| Trump defends 'Chinese virus' comments Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:53 AM PDT  "It's not racist at all," the president said of his use of terms like "the Chinese virus" to refer to the coronavirus.
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| Remains of 9-Year-old Florida Girl Found After Years-Long Search Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:18 PM PDT  After four years and "hundreds of hours" spent searching for missing 9-year-old Diana Alvarez, Florida authorities announced this week that they have found the little girl's remains—and her accused killer may now face the death penalty.The Lee County Sheriff's Office told The Daily Beast a team of surveyors working in a wooded area in Osceola County found Alvarez's body on Thursday, about 140 miles from her Fort Myers home, where she vanished in the middle of the night in May 2016. Her cause of death has not yet been determined, a sheriff's office spokesperson said."My daughter is in heaven. She's with God," Diana's mother, Rita Hernandez, told WINK after the discovery. "I don't wish this upon anybody, on nobody because it wasn't her fault."Jorge Guerrero-Torres, a 32-year-old family friend who previously admitted to sexually assaulting the girl, was indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge on May 3, 2018, in connection with Alvarez's disappearance. He has been previously convicted on child pornography charges related to the case and is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence. 'Come Home': Search Is on for Colorado Boy Who Vanished Two Weeks AgoThe State Attorney's office will now seek the death penalty for Guerrero, who has been awaiting trial on the murder charge, a spokesperson told The Daily Beast. "The monster that committed this horrendous crime is behind bars and will now be brought to justice for the murder of Diana Alvarez," Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during a Saturday news conference. "This does not bring Diana back, but I hope this helps bring closure to the family."On May 29, 2016, authorities kicked off a massive, multi-county search that attracted hundreds of volunteers after the 9-year-old's family reported her missing. During the investigation, deputies discovered that Guerrero-Torres, then 28, had lived with the Alvarez family, but was kicked out after engaging in an "inappropriate relationship" with the 9-year-old child, authorities said. Investigators also discovered pornographic images of Alvarez on Guerrero-Torres' phone.According to NBC Miami, Guerrero-Torres made "admissions" during a police interview early in the investigation that put him with Alvarez the morning she went missing. He also admitted to having had sexual contact with the girl on a weekly basis for several months. Police Search for Missing Texas Mom and Her 2-Week-Old BabyIn August 2017, about a year after Alvarez's disappearance, Guerrero-Torres was convicted of several federal child pornography charges related to the photographs of Alvarez and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Despite the momentous discovery of Alvarez's body, Guerrero-Torres' murder case will not go to court for several months because of new court restrictions prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During a case management hearing on Monday, Lee County Circuit courtroom Judge Margaret O. Steinbeck requested a month-long delay after both prosecutors and the defense expressed difficulties with travel, gathering evidence for the trial, and completing the autopsy report for the 9-year-old due to the coronavirus. The Lee County Clerk of Court also told The Daily Beast on Tuesday all jury selection for upcoming criminal trials will be suspended for at least three weeks.Guerrero-Torres is set to return to court on April 27. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| Africa should 'prepare for the worst' with virus, WHO says Posted: 18 Mar 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Africa should "prepare for the worst" as the coronavirus begins to spread locally, the World Health Organization's director-general said Wednesday, while South Africa became the continent's new focus of concern as cases nearly doubled to 116 from two days before. South Africa's health minister, Zweli Mkhize, this week called that kind of rate "explosive" in the country with the most cases in sub-Saharan Africa. Fourteen of the latest cases were from local transmission — and six were in children under 10.
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| Italy reports 475 new coronavirus deaths in just 1 day Posted: 18 Mar 2020 07:16 PM PDT  Wednesday saw the biggest increase in coronavirus deaths in Italy, with 475 infected people dying.Nearly 3,000 people have died in the country since the first cases of COVID-19 coronavirus were reported there in late January. There are now 35,713 confirmed cases, and Italian health officials say more than 4,000 patients have fully recovered, BBC News reports.Italy is the hardest-hit country after China, where 3,245 people have officially died from the virus since the outbreak began in December; globally, at least 8,758 people are dead from COVID-19. To combat the spread of the new coronavirus, Italy has been on lockdown for close to two weeks, with people told they can only leave their homes if they must go to work, see a doctor, or get groceries.Restaurants, shops, bars, and gyms are all closed, and police are stopping people they see on the streets; so far, authorities have charged more than 40,000 people with violating lockdown, including a priest who was performing a funeral.More stories from theweek.com Bernie Sanders is focused on the 'f---ing global crisis' Coronavirus reveals just how unprepared America is for a biological attack GOP Sen. Rick Scott begs people to get off Florida's beaches: 'What are you thinking?'
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| A New York neurosurgeon has coronavirus. This is what he wants people to know. Posted: 19 Mar 2020 07:39 AM PDT  Ezriel Kornel, a neurosurgeon in New York, doesn't know where he got coronavirus from, but he knows what it feels like in the early stages.
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| North Korea admits health care worries amid coronavirus outbreak Posted: 18 Mar 2020 08:47 AM PDT  North Korea has admitted that the country needs urgent improvements to its medical facilities. Leader Kim Jong Un made the rare confession while the nation worries about the spread of the coronavirus.
