SINGAPORE — 

After allowing a stranded cruise ship to dock in Cambodia last Thursday, Prime Minister Hun Sen greeted disembarking passengers with warm handshakes and red roses.

It looked like a savvy photo op by the wily authoritarian, who instantly pleased both his closest ally, China, and his most powerful critic, the United States. Several countries had denied entry to the Holland America Line ship, the Westerdam, because of fears that passengers or crew could be carrying the novel coronavirus, although company officials said no one on board was infected.

The risks of the Cambodian leader’s gesture became apparent after an 83-year-old American passenger tested positive for the virus in Malaysia after she and hundreds of others left Cambodia en route to their home countries.

The announcement sent company officials, governments and medical experts scrambling to trace passengers who had dispersed to multiple countries — highlighting the challenge of containing a virus that often fails to trigger symptoms and is circling the globe.

“We are in close coordination with some of the leading health experts from around the world,” said Grant Tarling, Holland America’s chief medical officer. “These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow up with any individuals who may have come in contact with the guest.”

The American woman, who didn’t report feeling ill until after she left Cambodia, was in stable condition at a hospital in Malaysia, Holland America said Monday. Her 85-year-old husband has tested negative for the virus.

The company said that out of 2,257 passengers and crew members — including more than 650 Americans — only 20 reported feeling ill during the voyage and were tested for the virus. All tests came back negative. Hundreds of passengers disembarked at the port of Sihanoukville without being screened.

“Obviously in hindsight, this was a mistake,” said Charles Chiu, a professor of infectious diseases at UC San Francisco.

Chiu said that more precautions should have been taken in Cambodia given that the epidemic is in its early stages and can still be controlled. The crowded spaces and communal facilities on cruise ships make it easy for disease to spread among passengers. On the Diamond Princess cruise liner quarantined off of Japan, 454 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Now that the passengers have either gone home or continued traveling in other countries, this only magnifies the global public health challenge of tracking and performing contact tracing for each and every one of the passengers,” Chiu said of the Westerdam. “Self-quarantine measures for 14 days would need to be rigorously enforced to prevent spread by anyone else who may have been infected.”

Thailand said Monday that for 14 days it wouldn’t let in anyone who had been aboard the Westerdam. Malaysia blocked further arrivals. Singapore placed two nationals who had returned from the cruise in a government quarantine facility and said it wouldn’t allow any other passengers into the country.

Passengers temporarily stopped disembarking from the Westerdam, and those who were in hotels were asked to stay in their rooms until they were tested for the virus and cleared.

Christina Kerby, a passenger from Alameda, Calif., who had been tweeting updates about her trip, disembarked and flew on Saturday to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. That evening, she gleefully posted pictures of her dinner of seafood and beer at a local bar, Nelsons.

The next morning, she said Cambodian health officials had asked passengers to stay in their rooms “pending further health screenings.”

“I left the hotel for a few hours on Saturday before I knew the extent of our situation,” Kerby tweeted Monday. “I deeply regret if I’ve inadvertently put anyone at risk.”

All passengers in Phnom Penh were tested for the virus, and no new infections had been reported as of Monday evening, according to Holland America. Those who were virus-free were able to travel home. About 1,000 people — mostly crew members — were still being screened aboard the ship.

More than 73,000 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus since it surfaced in December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Although the vast majority of cases have occurred in China, infections have appeared in more than two dozen countries, showing how the virus has spread silently through global travel.

“It’s a gamble Cambodia was making in allowing Westerdam to dock,” said Ou Virak, president of Future Forum, a Cambodian think tank.

Still, he praised Hun Sen’s decision on humanitarian grounds, saying that many other countries were reacting to the outbreak with “hysteria.”

The cruise liner had been at sea for two weeks and turned away by ports in at least five countries, including the U.S. territory of Guam, after concerns were raised that travelers could have been exposed to the virus from the journey’s origin point of Hong Kong. The ship was reportedly running low on supplies when the Cambodian government granted it permission to dock in Sihanoukville.

Hun Sen had several reasons to be hospitable. China is his country’s No. 1 trading partner, and from the outset the Cambodian leader has played down the threat of the virus.

He has opted not to evacuate Cambodian nationals from Wuhan, and he declined to wear a mask to guard against infection — even threatening to boot journalists from a news conference if they failed to follow his lead.

“What is more terrible than the epidemic is the panic itself,” Hun Sen told Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing this month.

“People will of course question whether Hun Sen is doing this under pressure from China or of his own accord,” Ou Virak said. “I think it’s a combination of both.”

Allowing the ship to dock also deflected attention from a diplomatic blow Hun Sen suffered last week, when the European Union partially suspended Cambodia’s trade privileges, citing serious violations of civil, political and labor rights.

