| U.S. death toll passes 60,000 mark Trump said would mark success in coronavirus fight Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:54 PM PDT  Until recently, the president touted that projection as proof his administration's COVID-19 response was working.
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| Evidence emerges for sex-assault allegation against Biden Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:56 PM PDT  Former Senate staffer Tara Reade has alleged that presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, a charge the former vice president's campaign denies.
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| Satellite images of luxury boats further suggest North Korea's Kim at favoured villa: experts Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:02 AM PDT  Satellite imagery showing recent movements of luxury boats often used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his entourage near Wonsan provide further indications he has been at the coastal resort, according to experts who monitor the reclusive regime. Speculation about Kim's health and location erupted after his unprecedented absence from April 15 celebrations to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung. On Tuesday, North Korea-monitoring website NK PRO reported commercial satellite imagery showed boats often used by Kim had made movements in patterns that suggested he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area.
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| Class action suit aims to free all transgender ICE detainees Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:49 PM PDT  As hundreds of coronavirus cases are reported at U.S. immigration facilities, the suit calls for the release of dozens of trans migrants from what it calls ICE "death traps."
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| Elon Musk, who predicted 'close to zero' new coronavirus cases by the end of April, demands we 'free America' Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Tesla CEO Elon Musk's coronavirus tweets from last month sure haven't aged well, but he's still got even more to confidently declare about the pandemic.Musk on Twitter this week criticized lockdown measures put in place in the United States to slow the spread of COVID-19, demanding in one, "FREE AMERICA NOW." He applauded Texas for its plan to begin reopening the state's economy, and said the U.S. should "reopen with care and appropriate protection, but don't put everyone under de facto house arrest."Musk also replied to a user who claimed the "scariest thing" about the pandemic isn't the coronavirus but seeing Americans willing to give up freedom, to which the Tesla CEO responded, "true."These tweets, as Gizmodo points out, come after Musk previously downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and in March predicted that by the end of April, there would be "close to zero" new coronavirus cases in the United States. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. continues to rise and just passed one million on Tuesday.> Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April> > -- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 19, 2020"The coronavirus panic is dumb," Musk also wrote in early March regarding a virus that would go on to kill over 58,000 Americans as of this week, more than were killed in the Vietnam War.Experts have repeatedly warned about the dangers of reopening the economy too quickly, and recent polls have found a majority of Americans are fearful of the U.S. reopening too soon. "If you jump the gun, and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you're going to set yourself back," Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently stressed.More stories from theweek.com The Justice Department is apparently working with conservative Christian groups to fight COVID-19 policies How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden Dr. Fauci says it's 'doable' to have coronavirus vaccine with hundreds of millions of doses by January
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| Inmates at Parchman's Unit 29 describe life inside notorious cellblock Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  Four inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman spoke to CBS News in recent days, expressing frustration as they wait to be relocated from the state's oldest prison.
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| 20+ Cocktails To Celebrate Moms Everywhere Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:30 AM PDT |
| New Navy carrier inquiry suggests tough scrutiny of admirals Posted: 29 Apr 2020 06:46 AM PDT  The Navy is launching a wider investigation of the coronavirus crisis aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, suggesting closer and deeper scrutiny of actions and decisions by senior admirals in the Pacific that led to the controversial firing of the ship's commander nearly a month ago. The move announced Wednesday effectively delays a decision on whether to go ahead with a Navy recommendation that Capt. Brett E. Crozier be restored to command of the Roosevelt, which has been docked in Guam for weeks. Crozier was fired after pleading for urgent Navy action to protect his crew.
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| Pelosi Rejects McConnell’s Proposed Coronavirus-Liability Protections for Businesses Posted: 29 Apr 2020 02:43 PM PDT  House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday rejected a Republican proposal to provide businesses with protection from lawsuits should they choose to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic."Especially now, we have every reason to protect our workers and our patients in all of this. So we would not be inclined to be supporting any immunity from liability," Pelosi told reporters at a press briefing.Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated this week that he would "insist" the next coronavirus-relief package include liability protections for companies and health-care workers as they reopen amid the pandemic. Such protections are a "red line," McConnell has said, and must be included before he would consider Democratic demands that additional relief be provided to state and local governments."The next pandemic coming will be the lawsuit pandemic in the wake of this one. So we need to prevent that now when we have the opportunity to do it," the Kentucky Republican told Politico on Monday.Democrats do not have "any interest in having any less protection for our workers," Pelosi responded.Senators will return to Congress on Monday to begin hashing out the next relief package.
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| Trump's coronavirus math problem Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:06 PM PDT  President Trump responded late Tuesday to the news that the United States had topped more 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, roughly one-third of the reported global total to date.