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| Sanders denies report he will end White House campaign after losses to Biden Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:09 AM PDT  Bernie Sanders' U.S. presidential campaign on Wednesday swiftly denied a report that he was abandoning his White House bid after bruising losses to Joe Biden in the most recent round of Democratic Party nominating contests. The story was "absolutely false," the campaign communications director, Mike Casca wrote on Twitter. The report originated with Axios, which posted an article that briefly said Sanders was suspending his campaign before it was revised to say the campaign had only suspended its Facebook advertising.
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| 41-Year-Old Is First Coronavirus Death in Mexico, Ministry Says Posted: 18 Mar 2020 11:34 PM PDT |
| Woman who flew from U.S. to China for coronavirus test faces criminal charges Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:49 PM PDT  A woman identified by her surname, Li, 37, is under police investigation for allegedly concealing her coronavirus symptoms when she boarded a flight from Los Angeles to Beijing. She could be imprisoned for up to 7 years.
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| As the coronavirus spreads, Catholics are turning to online spiritual practices, from masses live-streamed from the Vatican to a $110 wearable 'eRosary' Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:30 AM PDT  The Vatican has also started live-streaming the pope's daily mass "to be close to all those who are suffering from the current coronavirus epidemic."
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| A Look at the U.S. Navy Hospital Ships Sent to Battle the Coronavirus Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:12 PM PDT  The Comfort and Mercy will provide support to land hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
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| Southwest cancels Chicago Midway flights; FAA tower still closed after workers test positive for coronavirus Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:07 PM PDT  The FAA temporarily closed the air traffic control tower at Chicago Midway Airport Tuesday, after three technicians tested positive for coronavirus.
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| NKorea's Kim admits troubled medical system amid virus fears Posted: 17 Mar 2020 09:14 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un acknowledged that his country lacks modern medical facilities and called for urgent improvements, state media said Wednesday, in a rare assessment of the North's health care system that comes amid worries about the coronavirus in the impoverished country. Outside experts say a coronavirus epidemic in the North could be devastating due its chronic lack of medical supplies and outdated health care infrastructure. North Korea has engaged in an intense campaign to guard against the new virus, though it has steadfastly maintained that no one has been sickened, a claim many foreign experts doubt.
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| In images: effects of COVID-19 on landmarks around the world Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:04 AM PDT |
| Embattled Netanyahu Makes a Coronavirus Power Grab Posted: 18 Mar 2020 12:39 PM PDT  JERUSALEM—Using the coronavirus crisis as cover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a power grab unprecedented in Israeli history, and the example may be relevant to other countries as the crisis grows.Japan Shows Coronavirus May Be a Gift—for Would-Be DictatorsHis government effectively shut down the Israeli judiciary in the dead of night last Sunday when Justice Minister Amir Ohana, a Netanyahu confidant, decreed that the court system would operate at a reduced capacity, as it would in a state of emergency, which has not yet been declared nationwide. The first consequence of Ohana's move was to postpone by two months Netanyahu's trial on corruption charges, which had been scheduled to open on March 17.On Wednesday, Yuli Edelstein, the speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, refused to convene the house on the grounds that doing so could harm efforts to establish a government of national unity to solve the political stalemate which has paralyzed Israel for over a year.With the judiciary and the parliament effectively neutralized, Netanyahu—who failed to win reelection in the Israeli elections after his third try, on March 2—is ruling the nation more or less by fiat.At 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Netanyahu used emergency powers to order unilaterally the Israeli internal security agency, the Shin Bet, to deploy cellphone monitoring technology to trace the movements of citizens diagnosed with the coronavirus— or those suspected of being carriers.The extent of the decree is not fully detailed, but it allows the government access to an unknown amount of information regarding an unknown number of citizens. It's supposed to be reviewed—maybe a few weeks from now.Netanyahu has served as a caretaker prime minister since December 2018, through three unresolved elections which left him and his top opponent, the centrist former armed forces chief of staff, Benny Gantz, without sufficient parliamentary support to establish a government.In the most serious political reversal Netanyahu has faced yet, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday tasked Gantz with forming Israel's next government, after Gantz assembled a greater number of parliamentary supporters than the prime minister in the last round of elections, two weeks ago.On Wednesday, a majority of Gantz's fragile alliance of 61 seats out of the 120-member Knesset barricaded themselves in the building—respecting health ministry recommendations on social distancing—as Edelstein refused to seat the house.Historian Gershom Goremberg, the author of The Unmaking of Israel on the crisis of Israeli democracy, tweeted that "the only recorded death so far in Israel from this virus was the already aging, highly vulnerable democracy."The Israeli government has been widely lauded for its handling of the crisis, which included severe border restrictions and widespread quarantines from the start. Israel has suffered no fatalities, and for now has reported 347 diagnoses.On Wednesday, Israel barred all foreign citizens from entering the country.As Easter and Passover Approach, the Holy Land's Coronavirus Lockdown BeginsIn an interview with The Daily Beast, Goremberg was blunt: "The prime minister and the Knesset speaker are using the health crisis to evade the outcome of the election and remain in power despite the fact that a majority voted to remove them from power.""The caretaker prime minister is using the crisis to postpone his own trial," said Goremberg. "These are pretty serious challenges to basic democratic order. It feels like the combination of a global health crisis, and the negative electoral results, from Netanyahu's point of view, not to mention his upcoming trial, have pushed Netanyahu