| Coronavirus truthers prey on the anxiety of the moment Posted: 16 Mar 2020 11:55 AM PDT  As the global coronavirus outbreak continues to shutter businesses and schools across America and upend the stock market, a number of commentators on the right have been busily floating conspiracy theories about what's behind the outbreak.
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| Joe Biden’s Plan to Shut Down the Firearms Industry Posted: 17 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT  As Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders continue to trade blows over who is more equipped to supposedly deliver a knockout punch to the firearms industry, the former vice president has zeroed in on the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) — the law preventing frivolous lawsuits that seek to blame members of the firearms industry for the criminal misuse of legal, lawfully sold, non-defective firearms.Biden is swinging wide to do this, making wild and false claims. Before the debate in South Carolina, he told the state's gun manufacturers, "I'm coming for you, and I'm taking you down." He liked the tough talk enough that he reiterated from the debate stage, "And I want to tell you, if I'm elected . . . gun manufacturers, I'm going to take you on and I'm going to beat you."Biden's end goal is ultimately to repeal the 2005 PLCAA. This law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by President George W. Bush, ended the politically driven lawsuits aimed at bankrupting the firearms industry. Biden and Sanders want to revive the tactic as they pursue the White House, and they're using disproven and false claims to make their case.The PLCAA stopped a series of "public nuisance" lawsuits by activist mayors in big cities against firearms manufacturers over the crimes committed by individuals. That law doesn't grant immunity, but it prevents others from shifting the blame from criminals to a manufacturer. The firearms manufacturer is no more liable for the crime committed by an individual than Home Depot would be if someone committed murder with a hammer. The PLCAA does nothing more than defend an industry that has been targeted by a series of baseless, politically motivated lawsuits.Yet Biden still falsely claims that this gives firearms manufacturers blanket immunity. Both manufacturers and firearms retailers can be, and are, held responsible for harm caused by defective products, breach of contract, criminal misconduct, or other actions for which they are directly responsible, the same as any other product manufacturer.Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, underscored this when he wrote, in an op-ed for The Hill, "Product liability and tort actions against manufacturers have uniformly and correctly been rejected by the courts. Guns are lawful products, and holding companies liable for later misuse of such products is absurd. You might as well sue an axe manufacturer for the Lizzy Borden murders."Biden claims, as Hillary Clinton falsely tried to claim before him in 2016, that these protections are unique. In fact, manufacturers of medical devices, the airline industries, and even online service and content providers are protected from frivolous lawsuits when defamatory information is posted by others. Biden attacks the PLCAA knowing full well that individuals who commit crimes are responsible for them. His argument is just a façade for gun control that he can't achieve through legislation.The sad part is that Biden chose to attack an industry that has grown 171 percent since 2008 and currently employs more than 312,000 Americans from all walks of life in communities across the nation. He's coming after firearms manufacturers that paid $6.8 billion in total taxes and had a total economic impact of more than $52 billion.He's claiming that the men and women who work in the factories, those who produce the firearms not just for law-abiding Americans to exercise their rights but also for our U.S. Armed Forces and law-enforcement officials, are enemies of our society. He argues that he's the champion of the blue-collar worker, yet he wants to destroy a growing industry that provides over $15.7 billion in worker wages. He insists that he wants to restore America, but he mocks and denigrates the more than 100 million law-abiding Americans who own, carry, and use their guns frequently without incident.Biden and the Democrats who endorse him all know that the PLCAA doesn't offer firearms manufacturers unique protections. The law that prevents them from driving politically motivated lawsuits is rock solid. Biden's anger is reflective of his frustration that the courts won't allow him to bankrupt an industry to prove his political bias against Second Amendment freedoms.
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| Amazon is hiring 100,000 warehouse workers and raising pay as the coronavirus causes an 'unprecedented' increase in demand for this time of year Posted: 16 Mar 2020 01:12 PM PDT  Amazon pledged on Monday to hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers and raise their pay by $2 per hour through April.
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| 62 Home Office Ideas That Will Inspire Productivity Posted: 16 Mar 2020 12:01 PM PDT |
| Mom accused of killing 9-month-old when she fell asleep with her kids Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:28 AM PDT  Authorities found that Heather Hall had four types of drugs in her system after she fell asleep with her legs pinning her 9-month-old child face down on the bed.
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| Trump rates his coronavirus response a 10 Posted: 16 Mar 2020 01:39 PM PDT  President Trump on Monday rated his response to the growing coronavirus outbreak in the United States a 10.