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| Why Have Women’s Groups Gone Dead Silent on Biden Sex-Assault Accusation? Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:44 AM PDT  Women's groups and prominent feminist figures have remained almost universally silent over a former staffer's accusation of sexual misconduct against former Vice President Joe Biden—including those individuals and groups who came to express regret for how the Democratic Party handled similar accusations made against President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.The collective non-response from mostly Democrat-aligned groups comes as potential female running mates struggle themselves in responding to the Biden allegation, which has the potential to upend his campaign against President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women in alleged incidents spanning decades. And it echoes the division among progressives when the MeToo movement revived scrutiny of Clinton's own alleged sexual misconduct.The Daily Beast contacted 10 top national pro-women organizations for this story, including Emily's List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Organization for Women. Most organizations did not respond to a detailed request for comment about the allegation by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden's Senate office who has accused the former vice president of forcibly penetrating her with his fingers in the early 1990s. Others replied and did not provide a statement. One prominent women's political group cited a scheduling conflict and asked to be kept "in mind for other opportunities!" When pressed if the following day would work better, an associate said it would not, citing another scheduling conflict. The near-total lack of acknowledgement from nearly a dozen leading pro-women organizations comes as new corroboration has emerged with respect to the allegation, which the Biden campaign has categorically denied. Neither the Biden campaign nor Reade responded to requests from The Daily Beast for comment Tuesday. It also is taking place as prominent elected women in the Democratic Party rally to Biden's side. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton became the latest to offer her endorsement of Biden's candidacy—a symbolic passing of the torch from one presidential candidate to another, but a moment that also served as a reminder of moments in recent party history when accusers were almost uniformly dismissed.In 2017, attorney Patricia Ireland, who served as president of the National Organization for Women for the entirety of the Clinton administration, told The Washington Post that she wished she had "done more to be supportive" of Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who alleges that Bill Clinton sexually harassed her during his time as governor."For Paula Jones, there were nice distinctions that people made: She didn't work for him, he didn't have the power to hire or fire her," Ireland said at the time. "But that ignores the reality that he was a very powerful man."During the same period, feminist icon Gloria Steinem told The Guardian that she regretted some parts of her aggressive defense of Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, including a New York Times op-ed in which she dismissed accusations of sexual misconduct against the president. "Even if the allegations are true," Steinem wrote in the 1998 op-ed, "the president is not guilty of sexual harassment. He is accused of having made a gross, dumb and reckless pass. President Clinton took 'no' for an answer."Steinem told the Guardian that "I wouldn't write the same thing now because there's probably more known about other women now. I'm not sure… What you write in one decade you don't necessarily write in the next."But neither Ireland nor Steinem responded to a request for comment about Reade's accusations against Biden. Bill Clinton has long denied Jones' claims, settling a lawsuit she filed in 1998 for $850,000 with no apology or admission of wrongdoing.Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Reade accused Hillary Clinton of "enabling a sexual predator.""Hillary Clinton has a history of enabling powerful men to cover up their sexual predatory behaviors and their inappropriate sexual misconduct," Reade said in response to Clinton's endorsement. "We don't need that for this country. We don't need that for our new generation coming up that wants institutional rape culture to change."Reade first accused Biden of digitally penetrating her in a podcast interview with journalist Katie Halper in March. Two other people, including Reade's brother and a friend who has remained anonymous, told various outlets that Reade had told them about certain aspects of the alleged assault and her subsequent dismissal from Biden's office over the years.On Monday, Business Insider quoted a former neighbor of Reade's recounting that the ex-staffer had disclosed details of the alleged assault when she lived next door to her in the mid-1990s. "This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it," Lynda LaCasse, Reade's former neighbor, told the outlet.On April 24, Reade told The Intercept that her mother called into Larry King's cable-news program to discuss "problems" her daughter experienced with a prominent lawmaker in 1993. In the episode, a caller from San Luis Obispo, California—where property records indicate Reade's mother lived at the time—asked the host "what a staffer might do besides go to the press in Washington.""My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator and could not get through with her problems at all," the caller said. "The only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him." Reade said on Twitter that it was her mother's voice. "This is my mom. I miss her so much and her brave support of me."Biden's defenders have argued that Reade's story has changed over time—she previously had said only that she felt Biden had inappropriately touched her and made her feel uncomfortable. But sexual-assault victims' advocates have noted that its common for victims to hold back on details as they recount their traumatic experiences. Various aides to Biden have said they have no recollection of any assault incident happening. And Biden's deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement this month that "this absolutely did not happen," and that "Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women." Bedingfield added: "He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard—and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue."Over the past several days, the Biden campaign has signaled that it is paying additional attention to issues that disproportionately affect women. On Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), one of the contenders thought to be on Biden's shortlist of potential running mates, was a guest on a virtual town hall with black leaders on coronavirus' impact on women of color. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), another possible running mate and former Biden rival, was also featured in a virtual forum addressing similar women's focused issues late last week. On Tuesday, in introducing Clinton during a virtual town hall, Biden declared she is "the woman who should be president of the United States right now.""I want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you," Clinton said during the event to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on women. "This is a moment where we need a leader, a president, like Joe Biden." Biden, she said, has been "preparing for this moment his entire life." The former vice president reciprocated by saying it was a "wonderful personal endorsement." On Monday, in offering her own backing, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi called him a "partner for progress in the White House." Four years ago, women's groups threw their weight behind Clinton's historic campaign as the Democratic Party's first female nominee. But they remained largely out of the primary in 2020, when an unprecedented number of women campaigned with that similar goal in mind. Still, some groups haven't been shy about criticizing parts of Biden's past record relating to women.In the early stages of Biden's campaign, Planned Parenthood Action Fund took issue with a position he previously held around support for the Hyde Amendment, a provision that sought to restrict the use of federal money for abortion. In June 2019, the group's executive director specifically called out Biden by name, reminding him that "the Democratic Party platform is crystal-clear" around repealing Hyde. Biden later denounced his support of the amendment. Now, as Biden faces a sexual-assault allegation as the presumptive nominee, his past record and prominent female defenders are facing a new round of scrutiny. In particular, the decision to select a female running mate delighted many party activists and women's rights advocates when Biden announced it in March, but is taking on a new form as the Reade allegation receives additional corroboration. Already, potential nominees are having to answer questions about the allegation. The Daily Beast recently contacted the most prominent figures thought to be considered as possible contenders about Reade's claim, including Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.Among the seven Democratic women's offices reached, only Abrams commented, telling The Daily Beast that "women have the right to be heard" and adding, in part, that "nothing in the Times review suggests anything other than what I already knew: That Joe Biden is a man of highest integrity who will make all women proud as our next president." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| 'Walking dead': Inmates describe how coronavirus swept through an Ohio prison Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:54 AM PDT  "You got guys in here dying, that's falling out, that's stacked on top of each other," one inmate, Shannon Kidd, said.
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| Vatican's 'Robin Hood' helps feed transsexual prostitutes hit by lockdown Posted: 30 Apr 2020 04:12 AM PDT  When the coronavirus lockdown left a group of transsexual street prostitutes in a beach town near Rome without work, they turned to a local Catholic priest for help to buy food. "I don't understand why this is getting so much attention," Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told Reuters by phone on Thursday. Krajewski, whose formal title is "papal almoner," or distributor of alms, said the transsexuals most likely were undocumented, making it difficult for them to seek help from Italian state welfare offices.
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| Company says drug was effective against COVID-19 in U.S. study Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:18 AM PDT  A biotech company says its experimental drug has proven effective against the new coronavirus in a major U.S. government study that put it to a strict test.
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| Parchman inmates sue Mississippi officials over "barbaric" prison conditions Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  The proposed class-action lawsuit, funded by rapper Yo Gotti and Jay-Z's Team Roc, was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Mississippi.
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| Last Israeli farmers leave enclave after Jordan deal ends Posted: 30 Apr 2020 06:27 AM PDT  Israeli farmers left an agricultural enclave in neighbouring Jordan possibly for the last time Thursday, as the extension of a lease enabling their use of the border land expired. Ghumar, known as Tsofar in Hebrew, is a Jordanian territory south of the Dead Sea that was occupied by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967. Under the 1994 peace deal, Jordan retained sovereignty over the area, along with another territory called Baqura, seized when Israeli forces infiltrated Jordan in 1950.
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| The World Is Awaking to the Ugly Realities of the Chinese Regime Posted: 30 Apr 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Earlier this month, a McDonald's restaurant in Guangzhou, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, was forced to remove a sign warning that "black people are not allowed to enter." Upon removing it, McDonald's told NBC News in a statement that the sign was "not representative of our inclusive values."That sounds like what it almost certainly is: a product of the company's communications department, called in to do damage control. And while we can accept that the McDonald's corporation itself is not, on the whole, racist, the sign does unfortunately represent China's values.As NR's Jim Geraghty has noted, the incident is an example of the "xenophobia and racism" on display just now in China. This phenomenon is not new to the PRC, but the government has an extra incentive to lean into it now, because it helps the government's concerted campaign to deflect blame for the global coronavirus pandemic.There is ample evidence of this. A recent Reuters report noted that ambassadors from several African nations recently engaged the Chinese foreign ministry to raise concerns about how their citizens are being mistreated in China. Passport holders from African countries are subject to extreme stop-and-search practices. Many who are coronavirus-negative are being forced into 30-day quarantines anyway. Foreigners from a range of countries who can document clean bills of health are being denied entry to places of business and other facilities simply because they are foreigners.Much of this is taking place in Guangzhou, known to some as "Little Africa" because it has the largest African-immigrant population in China. To some extent, African immigration to China is a by-product of Xi Jinping's effort to build a global network of trade and infrastructure investment that gives the regime a perceived geopolitical advantage over the West in the developing world. Ghanaians, Nigerians, and other immigrants to China are all too happy to take advantage