President Trump hailed “the beautiful country of Cambodia” and tweeted, “The U.S. will remember your courtesy.” The U.S. Embassy’s social media accounts have been full of praise for the Cambodian government, a departure from recent years, when the State Department has sharply criticized Hun Sen’s moves to ban opposition parties, silence independent media and block public assemblies.

“The close, positive, and public collaboration between the Cambodian government and the U.S. Embassy on the docking has ultimately turned this into something of a high point,” said Bradley Jensen Murg, assistant professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University.

Some Cambodians were worried about possible exposure to the virus. Several journalists who covered the arrival of the passengers said they were isolating themselves, although none reported showing symptoms.

Cambodian officials continued to play the cheerful host. The governor of Phnom Penh on Monday took some passengers on a bus tour of the city. Hun Sen said he wanted to throw them a party.

The country had reported one coronavirus infection before the Westerdam, but some Cambodians are skeptical of that figure given a huge volume of Chinese travelers, a weak health system and the virus’ ability to evade detection.

Paul Ananth Tambyah, president of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, said Cambodia and Malaysia played their roles and now other countries would have to track the ship’s passengers.

“I think that this was a very difficult decision, as keeping the ship at sea or in the harbor is not a viable option,” Tambyah said. “Someone has to take the passengers ashore and send them somewhere else.”

Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey

BEIJING — 

As a mysterious new virus enveloped central China’s Wuhan early this year, Liu Zhiming mobilized all the resources of his hospital in the city’s Wuchang district to deal with the thousands of sick people arriving daily, threatening to overwhelm the local healthcare system.

That dedication appears to have cost him his life, with Wuhan’s health bureau announcing Tuesday that he became infected and died despite “all-out” attempts to save him.

Liu is at least the seventh health worker to die of the COVID-19 disease among the more than 1,700 doctors and nurses who have become sick. His death comes as authorities are cautiously cheering a reduction in the number of new daily cases and deaths, along with the results of a study showing most people who contracted the virus experienced only mild symptoms.

China on Tuesday reported 1,886 new virus cases and 98 more deaths.

That raised the number of deaths in mainland China to 1,868 and the total confirmed cases to 72,436.

The outbreak has caused massive disruptions, and China may postpone its biggest political meeting of the year to avoid having people travel to Beijing while the virus is still spreading. One of the automotive industry’s biggest events, China’s biannual auto show, also is being postponed, and many sports and entertainment events have been delayed or canceled.

Despite strict rules on use of masks and safety suits, medical workers have been among the victims, particularly in the early stage of the outbreak.

In announcing Liu’s death, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said he had taken part in the battle against the virus from the start and had made “important contributions in the work of fighting and controlling” the virus.

During that process “unfortunately he became infected and passed away at 10:54 Tuesday morning at the age of 51 after all-out efforts to save him failed,” it said.

The Hubei native had graduated from Wuhan University’s School of Medicine in 1991 and went on to a career as a chief physician, neurosurgeon and administrator.

Earlier this month, public outrage was stirred by the death from the virus of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who had been threatened by police after releasing word of an outbreak of unusual respiratory illness in January before the city was placed under quarantine.

Wuhan and its surrounding cities in Hubei province have accounted for the vast majority of infections and deaths, prompting the government to enforce a travel ban that has spread to other parts of the country and now includes a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine period for anyone traveling outside their home district. Two new prefabricated hospitals have been built to deal with the overflow in Wuhan and thousands of medical staff have been brought in from other parts of the country to help.

A study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 80% of people infected had mild illness and the number of new infections seems to be falling since early this month. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was too early to know if the reported decline would continue. “Every scenario is still on the table,” he said at a news conference.

The seeming drop in the number of new cases follows a large spike last week after Hubei province began counting cases by doctors’ diagnoses without waiting for laboratory test results. Health authorities there said the change was meant to get patients treated faster.

The Chinese study examined 44,672 cases of the disease that were confirmed in China as of Feb. 11. Severe symptoms such as pneumonia occurred in 14% of them and critical illness in 5%. The fatality rate was 2.3% — 2.8% for males versus 1.7% for females.

The death rate is lower than for SARS and MERS, diseases caused by coronaviruses related to the one that causes COVID-19. But the new virus ultimately could prove more deadly if it spreads to far more people than the others did. Ordinary flu has a fatality rate of 0.1% yet kills hundreds of thousands because it infects millions each year.

The COVID-19 cases include relatively few children, and the risk of death rises with age. It’s higher among those with other health problems — more than 10% for those with heart disease, for example, and higher among those in Hubei province versus elsewhere in China.

The study warned that while cases seem to have been declining since Feb. 1, that could change as people return to work and school after the Lunar New Year holidays. Beijing sought to forestall that by extending the holiday break, restricting travel and demanding 14-day self-quarantines for anyone returning from outside their immediate region.

Travel to and from the worst-hit central China region was associated with the initial cases of COVID-19 confirmed abroad. But Japan, Singapore and South Korea have identified new cases without clear ties to China or previously known patients, raising concern of the virus spreading locally.