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| US sued to stop deportation of 3 children to El Salvador Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:39 AM PDT |
| India shuts Taj Mahal; Pakistan cases rise after quarantine errors Posted: 16 Mar 2020 09:56 PM PDT  MUMBAI/KARACHI (Reuters) - India closed the Taj Mahal, its principal tourist site, and the financial hub of Mumbai ordered offices providing non-essential services to keep half their staff at home in increased measures to curb the coronavirus in South Asia. Mumbai, a metropolis of 18 million people, also authorised hospital and airport authorities to stamp the wrists of those ordered to self-isolate with indelible ink reading "Home Quarantined" and displaying the date the quarantine ends. There have been concerns that over-stretched health systems in India and the region could struggle to handle a surge in cases.
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| Greenland and Antarctica are now melting six times faster than in the 1990s, accelerating sea-level rise Posted: 17 Mar 2020 07:47 AM PDT  Greenland and Antarctica have lost 6.4 trillion tons of ice in the past three decades, accelerating sea-level rise around the world.
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| ‘Who is going to advise him to drop out?’: Bernie may not be ready for quick exit Posted: 17 Mar 2020 01:30 AM PDT  Many of the Vermont senator's aides and allies expect him to press onward — regardless of Tuesday's election results.
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| 'People Are Dying Left and Right.' Inside Iran's Struggle to Contain Its Coronavirus Outbreak Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:41 AM PDT  Iran's overwhelmed health system is already finding echoes around the world
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| Trump downplayed the coronavirus threat in its early days. A new report says Jared Kushner had been telling him the media was exaggerating the crisis. Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:04 AM PDT  Kushner may have helped fuel the president's early skepticism about the outbreak in its early days. The US is now under a national emergency.
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| After head start on virus, Africa begins clampdown Posted: 17 Mar 2020 11:23 AM PDT  African countries have been among the last to be hit by the global coronavirus epidemic but as cases rise, many nations are now taking strict measures to block the deadly illness. The first case in Africa was recorded in Egypt on February 14, and by early March there were only two more cases in Algeria and Nigeria. Since then confirmed cases have spread steadily and in a little over a week more than 20 new countries have been infected, bringing the total to 30 of 54 African nations with 450 known cases of the virus.
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| Mubarak's lasting legacy on Egypt's Coptic Christians Posted: 17 Mar 2020 05:11 AM PDT  The rule of Egypt's former leader Hosni Mubarak, who died in February at age 91, will be remembered by many for its repressive tactics and the unprecedented Arab Spring protests that led to the strongman's ouster in 2011. But Mubarak's legacy is more complicated than that. Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christian Church had a friendly relationship with Mubarak. At the height of the Arab Spring in February 2011, Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Church's head at the time, ordered Christians to stay home rather than to join those protesting the regime. In my book "Alien Citizens," I show how those in political authority use minorities for their own interests. Mubarak used his relationship with the Copts to bolster support for his rule while failing to put in place lasting legal safeguards for Christians.This strategy did not change after Mubarak's ouster from office. The Copts in EgyptEgypt's Copts, the largest Christian community in the Middle East and one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, constitute about 10% of the country's total population of 95 million. Since 1952, when Egypt became a republic following a military coup, the church's relationship with the state has not always been smooth. Christians in Egypt have faced discrimination in multiple forms.Until recently, Christians required permission from Egypt's president to build a church. A ruling on whether one can be constructed took into account the number of Christians living in a neighborhood and the proximity of the proposed church from nearby mosques. The relationship between Coptic popes and presidents influenced policy on Egypt's Christians. The rules on church construction were largely a result of the souring relations between Pope Shenouda III and Anwar Sadat, who ruled Egypt between 1970 and 1981 – just before Mubarak. The pope spoke against Sadat's more tolerant stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's Islamic revivalist movement that was repressed under Sadat's predecessor, Jamal Abdel Nasser. In 1981, Sadat accused Pope Shenouda III of "fomenting sectarian trouble between Copts and Muslims." He also rescinded a previous presidential decree that recognized Pope Shenouda III as the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church and put him under house arrest. Mubarak released Pope Shenouda III and gave him more access to the corridors of power. But, in return, the pope had to pledge his support to Mubarak's regime. A complicated relationshipUnder Mubarak, the Coptic Orthodox Church gained a privileged position and became the main interlocutor for state's relations with Christians.However, the condition of Christians did not necessarily improve under the Mubarak-Shenouda III pact. Political representation