of the work and educational opportunities China offers. But many of them have learned the hard way just how limited the country's kindness is.In fact, China's ill-treatment of foreign-minority populations reflects how the Chinese government treats its own citizens. Muslim minority Uighurs are being held in so-called re-education camps intended to strip them of their religious and ethnic identity, and in many cases subjected to forced labor. In Tibet, which China has oppressed since the very beginning of Communist rule in 1949, things have gotten worse under Xi: Last year, Freedom House named Tibet the second-least-free territory on Earth, behind only war-torn Syria.It would be natural to presume that such discrimination is a regrettable result of the dominance of the Han Chinese, who are more than 90 percent of China's population and dominate its society. (By comparison, ethnic Uighurs, for example, make up less than 1 percent of the population.) The Han Chinese, with 1.3 billion members, are the largest ethnic group not just in the PRC but in the world. Antipathy, oppression, and discrimination toward minority ethnic groups in a country with such a dominant majority is regrettable but not surprising, and not unique to the PRC.Beijing's response to critics who note all of this is to try to drown them out by highlighting America's own well-documented history of racial discrimination. But that's the point: Our historical sins are well-documented, and they inform just about every aspect of our public policy. A free press and other institutions hold up our actions for the world to see. There is no mystery about how our country continues to deal with the effects of the institutionalized discrimination that persisted for nearly two centuries after our own founding, and for a century after we fought a war to end it.That said, there is a quality to the pattern of behavior in the PRC that transcends ethnicity. Chinese racial discrimination is horrifying in its own right, of course. But it also suggests a farther-reaching chauvinism that is emerging as the defining characteristic of the Xi era.Han Chinese make up the same percentage of the population in Hong Kong as on the mainland, and are 97 percent of the population in Taiwan. Neither Hong Kongers nor Taiwanese have suffered any less at Xi's hands for that. Nor, for that matter, have the 400 million mostly Han Chinese living on less than $5 a day in the country outside China's megacities, who face vicious discrimination from urban elites.In some ways, the gulf between the rich in China's cities and the poor in its rural areas has been institutionalized through the longstanding "hukou" system of internal registration, which hampers movement between regions and creates what amounts to an economic caste system. While Xi has made hukou reform a priority in order to create greater opportunity for urban migration and prosperity, the system continues to reinforce the divide between urban haves and rural have-nots. As the former become wealthier and more global in their perspective, the disdain they frequently show for those who are different — whether from Africa or rural China — is becoming more pronounced.Xi-era chauvinism is beginning to create a backlash around the world. One example is the cooling ardor toward the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi's aforementioned effort to gain footholds in foreign markets. Many projects have caused host countries to take on excessive debt. In one instance, a strategic port in Sri Lanka was ceded to China when the debt burden became too high. Politicians in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and other countries have reversed earlier positions of support because of what they see as China's discriminatory debt diplomacy.This backlash is appearing even in European countries that once saw China as a potential counterbalance to the Trump administration. In Sweden, for instance, some cities have ended sister-city relationships with Chinese counterparts, and the country has closed its Confucius Institute schools, dealing a blow to one of Beijing's other soft-power propaganda operations. European leaders, including NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenburg and French president Emmanuel Macron, have also called for better understanding of how Beijing handled the coronavirus pandemic and pushed back against China's campaign to deflect blame for it.In short, the world finally seems to be recovering from its decades-long love affair with the PRC, which peaked with the rise of Xi, who was initially viewed as a reformer who would bring China onto the world's stage as an equal, responsible actor. The true nature of the regime is becoming more apparent, and the world doesn't like what it sees: the dreadful treatment of ethnic minorities and the rural poor; the obvious interference in Taiwan's recent presidential election; the belligerence toward Hong Kong as the "one country, two systems" agreement is systematically dismantled and pro-democracy leaders are arrested or just disappear; the bullying of emerging economies through debt diplomacy; and now what is very likely a global pandemic caused by Chinese negligence.For the first time since the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre 30 years ago, the world has awakened to these ugly realities, and if anything good has emerged from this chaotic geopolitical era, that might be it. Here's hoping that more aggressive action to counter Beijing comes next.
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| Trump news – live: President rages at TV news anchors as coronavirus death toll tops 60,000 after denying testing pledge he made just 24 hours earlier Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:00 AM PDT  Donald Trump was up late on Twitter again on Wednesday night continuing to stew over negative press coverage of his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, attacking TV news anchors Brian Williams, Don Lemon and Joe Scarborough, saying of the former he "wouldn't know the truth if it was nailed to his wooden forehead".With the US death toll from the outbreak now soaring beyond 60,000, the president's latest briefing at the White House on Wednesday saw him refuting a claim he himself had made just a day earlier that the country would "soon" be hitting 5m tests for Covid-19 per day.
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| Prominent Democratic women, including Stacey Abrams and Kirsten Gillibrand, are standing by Joe Biden amid sexual assault accusation Posted: 28 Apr 2020 04:33 PM PDT  "He's devoted his life to supporting women, and he has vehemently denied this allegation," Gillibrand, a MeToo champion, said Tuesday.
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| 'A near impossibility': Experts doubt North Korea's claim of zero coronavirus cases Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:36 AM PDT  Experts say there's evidence of at least a small-scale COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea. And some fear Kim Jong Un's lockdown could spark a famine.
