Flying in the Face of COVID
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Volume 79, No. 100B ©SS 2020 CONTINGENCY EDITION SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2020 stripes.com Free to Deployed Areas VIRUS OUTBREAK Flying in the face of COVID Park visitors enjoy a ride in Kabul, Afghanistan, Eager Afghans set in July. Afghans have been permitted to frequent parks, swimming pools and gyms, virus fears to side shop in malls and celebrate marriages in wedding halls since mid-July. amid reopening RAHMAT GUL/AP BY RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan hen the local bowl- ing alley reopened, Zohal Bayat was Weager to get back to the lanes. For four long months amid Afghanistan’s coronavirus, it and other recreational facilities had been closed. So that meant Bayat, a member of the country’s national women’s bowling team, had been unable to practice, On top of that, Bayat was at one point struck with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. She spent more than 20 days in iso- lation, with fever, shortness of breath and coughing. Her father was infected as well, but now both are well. “I am so excited,” the 25-year- old Bayat said, as she practiced at the Friend’s Cafe, her favorite alley. Still, she only comes on week- days. Weekends are too crowded, as young people pack the place, which also features pool tables, SEE FLYING ON PAGE 5 Trump tweets he will not allow Stars and Stripes to shut down BY COREY DICKSTEIN ‘ Stars and Stripes The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military! WASHINGTON — President Donald ’ Trump vowed Friday not to allow the President Donald Trump Pentagon’s planned shutdown of Stars and Stripes, as senators this week implored Defense Secretary Mark Esper to continue be cutting funding to @starsandstripes Military!” by Sept. 15 for shuttering the news orga- funding the editorially independent news magazine under my watch,” Trump tweet- In a memo sent last month to Stars and nization by January and called for it to organization. ed Friday. “It will continue to be a won- Stripes leadership, Pentagon officials or- “The United States of America will NOT derful source of information to our Great dered the organization to submit a plan SEE TWEETS ON PAGE 5 MILITARY NATION MUSIC DOD restarts projects Biden chides Trump Killers frontman Flowers put on hold to fund over comments on broadens horizons while wall along border service, war dead on break from touring Page 4 Page 6 Page 12 Positive test could end drivers’ bid for championship » Auto racing, Back page PAGE 2 •STARS AND STRIPES• Sunday, September 6, 2020 BUSINESS/WEATHER EXCHANGE RATES Market closes out worst week in months Military rates Switzerland (Franc)............................0.9122 Euro costs (Sept. 7) ..............................$1.16 Thailand (Baht) ..................................... 31.37 Dollar buys (Sept. 7) ........................ €0.8228 Turkey (Lira) .........................................7.4496 Associated Press British pound (Sept. 7) ........................$1.30 (Military exchange rates are those late afternoon. The selling followed a Labor Japanese yen (Sept. 7) ......................104.00 available to customers at military banking The two-day sell-off handed the Department report showing that South Korean won (Sept. 7) ..........1,160.00 facilities in the country of issuance The stock market closed out Commercial rates for Japan, South Korea, Germany, the benchmark index its first weekly U.S. hiring slowed to 1.4 million its worst week in more than Bahrain (Dinar) ....................................0.3767 Netherlands and the United Kingdom. For loss after five weeks of gains. Ear- last month even as the nation’s British pound .....................................$1.3290 nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., two months Friday as a second Canada (Dollar) ...................................1.3046 purchasing British pounds in Germany), lier in the week, the S&P 500 was unemployment rate improved to China (Yuan) ....................................... 6.8425 check with your local military banking straight day of turbulent trading notching all-time highs and post- 8.4% from 10.2%. Denmark (Krone) ................................6.2778 facility. Commercial rates are interbank ended with more losses. Egypt (Pound) ....................................15.8114 rates provided for reference when buying ing its biggest increases in nearly The VIX, a gauge of how much Euro ........................................$1.1852/0.8438 currency. All figures are foreign currencies The S&P 500 fell 0.8% after two months. volatility investors expect in the Hong Kong (Dollar) ............................ 