and his cronies to lose all inhibitions about undermining the democratic process."In a statement Wednesday night, Gantz announced that his Blue and White party would file a supreme court petition demanding the Knesset be convened. "However big the health and economic crisis, we cannot allow it to eat away at the foundations of our democracy," he said.Gantz accused Netanyahu and Edelstein, both members of the right-wing Likud party, of a naked power grab."The Likud doesn't have a majority in the Knesset, so they want to shut it down."The Israeli Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the electronic tracking order this week, and is expected to expedite its hearing on the matter of the Knesset.President Rivlin, also a Likud member, warned Edelstein that stopping regular parliamentary order was harming Israel's ability to function during an emergency.The coronavirus crisis, Rivlin said, should not be used "to critically damage our democratic infrastructure.""Blue and White want to commandeer the Knesset to undemocratic ends," Netanyahu claimed in a statement.Noting that Israel was traversing "a very difficult, unprecedented moment," Mordechai Kremnitzer, a professor of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an expert on constitutional law, cautioned against the use of the words "coup d'état" in Israel's case. He defined Netanyahu's power grab instead as "an attempt to hold on to power, and remain in power, for as long as possible, with the ultimate aim of ridding himself of the trial."Netanyahu was not using violent means, Kremnitzer said in an interview."I don't think that a group of people including Netanyahu and Edelstein gathered around and said, 'Let's take control of the Israeli government through illegal means.' I don't think there was a meeting." So, in that sense not a conspiracy. "They are still trying to cover their actions with a mantle of legality," said Kremnitzer. "They care that it all looks proper."At least, for now.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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| 103-year-old Iran woman survives coronavirus: report Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:22 AM PDT  A 103-year-old woman in Iran has recovered after being infected with the new coronavirus, state media reported, despite overwhelming evidence the elderly are most at risk from the disease. The woman was the second elderly patient in Iran to have survived the disease. The other was a 91-year-old man from Kerman, in the southeast of Iran, the news agency said.
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| The Best Board Games on Sale Now Posted: 17 Mar 2020 04:42 PM PDT |
| Putin is being protected from coronavirus around the clock, says Kremlin Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:17 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin is being protected from coronavirus around the clock, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, saying all Kremlin staff involved in his events schedule were undergoing mandatory testing for the virus. "Everything needed to protect the president from viruses and other illnesses is being done around the clock," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov has previously declined to say whether Putin has been tested for coronavirus, but has said that the president's medical care is of an exceptionally high level.
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| A homeless person in Silicon Valley died of the coronavirus Monday, the same day that a 3-week 'shelter in place' was ordered for the San Francisco Bay Area Posted: 17 Mar 2020 02:14 PM PDT  California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the death on Monday, the same day officials told Bay Area residents they should stay indoors until April 7.
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| The Inevitable Shoe Drops: DOJ Dismisses Mueller’s Charges against Russian Businesses Posted: 19 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT  More than an investigation, the Mueller probe was the wellspring of a political narrative. That becomes clearer as time goes by and more information ekes out . . . such as new confirmation that, months before Mueller was appointed in May 2017, it was already well understood in Justice Department circles that there was no case of criminal "collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia.Never was that made more obvious than by the Justice Department's quiet announcement late Monday, under the five-alarm noise of the coronavirus scare, that it has dropped the special counsel's indictment of Russian companies -- an outcome I predicted here at National Review nearly two years ago.A little refresher is in order.As detailed here many times, one of the biggest problems confronting those weaving the collusion tale was the inability to prove that Russia hacked the Democratic email accounts. As Ball of Collusion outlines, that's not the only fundamental problem. There is also the fact that the Democratic emails, in which Hillary Clinton was not an active correspondent, did not actually hurt her campaign at all -- certainly not the way her own email scandal did (a scandal for which there was no way to blame Moscow). There is also the dearth of evidence that the Trump campaign was even aware of, much less complicit in, Kremlin intelligence operations. Still, very basically, it would be impossible to prove that Trump had conspired in Russia's hacking unless prosecutors could first establish that Russia had done the hacking.Let me repeat something else I said several times: This is not to say that Russia is innocent. Again, I accept the intelligence agencies' conclusion on this point (though a number of others, including some former U.S. intelligence officials, do not). But the point is that Mueller could never have proved it beyond a reasonable doubt under courtroom due-process standards. Any competent defense lawyer would have had a field day with the Obama Justice Department's failure to have the FBI take possession and conduct its own forensic examination of the servers that were hacked. And what fun defense counsel would have had with DOJ's delegation of that rudimentary investigative task to a DNC contractor with close ties to the Clinton campaign. (Yes, the forensic conclusions blaming Russia were paid for by the same folks who brought you the famously dodgy Steele dossier.)Speaking of dodgy, recall that Team Mueller and the Justice Department dodged every case that would have called for proving Russia's cyber theft. Even when they indicted WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, the very Ground Zero of "collusion," they resisted charging him with the Russian hacking scheme. Given that prosecutors and the FBI spent years investigating the president of the United States for this crime of the century, it should seem astonishing that they passed on charging the guy they've told us is the central conspirator with this crime. But you weren't astonished if you were reading National Review . . . because you knew they were not going to charge any