The largest number of cases outside China is among passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined at a port near Tokyo. The Japanese Health Ministry has tested 1,723 people among the 3,700 initially on board, and 454 have tested positive.

The U.S. evacuated 338 American passengers, with most of them placed in a 14-day quarantine at military bases in California and Texas. Fourteen tested positive for the virus.

The deadly respiratory disease, now known as COVID-19, is taking a toll on global trade.

TOP STORIES

Coronavirus Disrupts the Flow of Business

Activity at Chinese factories has slowed or stopped. Fewer cargo ships from China are docking at Southern California ports. Chinese visitors’ spending in Los Angeles could plunge nearly $1 billion this year.

Businesses of all stripes in California and across the U.S. are seeing a disruption from the new coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 1,800 people and infected more than 72,000 others worldwide, mostly in China. Indeed, the World Trade Organization says global trade in goods, which had already been slowed by tariffs and uncertainty, will probably remain weak in coming months

Apple, Mattel, Disney and Tesla are among the many California-based corporations feeling the effects. The effect on supply chains extends to the Port of Los Angeles — along with the dockworkers, truck drivers and the vast warehouse and distribution network that rely on it.

More About the Outbreak

— U.S. officials say that 14 American passengers evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan had tested positive for the new coronavirus but were allowed on flights to military bases in California and Texas.

— Cambodia’s lack of caution in welcoming the cruise ship Westerdam has sent company officials, governments and medical experts scrambling to trace passengers who have dispersed to multiple countries. The situation highlights the challenge of containing a virus that often fails to trigger symptoms and is circling the globe.

— Study-abroad programs in China are being canceled, as institutions such as the University of California suspend all nonessential travel to China.

— The spread of the coronavirus has spurred organizers of next month’s Tokyo Marathon to downsize their massive race to only a small field of elite runners.

Sanders Vs. Bloomberg

Tensions between Bernie Sanders and Michael R. Bloomberg have taken on a nasty edge in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The senator from Vermont has denounced what he called Bloomberg’s “racist” stop-and-frisk policy and his status as one of America’s richest men, while Bloomberg’s campaign has decried “such slanderous attacks from other Democrats.”

But beyond the harsh words lie concerns by some members of the Democratic Party that Sanders’ liberal policies could cost them control of the House and a chance at grabbing the Senate from Republicans this fall. They argue that while Sanders’ nomination would drive enthusiasm among liberal voters eager to defeat President Trump, it would be a dramatic liability in conservative areas.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg has spent more than $124 million on advertising in the 14 Super Tuesday states, well over 10 times what his top rivals have put into the contests that yield the biggest trove of delegates in a single day. The only other candidate to advertise across most of those states so far is Sanders, who has spent just under $10 million.

Bloomberg has also qualified for the upcoming Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday. It’s the first time he’ll appear on the debate stage.

Lacey Vs. Gascón

L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey and George Gascón, the former San Francisco district attorney and LAPD assistant chief trying to unseat her, have each spent more than three decades in law enforcement. Yet their visions to run the nation’s largest prosecutorial office couldn’t be more different. The Times reviewed crime statistics, filing rates and other data to compare their terms. Voters will choose from Lacey, Gascón and former public defender Rachel Rossi when they go to the polls on March 3.

Badge of Dishonor

The Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy protection, as legal claims by former Scouts of past sexual abuse continue to grow. The Scouts’ Chapter 11 petition, filed in Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, comes amid declining membership and a wave of new sex-abuse lawsuits after several states, including California, New York and New Jersey, recently expanded legal options for childhood victims to sue. The bankruptcy is not likely to affect local Scouting activities but will halt ongoing lawsuits while settlements are negotiated. It also will require new abuse claims to be handled in that venue rather than in state courts.

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OUR MUST-READS FROM THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND

— Presidents Day: How history remembers chief executives can change dramatically.

— As the homeless population grows, street medicine — the practice of sending medical teams onto the streets — is growing in popularity in cities around the U.S.

— Should cars be banned on Broadway in downtown L.A.? City Councilman Jose Huizar would like to study the idea.

— Inside the Marciano Art Foundation’s spectacular shutdown.

— How one writer learned to stop worrying and love his Asian Glow, that flush of redness that happens when some people drink alcohol.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

On Feb. 17, 1938, authorities tried to serve an eviction notice on George Farley at a home south of downtown Los Angeles. Instead, a gun battle erupted. Authorities said Farley opened fire on them, killing Deputy Marshal T. Dwight Crittenden and Leon W. Romer, and was wounded five times before his capture. Farley was convicted of two counts of manslaughter and ordered to serve 10 to 20 years in San Quentin State Prison.