of the Copts remained very low. In the 1995 parliamentary elections, for example, Mubarak's National Democratic Party did not have a single Christian candidate. Even when political representation later improved, the number of Coptic representatives in Parliament never exceeded 3% under Mubarak. Youssef Boutros-Ghali, a Coptic Christian, was among the few to serve in a high-level Cabinet position. Meanwhile, periodic violence against Christians continued. For example, in January 2000, a skirmish between Copts and Muslims led to the death of 20 Copts in Kosheh, a small village 273 miles south of Cairo.Mubarak exploited such violence to crack down on his Islamist rivals in the name of fighting against terrorism. The attacks on Copts reinforced the idea that religious violence was a threat. As anthropologist Talal Asad wrote, the Mubarak regime maintained that the regime "was the only force capable of ensuring religious peace precisely because it suppressed Islamic extremism."Pope Shenouda III supported Mubarak all through his rule, including Mubarak's reelection bid in 2005, which elicited strong popular dissent. During the Egyptian revolution in January 2011, in urging Copts to stay at home during the revolts, the Coptic Church leaders warned that Mubarak's removal from power might cause uncertainty for Christians under a new regime. After the revolutionThis coziness to Mubarak put Egypt's Christians more at risk after the president was ousted from power.Immediately after Mubarak's fall, the violence against Copts increased. In 2011, tens of churches were attacked and communal clashes surged. In October 2011, a Christian protest against the demolition of a church for not having a license ended with the killing of 24 Copts by the military. With Morsi in power, the Muslim Brotherhood pushed for a constitution that would consider Islamic law as the main source of legislation. Many Christians felt marginalized by the move. Increasing violenceWhen the military ejected Morsi from power by force in 2013, the Coptic Church supported the move and the subsequent presidency of Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Fearing a return to power of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sissi and the subsequent leader of the Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, developed an alliance. In return for the Copts' support, Sissi would extend more protections to Christians. Sissi became the first Egyptian president to attend a Christmas Eve Mass in January 2015. He gave the messages of equality to the Copts. In 2015, the number of Copts in the Parliament increased to 36 out of 596 members.But violence against Copts continued in the years after 2013. Explosions at two Coptic churches, on Palm Sunday in 2017, left more than 40 dead.The Muslim Brotherhood leadership condemned the attacks against Copts, but the Sissi regime portrayed the attackers as affiliates of the Islamist group. After the coup in 2013, thousands of people affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood were killed or imprisoned. Although the Coptic Orthodox Church continued its amicable relationship with Sissi, many Christians, particularly youth, gradually distanced themselves from the government in response to increasing violence and authoritarianism. In the end, it might be only the leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church who benefited from a relationship with Mubarak. Ordinary Christians needed the rule of law for protection which Mubarak and his successors did not provide.[You're smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation's authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * How two Islamic groups fell from power to persecution: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey's Gulenists * Egypt's Sisi signals shift toward Muslim BrotherhoodThe research related to this piece has been partially funded by the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Opinions are the author's and do not represent the views of the University of Nebraska at Omaha
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| The most 'chaotic classes' might not even be in the classroom. They'll be online. Posted: 16 Mar 2020 02:56 PM PDT  "You can't simply snap your fingers," one advocate said. "It takes planning and training, and we don't have time for that."
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| What's Happening: Virus moves west, 'Big Brother' gets real Posted: 17 Mar 2020 04:06 AM PDT  Borders have slammed shut, schools and businesses have closed and increasingly draconian restrictions on movement have been enforced to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The fronts in the battle have clearly shifted outside China, with its caseload now outnumbered by those outside its borders. Countries from Canada to Switzerland, Russia and Malaysia announced sharp new restrictions on the movement of people across their borders.
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| Azeri Turkish businessman arrested over alleged Gulen links, police says Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:34 AM PDT  Azeri Turkish businessman Mubariz Mansimov Gurbanoglu has been arrested in one of the highest-profile detentions of a crackdown against suspects linked to a network accused of carrying out an attempted coup in 2016, Istanbul police said on Tuesday. After he was detained at the weekend, a court ordered his formal arrest over ties to the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen which President Tayyip Erdogan blames for the failed putsch in which about 250 people died, police and state-owned Anadolu news agency said. The Istanbul court ordered that he be kept in custody on a charge of belonging to a terrorist group, Anadolu said.