crime that called for proving Russia's culpability in court. Their evidence is shaky and, if there were ever an acquittal, the Trump-Russia political narrative would be kaput, while the Putin regime celebrated a huge propaganda coup.So why did Team Mueller publicly file an indictment against Russians?Because they figured it was a freebie. The prosecutors assumed that they would never have to . . . you know . . . prove the case. The Russian defendants were in Russia. There was no way Putin would ever extradite them for an American criminal trial. The prosecutors knew that. What they wrote was not meant to be a real indictment. It was meant to be a press release. It was meant to be what Team Mueller was best at: the spinning of a narrative. I explained it this way at the time:> When prosecutors are serious about nabbing law-breakers who are at large, they do not file an indictment publicly. That would just induce the offenders to flee to or remain in their safe havens. Instead, prosecutors file their indictment under seal, ask the court to issue arrest warrants, and quietly go about the business of locating and apprehending the defendants charged. In the Russia case, however, the indictment was filed publicly even though the defendants are at large. That is because the Justice Department and the special counsel know the Russians will stay safely in Russia. Mueller's allegations will never be tested in court. That makes his indictment more a political statement than a charging instrument. To the extent there are questions about whether Russia truly meddled in the election, the special counsel wants to end that discussion.It all seemed so well choreographed. The indictment was, of course, reported as gospel-truth by the anti-Trump media -- the same folks who tell you, whenever a Democrat is charged with a crime, that an indictment is merely an allegation, that nothing is proven until it's proven in court.Alas, Team Mueller made a mistake. A reckless bet, the kind made by people under the misimpression that they are playing with the house's money. To quote from my column nearly two years ago:> [Team Mueller] charged not only Russian individuals but three Russian businesses. A business doesn't have the same risks as a person. A business can't be thrown in jail. And while members of Mueller's prosecutorial stable have a history of putting real businesses out of business, a business that is run by a Putin crony and serves as a front for Kremlin operations is not too worried about that either.Since they had no concerns about being imprisoned or bankrupted by prosecution and fines, there was nothing to discourage these businesses from doing what Team Mueller blithely assumed no Russian defendant would ever do: retaining lawyers to show up in federal court, demanding the trial to which American law entitled the companies, and demanding all the discovery to which American due process guaranteed them access.It was a debacle.First, the prosecutors tried to get the case and all pretrial discovery postponed on the ground that the businesses in question, Concord Management and Concord Consulting (each controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a food-supply oligarch said to be a Putin crony), had not been properly served with the indictment. This was absurd. Service of process is the way you get a business to come to court; these businesses were already in court, demanding to proceed with the prosecution that Team Mueller had chosen to start.The businesses then pressed the government to provide them with all the evidence and other discovery the law requires prosecutors to disclose. Team Mueller countered that they couldn't do that because it would harm national security. That's ridiculous. Imagine if I were prosecuting a mafia hitman and refused to make discovery, reasoning that the mafia might find out what's in my files. The judge would hold me in contempt, or dismiss the case -- or both. As a prosecutor, if you're worried that the security implications of disclosure are too great a risk, you don't charge the case. But if you file charges, there is no getting around disclosure obligations.Being forced to make disclosure did not go well for Team Mueller and his Justice Department successors. As they had to concede, there was no evidence that the Russians who carried out the troll farm scheme were directed by the Russian government. Stopping short of such an allegation, the indictment claimed the defendants were backed by Prigozhin -- which was quite the comedown from the Justice Department's drum-beating about Russia's "information warfare."Moreover, as the trial judge groused, the troll-farm indictment was "difficult to follow." Team Mueller's evidence was not even strong enough to allege that the defendants were actual Russian agents. Prosecutors thus crafted, shall we say, a creative theory: The defendants had "defrauded the United States" by failing to disclose their Russian identities and affiliations, which purportedly undermined the ability of U.S. bureaucracies to maintain a registry of foreign agents and enforce the campaign-finance laws. Except . . . it was unclear that the defendants had a legal duty to report information in the first place. How do you establish the criminality of concealment if there is no requirement to disclose?Finally, despite all the huffing and puffing about Russia's purportedly massive effort to influence the election through social-media ads, the grudgingly surrendered discovery indicated that many of the ads violated no American laws and cost pennies. Assuming for argument's sake that at least some of the candidate ads and rallies fell under Federal Election Commission reporting requirements, the defense contended that total expenditures for such activities amounted to less than $5,000.With the judge trying to push the case to trial this spring, the possibility of humiliation loomed. This past Monday, when no one was watching, the Justice Department finally -- inevitably -- pulled the plug. The cases against the companies were dropped. The sympathetic New York Times reported the prosecutors' fig leaf: The defense was "weaponizing" the case "to gain access to delicate information." It's the kind of claim the Times would ridicule were the paper not so invested in the Trump-Russia narrative. In point of fact, the defendants were demanding the legal right to discovery that Mueller's prosecutors automatically (if unwittingly) triggered when they decided to file an indictment.Not to say, "I told you so" (of course not!), this is exactly what these columns said would happen. From nearly two years ago:> The surest way to put an end to this unwelcome turn of events would be to dismiss the indictment — or at least drop the charges against the three businesses so Prigozhin and the Kremlin can't use them to force Mueller's hand [i.e., to compel discovery]. Of course, that would be very embarrassing. But as all prosecutors are taught from their first day on the job: Never indict a case unless you are prepared to try the case.There is no exception for "indictments" that are really meant to be political theater.