CALIFORNIA

— The state Assembly is expected to approve, with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s endorsement, a formal apology to all Americans of Japanese descent for the state’s role in policies that culminated with their mass incarceration during World War II.

— Court records show that Amie Harwick, the sex therapist and author who was fatally attacked in her Hollywood Hills residence, had twice sought restraining orders against ex-boyfriend Gareth Pursehouse. He was arrested on suspicion of murder.

— With jury selection set to begin in L.A. on Wednesday, the Robert Durst murder trial is expected to last up to five months. The twists leading up to it have been stranger than fiction.

— In San Diego, the Rev. Kori Pacyniak is believed to be the first transgender, nonbinary priest in the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— The Writers Guild of America is looking to crack down on writers secretly working with “fired” agents, against the rules of their union.

— “McMillions” on HBO isn’t your usual true crime docuseries. Here’s how its creators incorporated humor into their work.

— The NBC show “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” remade a Beatles classic, with “Help!” from 70 performers in San Francisco.

— The faces of Frieze 2020: Picturing the art crowd at Los Angeles’ premier fair. (Spoiler alert: There was a lot of funky eyewear.)

NATION-WORLD

— In Austin, Texas, leaders are fighting over how to deal with growing homelessness, and California has become their punching bag.

— A leaked database shows that the Chinese government has focused on religion as a reason for detention in Xinjiang — not just political extremism, as authorities claim, but ordinary activities such as praying, attending a mosque or even growing a long beard.

— With Russian President Vladimir Putin pursuing a nationalist agenda, some Tatars fear for the future of their language and the rights of their community.

BUSINESS

— If you ever get a letter saying a relative you’ve never heard of has left you millions in inheritance, read this first.

— Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos announced he’s created the Bezos Earth Fund. At $10 billion, it’s his biggest philanthropic investment to help counter the effects of climate change.

SPORTS

— Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500 after Ryan Newman was involved in a crash that sent him to a hospital.

— The Lakers say fans wishing to attend the Feb. 24 public memorial for Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others killed in a helicopter crash can register online for tickets. Several sources have said the event will be restricted to ticket-holders. Over the weekend, the NBA All-Stars paid their tributes.

— Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner is none too pleased with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s comments defending his investigation into the Houston Astros’ illegal sign-stealing scheme and referring to the World Series trophy as a “piece of metal.”

— For long-suffering L.A. Kings fans, the 2010s provided two championships and lots of memories. Lately, they’re back to suffering as the hockey team rebuilds. The latest: Tyler Toffoli was traded to the Vancouver Canucks.

OPINION

— L.A. needs to preserve affordable housing, but eminent domain isn’t the way to do it, The Times’ editorial board writes.

— Columnist George Skelton looks at the new Proposition 13. He says that it would send billions to California schools that need it, but if you are confused by the name, you aren’t alone.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— More than 2,000 former Department of Justice employees have put their names to a letter calling on Atty. Gen. William Barr to resign after events surrounding Roger Stone’s sentencing. (Medium)

— Defense Secretary Mark Esper has defended the Pentagon’s effort to strip the news organization Stars and Stripes of all of its federal funding as part of its 2021 budget request. (Stars and Stripes)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

UC Riverside’s 113-year-old Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection has been described as a Noah’s Ark for citrus: two of every kind. But now, an apocalypse is nigh. A bacterial infection known as citrus greening, or Huanglongbing, that has ravaged citrus wherever it’s appeared is coming ever closer to the collection. Here’s how they’re trying to protect the trees and bring an end to a disease once and for all.

Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

BEIJING — 

A recent speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping that has been published by state media indicates for the first time that he was leading the response to the coronavirus outbreak from early on in the crisis.

The publication of the Feb. 3 speech was an apparent attempt to demonstrate that the Communist Party leadership had acted decisively from the beginning, but also opens Xi up to criticism over why the public was not alerted sooner.

In the speech, Xi said he gave instructions on fighting the new strain of the virus Jan. 7 and ordered the shutdown that began Jan. 23 of cities at the epicenter of the outbreak. His remarks were published by state media late Saturday.

“On Jan. 22, in light of the epidemic’s rapid spread and the challenges of prevention and control, I made a clear request that Hubei province implement comprehensive and stringent controls over the outflow of people,” Xi told a meeting of the party’s standing committee, its top body.

The number of new cases in mainland China fell for a third straight day, China’s National Health Commission reported Sunday. The 2,009 new cases in the previous 24-hour period brought the total to 68,500.

Commission spokesman Mi Feng said the percentage of severe cases has dropped to 7.2% of the total from a peak of 15.9% on Jan. 27. The proportion is higher in Wuhan, the Hubei city where the outbreak started, but has fallen to 21.6% from a peak of 32.4% on Jan. 28.

“The national efforts against the epidemic have shown results,” Mi said at the commission’s daily media briefing.

Taiwan on Sunday reported its first death from the virus, the fifth fatality outside of mainland China. The island also confirmed two new cases, raising its total to 20.

Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that the person who died was a male in his 60s living in central Taiwan. The man had no recent overseas travel history and no known contact with virus patients, CNA said, citing Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung.

China reported 142 more deaths, almost all in Hubei, raising the mainland China death toll to 1,665. An additional 9,419 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by a new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals.

The virus has spread to more than two dozen countries.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an experts meeting to discuss measures to contain the virus in his country, where one person has died and more than a dozen cases emerged in the past few days without any obvious link to China.

“The situation surrounding this virus is changing by the minute,” Abe said.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the country is “entering into a phase that is different from before,” requiring new steps to stop the virus from spreading further.

About 400 Americans on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan were awaiting charter flights home, as Japan announced an additional 70 infections had been confirmed on the Diamond Princess. Canada, Hong Kong and Italy said they were planning similar flights.

Japan now has 412 confirmed cases, including 355 from the cruise ship, and one death from the virus.

Xi’s role was muted in the early days of the epidemic, which has grown into one of the biggest political challenges of his seven-year tenure.

The disclosure of his speech indicates top leaders knew about the outbreak’s potential severity weeks before such dangers were made known to the public. It was not until late January that officials said the virus can spread between humans and public alarm began to rise.

Zhang Lifan, a commentator in Beijing, said it’s not clear why the speech was published now. One message could be that local authorities should take responsibility for failing to take effective measures after Xi gave instructions in early January. Alternatively, it may mean that Xi, as the top leader, is willing to take responsibility because he was aware of the situation, Zhang said.

Trust in the government’s approach to outbreaks remains fractured after the SARS epidemic of 2002 and 2003, which was covered up for months.

Authorities in Hubei and Wuhan faced public fury over their initial handling of the epidemic. Wuhan on Jan. 23 became the first city to impose an unprecedented halt on outbound transportation, a measure since expanded to other cities with a combined population of more than 60 million.

The anger reached a peak earlier this month following the death of Li Wenliang, a young doctor who was reprimanded by local police for trying to spread a warning about the virus. He ended up dying of the disease himself.

In apparent response, the Communist Party’s top officials in Hubei and Wuhan were dismissed and replaced last week.

Even as authorities have pledged transparency through the current outbreak, citizen journalists who challenged the official narrative with video reports from Wuhan have disappeared and are believed to be detained.

The fall in new cases follows a spike of more than 15,000 on Thursday, when Hubei began to include cases that had been diagnosed by a doctor but not yet confirmed by laboratory tests.

Overwhelmed by the number of suspected cases, the province has not been able to test every person exhibiting symptoms. The clinical diagnosis is based on doctors’ analyses and lung imaging and is intended to allow probable cases to be treated as confirmed ones without the need to wait for a lab result.

About 400 Americans aboard the cruise ship docked at Yokohama, near Tokyo, were told to decide whether to stay or take chartered aircraft arranged by the U.S. government to fly them home, where they would face another 14-day quarantine. Those going were to begin leaving the ship Sunday night. People with symptoms were to be banned from the flights.

About 255 Canadians and 330 Hong Kong residents are on board the ship or undergoing treatment in Japanese hospitals. There are 35 Italians, of which 25 are crew members, including the captain.

American passenger Matthew Smith told the Associated Press that he and his wife were not taking the flights, because the 14-day quarantine for the ship is set to end Wednesday. The evacuees will be taken to Travis Air Force Base in Northern California, with some continuing to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Malaysia said it would not allow any more passengers from another cruise ship to transit the country after an 83-year-old American woman from the MS Westerdam tested positive for the virus.

She was among 145 passengers who flew from Cambodia to Malaysia on Friday. Her husband also had symptoms but tested negative for the virus. The Westerdam was turned away from four ports around Asia before Cambodia allowed it to dock in Sihanoukville late last week.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said that her country would bar cruise ships that came from or transit any Chinese ports from docking.

Cambodia said earlier that all 1,455 passengers on the Holland America-operated ship had tested negative for the virus.

Ursula von der Leyen’s drive to get the European Parliament behind her nomination for the top job in Brussels hit a wall of skepticism on Wednesday, including calls to delay her ratification vote, currently scheduled for next week.

The German defense minister met with Socialists and liberal MEPs — the two largest groups after her own conservative European People’s Party — and was due to meet with the Greens, the fourth largest group, later in the afternoon.

Although von der Leyen has had plenty of photo opportunities since being tapped last week by EU leaders to take over from Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, she had avoided any utterance on actual policy — until Wednesday.

Speaking to liberal-centrist MEPs from the Renew Europe group, in a session that was broadcast live, she stuck to the already familiar script of stressing her personal connection to Brussels (she was born in the EU capital and went to school there). But when she ran through a litany of major issues facing the EU, she put particular emphasis on climate change, calling it urgent and appearing to scale up the ambition of Europe’s response.