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| Joe Biden's pledge to name a woman as running mate fires speculation Posted: 16 Mar 2020 10:09 AM PDT  Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris lead list of veep contenders but Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren not ruled outJoe Biden has long been expected to pick a woman or a minority figure – or someone who is both – as his pick for vice-president, should he win the Democratic nomination to face Donald Trump in November.During his debate with Bernie Sanders in Washington on Sunday, the former vice-president made it official. He would name a woman as his running mate, he said – and also put an African American woman on the supreme court."I'll pick a woman to be vice-president," Biden said. "There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow."The California senator Kamala Harris and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams are two names most commonly mentioned in Democratic circles.Harris ran against Biden in the primary and landed memorable blows on him in an early debate, but endorsed him after dropping out. Neither she nor Abrams has said they would turn down an offer to join a Biden ticket.However, Biden's comments during the debate, and those of senior campaign officials in a post-debate call with reporters, made it clear that the likes of the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, also former rivals for the nomination, could also be selected. The hard criterion is that the pick will be a woman who both works well with Biden and balances the ticket."He has to balance out who he is," said Steve Phillips, a top party donor and the founder of Democracy in Color. "He's an old white man so logically he should have a young woman of color to balance the ticket out."He will have some strength with some of the white suburban voters but he's going to need turnout with young people, that was the cornerstone of the Obama-Biden ticket. So if there's one thing people are not about Joe Biden, it's enthusiastic. But if he has someone like a Stacey Abrams on his ticket, the level of enthusiasm there would just be dramatically different."Phillips said his organization and a number of others had been discussing sending a letter to Biden and Sanders, urging them to commit to a person of color.Biden advisers, as any advisers would with the nomination still to be won, are loth to go into more detail about their candidate's thinking. But in the post-debate call, Symone Sanders, a senior adviser, said: "He has said that the qualification for vice-president for him would be someone that is simpatico with him, as he would like to say."She added, unequivocally: "It will be a woman."Abrams has arguably been the most open about her willingness to join Biden on the ticket. She met with the former vice-president in the early days of the campaign, as his advisers floated the idea of naming a running mate early."Leader Abrams would be honored to be asked to join the ticket," Seth Bringman, a spokesman for Fair Fight, Abrams' voting rights group, said in a statement after Sunday's debate, referring to her former position in the Georgia state house."For now, she is focused on leading national efforts to stop voter suppression and ensure an accurate census."Biden's comments ignited a new level of speculation. On Monday, the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who is seen as a rising star in the Democratic party, said she did not expect to join Biden in the general election.Biden endorsed Whitmer during her 2018 campaign and on Monday she said she would "help him vet and make sure he's got a great running mate"."It is not going to be me but I'm going to have a hand in helping him make sure that he has got a roundabout ticket that can win," Whitmer said.Picking a woman cuts out contenders including Cory Booker, a senator from New Jersey, and the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, both of whom mounted their own presidential campaigns.During Sunday's debate, Sanders was also asked about his thinking. The Vermont senator's path to the nomination is increasingly narrow but it has not closed entirely. After digressing, he said he was moving in the direction of picking a woman."In all likelihood, I will," Sanders said. "For me, it's not just nominating a woman, it is making sure that we have a progressive woman and there are progressive women out there. So my very strong tendency is to move in that direction."
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| US Army, Marines want to make the Hellfire missile replacement more deadly at sea Posted: 16 Mar 2020 12:47 PM PDT  After working out kinks related to the Hellfire missile replacement's lethality in a maritime environment, the Army and Marine Corps are heading into more tests of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile against targets at sea.
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| Republicans fear Trump being quarantined with 'nothing to watch but the news' Posted: 17 Mar 2020 07:10 AM PDT  Coronavirus has left us without any sports to stave off a quarantine, and everyone is suffering. Even President Trump.Trump, once reportedly convinced that the COVID-19 outbreak wasn't a big deal, has since undoubtedly been exposed to people who've tested positive for the virus. But he still hasn't officially quarantined himself, and some Republicans are worried about what'll happen to Trump's Twitter timeline if he does, they tell Vanity Fair.From the beginning, Trump has been pretty unconcerned about the new coronavirus, largely because his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner advised him to "treat the emergency as a P.R. problem" rather than "take aggressive action" like the White House's top coronavirus adviser recommended, Vanity Fair writes. Trump has since reportedly realized his mistake, with one former White House official saying "I have never heard so many people inside the White House openly discuss how pissed Trump is at Jared."Kushner may be helping Trump handle the COVID-19 crisis in the best way he knows how: by finding someone to blame, Vanity Fair reports. Without a "boogeyman he can attack," as one former White House official characterized it, several ex-West Wingers believe a rumored national lockdown may become a reality. And the thing Republicans reportedly fear most if that happens? Trump's Twitter. "What's he going to do, watch reruns of the Masters from 2017? He's just going to watch TV and tweet and it's going to get worse," the former official said.A White House spokesperson characterized Vanity Fair's reporting as "another false story focused on rumors about palace intrigue." Read more at Vanity Fair.More stories from theweek.com The economy is crashing again. This time, let's bail out ordinary Americans. The conservatives who would sacrifice the elderly to save the economy Coronavirus is exposing America's shameful selfish streak
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| Justice Department moves to drop charges against Russians indicted in the Mueller probe Posted: 16 Mar 2020 07:18 PM PDT  Notably, the DOJ decided to drop charges "in light of recent events and a change in ... the government's proof due to a classification determination."