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| What coronavirus? Mexico's president touching people, holding rallies Posted: 17 Mar 2020 06:34 PM PDT  AMLO, as he is called, has been called "irresponsible" and a "source of contagion" as he defied guidelines on social distancing.
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| LGBTQ community may be 'particularly vulnerable' to coronavirus pandemic. Here's why. Posted: 18 Mar 2020 12:04 PM PDT  National health organizations are warning that some members of the LGBTQ community may be "particularly vulnerable" to the effects of the virus.
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| Warrant issued for Mexico's ex-head of investigations Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:42 PM PDT  A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for the former head of investigations for the Attorney General's Office for alleged violations in the investigation of the case of 43 college students who disappeared in 2014, officials said Wednesday. Tomas Zerón and five other former officials face charges including torture, forced disappearance and judicial misconduct. Three have been arrested and three, including Zerón, are still at large.
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| Tulsi Gabbard drops out of presidential race and endorses Joe Biden Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:40 AM PDT  Rep. Tulsi Gabbard leaves the Democratic presidential race. She endorses Joe Biden and praises Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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| Quake rattles Salt Lake City, damages Mormon temple Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:08 AM PDT  A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck near Salt Lake City in the US state of Utah on Wednesday, damaging an iconic Mormon temple and disrupting efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic. The shallow quake -- Utah's strongest since 1992 -- also closed Salt Lake City airport, damaged buildings downtown and left tens of thousands without power. The Salt Lake Temple, one of the Mormon Church's largest and most famous buildings, sustained damage.
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| Aides to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are trading ideas on coronavirus responses as Sanders signals he'll drop out Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:14 AM PDT  "They are working together to try to promote the health and safety of their teams, those who interact with the campaigns, and the American people."
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| China reports no new coronavirus cases, offers medical aid overseas Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Beijing is championing its expertise in managing the disease by offering doctors and experts in traditional medicine to other hard-hit nations.
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| The Best Gifts Like a Smart Coffee Machine for Mom on Mother’s Day Posted: 17 Mar 2020 12:18 PM PDT |
| A snapshot of Mexico's cartel landscape amid rising violence Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:59 AM PDT |
| Virus whistleblower doctor punished 'inappropriately': Chinese probe Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:22 AM PDT  Police in China's virus epicentre Wuhan acted "inappropriately" by punishing a doctor who blew the whistle on the outbreak that has now killed more than 9,000 worldwide, a Chinese government investigation found Thursday. Li Wenliang, one of a group of doctors in Wuhan who shared posts on social media warning of a SARS-like virus spreading in the city in December, was reprimanded by police for sharing the information and made to sign a statement agreeing not to commit any more "law-breaking actions." Li's death from the virus in February prompted a national outpouring of grief as well as anger at the government's handling of the crisis, and bold demands for freedom of speech.
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| Chicago area's top prosecutor wins the Democratic nomination Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:06 AM PDT  Kim Foxx, the Chicago area's top prosecutor, won the Democratic nomination Tuesday against three challengers who zeroed in on her handling of the Jussie Smollett criminal case.
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| IMF denies Venezuela emergency aid to help fight coronavirus Posted: 17 Mar 2020 08:39 PM PDT  The International Monetary Fund has rejected Venezuela's request for a $5 billion loan to help it cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Venezuela became the first country to request an emergency loan from the IMF on Tuesday and there are international concerns that its ravaged economy and public services will not cope with the spread of the virus. However, the IMF rebuffed the request, claiming a lack of certainty over the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro's government. "Unfortunately, the Fund is not in a position to consider this request," because there is "no clarity" on international recognition of the country's government, the Washington-based institution said. "As we have mentioned before, IMF engagement with member countries is predicated on official government recognition by the international community, as reflected in the IMF's membership. There is no clarity on recognition at this time," the statement said.
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| Some 60,000 California homeless could get coronavirus in coming weeks, governor says Posted: 18 Mar 2020 06:03 PM PDT  Modeling has shown that more than 60,000 homeless people could become ill with the coronavirus in California over the next eight weeks, badly straining the healthcare system, the state governor said on Wednesday. Hospitalization rates for those infected with the flu-like disease was about 20%, creating a requirement for additional hospital beds that could quickly overwhelm hospitals if the modeled predictions come true, Governor Gavin Newsom said. "Over the next eight-week period, we have modeled that of the 108,000 unsheltered Californians that are out on the streets, if you had an attack rate of about 56%, you're looking at 60-plus thousand individuals that may have COVID-19," Newsom, a Democrat, said in a Facebook address to the state.
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| 80% of US coronavirus deaths have been among people 65 and older, a new CDC report says — here's what it reveals about the US cases Posted: 18 Mar 2020 03:46 PM PDT  COVID-19 deaths, ICU trips, and hospitalization rates are all higher among older Americans, according to the CDC.