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| Court: Kansas can't require voters to show citizenship proof Posted: 29 Apr 2020 08:28 AM PDT  A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that Kansas can't require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register, dealing a blow to efforts by Republicans in several states who have pursued restrictive voting laws as a way of combating voter fraud. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Salt Lake City upheld a federal judge's injunction nearly two years ago that prohibited Kansas from enforcing the requirement, which took effect in 2013. The appeals court, in a ruling that consolidated two appeals, found the statute former Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law violates the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause and the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the "motor-voter law."
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| Amazon city resorts to mass graves as Brazil COVID-19 deaths soar Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:31 PM PDT  Deaths from the coronavirus outbreak have piled up so fast in the Amazon rainforest's biggest city that the main cemetery is burying five coffins at a time in collective graves. "It's chaos here," said Maria Garcia, who waited for three hours in a line of hearses to obtain a death certificate to be able to bury her 80-year-old grandfather, who died at dawn in his home of respiratory collapse. Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, was the first in Brazil to run out of intensive care units, but officials warned that several other cities are close behind as the country registered a record 6,276 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.
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| Gangs allegedly run Mississippi prison where inmates were killed Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  Almost half the roughly 1,300 corrections positions in three major facilities in Mississippi remain unfilled.
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| New York mayor faces backlash after breaking up rabbi's funeral Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:39 AM PDT  New York's mayor sparked controversy after he broke up crowds gathering for a rabbi's funeral and threatened arrests, with religious leaders accusing him of unfairly targeting the Jewish community. Thousands of Orthodox Hasidic Jews, according to the mayor's estimate, lined streets in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn late Tuesday to pay their respects to 73-year-old Chaim Mertz, who died from COVID-19. Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Twitter to describe how he had personally forced the mourners to disperse, saying there was "zero tolerance" for large events while the city fights coronavirus.
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| How Donald Trump's disinfectant slip-up happened Posted: 30 Apr 2020 08:07 AM PDT  Donald Trump was widely ridiculed for suggesting that injecting disinfectant into the lungs of coronavirus patients could wipe out the disease. Although the US President undoubtedly got the wrong end of the stick, it has emerged that one company really is hoping to trial a new ultraviolet light therapy which it claims can 'disinfect' the lungs. Colorado-based Aytu BioScience says it has carried out successful early tests of its 'Healight' technology which delivers intermittent ultraviolet light through a tube in the throat, directly to the lungs. The company itself terms the process 'injectable disinfectant' and it is likely to be the origin of President Trump's comments. The 'Healight' therapy was first developed in 2017 by the Medically Associated Science and Technology (Mast) Program at the non-profit hospital Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. The company says the treatment has shown potential as an effective antiviral and antibacterial treatment while causing no damage to mammalian cells.
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| Tara Reade allegations rattle Biden’s VP search Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:30 AM PDT  'The job of being the vice presidential candidate is always hard and now it's just harder because of this. But they don't really have a choice,' said one Democrat.
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| Rear-facing plane seats could be the future of air travel as airlines seek to make flying safer in a post-pandemic world Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:56 AM PDT  With passengers outraged with the lack of social distancing in the sky, airlines may soon adopt new practices and products to ensure safe skies.
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| ‘Let’s do this in the most nonpartisan way possible’: Pelosi picks four members of colour and three women for coronavirus oversight panel Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:49 AM PDT  Speaker Nancy Pelosi has named the seven Democrats who will sit on the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis that will oversee the government's roll-out of trillions of dollars in aid to states, small businesses, and health care workers.They are:
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| Cuomo on McConnell: 'We bail them out every year' Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:25 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during his Wednesday press briefing.
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| Newsom expected to close all California beaches Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:34 PM PDT  Throngs of people headed to beaches in Southern California during a weekend heat wave.
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| JetBlue wants to suspend service at 16 major airports; Delta wants to halt service to 9 cities Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:07 PM PDT  On Tuesday, JetBlue asked the Department of Transportation to let it suspend service at 16 major airports. Delta sought its OK for nine smaller ones.
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| A Kentucky woman with the coronavirus was arrested after violating quarantine orders 3 times and going to a Kroger grocery store, police say Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:52 AM PDT  The woman is thought to have made contact with five people at the Kroger, which was packed with roughly 200 people on a busy Monday morning.
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| US intel: Coronavirus not manmade, still studying lab theory Posted: 30 Apr 2020 06:52 AM PDT  U.S. intelligence agencies are debunking a conspiracy theory, saying they have concluded that the new coronavirus was "not manmade or genetically modified" but say they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides that the pandemic may have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab. The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the clearinghouse for the web of U.S. spy agencies, comes as President Donald Trump and his allies have touted the as-yet-unproven theory that an infectious disease lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Chinese outbreak, was the source of the global pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people worldwide. In recent days the Trump administration has sharpened its rhetoric on China, accusing the geopolitical foe and vital trading partner of failing to act swiftly enough to sound the alarm to the world about the outbreak or to stop the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.
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| Videos showing police shooting on CTA Red Line released by COPA Posted: 28 Apr 2020 04:52 PM PDT  The agency that investigates use of force by Chicago police has released new videos that show an officer shooting an unarmed man.