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| Pangolin sales plunge in Gabon over coronavirus fears Posted: 16 Mar 2020 08:59 AM PDT  Pangolins were once a prized item in the markets of Gabon's capital Libreville, but bushmeat sellers have started hiding the small, scaly mammals behind boar legs and porcupine carcasses. Trading the endangered animal, considered to be the most poached in the world, is illegal in the West African country. A team of Chinese researchers suspect the pangolin of transmitting the novel coronavirus to humans at another game market some 11,000 kilometres (6,850 miles) from Libreville in the Chinese city of Wuhan -- the epicentre of the pandemic that has rocked the world.
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| When will school reopen? No date in sight, and schools struggling to put learning online Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:57 AM PDT  With at least 70% of America's schools closing, perhaps for the school year, districts are trying to figure out online school. It's not going well.
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| Iraqi military: 2 rockets hit training base south of Baghdad Posted: 17 Mar 2020 01:49 AM PDT  Two rockets struck a training base south of Baghdad where U.S.-led coalition troops and NATO trainers are present, Iraq's military said Tuesday, the third such attack in the span of a week. The rockets hit the Basmaya base near the Iraqi capital on Monday evening, the army statement said. A Spanish contingent of the coalition and NATO trainers are present at the Basmaya site.
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| Los Angeles releasing inmates, urging fewer arrests in coronavirus fight Posted: 16 Mar 2020 08:34 PM PDT  The inmate population has been decreased by more than 600, in part through early release of those with less than 30 days left on their sentences.
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| Democrats vote in Florida and more: What polls show for Biden, Sanders Posted: 17 Mar 2020 05:54 AM PDT  Amid the coronavirus pandemic, three states are casting ballots in what could be the Vermont senator's last chance to stop the former VP.
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| Trump admits coronavirus is looking 'very bad,' economy may be headed toward recession Posted: 16 Mar 2020 01:24 PM PDT  President Trump is starting to sound worried about the coronavirus.During a White House press briefing on the pandemic, the president — who has faced criticism over what many believe to be his casual response to COVID-19 — said "this is a very bad one" because of its "sort of record-setting type contagion," and he's even discussed the severity of it with one of his sons.> Trump says he's actually spoken with his son (didn't say which one) about this, who has asked him "how bad is this," and he has responded, "It's bad. It's bad."> > Very much a change in tone and substance from Trump so far today.> > — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 16, 2020He also sounded more pessimistic about the economy than usual, acknowledging that "it may be" heading toward a recession.Trump also addressed a few other key questions during the briefing — such as why the House coronavirus bill exempts companies with 500 employees or more from the paid sick leave requirement, to which he replied the Senate may address changing that when they vote on the bill.He also said he expects restrictions on daily life, like the government's recommendation people limit gatherings to no more than 10 people, to be the "new normal" until July or August or even later, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stepped in to provide a little clarity that those specific guidelines will be reviewed after a 15 day trial. The July or August timeframe, he said, applies to the effects the virus may have on Americans more generally.More stories from theweek.com The economy is crashing again. This time, let's bail out ordinary Americans. The conservatives who would sacrifice the elderly to save the economy Coronavirus is exposing America's shameful selfish streak
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| Chinese citizens who conceal any coronavirus history are being punished using the country's dystopian social credit system Posted: 17 Mar 2020 05:09 AM PDT  A woman in Beijing being investigated for returning to the city after developing a cough and fever.