“The clock is ticking,” she said.

On the demise of the Spitzenkandidat (lead candidate) system — which was supposed to bring extra democracy and transparency to the selection of Juncker’s successor including months of campaigning and public debates, but came apart at the hands of EU leaders — von der Leyen said: “I can’t heal the past, it is a fact.” She added:  “I will do everything so we develop a process that is more mature.”

The Socialists are bitterly disappointed that EU leaders rejected a slate that included their own candidate for the top job, Frans Timmermans. Many Social Democrat MEPs, including some of her fellow Germans, said that they would not support her candidacy. They complained that she is too vague on policy ideas and her personal convictions, and didn’t make a sufficiently convincing case to justify a rushed vote next week.

German Social Democrat MEP Katarina Barley, a former justice minister who served with von der Leyen in Angela Merkel’s Cabinet, said she knows the nominee “very well personally but I don’t know her ideas about Europe.” Two hours is not enough to decide on the top job, she said, and about 40 questions went unanswered for lack of time, Barley said. “That’s why we support the [lead candidate] process, because you need a whole election campaign.”

Unlike Juncker, who had spent nearly two decades coming to Brussels as prime minister of Luxembourg, as a leader of the Eurogroup and member of the European Council before securing the Commission presidency via the Spitzenkandidat process, von der Leyen could not describe any personal history in EU policy, beyond her personal links to Brussels.

In her remarks to MEPs, she made some brief references to her record as defense minister before moving on to describing her support for the EU’s single market, and her goal of achieving gender parity in Commission personnel.

Renew Europe appeared more inclined to support her nomination than the Socialists, in large part because the liberals claimed a major prize — the European Council presidency for Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel — in the leadership package put forward by the Council.

But Dacian Cioloş, the leader of Renew Europe, said after the meeting that his group’s vote would depend on four conditions: von der Leyen’s willingness to take direction from a proposed conference on the future of Europe, agreement to allow transnational candidate lists in future European elections, support for a new “rule-of-law” mechanism, and a commitment that liberal lead candidate Margrethe Vestager would be given a vice presidency post equal in rank to that of Socialist lead candidate Timmermans.

Cioloş also said the group is concerned about allegations of mismanagement and overspending at the German defense ministry during von der Leyen’s tenure as minister and that he had asked her in a previous meeting to clarify the situation.

“Of course, integrity, it’s a key issue for us,” he said.

Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ’t Veld complained von der Leyen had offered “not a lot that was very precise and concrete on rule of law” while other liberals echoed the Socialists’ complaints about the end of the lead candidate process.

Still others in Renew Europe raised a question about the portfolio that would be given to Vestager, who has been tapped for a senior Commission vice presidency. Fredrick Federley, a Swedish liberal, reminded von der Leyen that leaders on the Council had promised Vestager such a senior post.

Von der Leyen did not state what portfolio Vestager would receive but said the Dane, currently the competition commissioner, “will have an outstanding position because she did an outstanding work.”

She added: “We are absolutely like-minded.”

The Council’s leadership package also named Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell for the post of high representative of foreign affairs, and an Italian Social Democrat, David Sassoli, was elected last week as Parliament president after the Council made clear it wanted a Socialist in that post. But those jobs were not enough to quell the outrage over Timmermans, currently first vice president of the Commission, being blocked from the top job.

Iratxe Garcia, the Spanish leader of the Socialist group in Parliament, said her MEPs would discuss von der Leyen’s candidacy further and aimed to arrive at a common position on whether to back her by early next week.

But some of the Socialist MEPs, including Jens Geier, the head of the German delegation, said their minds are made up — and von der Leyen would not get their votes.

“She is not concrete,” said Raphaël Glucksmann, a new French Socialist MEP. “She’s not concrete on migration questions. She’s not concrete on social rights.” He added, “On substance, we’re absolutely not there yet.”

Then, turning to some officials standing with him in the hallway outside the meeting room, Glucksmann quipped: “You could have briefed her.”

This article has been updated.

European lawmakers want more and better answers from Sylvie Goulard.

The internal market commissioner-designate failed to convince MEPs that she has been cleared of all legal and ethical woes in a tense confirmation hearing Wednesday in the European Parliament, and will face another round of questioning and possibly another hearing.

Representatives of key political groups met to discuss her candidacy after the hearing. According to two MEPs who participated in that meeting, all groups except for Goulard’s own Renew Europe asked for a set of three additional questions to be sent out that will focus on legal and ethical concerns.

“There was almost unanimity to draft questions,” said Virginie Joron, a French far-right MEP. “The only ones who voted against the questions were from Renew Europe.”

“The problems raised are clearly the issues of transparency and integrity,” Joron added.

Polish MEP Marek Krasnodębsk from the European Conservatives and Reformists confirmed that MEPs will submit more written questions to Goulard.

