DEFENDER Europe 20, NATO’s latest anti-Russian war games, has been canceled because Germany pulled out for fear of spreading COVID-19. The games were to be the largest training in transferring US troops from the United States to Europe since the mid-1990s, with 1500 German troops transporting military equipment across Germany and Poland to Russian borders.  The Pentagon was determined to go ahead despite the pandemic, but Germany pulled its forces out and closed its roads to NATO troop movements for fear of spreading COVID-19. Norway cancelled the Cold Response war games on their Russian border as well, also for fear of spreading COVID-19.

Pacifica’s Ann Garrison spoke with Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space about further developments in the US military.

KPFA

COVID-19 unravels American exceptionalism as it spreads among US troops

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing COVID-19 with as little health infrastructure as any nation in the world.

DRC faces COVID-19 with little health infrastructure

KPFA News Anchor: The spread of coronavirus has disrupted the Pentagon's normal operations, including the US Navy's operations in the Pacific. Ann Garrison reports.

AG: As of this broadcast, the USS Aircraft Carrier Chester Nimitz is docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. The shipyard is the centerpiece of Naval Base Kitsap, which also includes a nuclear weapons depot elsewhere in Kitsap County. The Nimitz is at the shipyard despite the Navy’s plans to deploy it to the Pacific more than ten days ago, to relieve the USS Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt. 

In a departure from the Navy’s strategic norms, the Roosevelt is already docked at US Naval Base Guam because of an outbreak of COVID-19 among its crew. The Nimitz and the Roosevelt are both nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed aircraft carriers, two of 11 in the US Navy, each of which carry around 80 fighter jets. They are the largest aircraft carriers in the world with a total combined deck space over twice that of all other nations combined.

At the beginning of APRIL, the US Defense Department announced that 1000 servicemen, military contractors, and other personnel had developed COVID-19, but at the same time ordered specific military installations worldwide to stop announcing new cases of COVID-19, particularly among their nuclear forces, for fear that military adversaries might exploit such information. These perceived adversaries are presumably Russia, China, and North Korea, all of which have Pacific coastlines. 
The Navy canceled the deployment of the USS Nimitz to relieve the USS Roosevelt amidst a disagreement between the Pentagon and Navy brass about whether or not coronavirus had spread among its crew. On April 14, the Navy announced that the Nimitz would deploy “shortly,” without specifics.
 
In any case, with the Nimitz at Naval Base Kitsap, and the Roosevelt docked a Naval Base Guam, the Navy is not in its normal operational mode in the Pacific at this time.

In Berkeley, for Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I’m Ann Garrison.

COVID-19 Disrupts US Naval Operations in the Pacific

As the corona virus began to spread in the U.S. in late February, experts predicted that homeless encampments would be devastated by the pandemic because of poor sanitation, underlying health conditions, and close proximity living. This has not proved to be the case in some nearby eastbay communities. Tom Herriman reports from Richmond.

Richmond's Homeless Coping with Covid

The State of Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens per capita than any other state in the US and a majority of them are Black. Now the largely Black prison population is threatened by COVID-19.

Louisiana activists call state's prisons a COVID-19 death trap

Vice president and presidential candidate Joe Biden has said unequivocally that he did not sexually assault his former Senate staffer Tara Reade, but he still refuses to approve investigative access to his Senate archives.

Joe Biden refuses investigative access to his Senate archives in response to Tara Reade

After Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the 2020 presidential election, 72 percent of the Los Angeles chapter of Our Revolution voted to leave the Democratic Party and work to create a new party.  Our Revolution is an offshoot of the Sanders campaign, with 10,000 members in Los Angeles who voted to join the Movement for a New Peoples Party.

Sanders Campaign Offshoot "Our Revolution-Los Angeles" Leaves the Democratic Party

On Friday morning's "The Breakfast Club" from 105.1 FM-NYC, Dem presidential candidate Joe Biden told national Black radio host Charlemagne the God, "If you have a problem figurin' out whether you're for me or for Trump, then you ain't Black."  It didn't go down well, but wasn't Biden repeating what he's been told?

Who ain't Black? Joe Biden's Blunder on "The Breakfast Club"

The European Union says it's carrying out a coordinated response to the coronavirus, but not everyone believes the EU is really set up to do that in an effective way. Retired French physics professor Jean Bricmont says the coronavirus reveals that it is not because the European Union has not created European unity.

Jean Bricmont: The coronavirus reveals that the EU has not created European unity

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