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| US demands Vietnam free blogger handed 10-year term Posted: 16 Mar 2020 07:26 AM PDT  The United States on Monday demanded that Vietnam immediately free a blogger who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after posts critical of the government. The State Department said it was "dismayed" by the sentence handed last week to Truong Duy Nhat, a regular contributor to US-backed Radio Free Asia. "The United States calls on Vietnam to immediately release Nhat and all prisoners of conscience and to allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their views freely and assemble peacefully without threat of retribution," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
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| 'Virus at Iran's gates': How Tehran failed to stop outbreak Posted: 16 Mar 2020 11:11 PM PDT  Appearing before the cameras coughing and sweating profusely, the man leading Iran's response to the new coronavirus outbreak promised it was of no danger to his country. "Quarantines belong to the Stone Age," Iraj Harirchi insisted. Harirchi's story is a microcosm of what has happened in Iran amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Police officer among 4 killed in Missouri shooting, chief says Posted: 16 Mar 2020 11:29 AM PDT  Two others, including another officer, were injured in shooting at a Springfield, Missouri, gas station. The shooter died from self-inflicted gunshot.
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| 'I literally cried': parents grapple with impact of US school closures Posted: 16 Mar 2020 08:35 AM PDT  New York City schools close until at least 20 April affecting families who desperately need schools for childcare and as a source of foodThe closure of New York City public schools until at least 20 April due to the coronavirus outbreak, announced on Sunday, has underscored difficulties faced by millions of parents across the entire US.While many recognize that Covid-19 needs to be controlled, parents and advocates find themselves not only grappling with daytime childcare challenges but worrying about the welfare of students who rely upon schools for far more than education.Thirty-three states have decided to shutter public schools due to coronavirus concerns, Education Week reported. In addition to district closures, a minimum of 64,000 public schools have shut their doors or plan to close.These closures have impacted a minimum of 32.5 million pupils, Education Week said, out of 50.8 million students at 98,277 public schools in the US. This means more than 60% of students have been affected in some way. Many private schools have also closed.New York City's public school system claims to have 1,126,501 students, making it the largest such district in the US and providing a sense of scale when it comes to the impact on families who desperately need schools for childcare and even a source of food. In addition to free meals, New York City public schools provide crucial services for students with a wide range of needs, among them speech, physical and disability-related therapy programs and counseling."As we learn more about Covid-19 every day, we are keeping every possible option on the table to keep New Yorkers safe," Mayor Bill de Blasio said."That's why we are asking the people of our city to make hard choices as we introduce more restrictive measures to create greater social distancing – including the temporary closure of our school buildings. We all need to change our lives – in ways both big and small – to keep each other safe."New York City public schools will launch remote learning on 23 March. The 300,000 students without internet-connected devices will receive one to complete schoolwork and 25,000 iPads are scheduled to be distributed next week. Students will be able to pick up meals, De Blasio's office said.Advocates for Children of New York, a group defending low-income students' rights, reported last October that 114,085 schoolchildren in the city are homeless, or 10%."While we are not questioning the decision to close schools to address this public health crisis, remote learning is likely to be a struggle for many families, including families with children who need more support to learn successfully," Kim Sweet, the group's executive director, said in a statement."It will be important for schools to make extra effort to ensure that remote learning benefits all students."The United Federation of Teachers, which had slammed De Blasio when he kept schools open, lauded the decision to close."The administration has made the right decision: closing the schools is a critical step to reduce the spread of the virus and to help preserve the health of our students, their families and our staff," the UFT president, Michael Mulgrew, said.Some parents are worried about what will happen to their children now."I literally cried – I was crying all afternoon," said Grisel Cardona, a mother of three and parent advocate in the Bronx, of the news of the closures.Cardona's nine-year-old son has autism, her seven-year-old daughter has special needs and her two-year-old son attends an "early intervention" program where he gets feeding therapy as he cannot chew anything large, she said."I cried because what went through my head was: 'What do I tell my son?' We have a routine, everyday, that we follow. We're not going to get up at six in the morning to get dressed and go on the bus."There's no school, this is why his question to me was: 'What's the coronavirus? [But] I take a bath everyday. Am I going to die?'"We both cried because it's scary. He's like, 'Mommy, this is dangerous. What are we going to do?' It was so emotional, then I kept thinking about his services. What am I going to do?"Children will regress if they don't get the services that they need."The US Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Services, which administers the National School Lunch Program, said it was taking steps to ensure that children affected by school closures still receive meals.The program provides low-cost or free lunches to schoolchildren in public and not-for-profit private schools, as well as residential childcare institutions, on school days.A spokesperson for the USDA said officials there have issued waivers, so meals can be served outside of a "congregate" setting. All 50 states, as well as Washington DC and Puerto Rico, have received such approvals in response to the public health crisis.One New York City parent who did not want to be named, whose 14-year-old son attends a private school which is now closed, said she supported school closures but understood the difficulties for parents."I think that there's a fine line between both decisions, because on the one hand, you are looking out for health and public safety [and] on the other hand, you want to continue your son, your child's education, so there's two different sides of the argument," the parent said."But, I always believe it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to health, so I'm glad they made that decision."Still, the parent said, "there are a lot of things that public officials have to figure out."