The rejection of Goulard would be a tremendous blow for Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, who has already seen the Parliament block two of her nominees, the Hungarian and Romanian candidates, because of ethical concerns.

Goulard failing to win confirmation would also be a serious embarrassment for French President Emmanuel Macron, who is close to her and used his political muscle to make sure that she would have a broad, influential portfolio overseeing the EU internal market. Macron has sought to portray himself, and his political family Renew Europe, as leading a renovation of the EU and its institutions.

Goulard appeared before MEPs from the industry and internal market committees, both in charge of issues covered by her vast portfolio spanning industrial, defense and digital policy.

At her hearing, Goulard faced repeated and relentless questioning over allegations that European Parliament assistants were used for domestic political work. She was also grilled over her work as a highly paid consultant for a U.S. think tank while she was an MEP.

Goulard promised to “respect the outcome” of the legal probe into her use of assistants, insisted she was “clean” and called on MEPs to respect her “presumption of innocence.”

Asked if she would resign from the European Commission if convicted in that probe, she said: “I will obviously respect that sort of outcome, but for now it is a hypothetical question.”

But Goulard struggled to convince MEPs about the legal investigation and her job at the Berggruen Institute while she was a MEP. The California-based think tank, headed by businessman Nicolas Berggruen, paid Goulard more than €10,000 per month before taxes to act as a “special adviser.”

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“There is a cloud of doubt hanging over the candidacy of Sylvie Goulard,” Christian Ehler, the EPP coordinator of the industry committee, said. “She couldn’t answer to a lot of questions … on her legal allegations in France but also in the EU.”

An official from the Socialists and Democrats group had the same analysis.

Ville Ninistö, coordinator for the Greens/EFA group in the industry committee, said before the group meeting: “We will request a second round of written questions to her; mainly to clarify what kind of concrete legislative proposals she wants to put on the table to strengthen the circular economy and to properly fix the aftermath of the Dieselgate scandal.”

If the committees are still not satisfied once Goulard has answered the new written questions, the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents — the president of the assembly and the leaders of the political groups — can arrange another hearing.

Goulard, a close, early ally of Macron, resigned as French defense minister in June 2017 following a legal investigation into her use of assistants during her time as an MEP. Since then, she paid back €45,000 she owed to the Parliament but, while she hasn’t been formally charged, she hasn’t been cleared as part of the legal investigation in France and by OLAF, the EU’s anti-corruption watchdog.

The hearing left some MEPs unconvinced.

François-Xavier Bellamy, a French member of the EPP, started the hearing by asking whether Goulard was “taking seriously” her mandate. “How do we understand that what made you step aside from the government in France doesn’t prevent you from exercising with the peace and independence required for a commissioner job?”

Joron, from far-right National Rally, asked about the Berggruen job: “Madam, how many French people earn €13,000 to make phone calls?”

Pressed further about that by lawmakers, Goulard said that she “regrets” the situation and “understands much better” why the money “could have upset people.”

“I admit that these amounts are high,” Goulard said, while defending the think tank job as a way to “do things with people who have influence and talent.”

Her political group sought to defend her after the hearing.

“She is the right person at the right place, to drive the key portfolio of the internal market,” Dita Charanzovà, vice president of the Parliament and Renew Europe coordinator for the internal market committee, said after the hearing.

This article has been updated.

Laurens Cerulus and David Herszenhorn contributed reporting.

The invitation to join Brussels’ most exclusive new dinner club said “dress code: casual.”

Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen will take out her new team for a cozying-up and team-building “seminar” Wednesday night, two Commission officials told POLITICO.

Von der Leyen has invited the commissioners-designate for an away day of about 24 hours to a hotel outside Brussels, starting in the evening — it’s meant to be “an opportunity to get to know each other in private,” said one official. The plan is to create “a nice atmosphere.”

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It’s the first get-together of the new class of European commissioners, which von der Leyen presented on Tuesday.

A cozy atmosphere might be helpful to have a drink or two with other lucky winners of the personnel tableau von der Leyen kept close until telling people “on relatively short notice,” as future Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.

It might also help some members to overcome possible disappointments over the portfolio they were given, the directorates general they will oversee or not, or the unexpected promotion of a contender for glory.

It might also help to familiarize with the job titles of other commissioners-designate — and what exactly they  mean — and to understand how von der Leyen wants them to work together: The seminar will also be an opportunity for von der Leyen to tell her team about her expectations, according to the officials.

It’s about “rules for the composition of cabinets and how they should cooperate,” said one official, as well as about new “working arrangements.”

Dombrovskis said the latter “are not entirely the same as in the current Commission.” Ever the optimist, he added that “probably some lessons learned might have been incorporated” in the new set-up.

Finally, the seminar “will give an outlook on the procedures of the hearings in the European Parliament,” said one official. It’s the first opportunity for a get-together — and it could be the last for some commissioners-designate: There might be trouble ahead for some, after all.