7.7504 to one dollar, except for the British pound, clawing most of the way back There wasn’t a particular cata- market, has been rising. Yet, trad- Hungary (Forint) ................................ 303.86 which is represented in dollars-to-pound, Israel (Shekel) .....................................3.3729 and the euro, which is dollars-to-euro.) from a 3.1% skid earlier in the lyst for continued selling in the ers were not shifting funds into Japan (Yen) .......................................... 106.21 day. Another slide in technol- high-flying tech sector, but ana- traditional safe-haven assets like Kuwait (Dinar) .................................... 0.3060 INTEREST RATES ogy stocks, which led the selling lysts noted that those stocks had U.S. government bonds and pre- Norway (Krone) ...................................8.8974 Philippines (Peso).................................48.55 Prime rate ................................................3.25 a day earlier, pulled the market posted gigantic gains so far this cious metals, a sign that the sell- Poland (Zloty) ..........................................3.76 Discount rate ..........................................0.25 sharply lower for much of the Saudi Arabia (Riyal) ...........................3.7508 Federal funds market rate ...................0.09 year that many thought were off was not necessarily a reaction Singapore (Dollar) ..............................1.3641 3-month bill ............................................. 0.12 day, though the selling eased by overdone. to jitters about the economy. South Korea (Won) ...........................1188.03 30-year bond ...........................................1.47 WEATHER OUTLOOK SUNDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY IN EUROPE MONDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 79/71 Kabul 88/61 Seoul 75/63 Baghdad 110/76 Kandahar 94/64 Osan Tokyo Mildenhall/ Drawsko 75/68 80/74 Lakenheath Pomorskie Busan 63/49 60/52 78/75 Iwakuni 82/79 Kuwait Bahrain Zagan Sasebo City 95/90 Brussels 62/54 Guam 101/83 62/52 Ramstein 77/74 84/81 Lajes, 68/46 Riyadh Doha Azores Stuttgart Pápa 104/75 100/86 71/68 62/57 76/61 Aviano/ Vicenza 73/62 Naples 82/67 Okinawa Morón 83/70 98/63 Sigonella Rota 88/68 The weather is provided by the Djibouti Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 98/83 84/66 79/74 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. T O D A Y IN STRIPES American Roundup ..... 11 Comics/Crossword ...... 15 Gadgets & Technology ..16 Music ....................12-13 Opinion ..................... 17 Sports .................. 18-24 Travel ........................ 14 Sunday, September 6, 2020 •STARS AND STRIPES• PAGE 3 MILITARY Microsoft reaffirmed as JEDI deal winner Associated Press time to review how it evaluated project will store and process Amazon has asserted that we continue to ask ourselves is certain technical aspects of the vast amounts of classified data, the bidding was improperly in- whether the president of the Unit- WASHINGTON — The Pen- bids after the judge who is presid- allowing the U.S. military to im- fluenced by President Donald ed States should be allowed to use tagon on Friday reaffirmed ing over Amazon’s bid protest in prove communications with sol- Trump’s dislike of Amazon and the budget of the Department of Microsoft as winner of a cloud the U.S. Court of Federal Claims diers on the battlefield and use its chief executive officer, Jeff Defense to pursue his own per- computing contract potentially issued a preliminary injunction artificial intelligence to speed Bezos. Bezos owns The Washing- sonal and political ends?” worth $10 billion, although the on Feb. 13. The judge said that up its war planning and fighting ton Post, a news outlet often criti- In April, a government watch- start of work is delayed by a legal Amazon’s challenge likely had capabilities. cized by Trump. dog concluded that the contract- battle over rival Amazon’s claim merit in some respects. In a statement Friday, Ama- In its statement Friday, Ama- ing process was in line with legal that the bidding process was The contract was awarded to zon said the Pentagon’s further zon said its concerns about politi- and government purchasing flawed. Microsoft last October, prompt- review was not based on the rela- cal corruption have only grown. standards. The Defense Depart- “The department has complet- ing Amazon to cry foul. tive strengths of the two compa- “We strongly disagree with ment inspector general found ed its comprehensive re-evalua- Amazon Web Services, a mar- nies’ bids. the DoD’s flawed evaluation and no evidence of White House in- tion of the JEDI cloud proposals ket leader in providing cloud “That is exactly where we find believe it’s critical for our coun- terference in the contract award and determined that Microsoft’s computing services, had long ourselves today, with the DoD’s try that the government and its