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| White House eyeing $850B coronavirus stimulus package Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:03 AM PDT  Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have prepared their own package that would cost at least $750 billion.
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| Factbox: Biden vows to pick woman for a running mate. Here are some potential names Posted: 16 Mar 2020 12:17 PM PDT  Biden, who is vying with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination, has said there is a deep bench of women he can choose from, including several who made their own strong runs for the nomination, as well as governors and Congress members. While women have appeared as a presidential or vice presidential nominee on major party tickets before, no woman has ever served as vice president. Since being elected California attorney general in 2010, Harris, 55, has been a rising star in the Democratic Party.
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| Kaley Cuoco and Her Husband Move Into Brand-New Hidden Hills Estate Posted: 16 Mar 2020 01:29 PM PDT  The Big Bang Theory star married professional equestrian Karl Cook in 2018, but the couple lived separately until now
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| Iran warns virus could kill 'millions' in Islamic Republic Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:52 AM PDT  Iran issued its most dire warning yet Tuesday about the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting "millions" could die in the Islamic Republic if people keep traveling and ignore health guidance. A state TV journalist who also is a medical doctor gave the warning only hours after hard-line Shiite faithful on Monday night pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines that were finally closed due to the virus. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious ruling prohibiting "unnecessary" travel.
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| The Best Hiking Socks for Summer Treks Posted: 16 Mar 2020 10:33 AM PDT |
| China urges U.S. to lift sanctions on Iran amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 16 Mar 2020 12:27 PM PDT  China on Monday urged the United States to lift sanctions on Iran immediately during the Middle Eastern country's response to the coronavirus outbreak.
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| Putin Worries Coronavirus Could Screw Up His Constitutional ‘Coronation’ Posted: 16 Mar 2020 09:53 AM PDT  MOSCOW—Around the world, more than 5,000 people have died from COVID-19 and European countries are closing their borders one after another, but authorities in Russia—adjacent to both Europe and China—continue acting as if people here in the motherland have some kind of magical immunity.State officials shake hands at public meetings, go around without masks, and organize big public events, while the number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases in Russia has jumped from 63 to 93 overnight. The plague's trolls, styling themselves coronavirus dissidents, spread fake news claiming the epidemic is "a project of the pharmaceutical companies."For three decades, even before the advent of social media, this same kind of conspiratorial misinformation helped HIV/AIDS spread across the country virtually unchecked, at a cost of more than 200,000 lives. Fake News Helped Spread HIV/AIDS in Russia. Has It Stopped?But in this case there's a particular edge to it—an unmistakable political context. Russia's parliament has just paved the way for Vladimir Putin to run in rubber-stamp elections and serve in office until he's in his 80s. And then? Maybe longer. In effect, he'll be president for life. In Russian terms, he'll be the 21st century version of a czar. But there's a hitch.Although the Russian parliament passed the necessary amendments to the constitution on March 11 with a vote of 383 to 0, they are supposed to receive popular approval in a plebiscite scheduled for April 22. And if the coronavirus pandemic takes off in Russia before then—or, rather, can be seen to have taken off—the new czar might have to wait for his quasi-constitutional quasi-coronation. The Kremlin insists that in spite of the growing fear of an outbreak, the plebiscite will take place as scheduled.So what we're hearing from Putin is that there is "nothing critical" happening on the coronavirus front, the main sources of news about sick people in Russia are both fake and foreign: "Their goal is clear, to spread panic among our population," Putin told a governmental conference on March 4. Putin's Now Positioned to Be President for LifeThis does not inspire confidence, especially among those who lived through Soviet times and remember such explanations about the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in 1986, when Soviet leaders delayed telling citizens the truth at the cost of thousands of lives. On Monday, Moscow's city hall confirmed 53 diagnoses of coronavirus. The first one was registered on March 3. With the growing number of cases, there is increasing public suspicion that there are many more carriers than state television will acknowledge, either because they are asymptomatic, or misdiagnosed. There is also a rapidly growing public sentiment that officials will hide the facts deliberately, at least through April 22. Meanwhile, after China carried out the biggest quarantine in recorded history, and as European countries are shutting down cinemas, bars, restaurants, factories, and eventually, as in Italy, emptying the streets, with the United States belatedly preparing to follow suit, Moscow opened a St. Patrick's Day Irish Film Festival at one of its major movie theaters—one of more than 600 here in the capital. More than 160 drama