault overhaul of the 10-year-old pro- created to implement all the rec- base prior to her death.