The outspoken agent’s latest comments about Paul Pogba’s future should be enough to force the club into action

Manchester United should cut ties with Mino Raiola and refuse to sign any players represented by the controversial agent in wake of his latest outburst about Paul Pogba, says Gary Neville.

The outspoken Raiola took to Instagram on Monday to criticise Red Devils manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for his comments saying Pogba belongs to the club, insisting that the Frenchman is his own man.

It is not the first time Raiola has spoken publicly about Pogba’s situation at United, as just last week he hinted that the 26-year-old could move to Juventus in the summer.

Un séjour dédié au bien-être dans le cadre somptueux des centres thalassos 5* : Athénée & Ulysse. Tel était le programme de rêve de quelques personnalités lors du concept intitulé “Les Escapades” .

“Détente, Spa & Thalasso, dans un lieu enchanteur, tout à la fois contemporain et intimiste.” En recevant pareille invitation, les personnalités ne se sont pas fait prier pour répondre par l’affirmative à Martine Vidal (épaulée par son fils Xavier) à l’origine du concept “Les escapades”.

Quatre jours durant, pur bonheur et convivialité étaient au rendez vous dans le cadre idyllique du Radisson Blu Palace Resort & Thalasso et du Radisson Blu Ulysse Resort & Thalasso. Ces deux complexes hôteliers prestigieux 5* de renommée internationale du groupe Rezidor viennent de recevoir en 2014 la certification Green Key couronnant leur implication dans la préservation de l’environnement. Ils ont également reçu le Prix Traveller’s Choice. Ils sont dotés de magnifiques centres Thalasso & Spa où une équipe de médecins, coachs et thérapeutes proposent à une clientèle de curistes venus du monde entier, des protocoles personnalisés, dans un décor raffiné entièrement dédié au bien-être.

Une parenthèse idéale donc pour les personnalités invitées lors de cette “escapade” parmi lesquelles l’humoriste Julie Ferrier (de retour sur scène pour 43 représentations exceptionnelles à la Gaité Montparnasse à partir du 8 janvier), Celine Sallette (qui sera le 3 décembre à l’affiche de La French avec Jean Dujardin et Gilles Lellouche), Joy Esther (qui a du écourter son séjour à Djerba en raison du tournage de l’émission de la St-Sylvestre de Vendredi tout est permis spéciale Nos chers voisins), Bruno Solo (à l’affiche de la pièce Inconnu à cette adresse au théâtre Antoine à partir du 25 novembre) et Princesse Erika (qui vient de finir d’écrire la chanson La vie sans sida pour l’association VI(H)E Pluri-Elles, dont elle est la marraine, en partenariat avec l’Institut Pasteur).

Parmi les temps forts de cette escapade 2014, on retiendra d’ailleurs le karaoke de Princesse Erika qui a repris son plus grand tube Faut qu’j’travaille dans une ambiance survoltée et avec au choeur deux chanteuses de choix : Céline Sallette et Julie Ferrier.

Crédit photos : Anthony Ghnassia (Vision by AG)

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Dans le journal L’Equipe on apprenait ce matin que Zlatan Ibrahimovic ne pourra pas se rendre le 2 décembre prochain au dîner officiel auquel François Hollande l’a convié.

Véritable star en France comme en Suède, d’où il est originaire, Zlatan Ibrahimovic était donc selon François Hollande, un invité incontournable de la visite en France du roi et de la reine de Suède. Malheureusement, le footballeur attaquant du PSG, ne pourra pas être au four et au moulin à la fois, il a donc dû refuser l’invitation du président de la République au dîner d’accueil officiel donné mardi soir à L’Elysée. Ibra sera en effet en train de préparer « au vert » le match de 16e journée de Ligue 1 qu’il jouera le lendemain à Lille avec son équipe.

Hier encore, lors d’une conférence de presse, son entraineur, Laurent Blanc, informé de l’invitation par les journalistes, assurait que la présence du joueur à l’évènement dépendrait de la mise à disposition par l’Elysée d’un moyen pour qu’il soit présent à Lille le soir du 2 décembre. Mauvaise volonté de l’Elysée, du coach, du principal intéressé ou encore simple difficulté logistique? Quoi qu’il en soit, aucun arrangement n’a été trouvé, et Zlatan ne sera pas présent pour accueillir la reine Silvia et le roi Carl XVI.

Le programme des souverains suédois ne s’en trouvera pas modifié pour autant. Après le dîner de mardi, ils donneront mercredi 3 décembre le coup d’envoi d’une conférence internationale sur le climat et l’énergie, thème de cette première visite officielle depuis 1980, puis, remettront un prix scientifique pour la recherche sur les cancers pédiatriques, avant d’offrir le dîner retour. Enfin, ils s’envoleront jeudi pour Toulouse où ils visiteront Airbus et le CNES.