US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced a $1bn cut in American aid to Afghanistan after he failed to convince President Ghani and his political foe, Abdullah, to end a feud that has jeopardised a US-led peace effort. He said that the US is also prepared to cut another $1bn worth of assistance in 2021, and is conducting ‘a review of all of our programmes and projects to identify additional reductions and reconsider our pledges to future donor conferences for Afghanistan’. The harshly-worded announcement underscored how badly the US-led effort to end decades of strife in Afghanistan has stalled. En route back to Washington, Pompeo stopped at Qatar to meet Taliban officials, including their top negotiator. Pompeo indicated that the aid cut could be cancelled if everyone came to an agreement.

A damning report, prepared last year, has been released. It detailed Israel’s lack of preparation for a major epidemic. A pre-coronavirus scenario in the report (based on an influenza epidemic) expected about 2,250,000 infected residents (25% of the population) with an increase in morbidity spread over eight weeks, about 150,000 more hospitalised, 25,000 in intensive care, and 12,500 needing ventilation. The report stated that the health system was greatly burdened all year round, with many departments overcrowded, and there was a shortage of ICUs. Now there is a lack of protective medical gear, and problems with infection testing. Netanyahu said nobody was ready for corona.

The island’s phone-tracking system is an ‘electronic fence’, using existing phone signals to triangulate mobile phone owners’ locations. To ensure users comply, an alert is sent to the authorities if the handset is turned off for more than 15 minutes. More than 6,000 people subjected to home quarantine are monitored this way. Officials phone users up to twice a day to make sure they have their mobile to hand, and to ask about their health. Milo Hsieh is under quarantine. Early on Sunday morning, while he was sleeping, two police officers knocked at his door. His phone had run out of battery; in less than an hour four different administrative units had called. Police were dispatched to check his whereabouts. A text was sent saying that the government had lost track of him, and warning of potential arrest if he had broken quarantine.

Liberty University has 100,000 pupils studying online, with a further 15,000 attending campus in Virginia. It will now allow 5,000 students to return to campus and halls of residence despite the state governor ordering all schools to close until the end of the academic year. An email to students said, ‘All planned international trips have been cancelled, but students should return to campus this week. Liberty University is open and operating normally.’ The majority of lessons will be conducted online, but staff have been instructed to ‘report to work as normal’. According to the university president, on-site pupils have said, ‘Don't send us home to study online; we love it here, we want to stay'. This decision came after President Trump questioned whether public health measures to prevent coronavirus contagion were too strict. Health officials stressed that relaxing them could put more people at risk.