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| Trump backtracks after saying U.S. would "very soon" hit 5 million tests a day Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  On Tuesday, the president, asked whether he was confident the U.S. could reach 5 million COVID-19 tests a day, said the U.S. would be there "very soon."
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| German lockdown 'snitches' spark hot debate Posted: 30 Apr 2020 04:16 AM PDT  On a sunny Sunday in April, 20 people were enjoying a barbecue in the city of Schwerin in northern Germany. The police promptly intervened, slapping them with a fine for breaking new social distancing rules to limit the spread of COVID-19. Telling on your neighbours is a highly sensitive subject in a country still haunted by memories of Nazism and the former communist dictatorship in East Germany, two regimes under which informing on others was practically a national policy.
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| Biden weighs naming cabinet officials before election, including Republicans Posted: 29 Apr 2020 02:01 PM PDT  Speaking at a fundraising event, Biden said he would not rule out bringing people from the rival party on board for top administration jobs, as he considers an unorthodox rollout of his running mate and others selected for key posts months before the Nov. 3 election. In recent weeks Biden has promoted himself as a unity candidate who can appeal both to liberals seeking vast changes in Washington and moderate and conservative voters. Biden told donors at the online event he was thinking about "maybe announcing not the whole cabinet, but some," before the election to give voters a better sense of how his administration would look.
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| A 30-year-old Brooklyn teacher died of the coronavirus after being sent home from the ER twice and told she was just 'having a panic attack' Posted: 29 Apr 2020 03:15 AM PDT  Rana Zoe Mungin died after a month on a ventilator. The first two times she went to the hospital she was sent home without being tested.
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| China says it 'expelled' U.S. Navy vessel from South China Sea Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:25 AM PDT  "The provocative actions of the United States seriously violated relevant international law norms," a spokesman for China's military said.
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| American cruise workers denied disembarkation: 'Treating us like disease vectors instead of humans' Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:13 AM PDT  Melinda Mann is one of nine American crew members on Holland America's MS Oosterdam. She says the CDC barred them from disembarking in L.A.
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| Florida man is arrested with enough fentanyl to kill 500,000 people, police say Posted: 29 Apr 2020 07:13 AM PDT  A Florida man was arrested carrying enough narcotic fentanyl to kill half a million people, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.Investigators searched the Brooksville home of David Gayle, 43, and discovered the man was selling narcotics after they found more than two pounds of the synthetic drug fentanyl and methamphetamine.
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| Coronavirus: The leopard on India's streets and other claims fact checked Posted: 30 Apr 2020 07:06 AM PDT  What misleading stories about the coronavirus are doing the rounds in India?
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| Thousands of Civilians Stuck on Navy Ships Fear They May Be Exposed to Virus Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:51 AM PDT  This article is co-published in conjunction with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan independent watchdog.Civilian Navy personnel say they are effectively trapped on ships against their will, largely without masks and other material to protect them against the spreading coronavirus. A commander's 11th-hour edict has restricted them to the tight confines of their vessels, they complain, even as the coronavirus is tearing through the service, and swamping its top brass in turmoil over how to manage the crisis.The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) spoke with more than a dozen civilian mariners, who said they'd been confined on their ships for weeks as military personnel and contractors walk freely on and off the ships, potentially exposing them to the virus.With more cases to date than any other branch of the military, the Navy is struggling to cope with outbreaks, including on an aircraft carrier where 969 were infected, and a botched response that ended the career of the service's highest-ranked civilian. Confined to small spaces within ships, submarines, and other vessels, the force is likely particularly susceptible to outbreaks.U.S. Navy Coronavirus Quarantine Could Get UglyThe civilian mariners who told POGO they'd been ordered to stay on their ships are part of the Navy's Military Sealift Command. If U.S. military supplies and cargo are moving by boat, the command is in charge of it. The command operates 125 ships of its own, including the Navy's two floating hospitals, to replenish military vessels and provide other support—"anywhere in the world, under any condition, 24/7, 365 days a year," its mission states. Eighty percent of the workforce that run these ships is civilian, over 5,400 strong. Though they're often in behind-the-scenes roles, the merchant mariners' mission has been called the U.S. military's "Achilles' heel."Military Sealift Command confirmed to POGO that five civilian mariners had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Four of the mariners were aboard the command's ships. Two of the mariners are normally assigned to the USNS Leroy Grumman, which is currently undergoing maintenance in Boston, according to the command. The Navy is conducting contact tracing to try to determine who had close contact with the mariners.In late March, Military Sealift Command crews worldwide got a shocking message. With little time to prepare, the workers were barred from leaving the ships, in what is known as a "gangway up" order. Some mariners had less than eight hours to get their lives in order before an indefinite detention aboard the ships in order to halt the spread of COVID-19. But there was a catch. The order only applied to the civil service mariners, or CIVMARs.The surprise order from the Military Sealift Command's Norfolk-based commander—reported here for the first time—barred the civilian mariners from leaving their ships under any