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| Sanders Supporters Have No Plans to Relent on Biden as Nominee Posted: 19 Mar 2020 01:00 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Progressive activists say they have no intention of easing pressure on Joe Biden to adopt their left-of-center causes as he shifts to the general election, despite fears among Democrats that their efforts could damage Biden's ability to beat President Donald Trump.In all but defeating Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination, Biden has been cool to the most progressive ideas at the heart of Sanders's campaign, including Medicare for All and the Green New Deal to fight climate change. Biden won a string of recent primaries by drawing an explicit contrast with Sanders, saying voters "don't want a revolution, they want results."Now, Biden needs those predominantly younger and more liberal Sanders supporters if he's going to win in November -- and the leaders of some progressive groups say Biden must do more to earn their full backing.Sanders said he would support Biden if he were the nominee, repeatedly assuring Democrats that his chief goal is defeating Trump. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of Sanders's top surrogates, has also vowed to support Biden and said she is worried "by some folks that say if Bernie's the nominee, they won't support him and the other way around."A few prominent progressives have gone further, expressing reservations about voting for Biden in the general election, and hashtags like NeverBiden, WriteinBernie and DemExit2020 have trended on social media since he won the Michigan primary on March 10."We will push him before he's the nominee. We will push him after he's the nominee, but we are also going to make sure we defeat Donald Trump," said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for Justice Democrats, a progressive group.Despite having almost no realistic path to the nomination, Sanders's campaign said Wednesday that he was staying in the race, in part so he could continue to speak out about the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.His approach to confronting the crisis is largely centered around enacting Medicare for All and Democrats fear that the split-screen messaging between him and Biden, who has called for a full and robust government response, will hurt efforts to unite the party around the common goal of defeating Trump.Some Democrats blame Sanders's prolonged 2016 primary campaign for delaying efforts to bring the party together and ultimately contributing to Hillary Clinton's defeat."I think the conversation is going to quickly turn to how and when does Bernie Sanders unite the Democratic Party," former Claire McCaskill, a former senator from Missouri, said Tuesday on MSNBC after Biden swept Arizona, Florida and Illinois. "I do think the pressure is going to mount, especially at this time of crisis in this country, for the Democrats to unite behind clearly the voters' preference."Sanders's supporters say his 2016 campaign was effective in pushing the party to the left and changing Democratic National Committee rules to reduce the role of establishment players like super-delegates as evidence of that.But while Clinton supporters say Sanders's attacks weakened her at a crucial time, and left hard feelings on both sides, Biden supporters point out that he's a different candidate. Unlike Clinton, who never won the wide support of young progressives or white working class voters, Biden has started to court progressive voters, keenly aware of the need to broaden his coalition from older, centrist and traditional Democrats.Biden adopted the bankruptcy proposal of a former rival, Senator Elizabeth Warren, which in part allows student-loan debt to be eliminated in bankruptcy, and last weekend, his campaign announced he supports making public colleges and universities tuition-free for students whose family income is below $125,000 a year, a version of a Sanders plan.But progressive activists say policy isn't enough; Biden must surround himself with key people from the left flank of the party."I think lots of voters are also concerned that they aren't that many progressive voices surrounding him and that would also go a long way," Shahid said. "I think the unity goes both ways, and I think Biden should continue to bridge that trust gap because it is wide."Biden explicitly reached out to Sanders's supporters in his victory speech on Tuesday, urging them to join his campaign."To the young voters who have been inspired by Senator Sanders, I hear you, I know what's at stake, I know what we have to do," Biden said. "Our goal as a campaign and my goal as a candidate for president is to unify this party and then to unify the nation."Tad Devine, who worked on Sanders's 2016 campaign, said Biden would fare better than Clinton in attracting Sanders' supporters because Biden already has goodwill with the white working class voters, who comprised a large part of Sanders' base in 2016. Devine recalled being struck by Biden's progressive ideas when he announced at the White House in 2015 that he was not running for president.In that speech, Biden railed against the influence of unidentified contributions on elections and outlined a litany of progressive policy goals including free public college, tripling the child care tax credit and immigration reform."Anyone who saw Biden's statement in the Rose Garden, a lot of what he talked about was very similar to what Bernie was saying," Devine said. "Jeff Weaver and I were watching it together and said, 'He's got our whole platform,'" he added, referring to Sanders's longtime adviser.But Devine said Biden must welcome Sanders and his supporters to his campaign, something made easier by their genuine affection for each other. Clinton and Sanders, he said, had a much icier relationship."I think Biden on that very human level is in a much better position to connect with Bernie, and I hope that they do," he said.Sunrise AgendaStill, even if Sanders campaigns for Biden, the former vice president will face pressure from progressive groups who want to see his platform tack left.The Sunrise Movement, which is focused on fighting climate change and endorsed Sanders in January, has consistently protested against Biden for not supporting the Green New Deal. Sunrise leaders say demonstrations will not stop if he does not embrace their ambitious proposals intended to remake the economy to stem the effects of climate change."For Biden to defeat Trump he needs young voters behind him and public demonstrations in support of the Green New Deal is one of the ways we can bring people into the movement and Joe Biden would be wise to follow the lead of people demanding the Green New Deal," said Sofie Karasek, a spokesperson for Sunrise.Karasek said whether it hurts Biden in the general election is up to him."The best way for him to avoid that scenario is for him to embrace the Green New Deal and the concerns of young voters," she said. "It's politically strategic for him to do that."For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Teen Cowgirl Found Dead After Disappearing With Mystery Man Posted: 18 Mar 2020 01:53 AM PDT  Britney Ujlaky picked flowers for friends if they'd had a bad day. She loved listening to any music she could dance to, and dreamed of becoming a makeup artist. In her rural Nevada community, the 16-year-old volunteered at the 2U Ranch, riding and grooming horses, and helping with cattle drives."She had the