and musical theaters also continue to work. Though the situation is rapidly changing: on Sunday, the Bolshoi Theater, with 1600 seats, presented Swan Lake, but on Monday Russia's major theater made a decision to cancel all its shows. The Vatican may have canceled public services at Easter, but in Saint Petersburg crowds have been lining up all week to kiss the holy relics of Saint John the Baptist at Kazan Cathedral. "The infection cannot be spread in church," priest Aleksander Pashkov told journalists. The coronavirus pandemic is "an anti-church campaign." In the most recent developments, Russian authorities closed the border with Belarus and recommended that all universities switch to distance education online. All sorts of pseudo experts speak their mind on YouTube. Igor Gundarov, presenting himself as a doctor and a medical authority, says he doubts that the pandemic outbreak is taking place at all. "Evil people with capital, they go crazy," he proclaims. "As Karl Marx said, they can kill even their own mother—to sell an idea, they manipulate people's minds." Gundarov racked up more than 800,000 Russian YouTube viewers in January, and his words inspired dozens of conspiracy theorists to push out their dissident messages about an ostensible COVID-19 hoax even as 100,000 people got infected around the globe.Medical workers find refuge in cynicism and in some cases wishful thinking. They know they will be on the front lines and highly vulnerable if the pandemic explodes here as it has elsewhere. Right now, for instance, Moscow has banned mass demonstrations of more than 5,000, and they wonder why that would be the case if there is "nothing critical" happening. Three doctors at First City Hospital were laughing at the new rule on Friday night: So, if there is a gathering of 4,999 people, they wondered, can they cough all over each other and it's okay? "We sign a non-disclosure agreement, so we cannot give journalists' information," one physician told The Daily Beast. Asked about rumors that there are some 6,000 Russians known to have coronavirus symptoms, the doctor did not say that was wrong.Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, however, vehemently denied such stories. "All these rumors we come across, irresponsible declarations about a huge number of infected patients in Moscow, are not true," he said Sunday on the television show A Week in Town. "Some politicians obviously want to inflame this topic, as often happens in difficult times. On the contrary, we are interested in immediately telling our citizens about novel coronavirus cases." Even so, when news broke last week of a teenage girl diagnosed with coronavirus, Moscow started a volunteer quarantine for school children. Unlike most of the rules dictated in Russia's life, this time it is not up to the Kremlin but up to the parents to decide if they want to put their children at risk.All state institutions, including kindergartens, schools, and universities, work without interruption in Nizhny Novgorod, a Russian city on the Volga with a population of more than 1.2 million. A crowd of parents with children filled up the circus on Friday night and fans gathered at Jupiter concert hall to listen to a concert. The first case of coronavirus reported in this city last week did not inspire the local authorities to take serious action, although one municipal deputy, Yevgeny Lazarev, showed up wearing a thin face mask at the city council meeting on Tuesday. "More than 63,000 people live below the poverty line and cannot afford simple things, including gauze masks," Lazarev declared. He called on his fellow deputies to raise the city administration's awareness of the new virus and its danger. But a majority of his colleagues did not support Lazarev. They thought there were other more important things on the city's agenda. After all, the czar-to-be has told them there's no real problem.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Iraq names new PM as rockets hit base hosting foreign troops Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:17 AM PDT  Iraq's president on Tuesday named pro-Western lawmaker Adnan Zurfi, a former Najaf city governor, as the next prime minister, tasked with ruling a country hit by military unrest, street protests and the coronavirus outbreak. The nomination came hours after two rockets hit an Iraqi military base hosting US-led coalition and NATO troops, the third such attack within a week, without causing casualties according to military officials. Lawmaker Zurfi, 54, is the former governor of the Shiite holy city of Najaf and once belonged to the Dawa party, an opposition force to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein who was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.
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| White House seeks $850 billion coronavirus stimulus package Posted: 16 Mar 2020 10:56 PM PDT  The plan includes a payroll tax holiday and large financial assistance for airlines, sources said.
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| Mexico rejects El Salvador accusation it let coronavirus patients board plane Posted: 16 Mar 2020 03:30 PM PDT  Mexico rejected an accusation by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Monday that it had allowed a dozen people with coronavirus to board a flight to San Salvador, saying medical staff had found no evidence of the virus on the travelers. Earlier, Bukele abruptly suspended all passenger flights to San Salvador after making his assertion on Twitter, describing Mexican authorities as "irresponsible." The Salvadoran president did not provide evidence for the claim, which Mexican Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said turned out to be "totally false."
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