circumstances. Yet hundreds of other personnel have been free to come and go, potentially exposing themselves to the virus onshore and then coming aboard and exposing those confined by the order.The order was intended to protect civilian personnel aboard the vessels from the spreading pandemic, the commander wrote in an email to senior Military Sealift Command leaders. But the virus quickly came aboard some Navy ships anyway.Effectively trapped onboard their vessels, many say they lack masks and other sufficient protection from COVID-19, and are unable to get basic necessities. And there is no end in sight to their confinement. Mariners report that morale is at an "all-time low" and that there have been dozens of resignations, although Military Sealift Command would not confirm any numbers."The intent of my order is not to be overbearing, but rather to protect our CIVMARs and the precious capability they deliver to the joint force," the officer who issued the order, Rear Admiral Michael A. Wettlaufer, explained in the email to senior Military Sealift Command leaders March 24, which was shared with POGO. 'STRESSED OUT AND PARANOID'To assuage civilian mariners' concerns over contracting COVID-19, Wettlaufer shared tips on how they can stay safe. "The most effective tactics are social distancing and minimizing contacts," Wettlaufer informed his subordinates in his March 24 email, "to limit the opportunity for exposure to the virus while on the pier or when visiting personnel are performing any functions aboard."But the civilian mariners told POGO that these tactics were impossible in the ships' cramped quarters where they're confined."There is basically no way to adhere to social distancing on the ship," a mariner aboard the USNS Medgar Evers told POGO, "unless you're in your own room at which time you are still at the mercy of the ship's ventilation system that can spread the virus through the air." That mariner asked not to be named, fearing retribution if he was identified."There's no safety if the contractors are coming on board," said Markus Hyman, a civilian mariner on the USNS Puerto Rico. "Everybody is stressed out and paranoid because we have the contractors coming on board, but we're stuck." The ship is docked in Hampton Roads, Virginia, near Hyman's home. Hyman said he has two children at home, a 6-year-old and 3-year-old, but due to the order has not been able to leave his ship and take the 13-minute drive to see them. He said his fiancée was forced to take a leave of absence from her job to take care of them alone. "Our goal is not to eliminate risk but to take reasonable and prudent measures to reduce risk. This order eliminates the risk of our personnel being exposed to COVID-19 while off the ship," a Military Sealift Command spokesperson said in response to POGO's questions about the order. "We are concerned about the safety and well-being of all of our mariners. Our aggressive mitigation strategies are designed to prevent the spread of infection onboard our vessels, which protects everyone."But experts POGO consulted agreed with the mariners we spoke to: Unless all of the ship's personnel were under the same restrictions, the measure is unlikely to be effective."If you want to reduce risk, you have to separate people. The crew is less likely to become infected if at their own homes than if congregated together," said Dr. George Rutherford III, an epidemiologist and director of the Prevention and Public Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco."If the crew are not permitted to leave the ship then it makes little sense to allow others to enter the ship and have contact with the crew," said Dr. David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor in the environmental and occupational health department at George Washington University, who served as assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Obama administration. MAKING MASKS OUT OF RAGSBut it doesn't take an epidemiologist to be skeptical of the order to stay on the ships. Many of the mariners bound by the order told POGO the failure of common sense it represents is evident."So let me get [t]his straight," one person identifying themself as a civilian mariner posted on April 18 to a public Facebook group for employees of Military Sealift Command. "CIVMARs are restricted to their various vessels, But [sic] Navy personnel and contractors can come in and out the same vessels in which CIVMARs are been confined to. Please tell again that you're trying to protect CIVMARs from COVID 19." Another serious issue raised by the order: mariners' access to medication. "Several mariners with chronic conditions are unable to get refills of their medications," one Military Sealift Command official from the USNS Washington Chambers, anchored off of Japan, told POGO. According to the official onboard, who feared retribution if named, the ship's medical officer had also sounded the alarm at the lack of personal protective equipment on board, the lack of test kits onboard the ship, and the fact that there was no indication of when testing would be available. Almost three weeks after issuing his gangway-up order, Wettlaufer disseminated Navy guidance that all personnel should wear face masks. That apparently didn't go very well, either.Bobby Freeman, a 14-year Military Sealift Command veteran currently aboard the USNS Medgar Evers, said two weeks after the face mask guidance came in, he was provided one paper mask, but by now he and many others on his ship have resorted to using T-shirts or rags to cover their faces. "This is the worst experience I've ever had with Military Sealift Command," said Freeman.Another mariner, who asked to remain anonymous, aboard the Medgar Evers told POGO his ship wasn't given any personal protective equipment until April 22, a month after the gangway-up order. That mariner also said he believes the Medgar Evers has no testing kits on board, something he thinks about "all the time." Without testing, and with frequent visitors onboard the ship, it is impossible to know who needs to be quarantined."As we are finding with all institutions including hospitals, industry and government, on-hand supplies of PPE [personal protective equipment] varied based on location, organization and need," Military Sealift Command told POGO in an email. "All MSC ships have the core Medical Equipment Allowance List items on board, which includes N95 masks and protective gloves and cleaning supplies to enable them to conduct enhanced sanitation. MSC continues to order and execute prioritized delivery of PPE to afloat and ashore units," the email said. 