personality you can't really forget—she was so goofy and fun," said one close friend, Cheyenne Fry, 18. "You would be having the worst day of your life, but her laugh would put you in a good mood." Britney often talked about wanting to someday win the title of local Rodeo Queen, Fry said."She was always helping people out," Fry told The Daily Beast. "If it was house-sitting, babysitting, grooming their horses. Everyone knew her and loved her so much."But on the afternoon of Sunday, March 8, Britney disappeared and the nightmare began. That evening, her mother shared a desperate plea on Facebook: "My daughter is missing!!!!!!! Police have been notified. Please please share!!!!!!!!"America's 'Most Beautiful Small Town' Is Murder, U.S.A.Britney was last seen hopping into a green Ford F-150 pickup truck in front of Spring Creek High School. According to one Facebook group sanctioned by Britney's family, that truck was driven by a young man in a cowboy hat whose identity is unknown. Three days after Britney vanished, she was discovered dead near the Burner Basin area of Spring Creek, about 6.5 miles north of the high school. On Monday, police announced the identification of Britney's body and provided the number for a tip line for their investigation."At this time, Britney's death is being investigated as a homicide," the Elko County Sheriff's Office stated. "While investigators have been working around the clock following up on leads and tips, a suspect has not been identified.""Currently there has been no information to indicate danger to the public," the agency added, before requesting that "citizens refrain from posting rumors and tips on social media sites." (The sheriff did not return messages left on Tuesday.)The loss has devastated Britney's family, who are seeking answers on what might have happened to the high-schooler. They say they're certain of one thing, however: Britney was not trying to run away from home. "She adored her family and friends and blended so well with others," said Leslie Tolhurst-Grayson, a cousin who was very close to Britney and her mom, Alisha. "When she went missing, it was looked at as a runaway but we all knew she would never run away from her family."On Tuesday, in the hours before a candlelight vigil, Britney's family shared her obituary. "She loved to ride and did so as often as possible," the memorial read. "Britney was most happy when participating in some sort of cowgirl work." At the 2U Ranch, "she was always the first one saddled and ready to go."Britney was born Gabrielle Lynn Ujlaky, but when her parents took her home, they felt she was more of a Britney. Tolhurst-Grayson said everyone had a nickname for her: Brit, Brit Brit, Goose, or Woman Bear.Police have released little information on Britney's last movements. In her mother's social media post seeking help, she indicated Britney's phone last pinged at 5:30 p.m. on Boyd-Kennedy Road near the high school.A missing person flyer shared online by relatives and supporters said the F-150 truck Britney got into was an older model from the early 2000s. The driver was described as a "white male wearing a cowboy hat in his late teens [or] early twenties."Another flyer said, "He went by JT," and added, "She was found deceased and alone. We need to find this JT. He could be anywhere."It's unclear who this man was, or how Britney knew him."One never thinks something so tragic could happen to your family," Tolhurst-Grayson told The Daily Beast. "It's something you only see in movies."Fry said she last spoke to Britney hours before she went missing. The friends spoke to each other every day on the Facetime app, and they'd go to the gym together on Sundays. "She called me and asked if I wanted to go to the gym," Fry recalled. "I told her to give me an hour." That call, Fry says, came around 1 p.m. after she'd gotten out of church.At the time of the call, Fry says, Britney was hanging out with a mutual friend. Within a few hours, that mutual friend dropped Britney off at the high school. "She said her dad was picking her up," Fry told The Daily Beast."I wish she would have said something to me about this guy," Fry said of the mystery driver. "She said this was one of her new friends. I wish I had more answers but I don't."Another friend, Brin Wilson, said she texted Britney around 4:37 p.m. on the day she vanished, asking if she wanted to come over for pizza. Brin never heard back and knew something was amiss later when the phone went straight to voicemail. "She would never let her phone die or be without it," Wilson said.Wilson often went horseback riding with Britney. They'd cover miles with no destination and "joke about all the crazy stuff we did." Wilson said, "She was the kindest soul I knew. She looked up to me. Every day she would always check up on me."Fry said Britney often put others before herself. "She wasn't afraid to go do things, to talk to someone. She had no fear," Fry added. "She was the most fearless girl I ever met." Despite her loving demeanor, Britney was also dealing with online bullies, whom she eventually had to block on Snapchat, Fry said."She got bullied. Every teenager goes through that. That's what made our friendship so strong. We were always there standing up for each other," Fry said.Mourners planned a candlelight vigil to honor Britney on Tuesday evening. RL Dakin, an administrator for the "JUSTICE FOR BRITNEY UJLAKY" Facebook group, said the event would be livestreamed because of COVID-19 fears.Dakin, who is based in Canada, has set up more than 50 Facebook groups for families with missing persons. "Typically, in any group, we are looking for the missing person along with any vehicles associated with their disappearance but in Britney's heartbreaking circumstance, she had been found—we didn't need to look for Britney anymore," she said. "So, we focused on the vehicle that she was believed to have gotten into." Dakin's group has pushed for people in the area to review security footage, dashcam video, or trail and wildlife cameras for clues."My heart aches for Britney and her family," Dakin added. "Her group will transition over to her family and friends when they are ready to take that on. Hopefully, it will remain in place to support this family through the criminal investigation, possibly a trial—all the nightmares that still await them."Fry said she hopes justice is served sooner than later."You just want to ask yourself why. Why did it have to be her?" Fry told The Daily Beast. "Why now? Why so young? And you won't get those answers because no one really knows. For me, it's been hard. I still haven't fully accepted it—that my best friend is gone."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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| Coronavirus: US doctors demand immediate release of prisoners and detainees to avert disaster Posted: 19 Mar 2020 02:39 AM PDT  As doctors and medical workers across the US raise the alarm about the coronavirus's risk to prison populations, thousands of medics have signed an open letter calling upon the immigration authorities to release individuals and families from detention.The letter, which at the time of writing had been signed by more than 3,000 people, is addressed to the director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In it, the undersigned medics implore the ICE "to release individuals and families from immigration detention while their legal cases are being processed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the harm of an outbreak".