'IMPRISONED TO THE SHIP'After several mariners aboard the USS Mount Whitney reached out to Senator Chris Van Hollen's (D-MD) office with their concerns over Wettlaufer's gangway-up order, his office launched an inquiry.The ship, based in Italy—one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic—locked down its civilian crew on March 21, yet allowed Navy personnel to come and go. Three days later, Wettlaufer's gangway-up order came down, and two days after that, the Navy announced that a sailor aboard the Whitney tested positive. "The military members have been able to come and go as directed to and from the ship or from their residence in the local area," said Gustavo Luna, chief cook on the Whitney. Luna, who told POGO that civilians were "imprisoned to the ship," described the vessel's crew as shocked and confused at the sudden drastic measures that applied only to the civilians.In its response to Van Hollen's inquiry, the Navy said civilian mariners aboard the Whitney are under the command of Military Sealift Command, while the sailors are under the command of the Navy's Sixth Fleet, and are not bound by Wettlaufer's gangway-up order. The Navy reiterated that the order would stay in place "until further notice and to the extent possible."In its statement to Van Hollen, the Navy said that the conflicting measures that allow sailors to leave the ship will keep civilians onboard safer, because sailor sleeping quarters are communal and would not allow for social distancing if all sailors and civilians were quarantined on the ship. However, the Navy's statement also notes that current guidance allows sailors "to continue to reside in their personal residences and to shop for groceries and other necessities." 'A VERY SERIOUS ABUSE OF AUTHORITY'After an unsuccessful negotiation with Military Sealift Command management, the three unions representing civilian mariners filed a formal grievance with the Navy on April 16, the text of which was shared with POGO.The unions had previously asked management to agree to pay confined mariners an additional "liberty restriction pay," but the command refused."CIVMARS are expected to go above and beyond what is expected of all other federal employers on a daily basis," reads the April 16 grievance, filed by the Seafarers International Union, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, and the International Organization of Masters, Mates, and Pilots. "They and their families make selfless sacrifices during long, dangerous deployments to remote parts of the world, in belligerent, hostile waters. They should not be expected to endure an arbitrary and capricious deprivation of liberty resulting from a very serious abuse of authority," the unions wrote."If the restriction was genuinely intended to safeguard against the virus, every worker aboard ship would be restricted, not just CIVMARS," the unions wrote in a joint statement to POGO.The unions gave Wettlaufer a deadline of May 15 to respond to the grievance. If he fails to respond, or if the unions find his response unsatisfactory, they will enter a lengthy legal process that could take months and eventually land in federal district court."All of us are professional Seaman and loyal employees of the U.S. Government, yet we are being treated no better than incarcerated felons," a senior officer, who asked to remain anonymous, told POGO. In the meantime, civilian mariners told POGO they expect to be stuck aboard their vessels, short on supplies, and hoping the virus doesn't find its way onboard. POGO's Justin Rood contributed to this article.Jason Paladino can be reached at jpaladino@pogo.org and @jason_paladinoRead 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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| Trump argues 1 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. is a reflection of 'superior' testing Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:34 AM PDT  President Trump suggested Wednesday that the United State surpassing one million coronavirus cases is a statistic that sounds worse than it is, because it's really a reflection of the country's "superior" testing efforts, despite experts arguing testing needs to ramp up significantly.> On US reaching 1 million cases of COVID, Trump says the big number is "because of testing." > "So it's a number that, in one way, sounds bad, but in another way is really actually an indication that our testing is so superior."> > -- Jordyn Phelps (@JordynPhelps) April 29, 2020He also claims he received some outside validation about the U.S.'s performance from none other than South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Seoul has been heralded as the gold standard for handling the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to its intense and efficient testing program that helped the country keep infections and deaths relatively low, while also avoiding a full-scale economic shutdown as has been seen in many other parts of the world. > Trump says Moon Jae-in "called me to congratulate me on the testing." He claims Moon said, "Your testing is the greatest in the world...I want to just tell you, what you've done with testing is incredible." (The usual caveats about Trump phone call stories apply.)> > -- Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 29, 2020More stories from theweek.com The Justice Department is apparently working with conservative Christian groups to fight COVID-19 policies How Tara Reade's allegations could bring down Joe Biden Dr. Fauci says it's 'doable' to have coronavirus vaccine with hundreds of millions of doses by January
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| Most Americans cannot or will not use COVID-19 contact tracing apps: poll Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT  More than half of all Americans either do not own smartphones or would not use apps backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and Apple Inc to trace who has been exposed to the new coronavirus, according to a poll by the Washington Post and University of Maryland released on Wednesday. The two tech companies have been working with public health experts and researchers to write apps that people can use to notify those they have come in contact with if they come down with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
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| Gilead's coronavirus treatment remdesivir just succeeded in a crucial study, raising hopes for a first COVID-19 drug Posted: 29 Apr 2020 10:59 AM PDT  One of the most promising coronavirus treatment candidates helped COVID-19 patients recover faster than a placebo group, a new study found.
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