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| Police say shooting of Mississippi judge was 'personal' Posted: 18 Mar 2020 10:51 AM PDT  The recent shooting of a Mississippi judge outside a courthouse was "personal," authorities said Tuesday. Chancery Judge Charlie Smith was shot near his abdomen Monday morning outside the Lauderdale County Courthouse as he was exiting his truck to go into the courthouse, police said. "We feel very confident that it is an isolated incident and that it was directed toward him," said Interim Police Chief Lewis Robbins.
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| India political activist arrested for selling cow urine to combat virus Posted: 18 Mar 2020 05:06 PM PDT  An activist with India's ruling party has been arrested after a volunteer fell ill from drinking cow urine at a party to combat the novel coronavirus, police said Wednesday, as interest grows in home remedies amid the pandemic. Narayan Chatterjee, a Bharatiya Janata Party activist, was arrested by West Bengal state police late Tuesday for "organising the cow urine consumption event and compelling a civic volunteer to drink cow urine", Kolkata police chief Anuj Sharma told AFP. Many in the Hindu-majority nation of 1.3 billion consider cows sacred and believe drinking cow urine is a panacea for all manner of ailments, from arthritis and asthma to cancer and diabetes.
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| Is spring break over? Local Florida officials close beaches after gov refuses to Posted: 19 Mar 2020 08:18 AM PDT  At the height of the spring break rush, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said he would not order the beaches closed.
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| U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on Iran amid Coronavirus Damage, Seeks Release of Americans Posted: 18 Mar 2020 09:51 AM PDT  The U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on Iran on Wednesday and called on the state terror sponsor to release detained Americans after new rocket attacks were launched at U.S. forces in Iraq by what are believed to be Iran-backed forces.The State Department sanctioned nine entities based in South Africa, Hong Kong, and China as well as three Iranian individuals "who have engaged in activity that could enable the Iranian regime's violent behavior," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. The sanctioned entities and individuals were involved in "significant transactions" to trade in Islamic Republic's petrochemical industry, which the sanctions will target."The actions of these individuals and entities provide revenue to the regime that it may use to fund terror and other destabilizing activities, such as the recent rocket attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces located at Camp Taji in Iraq," Pompeo said.Two U.S. troops and one coalition service member were killed last week in a rocket attack on a military base in Iraq. At least a dozen more people were injured at Camp Taji, about 17 miles north of Baghdad, after about 18 of up to 30 Russian Katyusha rockets were launched from northeast Baghdad and hit the base.Over the past year, the U.S. has accused Iran-backed forces such as Kataib Hezbollah of 13 similar attacks on military bases in Iraq that house U.S. and coalition troops. The Defense Department said it launched strikes against the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah.Pompeo also said Iran is considering releasing several detained American citizens and urged the country to do so amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Iran particularly hard.The U.S. will continue its campaign to squeeze the Iranian economy and limit Iran's ability to export oil, which Tehran claims has impaired its ability to contain the spread of the deadly respiratory illness.The coronavirus has hobbled Iran, infecting over 17,300 and killing more than 1,100, including high-ranking government officials.Earlier this month, Pompeo warned that Iranian government was attempting to cover up the scope of the toll the virus is taking on the population. Iran has so far refused U.S. offers of help to combat the virus, expressing suspicion that the U.S. is trying to break the spirits of Iranians over the epidemic.
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| From hero to zero: coronavirus upends livelihoods across Europe Posted: 18 Mar 2020 11:11 PM PDT  DUBLIN/MADRID (Reuters) - On Sunday morning, Irish chef Cúán Greene woke up to the review of his life. Britain's Observer newspaper told readers his cooking would make them "thrillingly giddy and euphoric". Greene, 27, and 13 colleagues were all let go.
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